1 CHAPTER Ring Wilde moved through the semi-dark house like a thief He didn’t want to wake anyone Dim morning light was beginning to filter through the large living room windows overlooking his parents two-thousand-acre wildlife conservation center the Wilds The early bird catches the worm he thought as he stepped into the spacious kitchen He opened the refrigerator and took out the small container he’d hidden on the bottom shelf the night before And the early worm catches the fish He smiled as he slipped the white cardboard container into his backpack On top of the container he stuffed in an assortment of food enough to last until evening Bologna a half loaf of bread sliced cheddar cheese mustard mayo a large chunk of Greta’s apple pie and three sodas The food stretched his small pack full to bursting but he wasn’t worried about it He’d eat his way through the bulk throughout the day If someone doesn’t catch me first
2 As he swung the heavy pack on he was surprised by a ghostly white fluttering to his left Hamburger Boo screeched loud enough to wake the dead then landed on the pack The early bird catches me Quiet Ring hissed Shh He hurried to the sliding glass door leading to the deck with Boo clutching his backpack He slid open the door and stepped outside Boo jumped off the pack and fluttered to the rail glared at him then started preening his white feathers as if nothing had happened Hamburger Ring said Really The bird continued to preen Boo was a sulfur-crested cockatoo Ring’s mother Dr Jane Wilde had found the abandoned nearly dead featherless hatchling on the ground while she was studying koalas in the Australian outback long before Ring and his sister Asia were born She had hand-raised it The name Boo was short for boomerang because when set free the bird always returned Boo had accompanied Dr Jane all over the world on every field project like a good luck charm or strange pet Ring hadn’t seen Boo since they had been in the Amazon rainforest several weeks earlier One of his mother’s research assistants must have flown up with the cockatoo the night before You never knew what word or words Boo would latch on to He had picked up hamburger from Ring when they were in the Amazon CAPTIVITY
3 My name is not hamburger Ring said If you want to go outside all you have to do is say outside You don’t have to shout Boo continued preening Ring smiled I know that all you’re probably hearing in your parrot brain is blah blah blah But for your information you nearly ruined my day by waking everyone in the house Everyone included Dr Jane Wilde Ring’s wildlife conservationist mother Dr Jack Wilde his father the Wilds owner director and chief veterinarian Asia his bossy thirteen-year-old sister and Greta Krause their German housekeeper and cook who ran the house with an iron fist Any one of them would have stopped him from leaving To say nothing about the fussy Professor Bob Ring and Asia’s full-time tutor and part-time nanny who lived in a guest pod thirty feet from their house The Wilde family had been back at the Wilds for two weeks Professor Bob had mentioned at dinner the night before that he wanted Ring and Asia to resume tutoring in the morning Ring had quickly changed the subject by asking his dad how the vaquitas were doing Dr Jack launched into a long summary of the vaquitas medical conditions and treatment plans There was no mention of tutoring again which gave Ring the perfect opportunity to claim that it had slipped his mind if someone asked One The WILDES
4 of his favorite excuses for avoiding something he didn’t want to do There were four ways to get down to the Wilds He could take one of the electric carts parked in front of the house he could bike he could walk down the steep twisting trail or he could take the four-hundred-yard zip line by far the fastest way down and Ring’s favorite He buckled into his harness clipped onto the line and stepped into the void Boo jumped off the rail locked his wings and soared next to Ring during the forty-five-second zip They landed at the commissary where the animals food was being carefully prepared by the nutritional staff some of whom had been there since 4 00 a m As soon as Ring landed Boo flew off into the park to visit his animal friends whom he hadn’t seen in months Ring unclipped and climbed down from the commissary roof to the loading dock Keepers were filling their electric carts with food trays boxes of vegetables fruits meat and hay and sacks of grain to take to their animal areas A couple of the keepers asked if Ring needed a ride anywhere They were probably hoping he might give them a hand with their duties which he often did A flu virus was running through the Wilds and they were short-staffed Not today Ring told them I’m going to walk around stretch my legs play tourist I haven’t checked out the collection since we got back to town CAPTIVITY
