Rumble at the Zoo: Project Adventure, #2

By David Konrad

Ethan and Matt receive a call for help from Lisa Moser, whose mom runs the "Skywalk Zoo". Recently, the animals at the Zoo have been taking turns in behaving weirdly and aggressively, scaring visitors away. The police are no help and if Lisa doesn't figure out why it's happening, the Zoo will be shut down and the animals put to sleep... 

As Ethan and Matt are local celebrities after solving the mystery of the legendary missing diamond Heart of the Island, Lisa wants their help. With Lisa as their first client of their newly set up detective agency Project Adventure, Ethan and Matt head off to the Zoo. They have the weekend to solve the mystery of why the animals behave so strangely. The boys meet Lisa, and after discovering a chilling fact, forge a daring plan to get to the bottom of this mystery. But their search for the truth draws them deeper into this deceit and betrayal filled adventure. 

Will they find out why the animals behave so strangely? Can the boys find out who's behind all this? And can they protect the animals and stay safe? Could Lisa become more than just a first client, and join the boys on their adventures....?  Find out what happens in this nail biting adventure at the Zoo, full of wild animals and rotten villains.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Miran Kocmur
• Release date: Apr 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9788409206278

David Konrad

David Konrad is an adventurous dad who shares his love of storytelling not only with his twins, but with young readers around the world. He is the author of the Project Adventure Children’s Book Series. These action-packed, fun-filled mysteries feature characters that young readers root for again and again.  His desire to make a difference in the lives of children is reflected in his writing. With his own children in mind, David set out on his own adventure as an author. While moving to different European locations and raising his young family, he found inspiration to write. When not writing or reading, David enjoys cooking and playing basketball with his kids. 

Book preview

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Copyright © David Konrad 2020

Cover illustration copyright © Dion MBD 2020

Edited by Anna Bowles and Grace Gleave

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

First published 2020

This edition published 2020

The moral rights of the author and artist have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,without the prior written permission of the author,or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriatereprographics rights organization. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or coverand you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Names: Konrad, David, author.

Title: Rumble at the Zoo / by David Konrad.

Description: First Edition. | Munich, Germany : Kocmur Publishing, 2020.

Summary: When the preteen Project Adventure detective agency gets its first case, to figure out why zoo animals are behaving badly, a dangerous, nail-biting adventure ensues, filled with wild animals and rotten villains.

Subjects: CYAC: Fiction. | LCSH: Juvenile literature--General. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / General.

Paperback ISBN: 978-84-09-20628-5

e-Book ISBN: 978-84-09-20627-8

LCCN: 2021920058

Cover, interior design & map illustration by Sarah Darby

www.studiolo.co.uk

For Andrej, my nephew, and the coolest boy I know.

May these books light the fire of adventure in you!

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CONTENTS

Map

Prologue

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 •

Acknowledgements

About the Author

RZ_ZooMap.pdf

PROLOGUE

Lisa Moser stuck her head out the door only to see the rain had finally started to fall. It had chased the already few visitors out of the small zoo. It was a cloudy midweek afternoon, and the forecast said the rain threatened to ruin the next day as well.

Lisa put on her thin, transparent raincoat and her yellow, knee-high rubber boots and stepped outside. She was wearing only shorts and a T-shirt underneath the rain gear, but the air was so warm and humid she was already sweating. She had on her oversized safari hat—a present from her dad a couple of years ago, just before he passed away. She knew that most other kids her age would simply stay inside, in a dry and cozy room, but she had always been a responsible child. Her mom used to say she’d probably be as good of a zoo manager as she was herself, even though Lisa was only twelve years old.

She exited out of and then closed the door to the education and science center, a small building at the far end of the zoo where she was spending most of her time when not in school. The center was not much more than an office, a tiny lab and a small, forty-seat movie theater. In the theater, Lisa helped play educational movies for school visits and parents seeking learning opportunities for their bored kids. Adjacent to this building, there was a not-much-bigger veterinary center, where the zoo’s vets could perform day-to-day checkups and small surgeries, if necessary.

She wiped drops of rain off her big oval glasses and started her usual afternoon walk. Her long dark hair was going crazy in the humid air, and Lisa found herself thinking about cutting off her out-of-control mane. She pulled a simple, cheap hair band out of her shorts’ pocket and used it to create a long, messy ponytail.

Almost every day, she’d go from enclosure to enclosure, all the way around the small zoo, saying hi to her friends—checking up on the animals that she loved and cared for deeply. Lisa didn’t have many human friends because other kids thought she was weird, but she really didn’t care. Animals mattered the most to her, and she knew she’d be living and working around them her whole life.

Hey guys! Pouring today, huh? Don’t worry, it’ll be bright and sunny soon, she called out. She smiled at the little meerkats peeking out from their holes in the dirt, hiding from the pouring rain bouncing off of the enclosure’s transparent plexiglass roof.

The zoo didn’t have much more than two dozen enclosures and exhibits. As Lisa’s mom told her, they simply couldn’t afford to spread further and bring more animals in. That also meant that the money was tight, and they couldn’t afford to lose visitors, especially with the problems they’d been having with the animals lately.

It must’ve been a week now, Lisa thought. The poor creatures are acting as if they’ve gone crazy—I’ve never, ever seen anything like it!

And she was right. It was unclear why, but some of the animals, usually the most visited ones—the biggest attractions—were changing their behavior from day to day, and acting weird at best, really aggressive at worst. Ferocious. Attacking the glass walls and the steel cage bars, causing the visitors—families and small kids—to scream in horror and flee, ultimately giving the zoo a bad name.

Lisa stood next to a solitary, spacious enclosure and watched Loki, the beautiful male cougar who had been living at the zoo for more than two years. Found on his own when he was still just a two-month-old cub, he’d been brought from the northern forests and grown up right here at the zoo. Normally, in weather like this, he would have stayed at the back of the enclosure, out of the rain, licking his paws and snoozing contentedly. But not today. Today, he was pacing back and forth, snarling at the big rubber tire hanging from a branch of one of the bare trees in the middle of the enclosure. Loki’s coat was soaked, and his whiskers hung limply with the weight of water.

Something was wrong.

Lisa kept herself away from the safety fence and the steel bars. That way, Loki would probably not charge and smash himself against them. Not if he didn’t see her. She didn’t want him to get hurt, and she understood how animals behaved. She’d been volunteering at the zoo for several years now, ever since her mom took over as manager. So she just slowly backtracked, keeping herself out of sight, on the verge of tears, and went to finish her rounds, a growing sense of helplessness rising within her.

A few hours ago, her mother had phoned the police. She’d turned on the speakerphone in her office, so Lisa could hear everything, and explained the issues with the animals. The police officer wasn’t very interested, and Lisa couldn’t stay quiet when he smugly told her mom that the police have better things to do than visiting zoos and petting the animals.

This is not okay! You can’t just hang up on us—there’s something odd going on here! Lisa cried from her mom’s side.

That’s my daughter, Lisa’s mom said. I’m sorry, but she’s just very upset with all this—

Look, ma’am, we have enough problems with the humans, you understand? the police officer replied. You should call the Animal Control Service. He hung up.

Lisa knew that calling the Service would risk the animals being put to sleep if the situation did not improve, and both she and her mom wanted to avoid that call. But they were running out of options.

After finishing her rounds, Lisa stepped into the small computer room at the movie theater. She fired up her laptop and stared again at the website she’d found earlier while trying to figure out what was going on.

What have I got to lose? she asked herself.

She clicked the Contact Us button and started writing a message:

Hi, my name is Lisa, and I work at the Skywalk Zoo. I saw your website, and I was wondering if you could