‘What do you mean you can’t find Lea-Lea?’ Bernie’s mum stood beside Doctor Tanaka in the Hub, hands on hips, as he tapped on his computer tablet.

‘She’s not showing up on the tracking map,’ said Tanaka, tablet in hand. ‘I can only guess that her tag has been damaged. Perhaps in the encounter with the drones.’

Bernie and Ivy stood quietly to one side, watching the exchange and trying not to be noticed. They had snuck in earlier, amid the frenetic activity that gripped the Hub.

As Bernie’s mum and Tanaka moved off to another part of the Hub, Bernie’s mind went over recent events again. Something was bothering him – a nagging feeling at the back of his mind. He fished in his pocket and pulled out a muesli bar he’d saved from the meeting earlier. He started to munch on it, trying to think things through.

Ms Evans sat in front of a bank of monitors in her small room to the left of the Hub, her silhouette visible through the glass door. She had sent the MeierCorp drones out into the jungle to search for signs of intruders. Ivy nudged Bernie and pointed to the door. The two of them edged towards it to catch a glimpse of what was on her screens. Evans’s hands ran over the controls in a frenzy of movement.

Bernie noticed that one of the screens had gone blank.

Another screen went dark. Then another.

Bernie saw an intruder drone appear on the largest screen. There was a flash of light and the screen flickered out. He gasped and almost choked on the last of the muesli bar. Swallowing with some difficulty, he scrunched up the wrapper and shoved it into his pocket.

‘Intruder drones are taking out our drones,’ he whispered.

‘Looks that way,’ agreed Ivy.

As the last of the screens winked out, Evans began frantically speaking into her smart watch. Ivy cautiously reached for the door and opened it a crack.

‘. . . all of them,’ she was saying. ‘Yes! Every one of our drones has been knocked out. Our drones carry analytical instruments not weapons. I had no way of defending them against the targeted electrical discharges of the intruder drones.’

‘How many of them were there?’ They heard Meier’s muffled voice.

‘I’m not sure,’ said Evans. ‘I don’t know if there was one enemy drone for each of ours, or if one of their drones destroyed multiple of ours.’

‘Okay, okay.’ Meier sounded stressed. ‘Did you discover anything useful?’

‘Possibly,’ said Evans. ‘It may be that the intruders have more than just drones.’

‘Explain!’

Evans rubbed a hand over her temple as she spoke. ‘Well, MeierCorp Drone 6 picked up something before it was destroyed. I only caught a glimpse. Hang on a tick.’

Evans’s hands raced across the controls. The main screen blinked into life. It showed the elevated jungle perspective of the MeierCorp drone. There was something black in the distance. Then an intruder drone dropped into the foreground, filling the view. There was a flash and the screen went blank. Evans continued to operate the controls. The video rewound to the object in the distance.

‘I think it was a helicopter,’ said Evans. ‘I’ll try to enhance the image.’

The image on the screen zoomed in to the object. It was pixelated and difficult to see clearly. But the screen refreshed several times and the image solidified a little. It still wasn’t completely clear, but it was better.

‘It is a helicopter,’ exclaimed Bernie.

Evans whirled around to face him and Ivy, her expression furious at the eavesdropping. She reached out a hand and slammed the door. There was a click as she locked it. Then she turned to the screen and continued her conversation with Meier.

‘Brilliant,’ muttered Ivy.

‘Sorry,’ said Bernie. He gazed about the Hub and noticed that his mum and Doctor Tanaka seemed a little panicked. Bernie pointed towards them. ‘Something’s happening over there.’

The two of them casually strolled through the Hub, past scientists and tech people busily doing whatever it was they were doing.

‘. . . I can’t explain it,’ Tanaka was saying.

‘Surely all of their tags couldn’t be damaged?’ said Bernie’s mum.

‘It’s highly unlikely,’ agreed Tanaka. ‘Dammit.’ He showed her his tablet. ‘That’s another one gone. The weewarrasaur.’

‘How many does that make?’

‘That’s nine.’ Tanaka ran a gloved hand over his hair. ‘Nine broken tags. Nine animals we no longer know the location of.’

‘Could the intruder drones be disabling the tags?’ asked Bernie’s mum. ‘With their electrical discharges?’

‘That does seem likely,’ agreed Tanaka. ‘But why?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Bernie couldn’t help himself – it was all falling into place in his mind and he had to tell them. ‘They’re being stolen.’

‘What?’ said three voices all at once, as Ivy, Tanaka and his mum all turned to stare at him.

‘If the intruder drones are disabling the tracking tags,’ he explained, ‘they’re doing it for a reason: so that you can’t track them when they’ve been taken.’ He faced Ivy. ‘I think this is also why they wanted to delay us. That way, they could get the animals before anyone tried to stop them.’

‘I’m not sure that –’ began Tanaka, but Doctor Bailey cut him off.

‘How would they steal dinosaurs with a bunch of drones?’

‘Well, they have a helicopter as well as the drones,’ answered Bernie.

‘How do you know that?’ demanded Tanaka, doubt on his face and in his voice.

‘By eavesdropping on me,’ said Ms Evans, coming up behind them. ‘But he is right. They have a helicopter. And if they have a helicopter, who knows what else they have.’

‘Which animals have you lost track of?’ asked Bernie, another thought popping into his head.

‘Is now really the time for a stocktake?’ asked Tanaka.

‘Yes,’ said Bernie. ‘It’s important.’

‘I think I see where he’s going with this,’ his mum added, giving Bernie a little nod of approval. ‘If it’s only the smaller creatures, then it’s likely to be poaching. Getting something the size of a brachiosaur off the island would be difficult, so they wouldn’t bother to disable the tracking tag.’

‘Aaah.’ Tanaka’s face lit up. ‘So, if the larger creatures’ tags are being disabled, it’s not poaching.’ He quickly looked down at his tablet and scrolled through the tracking app. ‘Let’s see. Lea-Lea. The weewarrasaur. The kakuru. The . . .’ His voice trailed away as he looked up with haunted eyes. ‘Nothing bigger than a cow.’

‘What do we do?’ asked Doctor Bailey. ‘How do we stop these poachers?’

‘I’m not sure we can,’ said Evans. ‘We don’t have any weapons. This is a scientific research centre.’ She paused. ‘I need to find Mr Meier.’ She turned and raced off.

‘There must be something we can do?’ Bernie’s mum asked.

Tanaka closed his eyes for a moment. ‘We have heat-sensing equipment. We might be able to track warm-blooded animals with that.’ He opened his eyes. ‘Assuming we can find a way to boost its range.’

‘Worth a shot,’ said Doctor Bailey.

‘Over this way.’ Tanaka led her off.

‘So much for not getting involved,’ said Bernie.

‘Yeah,’ said Ivy. ‘But now what? We need to do something.’

‘We need a plan,’ added Bernie.