'They've got horses!' gasped Kristin.

 

Colt glanced sideways at his mother. A big tear rolled down her cheek. He couldn't believe it.

 

'We just saw a giant South American anteater, real live kangaroos and an actual bear!' he whispered. 'None of them made you cry . . .'

 

Kristin found his hand and squeezed it. But not for a second did her eyes leave the amazing spectacle before them. Two men in hard hats had walked into the circus ring, leading a pair of huge, brown horses.

 

'I used to ride one of those when I was your age, Colt.'

 

'You've told me a thousand times, Mum.'

 

He was sick of hearing about the Animal Days. They ended twelve years ago, when rat flu swept across the world, killing all the wild animals and most domesticated animals, too. Colt had only been a baby; he couldn't remember the Animal Days at all. It was a different world then – one you only saw now in movies and old books.

 

Or at Captain Noah's Lost World Circus.

 

Colt and his mother had front-row seats. He drew back as the horses clomped past. Their strange, iron-shod feet shook the ground. He couldn't imagine his mother – or anyone – riding one of those.

 

They were so big!

 

But big didn't even begin to describe what slowly came into the caged arena after the horses were led out.

 

'No way!' gasped a boy behind Colt.

 

Similar cries came from all around the tent. Nobody in the Big Top could believe what they were seeing.

 

'LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS . . .'

 

The ringmaster had entered the ring unnoticed through a small side gate. Wearing a bright red coat and a shiny black top-hat, he strutted importantly into the centre spotlight, speaking into a hand-held microphone.

 

 '. . . I WOULD LIKE YOU TO MEET LUCY, THE WORLD'S LAST LIVING ELEPHANT!'

 

An enormous, prehistoric-looking creature emerged slowly from the shadows. Its huge flat feet stepped soundlessly across the sawdust. Colt and a thousand other people held their breath as it loomed over the tiny human figure in the centre of the arena. It looked like it was about to trample him. But at a quiet word from the ringmaster, Lucy the elephant stopped right next to him and he calmly patted her trunk.

 

'It's not real!' called the boy behind Colt.

 

For a moment there was silence, then other people began shouting, too.

 

'It's a trick!'

 

'There are no elephants left!'

 

'It's a holovid!'

 

The ringmaster held up a white-gloved hand for silence. 'Would everyone kindly act like civilised people?' he said into the microphone. 'This isn't a football match.'

 

His voice was patient, almost gentle – like a grand­parent explaining something to his grandchildren – and everyone shut up. 

 

 

'Thank you very much,' said the ringmaster. He kept patting the elephant, but his eyes travelled slowly around the steep rows of seats that surrounded the partially floodlit arena. When they reached Colt, they stopped.

 

'So you think Lucy isn't real, young sir?'

 

Oh brother! Colt thought. He sank down in his seat. The boy behind him – the one who had started all the shouting – sank down, too.

 

Leaving Lucy in the centre of the ring, the ringmaster came walking directly towards Colt. The bright spotlight followed him.

 

'ARE YOU CALLING ME, CAPTAIN PHILIP NOAH, PROTECTOR OF LOST WORLD ANIMALS, A FRAUD?' the ringmaster demanded, his voice so loud that it rattled the circle of speakers mounted on tent poles high above everyone's heads.

 

Colt felt his face turn red. Everyone in the tent was watching him. Half the town was there, including nearly all the kids from his school. He shook his head.

 

Captain Noah peered through the high, cage-like fence that separated the circus ring and the audience. He was only two metres from Colt.

 

'Cat got your tongue?' he asked. His voice was softer now, but because of the microphone everyone under the Big Top heard the question.

 

'It wasn't me,' whispered Colt.

 

Only the ringmaster heard that. With a tiny shake of his head, he stepped back from the fence and looked up into the crowd. 'The lad seems to have lost his voice,' he said sadly. 'Too much shouting, I suppose.'

 

A few people laughed.

 

'HOW ABOUT THE REST OF YOU?' he called up into the stands. 'DOES ANYONE ELSE THINK THAT LUCY ISN'T A GENUINE, FLESH-AND-BLOOD ELEPHANT?'

 

When nobody spoke up, Captain Noah clucked his tongue in disappointment. 'This happens everywhere the circus goes. People accuse me of fraud. Yet when I offer them proof, nobody takes up the challenge.'

 

'We do want proof,' the boy behind Colt muttered under his breath.

 

'Ahh – did I hear something?' asked Captain Noah, his twinkling eyes once again focused on Colt. 'Can the bashful young lad speak, after all?'

 

'My son didn't say anything!' Kristin snapped. 'It was someone behind us.'

 

But Colt had had enough. He was sick of this silly old man, with his mocking voice and ridiculous clothes, making fun of him. And he did wonder if Lucy was real or just a holovid.

 

'Okay, PROVE IT!' he said, loud enough for his last two words to be picked up by the microphone.

 

The ringmaster removed his top-hat and bowed. 'Very well, young sir. Would you kindly step this way.'

 

Uh oh! thought Colt. But it was too late to back out now. Everyone had heard him. And already Captain Noah was striding along the fence towards the small gate where he had entered the arena. It was guarded by a man with animal tattoos all over his arms, hands and neck. At a nod from the ringmaster, the assistant unlatched the gate and beckoned for Colt to come through.

 

Kristin touched Colt's arm. 'You don't have to do it,' she whispered.

 

'I want to,' he lied, rising nervously to his feet.

 

When Colt stepped into the circus ring, Captain Noah thrust the microphone at him and asked his name.

 

'Colt Lawless, sir.'

 

'LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, GIRLS AND BOYS,' boomed the ringmaster, 'PLEASE GIVE COLT-LAWLESS-SIR A BIG HAND!'

 

Once the clapping and laughter had all died down, Captain Noah placed a grandfatherly hand on Colt's shoulder and turned him towards the centre of the ring. Towards the huge storybook creature that stood there.

 

'Have you ever touched a real, live animal, Master Lawless?'

 

'Y-yes, sir,' stammered Colt, staring hard at Lucy. Shashlik! he thought. She looked like a mountain. 'But not a Lost World animal.'

 

The ringmaster seemed surprised. 'So what kind of animal have you touched?' he asked.

 

'The other kind,' Colt said. 'Farm animals.'

 

'You hardly look old enough.'

 

Some farm animals had been saved when government scientists developed a special vaccine called RatVax, which protected them from getting sick. But now they were kept in enormous, high-security compounds run by the government that looked like prisons. The public wasn't allowed in. Lucky for Colt, he wasn't just the public.

 

 

 

'My mum's a vet,' he explained. 'She works at a Gov­Farm. Sometimes I'm allowed to go with her.'

 

'Well, aren't you a fortunate young man!' said the ringmaster.

 

Colt was fortunate, all right. But not just because he was allowed to see real live cows and goats. In fact, he might have been the most fortunate person on the planet. 'Once I got bitten by a ghost rat,' he said.

 

Captain Noah's eyebrows shot up. 'YOU WERE BITTEN BY A GHOST RAT!!?'

 

There were gasps of shock from all around the stands. Ghost rats had got their name because they were white all over. Even their eyes were white. Nobody knew where they came from, and like all rats they carried rat flu. But unlike other rats, which couldn't transfer the disease to humans, if a ghost rat bit you, you died.

 

Unless you had a quick-thinking mother who was a vet, that is.

 

'Mum gave me a cow-strength RatVax and it saved me.' Colt was the only human ever to have survived the bite of a ghost rat. He'd been too young to remember, but he still had two dimpled white tooth-marks on his right thumb to prove it. They itched sometimes.

 

'What an extraordinary tale!' Captain Noah said. He hesitated. 'Your mother isn't looking for a job, is she?'

 

There was a ripple of laughter.

 

Colt lowered his voice so the microphone wouldn't catch his next words. 'I don't know, sir. You can ask her. That's Mum over there – the lady with black curly hair.'

 

'Maybe I will, later on,' the ringmaster said, speaking quietly, too.

 

Then he used the microphone again. 'BUT FIRST, LET'S GO AND MEET LUCY, THE WORLD'S LAST ELEPHANT!'