Big Game Read Online Free

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    â€œEnter the building?” Athmani asked. “Okay. Will do.”
    â€œDo not enter!” Hoenekker screamed. “Do not!”
    Dad and I barked even louder.
    â€œI can’t hear you,” Athmani told Hoenekker. “I’ll call back in a bit, after I enter the building.” Then he turned off the radio and entered the key code for the rhino house.
    Dad turned to me. “Stay back here, Teddy. This could be dangerous.”
    I was pretty sure this was a lie. Rhonda was one of the friendliest animals I’d ever met. She was like a four-ton golden retriever. I think my father was really concerned that she might be dead and he didn’t want me to see it. I didn’t really want to see a dead rhino either, so I held back.
    Athmani slid the door open, then heaved a sigh of relief. “She’s okay.”
    Dad slipped inside behind him. “Are you sure?”
    â€œDoesn’t look like she’s hurt,” Athmani replied.
    I peered around the door. The room was a cement box divided in half by a thick metal fence. One half was the “bedroom”—the place where Rhonda lived—while the other half was for the keepers. The fence was only four feet high, which meant Rhonda could easily poke her head over it, as she was six feet tall. Because the room was cement, it wasn’t exactly pretty—but then, cement is extremely easy to clean; you simply hose it down—and rhinos aren’t very picky about home decor.
    Rhonda stood by the fence, directly below the heat lamps, like she was one of the burgers in the warming tray at the Gorilla Grill. Asian rhinos differ from other rhinos in that their thick skin has folds, which kind of makes it look like the rhino is wearing a suit of armor. Rhonda was big for a female—and she had an unusually large horn as well, a spike rising more than a foot from the tip of her nose. It wasn’t a perfect cone, as Rhonda had banged it up over the years; it was covered with scrapes and gouges, revealing some of the fibrous keratin it was made of—but it was still impressive. Meanwhile, Rhonda’s swollen belly hung so low that, if she’d been a car, she could have gotten stuck on a speed bump. She didn’t seem to be in any pain, or upset in any way. If anything, she looked happy to see Athmani, snuffling excitedly and wagging her thick tail.
    â€œSorry. I don’t have any treats for you,” Athmani told her. “I just came here to see if you were all right.”
    Rhonda didn’t seem to believe him. Instead, she sniffed him carefully, trying to see if he was hiding food in his pockets. When she didn’t find anything, she snorted in annoyance, nailing him in the face with a big glob of rhino snot.
    Dad and I both laughed at this. Even Athmani recognized it was funny. “Thanks a lot,” he muttered, wiping the goo off his cheek. “That’s what I get for checking on you?”
    I stepped inside the rhino house. Some big animals can be skittish or aggressive around people they aren’t familiar with, but Asian rhinos will take food from almost anyone, and they love to be petted. Rhonda stuck her giant head over the rail to see if I had anything to eat, but I gave her a scratch behind the ears instead. She enjoyed that and sidled up against the bars so that I could pat her whole body. Her skin was thick and rough, like she was covered by one giant callus, but inside the folds, it was soft and warm, like a well-oiled baseball mitt.
    â€œWe ought to go check the rest of the exhibit,” Dad said. “Make sure none of the other animals were hit.”
    â€œYes,” Athmani agreed. “See you later, Rhonda.” He gave the rhino a final pat, then started for the door.
    I was about to follow them when something caught my eye in the window closest to Rhonda’s yard. All the windows in the building were very small, as windows were expensive and animals never