Animal Kingdom Read Online Free PDF Page B

tried making a call, but the thing won’t even switch on anymore.”
    The young girl spoke. “I had one in my bag. My bag is outside. I think we all just ran for our lives, without really thinking about our belongings.”
    Not me. Randall smirked. Too bad the rest of you are unorganised idiots. I made sure to keep a hold of my possessions.
    Mason nodded thoughtfully and then shrugged. “A shame, but not much we can do about it now. Okay, I’ll go try to find some answers for everyone.”
    “ Make sure you find them in the next five minutes,” said Randall, using the commanding tone that he had perfected throughout years of boardroom conflicts.
    Mason sighed. “Mr Randall, I do not wish to do battle with you again. Please try to see-”
    “ No, you try to see how much this zoo has caused us all an inconvenience. None of us should be sitting here right now, in danger. You need to remedy this situation immediately – and I mean immediately.”
    “ Yeah!” The agreement came from the bald tattooed man. “This has gone way beyond a bloody joke, pal!”
    Mason sighed once more and Randall was sure the man was defeated. “I implore you to be patient and in return I will do my upmost to get this situation resolved as quickly as possible. I can only do my best to make sense of things. For now the only place we know that is safe is here, inside this building. I’ll go now and try to make contact with someone in authority.”
    Randall relaxed back in his chair and smiled like a fox after dinner. “See that you do, my friend.” Despite the curator’s obvious skill in keeping a straight face, Randall could see tiny rivulets of irritation soaking into the man’s expression. It pleased Randall.
    “ Afterwards,” Randall added, “I would request that everyone give me their contact details. I will be taking this establishment to court and anyone that wishes to join me in that pursuit will be most welcome.”
    “ I’m with ya, pal,” the tattooed man replied.
    “ As am I,” said a middle-aged woman with wispy grey hair and bifocals that Randall had not noticed before. “Someone has to be punished.”
    Randall couldn’t help but grin. Splendid. Looks like I have a nice foundation for my case already. The more angry voices in a courtroom the better.
    “ Why you gotta be such a dick, man?” It was the Black man, standing by the pool table, cue in hand. “Can’t you see the trouble we’re in? People are dead and all you can think about is your damn self.”
    Who the hell does he think he is to question me?
    “ I live in a world where people are held accountable for their actions,” said Randall. “Sorry if the notions of right and wrong are beyond someone like you.”
    The Black man scrunched up his face and stepped away from the pool table. “The hell that supposed to mean?”
    Randall sighed. “Work it out, Cosby.”
    Before Randall got a reply, the large blond man entered the conversation. “Let’s not pick at each other, okay? Mason has gone upstairs to try to make a phone call and shed some light on the situation. The rest of us should just keep ourselves occupied. Look,” the man pointed one of his giant arms across the room, “there’s a television in the corner.”
    He was right, Randall noted. Perched on a pair of wall brackets at the far corner of the room was a brand new LCD TV.
    Another extravagance I paid for. Jesus wept!
    “ Okay,” Randall conceded. “Television sounds like a good idea, but let’s just put the news on. None of that daytime talk show drivel.”
    “ Fine,” the big man replied, bounding off towards the television set on legs that seemed unnaturally tall. It was far away from where Randall was sitting, but big enough that he would still be able to see. When the blond man managed to find the remote and switch it on, it showed only a blue screen at first, but after a couple of moments, pressing buttons and flipping through several channels of empty static, a grainy picture