The keepers shouted to one another, debating whether to try again. Ben waved them off, face pale, his eyes never leaving the lion. “Wait. Just wait.” His voice cracked slightly, a man unprepared for what he’d just witnessed.
The team rushed back to the monitoring room, Daniel and Noah trailing behind. Screens flickered with angles from the enclosure, some grainy, others bathed in the harsh light of night vision. An operator rewound the footage, zooming in on the exact moment King had risen.