Monkey Wars (14 page)

“Look, if you want your parents' blessing, talk to them,” Tyrell said with affable ease. “It's rather touching that you respect them so much. But be careful what you tell them. Secrecy is the great weapon of the Intelligence Division.”

Mico nodded. “I understand.”

“Tell them you've been offered a chance to come and work on my personal staff. See what they say then.”

And with the offer left dangling tantalizingly in midair, Tyrell pointed to the door. The interview was over.

T
he last supply monkeys were just entering the Eastern Province as Mico made his way out into the street. He stopped and looked back as the gates were swung shut. Across the city, guards would be closing the cemetery gates as well, securing everything for the night.

There was a time when Mico would have felt anxious to be alone in the city without the secure embrace of langur walls around him, but right now he needed to be alone; he needed to think.

At this time of day the city streets were crowded with humans, so Mico scrambled up the tangle of drainpipes that clung to an apartment block, skittered across the roof and leaped onto a railway embankment that carved through Kolkata in a lazy arc. He could follow this to the disused signal box, then branch off back to the cemetery.

It was turning into a beautiful evening, the sky was filling with great flocks of swallows wheeling above the buildings, the ramshackle markets were buzzing with the banter of a thousand hagglers, but all Mico could see was the huge decision looming in front of him.

If he accepted Tyrell's offer and threw himself into the langur cause, maybe he would come to understand why the war on the rhesus and the destruction of the bonnets were necessary. Tyrell had spoken of a secret master plan; perhaps that would explain the morality behind the trail of blood.

But even if he could forget about the violence of the past, what about the future? If he became Tyrell's creature he would have to play his part in bloody deeds yet to come. Mico shuddered at the thought of being implicated in more slaughter.

And there was another, more personal fear gnawing away at Mico's heart: if he followed Tyrell, he would never be able to see Papina again.

The sense of loss cut sharply across Mico as he imagined what that would mean. From the moment he first glimpsed her in the cemetery, he had felt a special connection to Papina; it was as if a part of him had always known her, always trusted her. Without understanding why, he felt deep down that if he lost Papina, he would lose his way altogether.

Which meant he could not take Tyrell's offer.

Except that wouldn't be so easy.

Tyrell had made it quite clear: if you weren't for him, you were against him; and Mico feared the deputy would make a very bad enemy. It was a harsh reality of the langur troop—upse
tting powerful monkeys meant you were denied any chance of moving up the hierarchy.

The repercussions might not even stop with Mico; his parents might suddenly find themselves spurned; maybe his father would be stripped of his duties controlling troop supplies, which would break his heart.

And it would all be Mico's fault.

To accept, or not to accept? The conflicting thoughts bumped relentlessly into each other as Mico made his way back, until before he knew it, he could see the outline of the cemetery walls in the twilight. He paused and looked at the guards perched on top of the gate pillars, proud servants of a triumphant troop. How he envied those monkeys who never questioned anything, who lived their entire lives accepting the world as it was given to them. How easy that must be.

Instinctively he went round to the drinking pool in the back wall. There was no particular reason to avoid the guards; after all, he was returning from vital work establishing the Eastern Province. But this evening Mico didn't want to deal with anyone.

He plunged into the cool water and stretched out his hands, feeling for the hole in the wall, but instead of pulling himself through, he paused, holding himself in the currents, enjoying the sensation of weightless
ness.

The water tickled as it flowed through his fur, brushed past his face…There was something deeply comforting about its cool caress; it made him think of the happy, secret times he'd shared with Papina before everything became so complicated.

Maybe Papina was the answer—get everything back to simpler times. She had urged him to choose sides—what if he chose the rhesus?

If he was living in Temple Gardens, surrounded by hundreds of rhesus, he wouldn't have to fear Tyrell's anger. He and Papina could be together, playing in the trees and lounging in the sun without a care in the world.

But as Mico tried to imagine that life, the vision started to crumble before his eyes, because it meant he would never see his parents or friends again; he would be turning his back on everything he'd ever known. And for all the sacrifice, he could never become a rhesus, never truly be like them. When the langur went to war again, maybe the rhesus would turn against him, drive him out of the gardens to live as a lone monkey.

Suddenly Mico felt suffocated. He pulled himself through the hole and lunged to the surface, filling his lungs with air.

A lone monkey.

There were rumors about exiles who survived like that, but “survive” was the word, not “live.” No one to play with or laugh with, no one to share your food or look after you when you were sick. And at the end of it all, to die alone and forgotten.

Mico shuddered as the dampness of the night crept up on him. He scrambled to the top of the wall and perched himself on the smooth coping stones.

On one side of him was the cemetery, on the other the city stretching out into the distance. He was perched between two worlds in more ways than one. Whichever decision he made seemed to lead to unhappiness. Maybe he should just spend the rest of his life sitting up here on this wall….

Suddenly his mind did a somersault as a whole plan effortlessly revealed itself. Perhaps there was a way he could straddle two worlds, be all things to all monkeys.

Mico leaped to his feet, a huge smile dancing across his face. It was beautiful, the perfect answer to an impossible problem.

The last monkey Papina was expecting to wake her was Mico. She sat up groggily and looked around—it was horribly early, her mother and all the others were still fast asleep, and yet here was Mico, standing over her alert and breathless, having just run across the city.

“What's going on?” she said tetchily.

“Shhh.” Mico gently put his fingers on her lips. “How do you fancy breakfast?”

“It's too early.”

“It's never too early for chocolate.” Mico smiled. “The night watchman at the bakery forgot to lock the back window again.”

Papina couldn't resist.

She sat and ate the pilfered chocolate in silence as Mico paced back and forth, exhilarated by his plan.

“So I accept Tyrell's offer. I play the loyal monkey. But all the time, I'll be secretly feeding information to you. Everything you need to keep you safe: the routes of langur patrols, which targets are going to be hit next, who's safe and who's in danger. I'll belong to the langur, but secretly I'll be helping the rhesus!”

His enthusiasm was met with a skeptical silence. Papina pressed her fingers into the chocolate crumbs then licked them clean, as she tried to articulate what her guts were screaming at her: that this was a terrible idea.

“No one can work for two masters,” she said finally.

“It'll be difficult, but it's got to be worth trying,” Mico replied, undaunted. “And if I can please Tyrell, rise up the hierarchy, maybe I can change the master plan so that the different troops can live in peace, right across the city.”

His optimism was so laudable, but so naive. “The other langurs don't think like you, Mico. They're not interested in peace.”

“Which is why I need to work from the
inside
. Where I can change things.”

He had an answer for everything, but what really worried Papina was that this whole plan was just a way for Mico to avoid the brutal reality.

“If something is wrong, you have to fight it,” she said.

“But there are many ways to fight. The tiny cobra is as deadly as the giant python,” Mico replied. “Why can't my weapon be deception?”

Papina shook her head pensively. She wanted to tell him the truth, but Mico was so fired up with hope, she didn't have the heart to cut him down.

He took her hand and clasped it tightly, willing her to believe that this could work. “Anyone can run away, but to stay and fight for change, maybe that's the courageous thing to do.”

“But you'll be lying to everyone. You'll be so alone.”

“Not if
you
believe in me.” He looked into her eyes, desperately needing her approval. “I once promised to keep you safe, no matter what. I meant it then, and I mean it now. But to keep that promise, I need to change the world.”

He looked at her as the sun crept above the roof of the bakery, waiting for the reply that would determine the rest of his life. Until finally, Papina gave a hesitant smile…and nodded.

Mico had gone up onto the roof to talk with his father, who was using the stones to organize supplies for the Eastern Province, but he had barely uttered the words “Tyrell wants me to work for him,” when Trumble dropped everything and stared at his son in astonishment.

“
Deputy
Tyrell?”

“Yes. But it's—”

He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence—T
rumble leaped over and hugged his son. “Everyone was so quick to judge you, Mico. Just because you were small.” He cradled his son's face in his hands and looked at him with such love. “But now you can hold your tail high!”