Monkey Wars (25 page)

“DO IT NOW!” screamed Mico. “OR WE'RE DEAD!”

The rhesus closed his eyes and brought the coconut smashing down on the Barbary's skull.

The ape started writhing, enraged and in pain.

“AGAIN!” screamed Mico.

Trembling, the rhesus raised his arms and struck again, sending a sickening crack echoing round the street.

The Barbary stopped struggling, his eyes swam as they tried to focus; then he heaved a huge sigh and collapsed into the dirt, unconscious.

For a moment Mico and the rhesus volunteers just stood there, breathless.

“Well, that's one way to open a coconut,” said Twitcher, pointing to the trail of sticky fluid trickling across the street. The grim joke snapped them all to their senses.

Working with frantic speed, they bound the Barbary with the remaining vines, then dragged him away through the dark backstreets.

T
he Barbary awoke to pitch black and a searing headache.

He tried to stand up, but it was no good—he'd been tied to a pillar.

Everything was a blur of confusion.

How had he got here?

He struggled to piece together the jumble of memory fragments. He'd been walking down the street…there had been shouting and screaming…a fight…a gang attacked him…then suddenly everything went black.

Not much to go on.

The Barbary blinked, trying to force his eyes to adjust to the gloom.

His nose drew in the strange medley of smells—sta
gnant water, dirty drains, old smoke…and a langur monkey.

Suddenly he remembered that smell. It was the same langur who had attacked him.

“What are Barbary apes doing in the city?” Mico's voice echoed in the gloom of the deserted rooms where the langur practiced street fighting.

He stepped out of the shadows carrying an iron bar and glared at the ape. “Answer me!”

The Barbary looked Mico up and down, then with a derisive snort said, “You're making a big mistake.”

Mico felt anger rising in his gut—the Barbary was laughing at him. No fear, no respect.

“Untie these vines and run along. Before I get mad,” the ape said contemptuo
usly.

The arrogance tipped Mico into rage—he raised the iron bar and brought it smashing down on the Barbary's torso.

“I am not an infant!” he yelled. “I am a langur colonel! And I want answers!”

He smacked the iron bar down again, venting all his frustration.

The battle-hardened ape grunted as he absorbed the pain. He shook his body and dug in for the long, painful haul of interrogation.

“Have to do better than that,” he muttered.

Mico could feel fury boiling inside him, but he had to control it. Information, he wanted information, and he couldn't get it if the ape was unconscious, or dead.

“What are Barbaries doing in our city?”

“
Your
city?” the ape scoffed.

Mico thrust his face close to the prisoner. “Are you going to invade?”

Silence.

“I can't hear you.”

Silence.

Mico jammed the end of the bar into the Barbary's foot. “Tell me!”

The Barbary grunted, fighting the pain.

“Is there going to be an invasion?”

Mico pushed harder, feeling the bones creak under the metal. “Because you need to think again. This city is not for the taking.”

Suddenly the Barbary let out an almighty roar, startling Mico, jolting him backward. The ape chuckled, amused at how easy it was to unsettle his interrogator.

Humiliation cut into Mico; his plans were unraveling and it was all because of the Barbaries. He lashed out with the iron bar, thudding into the ape's chest, knocking his breath away.

“Why are you stirring up war between the monkey troops?”

He swung again, the bar cracked across the ape's knuckles.

“Why are you framing the rhesus?”

He smashed down on the Barbary's toes.

“Tell me! Or you don't leave here alive.” Mico said the words with a coldness so ugly, it was as if death itself had spoken.

For the first time doubt flickered across the Barbary's face; he had pushed this monkey to the brink.

“One more time,” the ape warned, “let me go. Maybe you'll live to tell the tale. Maybe.”

Enough. Mico would take no more defiance. He raised the iron bar and channeled all his rage into it; he felt powerful, unstoppable; he held the Barbary's life in his hands, and he braced himself to bring the bar smashing down on the ape's skull, to finish this once and for all—

When suddenly there was a noise outside. Mico spun round as a monkey appeared in the doorway, silhouetted.

“Well done,” the shadow said drily.

Mico squinted, trying to identify him.

“You've got to the heart of the matter,” the shadow continued. Then it stepped into the room, and Mico saw that it was Lord Tyrell.

“Made of strong stuff, aren't they?” Tyrell said. He opened the palm of his hand to reveal a small metal blade, just like the ones Mico had found in the undercroft.

Tyrell swung across the room and thrust the blade against the Barbary's throat. “Frighteningly strong.”

Mico braced himself for the ape's blood to spurt across the floor when, strangely, Tyrell stretched his arm behind the ape, and with one swipe cut through the vines that tied him to the pillar.

Panic tore through Mico. “
They
are the enemy!” he cried. “The resistance is a gang of Barbaries!”

Tyrell just smiled. “I know.”

Mico looked on, astonished, as the Barbary stood up, rubbed his bruised body, then turned respectfully to Tyrell.

“You want me to silence him?” the ape asked, casting a sideways glance at Mico.

Tyrell laughed. “Silence him? No, no. He is one of our finest monkeys!”

The Barbary grunted, disappointed but obedient.

“I appreciate the thought, however,” added Tyrell. “As I appreciate the heroic effort you've made tonight.” He patted the ape like a pet. “You'll be handsomely rewarded.”

Pacified by the promise, the Barbary turned and paced out of the room.

Mico looked at Tyrell, stunned. “You—you know him?”

“I
own
him,” said Tyrell with a smile. “Him and all his gang.”

The iron bar slipped from Mico's grip and clattered to the floor. Everything suddenly felt unreal, as if the ground was melting under his feet.

“If we weren't on the same side I'd be quite worried about you,” Tyrell said with a knowing smile. “You have penetrated the deepest secret of the langur troop.”

Mico stared at his leader, frightened and confused. “Tell me everything. The truth.”

“The truth is sometimes ugly.”

“Tell me!”

Tyrell knew he had to be patient. Mico was understandably in some shock.

“As we know, many seasons ago the rhesus murdered a human leader, which is why the humans turned to us to restore order.” Tyrell nodded pensively. “Well, that's not quite how it happened. You see, there was no murder.”

Mico stared at Tyrell in disbelief.

“Oh, the rhesus were wild, for sure. But they didn't kill anyone. The human leader tripped and fell from his balcony. He panicked. It was a simple accident. But that's not how the humans saw it. They saw malice and were afraid.

“So Gospodar led us into battle and we punished the rhesus. But in all the euphoria,
I
was the only monkey to see the fragility of our victory. Because
I
understood that the langur were only needed as long as the rhesus were dangerous. Once the humans felt safe, they would reject us again. So I seized the moment. Covertly, I…” Tyrell paused to find just the right words. “I engineered another incident, to make it look as if the rhesus were waging war on the people of the city. Again the humans encouraged us to deal with the problem. And so it went on. Every time we vanquished the rhesus, the humans gave us more food, better lands.”

A broad smile broke across Tyrell's face. “Do you know the funniest part? Gospodar took all the credit, but even he didn't know that it was
me
who was controlling the whole situation.”

Tyrell cradled Mico's face in his hands and looked at him earnestly. “You are only the second monkey to know the truth.”

“So…so our entire history is built on a lie?”

Tyrell bridled at the choice of words. “Our history is built on an idea,” he corrected. “And not only our history, but our future as well. The bonnets didn't kidnap a human—there never was a baby.” Tyrell said it with such twisted pride. “But the
idea
of the baby won us the Eastern Province.”

“The bonnet macaques…they were wiped out.” Mico couldn't hide the disgust in his voice.

“That was unfortunate,” Tyrell agreed. “Unfortunate, but necessary. There can only be one top monkey, and that is us.”

Mico's mind flashed back to the battle of the summer house and all its bloodshed. “So we're murderers…the entire langur troop?”

Tyrell was annoyed; he had been expecting admiration not moral judgment. “Mico, you have to understand how power works,” he said edgily. “Power is like a deadly snake—if you don't have your hands tightly round its neck, it'll destroy you.”

Mico tried to back away, but Tyrell grabbed him. “You don't know what it means to be downtrodden! What it means to sleep in a slum or beg for rotten scraps of food!” The emotion quivered in his voice; he drew a breath, trying to regain his composure.

“And that's good. Really. No langur should have to endure that humiliation. But if you had, you would know that a little deception is a small price to pay for what we have now.”

“And what about him?” Mico pointed to the pillar where the ape had been tied. “He's not in the past.”

“It's all part of my bigger plan. You see, there never was a rhesus resistance,” acknowledged Tyrell. “They're too cowardly to attack us. They should have fought back. I
needed
them to fight back—that's why I went to such lengths to dump their bodies at the scenes of the attacks.”

Tyrell stepped closer to Mico, drawing him in. “The entire langur troop looks to us for leadership in these difficult times. You and me.”

Mico scrutinized Tyrell, desperately trying to come to terms with how deep the conspiracy ran. “But when this is all over, the Barbaries won't just walk away. They're killers.”

“The Barbaries will follow me anywhere,” replied Tyrell with utter conviction. “I am worshipped in a way Gospodar could only dream about. There is nothing I cannot do.”

“What more do you
want
to do?” Mico asked fearfully.

Tyrell studied Mico's eyes; he could see the doubt lurking there and he needed to dispel it—Mico was too intelligent to lose.

“I'm sorry I deceived you, Mico. I'm sorry you had to learn the truth like this. But now there are no secrets between us. I need to know that you are still with me.”