“Will we ever see him again?” Ruby said, her voice stuttering and thin. “How will we find him?”
I felt a ragged clawing in my guts, as if rats were in my belly, ripping their way out.
“We’ve got to rescue him from those men.” My heart pounded in my chest, legs shaking. “We’ve got to rescue the Professor, got to find him.”
The men were still downstairs. They weren’t following us, but we could hear their voices.
“What can we do?” she said. Her voice was tense and twisted, like rusted barbed wire.
The smart thing would be to get away, do as the Professor said, start running. But where would we go? And how would we find him? We had to help him here and now, had to get him free.
“The baboons,” I said. “They’ll help us. They’re a match for anyone. We’ll let them out, see how those men like it.”
Ruby looked up at me, concern in her eyes. She pawed at the ground once, twice. She didn’t agree. “The Professor didn’t let them out,” she said. “He could have, but he didn’t.”
What would happen to the baboons, though, if they were left locked in a cage? Why were these men here? “We should set them free,” I said. “They’re our friends.”
The baboons didn’t trust outsiders, but they tolerated me. I read to them, brought them news from the lab, helped them learn. It was better when Mouffou was in charge, but since Thuto took over, they were tougher, harder, difficult to predict.
“It’s too risky,” Ruby said. “How do we get to the enclosure? We can’t get past those men.”
I listened. “It sounds like they’ve left the building. They’re outside. Let’s go see.” I moved towards the stairs. “No sign of them,” I whispered, and padded down the steps. I waited near the bottom, and listened intently, my ears raised, swivelling from side to side.
There were voices outside but nothing from within the building. The baboons were silent now. They must have heard that gunfire. They would be waiting, planning. If they got their hands on guns there would be no stopping them. I had to let them out, though. It was the only way. It had to be done.
Outside the men were gathered near their vehicles putting on protective clothing, and the big gauntlets used by the baboon handlers. There was no sign of the Professor, but more people had arrived, police in uniform, and a crowd out beyond the main gate with what looked like placards.
“We’d better get the baboons out fast,” I said, and headed down the corridor towards the back of the manor house.
The baboons lived in an secure enclosure. Part of it was indoors, inside the main building, where they had several rooms, including a gym, a TV lounge, and the reading room they used for fights. Outside was a huge cage open to the sky, with rocks, small trees, and a boxing ring. The baboons were never allowed into the rest of the lab, could never roam like Ruby and me. They were kept secure at all times. The humans were paranoid about that, worried about the baboons getting loose. They forgot to keep the combination secret though. Every time they let me through, I watched them tap in the numbers.
We stepped into the outer room. It was lined with equipment, clothes, harnesses, leads, buckets, spades, muzzles. Getting the security door open was simple. I pushed a table over and leapt on it, then scrambled up the wall with my front paws, to reach the electronic number pad. I tapped in the four-figure code with one of my claws. It took three tries to get it right, but in the end the door swung open. We were in.
There was nothing now between the baboons and their freedom but the door of the cage, locked with a simple bolt. Easy. But something made me pause.
