Macaque Attack Read Online Free Page A

they’re all aboard, head for France,” she said. “And tell K8 to leave the plane and get her butt up here, or she’s going to get left behind.”
    “And Cole?”
    “ Merde. ” She’d forgotten the writer. “Where is he?”
    “The Lake District.”
    “And Lila’s with him?”
    “Lila?”
    “His daughter.”
    “Ah yes, of course. I think so.”
    “Can you get a call through to them?”
    “I’ll do my best.” Paul’s image wavered and froze as he turned his attention to the airship’s communication systems. Victoria sat back in her chair, allowing her coat to fall open around her. After a few seconds, one of the screens blanked, and then cleared to show the face of a middle-aged man with wild grey hair.
    “Hello, Captain, what can I do for you?” The picture was shaky and showed the man’s face from below. Cole was hiking in the hills above Lake Windermere, and talking into a handheld phone. His cheeks were red and he was out of breath.
    “We’re moving the ship, Cole.”
    “And you want us to come back?’
    She shook her head. “There isn’t time. We’re going to Paris. We’ll try to pick you up afterwards.”
    William Cole stopped walking. The air wheezed between his lips.
    “Don’t hurry on our behalf,” he said. Behind him, Victoria glimpsed sunlit hills curled with brown autumn bracken and, far below, the waters of the lake.
    “We’ll be back,” she promised. “But maybe not for a while.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “Something illegal.”
    “Well, don’t worry on our account.” He scratched the grey fuzz on his chin. “We’re happy enough here. We found Marie and everything’s great. In fact...” He looked away from the camera and the wind ruffled his hair.
    “What?”
    “Well, we were thinking of staying here,” he said. “Permanently.”
    Victoria felt a pang of disappointment. “Is that what you both really want?”
    “I think so. I mean it’s quiet here. Things are going well with Marie. We’ve found a cottage, and I’ve started writing again.”
    Victoria took off her fur cap and ran a hand over the bristles of her scalp. Thrown together by chance, she and Cole had become friends over the past two years, and she’d be sad to lose him—especially as he was one of the last humans left among the airship’s crew. With him and Lila gone, only Victoria and K8 remained, the only two women on a Zeppelin full of primates.
    “Then I wish you luck.” She drew herself up in her chair. “You and Lila. After everything that’s happened, you both deserve some peace.”
    Cole smiled.
    “As do we all, Captain. As do we all.”
     
     
    F IFTEEN MINUTES LATER , the gigantic airship rose from the fort and turned its two-kilometre hull eastwards towards France. Once, it had belonged to the leader of the Gestalt; now it belonged to the monkey army, a prize taken in battle and rechristened in honour of its new masters. At first, the monkeys had simply called it ‘Big Sky Thing’. It was only recently, at the urging of the troupe’s more erudite members, that Ack-Ack Macaque had officially renamed it Sun Wukong , after the monkey king of Chinese myth, who was born from a stone and went on to rebel against Heaven itself. Reclining on the bridge, Victoria watched the blue waters of the English Channel wheel beneath. The coast of France lay against the horizon like a green and purple cloud.
    Back we go...
    She gripped the arms of the chair. Unlike the world she called home, on this parallel France and England were separate countries, and she guessed the French wouldn’t be too keen at the prospect of a heavily armed dreadnought ploughing through their airspace.
    Still, it’s not as if they’ve got anything big enough to shoot us down.
    For a moment, her thoughts turned back to the apartment, and the blonde woman lying dead on the parquet floor.
    Just let them try...
    Over the past two years, she’d seen dozens of worlds, each a little different to the last. She’d