Page 45 of Mastermind

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

MONKEY VILLAGE

Theo is on his knees, face-to-face with a young orangutan that has ventured to the edge of her enclosure to study the curious man. His arms are outstretched in much the same way that apes balance themselves. His head is slightly tilted back, and he moves his face from his lips and upper cheeks, forming a kind of smile. Baba the orangutan is amused by Theo and reaches a hand out to touch the glass near his nose. She smiles, backs up, and tries it again, delighted by the show the man ape is putting on for her.

Theo sees me observing and says, “At this age, her brain and a human child’s are far more alike than we care to acknowledge. It’s not for another year that nature sets in and she becomes more orangutan and a human becomes more Homo sapiens. Same with chimps, bonobos, and gorillas. You could put all five of them together at the same age and they’d play, once they got over their shyness. The ironic part is the human kid would be the slowest one in the room, mentally.” He blows Baba a kiss. She puts her hand to her mouth and almost mimics the gesture. I wonder if she’ll master the action and if anybody will ever realize it was taught to her by one of the smartest people on the planet, who also apparently speaks orangutan.

“You must be Jessica,” says a young man in a polo shirt and sunglasses, striding toward us.

“Jack?” I reply, assuming this is Jack Soonsiri, son of the Thai owners of the Monkey Village amusement park.

“Did they let you in without any problem?”

“There were tickets waiting for us. Thank you,” I reply. “This is Dr. Cray.”

“Nice to meet you. Sorry I couldn’t be at the front gate. We have so many animals. Lots of hungry mouths. What do you think of our park?”

To be honest, it’s nicer than I expected. I don’t know how the captive animals feel, but I was afraid I’d find a lot of chains and exploitive demonstrations. “I think you’ve done a great job here.”

“We love our animals,” he says before kneeling down to look at Baba, who has retreated to the arms of her mother. “Hey, Baba! How are you today?”

Baba blows him a kiss. Jack looks at Theo and me with excitement. “Did you see that? I love you, too, Baba.” He gets to his feet. “Her whole family was going to be sold for meat. They lost their home when her forest was destroyed to make a palm oil plantation.”

“That’s horrible.” I can’t imagine anyone wanting to eat something like an orangutan, but then I’ve never been starving and living in a world where people treated me as poorly as the animals around me.

“But you’re not here about Baba. You’re here to help us find our missing chimpanzees,” says Jack. “Follow me.”

Jack leads us down a tree-lined path with enclosures on either side. Part of what makes Monkey Village special is that most of the property is used for the animals, with the humans funneled through caged corridors. At the very least, it gives the illusion that the animals can roam freely.

We reach an open space surrounding a recess in the ground with a cage running around the top edge. It’s probably a hundred meters across. Below is an island with a moat. Large boulders and trees landscape the area, along with a fake rock wall and cave.

Signs around the enclosure in Thai, Chinese, and English warn people not to throw things at the chimpanzees. Which would be helpful if there were any chimps here.

“This is it,” says Jack. “This was their home, and then one day, no more chimpanzees. People thought it was a publicity stunt. I thought maybe Safari Kingdom stole them. But chimps are a lot of work. We had the largest population in Asia.”

Theo goes up to the edge of the fence. First he scans the area, and then he does something I’d never have thought to do: he smells the air. “No idea?” he asks.

“None. Some people thought maybe the Chinese stole them to eat. I don’t like that theory. Plus, people blame the Chinese for everything. Too much pollution? Blame the Chinese, even though it’s our cars. Prices too high? Blame the Chinese. Without Chinese tourists, we’d be like the other zoos, making the orangutans kickbox and putting the chimps in bikinis. Imagine little Baba kickboxing? No. I want her to have a nice life. You want to take a closer look?”

I glance at Theo. “Your call.”

“There hasn’t been a chimp in here for a while. At least not living here.”

“It’s safe,” says Jack. “No chimps. And ours are well trained, anyway. Nobody’s lost any fingers yet.”

“It’s not losing my finger I’m worried about,” says Theo.

Jack leads us around the fence to a gate that he unlocks. On the other side is a staircase that takes us down to the back side of the chimpanzee island. Behind the facade is a large enclosed cage with several smaller cages and sliding gates.

“During monsoon season we bring them in here. Otherwise they stay outside,” explains Jack.

“Were they outside when they went missing?” asks Theo.

“Yes. We have watchmen who keep an eye on things.”

“What about cameras?” I ask.

“Yes. But they don’t work very well. We had one that shows the outside. We watched the footage to check if we could see any chimps escaping. There’s another one.” He points to the corner. “It was watching inside here.”