Primate Compound
Early Wednesday morning, I was rudely awakened by a call from Professor Morton. He didn't use a phone that I could have turned off the ringer for and put on ignore. Oh no. That would have been too conveniently high tech.
He used scri-visual which meant the huge honking gilded scrying mirror in the back of my closet wouldn't stop yakking out loud.
"Incoming, Professor Morton. Incoming, Professor Morton."
Groaning with exasperation, I dragged my body out of bed and pulled open the closet door. There, behind all my shoes and clothes was the scrying mirror, propped up against the closet wall.
I sat, cross-legged on the floor and activated the mirror's scri-visual.
"Rangwuokandao"
Immediately, Professor Morton's face appeared in the scrying mirror.
"Inanna Imara. What are these? Shoes? What are they doing in front of the scrying mirror when I'm trying to talk to you?"
"I'm sorry Professor Morton," I reached out and cleared the shoes away from the mirror's face. "The mirror was in my closet..."
"Closet? What the...." He rubbed his forehead with annoyance. "Never mind that now. Come to the Primate Compound immediately. I want you here within the next thirty minutes."
"But professor—"
"It's turning into 29 minutes, Inanna." He waved a hand and his image disappeared from the mirror.
I cursed and sprang up from the floor. It normally took me almost that long just to walk up the hill from my apartment. How was I supposed to get dressed and get there in that amount of time? And what the heck was the rush for?
My only consolation was that the Primate Compound was close to the bottom of the hill, so it would lessen my walk time by about ten minutes.
I might make it if I hurry…
By the time I got to the Primate Compound, it was almost 8 am. The compound was a large ranch style looking enclosure with mostly yellow scrub grass and a few gnarled dwarf oaks on the rounded sloped hillside.
The one-story rambling ranch dwellings scattered about the Primate Compound were home to the various groups of gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and chimpanzees.
Half a dozen gorillas were standing near the front area and waved to me as I walked past. They were supposed to be guarding the entrance, but nobody ever tried to break in, and nobody cared enough to break out. It was just not a place that was high on the wanted list.
I sent them a greetings image and headed towards the compound's main hall.
"There you are." I heard Professor Morton's voice call out. "It's been awhile since I've seen you in an Overlord bodysuit." He walked towards me and reached out towards my shoulder. Before I could react, he had ripped the orange and brown insignia of the Primate Overlord off.
"I have no idea who you ripped this outfit off from but you are no mere Overlord Sergeant First Class. Where is your Overlord General insignia?"
I sighed. "Nobody cares about that, Professor Morton. What's the situation and why am I here at 8 am?"
"I need for you to check up on the Construction Crew. They staged an uprising early this morning and damaged some areas that they were working on. Thank the Goddesses no one was hurt."
"Where are they now?"
"We have subdued them with magik and they are now being held in the compound detention area."
I nodded and began jogging towards the detention area. From behind me, the Professor called out.
"Be careful! They have lost their rational minds!"
I snorted. What rational mind would want to work as a slave for poor treatment and no wages?
The Construction Crew was a large group of gorillas that numbered in the hundreds. Obviously, this group was just a small subset because I counted no more than fifty of them inside the detention area.
I cast over them a gentle calming wave of goodwill and then I asked a few questions.
What's going on ladies and gentlemen?
Nana, Nana, Nana! They began chanting.
Hello to you too. Tell me what's wrong.
They take us away, Nana. We don't want to go.
Who? Who is 'they'
They take us away. They take us away. They take us away.
I sighed and stopped asking. Once the gorillas got into this kind of herd mindset, there was nothing left to gain. They would just repeat what was in their heads over and over and over until they got tired of it.
I walked back out to where Professor Morton was standing. He was chatting with another Overlord by the time I reached him.
Professor Morton turned to me.
"Were you able to figure out what their problem was?"
I nodded. "They said someone was trying to take them away, and they didn't want to go so they staged a revolt to drive those people away."
"You have got to be joking!" Professor Morton sniffed. His face grew angrier and angrier by the minute.
"I'm only telling you what they told me."
Professor Morton made a growling noise under his breath and turned to me.
"Thank you for obtaining that information. I have some critical work to do." He paused for a moment, as if trying to make a decision.
"For the rest of today, don't take on any other work. Stay with the Construction Primates at the compound and make sure they remain calm. Furthermore, keep all the primates that are still here inside the compound. Don't let them leave."
"Yes sir."
I walked back to the compound, my head a whirl. Why was Professor Morton so angry? And what did that have to do with the primate workers?
At this time of the morning, all the Kitchen Primates had already gone to do their kitchen duties to get ready for the breakfast rush, so there was nothing I could do about them.
The Gardening Primates were in the process of heading out towards the various areas to be worked on. The six groups of 100 each were in their formation on the clearing at the center of the compound.
I whistled and called to the six Overlords in charge of each squadron.
"Hey guys!" I waved as they came running.
"What's up Nana?" One of them grinned. The others smiled their greetings.
"Change of plans. The Gardening guys are to remain at the compound. Orders from above."
The Overlords shrugged. Less work for them. They went back to their troops and discharged everyone with stern warnings to remain in the compound and not go running off.
I went back to the front area where the six Gorilla Guards were standing.
Don't let strangers into the compound. I shot a mental warning at them.
Yes Warrior Queen! They responded in unison.
I rolled my eyes. These guys had gotten the memo from the Kitchen Primates, no doubt.
Since the day was starting to get warm, I made my way to the commons hall and went into the Great Room.
It was called the Great Room by the primates because it was just one big empty room with no furniture and no decorations on the flat expanse of white walls. The primates didn't care about having any furniture, preferring instead to hang out together in groups on the polished hardwood floor.
At one end of the Great Room was the small lounge where the rest of the Overlords had congregated to catch naps.
I grabbed a fat cushion from one of the sofas and went back to the Great Room. There were too many of them in here and I didn't feel like making small talk with any of them.
By noon, I was starting to get bored out of my skull. There was nothing to do here, and even the tiny game on my phone was starting to get boring. Furthermore, I was starting to get hungry.
It was with great relief that the morning Kitchen Primates had begun trooping back to the Primate Compound. Ahead of the group was a young orangutan that I knew well.
Nana! He mind-called to me. I turned to him with a big grin.
It was Tarzan.
Tarzan was the only Sumatran orangutan in the entire lineup. His large brown eyes shone bright with intelligence and his vivid orange-red fur stood out like a bright flag amidst a sea of browns and blacks.
Tarzan was a favorite student of mine. He was part of the first group of primates to whom I had taught the finer arts of culinary crafting, and he would never let me forget it. At five-foot-eight, He was taller than the rest of the Kitchen Primates which were comprised of the generic bonobos and gorillas.
He and the rest of the Kitchen Primates were carrying large boxes of what turned out to be brown bag lunches for the Gardening Primates that had been detained at the compound.
He came running to me with a bag.
Eat. I make for you.
I grabbed the bag with grateful hands. You are just the sweetest thing! Thank you!
He grinned, showing all of his teeth at me and then he reached out and touched my hand.
Warrior Queen.
I laughed. You heard about what happened yesterday?
He nodded. Maggie tell me.
How is she?
Maggie ok. She stay with Juju. Juju burn in fire.
I nodded.
They had most likely taken Juju to be cremated while Tom Lackey's remains had been boxed up and sent back to his family. Primate remains were never kept. They were simply scattered to the winds above the Commons Garden.
Where is Maggie?
Maggie still in kitchen working.
Why is she not back with you?
Maggie stay to watch Overlord.
What? I gave him a questioning glance.
Watch Overlord so he does not do bad things.
Who is the Overlord she is watching?
Tanner Olson.
And with a wave of his furry arm, he went off to distribute the rest of the food for the other primates.
Tanner. He was lucky I didn't bash his teeth in.
I made a mental note to confront the creep the next chance I got.
For the rest of the day, I stayed within the Primate Compound playing gin rummy with Tarzan. We had been playing with colored rubber bands as tokens and I had to admit. He was good.
It didn't take long before his pile of rubber bands was larger than mine. What was more, each time he won, he would cackle and laugh in such a way that it would attract the attention of other bonobos and chimpanzees sitting nearby. They would then all laugh at me in their cheeky monkey fashion.
It was downright embarrassing.
At around 7 pm, the rest of the Kitchen Primates from the evening shift had begun shuffling back to the Primate Compound. Once again, they brought with them more food for the rest of the primates stuck in the compound.
My presence was simply a redundant precautionary measure because just about all of the primates surrounding me was stronger than I was.
They could certainly fight off any intruders better than I ever could. The only thing that I was there for was to keep them calm and organized so that the other Overlords could maintain control over them.
By this time, I was ready to leave the Primate Compound. Although it had been an easy work day for me, I felt rather useless as I had done nothing the entire day but play cards with a bunch of primate workers.
Even as I passed the time hanging out with the primates, events of the previous days had been rolling in my head nonstop.
First and foremost on my mind was the war.
Father and Marcus kept alluding to a war starting up soon, but things were still calm and peaceful especially at the Topaz Academy of Magikal Arts. I could not imagine how and when the war would begin.
Certainly Professor Quimby had muttered to me something about disruptions that were demon-caused. He was also going on and on about an impending war.
There was also Professor Nimitz who had broken down and cried over his daily work of contacting the demons. Could demons be the connection?
My mind shifted back to the demons book in my messenger bag.
I had been carrying it around with me everywhere because I was too afraid to leave it anywhere unattended. I had also not forgotten my pinky-locked and thumb-stamped oath with Simon.
It was time I took matters into my own hands. I had to think like a huntress and stalk my prey or this mystery was never going to solve itself.