sight. The largest remains behind, thick-necked, squatting, its head lowered. The guide recognises the pack leader, a powerful matriarch who usually shuns the tourists. Beneath her front legs lies a heavy tubular object. As the monkey raises the trophy to her mouth, the man feels his heartbeat quicken. He pulls off his sunglasses, frowning in disbelief as he registers the dangling white strands, the matted wrist hairs, the scattering of sweetcorn-like globules around a protruding nub of bone. The monkey edges her lips along the tube, as though playing some primitive instrument. Her mouth recoils from a shining metal band, a man’s wedding ring, the tour guide realises. Taking a step backwards, he feels a sudden pressure as the little girl clamps herself to his side, sweat-soaked T-shirt muffling her scream. The monkey’s pink-skinned face stretches into an unsettling facsimile of a smile. Then she grabs the severed human arm and vaults away down the Rock.
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9781408846582 Hollow Mountain (976h) final pass.indd 2
18/02/2014 11:07:16