Chapter 5

Monkey. Elizabeth Diamond.

Time/Area: NYC 2013, 1-2nd month, July 4th

“Try to keep up Sarah.” I said, jogging down the halls of the 14th floor in Energis.

“Where are we going?! My brother is pretty mad at me right now!” She yelled from a couple of feet behind me.

I made a sharp left and swung into the elevator room, rapidly tapping the down button.

“We are going to miss it.” I thought, anxiously waiting for the green signal.

Sarah caught up to me, out of breath with an angry expression plastered on her face.

“Oh he’ll be fine,” I said, “The boy has legs.”

Ding.

The doors to the elevator opened.

“Let’s move.” I said, pulling Sarah inside.

Once I clicked “Lobby” and the door had closed Sarah spun me around,

“Doc! What’s happening!”

I took a deep breath, preparing a summary in my mind,

“So as it turns out the monkey is already here and it’s in the front lobby right now waiting for someone to pick it up. Jordan the idiot J is on his way to see what’s in the box and we can’t let him know that the test is already ready so we can impress him and maybe get a raise.”

I inhaled, “Got it?”

Ding. Lobby Floor.

The moment the door slid open I charged into the lobby, my boots echoing on the white tile as I approached five men guarding a metal box.

Sarah followed shortly, possibly even more confused.

“Are you Doctor Diamond?” One of the men said in a low, gruff voice.

I gave a short smile, “Yes I am. here,”

I handed him my Energis key card, watching him slide it on a glowing red slit in the crate.

Ding. Confirmed.

“Let’s go boys.” The man said, handing me back my card and then exiting the building.

I looked around at some of the other workers around the building, watching their confused expressions. I gave a little laugh, “As you were..”

Without wasting more time, I bent over, grabbed the crate, and using all of my strength, pulled upwards.

...

“Ugh.” I sighed. The box hadn’t moved.

“What is this?” An idiotic voice called from the elevator door. I spun around to find that Jordan J had arrived at the lobby floor. I looked at Sarah and snapped at the box.

She immediately jumped into action and ran to the crate while I walked up to Jordan.

“Doctor D, what’s in the box?” He asked, our faces only a foot apart. Two men stood by his side like guards. This fool was really making a laboratory building of science look to be the flipping Death Star.

“I really need to hire more people.” I thought to myself, thinking up a lie to tell my boss as I imagined my own two imaginary guards standing next to me for moral support.

“Test tubes, that’s all.” I squeaked.

He raised his eyebrows, “You personally came here… to take up test tubes?”

“Yes, of course!” I exclaimed, motioning all around me, “They are quite fragile.”

He slowly nodded as Sarah ran by carrying the crate with one hand.

I paused, “And..they are quite light..apparently.”

That girl confused me.

“A-anyways I gotta go!” I said, slowly heading towards the elevator with Sarah.

Once I was inside, Sarah clicked 14 while propping the box on her shoulder.

We both smiled awkwardly for Jordan as the door closed.

Ascending Now To..14th floor. The Elevator chimed.

“Phew.” I sighed a breath of relief, “That was way too close for comfort.”

Sarah shot daggers at me with her eyes, “This is the monkey?”

I nodded, “That’s what I said before.”

She cocked her head, “How did you get it here so fast?”

I smiled, “I didn’t do anything, and that’s really the beauty of it,”

Sarah raised her eyebrow, “You sure you didn’t do anything illegal?”

“100 percent,” I said, leaning on the elevator railing, “To be honest I’m just as shocked as you are.”

Ding.

“Alright let’s open this thing up.”

-

Five minutes later, we were in the lab opening the crate.

Once we had peeled the final layer of the crate off, Sarah lifted a cage up from the inside and placed it on a nearby counter.

“Isn’t it cute?” Sarah asked, peeking through the bars at the fuzzy little creature.

The monkey had little brown eyes and light gray fur... and was now licking its tail.

I sighed, “Don’t get too attached,” I said, patting Sarah’s shoulder while sharing her gaze, “After all we might kill it by accident.”

Sarah glared at me.

“The keyword being accident.” I said defensively.

Sarah stood up from her bent position, “So we can’t test the INVERSE on it yet, since we aren’t finished with the little amount of safety tests we are doing.”

I nodded, “Yes but we have to finish quickly, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this under wraps.”

Sarah picked up the cage and headed towards one of our Test rooms.

“Yea, I’ll put him in the back so Damien doesn’t notice,” Sarah replied, “It is a him, right?”

I nodded, “It is a him.”

Once Sarah returned from the Testing room, she began starting safety tests.

“Umm, Sarah.” I said, puzzled.

“Hm?” She asked, still working on a petri dish.

“Shouldn’t you be picking up Damien now that this fiasco is over?”

She shook her head, “He’s walking remember? No point in me stopping him now.”

I nodded, “Alright, I’ll join you in a second, I’m going to prepare liquid nitrogen ice cream for celebration.”

Sarah smiled as I walked towards the door, “Yea, he’ll love that!”