CHAPTER 16
“DARN IT!” I kept my voice to a whisper as I stubbed my toe on the kitchen table—one of the many hazards of sneaking out of the house while it was still dark. According to Dr. Fielding’s message, a cab would pick me up outside the lab at seven, and I had to deal with the monkeys first.
One bonus of getting up so early was the lack of traffic, and I cracked the door to the lab before the sun came over the horizon. The faint sound of classical music drifted from the office two doors along from mine.
“Morning, Heidi.”
She raised a glass of orange juice, looking far too cheerful for five o’clock. Morning people scared me.
“Are you ready to check the NHPs?” she asked.
“Give me a minute. I need to wake up first.”
Heidi hailed from Austria and had developed her love of early mor
