It was a big fancy house. She gawked at the two staircases leading upstairs and the single table with a very nice flower arrangement sitting in the center of the room. Obviously, 'Mr. Cook,' or 'Father,' was very well off. It reassured Caroline Cook just a little bit, because she knew that this man would have no reason to kidnap her for ransom. That ruled out one bad possibility. And anyhow, if he did try anything on her, she knew karate. Well, sort of. She had seen karate movies. She knew how to kick him.

"Caro," Father said as they entered the kitchen. She winced discreetly upon hearing the all-too-common nickname, but said nothing. "Tomorrow, I'm going to have to head in to the facility early, at about seven. I know I say that every day." Cook leaned on the countertop.

"The facility?" she asked, trying not to sound too curious. Father opened the fridge.

"Yes, for the apes."

"What do you do at the facility again, Father?"

"I know we co-own the place, but I do whatever needs doing."

Caroline observed the man known now to her as Father. He looked worn out, exhausted at the idea of 'doing whatever needed doing.' She felt bad for him. He was well into his sixties and she was twenty-two; young, strong. She didn't look twenty-two, though. She had straight black hair with bangs, brown-yellow eyes, and dainty facial features. She looked at least four years younger than her age, and it bugged her.

"Father, we co-own the facility, and you do these things out of the goodness of your heart. From what I can tell, Mr. Landon does nothing," she said, winging this completely. "Maybe I should go to the facility," she offered. He looked up, a glimmer of hope in his tired eyes. "You can have a day of rest tomorrow."

"Oh, I couldn't do that to you, Caroline."

"Yes, you absolutely could." There was a pause.

"Just this one time." She was now sure that she was in the movie. She was also sure she was dreaming, but that wouldn't stop her from having a little fun. This was a rather vivid dream, anyway.

"Of course, Father."

Cook shifted in the bed. Of course, she hadn't quite come to the conclusion that Father wasn't dangerous, but she kept telling herself it had to be just a realistic dream. She had even come so close as to say maybe she had a few too many drinks that she couldn't remember. There was just one thing eating at her, though; she couldn't be dreaming if she never fell asleep, and she didn't remember going to bed. Drinking, she said. I must have been drinking! Or maybe I took drugs… LSD? No, that couldn't be it. She knew nothing about LSD, and she would never do drugs. Maybe I was drunk and I took drugs!

Okay, maybe not. This was stupid. She was a big girl. She was where she was, might as well make the best of it. Everything happened for a reason, so she closed her eyes, and with that thought in her mind, went to sleep.

BEEP, BEEP!

WHACK!

BEE—

What a pathetic alarm clock. The beep slowed to silence like a dying robot, and Cook sat up in the bed. Facility. She kind of wished she had never offered, but she couldn't back out now. She figured her clothes weren't all that dirty, and was about to wear them for that day, too, but as she was walking out of the room, she noticed a piece of fabric sticking out of the closet doors. Cautiously, she observed and eventually opened the doors. The closet was filled with clothes, her size, and clean. Thank goodness. It excited her that she had never seen any of these items before, but they were in her room; definitely hers. The hardest part of her outfit coordination was pants. Her mom had always said that skinny jeans were unattractive, but Cook was a small person, and nothing really looked bad on her frame, so she eventually went with skinny rather than straight leg and made her way downstairs. Father was still in bed, so she had freedom to do whatever she wanted until seven. She flipped through channels, and went through the fridge. When she found nothing to appeal to her taste, she rushed out the door. She wanted to find a café, get to work, and have time to get lost.

Wandering about the new San Francisco, she found a Starbucks. She finished off a bagel, and iced coffee, realizing she hadn't eaten since the afternoon before. Finally, after disposing of her trash, she walked to her car (it was just a car she had taken from Father's garage. How else was she supposed to get there?). She had Googled the facility and programmed its address into her navigator, but it was no help if she didn't have a starting point. It took her about twenty minutes (thank goodness it was only six fifteen) of poking, prodding and messing up to figure out how to program the Starbucks as her starting point and she began heading off towards her destination.

As she was driving, though, she saw a familiar building, and pulled into its parking lot. She probably wasn't supposed to be there, but she was still half-convinced that this was a dream, so she didn't much care. She pulled the keys from the ignition and got out of the car. A few people in suits eyed her as she walked inside, wondering why someone in a black tank top and checkered shirt was going into an office like this. Okay, she was out of place. They didn't need to stare. As soon as she entered the building, she knew where she was. It was the office from the movie; Dr. Will Rodman worked here.

"Hello," a voice said. She turned on her heel.

"Hi." A man stood there.

"I'm Dr. Rodman. Do you work here?" he asked her.

"Oh, no," she explained. "I'm having a… I have spells sometimes where I don't pay much attention. I guess I just walked right into the wrong building."

"Oh, I see."

"So you're Dr. Rodman," she suddenly said, in awe. He looked surprised.

"Yes. You sound as if you know me?"

"Oh… I…" She had to think fast. "My Father co-owns the San Bruno Primate Facility. I've heard about your study on… ALZ-112."

"Oh, you have." Dr. Rodman looked disheartened at this, slightly.

"Yeah… Um, what time is it?" she asked. Dr. Rodman checked his watch.

"Six fourty-five."

"Oh, gosh! I'm so sorry. I should be at the facility, right now. I have to go. My name is Caroline Cook, by the way."

"I might see you at the facility. A… friend of mine is there. Can I bother you with a favor?"

"Yes."

"His name is Caesar. He just started staying there last week. Could you see to it that he's being taken care of?"

"Of course." That settled it. It was after the ALZ-112 incident; Caesar was in the facility, and Dr. Rodman was going to start ALZ-113. They said goodbyes and Cook left to drive to the facility. She was slightly worried now. Would she be able to work around apes? She came to the gated enclosure, with a sign on it reading San Bruno Primate Facility, and got out of the car. As she entered the building, she was intercepted by Mr. Landon.

"Do I know you?" he asked. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I'm Caroline Cook." Mr. Landon took a step back.

"Miss Cook. You're Evan's daughter." She nodded. "But you don't usually come here, what with your university studies. Or have you graduated?"

"I have. My Father was tired so I offered to come in for him today."

"Oh, I see. I didn't know you were so caring."

"He's my Father." Already, she didn't like Mr. Landon, and not just because she had seen him in the movie.

"Yes, well, just patrol around. Rodney and Dodge, my son, do most of the work around here, but when you see something you think you need to do, just do it."

"I'll do that. Which way is the ape enclosure?"

Mr. Landon raised an arm and pointed, before turning and walking off. Cook approached the door he had pointed to and went that direction.

The hall was humid and dark. There was the noise of the apes sensing her arrival, wanting to know who she was, but she went to one cage. This ape was Caesar. She could tell from the sweater and jeans.

"Hi, Caesar," she said. The ape inched forward. "Will asked me to make sure you were alright." She stuck her hand through the cage in the respectful gesture of asking permission. He stroked her palm, not used to being the one to give permission. She stood outside the cage, staring at the ape. Behind her, a door opened and closed.

"Who are you?" She spun around. Dodge Landon. He hopped down the stairs and soon they were face to face. He was brandishing his stun stick, the thing that would lead to the death of him.

"I'm Cook. My dad Co-owns this place, with your dad."

"What do you know about my dad?"

"He said his son worked here."

"How do you know I'm not Rodney?"

"Lucky guess. Put that away." She motioned to the stun stick.

"Why would I do that?"

"It's making me nervous." It was. She didn't want him to—

"This is my way of controlling these… things." He was obviously choosing his words carefully, but not his actions. She watched as he flicked the stun stick on and dragged the tip along the cages, sending blue sparks flying about the enclosure, and the apes into panic. She let out a small noise in surprise and clapped a hand over her mouth. Seeing it in the theater was shocking enough, but first hand was an instant heart attack. He turned the stick off again. Without thinking, she snatched the thing from his hand and threw it down the hall. "What do you think you're doing?" he snapped.

"You're insane!" He didn't reply, but marched off down the hall to get his 'control mechanism.' "Jerk. You don't even know what you're doing." He took that differently than she'd meant it. He didn't know what he was doing. He was creating enemies out of these apes, and setting the stage for his own death. He scowled at her and she turned back to Caesar's cage. She looked inside at the manic ape. "Caesar! Caesar, calm down!" she said loudly. "Calm down!" she shouted. Her voice reverberated off of the walls. Soon, the room was in silence. The apes had stopped moving, as had Dodge. With that, she spun around and stomped out of the room. The apes started jumping around and shrieking again.

"Shut up, you damn dirty apes!" Dodge ordered. His exclamation didn't have the same effect as Cook's, though, so it did nothing.