"Miss, drop the lobster and put your hands in the air!"
In her time as a Station Chef at the Grand Bistro, Sarah had never seen anything like this.
It had begun much earlier, but as far as she was aware, the events of her morning were the cause. Her boss, Dave, had turned up late that day, clutching a large navy gym bag. His unpunctuality was a regular occurrence, so everyone duly nodded through his excuses about "apocalyptic traffic" (even though he walked to work) and his dry lecture on team spirit before he disappeared into his office. Everyone went back to their stations and refunds were given to the customers, whose meals had long since cooled. Murmurs rippled across the kitchen about Dave's behaviour, but no-one else seemed to have noticed that his gym bag seemed to shake a little on the ground during the speech.
Sarah kept her suspicions to herself during her shift, but couldn't help but go to Dave's office on her lunch break. She was the only one really qualified to handle fish, but she wanted to check in on Dave quickly. If anything happened to him, he would likely take the Bistro and its staff down with him. And anyway, Mike had taken a night class for fishing once, so he could probably be a passable poissonnier for her union-mandated ten minutes.
She knocked twice, then walked in. Three years of working for Dave had taught her to not rush in there the hard way. After Sarah pushed those embarrassing memories aside, she closed the door and could distinctly make out the sound of faint breathing coming from the bag, which was perched upon his dusty cross-trainer. A quick glance around gave her the confidence she needed to take a look. What was it? A puppy maybe?
She struggled to suppress a gasp when she realised what she was looking at. Whatever she had imagined, she had not once expected to see a baby chimpanzee inside. Small frail hands reached up to its face and delicate eyelids fluttered at the sound Sarah had cause when she had walked in.
Before she could act, Dave burst into the room. He whispered something, too quiet for Sarah to hear. She nodded, assuming it was friendly. As Dave's scowl came into focus, it became clear that she had been mistaken. He reached over, grabbed the bag and whispered "Don't say a word. I'll explain everything in a bit." while pointing petulantly at her with every syllable. Following that, he fled out of the office, leaving Sarah to her asthma. Would it kill him to dust?
Choked with both emotion and asthma, Sarah returned to her post and promptly pushed Mike out of the way. She tried to focus on her job, boiling lobsters for some gambler with an overinflated ego, but she couldn't help but worry about the baby chimp. Why was it in Dave's bag? Where had it come from? This kind of behavior is not exactly suited for a busy kitchen in a struggling Bistro and, inevitably, she walked into a silo of "Manderson's Mystery Meat".
It hadn't been there earlier, Sarah was sure. She glanced over the label, and was alarmed to discover that it had been shipped straight from the Congo Basin, which was hardly famed for its factories. The Head Chef was delighted to kick her out of the kitchen for a few minutes, so she used the time to look it up. It seemed to be a rainforest populated by Elephants, Bonobos and...Chimpanzees...
Just then, Dave ran up to her, still clutching the bag. "Hey ... didn't know where you were... I looked into the Mandersons... they were poaching Chester and his family" he panted, gesturing at the bag. "Found a warehouse full of them down the road, but I only managed to get Chester out. Manderson just rang, he called the police on me and it doesn't look too good. So just -- just try to slow them down while I make a break for it, will you? Oh, and you're all promoted or something I guess." And before she could ask anything, sirens drowned her out as he ran.
In times of crisis, little details, like how many lobsters you're holding, melt away. Could she just tell them? But as they pulled up, she saw Manderson behind them. And in that moment, Sarah knew that she would have to--
"Miss, drop the lobster and put your hands in the air!"
