They finished breakfast and took Ben’s car to the lab. Inside, Ben showed Caddie to his office, where she dropped off her backpack. This feels like “Take Your Daughter to Work” day, she thought, a little uneasily. She’d noticed people watching her and her father as they came in, and it made her feel uncomfortable, as if she were a new specimen or something.

As she was waiting for her father to tell her what they were going to do, a woman walked in. Small and dark complected, she glanced at Caddie and then looked away, apparently not interested.

“Dr. Patcher,” Ben said without enthusiasm. “May I introduce you to my daughter, Caddie?”

The woman looked at Caddie again. This time, Caddie saw genuine surprise on her face. She held out her hand, and the woman took it. “Nice to meet you,” Caddie said.

Dr. Patcher, still apparently in shock, said, “You’re Ben’s daughter?”

Caddie nodded. “Mmm-hmm,” she said.

“Caddie came to see what we do around here,” said Ben. “I warned her that it might not be very exciting.”

Dr. Patcher made a sound that could have meant anything. She kept stealing glances at Caddie as she said, “I just wanted to drop these intern reports off.”

“Thank you,” said Ben, taking them from her. “I hope you’re finding them useful.”

“Yes,” said Dr. Patcher. She turned and left quickly.

“She’s a little squirrely,” Caddie commented when she was gone.

“She’s into salps,” her father said, as if that explained everything. Strangely enough, even though she hadn’t the faintest clue what a salp was, Caddie knew just what he meant, and she laughed.

“Are we interrupting?”

Caddie turned to see Angela standing in the doorway. She had a boy with her, a thin, nervous boy who looked at Caddie and gave her a quick smile before looking away. Caddie noticed that he had a bad case of acne and felt sorry for him.

“No,” her father said. “I just brought Caddie to work today. I thought maybe we could find something only marginally uninteresting for her to do.”

Angela looked at the boy beside her. “Maybe she could help Rhodes download and identify the images from our last dive,” she suggested. She looked at Caddie. “Do you know anything about digital cameras?”

“A little,” Caddie said. “Enough to download photos.”

“Great,” Angela said. “Rhodes can show you what to do, if you’re up for it.”

“Why not?” said Caddie. She looked at Rhodes, who gave another queer smile and said, “It’s this way” as he turned around and left the office.

Caddie followed him down a hall and into a small room containing several long tables on which sat four computers.

“Are you familiar with Macs?” Rhodes asked her.

“I have one at home,” said Caddie.