And there had been something very odd about the way she spoke, too. Not the tone, that had been his screen, but something else nagging away at the back of his mind. He looked up at the counter, and then looked again. He wasn’t imagining it. The counter was slowing down. In fact, it had stopped. He stared at it, his pulse racing. This had never happened before. He got up, for the first time since he had sat down that morning, and inched towards the door, stiff-legged.

It opened.

He stopped, unsure what to make of it all. How long had it been unlocked? He stood at the threshold, not daring to step out, staring out into the corridor at the cubicles far across, a wall of white separated from Albert’s half of the room by the now-motionless conveyor belt that wound its way down the room.

As he stood there, wondering whether he should go out and search for this Sue, and how on earth he was going to begin, he was yanked from his thoughts by his screen buzzing once more.

SUE WANTS TO HAVE A CONVERSATION.

She’d done it again. Even though he’d logged out of the network, she’d somehow got through anyway. He stepped closer to the screen, his heart pounding.

I HAVE BEEN WAITING, ALBERT.

‘How did you—’

I TOLD YOU, THE DOORS WOULD OPEN. NOW COME TO ME.

‘Yes, but where? Where do I come?’

YOU WILL KNOW. YOU ARE BLUE.

‘What? Did you say blue? I’m blue? What the hell does that even mean? Are you even listening to what I’m saying? I’m telling you I don’t know where—’ He broke off, feeling a sharp, insistent buzzing in his pocket. His communicator. Reaching in, he pulled it out, his jaw dropping slightly as he looked at it.

Where there should have been a display picture of him, smiling and looking rather foolish, there was now a grid of thin, curving lines. No, not a grid, a map. At one end, a large red dot pulsed. Some way away from it, separated by several lines, was a small blue square.

He was blue.

NOW FOLLOW YOUR COMMUNICATOR.

He stood there, shaking his head. First his screen, now his communicator! ‘How?’ he whispered, his voice pleading. ‘How—what are you doing?’

I AM WAITING, ALBERT.

The words blinked out and the screen went blank again, its featureless face reflecting Albert’s as he stood in front of it.

What should he do, he wondered. Should he just follow the device? What if a bot saw him? On the other hand, Sue had made it pretty clear what would happen if he didn’t go. And there was no way he could stay here. He had to do something.

Slowly, gingerly, he inched his way out of the cubicle, half-expecting the door to come down at any moment. It didn’t.