‘Do you have anything …’

‘Smaller? No. Sorry. It’ll fit in a backpack handily. If you want to carry it on your person, I’d advise you to take up the current trend of carrying gigantic handbags. Watch the edge. It’s sharp enough to slice anything but diamond. And for God’s sake, carry it, Claire. You’re no good to me at all if you’re dead. Until you start working, I can’t even be sure you’re any good to me at all, but I’m willing to give you the chance.’ Anderson patted her on the shoulder in an impersonally kind sort of way. ‘What time is it? – Oh, damn, I have a class to teach in twenty minutes. Lab rules: you’ll be here bright and early every day. I arrive at six a.m.; I’ll expect you no later than seven. You don’t arrive before me, and you don’t stay after. If I decide that you’re reliable, I’ll start allowing you to remain in the lab while I’m teaching, but you’ll have a period of evaluation before that happens, and of course the lab’s sensors will monitor everything you do. That’s not meant as a threat, just clarity – I’d rather you aren’t surprised by the level of observation you have here.’

It was nothing but surprising, but Claire didn’t really mind; she accepted the need for security. She wasn’t sure how to read Dr Anderson, though, and she thought her new mentor felt the same about her. Well, at least she gave me a knife, Claire thought. That said something … but what, exactly, Claire wasn’t quite sure.

Dr Anderson had already dismissed her, clearly, because she was shuffling through a stack of papers and ignoring Claire’s tentative goodbye wave, so Claire headed back to the door. There was a second badge station, and she used it to unlock her way out into the hallway. Disorientation set in for a few seconds, because there were few signs and the clean white tile looked the same in any direction, but she finally figured out how they’d come in, and badged out for a second time before returning to normal college surroundings. It felt weird, coming from that high-tech world to one where people her age were laughing, throwing footballs on the lawn and flirting as if it was the most important skill in the world.

Maybe the normal world isn’t as normal as I expected.

That was a sobering thought.

She headed across the busy campus grounds, and the knife stuck in her backpack felt strange; she checked often to see if somehow the outline of it was visible, but of course it wasn’t. It was like a sliver of her old life sticking into her new one, and she didn’t know how to feel about it.

Turned out, she had reason to be happy.