His colleague looked rather startled and a deep blush spread across his acne as he scuttled from the room. Thea hopped up onto the bed and swung her legs back and forth, feeling at ease for the first time since she arrived, even with the pale blob of a face at the monastery window still lingering in her mind.

‘Haven’t had to. Don’t give me a reason.’

He chuckled at that and started flicking through the papers on his clipboard.

‘I’ll do my best. Pretty straightforward. We’ve done all the baseline tests so now this is it: the big day. Time for the tech.’

Thea waggled her feet. The walls seemed to have less of that sticky sheen in Rory’s lab, not that she could see that much of them – the Centre’s sleek simplicity had been elbowed out of the way by monitors, wires, coffee mugs and little action figures posed mid battle.

‘You didn’t say you’d be working here too,’ she said.

Rory turned to consult a computer screen. ‘Didn’t know at the time. A place came up.’ He faced her again. ‘Weird how things work out, eh?’

‘I’m perhaps not the best judge of weird right now.’

She could have asked him about the monastery then, and the face that was probably not a face but something else completely. Maybe there were more staff quarters over there. That was probably the explanation, Thea thought – steadfastly ignoring the fact that the place was clearly a ruin and uninhabitable.

Just as she was about to open her mouth, Rory brought a box over to her and they both stared inside, Thea acutely aware just how close his arm was next to hers. He was wearing a chunky black watch that looked as if it had had a hard life so far and today’s T-shirt was as baffling to Thea as the last one: a logo for a university that was probably some hip television reference. She returned her attention to the box, not knowing what to expect.

Inside were two five-pence-size metal discs.

‘This is such amazing tech,’ Rory whispered as if he didn’t want to disturb the discs. ‘Eventually, when it’s gone public, each person will need these little beauties and an app in order for it all to work properly. But there’s already rumours that they’re working on a completely hardware-free version.’

‘No discs? How?’ Thea lowered her voice too, in case she woke the disc-babies.