Dr Anderson was taking this way more seriously than Claire had ever expected. Even Myrnin hadn't seemed so impressed. 'It's packed, they're delivering it with all my stuff this week.'
'You shipped it?'
'I thought it might be hard to get it through security at the airport.'
'Ah. Excellent point. But you really thought it was safer to trust it to a moving company? Do the vampires know you have this device?'
'Myrnin does.'
'And has he told Amelie?'
'I don't know,' Claire said. She felt more than a little off balance, as if she had done something bad but she wasn't sure what exactly it was. 'Shouldn't he have?'
'If he thinks you're worth keeping alive, he won't,' Dr Anderson said. She had a remote, calculating look in her blue eyes, suddenly, and it was chilling. 'The last thing Amelie would want is a device like that, capable of giving humans a way to control vampires. When is this device scheduled to arrive here?'
'Um, tomorrow, I think. They're just supposed to put the boxes in my bedroom if I'm out.'
'Don't be out,' Anderson said. 'Be home. Check the box you put it in before they leave, and then call me as soon as you're alone and I will arrange for an escort. I want this device of yours put in the secured area as soon as possible, just in case it works as you say. Vampires don't like us developing new weapons against them, Claire. I've seen others end up dead for simply talking about one, and you've actually made one. This is something that Amelie can't, and won't, ignore. I'm really surprised that Myrnin allowed this at all, and even more surprised that he hasn't told Amelie about it.'
Claire thought, with a sudden burst of cold inside, about what had happened to Shane's family when they'd left Morganville. Amelie had been dead set on keeping her secrets, and when Shane's mother had begun remembering too much, talking too much, she'd ended up dead. It was pure luck that Shane and his father hadn't died, too.
What she had done in developing this device - no, this weapon - was a whole lot worse than just blabbing about Morganville. It could be a real threat to them. To their very lives.
Dr Anderson was right. It was something the vampires wouldn't ignore ... and now that she was out of Morganville, accidents could happen. None of her friends would know the difference.
She was alone.
'Hey,' Dr Anderson said, and gave her a small, careful smile. 'Easy. You look a little spooked.'
Claire nodded, unable to say much.
'You got used to thinking of yourself as safe from them, didn't you? That they were on your side. It's easy to make that mistake. They will treat you as an asset, or even as a friend, right up until you cross the line and become a threat, Claire; you've already done that, even if they don't know it yet. You've gone from Amelie's subject to Amelie's enemy, even though technically you've never turned against her ... she won't wait for the actual betrayal. Just the seeds of it are enough.' Anderson's eyes were still calculating, still cool. 'Are you armed?'
'No. It's the real world. I didn't think I needed to ... there are laws against it, right?'
'Would you rather be fined for carrying a concealed knife, or dead in an alley?'
'Are those my only options?'
Dr Anderson's smile warmed up, and the seriousness faded a bit. Just a bit. 'Not necessarily, but I believe in planning for the worst case scenario.'
'You'd really like my boyfriend Shane,' Claire said. 'Okay. I'm used to carrying a knife - silver, right?'
'We have new processes that allow us to have just a silver layer on the edge. It's more reliable and holds sharpness well.' Dr Anderson walked to a locked cabinet and opened it with a palm print and complicated code punched into the keypad; she reached in and came out with a knife in a leather scabbard. It was dauntingly large, and when she handed it over, it felt heavier than Claire was used to carrying.
'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.