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working directly with the prototype.”
    Evan cocked his
head. “I thought you were going to oversee the prototype’s
awakening.”
    Chal, not sure what
to make of this, shrugged and complied. Evan looked down at his feet,
then at the wall, trying not to let his eyes wander as Chal stepped
out of her suit.
    “I, um, I need
you to be...” His words trailed off as he turned bright red.
    “Oh. Sure.”
Chal unhooked her bra and slipped out of her undergarments readily.
It was cute how embarrassed he was, and how hard he tried to maintain
a professional demeanor while she stripped naked.
    He began to spray
her, beginning with her fingertips. The spray was white and chilly,
and as the nozzle moved across her body, goosebumps stood out on her
skin. Then the spray sputtered and stopped.
    “Whoops, I
must have forgotten to refill it yesterday,” Evan said,
reaching down to the spraycan. He smacked himself on the forehead
with one chubby hand. “Blond moment!” He looked up at
Chal, realizing too late what he had said. “I mean, not to say
that blonds are dumb, I just–”
    Chal waved one hand
dismissively. “Not at all. I’m used to blonde jokes.”
    In fact, Chal had
been one of the few blonde students at her preschool in Catalonia.
Even after she moved to America, most of the families that she knew
were dark-haired. At family reunions she was always the odd one out,
having taken after her father in only this one regard. Her mother had
brushed her hair every night, and she realized later that this act of
love had been one also of nostalgia for her late father. Her sister
had gotten her mother’s dark hair, but Chal had always been
different.
    “But Dr.
Fielding is the one running this,” Chal said. “Isn’t
he overseeing the session?” She felt oddly comfortable talking
with the lab assistant. He seemed utterly genuine, and perhaps it was
the hero worship that made her feel comfortable admitting that she
had no idea what was going on. She closed her mouth and her eyes as
he moved the stream up and over her face. The cold mist burned her
eyes slightly but then dissipated.
    “It sounded
like you were going to be the one to do it,” Evan said. “That’s
what Dr. Fielding told us.” He finished spraying Chal’s
feet.
    “He did?”
Chal said. “But I–” She stopped in mid-sentence,
aware that the lab assistant was staring at her in a bright blush.
She realized that she was still naked and that he had already
finished with the disinfectant. Bending down, she pulled her clothes
back on over her lean body.
    “I didn’t
think I would be the first to see him awaken,” Chal said,
trying to cover up her confusion. “In the same room, I mean.”
    “Oh, yes,”
Evan said. His cheeks wobbled enthusiastically as he nodded. “You’re
definitely first. It’s protocol, they said.”
    “Right,”
Chal said, finishing the last button and standing up in front of the
lab assistant. “Protocol.”
    Protocol? she
thought. This wasn’t protocol. There wasn’t any protocol
for this.
    This was blind
insanity.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    There were a
half-dozen people milling around the lab when they arrived.
Immediately Evan’s attitude changed. The dumb admiration that
Chal had come to expect from younger scientists was gone from his
face, replaced by an attitude of confidence. He went over to the
other assistants and began to quiz them about the changes they had
made.
    Chal realized that
despite his youth he was quite competent, for everything in the main
lab was done up to her specifications. One technician was adjusting
the camera, and another was finishing the padding on the walls. Two
IV lines were hooked up to the central sensory deprivation tank, one
dripping green liquid, one red.
    “The colors
are added just to make sure the right line is supplied,” Evan
said, reading her gaze. “Green is go, red is stop.”
    “The military
doesn’t think we can read labels?” Chal said, moving past
the tank.
    “Guess