"Is there a big community I'm not aware of?"

"Maybe, maybe not. It'd certainly be a secret if there was."

"You got me there."

"Maybe you can be the hard hitting investigator. Hack all of our secrets, if we have any."

"Only if you were foolish enough to trust any of them to computers. Shouldn't you make biological recorders or something?"

"Perhaps! Unfortunately, I think the modern lab has quite a bit of reliance on computers... Maybe I should make an organic computer."

"And then get kicked out for ethics violations," Ellie nods.

"Pretty sure I can work some in there."

"Making things that think is easy mode for that."

"If I treat them nicely it really shouldn't be an ethics violation. People make random other people all the time, with less care."

"Those people aren't usually watched by committees with a vested interest in finding problems."

Giggle. "A good motive for me to overthrow academia! No gods, no masters, no oversight committees."

"I think I'm a bad influence on you. You're sounding less villainous already."

"Revolutionaries with a point can be villainous, too!"

"Ah, the Robespierre defense."

"Exactly! Still, I suspect there's room for some pointless villainy in my plan. For the aesthetic, you know."

"Feeding people to tigers, and so forth."

"Kidnapping pretty girls, stealing from the obscenely rich and spending the money on my tigers, assassinations, colorful explosions... There's a lot of fun I could get up to!"

"That does sound like fun..."

"You know, I hadn't been in the market for a partner in crime, but... You're quite exceptional."

"I'd want a bigger share than a half percent."

"Business partners should split profits on joint ventures equally, of course."

She makes a show of considering it.

"That sounds acceptable." She holds out a hand to shake.

Firm handshake!

"It's a deal, partner."

"Do you want to, uh, go somewhere else? I think we're allowed to leave now."