Cool.

She notes the address of one of the libraries that's hiring and turns to the map app. Does it do route finding, or does she have to figure that part out herself?

It actually does pretty good route finding! The City's mathematicians had to do a lot more operational research than their Earth counterparts due to the way the City keeps changing.

She remains blissfully ignorant of the troubles of the mathematicians and heads to the library's general vicinity to lurk. What are her potential coworkers like here? And the area in general?

The area is fairly quiet, not upscale like the Zag but not edge of the City either. Her potential coworkers are mostly quiet, except for this one librarian who often mutters to herself.

Hmmm. Promising. Mutters to herself like what? And how do the others react to that, or does she feel the need to hide it?

Things she's reading, things she's thinking, arbitrary things. She tones it down when she's around the others but they don't exactly seem to care when she does it around them.

Okay, this might work. It's still a risk she wouldn't be taking if the alternative wasn't quite so theft-heavy, but it doesn't seem like it'll immediately blow up in her face, anyway.

She spends a couple hours scoping out the area - more upscale means fewer hiding places, but surely there's something, and she wants an idea of the area, too, so if she has to run or there's any places she should be avoiding in general she doesn't have to figure it out on the fly.

When she's done, she goes back to the job listing - can she apply online?

She can! But she will have to go through an in person interview.

Well, that's slightly terrifying but not really unexpected. She'll be there when she's told to, and in the meantime she heads home.

—Picasso—

Wait what where.

That abandoned building, over there, near the edge.

Except it's stopped. Or rather, it wasn't a Picasso after all, just... one guy... who flickered. He's all alone in a room that has what she can recognize as a Sideways entrance, and talking to himself about chemistry and mathematics.

Weird. And she's not buying this 'not a Picasso' thing; something happened there.

She'll maybe go hang out a little closer - not close, but like half a mile away - and email Sadde: Just heard a guy turn into a Picasso and then back after, like, a second.

—the guy flickers again. He seems awfully coherent about it, and is pacing while he mutters. Every now and then he walks to a white board and writes something there.

Drat, Sadde replies after a couple of minutes. Where?

Out by where I live. I'm not sure he's dangerous.

The reply is prompt, this time: Well... keep an ear out?

Yeah.

If something does happen, what should I do?

Call the Department of Safety, I think.

Okay.

The internet has directions for that, probably? Ideally ones for how to do it anonymously via email?

Yep. The man flickers again and—

—someone else is there with him. He did not come from the Sideways entrance. He just—appeared there.

Well that's, uh, worrying.

"Report," the man says, and the flickering one looks at him.

"Oh, good, you're here. We ran a few more tests. Samples number five-five-seven and five-six-eight were particularly promising, but still took a little bit too long to start showing symptoms. I'm refining the formula."

Showing symptoms? Too long to start showing symptoms? What the actual fuck?

"I see. Do you have a projection?" the newcomer asks.

"One week for the results of other samples, two for the results of the revised samples, if progress goes half as fast as it's been going we'll be ready for larger scale tests maybe a week after that and depending on the results may start Phase Three."

"Excellent. And you haven't been observed or followed?"

"Not as far as I can remember, and I've been keeping it statistically insignificant, and running some tests in shallower areas of the Sideways."

She starts taking notes, transcribing the conversation so far as well as she can remember it.