Spot's cover fuzzes under her hand when she picks it up, and when she opens the book to a random page the pages flip so that the book is open to the back cover. "Transformation Successful" and then underneath "Advisory: auditory output non-functional. Questions may still be posed verbally, but answers to questions and advisory warnings will appear here." 

"Are you okay in there?"

"This format is unusual, but sufficiently functional. Retransformation into this unit's previous format when circumstances permit would be advisable, but this unit should be functional for now." 

"Alright. Hang in there." She turns back to the janitor. "Sorry about the interruption. What's kind of mess did you need help cleaning up? And what's your name? I'm Dairine."

"Much to do, much to do, always much to do. Clear the clog, fix the reactor, burn the trash... talk to the plants." He chuckles at the last one. "Always much to do. But first we have very important job for assistants. Should wait for other assistant, first, she will help. She should be along soon, very soon. With two of you, job gets done twice as fast. Maybe I go to my vacation early." 

Waiting is not really how Dairine likes to operate but it's not like she knows where all those problems are and she does want to meet the other person. "You have a nuclear reactor down here? That's so cool!" Also she wonders what the clog is. Hopefully it's not a toilet, because any situation where a toilet needs magic done to it is already not great.

"Not a toilet, the pipes. Toilet much easier job, no magic, just plunger when the shit gets backed up. The clog always so clever, trying to sneak in. Probably trying to sneak in now when everyone's heads are elsewhere with all the ruckus and vermin. Got to clear it out before it gets in too deep. But fix the power plant first. Not, nuclear, someone much more dangerous than nuclear," he says. "Might go nuclear if it's not fixed fast, and then we can all throw the spoon in the corner."

"Hey, you just answered my thoughts! It's rude to read people's minds without asking. Also when you say 'someone more dangerous than nuclear do you mean the reactor is smart? I want to meet a reactor!" Apparently the clog is also smart and she wants to meet that too even though they sound like kind of a dick, but apparently there's a priority order. "If we need to fix the power plant in a hurry are you sure we should start by waiting for another person?" Oh no if he's reading her mind she needs to not think about anything embarrassing or secret like how Nita totally has a crush on Kit crap think about algebra. Algebra algebra algebra ax^2+bx+c.

Ahti chuckles softly and continues mopping the floor. "Not to worry, not to worry, she will be along very soon. Very soon now." 

The door to the maintenance office opens and a woman walks in, wearing a leather jacket and carrying a strange-looking gun in one hand. (It's pointed very deliberately at the floor.)

"Ahti!" she says, with obvious relief. "Great, you're here. Listen, the Board's been freaking out. Something about—uh, an 'Infiltrator/Emissary'...? Do you know anything about this?"

"You got the job," says Ahti with a craggy smile. "Well done. It's place for congratulations. I truly need an assistant." He tilts his head at Dairine. "While you were at interview, another one arrived, also here for the job. Very young, but very good. Eager. If you like, you can have your own assistant."

She spends a few seconds looking back and forth between Ahti and Dairine.

"...all right," she says eventually. "Sure." With a slight, quizzical smile for Dairine, "Hi, I'm Jesse."

"Hi!" says the tiny child. "I'm Dairine; I'm a wizard from Earth. Are you also a wizard?"

"...don't think so," she says. "I'm, uh. I'm not sure how to say this, but you look, like... twelve. Are you twelve."

"I will be, in like two months! But it's fine, I know what I'm doing. Apparently we're supposed to go fix a reactor before anything else, do you know where it is?"

"...I'm not sure how comfortable I am with having an assistant who's twelve. Given, uh," she shrugs vaguely in the direction of the office door, "the situation. —the situation, in case nobody's mentioned, is that this building belongs to a government agency that's being attacked by an evil noise from another dimension. I wouldn't exactly call it child-friendly." She wants to say 'no offense' but frankly if she were Dairine she'd be offended. Still. You gotta try.

"I have been to multiple galaxies. None of them were child-friendly and most of them had someone trying to kill me. Let's go fix some stuff and you'll find out whether I'm useful or not."

There is a pause.

"We should at least get you an HRA so the evil noise doesn't melt your brain. Unless you have something else for that. I guess I also don't know where to find a spare."

"Spot" gesture at the book "is dealing with that but if we do find a spare I guess it wouldn't hurt."

"I'll keep an eye out." She turns to Ahti. "Anyway, we need to get the lockdown lifted. Can you help me—us—get to the override?"

"Yes, yes. Easy peasy. It's just around the corner." He indicates the direction with a tilt of the mop. "But first we need to get both of you working! Very small couple of hours job." 

Something tells me it's gonna be more than that.

"Jahaa, jaa-a, you think there's a dog buried in this?" he says, smiling. "I can tell you are not yesterday's grouse's sun. That's why you're make a great assistant." He pauses for a moment. "Very well, I'll hit the facts on the table. Mä kyllä sanon perkele suoraan, että this house has a vermin problem, a bad one. They've already messed up the cooling pumps and power generators of power plant, perkele. And the pensioner inside is starting to feel the band around his head tighten. The situation needs to be fixed before the the plant blows up and we all disappear like a fart in Sahara, perkele." 

"So... fix the cooling pumps and power generators?"

"If the power plant has a mind I can talk to it. Will it be able to tell me what it needs?" If it doesn't have a mind she'll still be able to talk to it but it's less likely to have anything useful to say.