"Lysander thinks you might be a plant from whoever brought us here. He's a little bit on edge with this whole thing, I think we all are to a degree. Alice, she tends to be either very playful or very serious and this situation has her in her serious mode."

It looks like they'll need to connect them to something. The only place with the right kind of technology is the library, so they'll have to make their way back.

"A spy? Impressive. I'm aspiring to world-famous mathematician, myself."

"A plant, really? I'm a horrible liar, but I guess he doesn't know that. I guess it is pretty weird, but you gotta roll with the punches, I think. Otherwise you get tripped up and lose focus."

"Interesting, are you still in the learn the basics phase or have you started researching one of the open problems?"

"I don't think this place was built by humans. I suppose human collaborators are theoretically possible, but in that case I'd expect this place to be less weird."

"I'm trying to pick a problem, I've done enough learning for now."

"That's true. Why do they want humans, anyway? Do you think it's a zoo?"

"I'm happy to listen but I don't particularly have any expertise in mathematics."

"I honestly have no idea. If this is some sort of alien reality TV show or zoo they gave us an awfully big place to get lost in."

He summarizes the open problems in the field eagerly. 

"Not if we keep finding more people. Maybe it's a gladiator sort of thing."

She listens and makes affirming noises. Occasionally, she'll ask a question.

"In what sense? Do you think there's a meaningfully limited amount of resources?"

"...so, anyway, that's what I'm doing. It's probably not worth minoring in fashion design when physics is an option, but I've considered it."

"I don't know, I'm not really good at strategy, I don't know what aliens who wanted reality TV would do. What do you think this is?"

"Well, hopefully one of those problems will yield to your efforts."

"I really don't know yet. I feel like I'm missing clues. I expect that there is a reason for all of this but I haven't seen anything that looks like a plot hook."

Greg might mention the cryptic messages written on the pillar in the center of the mall.

"Hopefully. What's your angle on the spying?"

"Well, hang on, there was a pillar with some kind of message written on it. I couldn't make heads or tails of it."

"The truth is that I probably have an overly romantic picture of what it's like. But I enjoy trying to understand people and playing games of I know, you know. It might turn out that if I actually get the job I won't enjoy it."

"That sounds very much like a plot hook, once we find your friend we should write down that message somewhere."

"A job is a job. I don't think you need to enjoy the day to day if you love your field."

"Yeah."

They keep searching.

"To an extent yes, though spywork is kinda a risky business. If I become an analyst that's pretty safe being a field agent is every bit as dangerous as being a soldier." Alice glances about. "Do you see the button there?" she's pointing to a small button in the upper left corner of the archway leading into to the bike store. "I wonder what it does."