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If Mat had bothered to attend STÄDA’s warehouse safety tour before his transfer, he would have known that he was now standing in the perfectly incorrect spot. Had he attended the training, he would have known that four large mechanical arms were about to emerge from four directions, each carrying a pine face of the Very Nice Box.
Of course assembly was simple; the Very Nice Box, like all of Ava’s designs, was straightforward.
‘Lower your arms to your side,’ Ava said, ‘unless you want to lose one.’
‘What?’
Mat held his grip, but the mechanical arms kicked into motion, and he quickly obeyed. He let go of Ava and lowered his arms just before the machine clipped him.
She knew he would fit; she was, after all, intimately familiar with the dimensions of both the man and the box. She wat
