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Chlorine joined Dale’s reflux to scorch the back of his throat. The vast swimming pool nearly overflowed with all the people bobbing and splashing and laughing in it. The pool room’s gleaming tile floor echoed every tiny sound against the tile and glass walls. At the far end, the unoccupied hot tub bubbled and hissed.
Did Recompile have a closing pool party or something? No, if they did some of those plastic chaises around the walls would have spectators or conversations. Instead, they were all vacant. The only people not in the pool were the two women in white lab coats straight ahead, standing by a four-wheel flatbed bearing a waist-high metal canister shaped like an antique milk bottle.
Beyond both glass walls, Dale glimpsed trees and a parking lot. Three different doors, one stra
