Claudia departed from Director Vance when they reached the greens at the school. The dude and dog were still playing, and that adorable dog was begging to her to be petted. Luckily, both were friendly - Cody, the border collie, to the point of bowling her over with want of attention and affection.
Eliot, the dude, had one of those growly dog voices that made it hard to tell his mood until a glimpse of a smile was caught. Claudia grilled him first about Cody and any other dogs around, then about who the tech guys were at this place. His blank look indicated he was definitely not one of them.
Eventually, with a lot of clues - someone who carried a laptop around and was on it twenty-four/seven being the main one - Eliot suggested Eric Beale, John Baum, and Nell Jones. When her stomach growled, he also suggested making her something to eat to tide her over until lunch, which he invited her to join at 1300 hours. They were apparently on military time and eastern time, and she reset her watch accordingly.
After inhaling the best quick meal she'd ever eaten - sorry, Leena - Eliot hazard a guess that who she'd be looking for would be in the common room, as that's where most people hung out when they weren't asleep or working out on the weekends.
The common room had much more activity than it had when she'd stopped by about an hour ago. This time, instead of a simple good morning, she said from the doorway, "Hey, I'm Claudia. Is there an Eric, John, and Nell in here I could talk to in the hall? It won't take long."
Mindful of what Director Vance had told her about not sharing things about her dimension, she planned to keep her conversation broad and circumspect.
It turned out it didn't matter. None of them were awake. So she said, "Okay. I'll find them later," and wandered off to explore. She'd found a game room almost immediately with an X-Box - schweet! - and killed time in there until lunch.
Claudia ventured to the dining room at the appointed lunch hour to find a single table full of people. It was very odd. She expected the place to be full.
She checked her watch as she approached. "Am I really early, or really late?" she asked.