The Extremes

Patricia indicated a pile of cartons stacked against one of the walls across the room.

'You should see some of the software that comes in these days,' she said. 'That lot arrived this week alone. The problem isn't getting hold of the programs, but selecting what we can safely use. A government organization like the FBI wouldn't have time to check everything that's released, so they'd just buy in the commercial programs. You're safe with those, but they aren't always the most interesting. The cutting edge has been deregulated.'

'So is there any difference in practice?' Teresa said. 'You mentioned safety. Is it dangerous to use shareware?'

'No, there's no physical risk, of course. But the commercial programs are always documented, and they have backup.'

'I don't follow.'

'Backup means their scenarios are based on witness statements, hypnotic regressions, character evaluations, historical documents. They use film or TV footage wherever it's available, and always go back to the scene of the original incident. As far as possible a commercial scenario is an actual

recreation of the event. Also, when the software arrives it conies with masses of hardcopy documentation: you can check just about everything. We do a lot of scenarios inhouse.

GunHo, the company that owns this building, started out as a software producer. With shareware, you have to take it on an asis basis. We do all the checking we can, and some of the shareware companies are well known to us, but there's no way you can check the authenticity of the scenarios. Some of them are brilliant: they come up with character evaluations or regressions that were completely missed by the big companies, and so they genuinely add something to what is already known.'

'I've used shareware on my PC,' Teresa said. 'There's usually something wrong with it. lt always feels a bit unfinished.'

'Yes, and that's the other problem. From our point of view as a provider, we can never take for granted how good the programining has been. You get a lot of sloppy stuff, mostly from kids: they patch in routines from other scenarios, or they use the publicdomain footage libraries, or they simply don't bother with backgrounds. Others go the other way: you see some scenarios that are almost fanatically detailed and realseeming. 1 sometimes wonder how they do it. 1

While she spoke, Patricia was scrolling idly through the database, and Teresa watched the screen. She noticed that the William Cook case had at least twenty diffierent scenarios attached to it.

'Can 1 try some of those others?' she said.

'lf You're interested in the Cook case, you probably should. We've got the FBI scenario here, as well as police ones. Those are the most historically accurate. The rest are probably all shareware.'

'I don't have a special interest in the case,' Teresa said.

'But maybe it would be interesting to study it from different angles.'

'Then you should talk to Mr Lacey. Have you met 1

him?'

'Was he the duty manager yesterday?'

'Yes.'

'I met him.'

'Ted Lacey runs the education modules here. We have an affiliation to the University of Sussex, and there's a whole range of study aids and courses. Do you want to sign up for one of those?'

'No,' Teresa said quickly. 'Not just yet. But 1 wouldn't mind using Elsa Durdle's scenario again.'

'No problem. You want to go back in now? We've had a couple of cancellations today, so there's machine time available.'

Teresa considered for a moment, feeling another twinge of pain from the valve in her neck. 'I don't think so. Not today. But would you Mind looking up a couple of other cases for me?'

'OK.'

'You got anything on Charles Joseph Whitman?'

'I think so,' Patricia said, starting to type. 'That was Texas, 1966, wasn't it?'

'That's right.'

'Yeah, we've got a huge number of them. Let's see . .

Teresa saw the name Whitman running down the left side of the screen, all the way through, as Patricia repeatedly touched one of the keys. Finally, she said, 'We have two hundred and twenty-seven main scenarios for Whitman. With hyperlinked associate software, you're talking about maybe twenty thousand access points. The Whitman case is one of the biggest we have. Not the actual largest, though.'

'Which one is that?'

'The Kennedy assassination, of course.'

'Of course,' Teresa said, wondering why she hadn't thought of that herself. 'Are the Whitman scenarios shareware?' she said.

'Many of them, but Whitman also generated a lot of commercial programs.' She pointed at the summary box which had appeared at the bottom of the screen. 'The FBI have sixty, but those aren't publicly available. You could probably get access to them, I imagine. The ones we can run for anyone are from Travis County Police Department, Austin City Police, Texas Rangers, University of Texas Humanities Research Center, Fox 2000, Paramount, MTV, the Playboy Channel, CNN CNN have a huge library on Whitman and our own inhouse compilations. You want to try a few?'

'Not right now. Would you look up Aronwitz for me?'

'How do you spell that?'

Teresa spelled it, hearing her voice unexpectedly slur.

'OK,' said Patricia, 'Kingwood City, Texas. Let's see. Texas Rangers again, Abilene City Police.

The FBI have fifteen scenarios, not publicly available, Kingwood County Police, we have three of our own. CNN again, Fox News Network, NBC, a few of the religious networks. The rest are all shareware. Not many of them, but most of the source names are ones I've seen before.

Pretty good material, 1 imagine. You want me to check them out for you, for next time?'

' I'm not sure yet,' Teresa said.

'Are you OK, Mrs Simons?' Patricia was looking at her, affecting concern.

'I guess so. Why?'

'Is the valve giving you trouble?'

lit's been a while since I used it. Maybe the connectors You use in this country are a different size or something.'

'Should be standard,' Patricia said. She had picked up her internal telephone. 'I'll get the nurse to check you over. lt won't take more than a couple of minutes. Hello?'

Teresa sat still, holding the valve against her neck, as if not to do so would allow it to rip away. She was drifting mentally in and out of the San Diego simulation, the shock of it, feeling that hot wind and the grit in her eye, remembering what it was to drive a 1940s model Chevy on a wide road, the smell of the leather seats, the soft, bouncing suspension, the gearshift sticking out from the side of the steeringwheel shaft, the parkingbrake handle prodding out from beneath the dash. The memories were like . . . memories. Her own memories, real memories, things that had happened to her.

Yet only this place was reaclass="underline" the commercial facility building with its computers and functional furniture, the cubicles, the piles of unopened software, the painful valve in her neck.

Patricia said, 'The nurse will be along in a moment. It's always as well to check these things.

You don't want it to get infected.'

'You're right.'

'While you're waiting, would you mind signing this?' She passed Teresa a plasticcovered clipboard with a sheaf of papers attached. On the top was a disclaimer form, and a printed invoice with a creditcard authorization on a tearoff slip below. Teresa signed woozily, and passed back the clipboard.