'I don't know it,' Patricia said. 'Were you on a randomaccess package?'
'Yeah, that's it. Random nonterminal. Anthology ' She f
scenarios. She followed Ms Tarrantt out of the cubicle, to a nearby work station with a large computer monitor and a huge number of ringbinder manuals. 'I wasn't sure what software you had available, and one of your colleagues suggested 1 use one of the packages. 1 was just trying it out.'
'I can look up the scenario for you,' Patricia Tarrant said, turning to her computer. She began tapping keys, watching the monitor.
While information began to scroll on the screen Teresa said, as if to help the technician pin down the scenario, 'I wasn't in there as myself, but 1 could remember who 1 was and what 1 was doing. I've only ever used FBI scenarios before '
,Yeah, here we are. William Cook, 1950. We've got quite a library of stuff on him. Do you know which scenario it was?'
'I was in the body of an elderly woman,' Teresa said. 'She was overweight, out of breath, had a silverblue station wagon. A Chevy.'
'It must be this one,' Patricia said, pointing at the screen. 'That's the only scenario that's been accessed this week. That would be you, just now. Elsa Jane Durdle was the witness; age sixtynine, lived at 2213 North Sea Road, San Diego. 1 wonder how they found her?'
'They?'
'The people who wrote the software. It's shareware. You don't often get witness scenarios from shareware producers. Maybe they happened to know her? No, she must be dead by now. I wonder how they did it?'
'She was a witness? But she had a gun.'
'She did? 1 suppose that's possible. 1 mean, in this sort of interdiction scenario you have to have a gun to use, isn't that right? The witness might have owned one anyway, and if she didn't the programmer could have put it in.'
Teresa sat back, surprised by all this. She fingered the sore place in her neck again. The pain was not wearing off.
'I didn't know you would be using shareware,' she said.
'We take stuff from all over. Someone here always checks it out. Or in our head office. If you didn't want shareware on the roll-through, you could have specified that before we started. 1
'It doesn't matter,' Teresa said. 'It was interesting. In fact, I'd never been in an ExEx that felt so convincing. I'd like to use it again.'
Patricia found some Postit notes, and wrote down the
reference number on the top slip. She peeled it off and gave it to Teresa.
'How long is it since you last used ExEx equipment?' she said.
'I was here yesterday. One of your colleagues supervised me. 1 can't remember who it was.'
Patricia nodded. 'I used the range for target practice, and was only in there for an hour. Apart from that, lt's been maybe a year or two. But back then 1 was using the Bureau's own ExEx equipment, so 1 always assumed the software was the best available. And the training was closely supervised. You can probably imagine how the Bureau operates. 1 had no idea there were all these other scenarios.'
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.
