Now, though, in a terrible prelude to what would be happening later, he was in full thrall to his psychopathy.
She realized that she was also in his thrall. Grove was using her. He had already learned from her how a handgun should be held, aimed and fired; he had already found his way to Elsa Durdle, to one of the old FBI training scenarios, then to the scenario about himself, and now he had arrived at the innocent obscenities of Shandy and Willem.
He made her feel as if he was penetrating her cover, crashing in on her life, but the reality was that she was exposing it to him. Her unconscious mind was guiding him, educating him.
Yet she was helpless. While all this coursed through her mind, Grove had walked through to the simulator area of the building and handed over the phial of nanochips to one of the technicians. As the injection apparatus was quickly set up, and connected to the valve on his neck, Teresa braced herself for the shift into the scenario, knowing that aborting herself out of it was the last option she had.
Grove/Teresa became aware of heat, bright lights and clothes that were too tight. He blinked, and tried to see what was going on around him, but his eyes had not yet adjusted.
There were people standing further back, beyond the ring of lights, and they were talking and working, paying no attention to him.
A woman came up to him, and brusquely patted his forehead and nose with powder.
'Hold still a while longer, Shan,' she said impersonally, then moved back into the ring of lights.
Teresa thought, 1 can't take this any more.
Grove said, 'What? Who the fuck is that?'
And Teresa, at last, much later than she should have done, decided to abort. She recalled the LIVER mnemonic, rattled through the words held within the acronym, focused on the system of closure they produced, and withdrew from the scenario.
You have been flying SENSH Y'ALL
Fantasys from the Old West
Copyroody everywhere doan even THINK about it!!
Before she remembered how to cut it off, the mindless electronic music jangled interminably around her.
CHAPTER 34
Teresa returned from the scenario and found herself in the familiar surroundings of one of the ExEx recovery booths. Waking up in reality after the sensory overload of a scenario always involved a profound readjustment, a feeling of disbelief in what she found around her. No return had yet been as concerning as this.
Teresa sat on the bench, legs dangling, staring at the carpeted floor, thinking of Grove, appalled by the thought of what trouble her entry into his mind, might have caused.
A technician called Sharon appeared, and removed and validated the nanochips. At once Teresa was caught up in the practical routines of the business that was ExEx. Sharon led her through to the billing office and they waited for the paperwork to be churned out by the machine. Instead of the fairly prompt appearance of the receipt confiriming the return of the chips, together with a credit card charge slip, this time a message of some kind appeared on the LCD display, invisible to Teresa from where she was standing.
Sharon picked up the desk telephone, and keyed in several numbers. There was a pause, and then she recited a code number. Finally, she said with a glance at Teresa, 'Thanks I'll check that.'
'What's the problem?' Teresa said.
'There's something about the expiry date on your card,' Sharon said. She pressed one of the studs on the desktop, and a piece of paper wound out of the slot. She tore it off. 'Do You happen to have the card with you?'
'It's the one I've always used,' Teresa said, but looked through her bag for it. 'The girl on the desk outside validated it, and it's gone through OK until now.'
She found her Baltimore First National Visa card, and handed it over.
Sharon looked closely at it. 'Yes, this is what they told me,' she said. 'It's not the expiry date.
That's OK. It's the 'Valid from' date.' She held the card out for Teresa to see. 'You've started using the card too soon. It doesn't become valid for another couple of months. Do you have the old one with you?'
'What? Let me look at that.'
Teresa took the card. As usual, both validating dates were embossed on it. They looked OK to her; she had been using the card for several months without problem. She thought for a moment. lt had been made valid from August the previous year; now they were in February.
Not valid for two more months?
She slipped the card into her bag.
'I'll give you another,' she said, not looking at Sharon. She searched through her wallet and found her GM MasterCard. Before handing it over she checked both validating dates; she was securely in the middle of the period.
' That's fine,' Sharon said, after a close examination of her own. The transaction then went through normally.
Before leaving the building Teresa went to the Ladies' restroom and leaned against a washbasin, staring down blankly into the paleyellow plastic bowl. She felt drained. Today's ExEx session had been a long
