Where you parked the car, at the back, there's a road that leads away from the seafront, going up the hill. If you walk up there you'll see the market place. That's the heart of the Old Town.'
'You got a museum here in town?'
'A small one. There's another in Bexhill, and there are a couple in Hastings.'
'Local history, that sort of thing?'
'It's been a long time since 1 went to any of the museums, but 1 think that's what you'll find.'
'Is there a newspaper office here, where 1 can go talk to them?'
'The Courier, yes. There's a shop in the Old Town where they take bookings for classified ads.
But the editorial office is in Hastings, 1 think. Or maybe Eastbourne. I'll try and find out for you in the morning.'
'So the newspaper doesn't just carry local news? I mean, about Bulverton only?'
'We're not big enough to have our own paper. Actually, the real name of the paper is the Bexhill and Bulverton Courier, but everyone calls it the Courier. It's the only one. lt covers this stretch of coast, as far along as Pevensey Bay.'
'Right. Thank you ... 1 don't know your name.'
'Amy. Amy Colwyn.'
'Nice to meet you, Amy. I'm Teresa.'
Teresa stood up, saying she was going to hit the sack; Amy asked her again if everything in her room was satisfactory, and was told it was.
As she left, Teresa said, 'I hope you don't mind my asking. What kind of an accent is it you have?'
'Accent?' lt was the first time anyone had commented on the way Amy spoke. 'I suppose ... 1
mean, it must be the way we all speak around here. It's nothing special.'
'No, it's very attractive. OK, 1 guess I'll see you in the morning.'
CHAPTER 3
he first few times Teresa used the extreme experience T scenarios she had played a witness.
That was how the Bureau worked. You wired in and they did the stuff on you, and soon enough you found yourself in a situation that was about to go wrong.
The problem of being a witness, as they described it, was having to decide where to be before the action began. You had to witness, be close enough and see enough so you could write a report afterwards, but you also had to survive.
lt was the Bureau's way not to explain too much in advance about what was going to happen, so before their first experience the only training Teresa and the others received was in how to abort a scenario.
Her instructor was Special Agent Dan Kazinsky, who said to her, 'You don't need to know how to get out. You only have to know that if you survive. But I'll show you anyway.'
He taught her one of those acronym mnemonics the instructors were so fond of. LIVER.
Locate, Identify, Verify, Envision, Remove.
'But you aren't going to make it,' said Kazinsky. 'You might later on, but the first few times are tough.'
The first extreme experience lasted exactly seven seconds, and for all of that short time Teresa was overwhelmed and disoriented by a flood of sensations. Some were physical, some mental.
She shifted abruptly from the cool, underlit ExEx
laboratory in the training facility in Quantico to brilliant sunshine in a city street at noon. She staggered as she entered the unaccustomed weight of another woman's body. The noise of traffic burst against her like an explosion. Heat stifled her. The tall buildings of the downtown area of a city crowded around and above her. The sidewalks were full of people. There was a siren wailing somewhere, construction workers clattering at something metal, car horns blowing. She stared around in amazement, astounded by the shock of this false reality.
Information rushed in at her. This was Cleveland, Ohio, on East 55th Street between Superior and Euclid. Date: July 3, 1962. Time: 12.17 p.m. Her name was Maryjo Clegg, age twentynine, address
But the first five seconds were already up. Teresa remembered what she was here to do, braced herself against the risk of some violent event, and stepped into the cover of the first doorway she came to.
A man with a gun emerged through the door at the same moment, and he shot her in the face.
Entry into an extreme scenario was an almost instant process; withdrawal and recovery after virtual death were slow and traumatic. The day after her first session, Teresa had to report back to Agent Kazinsky to continue her training. She did so after only three hours' sleep, having spent much of the previous day and most of the night undergoing recovery therapy at the Quantico clinic. She was exhausted, terrified and demoralized, and convinced that she would never again venture into extreme experience.
She was obviously not the only one: two of the other trainees had not turned up at all, and were immediately dropped from the course. The remaining trainees looked as fatigued as Teresa felt, but no one had time to compare
notes. Kazinsky announced they were all to return to the scenario and attempt to resolve it.
Their only relief was that they would be more fully briefed about the details of the incident they were dealing with.
Instead of having to learn about the witness in the few seconds before the incident began, Teresa was now given a full character profile. She learned not only factual details about Ma
'jo Clegg, but something about her personality.
ry
She was also informed, significantly, that Maryjo had survived the incident. lt was her description of the bank robber, and later her ability to pick him out in a lineup, that secured his conviction and, ultimately, his execution. Details of the gunman were also given. He was a man called Willie Santiago, age thirtyfour, a repeat offender with a string of armed robberies behind him. At the moment of his encounter with Maryjo he was attempting to escape from the bank he had just held up. He had shot and killed one of the tellers, and was being pursued by the bank's security officers. The police had already been called, and were on their way to the scene of the crime.
Full of misgivings, and terrified of what she knew was almost certainly going to happen to her, Teresa reentered the Clegg scenario later that day.
She arrived in Cleveland in circumstances identical to the first time. The same rush of impressions swooped in on her: heat, noise, crowded downtown. Additionally, though, she was in a state of blinding panic. She saw the door to the bank, and instantly knew not only what was about to happen but that she could do nothing to protect herself, She turned away from the door and ran as fast as she could. Santiago rushed out and ran up East 55th in the other direction, firing his gun at passersby, wounding two of them. He was apprehended by the police a few minutes
later. After another three hours Teresa was still in downtown Cleveland, wandering through the streets, unsure of what she was expected to do. She had forgotten all the training, the mnemonics and acronyms. She was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the simulation in which she found herself, its incredible attention to detail and its apparently limitless size, the thousands of reallooking people who populated it, the endless procession of traffic and events: she looked at newspapers, even found a bar where a TV was playing, and saw a news report of the Santiago holdup. Her venture into this scenario had started in panic, and, after a short period of relief that Santiago had not actually harmed her this time, it ended in the same way: Teresa began to believe that she was permanently trapped, for ever stuck in the Cleveland of 1962, knowing no one, having nowhere to live, no money, no way back to the place and time she had left. lt was terrifying to think this, and in her state of mental exhaustion she began to believe' it. No thought of the LIVER mnemonic, nor how it could be used, entered her mind.