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difference anymore. But then, that was the whole idea, I guess. Pretty much the same as what we're
doing."
It wasn't just a matter of authenticity. There was the question of being better able to cope in an
emergency, too. "What if something did screw up in there, Tom?" Corrigan said. "We're going straight
into people's heads, interacting at deep perceptual levels that wire into emotional centers. And with the
speedup, if anything unexpected did start happening, it would be hours out here before anyone knew
about it.
Hatcher knew all that. He thought over it briefly, failed to come up with anything that hadn't been said a
hundred times already, and shrugged. "Well, that's what the surrogates are being paid all that money for.
We know there's a lot we don't know, and so do the volunteers who are coming in from outside. What
else can anyone say, Joe?"
"I think Joe's got a point, all the same," Jorrecks put in. "Whoever's in there needs to be able to abort
the run from the inside if it really goes off the rails somehow. But how could they do that if they didn't
even know they were inside a simulation? I don't think I'd want to go in there under those conditions."
"You want an ejector seat," Charlie Wade said.
Jorrecks nodded. "Yes. But of course you couldn't have one if the memory was suppressed, since there
would be no knowledge of the mechanism for using it. There's no way you could get around it. Any
knowledge that an escape mechanism existed would also be knowledge that there was a simulation to be
escaped from, which would defeat the whole purpose." Jorrecks looked at Corrigan for support.
Corrigan nodded.
Charlie Wade looked at Hatcher questioningly. "Shall we tell them?" he asked.
"Why not?" Hatcher said.
Corrigan looked from one to the other. "Tell us what?"
"As a matter of fact, we think it is possible," Hatcher said.
Corrigan looked skeptical. "How?"
"But everyone would have to do it for themselves."
"What are you getting at, Tom?"
"Well, if it was me if I was going in as a surrogate, and let's say that shortly before the full-system
phase I was suddenly told that all memories of, say, the last couple of days were going to be
suppressed."
Corrigan nodded. "Okay."
"What I'd do is this. I'd plant something inside the simworld that would be significant to me in some way,
something that nobody else would know about. Later, after the run was started and I was in it, I wouldn't
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know I'd done it, because that memory would have been killed. But I'd still know the way I think, and I'd
wonder what in hell this something this whatever was doing there. But if some kind of crisis
developed to raise the stress level to the point where I had to get out, then I'd recognize it as a signal to
myself. And from there it wouldn't take much fooling around with it to figure out what I'd set it up to do."
Jorrecks looked at Corrigan inquiringly. Corrigan thought about it for a few moments, and nodded.
"That's clever."
"You think it could work?" Jorrecks said.
Corrigan smiled and had to nod. "It just might, at that, Des. It just might."
Hatcher clasped his hands behind his head and stretched his length out over the chair. "Does that mean
you've changed your mind, Joe? Suppression's in, after all? We can go with it?"
"Not at all," Corrigan said, waving a hand dismissively. "It's dead and buried. Forget it. We've enough
else to do as things are." Hatcher knew that and hadn't really been serious anyway. Just then, the phone
on Hatcher's desk rang.
"I think we're done," Jorrecks said, seizing the opportunity and rising while Hatcher picked up the
receiver. "We'll leave you to it, guys." Charlie Wade got up from his chair also and collected his notes
together.
"Tom here. . . . Say, hi! Yes, he sure is." He held the phone out to Corrigan. "It's Eve, for you." Jorrecks
and Wade left the room with a wave and a nod each.
"Hello?" Corrigan said.
"Joe, Judy said you were probably with Tom. Just checking to see if we're still having lunch."
Corrigan frowned. Oh, yes, that was right she had suggested it that morning. He had mumbled that it
would probably be okay, and then forgotten to get back to her when Borth's visit was confirmed. "Er,
look, something's come up and I'm not going to be able to make it," he replied. "I should have got Judy
to call you. I'm sorry about that."
Evelyn sighed. "Oh dear. And you were so late that I never got to see you last night."
"Everything's insane. It's all hectic now we're getting close."
"I know. Maybe dinner for a change?"
"I'll try." Corrigan looked across and caught Hatcher's eye. "Tell you what, why not have lunch with Tom
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