3: THE INTERVIEW

SITTING IN HER office, Hanna waited in silence, listening only to the tick of the clock on the wall. It wasn’t a sound that she usually noticed, but it was now the only thing she could focus on. Everything else was just a dream, floating by like an amorphous cloud.

The Serial Crimes Bureau. The Beantown Slasher. The five-hundred-thousand-dollar contract. None of it was real. How could it be? The biggest opportunity of her life had fallen into her lap, and now all she had to do was play along.

Her father had once told her that dreams tend to wrinkle time. That when you’re dreaming, time can skip in unpredictable ways. But as she listened to the clock, it remained steady. Predictable. Time was not wrinkled, and she was certainly not dreaming. This opportunity was more than real. It was fate.

A knock at the door pulled her out of her trance. She brushed her hair back and adjusted her posture. “Come in.”

A tall man entered her office wearing the same outfit as the rest of the SCB agents. He was older than the others, with greased back hair that converged into a sharp widow’s peak in front. A long satchel was strapped over his shoulder, bumping against the door as he closed it. “Hello, Hanna Li,” he said. His voice was low and raspy. Hanna reckoned he was a smoker. “My name is Arthur Freeman. I believe Charles has informed you I will be conducting interviews.”

“Yes, he has.”

“Good. That means we can get right to it.” He unzipped the satchel and pulled out a tripod, setting it up in the corner of the room.

“What is that for?” Hanna asked.

Arthur reached back into the satchel to reveal a handheld camcorder. “We record a video of all interviews. I hope that’s okay with you.”

“Yes, of course,” she said, watching him twist the camera onto the mount. “If you don’t mind me asking, how long do you expect this investigation to last?”

Arthur shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. That’s really up to you, isn’t it? You’re the expert in all of this brain stuff.”

“I guess that’s true. It’s hard for me to know for sure until I actually meet Eileen Warner. I need to learn more about her.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to learn about Eileen. Don’t worry about that. Just don’t screw this up. We have a lot riding on this case. We can’t afford to have an amateur detective messing things up.”

Hanna flinched at his brashness. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll be frank. I think this whole thing is a waste of time. Claire and Charles are putting a lot of faith into your research, but I’m with Howard. Every minute we spend in this place is just more money down the drain. We should be doing it the old-fashioned way. You can learn a lot from just speaking to someone. How they react to your questions. Their body language. Facial tics. That’s all you need. No offense, but in my opinion, thought-hopping is all theatrics and no substance. There is nothing you can learn from thought-hopping that I can’t from a simple conversation.”

“I respectfully disagree,” Hanna said.

“Well, at least you’re respectful about it. Charles just shuts my ideas down. He’s always been excited about exploring new technology. I’m fine with technology. I just wish we would all slow down. Give me some time to catch up.”

He flipped opened the playback screen on the camera.

“Why won’t this thing turn on?” He tinkered with the buttons until the screen finally lit up. “To be honest, a part of me hopes this whole experiment fails. It’ll squash this futurist vision Charles has and pull him back to reality.”

“This research is very real. Cerebral infiltration is a credible field, and I believe we have a decent chance of success.”

“And Charles agrees with you, which is why we’re here. He has final say. He tells me to interview you, so that’s what I’ll do. Are you ready?”

Hanna nodded. “I am.”

He pressed a button and the camera beeped, with a red light blinking above the lens. He pulled out a notepad and sat across from Hanna, jotting down notes as he spoke. “Let’s get started then. Could you state your name for the camera, please?”

“My name is Hanna Li, founder of Core Tech Computing.”

“Thank you, Ms. Li. Could you explain what Core Tech Computing does?”

“We specialize in a process called cerebral infiltration. Thought-hopping is the more widely used term. It’s an advanced technology that allows us to interact with the world inside a person’s mind. There are many potential applications for cerebral infiltration, but the one our company has chosen to focus on is fear therapy. We help our patients overcome their fears.”

“Have you had success in that endeavor?”

“Yes. This field is still new, so our success is fairly limited, but we’re making progress.”

“Have you experimented with any other application of this technology?”

“Not a lot. In the beginning, we were mostly testing the limits of the technology. We developed a set of rules and safeguards to protect ourselves from dangerous situations.”

“Yes, you’ve noted in some of your papers that dangerous situations can be quite common.”

“They can be, if you don’t know what you’re doing. Like I said, we’ve tested our limits, and we know how to steer away from those types of things. We’re still working on integrating safeguards into the software itself, but until then, we take certain precautions.”

“What kind of precautions?”

“We do extensive background checks on all of our patients to make sure they’re suitable for cerebral infiltration. Not everyone is. For example, one of our early subjects had a severe case of schizophrenia. We were trying to find a way to treat the condition, but the subject’s mind was too fragmented. In the end, we decided the sessions were putting all of our lives in danger, so we stopped the experiment and directed them to more traditional avenues of treatment. Mental health is a large factor. We also don’t accept kids. They’re too impressionable.”

“Are you aware of Eileen Warner’s mental health?”

“I don’t know the details, but from what I understand, she isn’t very stable.”

“No, she isn’t. And knowing that, you still decided to take this job. Do you believe you can conduct this investigation under safe circumstances?”

“I do. We know the warning signs. If we encounter anything that makes us uncomfortable, we can drop out and return to the real world.”

Arthur nodded, scribbling in his notepad. “I have one last question for you. Do you think thought-hopping will prove to be useful for our investigation? Will this experiment be a success?”

“It’s hard to know until I learn more about the case, but I always try to stay optimistic. There are a few methods I have in mind for extracting the information we need. From what I know so far, I believe we have the tools to succeed. We just have to figure out what works with Eileen Warner. Everyone is different.”

Arthur flipped his notepad shut and stuffed it into his breast pocket. “Very good. That concludes today’s interview. Thank you for your time, Ms. Li.”

He stood up to stop the camera.

“Charles has instructed for you to begin Claire’s training as soon as you’re done with me. She should be waiting in the lab. If it’s okay with you, I would like to stay in your office a while longer to re-watch the video. Make sure there were no glitches. You can never trust technology to work the way it should.”

“Of course,” Hanna said, standing up. “Stay as long as you need.”

She left her office and headed toward the lab, evaluating Arthur’s questions in her head. They were all very typical questions that she had answered many times before. What was Core Tech Computing? How does the technology work?

At this point, her answers to these questions were almost automatic. Even his question about the potential dangers of thought-hopping. She had an answer ready to go. Knowing their limits in order to reduce the chance of an accident. It was a safe, diplomatic answer. Something she was sure a federal agency would want to hear. In truth, she was reluctant to reveal her doubts regarding the case.

As she entered the lab, Russell sat at the control panel and Claire watched over his shoulder. Russell noticed Hanna in the reflection of the monitors and spun his chair around. “Perfect timing. I was just booting up the training sequence. Now that you’re here, we can get started with Claire.”

Hanna guided Claire to the chairs in the center of the room. “Make yourself comfortable. Any of these three chairs will do. The fourth one is broken.”

Claire chose the same chair that Dennis always picked, sitting and propping her legs on the extended leg rest. “Comfy.”

“What a morning, huh?” Hanna asked, placing the headband on Claire.

“It’s been a crazy few days,” Claire said, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. “It’s a lot to take in. It must be overwhelming for you.”

“To be honest, I’m flattered the SCB has so much faith in my work. Not everyone does. In fact, most people think cerebral infiltration is a waste of time.”

“How can they say it’s a waste of time? It’s revolutionary. Your paper on phobia distortion was fascinating.”

“Well, it’s good to know I have at least one fan.”

“I mean, using this technology to cure people’s fears. It’s brilliant.”

Hanna chuckled. “I wish everyone was as enthusiastic about thought-hopping as you are. I think we could do great things in this field, but everyone’s too scared of the tech. Nobody wants to hook up their brain to a computer. I admit, the idea is a little unsettling, and brain damage is certainly a concern…”

She stopped her train of thought and glanced over at Claire.

“Sorry. This probably isn’t the best conversation to have right before your first session.”

Claire waved her hand. “It’s fine. I’m not worried.”

“It really is safe, as long as you know what you’re doing. That’s why we’ve developed this training program.”

“The sequence is ready to go,” Russell said, staring at the monitors.

Hanna sat down across from Claire and put on her own headband. “Are you ready?”

Claire held up her thumb.

“Okay. Russell, put us under.”

A slow drowsiness fell upon them. They both drifted out of the physical world and entered the realm of unconsciousness.