“Better do it, Harry,” Sutton murmured in a tone that said he might as well get it over with. Morgen hesitated, then drew a pocket communicator from his jacket and tapped in a numeric sequence to flag a precoded message that would be transmitted practically instantaneously. Hence he was able to get information out straightaway, which was the option that Corrigan had not had access to.
“You might as well tell them to reduce the time-acceleration down to unity, too, while you’re at it,” Corrigan suggested. “Communication would be a lot simpler. It won’t make any difference now. This run isn’t going anywhere.”
While the time-rate differential existed, however, and allowing for even a couple of minutes’ deliberation on the outside, there would be a considerable delay before any response became known. Joan Sutton was at boiling point, tight-mouthed and sending Morgen daggers looks. Corrigan guessed that she had opposed the decision to reset the simulation and been overruled. Corrigan decided it would be easiest to leave them to it. He had said all he had to say for the time being.
He moved back to the door and opened it to look out. Lilly was back sitting on her chair opposite Judy’s desk. Yeen was standing nearby. He came across when Corrigan appeared.
“Er, Mr. Corrigan,” he said. “There are one or two inconsistencies between your account and Ms. Essell’s—that we’ll need to go over.” Corrigan did his best to look surprised. “I must ask you to be available again later today.”
“Very well,” Corrigan said.
“If you do have reason to go elsewhere, you will leave details of how you can be reached?”
“Of course.”
“Then that will be all for now. Thanks for your cooperation. I can find my own way out, if that’s okay.”
Corrigan smiled apologetically. “Sorry—company rules. Judy, would you take Mr. Yeen back down to Reception, please?” Judy got up and walked away with Yeen in the direction of the elevators. Corrigan shrugged at Lilly in a way that said none of it mattered. The sound of Joan Sutton’s voice rising came through the doorway behind him. Corrigan half closed the door behind him and went over to Lilly.
“I think we might have cracked it,” he said in reply to her inquiring look. His voice lowered. “Two of the outside crew showed up as observers while you were gone. I’ve told them the game’s up. They’re on the line back to base right now.”
She gaped at him. “Cracked it—already? You mean we’re getting out?”
“Right. There’ll probably be a bit of a wait before anything happens, but they know it’s blown. And thanks to Tom, we know how to wreck everything from the inside now, if they try to be obstinate. They don’t have any choices.”
Lilly was about to reply, but then she looked away toward his office door with a puzzled expression. Corrigan realized that it had suddenly gone curiously quiet inside. He went back, pushed the door open, and looked in. Morgen and Sutton had vanished.
Chapter Forty-one
Harry Morgen stood facing Frank Tyron in the Monitor & Control Center on the third floor of the Xylog Building. Sutton was with him. They had just come up from the gallery of interface couplers on the level below after breaking one of the cardinal rules for transient observers visiting the simulation: effecting entry and exit in such a way as to risk confronting the inhabitants with abnormal phenomena. Endelmyer had heard the news about Hatcher and was on his way over from CLC headquarters across the river with John Velucci from Corporate Legal. Rumors were flying around the building that the whole Oz simulation was about to self-destruct.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Morgen insisted. “Time is more important now. The longer Corrigan has to wait in there, the more likely it’s going to get that he’ll start doing something to sabotage the whole works. You have to believe me, Frank—he’s mad as hell and he’ll do it.” Morgen pointed to the lanky, yellow-haired figure with a pallid, tired-looking face covered in unshaved growth, who was sitting by one of the consoles along the wall, a blanket drawn around his shoulders and clutching a mug of hot, black coffee. “He showed them how to do it. We overcompensated on the TAPS. Now half the animations are shooting each other and crossing over highways. It’s an asylum in there.”