A car entered the gateway and approached, slowing as it got nearer, and drew up in front of them. Driving it was Joan Sutton, one of the SDC technical people assigned to support Frank Tyron on what was now officially designated the CLC/SDC EVIE project. Tyron himself was in the passenger seat. They got out, grinning unabashedly at the amazed expressions on the faces of the three visitors.
“Fantastic! I could almost believe you’re really there,” Borth exclaimed.
Corrigan was especially pleased with the results of the improved Personal Attribute Files that Ivy Dupale’s graphics section had been working on. Not only were individuals interacting within the simulation; they were doing it with accurate eye and facial movements superposed onto the figures being generated from the PAFs. The incorporation of regular skin-potential sensors into the VIV helmet gave face-muscle movements, and eye-tracking came as standard.
Accepting the unvoiced invitation, Borth stepped forward to examine the car, a 2007 Dodge, which was obviously the star part of the demonstration. The detail was uncanny, with paint and chrome reflecting the surroundings convincingly. When he reached out and tested, the hood was warm to the touch. There was even some realistic ticking and creaking of metalwork cooling down.
Borth grunted and moved to the driver’s-side door, which Joan Sutton had left open. She moved aside. Borth peered in, then began poking around curiously. He moved the panel, column, and foot controls with a hand, feeling them resisting and responding. “This is good,” he told his colleagues. Amanda came to the other door and ran a hand over the upholstery and trim.
“Better than what I can afford to drive, Victor,” she declared pointedly.
Borth sniffed. Then he frowned, turned and moved his head over the back of the seat, then sniffed again. “It’s got no smell,” he called to those outside. “This looks like a new car. It ought to have the new-car smell that you always get. It doesn’t.”
“We can’t give you a sense of smell,” Corrigan said. “It’s handled at a different level of the brain.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“It was described in the information that was sent,” Amanda reminded him.
“Was it? Okay.”
Amanda turned on the radio, and it played a local Pittsburgh channel—injected through the VIV audio system.
“What about the parts that you don’t see?” Korven queried. It was the obvious next thing. Corrigan caught Hamils’s eye and winked confidently.
Borth pulled the hood release and walked around to the front. Korven raised the hood. Engine, battery, generator, hydraulics, air conditioning—everything was there, with all the hoses and accessories. If they looked, they would find water in the radiator, fluids in the reservoirs, oil in the sump. The glove compartment had maps in it, and there was an inside to the trunk, complete with spare wheel and a jack. Within reasonable limits, the team had covered every base.
And then Joan Sutton inadvertently dropped the keys, which she had been toying with. They struck her thigh and glanced off to fall under the car, just behind the front wheel-arch.
“It’s okay. I’ll get ’em,” Korven said, and squatted down to reach. Then he stopped, looked in farther, then pulled his head back and grinned up at Corrigan. “Gotcha!”
“What?” Borth inquired, coming around.
“This car doesn’t have an underneath,” Korven said, gesturing. “It’s all just blank.”
Corrigan sighed and showed his palms to acknowledge defeat. There was no way to anticipate everything.
To finish the demonstration they entered the Executive Building and went through the reception area, past CLC’s “museum” and the visitors’ dining room to a rear exit. From there they crossed a parking lot to the IE Building and went upstairs to the lab area that had been allocated to EVIE. Here they found seven chairs fitted with Pinocchio collars and VIV helmets, arranged in the same positions as the real chairs that they had sat down in at the commencement. Tyron ushered them in and invited them to take their places.
“I hope you’re sure that we’ll end up coming back out,” Korven teased as he settled back. “I mean, I wouldn’t want somebody to hit a switch the wrong way, or something, and send us into another simulation inside a simulation.”