Read The Administration Series for Free Online

if it were a particularly beloved pet. "See? Alive and a little damp; authentic dampness is really quite difficult."
    Toreth knelt beside him and buried his hands in a thick, soft tangle of grass and flowers. Petals crumpled in his fist, then slowly uncreased themselves after he let go. Telling himself that they were purely an artefact of clever electronics made them feel not one whit less actual.
    He imagined taking prisoners into something this real. Everything that happened to them could be an illusion and they would never know. There was nothing he wouldn't be able to do to them, over and over again.
    When he tuned in again, Warrick was still involved in his technical explanation. "And beyond that, the interactive tactile simulation is highly accurate. That's even more processor intensive, since it requires the computer to translate actions between objects it doesn't control. Let me show you." Warrick reached over and ran his virtual hand lightly down Toreth's back. "Didn't that feel real?"
    Toreth nodded. "And what about pain?" he asked.
    Warrick held his gaze for a moment, then stood up and turned back to the control panel, here hanging disconcertingly in mid-air. "Not in this program."
    "But it can be done?"
    "Yes, of course. Don't worry, you can report back that it would all be extremely useful for your purposes,
if
they could afford it."
    "My purposes?"
    "Interrogation." Flat voice, eyes intent on the console.
    "I'm a — "
    "Para-investigator. That's what you told me."
    "No, I didn't."
    "Not quite in so many words, no. But you told me you rape minds."
    "I said, 'I fuck minds,' I think you'll find."
    Warrick shrugged. "It's all in the inflection, really."
    "So what do you think about my inflection?"
    The strange half-smile again, this time in flattering profile. "I think you probably can't tell the difference any more."
    He knew before he invited me here, Toreth thought. He's known all along and he's disgusted by the idea of what I do, but he's still interested.
    The realisation brought a sharp stab of excitement. He loved to see people wanting to do things they thought they shouldn't. He was about to speak when the meadow began to blur around him.
    "I think you might like this next one," Warrick said. "It's a special favourite of mine."
    The change from kneeling to standing, without conscious movement, did make him dizzy for a moment, but it passed before he felt any need to use the escape word. Toreth looked around the new room, noting how his vision adjusted instantly from the dazzling meadow to the now-dim light.
    It was a historical curiosity, a bedroom from centuries back, with dark wood-panelled walls and heavy wooden furniture. Uneven floorboards creaked a little under foot when he shifted his weight. Dominating the room was a vast four-poster bed, with tied-back curtains matching the rugs and tapestries. It was probably the largest bed Toreth had ever seen in his life.
    Very subtle.
    He examined the details of the room. Smoke-darkened pictures hung on the walls between the tapestries. On one wall, mullioned windows leaded with small, thick diamonds of glass showed only blackness beyond — night-time, or perhaps simply nothingness, and he wondered briefly what the edge of the sim world would be like.
    An ornate golden clock over the fireplace struck Toreth as a little anachronistic, given the rest of the decor. The low, crackling fire filled the air with the scent of wood smoke. There was another odd, almost sweet tang in the air, which probably came from the candles burning in various metal holders. Candelabras, he recalled from somewhere. He wondered if the smell was authentic and if so how the hell he smelt it, since to the best of his knowledge he'd never experienced anything like it. He asked Warrick.
    "Ah, you noticed? Observant of you. Yes, I can't guarantee the smell is precisely as you would personally perceive beeswax candles. But it's averaged from a number of real-life perceptions. We hope to