U.S. state of Georgia

The U.S. state of Georgia is the southern setting for Erik Wilson’s stay at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where American police drills unfold alongside a European course on informants, infiltration, and witness protection. The location’s warmth and distance from Stockholm give Wilson a temporary refuge from the Swedish summer, even as his attention remains fixed on Paula and the danger signaled by her calls.

Setting and climate

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center lies in the far south of Georgia, described as being as far south in the state as it was possible to go. Wilson, on his third visit, notices the contrast with Stockholm: Georgia’s air is lighter and warmer, and a cool morning breeze through his open window promises heat later in the day. The climate gives the place an ease he associates with it, but his sleeplessness makes the morning feel less restful than the weather suggests.

A landscape of rehearsal

The training grounds make the surrounding landscape a working environment for law enforcement. Wilson hears and watches exercises under the floodlights: Secret Service personnel rehearse protecting a president, while Border Patrol officers run toward a helicopter and later descend by cable into simulated dangerous territory near the Mexican border. The apparent drama is repeatedly qualified by the fact that it is practice. Even the silence after a simulated gunshot lingers for Wilson, a reminder that the exercises imitate danger without becoming the real emergency they are designed to meet.

Wilson’s stay

Wilson has been at the base for a week of a three-week training session for European police officers. The course addresses informants, infiltration, and witness protection, while the participants share accommodation in a hotel-like building; Wilson’s room is on the eleventh floor. From there, the base’s routines remain visible and audible, but his attention is often elsewhere. He has spoken with Paula four times during one night, and each call has made her sound more tense and close to fleeing. Georgia thus serves both as the practical site of his professional training and as a distant vantage point from which he listens for signs that the undercover operation is coming apart.