Exponential by Adam Cesare

Author:Adam Cesare
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror;giant monster;kaiju;Jack Ketchum;John Skipp;sci-fi
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2014-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Three years ago, Officer Dan Hammond didn’t own a cell phone and was still running Windows 95 and Internet Explorer on his home computer.

It may seem impossible now, but back then he was happy with this inferior setup.

That was until the department had top-of-the-line laptops installed in all of the squad cars, and suddenly, now that setting up speed traps could be fun, Officer Hammond felt the need to become a computer wizard.

The laptops came with the internet locked down and all the good functions blocked, everything except for Solitaire and Minesweeper, but those could only take you so far as you baked in your car, the police band silent, waiting for a driver to come over the horizon so you could point your radar gun at them.

So Dan had to learn how to make alterations.

Now he was using his phone as a hotspot for unmonitored internet, running two operating systems, able to switch between them if he needed to run someone’s license plate.

His phone bill wasn’t so bad. It had only taken him one month to learn his lesson and buy all his data upfront. He’d even been able to dispute that first charge to his credit card, blaming it on his teenage son using the phone, AT&T flinching when he’d threatened to walk his business over to Verizon.

Now he had three tabs open in his browser (which was Firefox now, natch, although he had dabbled with Chrome), Pornhub (paused, video buffered, just in case), Netflix and Ultimate Poker.

Dan Hammond was sixty-two, had survived two wives and three minor heart attacks, and was now plugged into the web like a kid a quarter of his age. He was an old dog with the newest of tricks.

Before this golden era, he’d been counting the days until he could retire, but now he wanted to stay on the force until he died. If they would let him, he would die in his sleep peacefully at the age of ninety-seven, all-in with a full house in his virtual hand, aces and eights, behind the wheel of a cruiser.

Yes, he had to do work sometimes, but out here the quotas were so low that he only bothered with tagging the cars that were visibly cruising over a hundred, their fiberglass frames vibrating like if they turned three degrees, the car would be airborne.

Going that fast, he would have to be quick to catch them, of course. He’d nose out of his hiding spot a full mile in front of them, siren blaring. If he was feeling especially ballsy (and if not much was going at the poker table), he’d pull across both lanes, traffic permitting, forming a one-car roadblock.

There was always the possibility of getting dialed up on the radio, but all of his hotspots, his speed-traps, were usually far away from the real action. By staying in low-traffic, non-residential areas, he was never the closest officer to any wrecks or domestic disturbances.

No. After putting up with a career filled with shit-kicking and an unspectacular personal life, this laptop was Dan Hammond’s just reward.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.