Fallout

Начало книги

A tiny guardhouse stood off to the side where the gravelly, hard-packed road was bisected by a chain-link fence and sliding gate. The road was framed by wild overgrowth and the guardhouse was similarly untended; the glass-and-aluminum structure, scratched and dented and just slightly askew, resembling an old phone booth — the kind with a folding door. The man sitting on the worn chair inside was old enough to remember using that kind of booth, but the last one he’d seen was in a museum in San Francisco, when he’d visited there in the summer of 2043.

About halfway up the guardhouse’s front window, an iPad was attached to the glass by a single strip of adhesive capable of securing more than three hundred pounds to any surface, yet could be removed without so much as a scratch or a blemish. As a veteran of the security business, Al Snyder had insisted on being given some kind of entertainment device to help him while away the long hours. When his boss scoffed at this request, Snyder grumbled something about a brother-in-law who happened to be a lawyer. The boss didn’t know if he was being truthful or not but decided it wasn’t worth the risk or the bother. New iPads were cheap now — an impulse purchase in the checkout line — and the satellite connection was free. If it only cost a few bucks to shut the guy up, it was worth it.

Читать дальше →