Read Online 3rd World Products, Book 16 by Ed Howdershelt - Free Book Online

principles, no other reason.”  
    “Okay. Just wondered.”  
    “Crap,” she laughed, “You were feeling left out.”  
    “That, too, but in conjunction with meeting her daughter… well, you know how I feel about coincidences, ma’am.”  
    She barked a sharper laugh at that. “Yes, indeed I do. Maybe you’ve finally met a real coincidence nose-to-nose. What are you going to do with it?”  
    “Mount it on my wall and hope they aren’t going extinct. Ah, hell. Traffic is heavy today. I’ll ring you later, okay?”  
    “Okay. Oh, wait. We’ll be out this evening.”  
    “A little later than later, then. Bye, Fearless Leader.”  
    “Bye, bye, Dragonfly.”  
    Linda dropped the link and I pulled in at a gas station to tank up, take a leak, and refill my coffee mug. A solid string of cars went through on the green light, then began backing up into a long line when the light turned red. Where the hell were they all coming from and why?  
    Rather than join that herd, I headed north to Fort Dade Avenue and followed it west while I used my core to check for accidents in the area. Nope. None, but the nose-to-tail traffic continued all the way through town. Maybe the place was just getting too damned crowded. And snowbirds added twenty percent or so to the population in winter.  
    At the intersection of US-98 I saw that others had the same idea about circumventing the main flow. That was it for me; I had better things to do than waste time and risk my ass in heavy traffic. Pulling off the road, I summoned Galatea, loaded the bike, and headed home.  
    It occurred to me that Tanya would know my approximate travel time to get home. She’d still had a smidgen of doubt when she’d headed for Ocala. What would I do in her place? I’d use the laptop and check my camera.  
    My probe found her in a restaurant parking lot near I-75 and County 200. Her open laptop showed a fuzzy view of the front of my house. I had Tea let me off at the corner of Deltona and rode the bike the long block home. After I put the bike in the garage, I had another look at the probe view of her screen. Yup. The camera had to be at the neighbor’s mailbox and the neighbors weren’t home. Good ‘nuff.  
    Shouldering my backpack, I bee-lined for the mailbox until the camera could only see me from the waist up. Through the probe, I heard Tanya mutter, “ Oh, my God, he has to know it’s there! Oh, hell! ” Bending and giving the camera a little wave, I reached under the mailbox and wrenched the camera away from the double-sided tape that held it.  
    The tiny white camera was slimmer than an inch in thickness, about three inches wide, and about four inches long. It had no apparent audio capability. My probe said the camera was using the neighbor’s WiFi to send its signal. No problem; my laptop detected his system inside my house.  
    I didn’t hold it in front of me and grin, though that occurred to me. Instead, I let it dangle from my fingers and swing back and forth as I walked back to my driveway, then I put it in a shirt pocket and called Galatea.  
    Her two-seat emerald version appeared. I stepped aboard and headed for Ocala. A few minutes later I stepped off the flitter a few paces behind Tanya’s car. The probe showed her sipping from a name-brand foam coffee cup. I canceled the probe and walked toward her car.  
    Tanya’s eyes suddenly locked on her rearview mirror, then her head snapped around. I waved and smiled as I walked to the passenger side door.  
    Tanya sat staring at me. I fished the camera out of my pocket and said, “Trade you for a ride, lady.”  
    Her eyes locked on the camera for a moment, then she fumbled at the armrest controls on her door and all the door locks popped. I tried the door handle and it worked, so I got in and handed her the camera.  
    She blurted, “How the hell did you get here so fast?”  
    “I flew. Didn’t you see my wings? You might want to turn that thing off and save the