Absence of Faith (45 page)

T
he neon
blue "Vacancy" sign splashed its cold, haunting light on the shiny
wet street below. A tall figure approached the light and bathed in
it momentarily. The nearby parking lot was empty. Cars swished by
every few seconds, spraying a cold fine mist towards him. The man
felt a small pebble, maybe a grain of sand, strike his cheek and
sting it. He touched his face - the long stubble that covered his
cheeks made a gritting, scratching sound. He turned and walked
towards a glass door framed in corroded aluminum. When he pushed it
open, the cool stale air smelled of cleaning fluids and cigarette
smoke. A skinny man with an oversized round head and several front
teeth missing sat mesmerized in front of a tiny flickering
television set. A cigarette burned in his left hand. The fingernail
of his index finger was yellowed from the smoke curling its way
around the digit.

"Yeah," the man behind the counter
said.

"I need a room. How much?" the
stranger said.

"Nineteen. Out by noon the next
day," the man said in a bored manner.

He had said it many, many times
before. Maybe, he should put up a sign so people wouldn't bother
him when he was watching TV.

"Here," the stranger dropped two
$20 bills on the counter. "If anyone asks, I was never here. One of
those is for you.

The hotel clerk snatched up the
bills as if a wind would blow them away any second. He looked up at
the stranger inquisitively. He noticed that he held his left arm
close to his stomach as if an invisible sling was holding
it.

"I was never here," the stranger
repeated. "You got that?"

The clerk pushed a worn school
composition book toward the stranger.

"I got it. But, you have to sign
in. Regulations," the clerk said.

The stranger picked up a dirty
white pen on the counter and began writing. When he was done, he
pushed the dog-eared book back. The clerk looked at the name and
smirked.

"Hermes? What kind of name is that?
Is it a last name, a first name or what?"

Hermes grabbed the clerk's shirt
near his neck and pulled him close to his own face.

"It's neither. It's my name. You
would be smart to stop asking questions and get on with whatever
you do here," Hermes said.

The clerk smirked and moved back.
Then he remembered the two twenties in his pocket.

"You're going to need something for
that shoulder?" the clerk suggested eyeing the growing dark red wet
spot on his left shoulder

"I'll be fine."

"A dog bite you?"

"Yeah, a bitch got me," he
said.

THE END

A
BOUT THE AUTHOR

Anthony Samuel Policastro
has been writing all his life.

The publication of his
first novel, Absence of Faith, is the pinnacle of his work having
previously published articles in
The New
York Times, American Photographer
and
other national, regional, and local publications.

Policastro was the former
editor-in-chief of
Carolina Style
magazine, a regional lifestyle publication
similar to
Southern Living
magazine. He was a former journalist,
photographer, and web master.

The author’s background is
in technology, business intelligence, and
communications.

He has two BA degrees -
one in Creative Writing, and another in American Studies from Penn
State University, both of which have greatly enhanced his writing
career.

Born in New Jersey, he now
lives in North Carolina with his wife. He has two sons and a
daughter.

D
on’t miss
Anthony S.
Policastro’s mystery/thriller, DARK END OF SPECTRUM available in
paperback from Amazon.com.

DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM
will make
you think twice before turning on your cell phone or PDA!

DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM
is a
frighteningly plausible and headline ripping tale of the real
threats that loom in cyberspace and beyond with a Michael Crichton
realism.

DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM
is a
thriller that will connect with everyone with a cell phone, PDA or
wireless device.

Dan Riker’s life
was pretty well
planned, predictable and almost boring until a seemingly harmless
blackout occurs along the East Coast. The blackout thrusts him into
the biggest challenge of his life where he is forced to save
millions or to save his family. For the first time in his life he
is faced with what seems an impossible goal, a goal that is not
planned with a predictable outcome.

The CIA asks
him to investigate the
blackouts since they believe hackers may have caused them; Dan
helps them until they tell him his family may be in danger and he
walks out on them.

When the hackers,
a group secretly
known as ICER, take over the power grid and the cell phone network,
Dan is nearly killed in an ambush because he may be the only person
with the technical know-how to stop them.

Shortly after that, ICER kidnaps
Dan’s wife and 8-year-old daughter, and he is thrust into a
high-tech hunt for his family and the hackers using all of his
training as a radio frequency engineer and security expert.

He discovers
that the hackers used a
newly developed wireless technology and a special wireless device
installed in cell towers by Homeland Security after 911 that can
reprogram any computer from aircraft to PDAs. The hackers also
turned the device into a powerful weapon that can kill any living
creature in its swath using cell phones as tracking devices.

ICER gives
the government an
ultimatum - bomb the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan with
nuclear weapons to put an end to Osama Bin Laden and his followers
or they will start downing commercial airliners – one for each day
that the bombing is delayed. What started as a group of concerned
citizens has morphed into digital criminals, who take control of
the power grid and the cell phone network for their own agenda.

One alternative is
to physically
destroy every cell phone tower in the United States. The other is
to ground all aircraft until they can disable the weapons.

Will Dan Riker
save his family or will he fail because life was
always easy for him?

What readers are saying about Dark End of
the Spectrum!

“This is certainly a thrilling book for
anyone who likes technology, conspiracy, action and disaster; one
to read when you've plenty of time to spare because you'll not want
to put it down. Your computer had better not be acting up and your
cell-phone not be on the blink. And you'd better hope no one hacks
into the power grid.

But the novel isn't just about technology gone wild. Dan has a wife
and child and a home life too, and the up-down relationship of a
marriage strained by work grounds the tale very realistically. The
author writes convincing dialog, and Amelia's sudden anger as Dan
leaves to help the CIA saddened me because of its plausibility.”
–
Sheila Deeth