I put the phone on speaker, trying to figure out how to frame my question while Vero gestured impatiently for me to go on. “Let’s say I was writing a story about a woman on the run—”
“Is she hot?”
“That’s not important.”
“It kind of is if you want me to get into the story.”
Vero cocked a hip and stared at me expectantly.
I rolled my eyes. “She’s hot, and she’s being hunted—”
“Jesus, Mrs. D. That’s dark, even for you.”
“The person who’s hunting her is using a GPS device to track her movements.”
“What kind of device?”
“Does it matter?”
“Depends on the answer.”
“Let’s say, hypothetically, the tracking device was embedded in something she would wear.”
“Like a smartwatch?” he asked.
“More like a bracelet. Is there a way my character could fool the hunter into thinking she’s somewhere she isn’t?”
“Hypothetically,” Cam said, mocking my tone, “if yourcharactergot in trouble with the law, and she’s now forced to wear a GPS monitoring system because she’s not supposed to leave her house until her court date, and if this hypothetical hunter happens to wear a badge, then it would probably not be advisable for your aforementioned character to attempt to spoof the GPS signal on her bracelet. Because the penalties for getting caught would really, really suck, Mrs. D. But since we’re obviously talking about fictional people—because no one would be that stupid in real life—then yeah, it can totally be done.”
Vero gripped my hand and leaned closer to the phone. “How would that work? Hypothetically,” she asked, loud enough for him to hear her.
“It’s easy,” Cam said. “You just have to drown out the real GPS signals with louder ones.”
“What do you mean, drown them out?” I asked.
“Kind of like when Delia and Zach are shouting at each other while you’re trying to talk on the phone, and it makes it hard for you to think because all you can focus on is what they’re arguing about. The loudest GPS signals are easier to pick up. They make it harder for other signals to get through.”
“And you know how to make those loud signals point to somewhere else?” I asked.
“Yeah, piece of cake.”
Vero’s hands were greedy as she reached for my cell. I angled the phone out of her reach. “But if you were to tell someone how to do this, you could get in a lot of trouble.”
Cam’s laugh was cocky. “They’d have to catch me first. It can all be done remotely. I can spoof the signals from anywhere.”
“And no one could trace those signals back to you?”
“I’m offended, Mrs. D.”
“I’m serious, Cam! I can’t ask you to help with this if there’s any chance it will get you in trouble.”
“You’renotasking me to help. I’m offering, pro bono. I’m always up for a little game of Whac-A-Mole with the cops. Besides, this whole house-arrest business is kind of my fault anyway.”
“See?” Vero said.
“I’ll be fine,” Cam assured me. “You just keep an eye on your jailbird.”
“I heard that,” Vero snapped.
