Cal Hampton: Vice City’s Most Cautious Conspiracist
Cal Hampton is the kind of guy who lives deep in the corners of the internet and even deeper in his own head. A close friend of Jason and a quiet associate of the old-school smuggler Brian, Cal isn’t in it for the money, the power, or the chaos. He’s in it because he doesn’t trust anyone else to see the bigger picture, the one full of satellites, surveillance, and suspiciously well-coordinated birds.
Most days, you’ll find Cal in his dimly lit home, listening in on Coast Guard comms, sipping cheap beer, and clicking through private browser tabs filled with theories the rest of the world is too blind to believe. “What if everything on the internet was true?” isn’t a joke to him, it’s the lens through which he sees the world. To Cal, it’s not paranoia if it’s all actually happening.
He lives at the low tide of America, and he’s happy there. Off the radar, off the grid, and off the hook. Casual paranoia is his comfort zone, and he’s made peace with it. While others chase fortune or fame, Cal’s mission is staying informed, staying alert, and staying just far enough away from the madness to survive it.
But his friend Jason isn’t content to lay low. Jason has bigger plans, bigger risks, and a bigger appetite for danger and that could pull Cal into a spotlight he’s spent his whole life avoiding. Whether Cal ends up as the reluctant voice of reason or the guy yelling “I told you so” from a bunker remains to be seen.
