Smarter (an Ell Donsaii story #2)

by Laurence Dahners

  “What? How can her AI be functioning? Surely her captors aren’t idiots! What if they have her in a boat at that Marina?”

  “I’ll explain after you’ve reported in to the police.” Roger said as he sped up.

  “Was it Atlantic Beach Bridge? Because that’s just up ahead!”

  To his AI, Phil said, “Chuck, be sure we follow the route Ell’s AI is reporting to you! And emergency override the speed governor on this car to get us going as fast as we possibly can!” The car surged ahead, then slowed to turn onto the bridge.

  Ell said, “Mr. Li, where are you taking us?”

  “Oh, now, I can’t tell you that.”

  “What do you hope to learn from me? I only have a physics theory, not any useful applications.” At least Ell hoped they didn’t know about her useful applications and therefore her Symonds persona or trips to Boston.

  “Our bosses believe that your theory will lead to many useful applications and they have already devoted many people to discovering those applications. But we want you to be able to work with us in state of the art laboratories to find applications that will benefit all of mankind. We think you will enjoy the experience and we intend to make it worth your while!”

  “Yet you are starting by kidnapping me?”

  “We asked first! You told us then that your government would not allow it. We cannot allow them to monopolize the technology that comes from your theories.”

  Ell said, “So, you would immediately release the results of our research to the world?”

  “Well… certainly! Once it had undergone evaluation to be sure that it would be safe for wide release.”

  Ell felt even more certain that these people were working for a sovereign government, almost certainly China. They were obviously associated with the first group to kidnap her. She couldn’t let them take her, or her mother, outside the United States but she was concerned that they were already making for a boat. If only she could be sure that Allan had gotten the word out? Surely the police would take it seriously with Allan’s video record of her abduction up to the point he was unjacked? Probably Roger had a video record too, and perhaps Phil or Shelly as well. On the other hand, waiting for rescue, rather than working to free themselves seemed foolish, the more people working a problem the better.

  Ell looked around to consider her resources. Her wrists were bound tightly with interlocked cable ties that didn’t have any connecting loops. This resulted in her hands crossing at the wrists. If she dropped into the zone and took the Smith and Wesson out of the shoulder holster of the man beside her, and it had a round in the chamber, she would easily be able to shoot all of the men in the car before they could respond. But she would have to shoot Li in the head to be sure he didn’t injure her mother and Ell didn’t want to do that if she could think of anything else. And, if there wasn’t a round in the chamber, she would be in deep do-do, unable to rack the slide to chamber a bullet.

  As Ell racked her brains for another strategy, the car suddenly pulled off the road to the right or inlet side, rolling into a driveway and then under a house on stilts. Damn, this house probably has a boat! That’s almost certainly why they chose it.

  Li turned to Ell and her mother. “We’re just going to rest here in this nice beach house for a few days until all the fuss dies down. Mrs. Radford?” He said to Ell’s mother. “If I take off your gag, will you stay quiet?”

  Kristen nodded.

  “This will hurt, but it is best done quickly.” he said, then ripped the duct tape off her face. “There now, not so bad eh?”

  Kristen shook her head, though her eyes glistened.

  “Now, we’ll need you to shuffle into the house while we carry your obstreperous daughter, OK?”

  Kristen nodded and he leaned over and opened her door. The man from the front seat helped her out and started her up the stairs. The other man met Li at the back of the SUV and opened the gate.

  Li said, “I will check for possible observers, wrap her in the carpet.”

  It turned out that Ell was lying on a piece of carpet, which they proceeded to roll up around her and, when Li came back, they lifted her out and two of them carried her up the stairs. Li came up after them, carrying the net jammer, Ell’s AI and a small satchel. They put Ell and Kristen in a back bedroom that had two beds, and then Mr. Li rubbed his hands together, obviously pleased. “Mrs. Radford, We will make you a sandwich. Ms. Donsaii, I believe you ate at the restaurant?”

  Ell nodded her head, bemused by Li’s polite concern, then heard the faint sound of a siren. Her heart leapt, but then it sank. Surely the police wouldn’t come into a hostage situation sirens blazing? It must be for something else. She saw Li tilt his head, then look up into his AI screens. He said, “The net is jammed correct?” He picked up Ell’s AI and looked at it, checking the switches and lights. He tilted his head and smiled, apparently getting word from his AI that the net jammer was adequately blocking traffic.

  Outside, Phil and Roger had coasted to a stop a hundred feet short of the house that Allan said Ell was in. Allan’d confirmed hearing Ell’s voice again and that they’d climbed stairs into a house. The two men ran the last bit on their toes and snuck into the yard. Roger touched Phil on the shoulder and then leaned close, “There’s probably a boat in that shed down there. They may be planning to use it to take her somewhere else. I’m going to go down and disable it.”

  Phil nodded, his attention focused on the house itself. There seemed to be a couple of lights on in the back, but not much filtered out to the front window. An old SUV was parked under the house, certainly big enough to have carried six people here. Then Phil heard the sirens too. Could it be? Surely not! Not with sirens would they? An Asian face appeared in the window. Peering East in the direction the sirens came from. Then Phil thought he heard a siren from the other direction. The face jerked back from the window and Phil could hear shouting inside. He moved in under the house where he could lurk in the dark and watch both stairwells and the car.

  Upstairs, one of the Asians came running back and started shouting in what sounded to Ell to be Chinese. Li answered tersely, once, twice then shrugged. He turned to the women, “Those sirens can’t be for us, but just in case we will go down and wait in the boat. Mrs. Radford, you will go with Hao here,” he indicated one of the men, “while Ms. Donsaii?” He nodded at the rug.

  Ell tensed to resist but Li took out the Taser. “Now, now, be nice.” He indicated the rug again and Ell resignedly rolled on to it. Shortly she was being carried down the back stairs.

  Phil watched a small man run down the back stairs and head out to the boat shed. Shortly, another man came down the stairs leading a shackled woman. Her hair was too long to be Ell’s! Then two more men came down carrying a long rolled bundle. With relief he saw the toe of a shoe at the end of the roll. They all headed toward the dock and boathouse. Phil followed a little behind and to the right where the bundle on their right shoulders would block their sight of him. As they were stepping out onto the dock to the boathouse the sirens arrived from both directions and stopped at the front of the house. Apparently the local police would arrive at a hostage situation, lights and sirens blazing. Flashing red and blue lights from the front lit the rear area making Phil feel very visible. The man leading the shackled woman turned to look back and Phil could imagine his eyes widening as he saw Phil. Phil stutter stepped up onto the dock and shoved the hindmost man off into the water, grabbing the bundle that he hoped contained Ell and pushing with it so the second man fell into the water too. He felt the bundle squirm as it fell and heaved to keep it from going in the water but it still struck the deck pretty hard. The carpet fell open to reveal Ell bound hand and foot. His heart soared but then something struck his shoulder. Simultaneously he heard the bark of a gun and saw a muzzle flash from where the third man stood by the boathouse. The other woman was down on the deck like any sensible person in a gunfight. Phil reached down, scooped up Ell and leapt from the dock into the water on the r
ight side of the dock, keeping his eye on the shooter. He saw another muzzle flash and heard the gun bark, then Phil heard a meaty “thock” and the man flew off the dock into the water on Phil’s side. A skinny guy stepped out from behind him with an oar in his hand and Phil recognized Roger. Damn, this water is cold, he thought, clasping Ell to him with his left hand to make sure her head was above water. He noted grimly that his right arm seemed very weak and his shoulder felt “dead.” Phil’s feet reached bottom, thank goodness, so he started backing toward shore.

  One of the Asian guys pulled himself up on the other side of the dock and started to cross to Phil’s side but the cops finally showed up. “Hold it right there! Hands up! Now! Behind your head! You too,” he said, waving his pistol at the one still in the water.

  Eventually, they fished the man Roger had cold cocked out of the water. They removed the fourth one from the boat where he had still desperately been trying to start a motor that Roger had removed the fuel line from. An ambulance arrived and took Phil to the hospital. They let Ell ride with him, mostly because they thought she should be checked over too. A very nice policeman took Kristen and Roger down to the station to make a report, then drove Kristen home and came in for coffee. Kristen insisted Officer Duncan come in “to explain everything and help calm Gram’s nerves.” Gram later confided in Ell that “my nerves were fine” and that she’d “never seen Kristen so darned moony eyed.”

  The hospital determined that the bullet had “gone through” Phil’s deltoid muscle. Though Phil would be very sore for a while and need some rehab, he shouldn’t suffer much permanent damage. In a sling, Phil came home with Ell and she slept on the couch so he could have her bed in Gram’s house.

  In the morning Ell announced her plan to “take her rescuers” out to Sunday brunch. Kristen invited Officer Duncan. They all had a nice time and rehashed the events, even having a few chuckles. At one point Officer Duncan, or “Miles” as he preferred to be called said, “You know the damndest thing? Those guys had a fully functional net jammer with them that was running full blast. When we got to the house we lost all comm. So even though your AI somehow was getting the signal out to the police department, saying you guys were down at the dock, the department couldn’t tell us. We had to find you with the Mark 1 eyeball.” He turned to Ell, “Do you have some kind of special military grade AI Lieutenant? Something that could punch a signal through that net jammer?”

  “Please call me Ell.” Ell said brightly, wondering what to say. “It is a military AI and certainly has some special capabilities. I’m not supposed to talk about them though.” She felt Phil staring at her and kicked his ankle.

  Miles shook his head and said, “Well I wish we’d had that tech last night, we’d have found you quite a bit faster.”

  After the brunch Ell, Phil and Roger decided to ride back to Raleigh together. They took Phil’s larger car with Ell and Roger’s cars following by themselves in “platoon.” Phil’s arm was in a sling so Ell sat in the driver seat on the concept that, in case of computer failure, you’d like a capable driver in that seat. Phil quizzed Ell about her “special” military AI that could “punch through” a net jammer. Ell managed to fob him off by simply telling him that she’d upgraded hers after she had been kidnapped in the summer. Fortunately, he didn’t question the existence of an AI with enough transmitter power to be capable of “punching through.” Otherwise the conversation was pleasant and Ell very much enjoyed herself, having the two men in her life with her at the same time but not realizing that she considered each of them to kind of be her undeclared “boyfriend.” She felt guilty and amused and excited all at once. As they neared Raleigh, Roger said from the back seat, “Ell, I can’t wait to tell my friend Ellen Symonds that I not only met you, but spent the weekend with you fighting off kidnappers!”

  Phil, in the passenger seat, shot Ell a look, he knew that Ell, had an “Ellen” alter ego, but not that Roger knew her.

  Ell gave him a minute headshake.

  Then Phil’s eyes widened as he took in the meaning of the statement. Choking he pretended to cough at the realization that Roger was intending to tell Ell as “Ellen” about the weekend they’d just experienced. When he got himself in control, he said in a choked voice, “You said her name was Ellen what?”

  “Symonds.” Roger said dreamily. “She’s really nice, smart too.”

  Phil snorted, “Physics majors!” He started another bout of choked coughing.

  Ell glared at him out of the corner of her eye. “Phil, are you going to be OK?” she said, as if she were concerned.

  They dropped Roger off as they passed through Raleigh on the way to the airport. Ell kissed his cheek and hugged him goodbye, “Thank you so much for saving my life!” she whispered in his ear. He held the cheek she’d kissed as he watched them drive away.

  After they dropped Roger off, Phil threw his head back and howled. “So you’re working both sides of this guy, Ell-Ellen? I mean I’ve heard of guys fooling around with two women, but never one woman fooling around with one guy while disguised as two women!!” He chortled merrily.

  Ell glared at him again. “Perhaps you should take another of your percocet?”

  “Uh, No, I’m feeling pretty good right now.”

  “But, you’re about to start hurting, just as soon as I start hitting you…” she raised an eyebrow at him.

  Phil leaned back away from her in mock terror.

  Ell said, “Roger is really nice, unlike certain rude and uncouth people I hang out with sometimes!” She chuckled, “Actually, I met him in grad school as ‘Ellen,’ and only later realized he was from my hometown where I’m ‘Ell.’ Believe me; it’s been a little difficult to keep my roles straight this weekend. But he’s just a very good friend to Ellen; he’s not my ‘boyfriend.’” She mused to herself that she wouldn’t mind if he was though. On the other hand, Phil could be pretty nice himself?

  Phil looked at her seriously. “Hey, Ell?”

  She turned, “Yes?”

  “I hope you know just how important you are to me? Actually, I’ve been feeling kinda jealous of this new “Roger” guy. I mean, I took a bullet for you and I’ve never gotten a kiss.”

  “Hah, you’ve had plenty of pecks on the cheek like he just got, but here’s another.” She leaned toward his cheek but Phil turned quickly to capture her lips on his. With Ell’s reaction time she could easily have avoided it, but found she didn’t want to. She leaned into it, pressing her soft lips to his firm ones, then reaching up to grasp the back of his neck and pull him into it a little harder.

  Fred, her “Ellen” AI spoke in her ear. “You have a call from Roger Emmerit.”

  Ell broke away from Phil’s lips a moment to say, “Sorry, can’t take a call at present.” Then she leaned back to Phil.

  Eventually, she broke free from Phil again, leaned back and said, “Hey! I didn’t kick you in the nuts this time!” she winked at him, and then leaned in for one more kiss.

  For the flight to Boston, Ell snuck into a bathroom and changed back to her “Symonds” persona. She wanted to minimize her time as “Donsaii” while the Chinese might still be looking for her. While in that getup, she called the Tech Development Office at NCSU to find out what they had decided to do with her invention. When she reached the same man who had spoken to her before, he leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his face. “Ms. Symonds! I understand you quit your graduate program?”

  Ell studied the man, thinking to herself that he was a trivial and mean natured person. “I resigned, yes. I found Dr. Johnson’s treatment of his subordinates, including me, to be unacceptable.”

  “Well, I’m sorry you couldn’t get along.” His expression betrayed no concern and a slight emphasis on “you” made it obvious where he thought the fault lay. “In any case, I just spoke to Dr. Johnson again an hour ago. He has gone through your experimental setup thoroughly and assures us there is no scientific basis for your claim of quantum transmission. The committee met and co
ncurred that the University should not expend any more resources on this idea of yours.”

  Ell sighed, “So, then I must patent it by myself?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “And the University renounces all rights to it?”

  “Well the University will continue to claim five percent of any royalty stream, should you actually be able to commercialize.” Patronizingly he said, “However, I would advise you to speak to your parents or other advisers before attempting to patent. The patent process is exceedingly expensive, whether or not your device actually works or has any value.”

  Barely able to restrain her expression Ell simply said, “Yes sir, I will. Goodbye.” then broke the connection.

  Boarding the plane, Ell called Roger. “Sorry I couldn’t take your call earlier,” she said, using her “Ellen” accent, a spike of guilt going through her over the activity she had been engaged in while refusing Roger’s call.”

  Roger sounded excited, “Hey, no problem. You are not going to believe who I hung out with this weekend!”

  “Who?!” Ell hoped her bemusement sounded like excitement to him.

  “Ell Donsaii! You remember she’s from my hometown?”

  Ell murmured assent.

  “Well she came into my family’s restaurant yesterday and my sister called me so I could go down and try to meet her. She was really nice! Not only did I get to talk to her a bit, she actually let me have dinner with her and her boyfriend from the Air Force Academy!”

  “Wow! That’s really cool!” Ell said, while thinking, Boyfriend?

  “Then when we were leaving, some guys kidnapped her!”

  “No!”

  “Yes! Her boyfriend and I chased them to a house on the beach where they apparently intended to take her out to sea. He knocked the kidnappers into the water while they were carrying her rolled up in a carpet. One of the kidnappers shot her boyfriend!”

  “Oh my God! How awful! Are they OK?”