Smarter

by Laurence E. Dahners

  She turned to see Roger, apparently having come in through the back entrance of the restaurant. She restrained her impulse to jump up and give him a hug. Then she almost used her “Ellen accent.” Finally she managed to say, “Yes?” in her Ell accent.

  “I’m Roger Emmerit, Shelly’s brother. I asked my sister to call me if you ever came in so that I could personally tell you how much I admire your quantum physics paper. I’ve hoped to see you in town for a long time.”

  “You’ve read it?” Ell managed to put a surprised lilt in her tone.

  “Oh yes Ma’am. I’m a physics grad student at NCSU and I just think the implications are amazing, though I do have a little trouble following some of your new math conventions. In fact, there’s another grad student in our lab who’s been working on testing some of your predictions.”

  “Really?” Ell put a surprised and excited tone in her response.

  “Yes. She works in the same room as I do. I’d love to work on your stuff myself but I was already deep in another project when your paper came out.” Roger stared at Ell. She looked familiar, of course, from all the times he’d seen her in the news. But there was something else, almost as if he knew her somehow. She was so pretty, such perfect flawless skin except for the scattering of tiny freckles. Her cute turned up nose seemed perfect for her face. Her eyes were the same green as Ellen Symonds he realized, maybe that’s what made her seem so familiar?

  Ell said, “Oh, that’s great. I’ve been hoping someone was trying to test my predictions. Of course, there’s always that niggling concern that whoever does will prove me wrong.”

  “Well I’ve got good news for you there. Of course, I should let Ellen tell you herself. Can I call her for you?”

  Nonplussed at the thought of being connected to talk to herself, Ell quickly said, “No, I’d rather not talk to her myself. It would be better if she could avoid any semblance of bias by being able to say she doesn’t know me. But could you just summarize what she found?”

  Roger seemed disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to introduce them, but said, “Sure, she worked out a way to use high energy photons in a modification of the double slit experiment while measuring flux in the slits. You may be aware that current flux sensors are much more sensitive than they used to be? In any case there are fluctuations at both slits, suggesting that the single photon goes through both slits just like you predicted!”

  Ell made a little fist pump, “That’s great! Has she submitted for publication yet?”

  Roger looked abashed, “Well, kinda. She and her professor got in a huge fight and she quit the University. He refuses to have his name on her paper. She sent the paper to a journal anyway, but I doubt that any journal will publish it with him opposed. It’s a real shame because she’s absolutely brilliant!” He shook his head. “She has so much to offer physics. I hope she’s able to get into grad school somewhere else.”

  Bemused, Ell said, “Brilliant?” It was nice to hear what people really thought of you, at least when they thought nice things.

  “Well, not like you, but still pretty amazing! I’d been having trouble with my own study for months and when I was commiserating with her over my problem, in an offhand way she pointed out what I had been doing wrong as if it were just minor issue. And she’s only a first year grad student! Though, the problem she saw with my experiment was based on your theory. Ellen is much more familiar with your theory than I am.” He shrugged. “If only she wasn’t so hard headed! If she’d just apologized and kowtowed to Dr. Johnson like the rest of us do, she’d still be in grad school, I’m sure of it.”

  Ell restrained the impulse to reach out and punch him. “So, was she hard to work with then, hardheaded and all?”

  “Oh, no!” Roger leaned conspiratorially to Ell. “Actually I’m crazy about her. She’s sweet and a great friend.” His face fell, “But I expect she’ll move away now, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to stay in touch.”

  “You’ll just have to try harder then, eh?”

  Allan spoke in Ell’s ear, “Phil Zabrisk is calling.”

  Ell put up a finger, “Just a minute Roger. Allan put Phil on. Phil, are you in North Carolina like you thought?”

  She heard Phil’s voice, “Hah! Better than that. I’m in Morehead City. I drove down to surprise you, dropped by your house and have been hanging out with your mother and your Gram a bit. Having given up on you returning spontaneously, I’m just leaving your house to come find you. Dinner is on me. Where are you?”

  “Um, at Emmerit’s.” For a moment she was reluctant to have the two men in her life in the same location, but, after all, Roger didn’t even know he was with Ellen. “It’s a restaurant.”

  “OK, I’ll be there in a minute. Save a chair for me.”

  Roger was looking at her quizzically. “An old friend from the Academy is in town and coming down to visit me here at the restaurant. Um, could we move to a table?”

  “Oh sure.” Roger turned to Shelly and they quickly arranged a table for Ell. Shelly was going to put her at a “two top,” but in a whisper that Ell heard, Roger insisted on a four top, apparently hoping to sit with her a bit longer. Roger watched Ell gracefully stand up and follow Shelly to the table they’d arranged, carrying her drink. She was wearing a short pleated skirt and low heels. Her slender legs looked great! It almost took his breath away. It was hard to reconcile her obvious brilliance with her good looks. The stereotype that beauty and brains don’t go together creating a dissonance in his brain.

  Ell turned and said, “Roger? Would you sit with me too? I’d love to hear more about your results.”

  Roger eagerly came over and took a chair. They resumed talking physics and Roger described his experiment and how much better it was going since “Ellen” had recognized the polarization issue. Ell suddenly realized that another component of his project could be affected by the quantum effects that her math predicted. In the middle of one of his sentences she again held up a finger, “Wait one, Roger.”

  Roger sat admiring her while she stared up into her AI screens and talked quietly to her AI a moment. Distractedly she said, “Do you have a slate here?”

  “Uh, no. But I can borrow Shelly’s.”

  He got up and brought it. Roger set the slate on the table and Ell scooted next to him so they could look at it together. He was very distracted by her proximity, especially when she touched him a couple of times. But she exported a file to his AI and the slate, then deftly pointed out how his experiment was affected by her postulated fifth dimension. He’d been amazed by how “Ellen” had quickly understood the problem with his experiment but Ellen couldn’t hold a candle to Donsaii, who hadn’t even heard of his experiment ten minutes ago and was already explaining how her complex math predicted the results he’d actually been getting! He swallowed, mind racing with the implications, eyes staring at the slate. How could she have figured this out so quickly?! It was almost as if she had already understood his research project! Embarrassed to be schooled in his own field of study, he didn’t even hear a voice from behind him say, “Ell?”

  Phil had entered the restaurant minutes earlier and looked around for Ell, expecting her to see him and leap to her feet. He’d been dismayed to recognize her strawberry blond head bent over a table next to some other guy! They were leaning over something on the table in front of them, talking in low tones. Damn! Did she have a boyfriend now and he just hadn’t heard? Phil cursed himself again for not letting her know how strongly he felt about her when they met in Raleigh the past summer! He walked closer and was appalled to see her put her hand on the other guy’s arm. But they were looking at a slate; maybe she was just explaining something? To his delight, when he said her name, she did leap up from her seat and throw her arms around him.

  “Phil! Hey it’s great to see you!” She kissed him heartily on the cheek. “Sit, sit, we’ll order you dinner too! They have great seafood here!”

  Roger looked up to see the guy who’d been in the news
with Ell. One of her fellow Olympians, the guy was a wrestler and very handsome with a real “Greek god” physique. Roger felt tiny, drab and inconsequential in comparison. He rose, “Ms. Donsaii, thanks so much. You’ve helped me immensely. I truly, truly appreciate your help and the opportunity to meet you. All my friends will be envious!”

  Ell found she really didn’t want Roger to leave, she said, “Oh, it was fun talking physics. Won’t you stay and have dinner with us?”

  Phil, at first relieved to hear the man call her “Ms. Donsaii,” implying that they weren’t that good a friends, subsequently felt dismayed to hear him invited to eat with them, but he smiled and said, “Sure, have dinner with us, I’m buying.”

  Roger, ecstatic at spending more time with Donsaii, said “Oh, it’s my parents’ restaurant. Let me buy, I do get a discount.” He winked at them.

  Shelly showed up with a menu for Phil. She looked up at him, “Oh are you Phil Zabrisk? From the Olympics with Ell?”

  “Uh, yes.”

  “Oh! I so admired you in the Olympics!” She smiled sunnily at him.

  Ell felt a twinge of jealousy. Shelly had always gone out with the really cute guys in school and Ell had always felt a little drab in comparison, even though, rationally she knew her own looks were better than ordinary. This is silly, she chided herself, it isn’t like Phil is my boyfriend or anything. They all sat down.

  The conversation was clumsy. Ell realized that it was because the two men had absolutely nothing in common. She and Roger could talk physics and she and Phil could talk Academy, but it was like she was carrying on two separate conversations rather than their all contributing to one conversation. Then Shelly came back to take their order, after they’d all ordered she asked, “Hey, do you mind if I eat my dinner with you guys? I got Brenda to cover the desk for me.”

  Roger cocked an eye at his sister, knowing that on a busy Saturday night like this, having the hostess out would cause some problems, but she looked at him with pleading in her eyes. Then he realized that Brenda wasn’t here yet. Shelly’d actually gotten Brenda to come in on her night off! She must want this pretty bad.

  Ell, taken aback by Shelly’s obvious interest in Phil, nonetheless said, “Sure.” There would be no way to say “no” without being rude.

  The dinner went pretty well from there, Shelly’s bright personality carrying the conversation to inconsequential areas and drawing them all in, though Shelly spoke more to Phil and therefore Ell spoke more with Roger. When they’d eaten Shelly said, “Hey ‘Jones-Alias’ are playing at McAllister’s, you guys want to go check them out?”

  After some hemming and hawing they all agreed and Shelly shepherded them all out to the dimly lit parking lot, deciding that she should ride with Phil to, “show him the way.” Ell thought about pointing out that Phil’s AI could find McAllister’s just fine. But she just shrugged and said, “Roger, you want to ride with me?” pleased when he nodded.

  Ell squeezed next to a white panel van that was parked very close to the driver’s side of her car. She had just thought to herself that someone must have parked manually because AIs parked better than that, when the door to the van slid open and hands reached out, one grabbing her arm, the other shoving a Taser into her back. Waves of agony pulsed through body and her legs collapsed. As she was dragged bonelessly into the van she thought to herself, not again!

  Chapter Ten

  Shelly was watching Ell enviously as she walked gracefully across the parking lot with Roger. Somehow even the act of walking appeared to be an act of astonishingly perfect coordination when it was Ell Donsaii doing it. Shelly thought that it was unfair that Ell was so attractive and so accomplished. When she got into the passenger side of a van Shelly was puzzled a moment, then Ell’s flaccid movements registered. “Phil! Someone just dragged Ell into a van!”

  Phil was already aware. He’d been wondering how he got saddled with Shelly. The pretty brunette was a nice enough girl, but not who he’d driven down to Morehead City to meet! Ell’s slender legs, their beauty emphasized by her short skirt, had had his full attention when they buckled. Phil found himself running toward the van as its tires spun. It pulled out across the curb and wildly into traffic. Despite a valiant effort on Phil’s part the van quickly outdistanced him. As he ran back to his car he recited the license number to himself while he had his AI call 911. “There’s been a kidnapping! The victim is Ell Donsaii, reddish blond, five foot eight or so. White van, license number LME-4406, I’m uploading my video file of the attack!” He jumped into his car, unlocking the doors so Roger could get in and they squealed out of the lot in pursuit. “Roger! Where does that road go?”

  “The coast!” Roger responded grimly.

  In the back of the van Ell felt the wild takeoff of a vehicle obviously driving with its AI disabled. It rocked wildly and she heard squealing from its tires and the tires of vehicles apparently trying to avoid running into it. Meanwhile her captors had dumped her on her back and were applying the “oh so familiar” cable ties to her wrists. She began to get muscle control back and tried kicking out. The Taser blasted through her again. By the time her muscles would respond again, her wrists and ankles had been tightly cuffed together. She resolved to wait until she had better muscle control before she tried anything again. “Allan, ‘blitz’ and also inform Phil” she shouted as they were unplugging her AI and “turning it off” though she was glad to see they trusted the switch she’d jiggered and didn’t remove the battery. “Blitz” was the codeword she’d set for Allan to report an attack to the police, Chief Bowers, and her family and then to continuously update GPS location to them, all without evidencing activity by sending the information out only through the PGR unit back on the lab computer at NCSU.

  Ell, getting some motor control back, looked around the van and saw three Asian men in the back with her… and her mother! Damn them! Kristen also wore handcuffs and ankle cuffs with a chain of cable tie loops between her ankles. Duct tape covered Kristen’s mouth but her wide eyes spoke volumes about the state of her mind!

  The van bumped and swayed wildly to a halt. One of the men slammed the door open and the other two manhandled Ell like a sack of potatoes. They dragged her out of the van and into the back of a SUV. One of the men got in the back with her and the others slammed the back door shut. Ell squirmed around and saw them forcing her mother into the back seat. Out the front window Ell saw the masts of boats so they must be in the parking lot of one of the marinas. The driver of the van came over carrying Ell’s AI and a box that looked like it was probably a net jammer. He got into the driver’s seat and they careened out of the parking lot, obviously again with the car’s AI disabled. One of the Asian men sat in the passenger seat, one beside Kristen in the back seat and one lay beside Ell in the cargo space. Since Ell could barely see passing lights out the side windows she assumed the windows of the SUV were heavily tinted. The man sitting next to Kristen reached up and switched on the dome light, then turned, waved a pistol and said, “You can call me Mr. Li. We do not wish to harm you; we only want to consult your physics expertise. If you cooperate, neither you, nor your mother will be injured.” He gestured at Kristen with the gun. You will eventually be returned to your home none the worse for the wear.” Ell grimly recognized the same 9mm Smith and Wesson weapon that the Asians had had in Boston. She gritted her teeth and nodded jerkily.

  The man sitting next to her pulled another Smith and Wesson out of a shoulder holster and nodded meaningfully at her before putting it away. Ell carefully thought back to her previous capture and decided that she was confident of the location of the safety and its “on” position. She wondered to herself whether they would be carrying them with a round chambered? It would be difficult to rack the slide with her wrists bound so closely to one another. Ell wriggled around and sat up, then said quietly, “Mom, you OK?”

  Her mother obviously couldn’t speak with the duct tape over her mouth but she nodded spastically as the SUV continued to race down the roa
d. Soon they had crossed the bridge and were on the Atlantic Beach barrier island.

  Phil’s AI said “I have a message from Ms. Donsaii’s AI.”

  Phil said “Go!” Then he suspiciously wondered how Ell’s AI could be functioning. Surely a kidnapper’s first move would be to turn it off?

  An AI voice came on, “Mr. Zabrisk, Ms. Donsaii has asked that you be informed that she has been attacked and kidnapped -”

  “I know that!” Phil snapped.

  “- and that she is currently in a vehicle proceeding South on the Atlantic Beach Bridge toward Atlantic Island at an average speed of 50 miles per hour. Her mother and four men of Asian extraction are in the vehicle with her. Do you have any questions?”

  “Have you told the police?!”

  “Yes, and they assure me they are responding.”

  Suddenly Roger yelled, “There’s the van!”

  Phil looked where Roger pointed. A white van stood, panel door open, parked crookedly at the marina. He slowed to turn in, then said, “Wait, Ell’s AI? Are you sure she’s still with you? And why haven’t they turned you off?”

  “Ms. Donsaii modified the switch on my case so that it does not turn anything but the case lights off. They have flipped that switch but I am still functional. They have unjacked me from her visor so I no longer have video input. She installed a separate microphone so that I still have audio. I have heard them talking to her, and she has spoken to her mother. In addition, all four of the Asian men are in the vehicle. I can hear them speaking Mandarin Chinese amongst themselves.”

  Phil pulled back out onto the road and Roger started yelling, “That’s the van! Where are you going?!”

  Phil said, “Report the van to the police. Ell’s AI is sending me a message that she’s in a vehicle on some kind of bridge going South.”

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