Wanted Read online

  Wanted

  An Ell Donsaii story # 10

  By

  Laurence E Dahners

  Copyright 2014 Laurence E Dahners

  Kindle Edition

  Author’s Note

  Though this book can “stand alone” it will be much easier to understand if read as part of the series including

  “Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story)”

  “Smarter (an Ell Donsaii story #2)”

  “Lieutenant (an Ell Donsaii story #3)”

  “Rocket (an Ell Donsaii story #4)”

  “Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5)”

  “Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6)”

  “Habitats (an Ell Donsaii story #7)”

  “Allotropes (an Ell Donsaii story #8)” and

  “Defiant (an Ell Donsaii story #9)”

  I have minimized repetition of explanations that would be redundant to the earlier books in order to provide a better reading experience for those of you who are reading the series.

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  Preprologue

  An unusually gifted quarterback, Allan Donsaii had been widely recognized to be startlingly strong and a phenomenally accurate passer. During his college career he finished two full seasons without any interceptions and two games with 100 percent completions. Unfortunately, the pro teams never drafted him for fear that his size would allow him to be dominated by bigger opposing players.

  Extraordinarily quick, Kristen Taylor captained her college soccer team and rarely played a game without a “steal.” Usually she had many.

  Allan and Kristen dated more and more seriously throughout college and married at the end of their senior year. Their friends teased them that they were only marrying so that they could start their own sports dynasty.

  Their daughter Ell had Kristen’s quickness, magnified by Allan’s strength and highly accurate coordination. The child also had a new mutation affecting the myelin sheaths surrounding her nerves. This mutation produced nerve transmission speeds that nearly doubled those of normal neurons. With faster nerve impulse transmission, she had much quicker reflexes. Yet her new type of myelin sheath was also thinner, allowing more axons, and therefore more neurons, to be packed into the same sized skull. These two factors resulted in a brain which had more neurons, though it wasn’t larger, and a faster processing speed, akin to a computer with a smaller, faster CPU architecture.

  Most importantly, under the influence of adrenalin in a “fight or flight” situation, her nerves transmitted even more rapidly than their normally remarkable speed.

  Much more rapidly…

  Prologue

  New York— Marcus Amundsen, the highly respected Secretary of Defense, was relieved of his duties and released from President Stockton’s cabinet yesterday. Despite an attempt to paint it as an amicable “parting of ways,” rumors abound of a serious disagreement. This is suspected to relate to Amundsen’s oft displayed admiration and support for Ell Donsaii. In view of Stockton’s arrest and imprisonment of the young lady in question, Amundsen’s views on Donsaii would certainly bring himself and the President into conflict.

  Stockton continues with her vehement denunciations of Donsaii despite the upswelling of support for Donsaii in the press and the polls and a concomitant drop in Stockton’s own approval ratings…

  “Mark, what are you going to do about this Stockton travesty?”

  Amundsen bemusedly looked up at his wife. “Start looking for a job?”

  “Oh hell, Mark, I know you’ll land on your feet. But what about the way Stockton’s been treating Donsaii? My god, the woman saved the entire planet a few years ago, now our President is treating her like a pariah, arrested, imprisoned, called a terrorist! All for failing to comply with this Blaustein bill, which near as I can tell, demands that she turn over something she worked hard to create herself—I see no reason the government has a right to it!”

  With a slight grin, Amundsen said, “Well, the President’s worried that Ell might make a diplomatic mistake in an encounter with an advanced race out there in the galaxy. A faux pas with aliens having technological advantages over us could actually be quite disastrous.”

  She snorted, “You know how I hate it when you start arguing the position of your opponents. Stockton’s an idiot and you know it. Look at the people on that committee that the Blaustein bill wants Donsaii to turn first contact over to!”

  Amundsen grinned again, “Well even I’d have to admit that that committee could have been chosen better. Though, I’d also have to admit that I wouldn’t want Donsaii going through my background the way she did theirs. Lord knows what she’d find!”

  “Not much, and you know it!”

  Still grinning at his feisty wife, Mark shrugged, “What would you have me do, Mary?”

  “Have her impeached!”

  “The power of impeachment rests with the House of Representatives, not with dismissed Secretaries of Defense. Besides, it is supposed to be undertaken for treason, bribery, high crimes or misdemeanors. Not for doing things we don’t like. Unpopular presidents get voted out of office,” he tilted his head consideringly, “There are a lot of angry people out there. They weren’t happy about the changes in the job market, but deep inside they still loved Ell Donsaii. I do think Stockton would get voted out if an election were to occur now instead of nearly four years from now.”

  “Imprisoning Donsaii without a trial isn’t a crime? Seems like a ‘high crime’ to me!”

  “Donsaii had failed to comply with the law as constituted in the Blaustein bill.”

  “Oh, come on! You don’t think Donsaii should have complied either.”

  Amundsen leaned back and rubbed his chin, “You’ve got me there. She broke the law, not for her own convenience, but because she believed it was the best thing for our country.” He shook his head, “I should only hope that I would have the same courage if it came down to it.”

  ***

  Eddy Clouse looked up as his doctor came back into the room. He noted that Doctor Sloan looked pretty grim. Eddy’s hopes that his cough was just some strange bug faded, but he tried to keep his chin up. “What’s up Doc?” he said with a weak grin.

  Sloan shook his head, “Mr. Clouse, I’m afraid it’s not good news.”

  Clouse, as he always did, turned to look back over his shoulder. “Mister? No ‘misters’ in here, Doc. Just ol’ Eddy. Call me Eddy.”

  Sloan gave him a weak grin in return, “OK, Eddy, but it doesn’t make the news any better. Your chest X-ray shows a large mass in your left lung.”

  “Mass, Doc?”

  “Yeah, it might be some kind of odd infection, but we’ve got to worry that it might be a tumor. We’ll have to get you in for some scans and a biopsy then figure out the best way to take care of you.”

  Eddy’s wife stood suddenly, tears streaming down her face. “It’s that damn WIPP! I told you not to go to work there Eddy! Now look, it’s gonna kill you!”

  Eddy turned to Sloan, “Could that be, Doc?”

  Sloan put his hands up, “Wait a minute now, nobody’s dyin’ here yet. How long have you been workin’ at WIPP, Eddy?”

  “Six months. They told me it was safe. I don’t work near the radiation, just drive a waldo. The waldo actually does all the handlin’ of the radioactive material down there in the salt.”

  “Yeah, they’re right. Driving the waldoes, your exposure to radiation isn’t any more than anyone else here in New Mexico. More likely, it’s all those years of smoking catchin’ up to you my friend.”

  Holly Clouse said, “Sure, that’s what they tell us! ‘It’s as safe as workin’ anywhere else,’” she said smarmily. “What do they think we are, stooopid? It’s a dangerous radioactive storage site for God�
��s sake.”

  “Even if that were true, Ms. Clouse, Eddy’s tumor is almost certainly older than the six months he’s been working out there.”

  Her lip curled, “Yeah, they’re probably payin’ you to say crap like that, aren’t they? You can tell your overlords that I’m going to the newspapers. They’re gonna see a stink, the kinda stink like no one’s ever smelled before.”

  Sloan said, “No one’s paying me for any…” Holly Clouse had grabbed a Kleenex and slammed out of the exam room. He turned back to Eddy, “Do you want to give her a little time to settle down Eddy?”

  Eddy’s eyes still stared sightlessly after his departed wife. After a moment he shook his head, “Naw, Doc, we’d be waitin’ all day for that to happen.”

  Sloan sighed, “OK, let me talk to you about the tests we need to set up…”

  ***

  “Art,” Ell said to Art Jenkins, the lawyer she’d hired to try to deal legally with her attempted imprisonment by Stockton, “what can you tell me about my current legal situation?”

  “Well,” he laughed and Ell had the impression he was rubbing at an eye, “we’re filing motions and spending money and all, but it’s a little hard to appeal that you should be freed when you’re actually running around out there. For God’s sake, don’t tell me where.”

  “Are you saying that I could make your job easier by going back to jail?”

  “Sure, speaking facetiously. But if I were you I’d stay free and let me keep doing whatever I can think of legally. They may just get tired of responding to all my pleas and motions and filings and just drop their charges.”

  “Anything I could do to help, besides turning myself in?”

  “No, and I’m really only joking about turning yourself in. It’s pretty hard to get a handle on the exact limits of the ‘Executive Powers’ that Stockton used to put you away in the first place. This is such a weird situation that, of course, those limits haven’t been tested for this situation. Any decision by a lower court will be contested to the next higher court by the side unhappy with the result. With you in prison and them battling us all the way to the Supreme Court, dragging their feet at every step, it could take years to get you loose if you did go back in.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah, sorry. We’ll keep working but probably won’t be making huge amounts of progress.”

  ***

  Washington—Rumors continue to erupt from the Guantanamo Naval facility in Cuba. Though official sources continue to deny the possibility, many unofficial sources have confirmed Ell Donsaii has apparently escaped from detention there. Many of the rumors state that she never actually arrived, breaking free somewhere en route to the prison grounds. Search activity at Guantanamo Bay, initially exceedingly intense, has dropped off precipitously, suggesting that Dr. Donsaii may have successfully made her way off the island.

  The directors of the CIA and FBI were ushered into the Oval Office. Stockton stood, “James, Mason, thank you for dropping by. Can I have Elsie get you some coffee?”

  “No Ma’am,” they said, almost in unison.

  “Well then, let’s get down to business. You’ve probably heard scuttlebutt that Donsaii escaped. Unfortunately, due to a monumental screw-up down at Gitmo, those rumors are true. So I’m turning to you two gentlemen, hoping you can figure out how to unscrew the pooch and get that little witch locked back up?”

  The two men glanced at one another. Mason Phillips cleared his throat, “Are you certain we should be expending resources on the pursuit of Dr. Donsaii, Ma’am? She doesn’t seem like much of a threat to the nation.”

  Stockton’s eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed. “Mr. Phillips, I’ll remind you that you ‘serve at the pleasure of the President.’ I’m not asking you whether we should capture Donsaii, I’m asking you for a plan to do so. I’ll point out that she has broken the law, and that if she were to inappropriately handle a meeting with a technologically superior alien race, that such an event could indeed prove to be ‘a threat to the nation.’”

  A half an hour later, the two men were ushered out of the Oval Office, having promised to develop a plan to capture Donsaii, whether she was back in the United States or had taken up residence in another country. They glanced at one another as they left the building, neither one happy about this task but neither one willing to talk to the other about their reluctance to push this particular task hard. The FBI had been assigned to lead the investigation so they would meet again tomorrow, but Mason figured they would probably never discuss their personal reluctance to pursue Donsaii with “all possible vigor” as assigned.

  ***

  Washington—Supporters of Ell Donsaii marched in front of the White House today, protesting her arrest and failed imprisonment. Suli Ibrahmin, the protestors’ self-appointed spokesperson, said, “This woman saved the entire world from a comet a few years ago. She’s providing cheap power, heat and air conditioning. She’s reducing greenhouse gases. Now we’re trying to imprison her because she won’t turn over ET contact to a government committee? She deserves more respect than that! Whatever charges have been trumped up against her should be dropped so she can get back to making our world a better place…

  Wilson Daster’s AI said, “You have a call from Ell Donsaii. She’s asking that you take out my other PGR chips and speak to her with only her one to one connection active.”

  Wilson said, “Oh! OK, tell her just a second.” He got up and walked into one of D5R’s small private conference rooms. Closing the door he took off his HUD (Heads Up Display) and pulled out all but one of the PGR chips. Putting it back on he said, “Ell! Where are you?”

  “Back in the States. Out in Texas, but it’s probably better if you don’t know exactly where. Working on a new identity that the government didn’t help me create like the others.”

  “Oh! So you don’t think this is all going to blow over pretty soon?”

  Ell sighed, “I don’t know Wilson. I hope so, but I’m figuring that I’d better plan like it might not.”

  “So, how can I help?”

  “I don’t actually need help. I just wanted to warn you that I’m planning to spend a bunch of money, so you’re going to see my accounts drop. I didn’t want you thinking that someone was stealing it.”

  “What are you going to spend it on?”

  “Probably better that you don’t know that in any detail. But, I’m planning to convert it to cash and use it to buy some real estate and other real property in my new identity. That way I’ll have assets that would be difficult for the government to take away.”

  “Oh, well let me at least give you some advice on how to do it?”

  “Sure, I could use some of that!”

  ***

  Viveka sighed. The school year was nearly over and she had yet to hear from Ell Donsaii’s company, D5R. It didn’t surprise her, after all Donsaii herself had been arrested and imprisoned. However, Viveka had been hoping against hope that Donsaii had left instructions with the company prior to her own arrest. Preferably instructions to hire one Viveka Janu, freshly graduated chemical engineer. That seemed crazy though, Viveka had only met Donsaii the one time and surely Donsaii had more pressing issues to think about than Viveka’s job. Still, Viveka had decided that she should at least send an e-mail to D5R and tell them how much she would like to work for them. Maybe they would at least have something she could do at one of their subsidiaries in India?

  If only she could think of what to say. Not presuming on her meeting with Donsaii, yet somehow mentioning it? How…?

  ***

  Shan stepped into the large B&B suite’s bathroom. When he flipped the light switch it turned on a light across the big bathroom, leaving the near side dim, but even in the dim light he suddenly realized someone was reclining in the big Jacuzzi hot tub.

  Startled he said, “Oh! Sorry!” Stepping backwards across the threshold he started to turn away.

  “Hi Shan,” a familiar voice said.

  Heart suddenly p
ounding, Shan turned slowly back into the room and looked down.

  Reclined in the tub, Ell smiled her crooked little smile at him. “The water’s nice and warm. Want to get in?”

  “Ell!” Shan stared at her in shocked amazement. Then he knelt down to give her a hug, not caring that it got his shirt wet. After a bit he drew back. “Hey, should you be in a hot tub if you’re pregnant?”

  “Come on. You just had your arms in the water, it isn’t that hot! You’d have to call it a ‘pretty warm tub’ at the most.”

  He grinned, “Well let me get my clothes off and I’ll get ‘pretty warm’ with you.”

  As he pulled off his pants, he snorted, “You’re the reason I was assigned the biggest suite here at the Wildberry aren’t you?”

  Ell wrinkled her nose and gave a minute shrug, “Might be.”

  Chapter One

  A couple of hours later Shan and Ell, done up as Raquel, poked their heads out of the Blackberry suite. Shan’s parents and sisters looked up from where they were lounging around the enormous great room of the log cabin constructed B&B. They all smirked at the young couple. “Jeez,” Malcolm said, “You’d think you guys were a couple of newlyweds who hadn’t seen each other for a long time!”

  Ell blushed, but Shan shook a finger at them, “I can’t believe you guys kept this a secret from me!”

  Shan’s mother grinned, “She just called yesterday and said she’d be able to get here. All we did was to change the reservation to put you in the Blackberry suite. You’ll have to blame your new wife for asking us to keep it a secret.”

  Shan mock glared at Ell, “Is this true?”