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  Interestingly, one of the reporters asked Ben Stavos, cofounder of ET Resources, about the transfer of American radioactive waste to the Juno repository. Stavos responded that he would not have any part of such a transfer until President Stockton rescinds her executive order declaring D5R’s leader Ell Donsaii “a national menace to be held without trial or recourse at Guantanamo.”

  Many find this to be a fascinating tactic. Some have pointed out that if D5R were to deny the United States access to the ports produced by its subsidiary Portal Tech this would be a huge blow to America’s technological preeminence. However, a search by this reporter found an interview with Fred Marsden, one of Portal Tech’s founders, on this very point. Marsden claimed that Donsaii herself had instructed him not to use restriction of their technology as a lever against the government in any attempts to achieve her freedom.

  Although that sounds laudable, one must wonder whether Portal Tech’s reluctance to take a stand might instead actually stem from fear that Stockton would simply nationalize their company at the first evidence of resistance. Though the United States does not have the same history of nationalization that many countries do, there is no doubt that it has nationalized industries before and could do it again.

  Stockton stood with a smile as Mason Phillips entered the Oval Office. “So, can I announce that we’ve got Donsaii back behind bars…” She trailed off as she saw the expression on Phillips’ face. “You’ve got to be shittin’ me!” she snarled.

  Phillips shook his head wearily. “Donsaii has more tricks up her sleeve than anyone would believe.”

  “Oh come on!” Stockton said exasperatedly. “What’d she do? Outrun your agents?”

  “No, she does have some kind of impenetrable force field or something though.” Phillips went on to describe how he’d sent five times as many agents to the site as the section chief had requested. How they’d changed sites right before the meet to deny Donsaii the ability to evaluate the meet site ahead of time. How they’d set things up for Donsaii to enter a windowless room on her own so that she couldn’t use her athletic abilities to escape.

  Then he told Stockton how she’d appeared at a window without appearing on infrared, broken the glass somehow by wiping her finger over it, and then blocked the agents with force fields of some kind. The AV record from within the room showed her appearing at the window from above, as if dropped by a helicopter, but no helicopter had been in the area!

  “Then,” he said, exhaustedly, “at the end she just flew away!”

  Even though it was embarrassing to the agency, Phillips described how Donsaii had distracted them with the upper half of a Styrofoam mannequin in a car. Finally he explained York’s injury sustained while shooting at the force field or membrane or whatever it was.

  “Force field?” Stockton asked.

  “Well at first the people on the scene thought it was some kind of membrane, but a membrane should have left something behind. We went over the place with a fine tooth comb looking for remnants of any membrane with no results. Besides, there isn’t any kind of membrane, thin enough to see through, that would be able to resist a bullet.” He shrugged, “Also, it appears to be pushing outward from the center. The sheet rock on the walls in those hallways where she deployed the force fields was buckled outward in between the studs.”

  “So, you’re proposing all kinds of new technology she used then? She can fly, she’s got an infrared invisibility suit, she has force fields of some kind, anything else? Oh, yeah, she can cut glass with her fingertip, right? Jesus Christ,” Stockton turned to look out the window, shaking her head in exasperation, “I’m completely surrounded by incompetents!”

  Phillips stood up a little straighter and said, “I won’t accept that.” Stockton turned to narrow an eye at him but didn’t say anything so Phillips continued, “I believe that my team took all the reasonable precautions that anyone might have taken without knowing about the new technology Donsaii could bring to bear.”

  “Oh, come on! I practically deliver her to you on a platter and you can’t even close the trap?”

  “I’ll point out that she never actually entered the trap. I’d also like to return to a point I’ve made before. I’m still very concerned that by antagonizing her you put one of our country’s greatest resources at risk. You have suggested that she simply made one lucky physics discovery, but I’ll submit that her response to our attempted capture confirms that she has a number of additional technologies at her disposal that we are completely unaware of and certainly do not understand.”

  Stockton sat down, leaned back and laced her hands behind her head as she considered Phillips. “I’m of half a mind to fire you Mr. Phillips,” she paused and studied Phillips who showed no concern, “but, I’m going to give you one more shot at this.”

  In his turn, Phillips studied her. Finally he shrugged, “OK, what do you have in mind?”

  “Everyone seems to think she’s sappily loyal to her people. So, arrest her employees and set a trap for her when she comes after them.”

  Phillips frowned, “Her employees? Everyone that works for D5R? You’re talking tens of thousands of people! And, you’d be shooting our own economy in the foot!”

  “No, no. One of your reports said she had a team of security people that protect her and some kind of a girl Friday who managed her life. They’re her personal employees. Arrest them.”

  “On what grounds?”

  “Think of something. I’m sure you could suggest that they must be covering for her while she’s a fugitive. Aiding and abetting or something like that.”

  “We’re supposed to have evidence!”

  Stockton sighed and rolled her eyes, “Well, find some. I’ll have Raul come up with some charges for you.”

  As Phillips was leaving, Stockton said, “And Mason?”

  “Yes?”

  “Remember, what you’re supposed to be doing is what’s best for this country.”

  And to hell with any niceties like following the law, Phillips thought.

  Chapter Six

  Emma stared distantly out the window of the restaurant, but turned at the footsteps behind her. Glancing back she saw Ell done up as Raquel… wearing a really baggy shirt! “You’re pregnant!”

  “Hi yourself,” Ell grinned at her.

  “When are you due?”

  “First of October.”

  Emma put a sheepish hand to her face, “How did I not notice when I saw you last month?”

  “Well,” Ell gave her a little grin, “I wasn’t as far along, and you might have been a little focused on somebody getting engaged?”

  Emma lifted an eyebrow, “Are you implying that I only think about me?”

  Ell laughed, “No, no. Well, maybe for a few days after somebody dropped a rock on your finger!”

  Emma tilted her nose up. “Well, I’ll concede that might have been true, way back then. So sit down and let’s talk about my wedding!”

  The two young women talked about the baby and the wedding over a nice lunch. Emma had picked a date in late October so Ell should be recovered somewhat from the ordeal of her childbirth. Suddenly Ell glanced up and to the right, looking at her HUD, “Tell her I’m busy right now, but could take a call in thirty minutes.”

  Emma smirked, “That the President calling, wanting to apologize?”

  Ell shrugged, “President alright,” she frowned, “but President of Brazil. Not sure why she’d be trying to reach me.”

  Emma’s eyebrows shot up and she hissed in a whisper, “You put a head of state on hold to finish talking to me about my wedding?”

  Ell grinned, “Well of course. I do have my priorities you know.” She glanced up again, then rolled her eyes. “Tell her it will be at least an hour and that I can call her back if she’d prefer.”

  Emma drew back, “Now you’re going to make her wait even longer?”

  “No, different caller, “Mary Hoyt. She says she’s going to try to negotiate a deal with Stockton for me.�
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  “Mary Hoyt the House Majority Leader?”

  Ell nodded.

  Emma perked up, “Oh that’s great! If you’ve got some of the Democratic party leadership on your side, maybe Stockton will listen to reason.”

  “Not so sure. The FBI tried to capture me when Hoyt and I met to talk about it. I’m afraid Stockton only sees one solution to the ‘Donsaii problem.’”

  “Yeah, Stockton impresses me as a very ‘black or white’ kind of person. No shades of gray. Sorry.”

  “Not your fault.” Ell narrowed an eye, “Unless you voted for her?”

  Emma put up her hands, “No, no, not me!”

  In her car after the lunch with Emma, Ell said, “Feed me data on the President of Brazil and let her know that I can take her call now.” A minute later Allan connected her with a man who said, “I will translate for President Goncalves as she does not speak English very well. She tells me to greet you with all cordiality.”

  “Oh, thank you. I’m sure this will be more pleasant than AI translation. Please give President Goncalves my best wishes and tell her I am at her disposal.”

  After a burst of Portuguese from the translator and from a woman in the background, the man said, “The President asks me to be sure that you are aware that Brazil is the current Chair of the G-20 and will be hosting the next Summit near Rio this October?”

  Embarrassed that she didn’t know much about the G-20, Ell glanced up at her HUD. Allan had already displayed information on the G-20’s role as a forum of the world’s largest economies for “cooperation and consultation on matters pertaining to the international financial system.” “Yes?” Ell said, inviting him to go on without displaying her ignorance.

  “Because technology based on your discoveries is rapidly changing the economies of the world, President Goncalves would like to invite you to speak at the Summit. She believes that you could provide important insights into future economic changes that will result as these technologies mature and become more widespread.”

  “Oh… is the President aware that President Stockton has branded me a ‘menace’ and that I am currently a fugitive from justice in my own country?”

  After another brief interlude in Portuguese, the translator said, “Yes, and she, like many other world leaders, finds this to be an unbelievable situation. She would be happy to offer you permanent asylum in Brazil, but at the very least would offer you our protection during the summit.”

  “Um, I would normally be happy to participate, but of course I must consider the dangers for me as an individual. At a minimum I should only be on the program as a ‘surprise guest speaker.’ I am afraid that President Stockton’s resolve in efforts to bring me to justice is more substantial than you might believe. I would not want to be the cause of an international incident between Brazil and the United States.”

  After some further discussion they concluded their conversation without a definite resolution. Ell felt like she couldn’t commit for sure until just a few days before the meeting because of the volatility of the entire situation.

  When Hoyt called, Ell’s car was bumping its way over the dirt road onto a farm she’d purchased as Elsa Gardon. The farm was near Pittsboro, about fifteen miles from Chapel Hill and her existing farm. “Hello Congresswoman, I hope you’re using the chip I gave you?” she said as she got out of the car at the farmhouse.

  “Hello, Dr. Donsaii. Yes, I’m using that chip and have even taken out the other chips in my headset, so that my AI is disconnected at present. I must start by apologizing for the behavior of the FBI at our attempted meeting. I hope you weren’t injured.”

  “No Ma’am.”

  “Please call me Mary. I’m hoping we’ll have more conversations in the process of negotiating a peace between yourself and the President.”

  “OK, Mary.” Ell said, opening the door and going in the farmhouse. “I’d be pleased if you called me Ell. I hope none of the agents were injured in all that shooting at the farmhouse?”

  “Well, in fact, the lead agent fired his gun at one of your force fields point blank and the bullet bounced back to hit him in the collarbone. However, they tell me he’s going to be OK.”

  Appalled, Ell said, “Oh! I’m so sorry.” Force fields? Did they decide the graphene bubbles were some kind of force field?

  “You shouldn’t be. There was absolutely no reason for them to be shooting! I’m utterly furious about that and intend to raise hell with the President over it. One of the reasons I’m calling, in addition to talking about any compromises we might make, is to better understand what happened before I talk to her. What were those force fields? Some other new technology you’re developing?”

  “Uh,” Actually, Ell realized, the ability to make graphene in something other than long strips or cables was unknown to anyone except herself, Shan, Gary and a very few of the folks working for Gary. “Yes, it is something new. I’d rather not say what it actually is as yet.”

  “That’s OK. All I need to know is that it is new. The possibility that you might take your toys and go play in someone else’s sandbox is one of the levers we want to use on Stockton. I can’t wait to tell her about it.”

  They talked some more about compromises, Hoyt having not been paying attention at the safe house when Ell had told Hoyt about her own limits and compromises, had, irritatingly enough, not played back the AV record. Or maybe she’s hoping I’ll soften my limits if she gets me to repeat them enough times?

  After Hoyt disconnected, Ell finished looking around at the repairs and remodeling her contractor had done to the house, then looked across the field, overgrown since the farmer had retired a few years back. When the farm had been thriving the farmer had built a house for his son. Paying the mortgage for an unoccupied home when his son had declined to live there had contributed substantially to the farm’s failure.

  Using one of her other aliases, Ell had also purchased three homes that had been for sale near the farm. She’d told that real estate agent that she intended to “flip” them and had hired a different contractor to update, repair and paint them. It seemed crazy to her just how much real estate she now owned. If the government tried to confiscate her accounts, she hoped that they wouldn’t find all the money and real estate she owned under her many aliases. These houses near Pittsboro seemed like places she could live if the government found out about the “Raquel” alias. Or, rather when they found out about it. It just seemed so unlikely that they hadn’t found out about it so far.

  ***

  Connie walked into the Las Vegas office of the FBI and looked around. She’d thought about contacting them over the net, but really didn’t want there to be any record outside the FBI offices of her turning Donsaii in. She felt a little conflicted, still hating Raquel, the girl who’d made a fool out of Connie dancing at Tres Locos but respecting Ell Donsaii… for all that she’d done.

  However, now there was this reward.

  Connie approached a desk. The young lady there said, “May I help you?”

  “Mmm, yeah. I’m wanting to provide information on Ell Donsaii?”

  “Very good Ma’am. Please take a seat.”

  “Uh, there’s a reward, right?”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  In surprisingly short order, Connie found herself drained of information on “Donsaii alias, Raquel, last name not known.” She provided downloads of pictures and video of “Raquel” dancing including that final sequence at Tres Locos when Ell took off her wig to reveal who she actually was. It didn’t seem like much now that Connie reflected on it.

  ***

  Ell winced and put a hand on her abdomen, “Hey Hubby, your son is trying to escape the womb tonight!”

  Shan leaned down next to her tummy, “Hey Buddy, ease up on the kickin’.”

  Ell ran her fingers through Shan’s hair. “You know how I was threatening to move to the mountains to escape the heat before you reminded me about your dad’s cooling clothes?”

  “Umhmm,” Shan sai
d, sliding his own hands over Ell’s stomach to feel their baby kicking.

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about heading up that way anyhow. I’d like to make some changes to one of our little hideaways.

  “I could go with you for a bit. I’m not teaching second session summer school.”

  “Oh, that’d be fun!”

  “Well, I can’t just goof off. I am supposed to be doing research you know.”

  Ell blinked, “I thought your research consisted of sitting around contemplating your mathematical navel?”

  Shan sniffed, “My mathematical navel is a huge and resounding cavern of infinite depth, imaginary width and theoretical height, such as cannot be explained to the uninitiated.”

  Ell grinned, “Have you tried Egol’s marginal calculation? I hear it can condense vast egos down to manageable sizes.”

  Shan snorted, “I never get the last word!”

  ***

  Stockton narrowed her eyes at the hostile look on Hoyt’s face as she entered the Oval Office. “Hello Mary.”

  “I’m going to dispense with the pleasantries here Edith. I’m so mad I could just spit!”

  “Mary…”

  “No, don’t you try being pleasant either. The FBI minions at my attempted meet told me that their authorization to attempt to capture Donsaii during my meeting ‘came from the highest levels.’ Were you that ‘highest level’?”

  Stockton narrowed her eyes. With a tic in one cheek she said, “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

  “I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ So your encouragement that I should talk to her had nothing to do with achieving a compromise and everything to do with a devious attempt to get her back in custody?”

  “I’m willing to do what it takes to get a job done, yes. I happen to believe that getting Donsaii in control before she does irreparable harm is one of my most important responsibilities as President.”