Smarter Page 5

  “Out of the country. They had a plane chartered out of Newark’s Liberty Airport. Probably to China as they all appeared to be Chinese.”

  “Were they captured? Are you safe now?”

  “Well, they were captured and I’m probably safe from them. But, if they were supported by a sovereign state, I’m told that they might just send other operators.”

  “That’s terrible! Do you have police protection?”

  “Well, not right now. And they might not come after me again for months; I probably couldn’t be followed around by police for the years it would take to actually be effective in preventing another attempt.”

  “My God! Are there any other plans for how to keep you safe? Is there anything I can do?”

  “We’re talking about something like witness protection, where I’d be disguised and assume another identity to throw them off.”

  “Oh! I guess that might work. I’m sure I could work it out so that we could admit you under an alias.”

  “I’m worried that, since they kidnapped me in Cambridge, MIT is one of the first places they would look for me in a disguise. I hate to ask, but could you help me with references for my alias at another institution?”

  “Ouch! You really don’t think you could work with us here?”

  “Maybe? Depending on what they find out about my kidnappers.”

  “Well, if you have to go into hiding, I have a good friend right in your home state of North Carolina that I could talk to for you. He’s an irascible SOB but very good at experimental quantum studies. I can probably exert some influence with him to take you. I’d hope that a means for me to talk to you about your theories could still be set up, even if you’re in hiding?”

  “Oh yeah! I’d really like that.”

  They spoke a little longer on inconsequential matters. When Ell hung up she started thinking about physics with some excitement again. But then Allan told her she had a call from Chief Bowers.

  “Yes Chief?”

  “Hello Ell. I’ve just finished talking to the U.S. Marshall’s office and they agree that you could be a candidate for witness protection if you are willing to testify against the people who kidnapped you?”

  “Sure!”

  “OK, I’ve made you an appointment to meet with the Marshals’ office in Raleigh tomorrow morning.”

  “Achhh! I’m just driving home from Raleigh now. But sure, I’ll be back tomorrow morning, just have them send me a time and location.”

  ***

  The next morning Ell walked into the Federal building on New Bern Avenue in Raleigh and found the Marshal’s office where she was introduced to Gloria Sanchez, a Witness Protection specialist.

  Ms. Sanchez said, “Normally, when we have someone come into witness protection we plan on their ‘becoming someone else” and never returning to their original identity but I’m betting that you still want to be ‘Ell Donsaii’ sometimes?”

  “Oh, yes Ma’am. Is that going to be a problem?”

  “You bet it is. Every time you show up as ‘Ell Donsaii’ there’s a chance someone will trace you back to compromise your new identity. I would really recommend against it but this is a free country. I can tell you not to do it but there’s nothing to keep you from going against my advice.”

  “Well, I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. Can you give me advice on how to lose ‘tails’ when I’m about to change from one identity to another?”

  “Sure,” Sanchez said reluctantly. She launched into a description of measures Ell could take.

  The next thing was to work on her new identity and its necessary documentation so they sat down to pick out a name.

  “Can I pick a name myself?”

  Gloria said, “Sure, but I think it’s better if we pick a name that you’ll notice if someone calls out to you by your new name. Something like ‘Ellen Symonds,’ which I really like because the first and last names share syllables with your real name. That means that if someone calls out to you, you are more likely to take note and respond correctly.”

  “Ellen Symonds.” Ell said, trying the name out for feel.

  “Ell Donsaii, Ellen Symonds. Close but not too close.”

  “OK.”

  “OK, I’ll talk to Jim about getting the documentation started and be right back.”

  While she was gone, Ell thought about how weird it was going to be to going by a new name. She said the name over and over in her mind trying to get used to it.

  Gloria came back in. “Let me have you stand up so I can look at you and we can think about disguising you.” After Ell stood Gloria had her turn around several times. She asked, “Any thoughts on how you want to look?”

  “Not really. My current look attracts a lot of unwanted attention from men.”

  Gloria snorted, “You think you’re too cute?!”

  “Well… kinda,” Ell blushed, “I hope that doesn’t sound stuck up?”

  “No, I just never thought I’d have a woman ask me to make her less attractive. I thought our genes were hardwired against such requests.”

  “Well, you don’t need to make me hideous.”

  Gloria leaned back and rubbed her chin, “Hmmm. Your slender build gives us a lot more options. I suggest we disguise your body with some padded underwear to make your hips and butt bigger. You’ll have to buy some larger pants and skirts. Then you wear tight sports bras all the time to make your top appear smaller. That combo alone will significantly reduce the attention guys give you. Skin bronzers to make your coloring darker and we can darken your hair too. Finally we’ll change your nose a little.”

  “Wow! All that?”

  “Sure, no half way measures.”

  They searched the Net together and ordered some padded underpants in Ell’s size to be delivered to Gloria. No disguise materials should be delivered to Ell’s addresses. For now they tucked some pieces of a torn up t-shirt into the pants Ell had on.

  Gloria took Ell in the bathroom and moussed her hair into a spiky do with a mousse that darkened her hair to brunette. They applied washable bronzer to all of Ell’s exposed skin but Gloria told Ell she’d need to do the rest of her skin when she got home so pale areas couldn’t be accidentally exposed and give her away. Then Gloria took a mold of Ell’s nose and built a silicone bump for it, carefully coloring it to match her new darker skin tone. She skin glued it in place and then showed Ell how to apply makeup to conceal it. Gloria had to teach Ell a lot about makeup since Ell had rarely ever worn any and she would need to wear a moderate amount to make this disguise work.

  When Gloria was done, Ell looked in the mirror in astonishment. Gone was the reddish blond girl of northern European descent. In her place was a swarthy Middle Eastern woman with a hooked nose and a spiky butch hairdo who was definitely “bottom heavy.” Ell wasn’t enamored of the new look but had to admit she hardly recognized herself. She’d always thought that she wasn’t vain, but found the “big bottom” and the nose somewhat embarrassing. Well, you thought it would be nice if men didn’t stare at you so much! she thought to herself with some chagrin. Problem solved! She chuckled.

  Gloria said, “What are you laughing about?”

  Ell just shook her head and gave Gloria a crooked grin, “I’d rather not say.”

  When she got home later that afternoon, Ell drove directly to the diner where her mother waited tables in the summer and went in to take a seat in her mother’s section. Her mother came over with a menu. Per Gloria’s instruction she pitched her voice a little higher than usual and used her best imitation of a nasal New York accent to order a cherry Coke and an order of French fries. Ell noticed the slight frown of disapproval her mother couldn’t suppress regarding her nutritional choices. Nonetheless, she was gratified that her own mother didn’t seem to recognize her.

  When Ell’s mother arrived back at Gram’s house she was startled to see the girl from the diner sitting at the table. “Hello, what are you doing here?”

  “Hi Mom, thought I’d sleep here tonight.�
��

  “Ell!?”

  “Yup, the disguise lady is pretty good, huh?”

  “My God!”

  The next few weeks were a whirlwind. Ell’s Mom and Jake were separated as required by North Carolina law prior to getting divorced. Ell provided emotional support wherever she could.

  Ell practiced her “New York” accent until it became pretty natural and she could turn it off and on effortlessly. She practiced putting her nose prosthetic and makeup on until that became a fast, second nature task. She never again appeared as Ellen Symonds outside the house in Morehead City though.

  Ell drove to Raleigh and picked up the permanent parts of her disguise from Gloria as well as documentation for “Ellen Symonds.” This included a New York birth certificate, passport, social security card, driver’s license, college transcript from UVA and faked results for the SAT. Ell was bemused to see that she was suddenly old enough to drink. Some special software was installed in her AI so that it had a divided personality, Allan for her old life and “Fred” for Ellen Symonds. Gloria had similar software on her AI allowing her to serve as “Ellen’s” widowed mother and only surviving relative should anyone try to contact “Ellen Symonds’” family.

  While she was in Raleigh she interviewed at NCSU’s physics department with Dr. Al Johnson, whom Dr. Smythe had recommended her to.

  “It is very late to be interviewing for a spot as a graduate assistant Ms. Symonds. If it weren’t for the good things that Dr. Smythe had to say about you we wouldn’t even be talking.”

  “Yes sir. I’m sorry but I have had some traumatic events in my life that made it impossible for me to go to MIT as I had planned.” It wasn’t quite true that Ell had “planned” to go to MIT, but Dr. Smythe had actually suggested the fib to Ell as a means to cover the fact that she should have applied to NCSU long ago.

  “What happened?”

  “I’m sorry, I really can’t talk about it.”

  “Hmmpf. That’s what Smythe said. I really don’t like taking you on without even knowing what happened to your spot at MIT.”

  “I’m so sorry. If you don’t feel you can offer me a spot without the full application process, I guess I’ll just have to apply next year?”

  “No, no. Smythe assures me that I’ll be sorry if I don’t take you on. I don’t know just what he sees in your record that makes him think you’re going to be some kind of superstar?”

  “I’m not sure either sir. I do hope that I can live up to his, and of course, your expectations.”

  “Can’t even answer that one, eh? OK, I’ll bite. I’m intrigued enough by the expectations that Smythe has, that I’ll invest some time in you. But, I warn you now, if you don’t live up to expectations you’ll get the boot so fast your head’ll spin, understood?”

  “Yes sir.” Ell said quietly, not sure if she liked this guy. She wondered once again whether if she could feel safe at MIT in her new disguise? Smythe was so much nicer! Of course MIT had Dr. Ferguson who she hadn’t liked, but at least she wouldn’t have to work with him all the time.

  “OK,” Johnson said, “I’ll talk to the admin secretary about getting you admitted and your AI should get something about it soon. You’ll be expected to teach one lab for my elementary physics class but, mostly you’ll be working in the research program. I certainly hope you can shine like Smythe thinks you can.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “I’m going to assign you some prep work. Smythe says you’re interested in that crazy paper by the gymnast, Donsaii?”

  Ell felt goose bumps on her neck. “Yes sir, I’ve been quite interested.”

  “Well, personally, I think it’s a load of crap. This “math” the girl invented is just bizarre. Even if she has successfully massaged it until it fits with current experimental data, the chances that it will correctly predict anything are microscopic.”

  Ell’s heart sank as she heard this appraisal, but Johnson hadn’t asked for a comment so she didn’t respond.

  Johnson went on, “But, that is what we experimentalists do. We test crazy predictions by hare brained theorists just in case one of them is actually correct. Personally, I’m going to enjoy proving that this ‘wunderkind gymnast’ is an idiot. She’s gotten entirely too much attention at way too young an age. Probably thinks her crap doesn’t stink like everyone else’s.”

  He paused, so Ell said in a small voice, “Yes sir.”

  “All that aside, for you to be able to do experiments on her predictions, you’re going to have to understand her math backwards and forwards. So, in your spare time the rest of this summer, get yourself chin deep in that paper she wrote and learn how to work her math for actual testable predictions. Smythe thinks that the ‘low hanging fruit’ for a testable hypothesis is her absurd prediction that you can ‘spin bump’ an entangled molecule’s outer shell electrons and measure an instantaneous ‘quiver’ in the electrons of the distant molecule of the entangled pair.”

  Bemused to be told she had to “study up” on a paper that she had written herself, Ell nonetheless said, “Yes sir.” with a straight face.

  “Unfortunately, ‘spin bumping’ is a hypothesis that might be possible to prove correct if it worked. But, when it doesn’t work we won’t be able to be sure that it was because the theory is hogwash. There will still be the possibility that the ‘spin bumping’ apparatus we came up with didn’t work right. So, what I want you to do is look for other testable hypotheses that will be easier to prove wrong.”

  “Yes sir.” Ell said quietly, immeasurably disappointed that she wouldn’t be allowed to try to prove that spin bumping did work.

  “Now, I know you don’t know squat about experimental methods, so you’ll have to talk to me about what you think her theory predicts would happen and I’ll help you figure out whether we can test it. I suppose we’ll have to make a few runs at this ‘spin bumping’ crap too but, even though it’ll be a waste of time, it will be good practice for you setting up apparatus.”

  “Yes sir.” Ell said, cheered.

  “OK, head on over to admin, they should know about you by the time you get there.” He turned back to his screens without shaking her hand or saying goodbye.

  “Yes sir.” Ell turned and left, not at all sure she wanted to work with this man? Maybe she could transfer somewhere else after a semester?

  ***

  Hands on his hips Mr. Li looked critically around the basement of the house his team had rented in Goldsboro, North Carolina. “OK, it will do. We need desks to work at and some large monitor screens. Set up cameras at her father’s and grandmother’s houses in Morehead City and at the arrival areas in the RDU and ILM airports. At the airports we will have to rely on facial recognition software, but at her homes I want one of us to inspect the image of each person who comes or goes.

  “Hao, you drive the roads here until you know them well.

  “Xian, you rent us a house on the barrier island with a dock. Then rent a boat to put in that dock and practice taking the boat out to the various rendezvous points.

  “Cho, you will obtain weapons, and a net jammer, and equipment to immobilize her. I know she is ‘just a girl’ but remember that she not only is said to have dealt successfully with those Arab terrorists, but that the team that preceded us was captured while trying to remove her from the country.

  “We will over-plan and over-prepare so that we do not fail like that incompetent Chin.”

  Chapter Four

  While she was at home over the summer, Ell had found herself constantly looking over her shoulder, especially when she encountered people of Asian extraction. When she registered at NCSU in August her feelings of sadness at leaving home again were mixed with quite a bit of excitement to begin a life testing her theories as Ellen Symonds and significant relief that she no longer felt she had to worry so much about kidnappers.

  Reading the syllabus she decided that setting up labs for the introductory physics class looked like it would fun. When she reported to Dr. Joh
nson’s office on her first day, he walked her down the hall to introduce her to another grad student in jeans and running shoes. “Ellen Symonds, This is Roger Emmerit, he’s worked in the lab for three years now and can show you the ropes. I’ll see you at the lab meeting this afternoon at 3.” Johnson turned and left without saying good bye.

  Ell found herself staring at Johnson’s retreating back. Roger cleared his throat. Ell turned back to the tall young man. He had a bushy shock of dark hair standing straight out from his head. Ell wondered if he was cultivating Einstein’s wild haired look. The look seemed to fit him, creating a wild, but improbably, kind of handsome appearance.

  For his part, Roger looked askance at the odd looking young woman Johnson had left in his charge. He thought to himself that she could be cute if she didn’t have such a beak of a nose. And her tummy and backside were way big for his taste, too bad she doesn’t work out a little. He said, “Don’t worry; Johnson’s bark is worse than his bite. I hear he wants you to work on that crazy paper by Donsaii?”

  Ell grimaced internally, “Yes sir.”

  “Don’t ‘sir’ me, I work for a living… Uh, that’s what my dad always said. He was a sergeant in the Marines.”

  “OK, but, yes, I’m to work on Donsaii’s ideas and see if we can test any of her predictions.”

  “Oh Jeez, I feel for you. When you’re trying to prove something and it doesn’t work, critics always blame your deficient experimental setup.”

  “What if we do confirm some of her predictions?”

  “Hah! Have you read her paper yet? Fat chance on that one. This math she’s proposed is incomprehensible! I mean she’s undoubtedly some kind of genius to work out a math that seems to correlate with existing results, but I don’t think there’s any way it’s gonna work. I’d love for her to be right but this stuff she’s proposing is just too counterintuitive.”

  At the 3PM lab meeting that day Johnson quizzed each of his grad students about their research progress. When he got to Ell he said, “So, do you understand the math in that paper?”