Rescue (an Ell Donsaii story #11) Page 6

  “Um,” Dr. Pace said, seeming uncertain. “I was hoping that you might consider, um, going to dinner with me next Saturday?”

  Viveka blinked several times, feeling startled. Was the company having a dinner that he was inviting her to? Or could it be, that he was inviting her on a date, like these Americans liked to do as a part of their courtship rituals? It can’t be a date, can it? But, what else would it be? Realizing that she’d been thinking about it long enough that he probably thought that she was being rude, she quickly stammered, “U-uh, sure, thank you for the invitation. What time should I be there?”

  “Oh,” he said, “I’ll pick you up at 6:30.” There was a pause, then he quietly said, “Thank you,” and disconnected.

  ***

  Carter sat down across from AJ, “My daughter thinks we’re crazy to want to send people to Mars.”

  AJ grinned at him, “You’re raising a philistine?”

  “She is surprisingly practical for a ten year old. I tried to get her excited about space by telling her that we hoped to send people to Mars and how we were going to farm there.” He raised an eyebrow, “When she figured out that we were going to have to live underground, and grow our crops in tunnels, in conditions of inadequate gravity, and under a surface with insufficient atmosphere, and too much radiation, she pointed out that we could farm in tunnels much more safely here on Earth!”

  AJ laughed, “Girl’s exasperatingly intelligent.” He glanced up musingly then back at Carter, “Maybe you could point her to the Mars Society’s ‘Founding Declaration.’ It outlines the reasons they think we should go there. Most of the reasons are about knowledge and might not impress someone as practical as your little girl.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially and said, “And, we’ll have to hope that she doesn’t realize that most of the Mars Society’s goals could be achieved by waldoes. By the way, the Society has found us hundreds of volunteers who want to make our trip and do our farming.”

  Carter snorted and shook his head, “I think she’ll figure the waldo thing out all by herself. You ready to talk to Donsaii?”

  “Sure,” AJ asked his AI to see if it could connect them to her.

  “Hello,” Ell said, “you guys got your plan for interplanetary domination all worked out?”

  “Well, no. But we’ve got a little test data. Our twenty four inch diameter test tunnel borer is out in the Valles Marineres. You’ll remember the borer is just a bullet shaped tungsten penetrator heated by solar parabolic mirrors. Just like it did tunneling here on Earth, it melted right into the walls of the Valles leaving a tunnel walled with a glass-ceramic of melted soil. We ported back some samples and the ceramic has good compressive strength. We’re working up a design for an eighteen foot penetrator we can ship up to orbit in pieces using the 747 space planes and then fly to Mars on its own set of rockets.”

  “Hmmm, let me see it.”

  There followed a pause while Donsaii looked at the CAD they’d sent her, then she said, “Looks like you’ve followed the plan of existing tunnel boring machines with hydraulic jacks to fix the back end in place and then thrust cylinders to push your melting head forward.”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  “Now don’t you guys be Ma’amin’ me. I’m not that old. I think it looks good except you need to join the modern age.”

  “Huh?”

  “Talk to Gary. Get him to make you a big graphene balloon that you can blow up in the tunnel to ‘fix’ your back end in place. Then he can give you a set of long narrow segmented balloons that you can blow up to push your melting head forward instead of those hydraulic thrust cylinders. You can use another balloon with an airlock built into it to plug the entrance to your tunnels.”

  “Um, but isn’t graphene expensive?”

  Ell snorted, “Yeah, but not as expensive as shipping that massive hydraulic machine to orbit then buying enough rocket fuel to push it all the way to Mars.”

  “Oh… yeah. That would save some money wouldn’t it?”

  “Uh huh, all you have to transport to Mars is a relatively thin walled tungsten bullet head with struts to hold the port delivering the light from a big solar parabolic. Well, and the graphene balloons we just talked about, but they won’t weigh very much.”

  ***

  Gary stared at Viveka in astonishment. He glanced around the table at the other Allosci scientists sitting there with him. Sure enough their expressions were as stunned as his must be.

  Viveka hadn’t even noticed. She continued speaking while pointing out salient items on the screen regarding her idea for diamond or graphend coating large objects in situ. The whole idea had required several intuitive leaps that were the kind of thing brilliant people made, but ordinary people seldom did. Leaps that seemed obvious when you looked back on them, but seemed impossible before someone had thought of them.

  If it works we’ll need to patent that second one, Gary thought, and I’ll be really surprised if it doesn’t work! She’ll need to be named as inventor on it. And receive some substantial royalties.

  Damn, she’s amazing!

  Gary had been thinking that Viveka should feel lucky that he was interested in her. Now, the combination of some of her brilliant insights and her astonishing appearance in that white swimming suit out at Jordan Lake had him wondering why she would even consider going out with somebody like him. Good thing I already have a date arranged with her for Saturday night, he thought to himself.

  ***

  Viveka waited nervously for Gary. She wondered again whether his picking her up to take her out to dinner constituted what these Americans called a date. Perhaps, he simply wanted to talk about work and didn’t feel he had the time to do so at their workplace? She’d seen some American movies and had some idea about how their “dating rituals” went. However, it seemed from the movies that sex was often involved.

  Her thoughts hopped from one possibility to another.

  Gary was just being friendly.

  He, like her mother had said, just wanted sex.

  It was a business dinner.

  He intended a romantic evening because he really liked her.

  He recognized that as a lonely woman in a foreign country, one who depended on him for a job, she was an easy target for a “one night stand.”

  He really did think she was brilliant and wanted to get married.

  He wanted to fire her, but didn’t want to do it at work for fear she would make a scene.

  No, Ell had told her that he thought the world of her. It must be a date. However, he might still expect to have sex.

  Even if it was a romantic overture on Gary’s part, Viveka had no idea what she would do. She had always expected that her family would be involved in negotiating and arranging any marriage that might come her way. Though, because of their poverty, it had always seemed very unlikely that a marriage could even be arranged for her. Her family would not have been able to afford a dowry. Her thoughts bounced to the fact that, at her current salary, she could fund a dowry herself. On the other hand, though she could afford a much more substantial dowry than someone of her previous status in India would ever have expected, Gary to a large degree, owned Allosci. He would, of course, have so much money that any dowry she could provide would seem like a joke. Her prospects would be much better, she thought, with some of the machinists who worked there at Allosci.

  She jumped when the door AI chimed and stated that Dr. Pace had arrived. Getting to her feet she quickly rechecked her appearance in the mirror and then answered the door. The door AI showed her that Gary had flowers again, a gesture the meaning of which she felt highly uncertain.

  As the door opened, he smiled broadly, and reached out with the hand not holding the flowers for a little hug. “Hey, Viveka, you look great! But then, you always do.”

  Viveka stepped forward and leaned towards him to accept the small hug, patting his back in a weak attempt to reciprocate the hug. “Thank you,” she said, wondering whether this was a standard, friendly greetin
g hug, or some kind of declaration of romantic intent. Her mind whirled as she dithered about, finally putting the small bouquet of flowers in one of her tall drinking glasses. She thought to herself that she would need to get a vase if he was going to keep doing this.

  He took her to a restaurant that appeared to be very upscale. Certainly, the prices were appalling. Is this simply because he has so much money that these prices mean little to him? Or is he trying to signal romantic intent? Or is it a business dinner that he can charge to the company? Viveka settled for choosing one of the cheapest items on the menu. Nonetheless, it was still expensive, and very good.

  Gary did not direct the conversation to business. Viveka didn’t know whether she was relieved or worried about this. He asked her more about her childhood and her struggles to get an education, seeming very interested in her life.

  Suddenly realizing that he had learned a great deal about her, but that she knew very little about him, she began asking him about his history. It surprised her to learn that he’d grown up across the country in Nevada, but not that his parents were professionals, an engineer and a programmer.

  Considering her, however unlikely, romantic thoughts about him, she was relieved to learn that his family was not wealthy like she had imagined. Not wealthy for Americans that is, of course they would be considered unimaginably wealthy in comparison to her practically destitute family.

  This led her to ask him how he had come to be the CEO and majority owner of Allosci. “Well I had this process,” he said, “for making graphene. It almost worked down here on earth, and I thought that I might be able to get it to work better in microgravity conditions. Since Ell was building the habitat then, and I had read about it in the news, I called her and asked if I could fly up a small test rig on one of her launches.”

  “Wait! You just called up Dr. Donsaii?”

  “Well, I already knew her, so I was pretty sure she’d answer my call.”

  “How did you know her?”

  “Well, Ell told me about how she met you, so I know that you are aware that she disguises herself as Raquel Blandon?”

  Viveka nodded.

  Gary explained how he had met Ell, as Raquel Blandon, at a martial arts school in Las Vegas. He winked at Viveka, “So you’re not the first beautiful, brilliant woman I’ve ever gone out with, you see?”

  Viveka felt stunned to realize she’d just been favorably compared to Dr. Donsaii! And he just said, “gone out with,” which I think means that this is a date! She blinked at him, too astonished to come up with a response.

  After a moment, seeming embarrassed, he said, “I’m sorry. That was rude, bringing up my dating history while I’m out with you. It was a long time ago. I hope I haven’t upset you.”

  Still too flabbergasted to speak, Viveka merely shook her head in negation. It really does sound like he thinks of this as a date! After a moment, hoping her voice wouldn’t break, she said, “I’m sorry, but after going out with Dr. Donsaii, being here with me must seem quite shabby by comparison.”

  His eyes widened and he shook his head, “No! No, I didn’t mean that all. I have been… looking forward… to, to this evening, with… much anticipation. I think you’re… wonderful, so beautiful, and so very, very smart! I’ve been admiring you more and more every day since you arrived at Allosci.” He paused as if gathering his thoughts, then said, hesitantly, “It might be wrong for me to date one of Allosci’s employees, but I just can’t seem to get my mind off you.”

  The remainder of the dinner passed in a blur. All too soon Viveka found herself walking up to the door of her apartment with Dr. Pace. Her door AI recognized her and unlocked the door. Putting her hand on the door Viveka turned and said, “Thank you so much for such a nice dinner.”

  Dr. Pace said, “You’re so welcome. I hope I can take you somewhere again soon?” he said stepping closer and slipping an arm behind her back. He leaned towards her.

  No! He wants sex! My mother was right! Twisting the doorknob, Viveka jerked her head away and turned. Stepping in through the door, she closed it all but an inch, which she peered back out through. “Good night,” she said shakily, and then closed the door until it latched. She stood there shaking in reaction for a moment, then turned, tears streaming down her face, and walked back to her bedroom. This is so confusing. I don’t know what it all means! Maybe he didn’t want sex?

  ___

  Gary stood outside her door, stunned, and unsure of what had just happened. For a moment he considered knocking on the door and trying to apologize. She obviously had not wanted a kiss, which was disappointing, but he could live with that. However, she had acted as if she were either frightened or repulsed. She had practically torn herself out of the slight hug he had started to give her. Now his own hands were shaking with reaction. What had he done?

  Chapter Three

  Sheila Rhodes, now back to her previous position as Deputy Director of the FBI, looked up as one of her Associate Deputy Directors knocked on her door frame. “Hey, Rak, what’s up?”

  Rakeem stepped into her office and closed the door, frowning. “It’s the SCDF, Sheila. You’ll know how the three we arrested have revealed nothing on questioning so far?”

  Sheila nodded.

  “It’s like they’re brainwashed or something. Some members of the SCDF task force think that Fallon practically hypnotizes them. These guys don’t even seem to know his name, but they have EEG, pupillary and pulse rate reactions when we show them pictures of the SOB.” He shook his head, “Anyway, we haven’t been able to sweat anything useful out of them and they all had wiper programs on their AIs. Our only break has been that one of them had made a backup chip for some of the data on his AI. He’d hid the backup and a few paper notes in the binding of an old bible.” Rakeem shrugged, “We’re actually pretty lucky we found it, so it wasn’t such a bad plan.”

  Sheila grinned, “Simple plans are often the best. Is it going to help you track down any of the others?”

  Rakeem shook his head disgustedly, “No. However, it had a recipe for ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil explosive), disguised as a recipe for granola. One of the agents recognized the proportions. And it has a bunch of clippings about an abortion rights trial about to come up before the US District Court in Florence, South Carolina. Finally, we reconstructed a shredded hand written note out of his trash saying, ‘pro-choice, granola barrels in Toyota under McMillan, boom – pro-life, abortion clinic boom.’”

  “McMillan?”

  “The Federal Building that the District Court is in.”

  Sheila sighed and rubbed her eyes, “Is there parking under McMillan or something?”

  “No, but there’s a kind of glass enclosed section on the bottom. We think they might be able to drive a vehicle in under there somehow.”

  “When is this trial?”

  “Starts tomorrow.”

  “Sweet Jesus. How are you planning to deal with this?”

  “Assign extra agents during the trial. Sharpshooters on the roof. Incognito agents to check out all Toyotas in the area with chemical sniffers.”

  “The briefcase versions?”

  Rakeem nodded.

  “Dress them in suits so they’ll look like lawyers. Pretty good disguise around a courthouse.” Sheila leaned back, thinking, “Have them be especially on the lookout for recently stolen vehicles.”

  Rakeem lifted an eyebrow, “If they’ve stolen a vehicle, they’ll have to disable the AI. That’ll mean someone would have to drive it under the building on manual. It’d be a suicide mission.”

  Sheila shrugged. “Remember Fallon’s brainwashed those guys to the point you can’t sweat anything out of them. What do you think are the chances he could also talk someone into a suicide mission?”

  ***

  Dupree tensely watched the feed from a camera mounted on the dash of the Toyota Tundra that Redman had stolen the day before. It had a windowless camper shell on the back into which they’d loaded Salem’s two 50-gallon barrels
of ANFO.

  Because Redman had taken the Tundra’s AI completely offline to keep the police from shutting it down now that it had been stolen, Dupree’s son Ellis was manually driving the truck. Ellis turned onto Evans Street and Dupree could see the distinctive profile of the McMillan Federal Building where the US District Court should be handing down its decision on the abortion case this morning.

  Dupree’s gut unclenched when he saw that no vehicles were parked on the right side of Evans Street where Redman had programmed the starting location for the truck’s AI. Ellis pulled in and parked in exactly the parking space Redman had programmed into the AI’s GPS. When Ellis turned the net-isolated AI back on, the big four wheel drive pickup truck would wait ten minutes, then pull over the curb and sidewalk, accelerate across the empty lot at the corner of Evans and McQueen, cross McQueen at speed, barrel through the fence around the building and into the glass framed understory. Once it had halted somewhere underneath the main building, Ellis would detonate the ANFO remotely.

  Then that godless bunch of heathens would learn of the wrath of the SCDF.

  Dupree felt a little frisson of excitement run up his spine at the thought of the death and mutilation that would result. The Oklahoma bombing, admittedly much bigger, had actually left the investigators with an extra leg they could never identify to an individual. Dupree found it amusing that the Feds couldn’t sort out who the leg belonged to, though, of course, God could.

  Fallon thought momentarily of the agony the families would go through later today when they would learn of the loss of their loved ones. He shrugged. Those families shouldn’t have let their loved ones work in the evil corruption represented by that government building. It was too bad that the legal team arguing the pro-life position had to die too, but everyone should be prepared to make sacrifices for the greater good. Besides, even the pro-life team members were lawyers, a breed of mankind for which Dupree felt nothing but loathing.