Lieutenant Read online

  Cody allowed himself to be led away, but not before calling back to Ell, “Raquel, wait for me ‘til after this dance. Please?”

  Ell shrugged, then leaned up against the wall where Cody’d been leaning before. Amy gave an exasperated snort and walked back out to her beer. After a moment Ell slowly followed.

  The band was playing another fast song and with a whirl Connie burst out onto the floor, then trailed her hand back to Cody, starting a routine they’d perfected for a dance contest a few months ago. They swung around the floor whirling through flips, Charlestons, lifts and other aerials, finishing in a pose that brought the bar to its feet clapping. They took a bow and walked back off the floor toward Amy and Ell’s table. As they approached Ell stopped clapping and raised her glass of Coke in a salute to them.

  Connie sashayed past, acknowledging Ell only with a muttered, “Top that, bitch!”

  At first Ell’s temper flashed with the intent to do exactly what Connie had requested, top her dance with one leavened with gymnastic moves, but she relentlessly tamped down her anger. She’d caused too many problems in the past, putting obnoxious people in their places. This time she was determined that she would just let it slide.

  Cody came back to Ell’s table, “Ignore Connie! She can be a real ass. She’s just jealous of how well you danced when we didn’t even have experience together.”

  Ell shrugged, then offered her crooked smile, “Connie’s a great dancer. Give her my compliments.”

  “Would you dance again?”

  “Take out my friend Amy here. She could use a turn around the floor with a really great dancer.”

  “You could probably do even better on a second dance; don’t you want to show Connie what you can really do?”

  “Nope!” Ell grinned, “I want you to show Amy what it’s like dancing with a truly excellent dancer.” She gave him a little shove.

  He laughed and held out a hand to Amy who took it with a grin. Soon they were out on the floor, creditably swing dancing, though without the grace and athleticism that Cody and Ell had displayed.

  Ell and Amy stayed at the bar a little longer. Amy was asked to dance several more times but Ell refused to dance with Cody anymore, having decided that she didn’t want to ruin his relationship with Connie. Cody insisted they were only dance partners at the school, not lovers, but Ell said, “That’s an important relationship. You shouldn’t screw it up.”

  No one else asked Ell to dance and she wondered why but Amy explained it without being asked. “Guys are surprisingly delicate creatures, though they won’t admit it. You have three issues keeping them from asking you to dance.” She held up fingers as she ticked them off, “They think you’re too good looking, they’ve seen you shooting Cody down, and they think you dance so well that you’ll laugh at them. They aren’t going to ask you to dance for fear of being humiliated on the basis of any of those three counts. We’re going to have to go to a different bar before you’ll get asked to dance again.”

  “Aw,” Ell stuck out her lower lip again, “Just when I’d decided I liked dancing.”

  “You really do need a social life you know? Something besides going out dancing with me. How ‘bout Gary?”

  “Gary?”

  “Yes, Gary. The young redheaded guy that almost always manages to pair himself with you at 4MA. You know he has the hots for you don’t you?”

  Ell rolled her eyes, “You ready to head home?”

  “OK,” as they walked out of Tres Locos, they carefully ignored Barrett and Dan from Ell’s security detail. The guys were sitting at a table near the door. Ell hoped they hadn’t been too bored.

  Chapter Four

  Roger, Ell’s lab partner from her physics grad student days sat in the bar across the street from his hotel waiting for Ell. He looked at his watch again. She was only ten minutes late but it made him nervous. Somehow, he still found it hard to believe that Ell Donsaii would actually take the time to go out to dinner with him. Deep inside he half expected a call saying she couldn’t come, or maybe to just be stood up. He took another sip of his beer, determined to make it last, and looked around the bar. His eyes lingered a moment on the shapely legs of a pretty girl sitting at the bar then roamed on around. When he looked back that way he realized that the girl with the short skirt and the gorgeous legs was staring at him. Why? he wondered. It’s Las Vegas, maybe she’s a hooker? Trying not to make it seem like he was staring, he glanced back at her. She’s smiling at me! Roger looked out the window a moment, hoping he’d see Ell coming his way. Ell! He looked back at the girl; she grinned even bigger, then got up and walked his way.

  “I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out!”

  He rolled his eyes, “Why are you in disguise?”

  She made a face like she was hurt, “I thought you liked me this way? Though I couldn’t bring myself to put the fat pants back on, even for you.”

  Roger got up and gave her a hug, Oof, she feels good! And she’s hugging me back, hard! “Well I’m so disappointed!” he whispered in her ear, “I like my Ells’ with some ‘back’ on them.” He held her back out at arm’s length and grinned at her. She’s wearing some skin bronzer and another nose prosthesis, smaller than the one she wore as “Ellen,” and I think that’s a wig, though a pretty good one. She looks pretty, not actually beautiful like she is when she’s “Ell,” but still pretty damn good.

  Ell slapped him lightly on the shoulder, “You’d better like me as I am Roger Emmerit!” She mock glared at him.

  “Yes Ma’am.” he grinned back.

  “Well Allan made us reservations at seven and you spent so much time figuring out who I am that we’re going to be late. Let’s get moving.”

  “Help me drink my beer?”

  “I’ll have a sip, but I can afford to buy you another. Make you my ‘kept man.’”

  “Yes Ma’am.” he grinned again.

  As they walked to the restaurant Roger asked, “Really, why are you still in disguise?”

  Ell shrugged, “Because the Chinese might still be after me. Better safe than sorry and all that.”

  “But you can’t go to work at Nellis in disguise can you?”

  “I don’t think a bunch of Chinese Nationals are going to try to kidnap me on a United States Air Force base. I only wear my disguise when I’m off base.”

  The restaurant turned out to be quite elegant. As they were seated Roger said, “Wow, we’re moving up in the world!”

  Ell shrugged, “Believe it or not, this is the first hoity-toity restaurant I’ve gone to, even now that I’ve got some money in the bank. What should we order? After all your family is in the restaurant business.”

  Roger raised his eyebrows as he looked over the menu. “We may be in the restaurant business but we don’t serve stuff like this.”

  Eventually they both ordered Filet Mignon and, to the waiter’s most evident dismay, French fries. Roger watched in awe as Ell finished a salad, the steak, all her fries and then ordered “Banana’s Foster.” She looked at him, “What are you having for dessert?”

  “Jeez, I’m stuffed, you go ahead. What’s Banana’s Foster?”

  She grinned, “I don’t know, but I like bananas and I like dessert, so it should make me happy,” she patted her tummy.

  After their dinner they walked slowly back toward Roger’s hotel, Ell pleased that he managed to take her hand again like he used to back at NC State. As they passed a bar with live music Roger said, “Hey, you want to go in and listen a while?”

  She smiled at him. “Sure.” They went in and listened until the band took a break then meandered the rest of the way back to his hotel, hand in hand. In the lobby they paused uncomfortably, Ell worrying that he’d invite her up to his room. Then worrying that he wouldn’t.

  Roger dithered over the same question, then—remembering their old game—said, “If I invited you up to my room, could you restrain yourself from taking advantage of me?”

  She pursed her lips and tappe
d her chin as if in deep thought, then grinned up at him,. “OK, I promise.”

  Up in the room she strode to the window and threw open the curtains, “Wow, nice view!”

  Roger came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, “Best view of the building next door that money can buy. And, if you lean way to the right you can see a thin sliver of the bright lights of Las Vegas.”

  Ell snickered and leaned back against him, “Oh well, I didn’t come up for the view of the city.”

  Roger leaned down and blew gently on her neck.

  Ell squirmed, “You’re giving me goose bumps!” She turned in his arms…

  ***

  Bemused, Roger watched Ell finish her second waffle.

  “These are really good!” she said and twinkled up at him. “Sure you don’t want another one?”

  “Hah! If I ate like you do I’d have to buy adjacent seats on the plane back to Raleigh. When are you going to be back in North Carolina?”

  She shrugged, “I’m not sure, sometime in the next 6 months. I’m hoping I’ll be there for Christmas or Thanksgiving, but everyone wants those dates off and I’m the most junior officer, so probably not.”

  He took her hand, “You’ll let me know when you’re there?”

  She flashed him a brilliant smile, “You bet, I’ve gotta get my dose of Roger!”

  ***

  “Sir I’m concerned.”

  “Well, I am too Varnet. But the Chinese have concentrated troops in Fujian province before.”

  “Yes sir. But those times have been when they’ve been rattling sabers about Taiwan.”

  “So you think we should be more worried because they haven’t been making noise this time?”

  “Sir, if you actually want to win a fight, you don’t telegraph your first punch.”

  “You can hardly help but telegraph your punch when we’re watching every move you make with umpty zillion satellites.”

  “Sir, we don’t really have that many satellites. And the Chinese have had ‘killer satellites’ that can take out other satellites since way back in 2007.”

  “They couldn’t take out all our satellites!”

  “Sir, we don’t know that. They’ve launched a lot of satellites in the past few years.”

  “How would they rationalize taking out our satellites?”

  The younger man shrugged, “They want their privacy? They could just take out the ones that are over them.”

  “But we have polar orbit satellites that are only over them sometimes.”

  He shrugged again, “They might take those out as they go over?”

  Stimson said, “I know you’re paid to be a pessimist, but you’re ruining my whole week. What can we do about this? Send over more reconnaissance UAVs?”

  “Our UAVs are controlled and transmit their data back by satellite link.”

  “Oh Gods! Surely they can transmit by other means?”

  “Yeah, but first we’d have to get control consoles and UAV pilots onto boats over there close to the action so they could fly the birds without satellite communication. Then the UAVs would have to return from a flight so they could line of sight communications with base to send their pictures back. Or they could land and download their data directly. Then the info could be sent by undersea fiberoptic cable.”

  Stimson closed his eyes and pinched his nose. “To repeat, what can we do about this?”

  “Sir, I don’t know.”

  “Well, we’re paying you to figure it out! Get on it. I want estimates on the likelihood that they could take out all our satellites and what we can do to prevent it.”

  Varnet stood and shambled out of Stimson’s office without saying anything else. The older man shook his head, how could someone so smart be such a slob?

  ***

  Gary studied “Raquel” as she swayed gently side to side. Sparring with her made him nervous because he continued to worry that he would hurt her. He must have thrown her dozens of times by now and, though she landed hard, she always bounced right back up as if it hadn’t hurt at all. Her slender build made it look like she would break in two though. He felt himself becoming more and more attracted to her and would feel horrible if she actually did get hurt. When she hit the mat it made more noise than anyone else he’d thrown, but she seemed less bothered by coming down hard than the other students. On the other hand, when she threw him his landings seemed softer than when he sparred with the others. He didn’t understand why, but it almost felt like she tugged up on him at the last moment to soften his landing or something. Gary snatched at her wrist. Yes!! Got it! He pivoted, pulling her across his hip and, putting his body into it, he tossed her. She seems so light! He tried to follow with an immobilizing arm hold but her wrist broke free of his grip as she landed and she bounced back to her feet to begin swaying again!

  Behind him Millie said, “Raquel, do not always be defensive, you must do some throws yourself if you want to know this art.”

  Raquel nodded, danced a step to his left, then suddenly Gary found himself in the air and descending to the mat. Damn! I’m off balance! Before he landed as clumsily as he’d feared, his gi tugged, he suddenly straightened and landed flat, slapping the mat with his left arm. Did I twist myself in midair to land like a cat—or did her hand catch in my gi and accidentally straighten me—or did she turn me with my gi to land safely on purpose? Gary tried to bounce back to his feet like Raquel did; it just wasn’t as easy as she made it look.

  Millie studied them a few moments longer. Raquel seemed to do so much better when Millie watched. So unusual! Other students became nervous and clumsy when they knew they were being watched. When Millie watched out of the corner of her eye, pretending to watch other students, Raquel was tentative, easily caught and thrown and, when she did throw another student, never threw them with any authority. Millie shook her head and moved on. She wondered how this puzzling girl would do when they began strikes next week?

  When class was over Gary steeled his nerve as they put equipment away, “Raquel?”

  She seemed focused on something else, “Yeah Gar’?”

  He hated it when other people messed with his name, but somehow it seemed nice when Raquel did it. “Um…uh, I’ve been wondering if you’d like to go next door for Pizza…um, I’m kinda hungry.” He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She’d tilted her head. “It’s no big deal if you can’t.” He shrugged.

  “I’m kinda in the middle of a big project…” she cut her eyes over to Amy, one of the other girls in the class. Amy, Gary saw, was frowning at Raquel and shaking her head.

  Gary put his hands up, waving them weakly, “Hey, no big deal, some other…”

  Raquel cut in, “But, I’ve got to eat sometime right?” She smiled brightly at him, “Sure, let’s go. Just let me…” She put a finger up and whispered to her AI. “Let me change out of my gi.”

  Gary wondered who she’d talked to?

  Gary and Ell walked into Fast Eddie’s Pizza and looked around for a table. It was only 5:30 and place wasn’t very busy. They weren’t the only students from 4MA having dinner there. Steve was already in the restaurant, as were Mary and Randy, though they were all pretending they didn’t know each other. Gary started to sit down at a table out in the middle but Ell pointed at a spot over by the wall with her chin, “Can we sit over there?”

  The young waitress brought them menus and took orders for a Coke for Ell and a diet Mountain Dew for Gary. An awkward pause followed as they looked at the menus. This was as far as Gary’s plans had gotten and he found himself somewhat tongue tied. Ell asked, “What kind of pizza do you like?”

  Gary cursed himself, he should have asked her! “Uh, I like pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon…”

  “Ah, a meatza kinda guy, huh?”

  He shrugged.

  “Black olives?”

  “Sure.”

  “Pepperoni and black olive to share?”

  “OK.”

  Ell’s eyes twinkled. After her
own awkward episodes dealing with the opposite sex it was a relief to see him having more trouble and embarrassment than she was with this little “date.” She put the menu down, “So, what do you do for a living, Gar’?”

  Gary’s relief at her taking up the management of their conversation was almost palpable. “I’m still a student.” He shrugged, Ell could tell with a little pride. “A grad student in Chemistry at UNLV.”

  “Ooh, that’s tough!”

  He shrugged again, “Yeah, but I’m getting by.”

  The waitress stopped by with their drinks and to Gary’s surprise Ell ordered a large pepperoni and black olive pizza for just the two of them. She sat back and patted her stomach, “I’m starving!” She turned her eyes back to Gary, “What’s the topic of your research?”

  “Um, my professor… and I… work on long carbon nanotubes. He’s sure we can make truly long nanotubes with his new synthesis system.” His eyes flashed to Ell, “Uh, carbon nanotubes are single molecule thick sheets of carbon molecules rolled up into tubes like straws. They’re really…” He paused at the twinkle in her eyes.

  She patted him lightly on the back of his hand, “I know what nanotubes are—tubular sheets of graphene with incredible tensile strength. Did you think you were eating pizza with a complete bimbo?” She grinned, “How are you doing it? If it’s not a secret?”

  “We start with a field of nanotubes created by ordinary methods so that they are standing on end with the open ends of the nanotubes exposed. Then we establish certain conditions of heat, pressure, catalyst molecules and vaporized carbon. Those are the secrets, and voila, the nanotubes get longer. So far, not long enough, we’re still measuring in meters, but, if we find the right conditions, we hope we can just spin them out forever!”

  “Wow! That would be really cool. Maybe long enough to use for the space elevator that they’ve been hoping to build for so long?”