Lieutenant (An Ell Donsaii story #3) by Laurence Dahners Read Free Book Online Page A

wearing a disguise so that people won’t recognize her.” He turned to the kids. “Do you think you can keep quiet and not say anything to draw attention to her so that she can keep her privacy?”
    “Oh…” Amy frowned, “I think we can. Let me take a moment to explain this to the kids OK?” After Steve nodded, Amy spent some time talking to Mike and especially Janey about what privacy meant. When Ell, wearing a brown wig and dark makeup, walked up and sat down, Amy was gratified to see that the kids stared at her wide eyed but sat quietly without saying anything.
    Ell said, “Let’s go get some food. I’m buying. Steve, if you’ll defend the table I’ll bring you back whatever you want?”
    Steve asked for a cheeseburger, fries and Coke and the rest of them took off to wander around the offerings in the food court. Ell walked around with the kids and appeared just as delighted as they were to be picking out her own food. Ell had Allan electronically pay for whatever any of them ordered. Soon she walked back to the table with a tray carrying her food and Steve’s. The kids were torn between their desire to chatter in excitement, and their recollection of their Mom’s admonition to keep quiet. Amy anxiously waited to hear about the possible job. At Ell’s suggestion, the kids sat at a nearby table where they could be more themselves while the grownups talked, though the kids kept darting glances over at them.
    Ell turned to Amy, “Actually, I’m the one who needs an assistant.”
    Startled, Amy thought to herself that Ell almost looked young enough to need a babysitter. She’d been in the Olympics a year and a half ago—wasn’t she in college now? “What do you need assistance with?” And who’s paying me to assist you? And who’s in charge?
    “Well, there are a surprising number of things I need help with. I’m actually serving a military obligation as a second lieutenant in the Air Force which requires a lot of my time. I have a problem in that Chinese nationals have been trying to kidnap me which has led to the hiring of Steve here and his security team for protection. I have some research endeavors I’d like to undertake in my spare time. Essentially, I don’t want to spend my time on doing the payroll for my security team, shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, ordering and receiving supplies for my research… I want to be able to focus on the things that I want to do and leave the rest of my life to someone else.”
    Amy tilted her head, “As a business executive assistant, I’ve done some of those things and,” she lifted an eyebrow, “as a mother I’ve done some of the others.” She paused, “I believe that I could adapt to learn others like payroll, though I would think that your AI could do that kind of number crunching?”
    Ell said, “I don’t even want to have to remember to talk to my AI about handling the payroll.” Ell asked many questions then, posing “what if” and “if this happened would you be willing to…” situations. Obliquely she determined Amy’s capabilities from her responses. Finally she said, “I’d like to offer you the job if you don’t have concerns. You should at least be worried about the danger the Chinese pose. They appear only to want to capture, not harm me. They apparently hope to have me work for them, but they may be willing to accept some collateral damage to you or perhaps even your children. I sincerely hope that they’ve given up and that, if they haven’t, Steve’s security team will be able to protect us, but I can’t be sure.”
    Amy studied Ell’s face, “Pardon me for asking, but how can you afford this? I know Lieutenants aren’t paid all that much. I don’t want to quit the job I’ve got and then find out that you can’t actually pay me.”
    “You’re right to be concerned. I have some royalties from an invention…”
    Steve snorted at this statement. “’Some’ royalties!” he chuckled.
    Ell continued, “and