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

I will put two hundred fifty thousand dollars in an escrow account that you can check the balance of yourself. It would be payable to you if something were to happen to me and hopefully would tide you over until you found another job. As one of your benefits I will provide a place to live for you and your children at the same apartment complex I live in. I will double the salary that you are currently paid as a dealer and as my executive assistant you will be in charge of establishing an excellent benefits package for my staff, yourself and your family included.”
    Amy rocked back in her chair, staring at Ell. “How… How old are you?” she asked, certain that Ell’s young appearance just didn’t jibe with the maturity of her words.
    Ell’s pale green eyes were steady, “Eighteen.”
    Amy swallowed, then blinked. After a long pause, “When would you want me to start?”
    “Tomorrow.”
    “But… I have to give two weeks notice.”
    “I’m pleased that you have a desire to comply with any agreement you have with your previous employer. I’ll reimburse him for four weeks of your salary. Thus he can pay overtime to have other dealers fill in for his unexpected loss of your services and still come out ahead.”
    A tear ran down Amy’s cheek. “Thank you.” she said in a small voice.
    Janey had been carefully watching her mother and at sight of the tear she jumped up, ran around the table and slipped under her mother’s arm, placing her arms around Amy’s waist, “Mommy?”
    “It’s OK, honey. I’m happy, not sad.”
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    The officer strode up to the group and came to attention. “General Wang?”
    The general turned to him, “Well?”
    “Sir, the launch was successful.”
    The General turned back to the civilians he had been speaking with. “Two more launches and we will be ready, in one stroke, to destroy all of the Americans’ surveillance and military communication satellites over our part of the world.”
    The entire group turned to look at one man. He raised an eyebrow, “And when the satellite strike is ready, you will also have readied your tactical plan to recover our wayward province from across the Straight of Taiwan?”
    The general nodded sharply, once.
     
    ***
     
    Ell opened the door to her apartment. Steve and Amy sat at the dining room table with a pizza and a salad. Amy said, “Sorry I don’t have a home cooked meal for you today, I’ve been trying to catch up with everything else and didn’t get to the store.”
    Ell said, “An occasional home cooked meal would be nice, but I don’t care where you get it, as long as it’s good.” She picked up a slice, “I love pizza. Did you make any progress?”
    “Oh yes, with a lot of things. I found some heavy, vibration isolated tables for your ‘lab’ and got them delivered. I’ve found some of the lab equipment you said you wanted and sent the specs to your AI for approval before ordering. I took an online payroll refresher course and bought a payroll module for my AI. The kids and I moved into the apartment you rented for us, thank you very much.”
    Ell’s eyes narrowed. “You seem tense. Is there a problem?” She dished up some salad.
    Amy took a deep breath. “Yes, but I’ll take care of it.”
    “Good. But I want to know about it. If it might impinge on me, I don’t want to be ignorant.”
    Amy’s eyes dropped to the table. She shrugged, “It’s my old boss. I think I mentioned that he’s a jerk?”
    Ell nodded.
    “He used to touch me and say rude things and it had been escalating. But when I told him I was quitting, he got angry and started making threats.”
    Ell’s eyes frosted, “What kind of threats?”
    “That I would regret doing this. He implied that I owed him some ‘favors’ for hiring me and that he still intended to collect them.”
    Ell’s gaze tracked over to Steve, “Can you protect her? I assume someone from the ready team can go with her whenever I’m on base and