Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story)

by Laurence Dahners

  The reporter who’d touched her elbow had gone past her a step on her right when she paused and she saw the heavy battery for his AV equipment hanging on his belt clip.

  The Arab’s pistol came up.

  Ell’s right hand pulled the battery off the reporter’s belt, left hand snaking out to rip the jacked wire off the top of it.

  Ell glimpsed the bore of the Beretta as it swung up but then it swung up too high for a moment.

  Ell’s arm cocked back, battery in hand as her left foot slid ahead, lowering her stance.

  The Beretta barked, Ell saw the bullet would miss her slightly high and to her right. The kick had driven his muzzle up.

  She focused on the shooter’s right shoulder and swung the battery forward.

  The Beretta lowered and barked a second time as Ell released the battery. She saw the shot was wild but realized that, even though the shots would miss her, they would certainly hit someone behind her.

  She lunged to pull another battery off the reporter’s belt but then saw the first battery clip the terrorist’s thumb, knocking the pistol wide before rolling the length of his arm to glance off his forward thrust shoulder, strike his collarbone and thud solidly into his neck.

  The man flew backwards and sprawled onto the pavement, gun fallen from his splayed fingers.

  Ell sprinted forward, swiveling her head in search of more men with Arabic phenotypes or guns, snatched up the Beretta and, still moving, spun around with it extended and tracking 360.

  Seeing no one, she safed the pistol, asked Allan to call in the incident to the police and turned to check that the terrorist remained no threat. He lay on the ground, right arm sprawled out bonelessly and left hand grasping his neck. The man was gasping out Arabic phrases. Allan told her the man was cursing but didn’t translate exactly what he was saying.

  Ell did another 360 and then let the zone go. She turned to peer at the crowd to see who’d been hurt. Some of the crowd stood stunned, some crouched or were down flat as you would expect after gunfire. It was hard to see if anyone was hurt. “Phil! How many injured?”

  Phil closed his mouth and looked around him. A man and a woman in the area behind where Ell had been walking, were on their backs, whereas all the other folks were down on their stomachs. He stepped back to them and saw blood. “Two” he shouted, and knelt to look at the victims. The man was holding his stomach and the woman her shoulder. Both looked pale and frightened. Phil pulled off his jacket and wadded it up, placing it on the man’s stomach, “Hold this.” Phil stood and stripped off his sweatpants and knelt to press them to the woman’s wound.

  A woman stepped up and said, “I’m a surgeon, may I help?”

  Puzzled to be asked permission, Phil looked up in gratitude and said, “Please!” he heard sirens in the distance. The surgeon also knelt, told Phil and another bystander to lift the victims’ legs and began asking questions.

  Having learned from her first experience holding a weapon when the police arrived, Ell knelt and put the safed Beretta on the ground when the first police car came into view. She placed it far from the terrorist and started back to the crowd on the walkway. She also knelt by the two wounded and turned to each, saying, “I’m so sorry, so sorry.” Her eyes filled with tears again.

  The man grimaced up at her, “Did you shoot me?”

  “Oh! No! But that man was shooting at me and hit you instead.”

  “You’re Ell Donsaii aren’t you?”

  Ell, surprised at this non-sequitur, snuffled. Her voice cracked, “Yes sir.”

  The man grimace-grinned and said, “Sign an autograph for my son and I’ll let you off the hook for ducking.”

  Ell grinned crookedly through her tears, sniffed again and said, “Yes sir,” and looked around for something to sign with. Someone in the crowd held out a pen and a card. Ell took it and placed it on her knee, “What’s your son’s name?”

  As Ell finished signing the autograph she heard a policeman step up behind her. “Who saw what happened here?”

  The reporter said, “The man there in the parking lot started shooting at Ms. Donsaii.”

  Ell looked up to see the policeman glance at her then look over at the terrorist, still sprawled on the pavement with a few spectators around him and another policeman kneeling beside him. “Who shot the guy in the lot?” He turned slowly to let his cameras pan the scene.

  “Um, you might not believe this, but Ms. Donsaii threw one of my batteries at him. I should have video to document.”

  “Come on! He’s wounded! He’s coughing up blood and having trouble breathing!”

  “Nothing else touched the guy. There weren’t any shots fired other than the two he fired himself.” Medics arrived with stretchers for the two victims, started IVs and loaded them up, the surgeon following them to the ambulance.

  The cop barked a laugh and said, “Sure, send me video, but sure as shit, someone shot that dude.”

  More police arrived, cordoned off the area and didn’t let people leave until they had been asked a few questions, transferred video from their AIs and given their contact info.

  Chief Bowers watched the reporter’s video as he rode to the site of the new incident. The first thing he noticed was that the reporter was a pain in the ass, bugging Donsaii even though she obviously didn’t want to be approached. The chief didn’t see the terrorist or notice him lean away from the car and focus on Donsaii the first time through the video. The second time in slow-mo, it was obvious that Donsaii saw the guy immediately. She reacted instantaneously by slowing and then, simultaneously with the terrorist pulling out a Beretta, she was lunging for the battery. She threw the battery at the terrorist like it was a fast pitch softball. On the first run through the video he thought a glitch caused it to speed up when Donsaii blurred into motion. On the second viewing in slow motion he noticed that though everything else moved slowly, Ell appeared to be moving at normal speed. He thought, My God! That girl’s faster than anyone ever dreamed possible! He watched the battery rocket across the lot and strike the terrorist along the shoulder tumbling down his collarbone and across his neck, hurling him off his feet. In slow motion the battery created a huge trough in the terrorist’s flesh, followed by waves in the tissue like a rock created in the water when dropped in a pond. After seeing that, he wasn’t surprised to receive a call telling him that the terrorist had arrived at the hospital DOA. Later he would learn that the terrorist had a broken thumb and four broken ribs but the fatal injuries included “laceration of the subclavian artery by the clavicle” and “severe trauma to the larynx.”

  The chief watched the reporter’s video of Zabrisk claiming that Donsaii had been the one to take out all the terrorists down in their redoubt. He shook his head and re-watched his own interview with her.

  He heard himself say, “What did happen? How’d they all get shot up?”

  She shrugged, “I was in the portapotty. Then there was a lot of shooting.”

  “The head bad guy says you shot them.”

  She looked up at the ceiling a moment, “When I came out of the portapotty I got one of their pistols.” She shrugged, “When I saw they were all ‘out of action’ I threatened him with the gun, trying to get him to connect the camera to the net so I could call you guys to come in and rescue us and get medics for Anna.”

  Damn! He thought, she didn’t lie to me at all. She just didn’t say that she was the one that took them “out of action.”

  Kristen and her mother were still in their room. When an hour passed and Ell hadn’t come to their room, as she’d messaged that she would, they began to worry. Before they became frantic they got another message that she’d be “held up a while.” They wondered if she’d changed her mind and decided to compete in the gymnastic events after all. However, when they went on the net to see if there was anything about her competing they were astonished that the first item her name pulled up was a terrorist shooting outside the arena! With increasing dismay they watched a man shoot at Ell and the
n, without surprise in view of Ell’s history with attackers, they saw her take him out of play. They were horrified to hear of the injuries to the people behind Ell. However, they were almost overwhelmed when they learned that Ell had been the one who had stopped the terrorists and set the athletes free earlier in the day. Ell’s grandmother said, “She’s going to be really upset. Remember how upset she was when she blinded that guy who attacked you?”

  “Yeah, and even though she hates Jake, she really was upset when she broke his arm. This is gonna tear her up. She won’t see herself as a ‘hero.’”

  They listened to the biggest news services laud their little girl, “We’ve learned that four time gymnastic gold medalist, Ell Donsaii, was responsible today for the rescue of the US Olympic athletes captured by terrorists. Despite watching her impossible gymnastic feats yesterday, it remains difficult to countenance the reports of her taking a pistol from one of the terrorists and using it to subdue seven hardened extremists. However, the video that follows from another terrorist attempt this afternoon shows how decisively and rapidly this girl can respond in the face of horrific circumstances! In this video you see her use the amazing physical quickness that won Olympic gold to subdue a man who was shooting at her – by throwing a videographer’s battery at him! So though we don’t have video documentation of her rescue of the other athletes from seven terrorists, it seems plausible.”

  They were still watching report after report at seven in the evening when a knock came on their door. When they opened it Ell stood there with a large, good looking young man. “Oh Ell,” Kristen threw her arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re OK!”

  Ell’s grandmother stepped up and put her arms around both of them and they all degenerated into tears as they shuffled into the room. After they quieted down to snuffles Kristen asked, “Who is this young man?” she indicated Phil with her chin, “Have they assigned you a guard or something?”

  “No Ma’am, I’m one of her teammates. Your daughter’s been protecting me today, not the reverse, and I surely do appreciate it.”

  “You’re a gymnast? You’re awfully big.”

  Phil chuckled. “No, Ma’am, I’m a wrestler.”

  Haltingly Ell told them an edited version of how she and Phil met and how they were at the Academy together and were now at the Olympics together. When she saw speculation rising in her Gram’s eyes she quickly said, “We’re friends, Gram. Very, very good friends, but he’s not my boyfriend.”

  Though Phil would have described their relationship the same way, he found that he was disappointed to be “not my boyfriend.” He turned to them and said with a husky voice, “She saved my life. I owe her everything. If she ever decides she does need a boyfriend, I’ll be available.” He was saved from getting completely choked up by a knock on the door. He got up and answered it.

  He heard them asking, “Who could that be?” though they let him answer it.

  Shortly he returned with a couple of large boxes, at their wide eyes he shrugged, “I was hungry so I ordered pizza. There’s enough for all.”

  As they laughed and all fell to eating, the conversation turned more cheerful. After the pizza was gone there was another knock at the door. Phil answered the door again, this time returning with Chief Bowers. They all stood but he made little downward pushing motions with his hands, “No, no, sit, please sit.”

  They sat and invited the Chief to sit as well. After settling himself, he twisted his hat in his hands a moment, harrumphed and said, “I find myself in the mind of a man going to close the barn door after the horses have fled. And also of the mind of a man setting a dog out to protect his lion.” He paused long enough that they were about to ask what he meant, then, “I feel I’ve let you down Ms. Donsaii. Twice, in fact. My job is to protect the citizens of this fair city and especially lately, you athletes. First I failed by letting those terrorists get set up here in Dallas. After you saved me from disgrace on that issue, I then failed to consider that some of them might remain on the loose. Thank you for saving my bacon on that one too.” He looked at the floor.

  Ell said, “Chief, I don’t know how you could have known…”

  “It’s my job to know. Admittedly it’s a hard job, but it’s what I signed up for and I’m disappointed that I failed. I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I also want to tell you just how much I admire you for showing up in my command center and offering to be traded to the terrorists for your team mates.” Everyone in the room turned to stare at Ell on that note. “I thought you were just such a good person that you were willing to trade your life for theirs, and I still think it is amazing that you were willing to risk your life for theirs, though now I realize that you truly did believe that you could help to free them. And in fact, when I refused to trade you, Jamal Assad tells me you talked him into conducting you to their back entrance?”

  “Um, yes sir.”

  “So you did then intentionally put your life at risk for the others. You have my greatest admiration, and I fully intend to put you up for the highest medal that fits, though I don’t really think there’s one high enough to match what you did today.”

  “Chief, I’ve got plenty of medals.” Ell said quietly, eyes on the floor.

  He grimaced, “Well, that’s true. But if I have my way you’re gonna get another one, and I hope to be the one to pin it on you.”

  In a small voice Ell said, “But I really don’t want any more attention.”

  “I think your nation needs to recognize a real hero, and you’re just the one to be recognized.”

  Her mom hugged her as the chief continued. “As to the dog I’m setting out to protect the lion, I’m posting two guards in your hall. Though I suspect that if someone attacks, you might wind up saving them.” The chief’s eyes lost focus a moment as he listened to his AI. “Yes, of course I’ll speak to him. Yes sir. Yes sir, this is Chief Bowers. Yes sir, I’m with her now. Just a minute sir, I’ll ask.” He focused on Ell, “You have your AI blocking all calls?”

  “All but family.” She said with a grimace wondering who was trying to get through now. She’d gotten so many contacts from reporters and news agencies since the second attack that she’d blocked all but “close family” and all of her first degree relatives were with her in the room.

  “Would you make an exception for the President?”

  “President of what?”

  The chief grinned. “These United States, I believe he’s your Commander in Chief?”

  “Uh, yes sir.” She sat up straighter and focused straight ahead as she heard the well known voice of President Teller in her headset. “Yes sir… Yes sir… Thank you sir… I appreciate that sir… Yes sir, I do have one request… That Jamal Assad be given asylum and put into the witness protection program for his help today… Yes sir, thank you sir.”

  Chief Bowers said, “Sir, I would like to nominate her for the highest civilian medal there is… Uh yes sir, I do know that she’s a member of the military, it had just slipped my mind… Yes sir, I do believe that the Medal of Honor would be appropriate, the terrorists were indeed ‘enemies of these United States.’”

  When the call was concluded Phil burst out, “I’m gonna have to salute you?! That’s going a little far!”

  Ell, currently being hugged tightly by her mother and grandmother said, “What?

  “Everyone, no matter their rank, is supposed to salute Medal of Honor winners!” He paused, then rose to his feet, said, “What the hell!” came to attention and rendered a sharp regulation salute. “At least I’ll be able to say I was first,” he grinned at her.

  Ell squeaked as her mom hugged harder, “But I haven’t got it yet!” she whispered.

  Chief Bowers rose to his feet, said, “You will, and I’ll be able to say I saluted you second.” He rendered a sharp military salute. “Semper Fi! Hope you don’t mind getting a salute from an old Marine?”

  After a lot more hugs, tears, smiles and back patting, Phil took his leave, as did the Chief after introducing
them to their guards in the hall. Ell and her mom and Gram talked for many hours alone, Ell appreciating their attentive concern as she described her agony over having killed the guard by the drain and the man in the parking lot and doing serious harm to so many others. Even though she could abstractly agree that they deserved what they’d received, she hated having been the one to mete that punishment out.

  Eventually Ell went to bed in her mom’s room but then, unable to sleep, laid awake staring at the ceiling, reliving the events of the day over and over. Ultimately she resorted to her usual practice of considering possible mathematical descriptions of her postulated small dimension through which entangled particles and double slit photons were connected. As she drifted off her scalp abruptly prickled when she realized that the odd mathematical convention she’d just tried actually did fit the known data she’d been trying to tie together! She sat bolt upright, then spent hours recording formulas and having Allan run them against known experimental data pulled in off the net. It was nearly dawn before she got to sleep, grateful that the math breakthrough had taken her mind off the trauma of the day.

  Epilogue

  Nearly a year had passed since that fateful second day of the Dallas Olympics. President Teller had agreed to give the commencement speech at the Air Force Academy. After Teller had spoken and the Cadets had received their diplomas in the traditional fashion, the Commandant of the Academy said, “Now I have the privilege of turning the podium back over to the President of the United States. Mr. President?”

  The President stepped back to the podium. “I am sure that most of you will not be surprised to find that my next words have something to do with a most unusual cadet that you have in your ranks. Ms. Donsaii, ‘front and center’ I believe is the usual command at such times?”

  Everyone waited patiently as Ell got up from her seat out in the audience and marched her way to the front. She approached the podium and to her surprise she suddenly recognized Chief Bowers and Jamal Assad seated among the dignitaries on the stage! Despite a mental hiccough she turned smoothly and saluted the President.