Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4) by Laurence Dahners Page B

of them get married and their spouses want to live somewhere else, but right now all of them are really delighted to be part of your team.”
    “Great, it seemed like this trip to Colorado would be a real hassle for...” Ell put up a finger indicating an interruption.
    Allan spoke in her ear, “Five persons have entered the D5R facility. The guard shack guard’s ID key was used to open the door. They have divided up, four going to the research area and one to your office.”
    Ell told Allan to pass the message to Steve and took the car off auto/AI control. She immediately accelerated far above the speed limit. She was momentarily grateful for the modifications Steve had made to her cars, overpowering them and allowing her to break out of the AI’s safety controls.
    Once he received Allan’s message Steve said, “Damn!”
    Ell said, “Have the team from the airport speed up and ask everyone on the team still here in North Carolina to head to the D5R facility too. Allan, please call the police to the facility too.” To Steve she said, “Do you think we can trust the guard company?”
    “Yeah, I’m contacting them now. How did Allan detect the intrusion?”
    Ell took the freeway exit at a high speed, passing cars that were under computer control by driving on the paved shoulder. “I asked him to monitor the facility. He’s tied himself to the building’s AI and keeps an eye on anything out of the ordinary that happens. The gate guards aren’t supposed to be at the building so that drew his attention. He can pick up the intruders’ activity from the microphones on the various AI systems here and there in the building. He’s tapped into all of them. The intruder in my office is using some pretty sophisticated software to try to break into my office AI. Fortunately, the office AI really doesn’t have any secure information on it even if he does successfully break in. Anything I truly care about is actually stored on Allan. The people in the research area seem to be taking photographs of all our equipment. They’re presently trying to send them out over the net but Allan activated the building’s net jammer. Luckily none of them have PGR chips. At least all of them are trying to transmit using cell technology which I hope means they don’t have PGRs.” Ell made a corner with the tires squealing and accelerated down the driveway past the empty guard shack. As the car skidded to a stop near three strange cars in front of the building she said, “You up to coming in with me?”
    “Of course!” Steve said slamming his door open and running toward the door. Somehow he wasn’t surprised to find himself falling far behind her. My God, that girl can run! The door had opened itself as they pulled up. Steve was momentarily concerned that someone inside was exiting, but it was just Allan activating the door’s motors. When Steve entered the building he had to ask his AI which way to go to reach the research area because he hadn’t actually been inside the building before. Based on the premise that she could protect herself—and only needed the team to keep her from being kidnapped if someone successfully trapped or drugged her—Ell’s policy was to keep Steve and the rest of her security team nearby but not actually visible.
     
    Manny left Ell’s office and entered the research area, “No joy! The security she has on her desk AI is way beyond what I can crack. You guys about done in here?”
    The other four men were wandering around inside the facility filming everything they could put eyes on. He could easily tell where they were as each of them had a high intensity light source to provide good images for their video. Jeff said “I think we’ve got it all but I’m gonna pry this one open so we can get images of the inside, it’s been modified...”
    A sudden voice cut through their chatter, “Stop right where you are!” The room lights came up and in the suddenly frozen tableau they saw Ell Donsaii just