Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5 ) Read Online Free Page B

was long and curving but she could see parts of several vehicles through the trees . “Allan,” she said to her AI, “please ask Steve not to leave, I’ll be back out to talk to him. ” She turned back to Amy, “Do you think they’re going to be a problem?”
    Amy shrugged, “I don’t know. They usually stalk movie stars and the like, but they might make an exception for you.”
    Ell’s shoulders slumped and she headed out to talk to Steve. Amy tagged along. When Steve saw her he said, “I’ll be t Amy told you about the paparazzi out at the road, huh?”
    “Yeah ! ” Ell said, eyebrows raised, “If you knew about them, why didn’t you tell me?”
    He shrugged, “Since you weren’t going anywhere I was hoping they’d get tired and leave. By law they aren’t allowed to come on your property or take pix with telephoto lenses across the property line. I t’s go ing to get pretty boring out there.”
    “What do you think we should do?”
    “Nothing. Lead a boring life so they get tired of you and leave.”
    Ell grinned at him and said, “Boring it is. Have they been hassling you guys when you come and go?”
    Steve shook his head, “They peered into the car this morning , but once they saw it was a bunch of guys they backed off.”
    Amy said, “They were pretty excited when I drove up and I had a lot of telephoto lenses pointed at me, but they turned away as soon as they could tell I wasn’t you.”
    “So, you think I could go out in my disguise?”
    Steve said, “ Not in your car ! They’ve almost certainly pegged the Focus to you. They’d s uspect, then follow you, then maybe even do some facial recognition stuff and your disguise strategy could be blown forever.”
    “Maybe in my little truck? It’s not in my name.”
    “Yeah, we could probably work that out. B ut if you don’t want them to get suspicious you’d better be going out as “ you ” in the Focus most of the time .”
     
    ***
     
    Los Angles, California — Comedian Kelly Anspach included comet Hearth-Daster  in his routine last night, joking that Hearth-Daster could become “Earth-Disaster” if its close st approach of 100,000 miles has been miscalculated. Several, including Presidential Candidate Senator David Flood (R - Missouri) , have taken him to task for “scare mongering” and…
     
    Ell stayed home the rest of Wednesday and all day Thursday but headed in to work with everyone else Friday. To her dismay there were seven cars outside the gate to her little farm . The count had gotten down to two Thursday afternoon and she’d hoped there may not be any after she’d stayed home all day. Word that work was resuming at D5R must have gotten out though . T hey were there shooting video as she drove out the driveway.
    They waved vigorously for her to stop. She considered just driving by but , thinking about how rude Michael Fentis had been to her at the Olympics she stopped. Rolling down her window she said, “Hi folks.”
    “Ms. Donsaii, can we have a statement about …”
    Ell shook her head, “Sorry, I really don’t have anything to say that I didn’t already say at the press conference in the airport Tuesday afternoon. I appreciate your interest and when we have something new to tell you I’ll be happy to do some interviews again.” She smiled broadly at them as she rolled up the window and pulled out onto the street.
    Behind her the reporters scrambled for their cars and soon she was lead ing her own li ttle “platoon” of cars to D5R. When they arrived however , t he gate guard stopped her eager followers and so she was able to pull into the parking lot alone.
     
    Inside D5R , Ell went to her office for a while and dealt with a number of issues that had stacked up while she’d been gone. At nine o’clock she headed out to the main room for their normal daily meeting.
    Once everyone had gathered around one of the big tables, Ell smiled at them and said, “First, I’d like to congratulate all of you on