Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story) (17 page)

Phil watched Ell’s performance on the bars as soon as it came up on the net. Mesmerized by the dazzling perfection of her routine he almost didn’t register Venta’s words, “And I’ve just learned that this young woman, though a rising sophomore at the Air Force Academy, is only 16 years old! She apparently was so bright that she skipped two grades and then left high school a year early! Not only a physical phenom but a mental genius!” Phil’s heart sank as he realized that he’d tried to force himself on a fourteen year old girl that Fall after their Physmed testing. The fact that he’d been unaware of her age, and not quite eighteen himself at the time was no excuse.

And,
she
was his math tutor!

Ell finished the day with three 10s. There had been no doubt on beam where she again inserted two unimagined elements, but on the floor exercise the judges broke into vociferous arguments. Her floor exercise had three, never before performed elements, just like the bars. No one could dispute the extreme, extreme difficulty of those elements nor the perfection of their execution. However, Ell had never gone in her zone four times in the course of a single morning before and a floor exercise at about 90 seconds was pretty long for her. So she not only performed a shorter exercise than most of the gymnasts but placed most of the low energy “dance” and simpler acrobatic elements of the routine near the beginning. Half way through her planned routine she tried to go into the zone and failed, so she converted a planned triple into a double. She thought for a moment that she might fall and the frightening possibility of the fall did drive her into the zone. Once in the zone she performed extraordinarily difficult elements back to back including her three “secret weapon” elements that had never been performed by women… or men. One of the judges took exception to the easy-hard arrangement of the exercise and pointed out some minor imperfections which, to everyone’s surprise, fell in the “easy” first part of the exercise!

Nonetheless, Ell won four individual gold medals. As soon as she left the stand from receiving the last one for the floor exercise she was taken to an exam room where they took blood and urine specimens as well as a performing complete physical exam. Leaving the exam area she was mobbed by admirers and press. She signed hundreds of autographs, continuing long after Coach Benson tried to pull her away to rest.

The reporters were harder to handle. They put her at the front of the press room, sitting behind a table with a roomful of journalists peppering her with questions. “How do you feel after breaking more gymnastic records than anyone else in history?”

“Sir, I feel the same as I did early this morning.”

“To what do you attribute these incredible feats?”

“Ma’am, I’m just lucky to have been born of very athletic parents and to have a sport that matches my odd abilities. I live in a great country that provided me this fantastic opportunity and my school, teammates and coaches have been wonderful.”

“’Odd’ abilities?!”

“Oh yes Sir. I’m quick but I have terrible endurance. I’m very lucky that gymnastics requires bursts of rapid maneuvering rather than staying power. I can hardly run a mile without throwing up.”

“Really? Is that why you had a hard time with the longer floor exercise?”

“Yes Ma’am, I was tired from the other routines and worried that I couldn’t ‘stick it out’ for the whole routine. The hundred meters is a long race for me.”

“That reminds me. Did you know that you clocked a higher speed than Michael Fentis’ best in your sprint for the vault?”

Ell covered her mouth as if dismayed, “Oh no, that can’t be!”

“Yes, yes, it’s been checked, both the speed gun and the video frame count agree.”

Ell blushed, her hand still on her mouth. She mumbled something that they couldn’t pick up, but with enhancement later turned out to be “Oops.”

They continued to badger her with questions. She continued to speak with humility, be embarrassed by their admiration and to deflect as much glory as possible onto her teammates and their performances, which had also won some medals for Team USA. “You should be sure to interview Anna Kernova, our vault specialist, she got Bronze on the vault and you wouldn’t believe that girl’s tenacity and drive. And Kathy Voss got the Silver on beam with a great performance. If I hadn’t gotten so lucky today she would have had Gold. Irene Illman really put in a tremendous effort on floor, if she hadn’t gone out of bounds she would have medaled too.

Rather than turning attention to others as she had hoped, Ell’s persistent humility won her even more admirers. Venta reported, “Ell Donsaii, appearing shy and not sure what to do with all the attention, claims that she ‘got lucky’ today in winning gold on all four apparatus. However, ‘luck’ did not allow her to perform nine completely new elements of almost unbelievable difficulty, elements that almost everyone familiar with the sport would have predicted
were
impossible for ordinary humans. Ms. Donsaii obviously is not an ‘ordinary human,’ and most of us who follow the sport would say she is ‘superhuman’ to have accomplished these feats today. All drug testing has come back completely normal so far, but many of us will want to see if she can perform in the same fashion in the presence of Kryptonite won’t we Eva?” he said turning to Eva Escanescue.

Escanescue grinned, “Maybe we need to check her for ‘Spidey’ bites?”

Phil won his match as expected and got on the bus back to their quarters. Since Ell had finished her part of the competition earlier in the day he was surprised to see her getting on the same bus as he was. She broke away from a huge crowd of reporters and trotted out. She looked like she was dragging a little getting on the bus but then she saw Phil and brightened up as she dropped into the seat next to him with her usual crooked little smile. “Phil! Hey, I saw you won your match. Way to go!”

Phil stared at her, dumbfounded that Ell was congratulating him for his win. Taken aback actually, that she even knew how his match went. He, like everyone else at the Olympics and around the world, was stunned by what Ell Donsaii had accomplished. Ell had gone from a little known “dark horse” to the most recognized athlete in the world over the course of a single day. Every sports and news outlet prominently featured video of her performances with flabbergasted announcers discussing at length just how impossible it was to do what she had just done. With a bemused expression he said, “Congratulations yourself. Not everyday that someone breaks every Olympic record in their sport in one day.”

Ell looked sheepish, “Yeah, I was a little out of control wasn’t I?”

“A little out of control, or way, way into control. One or the other.” Phil smiled at her .

The coaches isolated Ell from the press that night, insisting that the interviews they got right after the events would have to do. After warning her to get plenty of rest for the “all around” tomorrow, they did sneak her mom and grandma in to see her that evening. Her mother threw her arms around her and whispered in her ear, “Ell! That was amazing! I knew you’d be able to do something special if you turned it loose, but WOW! I never thought it would be something like that!”

Ell hugged her back fiercely, “Me either. I was pretty sure I would win if I went for it, but I really didn’t know that it would be by such a huge margin.” She leaned back and then drew her grandmother into a three way hug. “Maybe I shouldn’t have thrown in so many of the new elements?”

“Yes you should have! If you’re going to stop doing gymnastics anyway, you’d just as well do everything you can right now. Why not leave as big a mark as you can?”

“I guess you’re right. I just worry that people will get too freaked out by the whole thing.”

“You just go ahead and “give it your all” in the all around tomorrow, freaked people or no.”

They spoke a while longer and then her mother and grandmother left so that Ell could get some rest. Going deep into the zone four times that day had really taken it out of her so she actually slept six hours.

Chapter Seven

Hamid was in a frenzy. That morning they had been set to board a bus with Olympic athletes and take it hostage. Then an argument had broken out regarding how they would tell whether a bus had American athletes on board. While they were arguing they looked up to see a bus passing that had several recognizable American athletes staring out the windows at them. Jamal had recognized his personal favorite, Donsaii to be one of them. That had meant that the gymnastic team was likely on board. They had already decided that the high public recognition factor of the gymnasts made them the best target and they had missed that target while arguing amongst themselves.

“Fools!” he shouted. “At
this
moment we would have been in the eye of the world if you had followed orders instead of bickering!”

Jamal said, “Perhaps we should have-” but he was interrupted and told to shut up and think for a moment.

After a pause Hamid asked for ideas.

Tentatively Jamal said, “Perhaps one of us should park where he can see the buses boarding. Then he can alert the rest of the team so that it can stop and board that particular bus that they will know has the gymnastic team on it.”

Hamid looked at Jamal suspiciously, “I suppose
you
want to be the observer?”

“No, no, whoever you think best.”

Really, it was never in doubt, Jamal had the driver’s license and was listed on the rental agreement. He knew his way around Dallas and he readily recognized the members of the gymnastics team. They bought radio based walkie talkies so that Jamal would still be able to talk to the team after the team had started the portable net jamming device that they were taking onto the bus.

As the day’s news came in, Hamid decided that Allah had stayed their hand that morning so that Donsaii could have her “day in the sun.” Her instant and overwhelming fame on the net made her the perfect target for their plans. The eyes of the world would be much more focused as they killed her team members one by one, gradually leading up to the death of the world’s most famous athlete! Hamid’s rage slowly diminished and he became ecstatic over the prospect!

Jamal wondered if Hamid’s desire for killing and the spotlight was bigger than his desire for vengeance on America.

In the morning Jamal dropped the rest of the team off along the bus route just two and a half blocks from one of the normal boarding sites. Hamid led the team back into a small alley to await Jamal’s notification. Jamal then drove to a vantage point where he could watch the buses board through binoculars. He sat in the SUV with a mixture of eager anticipation and dread. This gradually faded to boredom but then his anxiety spiked as he saw some of the athletes filtering out to the bus stop. He didn’t dare use the binoculars constantly; someone might have become curious. Hamid had decided to take whichever bus Donsaii boarded so Jamal simply watched for a figure about 5’ 8” tall with strawberry blond hair. He did have to use the binoculars once to check an individual of the right height who wore a stocking cap, but it wasn’t her. The first and second buses left for the arena, then he saw Donsaii nimbly hop a small hedge and walk to the stop. He quickly checked with the binoculars, it was her! “Aki,” he said to his AI, “Get Hamid.” When Hamid came on the line he said, “She’s at the bus stop. I’ll let you know when she boards.”

Hamid simply said, “OK.”

A few moments passed and he said, “Bus here, she’s boarding. Bus is white with red and blue stripes. Number 3060, sign in front window says ‘Olympic 16.’”

Again Hamid simply said, “OK.”

Once he had identified the bus to the team, Jamal was to follow it in the Suburban and act as backup for any problems. After the bus pulled away from its stop he waited until it had gained two blocks on him. They all took the same route so he felt certain he wouldn’t lose it and he did not want to draw attention.

***

When the alarm went off Ell still felt a little wrung out from the day before. Her roommate Kathy bounced out of bed full of enthusiasm so Ell let her have first crack at the bathroom. After a light breakfast they headed out to catch the bus to the arena. Surprised, Ell saw Phil near the back of the bus and headed back to sit with him. “Hey, I thought you’d be on a later bus. Isn’t your first match around noon?”

“Yeah, but I wanted to watch the first part of the gymnastic ‘all around’ before my match, I’ve got a friend in that competition.”

Ell punched him in the shoulder, “Yes you do! Isn’t your coach gonna be pissed that you’re watching an event instead of psyching yourself for your match?”

Phil shrugged, “Maybe. But watching my friend is important to me. Besides I think I do best if I get my mind off a match for a while before the meet.”

She grinned crookedly, “That’s your excuse and you’re stickin’ to it?”

“Something like that.”

“Good enough for me, I can use someone rooting for me in my corner.”

Phil grinned, “Ha, I think the whole world is in your corner.”

A crooked grin again, “Really?”

“My God! Yes! Haven’t you watched any of the news feeds? Everybody is crazy about you. I had to take a number with an exponent to be on your fan list, a big exponent!”

“Really? I haven’t looked at any news feeds about gymnastics. Afraid I’ll find out somebody disqualified me for something.”

With astonishment Phil realized that she really hadn’t checked the feeds. “Well, I’m sure they are gonna draw blood and take urine and hair samples to check for some banned substance in gallon lots that might explain how you just kicked gymnastic history on its ass. Maybe a whole body MRI scan?”

“Oh man! Again? They stuck me yesterday, I hate that.”

Ell’s mildly petulant tone reminded Phil that she was much younger than everyone thought. “Hey,” he said quietly, “what’s this on the news about you being barely sixteen? Is that true?”

Ell clapped her hand over her mouth and stared at him round eyed. “Oh no!” she mumbled. Her brows descended to express worry, “Did that come out on the news too? I’ve worked
so
hard to keep it a secret.”