Free Defiant (an Ell Donsaii story #9) by Laurence Dahners

eyebrow.
    “You know about the Blaustein bill before Congress?”
    His eyes narrowed, “Uh huh?”
    “Even if it passes, I don’t think I could release that technology.”
    “Couldn’t… or wouldn’t?”
    “Wouldn’t, I guess.”
    “Because?”
    “It’s a horrific weapon. Remember when we rescued Vivian, you used it that night?”
    “I thought that might be how we did that. I was using a one ended port to shoot two ended ports into that trailer and you put gas through them?”
    “Uh huh.”
    “And if anyone could get their hands on them?”
    “No one would be safe… Poisonous gas could be squirted into your house from a block away.”
    His eyes widened, “And?”
    Ell described some other horrific scenarios.
    “And you don’t think that if you explained to the government just how dangerous it is that they’d back off their demands?”
    “Oh, I don’t think they want the public to have it either. But they want it for themselves… and once they have it, it’ll leak… someday… it’ll leak.”
    He let his head sink back against the back of his chair and closed his eyes as he considered the implications. “But… if the bill passes, then not releasing the tech would be what… against the law, I guess?”
    “Uh huh.”
    “Aw crap! And here I promised myself to always stay on the right side of the law.”
    “Yeah, I kinda thought so. I don’t want you to do anything illegal.”
    “There’s illegal… and then there’s immoral.” He sighed, “I agree with you that letting that kind of tech go is immoral and nothing’s secret when more than one person knows it.” He turned to look her in the eye. “To me, ‘moral’ is more important than ‘legal.’”
    “Thanks,” she said, “Though I still don’t want you to do anything illegal.”
    Steve snorted, “Why’d you bring it up then?”
    “Uh, well, if I get thrown in prison…”
    “Bite your tongue.”
    “You know it could happen. Anyway, I want to make sure my people—your team—are getting paid.”
    He quirked his mouth, “If you’re in prison, you’ll hardly need a security team on the outside.”
    “But I might only be in the clink for a little while. I’d like you to be able to keep the team together.”
    He leaned his head back again and stared sightlessly at the ceiling of the porch, “So how are you going to pay the team from prison?”
    “Advance you funds now for future services.”
    “Huh?”
    “I’ll put some money in your account. We’ll call it a ‘bonus’ but you and I’ll know it’s to keep you going for a few years if I do get sent up the river. You’d keep the team on pay. They could disperse, even take other jobs, but would need to stay in shape and be available to reassemble when I needed them again if they wanted to keep drawing that pay.”
    “Jeez, Ell, that’d be millions of dollars.”
    “Yeah… lots of millions. It’s even conceivable I might ask you to give me some money back in certain situations. Say the government confiscates everything I have? So I’d want to be sure you had a big surplus.”
    “How can you trust me with that kind of money?” he asked wonderingly.
    Quietly she said, “I trust you with my life, Steve… every day.” She shrugged, “I believe you’re one of the most trustworthy people I know.”
    He sighed, “I hope I’m worthy of such trust.”
    “You are. I’ll make a deposit in your account.”
     
    ***
     
    Going down the hall at D5R, Ell heard Gary call her. He stood in the door of what she thought of as the “dangerous reaction room.” Heading his way she said, “What’s up?”
    “Got something to show you.”
    She stepped inside, looking around, “Why are you working in here? Doing something that might explode?”
    He shrugged, “Methane. And this room already has vacuum and a hood to work in. Just easier to set up in here. No one else was using it.”
    “So what are you doing?”
    “Testing your pressure, temperature, charge, molecular