Chapter 11

Melinda decided to stop by the company cafeteria to get a cup of coffee before heading off to her meeting. After paying for her purchase at the cashier station she noticed a familiar face seated alone at one of the tables. She headed over to the table. On reaching it, she said, “Hello, Shelly.”

Shelly looked up and said, “Hello, Melinda.”

“How’s it going?” Melinda asked.

“I’m engaged,” Shelly said. She wiggled a finger to show off the engagement ring.

“My condolences.”

“Thanks.”

Melinda took a sip of her coffee. She asked, “What got you?”

“That’s a long story.”

Melinda glanced at her watch and decided that she could miss her meeting. “I’ve got time.”

Shelly sighed and said, “We’re out in Colorado appreciating the view of the mountains. Let me tell you something, it is really pretty there.”

“I know. I was there last week.”

“I forgot about that,” Shelly said. So much had happened over the past few weeks that it was hard to keep track of things. “Anyway, I’m doing my best to keep Steve as far away from me as possible and he starts talking about my dissertation. After five sentences, I knew that he had read it and understood it. He was making connections that no one else has ever made. Five minutes into the discussion, we’re arguing esoteric points that I’ve worked on in my spare time.”

Melinda said, “Ah.”

“The next thing I know I’m on my back announcing my orgasm to the stars,” Shelly said. She had no idea how that had happened. It had followed a declaration of her brilliance.

“Mike did the same thing to me,” Melinda said.

“I was about to object when I recovered, but he started all over again,” Shelly said.

“They cheat,” Melinda said.

“He must have been raised at the Kitty Cat Ranch because he did things to my body that defy words,” Shelly said. She sighed.

“It sure makes it hard to stay at work,” Melinda said knowing exactly what Shelly was feeling. “What convinced you to marry him?”

Shelly said, “Steve gave me a new computer. Her name is Emma.”

“Mine is Myra,” Melinda said.

“We spent a week improving the inferential algorithms it uses. My God, I’ve never learned so much in my life. It was intoxicating,” Shelly said.

“I know the feeling,” Melinda said.

“I guess you do.” Shelly was silent for a moment. In a change of subject, she asked, “Have you ever met Steve’s sister, Cynthia?”

“No,” Melinda said.

“She’s a physicist and very brilliant,” Shelly said.

“She’s a Connor,” Melinda said.

Shelly said, “I had a long talk with her the other night when Steve was installing a secure network for the Ables. She told me about Samuel Donaldson. He was a really remarkable man for the times.”

“What do you mean?” Melinda asked. Mike had given her an overview of the family, but she hadn’t walked away so impressed with Samuel Donaldson.

“Samuel Donaldson had six daughters at a time when women were expected to be nice little subservient wives. He had a different idea. He encouraged them to pursue their interests far beyond what was socially acceptable. One of his daughters got a doctorate in chemistry. Another of his daughters got a degree in engineering. One of his daughters was the first woman in the state to become a judge. One of his daughters was the first woman doctor in the state. One of his daughters went to Paris and studied the culinary arts. He had a daughter who could outshoot and outfight any man this side of the Mississippi.”

“Ah,” Melinda said understanding how it was that they had chosen the men they had married.

“Samuel Donaldson instilled in his daughters the idea that they never had to settle for second best. He raised them to be independent, intelligent, and driven. Above all, he taught them to pursue excellence.”

“That explains a lot,” Melinda said.

Shelly was silent for a moment and then said, “It is so easy to assume that the clans are ruled by testosterone driven men, particularly the Ables clan. Five minutes of listening to them talk about women like sexual objects and you want to cut their balls off. The truth is very different. Cynthia explained to me that the women run the families and they run it with iron fists.”

“She said it that way?” Melinda asked.

“Well, she actually said that they ruled with an iron cunt,” Shelly said rolling her eyes.

“That sounds a little better. They are flavorful when it comes to describing relationships between men and women,” Melinda said.

“The important thing to understand is that every child is taught to pursue excellence, from the cradle. Everything a child does while growing up is a lesson. Not one member of the family has failed to graduate high school by the time they reach sixteen. Not one in three generations.”

“My God. That’s incredible,” Melinda said.

“They grow up to be confident because they know they can excel at whatever they attempt,” Shelly said. “They are tested constantly. Each time they pass a test their confidence grows.”

Melinda said, “Interesting observation.”

“You’ve seen it. Those kids working for you when you built the trebuchet were being trained to take a pile of rubbish and turn it into a weapon. Those four kids had competed to see who would get to help Mike. You got the best four of all of the kids who wanted to help,” Shelly said.

“I didn’t realize that,” Melinda said. She had never seen kids that age work so hard on something. It had been hard backbreaking work.

“Excellence,” Shelly said looking thoughtful.

“Excellence,” Melinda said thinking about the implications of an entire family dedicated to that concept.

Shelly said, “They are so arrogant.”

“That’s true,” Melinda said. She was beginning to realize that they had earned that arrogance.

“I graduated high school at fifteen,” Shelly said.

“Me too,” Melinda said.

Shelly said, “So did Jimbo.”

“You’re kidding?” Melinda said.

“His father was a sergeant in the Army and won the Medal of Honor. He raised Jimbo with an iron fist. He pushed him to succeed in scholastic endeavors as well as martial arts. Apparently, he felt that a dumb man with a gun was a dead man with a gun. It wasn’t a matter of luck that Jimbo won the obstacle course race,” Shelly said.

“He said it was tough, but he didn’t make a big deal out of it,” Melinda said.

“Half the people who started didn’t finish. That’s saying a lot; particularly since we’re talking Ables, here,” Shelly said. “The medics there were young members of the Sanders clan.”

“I haven’t had a chance to meet any members of the medical branch of the Donaldson family,” Melinda said.

“They’re the same as the others: arrogant, confident, and driven to excel,” Shelly said.

“I’m not surprised,” Melinda said.

Shelly rose from the table and said, “I guess I can’t put it off any more.”

“What?” Melinda asked.

“I’m clearing out my office. I’m resigning, tomorrow. Steve and I are going to work on a signal processing system for an advanced sonar system,” Shelly said.

Melinda had been in office for only five minutes when Buck Ables walked in. He sat down in a chair before she had a chance to offer him a seat. He smiled at her and said, “You’re problems are over.”

“That’s nice,” Melinda replied taken aback by his informal invasion of her office space. She asked, “Which problems?”

“The ones concerning a certain black project,” Buck answered.

“Oh those problems,” Melinda said wide-eyed. She hadn’t known that WhiteIce Global was trying to solve her problems. She had hired them to provide protection for her people.

“We tracked your problems back to the source. Interestingly enough, a certain government had already paid a rather unique organization to take care of the source of your problems. This morning, the source had a fatal encounter with its citizenry,” Buck said with a wink.

“You mean that mess in South America?” Melinda asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Buck said with a wink.

“I got it,” Melinda said.

Buck looked around the office and said, “I guess you’re going to miss this place.”

“I didn’t know I was leaving,” Melinda said.

“You will,” Buck said.

“You might be right,” Melinda said.

“We’ve got a bunch of young Ables who have graduated high school and are too young to enter the Army. They are all looking for jobs. When you and Mike head down to Florida to build your submarine, you might consider taking a handful of them along with you to work security.”