Dangerous Designs Read online

CHAPTER EIGHT

  Her history lesson wouldn't start until later. By that time, Storey expected to be comatose. It didn't seem to matter which side of the veil she was on. Neither side could get an agreement out of a group of people. The bickering had been going on for hours. At least it felt that way to Storey.

  "We should set up a committee to study the problem. We'll appoint an overseer who can pick his team and set out steps as to how to proceed."

  "Oh, not this again." Storey groaned as the same idea was hashed over and over again.

  "What?" asked a skinny, bald-headed guy dressed similarly to Paxton. "Have you got a better idea?"

  "Hell, yes." The same hush fell over the room as she once again lost her cool. "Oh, right, I swore again. Well, I've got to tell you - it's a little hard to have any respect for a group of people who are so busy trying to get someone else to make a decision that nothing gets done." She stood up, ignoring Eric's restraining hand on her forearm. "I know I don't understand how things work over here, but maybe someone could answer a couple of questions. Such as, can I draw the door closed? Can I rip up the paper and have it no longer exist? How about I draw a group of people taking these Louers and forcing them back to the other side?"

  "Will someone get this girl out of here? She's wasting our time and has caused us nothing but trouble. Someone get her out of here." Eric's father, the arrogant asshole, appeared to be some kind of leader here called the Councilman.

  "Why? Because I'm trying to understand what we can and can't do. It seems logical that if the stylus opened the door, it could close it, too." She strove to keep her voice reasonable.

  "I don't think it works like that," Eric whispered.

  "That's the problem. None of you know how this works." She spread her hands out on the table. "You're all so used to doing something one way that you can't see there might be another way to approach the problem."

  "It's not that. There are rules on our side. The Louers were our enemies. Since they've been gone we've had peace."

  "Yeah? Did you go on secret research missions and steal from them, too?" she scoffed. "You guys need to work on your communication skills."

  "And you need to stop insulting us."

  "Why?" she challenged. "What are you going to do?" She stood, reached across the table for her sketchbook, then walked to the doorway. "You don't want me here. I'm obviously of no value, so pardon me if I leave." She strode out, letting her sarcasm fill the room.

  "Don't let her leave. Eric, stop her," the Councilman shouted.

  Eric stood up and snorted as Storey headed for the door. "What do you want me to do?"

  "Well, she can't just run loose over here. Who knows what kind of damage she could cause?"

  Eric snorted again. "Like we do in her world. It's not like we register with her government and sign in an out on our visits. Neither are we under guard at any time."

  The Councilman's voice sliced through the room. "Lock her up. She's the enemy."

  Storey gasped and spun around. Seeing the vindictive look on his fat face, she headed for the doorway.

  "No, wait." Eric raced behind her.

  His father reared back. "Eric. She's not one of us. Remember your place."

  Shooting his father a disgusted look, Eric left the conference room. He caught up with her in the lab. "What are you doing?"

  "Going home. I came here at your request. I can't help you. Therefore, I'm going home."

  "You can't just leave. Don't you understand? This is a different dimension. You can't just walk home." Eric ran his hand through his hair. "I know this is tough, and I'm sorry. I'd forgotten what it's like when this group gets together.

  "It's called bureaucracy on my side."

  "Yeah. Same thing here."

  "And yes, I can just leave." Storey waved the stylus and sketchbook at him.

  "What, you're just going to draw the other side? And expect to walk right into it?"

  "Or something that's even easier." She sat down cross-legged on the floor and sketched madly for a couple of minutes while Eric watched over her shoulder.

  "There's no way that's going to work," he scoffed.

  "Maybe and maybe not," she answered him without raising her gaze from her picture. "Then again, you're so used to the rules of your world that you don't even know if the rules can be broken. And sometimes you don't need to break anything. You need to find a way around things."

  He squatted down beside her. "True. I'd think you might need to know the rules before you can break them."

  "Apparently not or we wouldn't be in this mess now." She shot him a grin before refocusing. "Wait and see. If it doesn't work, no problem, then you can use your decoder and take me home." She finished her drawing, painfully aware of his lack of response. She stood up and waited until he'd straightened and looked at her. "They won't let you take me home, will they?"

  He grimaced, dropping his gaze to the ground and kicked out as if at an invisible rock. "No."

  "Well, you're going to have to if this doesn't work," she said coolly. "You brought me here, so it's up to you to do the right thing and take me home. Especially as you brought me here without my permission in the first place. You said you wanted to show someone my work. You didn't say I'd be going to another dimension to make that happen."

  "Let's hope this works, so I'm not put into that position."

  Studying her sketch, Storey added, "Seems like parental control, discrimination and assholes are all the same no matter what side of the veil you're on. Too bad. I was hoping your society was more advanced and my people could learn something. Not going to happen, though."

  "We are more advanced," he protested.

  She walked over to the wall she'd been staring at. Nodding once, she ripped off the paper and looked around. "Do you oh-so-much-more-superior people have such things as pins or tape?"

  He snorted, walked over to the closest bench and pulled off a piece of something gray. Returning to her side, he said, "It's neither and won't cause any damage like those two will."

  She sniffed disdainfully. "We have sticky stuff like that at home too." Flipping her hair, she stuck the gray ball onto the back of the sketch and hung it on the wall. Taking a few steps back, she studied the picture in relationship to the rest of the room, grabbed her pencil and drew a couple of quick horizontal and then vertical lines on the wall outside of the picture. She nodded. "Okay. See you around - maybe."

  She walked purposefully toward the picture that she'd incorporated the wall into.

  "Eric, what are you too doing?" Paxton ran into the room. "We need you back in here. Bring Storey so we can keep track of her."

  Storey shook her head. Not going to happen. She was going home. With a small wave of her fingers, she walked into the wall - and through her picture.

  "No. Oh, no. She can't do –"

  Storey grinned as she stood in the middle of her own bedroom.

  Apparently, she could.