Dangerous Designs Read online

  ***

  Eric stomped on the hope trickling through him. It wouldn't do to put too much credence in Storey's skills. What she'd achieved so far was phenomenal. He'd gone from one extreme to the other in the last few hours, and none of it had been pleasant.

  Paxton hadn't helped after his father had stormed off. "You shouldn't have pushed him like that."

  "I pushed him?"

  "Yes, you forced him to declare his intentions with the girl. He can't back down now. We might have found a way around this mess but for that."

  "Like what?" he scoffed. "She's right, you know. We're all about us. Not about them. Everything is our way. The mistake was ours in the first place."

  "She didn't have to pick up the stylus," Paxton said fretfully.

  "She hardly had a choice. It called to her. It wanted to go home. You know that yourself. No one is looking at that. She's a victim here. The stylus targeted her. She didn't mean to do this. She had no idea that she could do any of this."

  "Regardless of how this started, she's in the middle of it now. We have no solution to the Louers either."

  "She'd have been happy to help."

  Paxton snuck a glance around the room, then leaned forward to whisper, "Do you think so?" At Eric's nod, he said, "Then go bring her back. Please. Our very existence is at stake here."

  Eric studied the older man. Did he believe that? Or was it just another attempt to get Eric to do his bidding. "I can't bring her back with a death sentence hanging over her head. That makes me an accomplice to her murder and I can't do that. I can't deliver her to her death."

  "Don't think of it that way. It would be a state sentence being carried out."

  "It's murder." Eric said. "I'd be bringing her back under false pretences."

  "No. Not at all. Tell her we need her help."

  "And what?" Eric threw up his hands. "And don't tell her that as thanks, we're going to brand her as a traitor to the state and have her killed? Are you nuts?"

  Paxton reared back. "No. But if you don't bring her back, then a retrieval team will go after her anyway and you'll both be killed."

  Eric had contemplated the two horrible options. He didn't want to die. Neither could he let Storey be killed. "Even when the orders are wrong?" Fatigue slid through his voice. He was more tired than he could believe, and none of it was related to how he felt physically. The emotional stress of the last few hours had leeched everything from his system.

  He glanced around the lab where he'd enjoyed so many comfortable hours with Paxton. Paxton, his mentor, had been more of a father to him than his own flesh and blood version. "Tell me, would you bring her back, knowing you were bringing her to her death?"

  "If I had to, as much as I don't like the idea, yes."

  "Why is it 'a had to?' Why is death the only option? She's not going to hurt us - particularly once she understands the problem."

  "You don't know that. We have to get the stylus back. That she should be bound to it is intolerable."

  "Why? Maybe they have soulbound objects over there."

  "We've seen no sign of such a thing."

  "Again that arrogance. We haven't seen them, therefore, they don't exist? Why do you insist we are better than they?"

  "That's not what I said. Don't go putting words in my mouth." Paxton's voice turned testy. "Get ready. It shouldn't take you long to find her."

  "It won't be easy to persuade her to return," warned Eric. Already he was calculating how long they had to make their getaway.

  "Don't take too long. Your father will give you a few hours, overnight probably. If you're not back by noon tomorrow, a retrieval team will be sent over."

  "Is anyone else over there now?"

  "No. There aren't any planned missions in the next year."

  "Hmmm. Just wondered if we had spies living on the other side of the veil."

  Paxton stared at him in shock. "Of course not. We've never do that. What for? They've never been a threat to us before."

  "And they still aren't."

  "It's time for you to do what you need to do."

  Eric glanced at Paxton's face. Had there been a weird inflection in Paxton's voice? The wording had been interesting. Do what you need to do.

  Now, lying here in Storey's room, that's the phrase he focused on.

  "Hey, are you there? Felt like I lost you somewhere, somehow."

  "I'm here."

  He stared at her, his gaze flat and concerned, for a long moment. Long enough for her sunny smile to fall away and be replaced by a worried frown.

  "Run away with me."