Dangerous Designs Read online

  ***

  Storey and Eric used her drawings to cross the veil to Eric's world. With his guidance, they crossed via Stanshor mine.

  "You're sure this is the best entrance?"

  "Yes. It used to be a central meeting point for various city members. They'd travel as a group here via codex," he said, holding up his wrist. A long unique metal band covered his skin from elbow to wrist, "and then come to the hall en masse." He strode into the murky depths of the cavern she'd been happy to forget. He stopped ahead of her and pointed at the ground. "Why did you do this?"

  Storey paused to stare at the crosses she'd marked on that fateful day. Had it only been yesterday? Or the day before? She shook her head. Her sense of time had warped. For the first time, she wondered at long-term side effects and health problems of crossing the veil multiple times. "I was trying to mark out distances, so I'd be able to find my way back again."

  "Smart."

  There it went again. That little wiggle inside. Damned if she knew why she should care about what he thought of her. She followed him through the darkness to a destination only Eric appeared to know. Storey peered through the blackness, yet saw nothing. He glanced from time to time at his codes. "Is that like a GPS or something?"

  "GPS? I don't understand."

  "Hmmm." Rather than try to explain something she didn't perfectly understand, she asked, "How does the codex work?"

  "It's a digital map, I guess you could say. You can punch in coordinates or places and it can tell you where you are and direct you to a specific place."

  "So you just dial up Earth 2 and it sends you to a doorway?" She bumped into his back. He held the flashlight in front of him which lit that area. Everything else appeared to be absolute darkness. "Oomph."

  He reached around and grabbed her hand, pulling her up beside him without slowing his pace. Keeping her hand in his, he answered, "Kinda. But a lot more complicated than that. With it I can also create a doorway if I need to in an emergency, and it can send me across my world instantly."

  "Perfect way to evade capture."

  "Not really. It leaves a signature that is automatically tracked by Paxton's computers. Wherever I go, they will know instantly."

  She frowned. "Okay, not so great."

  "We're here." Eric stopped on the spot, showing her the flashing colors on his codex.

  She stared at it in disbelief then looked around, "That's it? Just because the colors are different, you're willing to trust that little piece of technology. Look around you. We're nowhere." Her voice rose at the end and it was all she could do to stop herself from yelling. "That's a whole lot of trust in nothing." Her voice echoed on for a long time. She shivered, staring out into black soup that thickened and darkened even as she watched.

  "It's alright. Everything's going to be fine." He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. She didn't protest. In fact, she couldn't resist snuggling up to his comforting warmth. This place gave her the creeps.

  "Right," she muttered. "So now what?"

  "What do you mean?"

  She shuddered again. "Why is it so cold all of a sudden? And what do you mean, what do I mean?" she said in exasperation. "Honestly, sometimes I think you're from another world."

  "Well technically..."

  With a look of disgust she tried to search her surroundings. The soup had blanketed out everything but Eric, and that's only because she was right beside him.

  She shivered. "How do we leave then? I'd like to get out of this."

  "That should happen in about 5, 4, 3..."

  She reared back. "What the – "

  Blue sky beamed down on her.