Dangerous Designs (19 page)

"Yes. There. Return as soon as you can – with Eric."

She nodded and pushed the button. Having traveled by codex before gave her some warning as to what to expect. It happened so quickly though, she didn't have time to adjust. When the blackness cleared, she blinked and spun around.

The room was empty.

Surely not. Had the correct identity number been punched in? She had to believe in Paxton that much. Then where was Eric? She walked the small area, looking for some evidence that he'd been there.

A desk and several chairs sat in the center of the room, undisturbed. She bent to look underneath.

Something twinkled below. She pulled a chair back and reached for it.

Eric's codex.

Oh shit. She stood up and spun around, looking for where Eric could have gone. There was no sign of a fight. No disruption to the room. Just plain...nothing.

Weird. Where were the doors in this place? Hidden? Why was nothing ever easy on this side of the veil? She walked the room, dragging her fingers along the wall, looking for breaks to denote a door. There weren't any. She stared up at the ceiling. Nothing visible. The floor? It was covered in a deep red flooring that sat like a cross between tile and carpet. Unique. She studied it, wondering if there was some kind of level below. Did basement mean the same thing here as it did back home? She wished she could ask Paxton. She brightened. She could. She pulled out her stylus and sketchbook, muttering to herself as she wrote the note, "Paxton, the room is empty. No doors or windows. Only a table and chairs in the center of the room. No sign of anyone. Eric has lost his codex. It was on the floor under the table."

She waited for the stylus to show signs of an answer from Paxton.

Impatience gnawed at her. Finally her hand started moving.
Move the table. Door is opened by knocking on it. Eric couldn't have 'lost' the codex. He's been taken and either had it cut off or removed it himself.

Not good. She walked over to the table and turned it to the right. A smooth, sliding noise sounded behind her. She spun around to find a large door had shifted to the side. It hadn't been discernible before. Hard to believe.

Standing in the doorway, she realized there was only a dark black space beyond. Where were the damn light switches in this place? "Stylus, how do the lights turn on?" Even as she spoke the lights flashed on. Apparently they were voice controlled. She studied the long hallway now visible before her. A single closed door waited at the far end. She walked down and pushed it open. It led to another large room. This one was also empty. Not knowing what else to do, she returned to the room where she'd found his codex. "So, Stylus. Where is Eric?"

She expected a quick answer. Instead she got a weird humming sound. What was that? It almost seemed like her stylus was thinking things over.

I'm not registering him.

"Uh oh?" She stared at the pen. "What does that mean?"

It means I can't see his energy signature anywhere.

Her stomach knotted. "What? What does this mean?"

He is no longer in this dimension.

***

Eric tried to sit up. Bad idea. He gasped at the sledgehammer in his head. Bile from his stomach climbed up the back of his throat. Then he felt his bare arm. His codex was gone. He vaguely remembered being grabbed and putting up a crazy fight before taking a direct hit on the side of his head. He could have lost it then. Or they'd taken it. Whoever 'they' were. The loss of the codex could also contribute to the headache. He groaned softly. Brutal.

"Eric? Are you awake?" A familiar voice spoke through the pounding in his brain.

Eric tried to open his eyes. Pain forced them closed again. "I'm here," he whispered to his father. "Where are we?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you might know."

Peering through slit eyes, Eric saw his father squatting down in front of him. "What happened, sir?"

Shifting to sit on his ample butt, his father said, "We had just finished the emergency Council meeting when the alarm sounded. Louers. Everywhere. Seemed like hundreds of them. I don't know how or why. They overran us in minutes. At least I think they're Louers. They look different, though. Not like they used to look."

"Different how? What did they used to look like?"

His father peered around nervously, whispering, "Like us. Exactly like us."

What?
Eric shot him a startled look. He didn't ask the burning question he wanted to ask. Instead, he went for the one next in line. "What are they like now?" Moving gently, he struggled into a sitting position, heaving a sigh of relief when the room stopped spinning. The fear in his father's voice made him look up.

"Mutants. Deformed, weird looking things. Nothing normal about them now."

"That makes sense in a way. They've had to evolve to survive. Did you know what the place was like when your people banished them?"

"No and I don't care." Sitting like a rotund Buddha, his father placed his hands on his knees and glared at Eric. "They're killing anyone who resists and rounding up the survivors. We've been taken somewhere. I'm afraid it's off planet."

That stopped Eric in the act of trying to stand up. "As in across the veil?" Just then the smell hit him. He bent over, plugging his nose. He groaned. "What's that smell?"

"Louers. We're prisoners in the Louers' dimension."

Nasty. Experimenting, Eric unplugged his nose and shuddered at the rank aroma. All the archives spoke about a horrible smell at the gate. Words hadn't done it justice.

He struggled past it to refocus on the mess they were in. From Storey's history, he'd learned that every war sported winners and losers and the losers, historically, became prisoners. When able to cross dimensions, it wasn't hard to imagine returning the prisoners to your home. Particularly if you needed slaves.

"Are we being guarded? Has someone come to speak with you?"

"No." His father shook his head. "There's been no one."

"Does anyone have a codex?"

His father leaned closer to whisper, "I do. I don't know the coordinates to punch in."

Eric could take care of that. His father's unit wouldn't be strong enough to take everyone back at once. "Are they taking the codexes away?"

"Don't think so. We were herded forward as a group. Outside of giving us a quick check, they haven't done a massive search. There's one codex and even a couple of taprins,"

"Good." But not great. The simple taprins were basic codexes but wouldn't have the power and functionality to help out here. There wasn't a weapon amongst them. Why would there be? Until now, there'd been no need. "Slip me your codex. I can get out and back with reinforcements in no time."

His father glared. "Not without me. If you're going, then so am I."

Eric grimaced. "It's best if we all go at once. The guards could come any moment." He studied their surroundings and the ragged group surrounding them. "How many of us are here, about twenty?"

"Closer to thirty."

"Marshal the others into a group. I know where to go." Eric accepted his father's codex, clipped it on, then punched in the coordinates for Stanshor mine. That would get them clear of here, then they could jump to another point. The mine was better for a large group like this. Paxton's lab could be the second jump. Not that it would help much unless it was secure.

"We'll try for the mine," he whispered to the group gathered around him. "Everyone squeeze in as close together as possible and hang on. We're trying to move a lot of people at once. I don't know that I can take everyone in one jump."

"You're not leaving me here," blustered a big man in the back, shoving the others in closer.

"Nor me." That was a young woman holding a young child.

"I ain't staying. No way. Those things are going to come back and I want to be long gone." An older man spoke, Eric vaguely remembered seeing him in the Council chambers.

Eric understood their feelings. "Who else has a codex?"

Two people held up their arms. "Darn." They were both simple versions. "Okay. Let's try."

He hit the button on his codex and waited for the sequence to run on both, picking up the signals of each other, building power in their connectiveness. Who knew if the codex worked in the Louers dimension? They could very well end up someplace else entirely. He figured anywhere had to be better than here.

Reassuring blackness swirled around them. He closed his eyes and willed the portal to open. A wretched smell filled their nostrils and the air became fetid, hot. He coughed several times.

"Is it working?" whispered one of them.

The blackness deepened until Eric couldn't see his father's face in front of him. Isolation often accompanied a dimension journey, with the cold an ever-present symptom. He closed down inside and waited. Uneasiness knotted up his stomach. They had so few options. This had to work.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Another long minute of frightful silence. A child whimpered. Her mother hushed her. "Shhhh. We'll be there soon."

"Will we? I've never been in such a long transfer." The grumbler was in the back of the group. Probably the big man who'd spoken up earlier. Eric didn't have any guarantees to offer. "Some of the gates aren't working well. Not to mention with this many people the transfer will take twice as long."

Just when he thought they were trapped, the mist started to recede. Sighs of relief washed over him. The air lightened, the others grinned. He turned to look around. "We're here. Where ever here is?"

As the mists dissipated, Eric realized they weren't in Stanshor at all. He didn't know where they were.

"What is this place?" Everyone stepped back to look around. Curiosity and relief wreathed their faces. Trees, trees, and more trees surrounded them. Blue sky and sunshine looked down on them. Eric had to wonder if they'd crossed to Storey's world.

"I'm not sure yet. I don't recognize it."

"I don't care where it is. It's not with the Louers." A murmur of agreement wafted through the crowd.

"I want to go home." The little girl huddled against her mother's legs.

Eric's father walked over to him hooked his arm and led him a little ways away. "Have you heard about this place before?"

Eric circled the area. "I don't think so." He walked a few steps further as his father watched. "It's possible we're in another dimension."

"You mean we've crossed the veil? That we might be in the human's dimension?" he hissed, staring around as if something might jump out at him. "Do you know how dangerous it is over here?"

Eric looked at him oddly. "Yeah, I think I do. I've been back and forth several times with Storey. Still...I'm not sure that's where we are."

"So how do we find out?" The self-elected group leader, the large, burly man who'd complained before, stepped forward. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have gotten out of that place...where's home though?"

"Please keep in mind that the Louers have taken over our home. We don't want to jump back into the same situation. I'll contact Central and let them know we need assistance."

He tapped his codes, watching the colors shift in the right order. Reassured, he contacted Central next. No one answered. Sending off a message, he hoped someone there would see the flashing signal and hit the receiver. He didn't want to consider the possibility of no one being there to receive it. Using other codex functions, he tried to get a location for this place. The wrist unit beeped and flashed and in the end, came up with an error message.

Even the codex didn't know where they were.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

S
torey stared at her stylus. "Eric is in the Louer's dimension?" He'd better not be. She didn't relish trying to find her way over there.

Her pencil jerked out an answer. Or somewhat of an answer.
Yes. No.

She sighed. "Which is it?"

He was. He is no longer.

"How do you know?"

His father's codex has recently been recalibrated for Eric's use.

"Then where are they now?"

In another dimension.

"What other dimension?" Exasperation at the short answers and having to pull teeth to get information was draining her. "My home?"

Close.

"Close." She stopped puzzled. "There are only three dimensions here." After a moment, she added, "Right?"

Her pencil answered quickly.
There were only three, but now there is a fourth.

"Oh no." She groaned and closed her eyes briefly. The onion. "You mean the one I created to make a safety net for my world? Is Eric caught in there?"

Yes.

"Which means I can't wipe out that dimension without wiping out Eric and his group?"

If you destroy the dimension, you will also destroy everything in it.

"Such as?" The stylus remained quiet. "Could we wipe out the Louer's dimension?"

Yes.

"Yes?" she questioned. "So that's one way to stop them. Wipe them out and everyone in it will disappear, too. Drastic but as a last resort...possible." Except how could she know who else might be over there at the time? If the Louers were taking prisoners, then they'd be destroyed as well – including Eric, if he went back to rescue his people.

"Can you talk to Eric's codex?"

The codex is a machine. It does not talk.

"Right." She knew that. "Can you program the codes on Eric's wrist to give him the coordinates to get back home?"

Yes.

"Then do so." She wanted to jump up and down. This would all soon be over. Eric would be home safe and sound. Paxton should be sorting through the archives for a way to get rid of the Louers and she could go home. She frowned. She might need to fix a few things there yet.

I put in the coordinates for Paxton's lab.

"Good. Let's head back and we should arrive in time to meet them." She studied her codex. Paxton had programmed the original destination, not a return trip. The plan had been to use Eric's codex to get home. "Stylus, can you send the coordinates of Paxton's lab to my simple codex? Paxton didn't program a return trip for us."