Darkest Designs Read Free Page A

crowd.
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    â€œStorey needs our help. She helped us…”
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    â€œAnd the Councilman must pay for what he’s done.” Shouts and raised voices followed the group as it made its way into the larger room. Finally Paxton closed the main doors to the lab, locking them, and walked over to the workbench. “Now maybe we can have a few moments.”
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    Eric strode over to the adjoining conference room door and shut it behind the last person moving through the lab to join the group mingling and talking loudly. This and the recent battle with the Louers had given them something to talk about for decades to come. Too bad most of it was at Storey’s expense.
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    Paxton hurried toward him. “Now Eric, are you sure she’s lost In-between?”
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    Eric ran a hand through his hair as he thought on what had happened. “She was in the portal with us. I could see her, then there was a small rush of wind, she shrieked and was gone. I searched the blackness, but you know you can’t see very much at all during a transfer.” He stopped for breath, and closed his eyes briefly. Would the echo of Storey’s scream ever fade? He almost hoped not. He needed to keep her alive…until he could find a way to bring her back.
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    â€œWe’ll find a way to help her.”
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    â€œWe need to contact her stylus," Eric said. "See if it can communicate from In-between. If it can, we might be lucky and get a way out of this fast.”
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    Paxton was ahead of him. He already had his stylus in his hand and an electronic tablet on the desk. In seconds his hand flowed over the screen. “My stylus is already checking. Our connection is growing every day.” Paxton shook his head. “It can hear and anticipate my needs now.”
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    Eric snorted. “After all this time? Unbelievable.”
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    â€œI wished I’d known about their abilities earlier,” Paxton admitted. “If it hadn’t been for Storey…”
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    â€œExactly. She’s done so much for us,” Eric muttered, peering down at the tablet. He couldn’t read what Paxton’s stylus was writing.
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    â€œEric, back up. I can’t see what I’m doing.” The exasperation in Paxton’s voice made Eric smile. He stepped back to give his friend room to work.
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    â€œIt says it can hear the stylus, but there is great distance between them. Communication is splotchy.”
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    Eric laughed with relief. Splotchy meant there was still some communication. “That sounds like Storey’s vocabulary.”
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    Paxton snorted. “Another of her influences.”
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    There was no arguing with that comment. Storey had dropped into their world – literally – and they were forever changed. They needed to get her back safely to where she belonged. “But we can communicate. First off, let’s make sure she’s okay. I’d hate to think of her lying somewhere with a broken leg.”
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    When there was no answer, Eric glanced at his mentor. The confusion on Paxton’s face had him asking, “What’s wrong?”
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    Paxton held out his hands, palms upwards. “There is nothing In-between. It’s empty space. In theory she couldn’t be hurt. There’s nothing for her to have hit in the fall – unless she was carrying something. By that same logic, she should be unconscious from the pressure. The absence of atmosphere…I’d think.” But he looked doubtful. He turned back to his stylus. “Let’s find out what the stylus knows.”
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    Not much was the answer that trickled in a few minutes later. The stylus said it was caught In-between, and had no information as to how to get home. It did confirm that Storey had been pushed from the portal just before the arrival at Paxton’s lab and that she hadn’t been physically hurt in the process. Just as Paxton started to ask