Alec's Dream

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Alec's Dream Page 16

by Dave Birchbauer


  “You said you didn’t draw this?” Sofie examined the sheet of paper Jessie just gave her.

  “There’s no way I could have. It’s not my design… I could never have come up with it, it’s way too complicated. It really looks like something my dad would invent.”

  “But… these are your chicken scratchings. Even your… whatever you call it.” Sofie looked curiously at Jessie.

  “I know I’m the only one that understands how I design electronics stuff.” Jessie looked over Sofie’s shoulder at the complex hand drawn picture on the paper. “My dad can’t even understand em.”

  “So you think this will really work?”

  “I don’t know… but it’s worth a try. That’s why we need more of those gravity inductors.” Jessie pointed to some scribbled blobs in the middle of the picture.

  “So you think you can use that thing to find them?” Sofie looked at the device on Jessie’s workbench.

  “Yup, it’s my old video scrambler. I just needed to make a couple of adjustments. I think I can use it to hack into our security system… boy this would’ve been a ton of work if Mr. Moon hadn’t talked dad into giving our stuff back.”

  “Yea… so what’s all that about anyway? Why did they let us back in the lab… and why did he give all your gadgets back?” Sofie asked. “Mr. Moon’s only been here for a couple of weeks and he’s already telling our dads what to do.”

  “Well, Mr. Moon talked to me. He said he wanted me to help work on his spaceship.” Jessie said with an edge of pride.

  “You really think he has a spaceship?”

  “Yup, I saw pictures of it. It looks more like a space shuttle… kind of like a bus with little wings.” Jessie said while concentrating on connecting the video device to an open laptop.

  “If he’s already got a spaceship, what does he need us for?”

  “Duh… anti-gravity.” Jessie said surprised at Sofie’s question.

  “Well, I mean… does your anti-gravity work in outer space?”

  Jessie stopped working on her laptop and looked at Sofie… stunned. “I…I… uh, never thought about that.” She said feeling stupid again.

  “Well, I’m guessing your dad already thought of that.” Sofie sat as Jessie began typing on the laptop.

  A grid of video’s popped up on the screen in front of them. “I’ve programmed it to search all the stored videos in the security system where my dad’s pictures are in them.” Jessie turned to Sofie.

  “That’s great... but that’s sure a lot of videos.”

  “I didn’t think of that.” Jessie said deflated. “It’ll take us years to go through them all.” She scrolled through page after page of them.

  “Well, we know when your dad hid the gravity inductors, so we just need to look at those ones.” Sofie concentrated on the screen as Jessie typed. “Good, now I’m guessing he’d be carrying a box or pushing a cart or something.” Jessie continued typing and the grid of videos shrunk to a single picture. “Bingo.”

  “Smart.” Jessie said impressed by Sofie’s logic.

  After viewing the video they both gave a sigh of relief. “They’re in Eugene’s workshop.” Sofie said happily.

  “Yea… at least they’re not in that other…”

  “I don’t want to even think about that room.” They had stayed away from that old storeroom ever since that day.

  “I can’t see why we need to be so sneaky. I would think my dad would just give us one now.” Jessie said. “I mean, they want me to help with that spaceship and everything.”

  Sofie looked sideways at her. “I could be a trap.”

  “Why would my dad set a trap for us? I mean Mr. Moon said I can.”

  “I don’t mean your dad…” Sofie halted Jessie as they prepared to leave for Eugene’s lab.

  “Then who?”

  “Whoever set the trap for us in that storeroom… and whoever wrote those notes.”

  “But those notes are in my handwriting.” Jessie argued. “And they said it was Olivia… not Eugene.”

  “So are you saying you did write them?” Sofie looked wide-eyed at her.

  “No… I just mean that… maybe those notes are from somebody nice that’s trying to help us.”

  “So let’s see if that’s true.” Sofie said shrugging off their concern and they rushed out the door.

 

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