Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.

The book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. All rights are reserved with the exceptions of quotes used in reviews. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage system without express written permission from the author.

Beyond the VEIL Series

©2019 Lynn Donovan

Cover Design by Virginia McKevitt

Editing by Cyndi Rule

Lynn Donovan’s Newsletter

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Entangled with Faeries

Table of Contents

Copyright

Lynn Donovan’s Newsletter

Appreciation

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Personal Note from the Author

Newsletter and Free Book

Appreciation

Thank you to everybody in my life who has contributed in one way or another to the writing of this book. My husband, my children, my children-in-law, and my grandchildren. You all are my unconditional fans. My BETA readers, writers’ group, and grammar guru who make me look gooder than I am. [Bad grammar intended.] My fellow author friends who chat with me daily to exchange ideas, encourage, maintain sanity, and keep me from being a total recluse/hermit.

Mostly, I thank God for the talent he has given me. I hope to hear you say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” when I cross the Jordan and run into your arms—Many, many years from now. God bless you all!

Dedication

To Abbie Jane

Introduction

Love is a fantasy, especially when it’s an accident.

Geologist Dr. Abbie Crossan finds a problem in the strata surrounding the VEIL experiment. No one believes her. Is it because of her Tinker Bell obsession and bright pink hair?

Joseph Assad agrees that Abbie’s concerns are minimal until the quantum experiment explodes. Was she right all along? What are these strange creatures entering the facility through the mysterious fog?

Is there any way Joseph and Abbie’s new relationship can survive the swarm of faeries that affect their emotions? How much danger is the open portal to our world anyway? Is there a way to find a Happy Ever After when they are Entangled with Faeries?

Chapter One

“Hey!” Abbie Crossan tucked a strand of bright pink hair behind her ear and rapped her knuckle on the glass wall of the Absolutely Sterile Environment laboratory. “You ready for lunch, Sis?”

Karole Crossan looked up from a microscope. Red-ringed impressions still lingered around her eyes. “Oh! Hey.”

She slipped her bronze wire-framed glasses on and glanced at the only decoration on the stark white wall, an extra-large black and white clock. “Is it lunch time already?”

Abbie snickered at the fading rosy raccoon mask as her sister prepared to leave the ASE lab. Karole might be a medical doctor who graduated with honors, but she was still her geeky older sister. Karole slid out of her green medical lab coat and tossed it in a container marked “WFD.”

Apparently it was a joke for the medical lab only. Abbie had worked with this Variable Entanglement Investigation at Loville facility for three years and her sister had just come on board two weeks ago, yet Karole refused to explain it to Abbie. The VEIL facility had so many acronyms they had formed an acronym department. But Abbie couldn’t find WFD listed anywhere.

Karole stepped into the small decontamination chamber the size of a phone booth. In fact, Abbie had helped the medical team a year ago to paint it to look like the TARDIS. That had been when she was dating one of the doctors, but it felt like a life time or two before this one.

The door to the chamber sealed shut and a white fog engulfed Karole, starting at her feet, and dissipated through the ceiling air return system. Abbie always wished her sister would emerge from the mist in a faerie costume, like Tinker Bell, but it never happened.

Karole stepped into the outer laboratory to give Abbie a hug. Abbie leaned back with her nose wrinkled. “That leaves such a weird smell on you. I’m glad I don’t have to do that every time I leave my office.”

Karole shrugged. “You get used to it, I guess. Besides, why would dirt diggers need an ASE?”

“I’m a geologist, not a dirt digger!” Abbie glared at her. “And you’d be surprised what we can get exposed to digging in ancient layers of sediment, in fact, my stratigraphical analysis of this mountain—”

Karole waved the old argument off. “I’m sorry, I’m just tired. Please don’t explain your studies on the strata in this mountain to me again. Even now that I work here, I still don’t… care.”

Abbie stared at her sister, the words still hanging in her mouth. “Yeah, I’m not in a good mood either.” Abbie pondered the sterilizing booth. “I wonder? If I didn’t come by to get you, would you eat?”

“Probably not. Besides, I’m still feeling out a routine. But think of all the weight I’d lose not going by your stomach’s insistent clock.”

They laughed.

“Yeah, that’s called starvation, Karole, not weight loss.”

“Well, good thing I have you to keep me nourished.” She glanced around the office and patted her ID badge hanging from a lanyard around her neck. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Abbie wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulder and led the way. “When are you going to divulge the secret code for the WFD?”

Karole’s eyes twinkled. “It’s above your pay grade, dear sister.”

Abbie shook her head. Together they exited the Medical building, walking toward the facility’s cafeteria.

Karole ran a cursory eye down Abbie’s length. Genuine interest washed over her face. “So, why are you in a bad mood?”

“Oh…” Abbie sighed heavily. “… I have a concern— maybe it’s nothing.” Abbie plucked an aspen leaf. Its gradient autumn transformation transposed from yellow to rust. Twisting it as they walked, she made it into a rose.

A groundskeeper smiled up at them from a dormant flowerbed she was attending. Karole scanned the indigenous garden between the buildings. “Mmm. It’s so pretty here.”

“Yes it is. Morning, Ling.” Abbie greeted the groundskeeper with a smile and a nod.

Karole turned back to Abbie. “I’m sure you’ll work it out.”

“Yeah. I’m trying.” Abbie tucked a strand of pink hair behind her ear along with the fiery flower.

“Can you feel the excitement in the air?” Karole looked around, as if she could actually see something sparkle in the atmosphere.

Abbie sighed again. “Yeah. I think the physicists in QuCAD are getting close to a giga-breakthrough.” She shook her head. “I just hope everything goes okay.”

“You scientists and your acronyms. What’s QuCAD again?”

“Quantum Chemistry Applications Department.” Abbie chuckled. “Yeah, acronyms help keep our operations as obscure as possible.”

Karole laughed. “That’s the truth. Like our WFD container.” Karole chortled. “I’ll get the hang of it eventually, er, I mean, ASAP?” She walked sideways to make eye contact with Abbie. “Why wouldn’t it?”

Abbie met her sister’s gaze, confused. “Why wouldn’t what?”

“Why wouldn’t everything go okay?”

“Oh!” Abbie threw her head back. “Because! I don’t know what WFD stands for and it may ruin everything as we know it!”

Karole shook her head as she continued walking at Abbie’s side. “Stop that! From what I was told at orientation, the Quantum Entanglement Physics Lab is super safe, contained against the mountain, and Patrick said all of the component tests have been successful.”

Abbie dropped her gaze to the ground. “I know… It’s just— never mind.”

“Patrick also said today’s the day they’re firing up the whole shebang.” Karole smiled as they entered the dining hall.

“Interesting use of words. Is that what our little brother calls the Quantum Entanglement Super Toroid, the whole shebang?”

Karole opened her mouth wide as if with surprise. “Ha! I know that one! What you geeks call the ‘QEST’.”

Abbie glanced around the cafeteria. “That or just QuEST, like everybody else.” Lowering her voice to a whisper, she grabbed her sister’s arm. “Look. There he is!”

“Who?” Karole lifted a tray and placed it on the skid, then followed Abbie’s line of sight. “How long are you going to admire that guy from afar? Go over there and introduce yourself!”

Abbie placed half a turkey-on-rye sandwich wrapped in a see-through cream-colored cloth on her tray along with a small Cobb salad and a little container of balsamic dressing.

Karole stared at the sandwich with disgust. “What is your sandwich wrapped in?”

Abbie glanced down at her selection. “It’s Bee’s Wrap, organic cotton muslin infused with beeswax, jojoba oil, and tree resin…” She leaned down to sniff the wrap. “… and lilac I believe. It’s an environmentally safe alternative to plastic wrap.”

Karole halted in moving down the food selection line and turned to Abbie with frustration gleaming in her eyes. “You guys implemented it? Didn’t you?”

Abbie frowned. “I didn’t. But yes, my department did.”

“I suppose you environmental geeks can come up with all kinds of weird stuff to appease our overzealous environmentally conscious benefactors?”

Abbie smiled. “Job security. And no, I’m not going to just walk over there and introduce myself to that gorgeous man. What if he’s married?”

Karole sighed and continued down the food selection line. “Well, if he is, then shame on him for not wearing a wedding ring.”

“Some scientists don’t— in fact lots of scientists don’t wear jewelry! You know that. How many electrical burns have you treated in the ER over the years from electric arcs? Hum?” She bulged her eyes at her sister. “Or amputated what was left of a finger after a ring caught on a ladder spur and stripped the skin right off—“

“Okay. I get it.” Karole cringed. “But still, he doesn’t have that look.”

“What look? Do men have a certain ‘look’ when they’re married.” Abbie stole a glance toward him.

“Yes. They do. And they put off a certain vibe.”

“Certain vibe? Is that your medical opinion, Dr. Crossan?”

“Yes, it certainly is. Use that organ in your gut that only women have. Women’s intuition is real, sister. What does that organ tell you about your Dr. Perfect?”

Abbie sighed dreamily. “That he’s gorgeous…”

“Besides that?”

“He works in the QuCAD, that’s Quantum Chemistry Applications Department to you who seem to be out of the lingo loop, and he’s a PhD, and he has Extra Sensitive Information, Top Secret Clearance like you and me.”

“Well, duh. I knew he worked in the QuCAD from his red lab coat and that he’s a PhD from his striped badge.” Karole pressed her red ESI Top Secret Clearance badge to the point-of-sale scanner.

A pleasant mechanical voice responded when the transaction was accepted. “Thank you Doctor Karoley Crossan.”

Karole rolled her eyes. “Remind me to talk to Patrick about changing the spelling of my name in the dietary POS system. I hate being called Karoley.”

She looked at her badge. “Maybe you should talk to HR about implementing a bright red Ghostbuster’s circle-and-slash on the badges to indicate MARRIED.” Karole jerked as if she’d suddenly remembered something important. “Oh. I’m sorry go ahead, tell me what else you know about your dream man.”

Abbie smiled. “I know that Dr. Perfect remembers to eat lunch.”

“Okay… he doesn’t have you to pester him into taking a lunch break, what else?”

“Not yet.” Abbie smiled teasingly, then pursed her lips. “I don’t know…” Abbie sat her tray down and eased into the chair, her eyes remained on the chemist.”

“Will you just eat!” Karole unwrapped her sandwich.

“Okay.” Abbie leaned her chin on her palm, still staring across the room. She absently pierced her salad with an organic disposable fork and stuffed the lettuce in her mouth.

“Didn’t your dad teach you not to put your elbow on the table?” Karole pushed her sister’s elbow and caused her head to lurch.

“My dad is your dad and you know it was Grandma who taught us table manners. Besides, after you moved out, Dad always let me eat on the couch.”

“That’s because you were the number two child who was allowed to juggle knives while jumping off the roof onto a trampoline without a side net or helmet. I was the guinea-pig-first-born who would have been swaddled in bubble-wrap if it had been legal.” They laughed. “So you gonna go over and introduce yourself?”

“I might—” Abbie flushed with embarrassment. “Not.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake!” Karole leapt to her feet and marched across the cafeteria. “Excuse me.”

Abbie rushed up behind her, pawing at her shoulder but missing.

“Hi.” Karole stuck out her hand. “I’m Dr. Karole Crossan, from Medical. I don’t believe we’ve met. You are…”

He looked up startled, wiped his mouth, and then stood. His smile exposed gleaming white teeth behind perfectly formed lips.

“I’m Dr. Joseph Assad.” A hispanic accent rolled off his tongue like a cat’s purr. Abbie’s legs turned to rubber. She flattened against her sister’s backside, shoving her forward. Karole shoved back.

He leaned his head to look around Karole.

She grabbed Abbie’s coat sleeve and pulled her around to face him.

“Hi.” Abbie waved her hand like a windshield wiper set on high, then cleared her throat, and stood stiff as if drawing herself to attention. “Um, I’m Dr. Abbie Crossan. She’s my sister. I-uh, I’m in QuESO, um, Quantum Environmental Studies and Operations… I’m uh, a uh ge-geologist. I-yuh…I like your lab coat.”

He pursed his lips but smiled, as he turned his head slightly, keeping his amused gaze on Abbie. “Thanks. The facility provides them. I like your color selection for your hair. Rosa is… becoming on you.”

Abbie touched her hair, squeezing her eyes closed, then opening them. “I, uh, I like pink…” She pulled her pale-yellow Environmental lab coat closed over the pink Tinker Bell t-shirt she had chosen that morning. Would he think she had a childish fetish? If only he knew how crazy she really was about the famous Disney character. Her Tinker Bell collection was more than a hobby, it was a solid quest in life. Pink was the color that made her feel happy.

As a geologist, she worked with dull, bland-tans, as she referred to her co-scientists’ personalities. Bright pink balanced her soul and kept her from turning into one of them. Not that she didn’t respect her fellow environmental workers, she just needed the effects of pink in her world.

Karole shoved her aside. “Well, we’ll be going. Just wanted to introduce ourselves.” She paused. “Say, we are getting together after work with some co-workers—”

“We are?” Abbie jerked her eyes toward her sister.

“Yes— for a drink, why don’t you and your wife join us?”

His eyes widened, a slight blush filled his naturally sun-kissed cheeks. “Oh, I’m not married.”

Abbie stepped in front of her sister. “Really? That’s great… I mean… me neither.”

Karole pushed her aside again. “Well, come join us. It’s simply an opportunity to meet others who work here. This facility is like a lost city. There are so many of us, and most are new to the area.” She chuckled. “We are all so focused on this Quantum Entanglement race we stay cooped up in our labs and don’t get out to meet people. You should join us. It’s a place on-site called The Oasis. It’s at the East Gate.”

“Oh. I don’t know…”

“Pleeease!” Abbie lunged around her sister. “I mean please say you’ll come. It’s not good to work, work, work. Right, Dr. Crossan?”

Karole looked at her sister with incredulous eyes. “Look, being a VEIL scientist is a focused and solitary life. I understand, but it’s not healthy. You should get out and be around people.”

He seemed to consider the validity of her advice.

“Listen, all work and no play— dull boy… you know? Doctor’s orders.” She took out a small note pad and wrote on it. “Here. This is a prescription for leisure time at The Oasis and no talking shop for at least Q2.”

“Q-2? Oh, two hours?” He smiled.

“Yes. I encourage you to fill this tonight after work, say… seven o’clock?”

He took the paper and looked at what she wrote. A half smile raised one side of his mouth.

“Well… maybe.” He lifted his eyes to Abbie. “You’ll be there?”

“Me? Yeah. Of course. If you’re there, I’ll be there.” Her hands balled into fists at her side. “I mean—”

Karole butted in, “Excuse my sister. She’s not this awkward once you get to know her.” She took Abbie’s shoulder and pushed her as they clumsily walked away. Calling back to him over her shoulder, Karole said, “See you there tonight.”

Abbie tripped over her own feet with her sister’s insistent shoving, trying to see if he answered her final invitation. He smiled, watching them stagger away, and nodded.

“Yes!” Abbie pumped her hand at her side. “He said yes!”

They sat back down to their abandoned table with their abandoned food.

Abbie leaned toward her sister. “You think he meant it, or was he just being nice.”

Karole sighed. “Man, you’ve got it bad.”

“What?” Abbie stuffed a fork full of salad in her mouth and mumbled around the food. “I do not!”

“Are you kidding me? You were falling all over yourself!” She laughed. “Look, I don’t know if he’ll show up at The Oasis or not, but I can tell you this—“

Abbie leaned into her sister. “What?”

“If he does, then you’ll know.”

“Know what?”

“He’s into you, too.”

She flopped back against the chair. “Why would that tell me he’s into me?”

“Because, little sister, if he comes to The Oasis, he’s definitely in to you.” She wrinkled her mouth, the way she always did when frustrated. “You acted like an idiot over there.”

“Oh God. Was I that bad?” Abbie peeked over at Dr. Assad. He had finished his meal and stood with his tray.

Abbie sighed. “I blew it, didn’t I?”

He walked to the dish return window and placed his tray on the stainless steel counter. A young girl, sporting a hair net and gold Dietary Department coat, pulled the tray toward her and separated trash and food from dish, and stacked the plate in a washer rack. He said something to her. She looked up and smiled.

Abbie smiled too. She liked the idea that he was nice to the people who served in dietary. He turned. Abbie darted her eyes to the floor as he walked directly toward her and Karole’s table. His smile widened and he tapped their table with the tip of his fingers as he walked past. He had a nice clean manicure. “Drs. Crossan. See you later.”

Abbie stared with her mouth hanging open as he left the cafeteria. She patted her sister’s arm with a fluttering hand. “He said, ‘see us later!’”

Karole put her chin in her hand, elbow on the table. “That he did. At the very least, maybe he’ll call you.”

Abbie stiffened. Her brow furrowed. “Why do you say that?”

“That prescription I wrote him…”

Terror filled Abbie’s heart. What had her sister done? She managed to utter, “Yeah?”

“I gave him your phone number.”

Chapter Two

Abbie tapped the enter key with her little finger. The program ran the probabilities equations again. Every department head meeting she’d attended had left her frustrated and more worried. While the other scientists didn’t ignore her reports, they certainly hadn’t acted on them either. Her calculations to date haunted her logic. The mountain’s strata analysis had definitely changed since the quantum experiments began. That couldn’t be ignored.

While she waited for the compilations, she put her favorite K-cup pod in the Keurig and placed a coffee mug on the drip tray. Hazelnut-cinnamon soon filled the air. She sighed with pleasure at the aroma. At least something was coming out right today.

The program chimed, indicating ‘End Program.’ She quickly sipped a gulp of her coffee and rushed to see the output. Falling into her chair, she furrowed her brow. “This is not good.”

She stepped up to her electronic white board and scratched out more equations based on this new data. The purple dry-erase marker squeaked under her hurried hand. She stood back and looked it over. “I’ve gotta go talk to Physics.”

Pressing the share icon on the frame of the smart board, she transferred the equation to her secured tablet, tucked it under her arm, and left the QuESO building.

Every time she walked past the brass placard identifying her building she mused about her sister chastising her for the acronym. “Queso? Seriously? You named your department after cheese dip?”

“Look, it’s the way of a top secret facility, such as VEIL, to use acronyms, why not have some fun with it? We’ve got to humanize this project! I can’t think of a better way than to name my department Quantum Environmental Studies and Operations. It fits and it’s funny at the same time. Besides those eggheads at HQ won’t make the connection.”

Abbie chuckled at the memory. She stepped into the indigenous garden. Ling, the environmental engineer, worked in an area of sculptured beds, under the aspen trees. Abbie walked along the pink crushed granite path toward the QuCAD. The Quantum Chemistry Application Department appeared to be a small building, but in truth it was built against this section of the Rocky Mountains, called Mount Herman.

It had been her first assignment when she came onboard with the quantum facility planning team. Back then, she had officed in Loville’s downtown area, between an ice cream shop and a new-age tea shop. Just a half dozen scientists and a few admin people.

Their purpose intentionally obscured by not updating the old tole-paint sign that read, “Janice’s Jewelry & Junk.” The quaint little town flourished with several antique shops and mom-and-pop restaurants along Main Street. Janice had moved to a bigger town for better retail opportunities. Little did ol’ Janice know that big changes were soon to come to her small commerce.

It had been deemed a big secret that the private corporation, funded by private investors, was moving in and building a high-tech facility. Only the City Planning Commission had any knowledge of the plans and they were all sworn to secrecy. Therefore, everyone in town knew all about it.

The initial office, set quietly between Frozen Expectations Ice Cream Parlor, and Mystique Emporium, maintained its ploy of disguise by decorating its display windows with junk-store relics and black-out curtains as the backdrop to prevent any passing foot traffic from seeing that nothing but cubicles lay beyond. Abbie and the few other employees parked along the alley and came and went discretely through the back door, which added more intrigue and fuel for local gossip. They all knew the townies weren’t fooled, the townsfolk were pretty clever, but VEIL’S employees were under orders to remain invisible, so they kept up the façade.

What the townsfolk didn’t know was how much Loville, Colorado would grow with the added business and influx of residential needs to accommodate the facility’s employment opportunities. Once construction began and the facility became operational, Loville had grown from a population of 1,500 to 4,000 almost overnight.

While a huge corporate construction company built the facility itself, construction workers were suddenly in demand for houses and apartment construction. Downtown boomed with new stores, bakeries, and ethnic restaurants. The movie theater was renovated with three separate screens and fancy reclining chairs. A small RadioShack was soon built just south of town. AT&T and Verizon marked the beginning and end of the downtown strip of businesses. And Apple was negotiating for retail space in the old grocery store that had gone out of business ten years ago. I-HOP, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s were clamoring for vacant lots along the main road into Loville. Storage facilities popped up all across town. The City Council had to move the city limits to accommodate the new growth.

Abbie had run core-sample analysis those first few months and confirmed the strata was ideal for excavation and construction. A small impact-crater-turned-lake at the foot of the build site was a nice touch. Given the nature of this project and the brilliant people who would be brought to this facility to work, she suggested the Environmental Operations section of her department take advantage of the peaceful beauty of the lake and put tables and seating for ambient mental processing, otherwise known as thinking… and picnics of course. She went so far as to name it QuIET Lake. Quantum Intelligent Entangled Thinking. Seemed appropriate to her.

Abbie blinked, bringing her mind back to the present. The garden groundskeeper had moved to the north quadrant. She seemed to be dividing and transplanting bulbs. Abbie walked quickly through the aboriginal landscape, pausing only after entering the building to scan her badge.

“Morning, Dr. Crossan.” The guard, Frank Gonzales, greeted her as he opened a small cubical locker and handed Abbie the key. She put her cellphone in the box and locked the door. Smiling at Frank kindly, she nodded her thanks and rushed through.

The Physics Department was just past the entrance. Hopefully the physicist she most wanted to speak to was in her lab. Dr. Holly Teak had become well known, in the short time she’d been on-site, among those involved in the Quantum Entanglement project because of her extreme ideas. While Abbie knew Dr. Joseph Assad was also on the Physics team, Dr. Teak was less intimidating, albeit irritating. At least Abbie’s heart didn’t try to win the Kentucky Derby every time she talked to Holly.

Dr. Teak leaned over a laptop along a wall of desk computers, screens, and other machines. Three half empty Lipton tea bottles cluttered the counter. She didn’t even move when Abbie walked in.

Abbie scanned the collection of equations on the ceiling-to-floor white board walls that surrounded the lab on three sides. She lifted a contrasting blue dry-erase marker as she walked through the room, studying the equations. Slowly she stepped up to an empty spot, twisted the marker lid off, and wrote out the updated equation. She lifted her tablet, swiped the Tinker Bell graphic to open the digitized duplicate from her smart board, and verified she had the formula written down correctly.

“Holly?” Abbie turned from the ‘thinking wall’ and cleared her throat. “Uh… Dr. Teak, could I show you something?”

Holly looked up with a heavy sigh, acknowledging Abbie’s presence for the first time, then smiled. She looked all of nineteen, but with three PhDs, she had to be at least thirty. “Certainly! What?”

“I was wondering…” Abbie turned back to the board, ran her finger along a troubling quantum formula, and tapped a fingernail on a particular summation. “I have updated the equations with current strata findings, and… can you show me where the current effects from the strata have been populated in your calculations?”

“Sure!” Holly looked at the equations that Abbie questioned. She tilted her head right, then left, then drew a big red circle around one term with a dry-erase marker. “This term right here” —she tapped the board with the marker, leaving red dots— “could be positive or negative. We shall make the assumption it is positive and thus would have a negligible effect on the process of photon entanglement.”

Abbie stared at the scientist in disbelief. First, this chemical physicist had figured out Abbie’s equations in less than ten seconds, and second, she immediately dismissed the major influence and Abbie’s concerns. “So you’re not taking into consideration the strength of the resonant fields in the material surrounding our facility? May I ask why not?”

Dr. Teak smiled as if she were speaking to a child who had asked why the sky was blue. Abbie held her temper and let Holly respond.

“Well… though it goes against my nature, we chose to be conservative. We felt that any effect from resonance would only help us. It would create more entangled particles. That’s what we want! So if it helps, yippee!” She shook with excitement, her fists clenched in front of her like a cheerleader with pompoms.

Yippee? Abbie swallowed, regretting the balsamic dressing on that Cobb salad at lunch. She had to keep her emotions in check. “But, Holly, I have conducted extensive core sample analysis in this mountain, not to mention seismic— never mind— the bottom line is you may get too much entanglement.”

Again Holly tilted her head. She reminded Abbie of her dad’s hunting dog, Rex, when Dad blew the seemingly silent dog whistle.

“The more the merrier! We want giga-entanglement. The first time we fire up my crystal, we’ll know if we’re on the right track. Eventually, we want to go for peda-bits of quantumly entangled particles. Qubits! I love that they are called qubits!”

“Right track? But the strata—”

“—might help us!”

“—might create mathematical instability!” Abbie finished, exasperated.

“And that’s good.” Holly’s perfectly straight teeth glistened.

“No, I mean — look, I may have only minored in Probability and Quantum Mechanics, Holly, but I’m talking about the possibility of a dimensional instability!”

“Ah! String theory. Well, maybe. That could cause us to lose a lot of the entangled particles we create, but the containment team will have the burden of figuring out how to capture the little gremlins once we prove we can create ‘em.”

Abbie threw up her hands and paced in front of her equations.

Holly smiled. “I know you put a lot of work into finding this place in the mountain. And it’s perfect. Really. I love it here. Thank you. And the QuIET Lake is a really nice touch. Great place to have a picnic, or walk, or… to think—”

“Please listen to me, Holly.” Abbie wanted to shake her by the shoulders. If this was Patrick or Karole, she would have. “What you’re doing is reckless” —blame the equation, not the scientist, Abbie chanted in her head the one line she had retained from the Effective Communication with Scientists class that she had been forced to take for her Qual-card— “I’m sorry, but I’d like for you to consider the possibility of cascade effects of VEIL’s QUEST on the surrounding quartz strata—”

“Ok. I’ll consider it.” Holly pursed her lips and furrowed her brow in an over-animated display of either concentration or annoyance, Abbie wasn’t sure which. “Nope, I reach the same conclusion. Prolific particle entanglement. So… yay!”

Abbie stepped back, crossing her arms. What else could she say to get through to her? “All I’m saying, Dr. Teak, is if the calculations for the alternate solution to this equation are not taken into account, the possibility for effects on our immediate environment— well, the consequences could be” — Abbie swallowed hard— “a catastrophic accident waiting for a place to happen.”

Holly stared at Abbie. “The only problem I see is how the containment team is going to herd our little bouncing particles if they make that many that fast.”

Abbie frowned. What if the problem is a horrific event that changes everything as we know it? But she didn’t articulate that thought. Holly was so focused on the positive possibilities, she couldn’t see any negative probabilities.

Quantum entanglement was not a toy to be played with. Maybe Holly was right and they would just have a mountain-full of entangled photons. No big deal.

But the other possible results should be considered. A great deal of respect and caution had to be incorporated into every theory, hypothesis, formula, and experiment. This was all new territory. She had to make someone understand. Somebody had to listen. But it wouldn’t be Dr. Holly Teak. Should she go straight to Director Adam Stettler, the Project Director? Well, she would if she had to. For now, she’d keep trying to get through to the scientists on the Quantum Interim Entanglement Team. Even if she had to wreck any possibility of dating Dr. Assad, she’d risk it, for the sake of the people in Loville.

But hopefully, she didn’t have to take that extreme measure. Hopefully everything would go fine and she’d have a chance to get to know the handsome physicist before Holly and her enthusiastic race to entangle photons by the qubits wreaked havoc on the entire state of Colorado.

Maybe Patrick would listen.

As lead programmer with IT in the ops center, overseeing the experiments in the QUEST lab, her brother would have some influence with the team of scientists. Abbie drew her lip into her mouth. She had never been to his area. He had always come to her. The QUEST Operations Center was one of the labs seated back against the mountain. Not above her clearance level, just beyond her scope of practice.

Abbie walked toward the front entry security guard, showed her badge, unlocked the little locker, and retrieved her phone. In the garden she lifted her phone while glancing around for Ling. She was raking leaves in another area of the garden. The garden was lovely with its huge ponderosa pines, aspen clusters, and evergreen shrubs. The aspen leaves were just beginning to turn, like the one she put in her hair this morning. Her brother answered. She turned her back to the gardener for simulated privacy.

“Patrick! I need to talk to you!”

“What is it?” His end sounded muffled as if he’d covered the mouthpiece of his phone. “Keep applying those formulas and we’ll run that in a minute, Minerva.”

“Is that Minnie? Tell her hi for me.”

“Yeah, whatever. What do you want, Abbie?”

She chewed her lower lip. “I need to show you something.”

“I’m a little busy... what?”

“I’ve been concerned about this for a while. I can’t seem to get anybody to listen—”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to send you a graphic. Will you look at it, please?” She shouldered her cell phone and lifted her tablet, thumbed past Tinker Bell wielding a wand and opened the copy of her equations from the smart board, then sent it to the secured server where Patrick could open it.

He tsked his tongue in that irritated way. “Just a minute— Okay. So?”

Abbie sighed. “Really look at it, Patrick! I’ve written it on Dr. Teak’s white board too, do you want to come look at it there?”

“What’s the problem, Abbie?”

She took a deep, calming breath. “Everybody’s so focused on making this gigabyte quantum entanglement work, they’re not preparing for the possibility of negative results, catastrophic negative results.”

“What catastrophic negative results? Abbie, photon entanglement has nothing but positive applications: better communication, quantum computing that practically reads minds. How could there be any catastrophic negative results with that? You’re like the old geezer telling Orville that if man were meant to fly, God would have given him wings.” He laughed.

“Listen to me!” She squeezed her phone, since he wasn’t in front of her. “I’m talking about… instabilities that could cause unknown changes to our world as we know it. I’m just asking you to look at my equations, please give it some merit in the decisions that are being made in there.”

Silence pulsed between the phones.

Patrick sighed. “Even if I thought your concerns had merit, Abbie, I’m just an IT guy! Those physicists wouldn’t listen to me.”

Abbie closed her eyes, releasing a frustrated sigh. She drew in another breath and let it out slowly.

”Abbie.” Patrick’s tone softened. “I am present during many discussions. From what I overhear, they are taking everything into consideration. They’re using a conservative approach to these experiments. Everything has been within normal tolerance range. I promise. Go back to your cheese sauce department, do your job, and let me do mine. Today we’re firing off the whole shebang.”

“I know. The full-scale QUEST firing is today!” It took everything inside her to ignore his slam against the acronym for her department. “Why do you think I’ve come to you with this?” She paced frantically in front of a round concrete table.

“Abbie, I swear, if I see any anomaly, I’ll call it out. Go back to your—”

“Patrick! Dr. Teak told me they have chosen to ignore the negative probabilities. You can’t ignore a probability, especially a negative one when the equations clearly—”

“Abbie!” A lifetime of sibling squabbling echoed in his voice. “You’re just projecting your paranoia onto everybody else’s work. Trust us... Trust me! We are not being careless with this! It’s too important. And besides, Dr. Teak is brilliant. The toroid crystal is her brain child. She’s a genius!”

“Everybody here is a genius, Patrick! Even that groundskeeper is probably a genius!” She pointed at the woman even though her brother couldn’t see. “Just because a person is a genius doesn’t mean they can’t overlook something as obvious as the nose on their face.”

Patrick laughed. “Abbie. We have taken into consideration everyone’s nose and all of the positive and negative results, I promise.”

Abbie clenched her teeth. God, he was so stubborn! Just like Mom!

Her brother softened his tone. ”Karole told me we’re meeting at The Oasis after work. I’ll see you there, and we can laugh about how all your fears were unfounded after today’s QUEST firing.”

She chewed her lip. “I hope so.”

“I know so. See you later.”

“Wait. What time is the... whole shebang gonna be conducted?”

He paused.

Was he considering not telling her? Squinting her eyes in anger, she inhaled to scream at him.

“It’s scheduled in three hours.”

She nodded to no one. “I’ll see you then.”

She’d never been to the QUEST lab or the Ops Center, but she had a Quantum, Extra Sensitive Information, Top Secret Clearance. What harm would it cause if she slipped in to watch? At least if things went wrong, she’d be with her brother.

“Abbie! It’s a super boring event, honest. There’s nothing to see, it’s mostly sub-atomic.”

“Uh huh,” She nodded again. “I know. See you in three hours.”

“Abbie—”

She thumbed the icon to disconnect and slipped her phone in her lab coat pocket. Frankly, she hoped her brother and everybody else was right. Her gut told her different.

Chapter Three

Frank Gonzales smiled at Abbie as she approached the Quantum Labs security guard station for the second time in one day. She was thirty minutes early and not in a big hurry this time. “Back again, eh?” His fingers poised over a registry keyboard. “Destination, Dr. Crossan?”

She laid her badge under the scanner. “I’m gonna watch the first full-scale entanglement firing, Frank”

“Ah, Observation Area, Lab One.” He typed in the information, and noted the green light accepting her entry. A heavy metal-barred gate snapped open and Abbie pushed through. He locked her phone away and handed her the key. She stared down the long ominous hall.

“Have fun.” He turned back to his computer.

“Yeah.” She pursed her lips. “And where is that, exactly?”

He turned and pointed with two fingers, reminding Abbie of an airline steward indicating the emergency exits. Would there be a safe exit if this experiment went terribly wrong today?

“Take this hall to QL5, then turn right. Go about twenty yards and you’ll see a set of double doors. You’ll have to scan your badge to get through, then you turn left. It’s… oh, maybe thirty-four yards farther. You’ll see a big black cable with a green stripe overhead, that tells you you’re heading the right direction. If the cable has a blue stripe you’re in the wrong place.” He chuckled. “Don’t wanna go there.”

He continued pointing as if they could see a holographic map in the air. “There’s another security station at the end of that hall. Rick Sharp will scan you in. Once you’re through that station, you’ll want to go right and then left again—”

“I’ve never been that deep in the Quantum Labs Array.”

He stared at her. “Yeah, not many people have… uh…” He scanned the hall behind her. Dr. Joseph Assad, of all people, walked toward them. His red Physics lab coat parted from the breeze generated by his swift pace up the adjoining hall.

Frank held out a hand to stop the physicist. “Ah, Dr. Assad. Are you going anywhere near OAQL1?”

Assad drew his brow in puzzlement.

“As a matter of fact, I am headed to the Observation Area now.” He looked at Frank and then Abbie. “Dr. Crossan.” He nodded once, a slight smile quivered at the corner of his mouth, as if he knew a secret.

Abbie apprehensively returned his smile. The heat of embarrassment flooded her face. Why had Karole given him Abbie’s phone number? It was bad enough that she had dragged her across the cafeteria to talk to him. Abbie’s eyes dropped to her shoes. Of all people she’d run into him now.

“Perfect.” Frank gestured for Abbie to walk toward Assad. She stayed where she was. “Dr. Crossan is going there, too. Could you show her the way?”

Abbie restrained the inner-high-school-girl’s gasp that gripped her lungs. “Oh, no,” she stammered. “I can wander around until I find it.”

“It’s no problem.” Assad crooned in his smooth-as-silk, sexy hispanic accent.

Her knees went weak. “I-If you’re sure.”

He held out his hand, inviting her to walk with him. “Jes, I’m chure.”

Lord, that accent was going to do her in!

“Thank you, Frank.” Abbie bit her lip. Frank was as bad as her sister, forcing her to interact with Dr. Assad.

Frank called out, “You kids have fun!”

This wasn’t a prom date! Abbie’s face flushed with heat again. Did everybody know she was interested in this gorgeous chemical physicist? It was so much better anonymously admiring him from across the cafeteria. What if it turned out that he hated her? The fantasy would be squashed for good.

She sighed and let him lead the way. Her pale-yellow Environment Department lab coat flapped against his as she walked swiftly to match his long stride. The deeper they went, the tighter the security. The closer to the whole shebang in QUEST Lab One they walked, the tighter her stomach clinched.

She had studied this mountain and determined the quartz strata could support the structure of these labs being built against the mountain, like chiseling out a highway. It essentially hid how big the facility truly was by exposing only the front quarter of the structure.

His hand pressed into her back as she crossed the threshold at the double doors Frank had mentioned. A thrill shot through her back and landed in her heart like the impact crater that formed QuIET Lake. She did her best not to squeal or walk on her tip-toes.

“Thank you.” She uttered at last.

“No problem-o.” He chuckled. “The Ops Center had a pool you might show up for this.”

A second wave of heat flushed her face.

“The Ops Center?” She stopped walking. “Who in the Ops Center?”

He hesitated. “Uh, well, Patrick Cros—”

“My brother, Patrick? What did he say?”

Oh, how high school was that question? Why hadn’t Karole minded her own business? This infatuation was so much more fun when Dr. Assad had no idea it existed. Or did he? No. No way. Abbie had never talked to her brother about her feelings for the physicist.

Or had she?

Her bottom lip became the target of her teeth, she bit firmly, trying to remember if she’d ever mentioned anything to Patrick.

Assad looked at her with a twinkle in his beautiful dark eyes. “Nothing. Just— he bet you were concerned enough to probably show up to see that everything went well with this first full scale firing, and I— well, I said you would not come. I mean, it’s no fun if no one bets the alternative side—”

“He bet… that I’d… how much did you two bet?”

His smile never faltered. “Just ten dollars.”

“Just… ten dollars?” Anger roiled in her gut. “When? When was this? Before we talked in the cafeteria?”

Now seriousness replaced his jovial gleam. “Well… yes. Yesterday, in fact.”

Was that why he had been so willing to walk her here? To gloat that he’d won the bet with her brother. No wait, if she showed up, Assad would lose. She clinched her fist at her sides. Would everyone be laughing at her when she walked into the observation area?

Calm down! She stared at the floor. Breathe! Drawing in a long slow breath, she let it go and tried to let the anger go with it. Did she want to expose her crazy before their first date? Not that the get-together at The Oasis later was a date, but she really hoped it would lead to one.

That chance may have been ruined if he thought she was a spaz. Her words jumbled up behind her tongue, like a sudden rock slide. She swallowed trying to regain the ability to speak. Should she turn around and go back to her office?

Or continue to Lab One by herself?

But she didn’t know the way. This lab array was like a maze. She lifted her chin a notch and continued to walk toward the impending full scale firing. She had every right to be there for the initial event. Humiliation aside, her concern was valid and quantifiable. In truth, she hoped she was wrong. Because if she were right—

That was a preview of Entangled with Faeries, Beyond the Veil Series, Book #2. To read the rest purchase the book.

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