Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

are probably watching. I should ask you to leave.""Fine," Alan said. "I’m really sorry things turned out thisway, and I don't blame you.""It's orders, it's not personal," Thom said, but his tone ofvoice made Alan suspicious that it was.He stood there, still blocking the door and glaring at him."Uh, I have no magic allowed, remember. I can't leave thisuniverse til you let me use the door.""Oh, right, sorry." He stood back and crossed the room toblock the door to the labs. "It's only when someone is withyou that you can blink to wherever you want.""Sorry," Alan said. He crossed to their front door anddialed the home in the vale. If he came back to the lab hewould use the back door from there. He let Thom see the littlehillside path that the home was on, watch him go thru thedoor that looks like a cupboard door in a retaining wall.The next thing he tried was the back door to Thom’s lab.He wasn’t sure Thom would stay out of the lab long enoughfor Alan to do anything, but since all the controls he neededwere in that lab, he had to try. He wasn’t sure the address hehad was still good, it had been many years since he hadworked that closely with Thom and a good chance the addresshad been changed. Sure enough, he didn't come out in the lab,instead he came out in Alfred and Vic's study, at one of thethree back doors into their universe."Oh, sorry," he said and started to back out.113