Three Wishes by Juli Alexander Read Free Book Online Page B

hoped they had iced tea in the other realm. With lemon. And preferably crushed ice. I could make do with cubes. What if there wasn’t any ice at all? No. That would be hell.
    I didn’t see any sign of Ian or Sean in the foyer so I walked into the kitchen. I was glad they weren’t in there. They wouldn’t know I hadn’t stepped right out of the pantry like usual.
    I yelled up the stairs, “Sean? You here?”
    His face peeped through the railing upstairs. “Are you still mad?”
    “Of course I’m mad, but I’m not going to hurt you. Did you do your homework? And did you have your snack?”
    Sean came pounding down the stairs. “I’m almost done with the homework.”
    I eyed the chocolate smeared on his face and the front of his Falcon’s sweatshirt. “And you had what? A bag of chocolate chip cookies for a snack?”
    “Wow,” he said. “You’re almost as good as Mom.”
    “I saw them in the pantry yesterday.” I should have grabbed some when I had the chance. “And don’t forget to get started on your book reports.”
    Sean frowned. “You’re evil.”
    I held up my thumb an inch from my forefinger. “Just a little bit,” I said. “Don’t get too comfortable, Sean. I’m still negotiating for some input into your list.”
    “Whatever, Stinky,” he said trying to sound bored, but ruining it by breaking into a run up the stairs.
    “Don’t come out of your room until Mom and Dad get home!” I yelled after him.
    Then I turned back toward the garage. As soon as Ian started practice, I was hitting my mother’s office. I didn’t have a lot of time, and this was my best chance not to get caught.
    I didn’t want to give myself time to think about what I was doing. As I keyed in the combination to the office door, I rationalized. The senior staffer information wasn’t top secret. There wasn’t any reason for Leo not to have it. I’d bet you could walk right into the Genie Communications Headquarters and copy the names off of the wall by the elevator. The doorknob turned, and I stepped inside, closing the door behind me. Right, Jen. Then why didn’t Leo just try that instead of coming to you?
    Big-time doubts hit me all at once, but I was already in Mom’s office. I’d violated her trust. Why not get the information I needed? I’d have all night to think about whether I should give it to Leo. If I didn’t give it to him, I hadn’t really done anything wrong.
    The pink-clad genie on Mom’s screensaver winked at me. Even though I knew the program did that, I still felt like she was telling me she wasn’t buying my excuses. “You shut up,” I muttered.
    I went to “My Computer” and pulled up the hard drive. Mom had a file on the Directorate.
    “Bingo,” I said, because it seemed appropriate.
    I opened the file to find only the names and the general information I already knew. No photographs, and no addresses.
    I closed out that file and opened the file marked department heads. Here I hit pay dirt with a mailing list. Pay dirt? I was starting to think in cheesy detective slang. I had almost eighty names and addresses. The senior staffers.
    After sending the list to the printer, I tried to find more detailed profiles on each of them. When the printer stopped, I’d come up with nothing, but I was getting panicked and wanted to get the heck out of there.
    I grabbed the sheets. Closed all the files, and slipped out of my mother’s office. A sudden burst of noise from the garage nearly gave me a coronary. After being in the soundproofed room, the racket from Ian’s band was thunderous.
    My heart pounded as I glanced around. I couldn’t possibly have gotten away with sneaking into my mother’s office.
    I ran up to my room and stashed the list under my pillow. Then I grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen and hit the stairs a second time. If I wasn’t playing the drums when Mom and Dad came in, they’d know something was wrong.
    A racing heart and a guilty conscience didn’t facilitate