Free Doorways to Infinity by Geof Johnson

Only Nova was absent.
    Sammi sat on the gold sofa with Fred and Melanie, while Jamie stood nearby with his father, both with their arms crossed and their expressions intense.
    “Follow red target. Do you copy?” Jamie bent forward at his waist, closer to Sammi. “Are you sure that’s what they said?”
    “Unh hunh. That was it exactly. I didn’t make it up.”
    “I believe you, it’s just…what does that mean?” He turned to his father.
    “Do you copy means ‘did you get that?’ Or, ‘do you understand?’ It’s usually heard during a radio conversation. We use that on the police force, and I know the military uses that expression, too.”
    “Military? Why would the military be saying something that’s important to Sammi? You know she wouldn’t hear it, otherwise.”
    “Who said it was someone in the military?” Bryce said, sitting on a chair beside the couch. “Maybe it had something to do with that other conversation Sammi overheard, the one in the foreign language.” He poked Rollie, who was standing next to him. “Did your roommate get his father to translate it, yet?”
    “I dunno.” Rollie pulled his phone from the back pocket of his pants and tapped the screen. “It chimed a few minutes ago, but I haven’t checked to see who texted me.” He swiped it with his finger a couple of times and nodded. “Here we go. Rad says that his father understood the first part of it and the last, because they’re speaking Russian, but the middle part is in Romanian, which he doesn’t know.”
    “What’s the Russian part say?” Larry asked.
    Rollie squinted at the screen. “It says… Have you made the new potions yet? Then it switches to Romanian for a little bit, then it switches back to Russian and says, Hurry up. I have an assignment for this weekend .”
    “Whoa.” Jamie said. “Sammi overheard a Russian guy talking about magic. Weird.”
    Melanie sat forward on the edge of the couch. “Just because they’re speaking Russian doesn’t mean they’re in Russia. They could be anywhere.”
    Carl frowned. “I wish your friend Rad hadn’t sent the message by cell phone.”
    “How else was he going to give it to us?” Jamie said. “I don’t know where he lives, and even if I did, I’d have to figure out a secret place to make a doorway. That would take too long.”
    “Still, I think from now on all of us should be extra careful about what we say over the phone or online, or anything that can be intercepted. You know the NSA is scouring cell phone calls and texts and email now.”
    “The NSA?” It was Garrett’s turn to frown. “You really think they might be part of what’s going on?”
    Rachel’s brow fell and her voice rose, alarmed. “We can’t have the NSA investigating us, Carl. We just can’t!”
    He gestured gently with one hand. “Calm down. I didn’t say they were doing that. I just said we need to be careful about how we use electronic communications, because anything can be hacked now.”
    “What’s the NSA, Mr. Sikes?” Sammi asked.
    “The National Security Agency. They’ve been around for decades, but their budget got raised dramatically after the attack on the World Trade Center. They do surveillance on a massive scale now, and supposedly it has helped thwart some recent terrorist plots.”
    “We’re not terrorists,” Lisa said.
    Carl closed his eyes and exhaled slowly through his nose. “I didn’t say we were, and I didn’t say that the NSA is spying on us. I wish I hadn’t brought that up.”
    “Hmm.” Jamie rubbed the side of his neck with one hand. “I’m having a hard time figuring out how the two conversations Sammi heard are related.”
    “Maybe they’re not.” Fred turned to Sammi. “Why don’t you stop using your block for a while, since school’s out all next week?” Then she pursed her lips. “But there’s a huge time difference between here and Russia, if that’s where they are. It might be dark over there while you’re awake,