“Goddammit!” Madison whirled on Nick. “I can’t believe you fell for her bullshit. Nick, she’s conning you. ‘A massive, subatomic explosion,’” Madison mocked. “She’s been after you for years and she’ll do anything to get your attention.”
“Mads, she took the trail through the woods. After sunset. She barely survived a Nox attack. No one who knows what they are would risk it.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Madison said coldly.
“She could have known you were following her,” Zeb said.
“Did it for attention,” Zeke added.
The idea that someone would willingly subject themselves to a Nox attack just to get the attention of a boy —even if that boy was Nick Fiorino—was so ludicrous, Josie laughed out loud.
Madison whirled on her. “You think this is funny?”
Josie pushed up the sleeves of her sweater, exposing her heavily bandaged arms. “Yeah, these are so funny.”
“Too bad they didn’t attack your face.” Madison turned around and walked toward a sofa.
Josie wasn’t sure if it was her entrenched hatred for the Madison who had betrayed her, or whether
“Hey,” she said, spinning Madison around by the arm. “I don’t know how to explain what happened to me or how I got here, but it happened. I don’t particularly like being stuck here with you any more than you like me invading your little clubhouse. But it’s done. Deal.”
“Time out,” Nick said, stepping between them. His voice was calm. “Everybody play nice.”
Josie folded her arms across her chest. “I will if she will.”
Madison stepped right up in Nick’s face. “It’s her mom’s fault your brother is dead.”
Josie gasped. Tony was dead?
“It’s Tony’s fault too,” Nick said through clenched teeth.
Madison shook her head. “He wasn’t the one operating the X-FEL. It’s because of that woman locked away in that loony bin in Annapolis that Tony’s dead. ZZ’s aunt and uncle. Jackson’s dad.
“Wait,” Josie said, turning to Nick. “A loony bin?”
“They’re not dead,” Jackson said through gritted teeth. “They’re missing.”
Madison swung around on him. “What, do you think a micro black hole swallowed them up? Our parents are dead, Jax, and if they’re not they will be before we can get to them. You really think whoever has them will just let them go?”
“I . . . ,” Jackson started. Clearly he had no answer.
“All we can hope for is answers. Answers that she”—Madison jabbed her thumb in Josie’s direction—“might have.”
“Nick, Dr. Byrne’s in a loony bin?”
Nick held up his hand, signaling for Josie to wait. Madison turned her back on them and stood panting, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest. Josie was trying to process all the information she’d just heard— ultradense deuterium, micro black holes, Tony was dead, and everyone else was missing family members—and Dr. Byrne wasn’t traveling for work or on vacation. She was in an asylum. One more thing Jo didn’t tell her.
Nick laid a hand gently on Madison’s shoulder. “Mads, calm down.”
Josie’s stomach clenched. The way Nick touched her, the way his hands lightly grazed the skin of Madison’s bare arms, the softness in his voice. Josie recognized it right away. They’d been intimate, maybe still were. No wonder Madison hated Jo: she was in love with Nick too.
Madison sunk her head to her chest but didn’t say anything as Nick continued. “I know this doesn’t make any logical sense, but I saw the mirror with my own eyes. I saw it morph away at exactly three fifty-nine. Three fifty- nine,” he added for emphasis. “Is that a coincidence? I felt the concrete wall with my own hands, and then . . . I felt something close in on me as the portal closed. I don’t know how to explain it, but Josie’s telling the truth.”
“Don’t defend her!” Madison erupted. “How many more people are going to disappear because of her family, huh? I’m done with this.” She walked to the corner where the generator hummed away. Over the dull noise, Josie could just make out a sob.
Silence fell. Jackson still held the gun, but it hung limply in his hand, forgotten, as his eyes followed Madison to the corner of the room. The twins wandered back to a sofa and sat stiffly side by side. Nick shoved his hands deep into his pockets and stared at the floor, kicking at something in the dusty concrete with the toe of his boot. And Josie just stood rooted in place.
“Nick,” she whispered. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve all lost someone,” he said in a hushed tone as if he were in a library. “Someone who was working on Project Raze. Jackson’s and Madison’s dads, ZZ’s aunt and uncle.”
“And your brother,” Josie added.
Nick stiffened. “There was an explosion at the lab. Tony and your . . . ,” he started, remembering who she was. “I mean Tony and Dr. Byrne were testing a way to eradicate the Nox. That’s what Project Raze is, by the way. It’s a joint project between the Grid and the government. Couple hundred scientists up at Fort Meade doing anything and everything they can think of to get rid of them.”
“The explosion was an accident?”
Nick narrowed his eyes and scrutinized her face for the twentieth time that day. “It was ruled an accident stemming from the calibration of the X-FEL, but it was Dr. Byrne who set up the laser. My brother’s body was vaporized and Jo’s mom ended up shell-shocked. She’s never been the same.”
“And everyone else?”
“In the days after the explosion, they all disappeared.” Nick shrugged. “One by one. No trace. No evidence of foul play. No . . .” His voice trailed off.
“No bodies,” Josie said, completing the thought.
“Right,” he said quickly. “Except Jo’s mom, who’s in a military hospital near Annapolis.”
The loony bin. So that’s why no one mentioned Jo’s mom. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“But the thing is,” Nick said, leaning closer to her. “The explosion? Happened at exactly three fifty-nine p.m. Six months ago. I’m not much of a scientist, but that can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
Josie took a deep breath. “No,” she said slowly. “No, it can’t.” There was no such thing as coincidence. Everything happened for a reason, and in this case it was as if a lightbulb had gone on in her brain.
“Nick,” she said quietly. She didn’t really want anyone else to hear. “You remember earlier when I said a massive explosion could have caused the portal between our worlds?”
Nick smiled. “Yeah?”
“I think . . .” She paused. “Six months ago, if your brother and Dr. Byrne were experimenting with ultradense deuterium and micro black holes at the same exact time my mom was doing the
“Okay,” Nick said slowly. He wasn’t putting the pieces together.
“Then the train. You said it yourself: the fifteenth was six months to the day after the explosion. To the very minute. Two trains, in two different dimensions, carrying the same material.”
Nick looked up sharply. “Boom.” He made an exploding motion with his hands.
“It’s a theory, at least.” She shifted her feet. “Although there must have been a catalyst for the actual flash I saw. Deuterium on its own is highly stable. It would require some sort of trigger to explode like that.”
“Like?”
Josie shrugged. “Not sure.” An explosion caused by the X-FEL made sense, but Josie had no idea what would have caused the flash at the train tracks. “Maybe it had something to do with what your brother and Dr. Byrne were doing. Do you know the exact details of the experiment?”
“Tony was working on an injectable for the Nox that when zapped with a powerful laser would actually create a micro black hole and suck the Nox in.”
“Wow,” Josie breathed. “It would trap them beyond the event horizon of a micro black hole, which would then collapse under its own mass, destroying itself and the Nox. That’s brilliant. Like the ultimate flu shot.”
