She ran to him, caressing his cheek, then ducked behind him to try and untie the ropes that bound him to the chair.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, struggling with the knots.
“Leave me,” he said. “Just get out of here. He’s got Nox in the other rooms. He likes to watch through the windows while they torture and kill people.”
“Almost got it.”
“He can’t catch you here, Josie. He can’t. I couldn’t bear it.”
With a final tug, Josie loosened the ropes and Nick tipped forward in his chair. She grabbed him around his waist and held him back, keeping him from falling on his face. He was so weak. Whatever Mr. Byrne had done to him, it was all Josie’s fault.
Nick sat there panting for a moment, then caught his breath. “I’m okay.” He pushed himself into a standing position, and grabbed Josie’s hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
They stepped out of the cell and froze.
Mr. Byrne stood in the doorway, blocking their only exit. He held Nick’s gun in his hand, pointed right at them.
FIFTY-THREE
6:37 A.M.
MR. BYRNE’S ENTIRE DEMEANOR HAD CHANGED, and Josie wondered how she had ever seen kindness in that face. The soft eyes and sad smile had been replaced by a steely glare and lips pressed firmly together in a determined line. There was a gauntness about his cheeks, sunken and sallow; yet far from appearing tired or drained, he had an uplifted energy about him, as if the death and destruction he’d put into motion in the last twenty-four hours actually invigorated him.
The silence of the room was oppressive as Mr. Byrne stood before them, coolly assessing the situation. The hum of the overhead lights seemed louder now, more intense. Everything was heightened around her. Even the sound of Josie’s own breathing sounded like it was amplified through a loudspeaker.
“It was a nice try,” Mr. Byrne said at last. “Using my daughter as a decoy. For a moment, I almost thought she was you.”
Josie tried to sound brave. “Where is she? What have you done with her?”
Mr. Byrne clicked his tongue. “I’ll deal with her later.” He nodded at Nick. “And your brother. Right now it’s your turn.”
Nick stepped to his right, attempting to shield Josie from the gun pointed at her. For a moment, Josie almost laughed. It hadn’t been that long ago that Nick had been the one holding her at gunpoint with that exact same weapon.
“What do you want?” Nick said. He reached behind his back and grasped Josie’s hand firmly.
Mr. Byrne smiled without a hint of mirth. “That’s funny.”
Nick squeezed Josie’s hand. “We’re just trying to get Josie home. That’s all.”
“Of course you are.” His words dripped with sarcasm. “You’re not trying to smuggle the vial out of here at all, right?”
Nick squared his shoulders, as if preparing for a blow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t.” Mr. Byrne reached his free hand to the wall and pressed a button. Above the exterior windows, a blackout curtain slowly descended. “I can just shoot you both and rifle through your bodies later. Or let the Nox have at you like I did with your friend and her father.” There was a cold-bloodedness in his voice that made Josie’s skin crawl. “Her death was anything but quick and painless.”
Josie started, but Nick tightened his grip on her hand. If Mr. Byrne was going to shoot her, she at least wanted to get a running start and maybe get one decent swipe at his face before the life drained out of her body. That would almost be worth it.
A shriek from the windows behind them made Josie and Nick turn. In the darkness of the other two cells, she could just see a swirling of movement, a chaos of wings and bodies nebulous in the shadowy night.
“My army,” Mr. Byrne said with a nod toward the window. “I’ve promised them fresh meat.”
Nick sucked in a breath. “You communicate with them?”
Mr. Byrne laughed again, but this time with genuine enjoyment. “Oh yes. Our research is quite advanced. The Nox are significantly more sentient than we give them credit for. More like a dolphin than a dog in their ability to intuit our intentions. As soon as they discovered that we could come to a mutually beneficial arrangement, they naturally got on board.”
Nick tilted his head. “Mutually beneficial arrangement?”
“Of course. We have to work together, you know. They provide certain services to the Grid as required. Like your little friend. And I make sure they are healthy, prosperous”—he paused and shrugged—“and plentiful.”
The intensity of the shrieking increased, almost as if the Nox were getting impatient. Something bumped against one of the windows. Then another, harder. The Nox were trying to get out. Josie remembered the way they’d come tearing into the warehouse—a fierce, merciless attack—and shuddered.
Mr. Byrne pressed another button on the wall and this time Josie heard the sounds of two deadbolts being thrown. Her stomach flip-flopped. He’d just unlocked the two doors behind them. “Now the lights are the only things keeping them at bay. So I suppose the choice is yours. You can play nice and I’ll make sure to kill you both quickly and cleanly before I let them in. Or not, and I’ll shoot you both in the kneecaps, feed you to the Nox, and pick through your bones.”
Josie glanced around the lab, desperate for a means of escape. Bare tables, dormant lab equipment, a desk, some chairs. Her eyes drifted upward to the overhead light illuminating the room, its humming made dormant by the shrill cries of the Nox behind them. It was a single, massive fluorescent bulb that ran practically the length of the room. But just one, and it was the only light in the lab.
Josie bit her lip. They’d come so far, were so close to the finish line. Her mom, Jo, Penelope, not to mention the entire human population of both their worlds—so many people were counting on her. She couldn’t let them down. Not if she could help it.
That night in the forest, the Nox hadn’t directly attacked her—more like accidentally found her in the darkness when she cried for help. And in the warehouse, when Nick had been the focus of the attack, the Nox barely touched her—even seemed surprised and scared when she lashed out at one. It was as if they didn’t know she was there.
Like she wasn’t in their world at all.
It was a hypothesis only. A theory developed from a logical examination of the facts. But Josie was about to bet her life—and Nick’s—that she was right.
“Well?” Mr. Byrne said.
Nick squeezed Josie’s hand and turned to face her. His eyes were sad, defeated. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Josie smiled. “We’re not dead yet.”
Nick’s brows drew together with a question he never got a chance to ask. Without warning, Josie spun around, grabbed a Bunsen burner off the table, and heaved it at the overhead light.
“No!” Mr. Byrne screamed.
Nick gasped. “What are you doing?”
For an instant, nothing moved. The burner seemed to hang in midair, locked onto the long fluorescent bulb above them. There was no sound, just a frantic blinking that happened in slow motion as the fixture swung violently back and forth on its moorings. Josie held her breath. She wasn’t sure if she wanted the light to go dark or not. If she was wrong, she and Nick were in for a horrific death. But at least they’d be taking Mr. Byrne with them.
The room went dark for a split second and Josie heard repeated thuds as the Nox propelled themselves against the cell doors. The light blinked back on, bathing the room with its sterile blue-white glow for a half second, then with a crack that Josie could feel more than hear, the bulb broke free of the fixture and plummeted to
