3:59

TWENTY-NINE

5:12 P.M.

“WHAT THE HELL, NICK?” MADISON SAID. “ARE you out of your mind?”

Jackson reached into the back of his pants, and when his hand reappeared at his side, Josie realized he was holding a gun. She suddenly regretted her boneheaded decision to leave Nick’s gun in the car.

“Dude,” Jackson said. “You shouldn’t have brought her here. I thought we’d agreed on that.”

“I know what she looks like,” Nick said. “But she’s not Jo.”

“I’m not Jo,” Josie echoed. Her voice sounded small and weak.

“Bullshit,” Zeke said. At least she thought it was Zeke. Didn’t matter which universe, she couldn’t tell them apart.

“You can’t trust her,” said his brother.

Madison looked like she was ready to pounce on Josie and gouge her eyes out. “Her dad practically works for the Grid, Nick. He’s one of them.”

Nick shook his head. “He’s just a liaison for the government, Mads. You know that. Mr. Byrne’s pretty harmless, despite what Jo leads people to believe.”

“Don’t care.” Jackson’s knuckles flexed over the gun handle. “You shouldn’t have brought her here without giving us a heads-up.”

Nick put his hand on Jackson’s arm. “Chill. You’re going to have to trust me on this one. She’s not Jo Byrne.”

Jackson’s eyes never left Josie’s face. “You, I trust. Her? Not so much.”

“Just listen,” Nick said. He nodded at Josie and smiled, all sign of strain or tension gone from his face. “Go ahead. Tell them exactly what you told me.”

Josie felt the weight of four people staring daggers at her. Meanwhile Nick was still all smiles. Sure, he’d believed her story because he was there to see the mirror do its thing. But these people? She glanced at Madison, whose body was so rigid and tense she looked like a cheetah about to take down a gazelle. Jackson’s eyebrows brooded low on his dark face, angry, intense. The twins stood behind her, shoulder-to-shoulder like an impenetrable wall.

They hated her, all of them. Well, hated Jo. And she doubted whether any of them would buy what she was selling. Still, at this point, she didn’t have much of a choice. Nothing left to do but tell the truth.

It came out with surprising ease. Nick’s beaming smile helped. She kept her eyes focused on his and he gave her the occasional nod and wink as she got to the really crazy parts. The train, the dreams, the mirror—it all flowed out of her like a faucet turned on full blast. And when it was done, she realized that the mood in the warehouse had changed.

“Tell them what time it was,” Nick said coolly when she was done.

“Three fifty-nine.”

Zeb and Zeke exchanged a glance, and Jackson’s jaw dropped. “Really?” he said.

Madison threw up her hands. “I can’t believe you guys are taking her seriously.”

“It happened a week ago yesterday. On the fifteenth. Six months to the day. Hell, to the second!” Nick strolled over to the large dry-erase board and flipped it over to the opposite side. It was a time line of some sort, with arrows and circles connecting a series of photos that had been stuck around it. He jabbed his finger at a point on the timeline and smiled. “And there was a huge shipment that day. On the afternoon train from Andrews. Now, it could be a coincidence, but I can’t help but think the two things are related.”

Josie was confused. “A huge shipment of what?”

“Ultradense deuterium,” Nick said.

Josie caught her breath. “Oh my God. My mom got a shipment of ultradense deuterium on the fifteenth. On the same train that stopped me at the tracks. It can’t be a coincidence.” Josie’s mind raced. “Same shipment, same train, same time. If there was an anomaly of some kind, that could have been enough to create the portal between our dimensions.”

Nick turned sharply. “What kind of anomaly?”

“Not sure.” Josie shrugged. “A previous weakness in the curvature of space? Or something violent enough to create one, like a massive, subatomic explosion.”

“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 this Madison was just grating on her nerves, but something snapped.

“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. My dad. All dead because of her.”

“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 same exact thing . . . well, the explosion could have weakened the fabric of space-time, pinpointed at the moment of the explosion.”

“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.”

Nick smiled. “A black-hole flu shot. I like that.”

“Any idea how it worked?”

Nick shrugged. “Not sure. The remnants of the injectable were destroyed in the explosion, and Tony was the only one who knew the formula.”

And that died with him, Josie thought. Her eyes met Nick’s and she hoped her face didn’t reflect what she had just been thinking.

Nick stood up and passed a hand through his wavy hair. “Everyone who’s missing had a hand in the experiment. Jackson’s dad worked on the chemical aspects of the injection. Madison’s dad constructed the X-FEL prototype. ZZ’s aunt and uncle synthesized some of the ingredients. Years of work went into it, all leading up to one day.”

“One clusterfuck of a day,” Madison said, rejoining the group. “Which was all your mom’s fault.”

Josie threw up her hands. “She’s not my mom!”

“Whatever.”

Josie tried to remain calm. Tony’s and Dr. Byrne’s experiment was somehow related to how Josie got there. Of that she was convinced. Maybe if she could help them figure out what happened in the lab, she’d also find a way to get home.

“Okay,” she said, examining the board again. “Someone either wants to re-create the injectable or wants to make sure no one else does. That’s the only way your relatives’ disappearances make any sense.”

The room fell silent. Josie looked from face to face as everyone avoided her eyes. She knew they were all reliving their own angst and anger over the loss of their loved ones. She felt the need to apologize, even though none of this had anything to do with her. Or did it?

Josie’s mouth was dry and parched. She swallowed and continued. “And it’s connected to how I got here.”

“Even if you’re telling the truth,” Madison said at last. “Even if your batshit tale is true, how does it affect us?”

Josie shrugged. “If we know how I got here, maybe we can figure out what went wrong that day in the lab. Re-create it. If your family members are being forced to try and replicate the experiment, and we beat them to it, you have a bargaining chip.”

“Exactly.” Nick nodded. “And I don’t know about you guys, but even if we can’t get our families back, I sure as hell want to finish what they started.”

Jackson kicked the sofa. “How? Seriously, we’ve been over every piece of their research, every note, every email, everything we could get our hands on. We can’t make heads or tails of it. We’d need a couple of science geniuses to figure this out.”

A slow smile spread across Josie’s face. “Science geniuses? I think I’ve got that covered.”

Madison snorted. “You? Oh, please.”

“You didn’t see her in physics today,” Zeke said.

“It was kind of epic,” Zeb added.

Nick grabbed Josie’s arm. She could feel his excitement. “Could you? I mean, do you think you could figure it out?”

“Don’t know.” Josie shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m going to need help.”

Nick tilted his head. “You got someone in mind?”

There was only one person who could handle it, and from what she’d seen, this Penelope was just as much of a science geek as her old friend back home. “Penelope Wang.”

“Shit,” Madison said with a roll of her eyes. “Why don’t we just put a welcome sign outside.”

Nick ignored her. “I don’t know.”

Josie’s smile deepened. “You said I needed to trust you. Now it’s time to return the favor.”