Oh boy. That was an understatement.
Josie slid out from behind the car and walked toward the group. They all stared at her and as she got closer, Josie could see the faces even more clearly. Her eyes lingered on the girl sitting at the table, a brunette with a scowl on her face that could only be described as hatred.
Madison.
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.