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.”