Nick stood by the window while Josie grabbed a pillow and hugged it to her chest so Mr. Byrne couldn’t see her blushing. “Yes, Daddy.”
The door swung open and the smiling, good-natured face of Mr. Byrne sauntered into the room. “Nicholas!” He walked right up to Nick and shook his hand. “It’s good to see you again.” Mr. Byrne glanced around the room, looking for something. “Were you two studying?”
“No, sir,” Nick said. “I just drove Jos . . .” He swallowed. “I just drove Jo back from Old St. Mary’s.”
“Ah, I see.” He smiled at Josie, sad and understanding. “Well, I’m glad my Josephine had a friend with her today. How was she?”
“Better,” Josie said enthusiastically. “It’s kind of amazing, actually.”
Mr. Byrne nodded. “Well, in that case, I’m sure I’ll have an easier time convincing Dr. Cho to let her come home.”
Josie’s face lit up. “Really?”
“I have a conference call with her doctors set up for tomorrow.” He winked at Nick. “At least my position is good for something, eh?”
“That’s fantastic news, Mr. Byrne.”
“Speaking of jobs,” Mr. Byrne said. “Nicholas, how was your tour of the Grid?”
Nick shuffled his feet. “Excellent. Very, um”—he cast a quick glance at Josie—“enlightening.”
Mr. Byrne patted Nick on the back. “Good to hear. Care to stay for dinner?”
“No, thank you. My mom’s expecting me.” Nick pulled his car keys from his pocket as if ready to go.
“I see. Well, give my love to your parents, and I hope”—he cast a knowing glance Josie’s way—“we get to see more of you.”
Josie could have died from embarrassment, made no less horrific by the fact that Mr. Byrne wasn’t actually her father.
“Yes, sir,” Nick said. “Thank you, sir.” He paused next to Josie as he passed by. “See you at school tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
“Good night, Josephine.”
She didn’t even mind her full name.
3:59 A.M.
“We should go back for it then,” Jo says. “If it’s that important.”
“I can’t go back.” Her mom sits on the sofa, her head cradled in her hands. “They’ll know I have it.”
“Had it.”
“Same thing.”
“No, we have to assume no one has found it, and leave it at that.”
“But what if—”
“Don’t say it.” Her mom holds up her hand for silence.
Jo pauses, mustering her courage. Her mom is not going to like this. “What if I told you,” she begins, “that someone’s taking care of it?”
Her mom’s head snaps up, her eyes enormous, wild. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I have someone looking for it. Someone we can trust.”
Her mom launches to her feet and grabs Jo by the shoulders. “What have you done?”
Jo forces a laugh. “It’s fine. We can trust her.”
“We can’t trust anyone,” her mom whispers.
FORTY-TWO
12:35 P.M.
JOSIE WAS JUST SITTING DOWN AT HER SOLO lunch table when she got the text from Penelope.
Meet me in the lab. Stat.
She didn’t need to be told twice.
Penelope bounced excitedly on her stool as Josie rushed into the classroom.
“Well?” Josie asked.
“I was there all night,” Penelope started. She spoke in quick, disjointed phrases, the hallmark of caffeine-fueled sleep deprivation. “At the warehouse. Set up the laser and did some modifications. Nothing big.”
“You modified a free-electron laser?” She knew Penelope was a wiz, but this bordered on genius.
“Yeah, yeah,” Penelope said. “It’s just commercial grade. No biggie. I couldn’t figure out, you know, how the laser and the contents of the vial were going to work to create a portal. I thought maybe a rapid cycling of photons might disrupt the gravitational field, but realized that the laser would have to be like a bazillion times stronger.”
“Crap.”
“Wait,” Penelope said dramatically. “My cousin works at Goddard. For NASA.”
Josie snorted. “Figures.” Between Goddard and Fort Meade, suburban Maryland in either universe was packed with scientists.
“She has access to an X-FEL,” Penelope continued with a smile. “I don’t think we can take it to your house, but maybe I can figure out how to control the beam so we don’t get another boom.” She made the same explosion gesture with her hands.
“Let’s stay away from the booms, okay?” Josie’d had enough explosions to last a lifetime.
“Right.” Penelope laughed. “If I can figure out how to control the beam, maybe we can just move the mirror to the lab, and try to open another portal to send you home.”
“Awesome,” Josie said.
“And there’s something else,” Penelope said. She scratched her cheek.
“Yeah?”
“You know that injectable you found? The one that’s supposed to suck the Nox into a black hole?”
Josie nodded.
“Any idea how it works? I mean, it seems to me that the Nox would actually have to be inoculated with the formula first. In order for it to work.”
Again, Josie nodded. “That makes sense.”