Ultraviolet Catastrophe (24 page)

I stared at my numbers. At the final equation that joined these two things together. The truth crashed around me, and I clutched the edge of the table.

Avery had found a loophole, some way around the known laws of physics. Instead of the intensity of ultraviolet radiation dropping off like it should, he’d found a way to make a true ultraviolet catastrophe. His machine would increase the energy and wavelength of photons and create an explosion that would rip a hole in the center of the earth.

The letters and numbers swam on my tablet and I sat down hard.

Someone had built a mini-catastrophe in the basement of QT. Someone was using Amy to spy on us. Someone had killed Avery.

The whole situation made my head spin, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

There were too many connections, too many ties in every direction. I needed someone to bounce ideas off of. As much as I hated to admit it, I needed Max and Zella and Asher.

They agreed to meet me the next morning in the QT library. The building still smelled faintly of smoke and chemicals as I pushed through the front doors. I groaned at the line snaking through the security checkpoint. Protocols were even tougher than before, so it took me an extra fifteen minutes just to get through. I sprinted through the building, panting by the time I made it to the library.

Max, Zella, and Asher were already there, clustered around a table. They fell silent as I approached. The kind of silence that meant they’d been talking about me.

The weight of their gazes felt like a heavy cloak, and I ducked my head under the pressure as I slid into the chair next to Max. I forced my chin up. I wasn’t going to cower any more.

Zella smiled at me before glancing away. Across the table, Asher had his head buried in his tablet, but I bit back a smile at the t-shirt he wore: “My other car is on Mars,” with a picture of the Mars Rover.

I clutched my tablet in my hands. “Thanks for coming, you guys.” I hadn’t been sure they actually would.

“What’s going on, Lexie? Did you find something?” Max asked.

I dropped my gaze to the scarred table. I didn’t want to see their expressions as the words tumbled out in a rush. “While we were searching Avery’s office, I found a brochure for the Branston Academy tucked into Avery’s files. There was a phone number scribbled on the top of it. I called the number to see if it would help us figure out who killed Avery and why.” My throat went dry, and I swallowed so I could get the words out. “Amy answered.”

Across the table, Max’s jaw dropped.

Zella shook her head. “That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe she was working on homework or something with Avery and that was the first thing he grabbed to jot down her phone number on.”

Trust Zella to be practical. I shrugged. “Yeah, it could be as simple as that. But what if it’s not? What if she’s been working with Branston?”

Asher laughed and relaxed, lounging back in his chair. “I know you and Amy aren’t exactly best friends, but there’s no way she could sabotage us. We would have seen
something
odd or suspicious.”

“If she’s the traitor, don’t you think she’s good enough to fool everyone? Even you? And who better to hook up with than the son of a QT director?”

He turned to face me, his voice suddenly cold. “Are you suggesting she’s been using me?”

“I don’t know what she’s been doing — only that it’s suspicious we found her number on a Branston brochure in a dead man’s office. And with what I discovered last night, it all fits.”

Asher raised an eyebrow. “And what did you discover?”

I searched my tablet until I found what I was looking for. “The truth. The machine they created isn’t to build a wormhole. It’s creating photons where there shouldn’t be any. It’s taking the ultraviolet catastrophe and making it happen.” My voice broke on the last word.

Three pairs of eyes widened, and Asher snatched up the tablet. “That’s not possible. You can’t change the wavelength or intensity of radiation to create new photons. That was the whole point of the ultraviolet catastrophe hypothesis in the first place.”

“Evidently, with Avery’s machine you can. The simulation we created wasn’t wrong. It was supposed to explode,” I said.

Asher pushed the tablet toward Max. His eyes found mine, his eyebrows drawn. “I’ve been tracking some of the network scans, and I found out why we got wiped. Someone installed a program to search for Lexie’s equation and delete it. Someone didn’t want the truth found.”

Zella shook her head. “Son of a bitch.” She slammed her hand down on the table. “The asshole was laughing at us this whole time. Why else would he have assigned us that project?” She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “But why would Avery want to create an ultraviolet catastrophe? It could destroy the world.”

Asher’s face was grim. “Oh my god, it all makes sense now. I had a hit on one of the traces on the wipe. It led me to an off-site machine in Oak Ridge.” He raised tortured eyes to look at us. “It was Amy’s IP address.”

Zella let out a gasp. “No.”

He nodded. “She could be the one who installed the security scan. She knew Lexie was working on the calculations and knew right where we’d be in the network. It was only a matter of time before she found our data. Oh my god, she was covering for Avery.” Asher clenched his hands together in front of him until his knuckles whitened.

“It gets worse,” he said, his voice hollow.

“How much worse?” Zella asked.

When he looked up at us, his expression made my breakfast churn in my stomach.

“The data from the scan was sent to another computer. To Dr. Danvers’ computer.”

I stared at him, lips parted. Another link slipped into the web of connections in my head, but it still didn’t make any sense. “She’s known about all of this from the start? Why would she let the experiment continue, knowing it could destroy everything?”

Our gazes met, and Asher said, “Branston.”

“She said she used to work with my dad there.” I chewed on a hangnail. “What if she never stopped? She could have been feeding them information the whole time. What if she and Amy and Avery are working to destroy QT?”

Oh my god. It all made sense. She was the spy on the inside. Who better to sabotage a facility without getting caught than its director?

“But where does Amy fit in with all this?” Zella asked.

“That’s what we need to find out.” Asher’s clenched jaw looked like it was carved from marble. “And we need to do it fast. Danvers sent out a memo this morning. She’s pushing for another Project Infinity test. They’re rebuilding the machine and increasing security. We can’t let them try again. If they get this machine to work, they could unleash an explosion a thousand times more devastating than the atomic bomb. It’ll make the Manhattan Project look like preschool.”

Max hissed. “Son of a bitch. Lexie’s right. Look.” He turned the laptop around, and I recognized the simulation they’d built earlier. But this time it was different. He’d tweaked the machine a little based on my calcs and inputted my equation. The explosion we’d seen happened again. Only this time, we knew what it was.

“That’s a bomb. Oh my god.” Zella pressed her fingers to her lips. “What do we do now? We need to tell someone.”

“Who?” Asher demanded. “Danvers is the top of the food chain. Even if we could get a hold of her boss, they’d never believe us. They’d never stop her in time.”

“What about the trustees? Can we contact them? Go around Danvers? Mom said they’re here this week to check in about the project,” I said.

Asher nodded. “Lexie, you’re brilliant. My dad is meeting with them this afternoon. I’ll crash the party and tell them what’s going on.”

“I hate to squash your excitement,” Max said, still staring at the repeating explosion on his simulation. “But what do we do if they don’t believe us? Or, even worse, what if Branston already has all the data they need to build it themselves? I mean if Danvers is working for them…”

“Then they’ll just rebuild the machine, even if the regents stop it here at QT.” My voice shook. My dad had been right, and we weren’t any closer to stopping the true threat. Using the machine as blackmail, no government would be immune to Branston’s plans to place their own people at the highest levels.

Zella inched closer to Max, and he held her hand. It would have been really sweet if I hadn’t been so damn terrified.

It felt sluggish and frozen, but I forced my brain to work. “We need a way to make them believe what they have is wrong. Maybe we can trick Amy into sending them the wrong info. Maybe we can use her like she used us.”

Asher got an excited gleam in his eye. “Lexie’s right. If Amy’s been spying on us for information, let’s give her what she wants.”

“What do you have in mind?” Zella asked.

“We tell her about what we’ve discovered and give her the new calculations. We know she’s going to send them to Danvers, so we alter them enough that they look real and include some extra code that’ll let us access Danvers’ computer. Then we use it to get into Branston’s system and delete all the files.”

Zella nodded. “That might work. But what about Avery’s catastrophe machine? It already exploded once, and they just rebuilt it. How are we going to take that offline?”

Max studied the image of Avery’s machine in his simulation. “I don’t see why we can’t just take out the photon core charger. That should disable the machine. Then all we’d need to do is plant some charges and blow it up. Once Asher’s deleted the plans, they won’t know where to start building again.” He tapped a finger on the table. “The problem is going to be getting past security if the regents don’t believe us. They’ve locked it down so tight no one can get to Division Seven now but the top scientists.”

He nodded. “Whatever we decide, we have to do it off-hours. I need Danvers’ computer.”

“Then we go Friday night if Danvers is planning another test,” I said. “Does that give us enough time to develop the fake simulation and calculations for Amy?”

Asher’s voice went hard. “It’ll be enough time. She should jump at the chance to have us all over to hang out Thursday night since I’ve been ignoring her since Saturday. That’ll give me two days to come up with something. You up for this, Max?”

“For sure. Actually, if you have time right now, I could use your help mocking up some of this.”

“Cool.” Asher scuffed his shoe on the library carpet before looking over at me. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Lexie. I just couldn’t imagine Amy was using me. Even when all the signs were there.” His lips twisted into that cocky smile. “So much for being resident genius. I’d make some joke about being blinded by science, but yeah, I think I’ll skip it for now.”

“Thank god for small favors,” I said, rolling my eyes. But inside, a warm glow had started, and we grinned at each other stupidly.

Max smirked at us. “We should get going, Asher. Especially if you have to track down the trustees later.”

“Right. Duty calls. Guess I need to win my title back.” He winked at me, and the two boys walked away, leaving me there with Zella. I hoped I wasn’t staring after Asher the way she was at Max.

I played with the hem of my shirt, snuck a glance at her from the corner of my eye. “So…you and Max?”

A blush tinged her cheeks, but she nodded. “I’ve had a crush on him since I was eight.”

“Why haven’t you told him?”

Zella shrugged. “What if he doesn’t feel the same way? I don’t want to ruin our friendship, and it’s not exactly like I can escape him while we’re both here. I don’t want to deal with the awkwardness.”

“But you don’t know that. Max could like you and be just as scared to say something. Sometimes you have to take chances.”

“Like you?” Zella raised an eyebrow at me. “I don’t see you letting your guard down around Asher.”

I laughed dismissively before turning away to rummage in my bag, my lungs suddenly tight.

Zella shook her head, frowning. “Aren’t we a pair? We’re both cowards.”

“Maybe we should do something about it?”

“Like what? Profess my undying love?” Zella scoffed and shook her head. “Uh-uh. Not going to happen.”

“What about a movie? Or coffee?”

“Max and I do that every weekend. Honestly, we’re practically dating now. Without the additional benefits.” She sighed. “It doesn’t matter. We have bigger things to worry about. Any ideas on how we can sneak into QT Friday night?”

I shook my head. I’d let it go for now, but there had to be some way to get them to realize what they had before they turned eighty. “How about you?”

“It’s going to have to be a good reason. Security is tight already, and if the four of us show up in the middle of the night, that’s going to set some alarms off.”

Zella and I stared off into the distance, trying to think. I watched Joan re-shelving some of the research books, her movements jerky and strained.

“They should really get someone to reengineer poor Joan. She’d be much more efficient with a few tweaks.” All they needed to do was move those bolts down a few inches and use some different gauges for the joints. I could sketch it out for them in my sleep.

Zella dropped her pen. “Lexie, that’s it.”

I blinked at her. “What is?”