As I hold him, Cecily chatters on about how she found us and how Alex has been helping her all day with getting people situated. Her uncle apparently works for Qualcomm and is in charge of turning it into an evac shelter. When her walkie-talkie summons her and she has to head back downstairs, I glance toward Ben, who smiles and says, “Cecily, I’ll help you for a second.” Then he turns to me. “I’ll get the car and pull it around front. See you down there.”
When they’re gone, I pull back. “Where’s your family?” I ask Alex, because really there’s no way to tiptoe around it.
“I don’t know,” he says. “They’re both officially listed as missing. My mom wasn’t at the house during the quake, which is a blessing since she definitely would have died, but I’m not sure where she was. If she’s around, though, we can count on her finding me.”
I don’t doubt it. “And your dad?”
He just shakes his head. “His office building came down, and the department was on the thirtieth floor. But they don’t know if he was there.”
“I’m so sorry, Alex,” I whisper, giving him another hug. “And I’m so sorry about the things I said to you. I didn’t mean them.”
He squeezes me tight enough it hurts. “I should have believed you.”
“It’s crazy. Of course you didn’t believe me.” I shake my head and smile.
Alex wipes his eyes with the heel of his hand. “You saw Jared and Struz?”
“They’re fine.” I’m still a little disconcerted about the book and the hot dog. “What about you? Are you okay?”
“I’ll be okay,” Alex says, even though he’s not convincing at all. “I was worried your faces were melting off somewhere.”
“Thanks for that image,” I say, and like a girl, I burst into tears.
“Stop,” Alex says. “I’ll start crying too.”
I roll my eyes. “Please, I think all of us have cried more in the past week than probably ever in our lives. Let’s own that.”
Alex doesn’t laugh like I want him to.
Because it needs to be said and because the best way for us to cope with this is to make sure we’re still around tomorrow, I add, “This wasn’t Wave Function Collapse; this is just the beginning.”
And then I recount everything that Ben and I went through with Barclay.
When I’m done, Alex takes a deep breath. “So we’ve still got to find out who’s opening the portals and stop them.”
And then he says, “I know who killed your father,” right as I say, “I think I know who’s opening the portals.”
My heart pounds in my ears and I wonder if I heard him right.
“What?” I ask, my voice breathless.
He was shot three times. Once in the arm and twice in the chest.
My eyes sting just remembering it. I look at Alex straight-on, ready to know who it was.
“It was Reid,” Alex says.
00:21:50:01
That’s not the name I expected to hear. “How? How do you know?”
Time pauses. I see Alex’s face, and I know from the confidence and the conviction behind his words that he’s dead sure.
My heart aches for Ben—because I get it, Reid and Elijah are his family, and you don’t want to think the people close to you are capable of that—but I think of my dad and the fact that he died without drawing his gun, and I don’t care who Reid is to Ben.
Because he’s not going home now. He’s going to rot in a jail cell in this universe.
Alex just nods. “After the quake, I left school and went back to my house and then to Scripps to check on Elijah, since you told me he was there. He told me where he’d be when he got out, then he told me a couple other things, and it all started to click.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a house in Park Village that backs up against the canyons,” Alex says. “It’s for sale. Elijah’s been crashing there some nights when he’s sick of his foster family. Reid too. Elijah laughed about Reid hiding a bunch of Ben’s science stuff there.” Alex turns and looks at me. “And that set of numbers in your father’s wallet?”
I hold my breath.
“It’s the address.”
Biting the inside of my cheek, I try to get a grip. This is still circumstantial. We have to talk to Elijah and Reid. We have to tell the authorities what’s going on—I should call Struz. But I don’t. Instead I think about the fact that someone shot my dad when he hadn’t even pulled his gun, and I look at Alex and say, “Let’s go.”
00:21:47:19
When we get down the stairs and are on our way to the south entrance to meet Ben, Alex grabs my hand. “Wait.”
I turn to look at him, to ask what he forgot, hoping he hasn’t had a change of heart. I’m sure he’s about to say we should call Struz—that we shouldn’t race off into the night like heroes.
But he doesn’t.
Instead he says, “You’re my best friend, J. Even though you get dramatic sometimes, and even though we fight when you’re crazy, and even though I know you stole my Optimus Prime action figure when we were in kindergarten. You’re the best person in my life.”
“I know, Alex. You’re mine,” I say, my throat tight and eyes watery. “Why are you getting all sentimental on me?”
“The world might end tomorrow.”
“Alex, this isn’t some lame-ass action movie,” I say, even though he’s right. I just can’t handle more crying right now. “No good-bye monologues necessary.”
“Is it wrong I’m hoping we’ll get at least one diabolical monologue from a bad guy?” he says, and starts walking again.
I’m not sure I want a monologue, but I do want answers.
I don’t say that, though, because I see Ben in the TrailBlazer, and there’s a more important point in all this. If the world ends tomorrow, I really need Alex to know, “I did not steal your Optimus Prime action figure, by the way. You totally left it somewhere and your mother probably confiscated it. You know she hated that cartoon.”
00:21:02:44
As we drive, Alex relates to Ben the same things he told me.
“No way,” Ben says when Alex suggests Reid killed my dad. He looks at me. “There’s just no way Reid could do that. Elijah might be opening the portals, but there’s no way either of them could ever kill anybody.”
I don’t disagree with him, but I don’t agree with him either. Elijah and Reid never seemed all that broken up about the dead bodies they were pulling through the portals—that was Ben.
Ben shakes his head. “There’s just no way,” he says again.
This time, I notice Alex also isn’t saying anything.
“Have you ever been to 3278 Park Village?” I ask him.
Ben shakes his head. “Elijah only found the house a few months ago, and I didn’t have a car. Plus, I was usually working when he and Reid hung out there.”
I’m secretly relieved to hear it.
“That’s where Elijah will be?” Ben asks, his voice thick. “Well, let’s talk to him.”
“How will we find Reid?” Alex asks.
Ben shakes his head. “We won’t. If we have Eli, Reid will find us.”
A weird anxious anticipation has me on the edge of my seat when I spot 3278 Park Village Road. It’s a modest house that looks similar to the rest of them—or it did when they were all standing. Now the porch has collapsed and the house has a droopy look to it, as if the foundation is off balance. But it’s doing better than most of the other houses in the development. It’s still inhabitable.
The irony of that is hardly lost on me.
When we pull into the driveway, the house is dark inside, and I worry that Elijah isn’t here, until I remember electricity is out all over the city and of course it’s dark inside.
I put my hand on Ben’s arm. “You okay?”
He nods and shuts off the car, and the three of us get out silently and in unison. I’ve promised to let Ben do the confronting if Elijah is actually here. I’m not going to jump to c
onclusions.
Ben knocks on the front door, and Alex adjusts the strap of his backpack.
“Why didn’t you leave that in the car?” I whisper, but he just shrugs and ignores me.
I think he’s suffering from the same giddy excitement I am—and I think he feels weird and guilty about that like I do. It’s perverse, this whole taking pleasure in taking someone down. But I don’t think about it too hard—because if I’m not feeling this, I’ll have to think too hard about everything that’s happened.
Ben knocks again.
“What if he’s not here?” I ask.
Without looking at me, Ben says softly, “We’ll find him.”
“More than half the city is destroyed,” Alex says. “This house is practically the only thing still standing. Where else would he be?”
I’m about to say something else—about Alex and the smart mouth he’s got on him post–natural disaster—but the front door swings open and Elijah is standing there in ripped jeans and a ratty plaid flannel.
“Thank fucking God,” he says, clasping Ben in a tight hug.
“You’re not going to get rid of me that easy,” Ben says as they break the embrace. “Can we come in?”
“Hell yeah,” Elijah says, opening the door wider. “Trechter, thanks for bringing my boy back.”
Alex nods, and I almost ask him when he became such a tough guy.
“Tenner,” Elijah says as I pass him. “Sight for sore eyes, as always. Where were you keeping him?”
I don’t say anything because I agreed to let Ben do the talking, even though I want to say something like, I just traveled through a portal to another universe, you asshole. But Elijah’s staring at me, so I look at Ben, who’s apparently just done a military-style sweep of the first floor of the house. “Is Reid here?” he asks.
Elijah shakes his head. “I mean, he was, but who knows where the hell he slunk off to now. What the fuck do you want with Reid?” And I see in his face the moment where he starts to break down an assessment of the situation. “Wait, what the fuck do you want with Reid?” he says again.
“Someone here has been opening portals,” Ben says. “And the only people who know the science are you and Reid.”
“I told you, my dad’s got to be looking for us, that—”
“Eli, I know it’s either you or Reid. Just please tell me you didn’t kill Janelle’s dad too.”
Elijah shakes his head. “No way—no, I’ve had enough of this fucking girl,” he says. “She isn’t one of us. Why would you believe her over me?”
“Eli—”
“No, never mind, don’t even answer that,” he says. “I can’t believe this shit.”
“Elijah,” Alex says. “Janelle’s dad was coming here, to this house, the day he was killed.”
“And his body was dumped in that canyon,” I add.
Elijah shakes his head, but the words don’t come out.
“Was it you?” Ben asks. “Please, Eli, you’re my best friend. Were you opening the portals?”
Elijah shakes his head, but instead of looking at Ben, he looks at me. “Reid, his foster parents, their backyard is next door to the house where all those people melted from radiation.”
“What?” I remember them looking at each other when they pulled into the neighborhood.
“I thought for sure that was my dad trying to open a portal on his side,” Elijah says.
“I told you, it’s Reid. This isn’t a coincidence.”
I suck in a breath. I should have looked for that—but that’s how it fits. Barclay said the portals Ben was opening up were too big and therefore unstable. That’s why they were bringing things or people through. If Reid opened a huge portal, something that would encompass that whole house, and then lost control of it … he’d certainly think twice about opening a portal in his backyard.
“Sit down,” Ben says, and then catches him up to speed.
Or starts to, because he’s explaining Barclay and the IA when the front door opens and Reid walks in.
And Alex pulls my father’s gun from his backpack and points it at Reid.
00:20:42:58
I want to ask him where the hell he got it, but my heart is pounding and my attention is on Reid, who’s frozen like a deer in headlights in the doorway.
“Whoa, killer,” Elijah says, standing up. “We can fucking talk about this.”
But when Alex’s eyes flick to Elijah, Reid takes off.
And because I apparently have a death wish, I take off after him.
The sun has long gone down, but Reid’s wearing a white T-shirt and I’m close enough to him that he’s not hard to follow.
I run faster than I’ve ever run in my whole life. I’m flying—hurtling over shrubbery and debris, I don’t feel any tightness in my muscles or any exhaustion in my lungs. I just go.
I can hear Ben and Elijah calling after Reid and me, but they might as well have stayed in the house—I don’t hear a word they’re saying. And I don’t care.
As I gain on him, I can hear Reid’s panting breaths, and I have a moment to wonder if this is what a wild animal feels like when it’s about to pounce on its prey, and then I hurl myself forward, grabbing on to that white shirt and tackling him to the ground.
“You son of a bitch, did you do it?” I punch him in the face, and I can feel his nose start to bleed. “Did you kill him?”
I manage to kick him in the balls before Ben catches up with us. He pulls me off Reid and looks down. “Stay there,” he says, then turns to me. “Janelle, stop.”
And I realize I’m still shouting the questions at Reid, and I swallow them back.
“Did you?” Ben demands. “Did you kill her dad?”
“It was an accident!” Reid screams back.
00:20:41:04
My dad loved Star Wars. He even had a Stormtrooper costume he used to wear on Halloween when Jared and I wanted him to go trick-or-treating.
One Halloween, when I was six and Jared was three, he wasn’t going to make it home in time to take us trick-or-treating, and he made some junior analyst come to our house, put on the Stormtrooper costume, and pretend to be him. Only no one could quite pull it off like my dad could. Even Jared saw through it.
When I was ten, Revenge of the Sith came out, and my dad got us tickets to the midnight release. He also got us Jedi robes and fake lightsabers and wanted us all to go to the movie in costume. But I was just old enough to realize how lame that would look to other people, and I refused. I wore jeans and a T-shirt, crossed my arms, and refused to sit in the same row as the two Jedi I came with.
My dad had been so excited for that night, and I refused to participate in it because I was embarrassed of what people might think of me. People I didn’t even know.
I never apologized to him for that. I never told him how later when I thought back to that night, how cool I thought it was that he had done that for us.
And now—because of Reid—I’ll never be able to.
00:20:41:03
“He was shot three times—that’s not an accident.” I move toward Reid, but strong hands pull me back—Elijah’s.
And then a light shines in Reid’s bloody face, and Alex is next to us, flashlight in hand.
“Nice fucking shot, Tenner,” Elijah says.
“I need to know what happened.”
“Tell her,” Ben says.
“It was an accident,” Reid repeats.
“We’ll be the fucking judge of that—what the hell were you thinking, opening up more portals when you didn’t know what you were doing?” Elijah says. “Answer the fucking girl.”
I jerk out of Elijah’s arms. “What happened?”
“Ben was close to a breakthrough. We were this close to getting home, and then because of a couple missteps, he wouldn’t keep trying.”
“A couple missteps?” Ben yells. “Two people were dead!”
“I don’t care about them,” Reid yells back. “I want to go home, and Eli does too!”
/> “Yeah, I fucking want to go home,” Elijah says. “I also want to make it without getting burned up.”
Reid shakes his head. “I put my hand through one night when I opened a portal by myself, and nothing happened. I didn’t get burned up. The three of us can go through them fine.”
Elijah looks at Ben, who nods.
But I don’t care about this part. “What happened with my dad?”
“He figured it out,” Reid says. “Not the portals, but he figured out I was involved. I talked to him when the portal took out the house. They were my neighbors, and he was questioning everyone, but he kept asking me the same questions again and again.”
My eyes sting. My dad could almost always tell when someone was lying—he’d obviously known Reid had more to say.
“And then he must have followed me out here. He couldn’t figure out what I was doing, but he knew I was involved somehow.”
I’m so proud of my dad, my heart feels like it might burst. That he could have realized Reid had something to do with this after one conversation. I put a hand to my chest and shake my head. “So how did you accidentally end up shooting him?”
Ben gives Reid a kick. “Tell her.”
“I started carrying my foster father’s gun around when I was opening the portals in case something came through that wasn’t dead.”
“Shit,” Elijah mutters.
“He surprised me. I was in the middle of trying to get a portal open, and he just walked in like he owned the place,” Reid says. “The portal opened, and I couldn’t let him see it. So I pulled the gun and I shot him. I didn’t know it was your dad until later!”
I feel sick. Because that doesn’t sound accidental at all.
“And then you just kept right on going?” Ben asks. “Even after the earthquakes and when we were chasing Eric Brandt around.”
“You fucking got me shot for no reason,” Elijah adds.
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