Ultraviolet Catastrophe

by Jamie Grey

  “I know, but it’s wrong. And when you plug it into the simulation, it still runs like it’s correct. Someone wanted the machine to blow up.”

  “No. That’s not possible. You’re wrong, Lexie. Even with that brain of yours, you couldn’t be the only one to catch this.”

  Mom and Dad exchanged a look that made my skin crawl. Of course I wasn’t the only one to catch it. If there were spies inside QT, they probably knew about it already, too, but the look that passed between them was even bigger than that.

  “What does that mean? What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded.

  Dad brought a bandaged hand up to rub his eyes. “There has to be another explanation.”

  “For what? I’m not wrong, Dad. I figured it out a few weeks ago on my own, and Asher will back me up.”

  He groaned. “Asher is involved, too? This just gets better and better. That boy has always been trouble.”

  “Not as much trouble as you evidently,” I snapped. “Now, what’s going on?”

  “Tell her, William. You should have done it when we talked about the meds.” Mom stared out the window and wouldn’t look at either of us. She only did that when she was hiding something.

  My vision swam with black spots. What hadn’t he told me? What else was there?

  Dad’s voice was hollow when he spoke. “I told you the reason I left Branston was because they were performing experiments on students, which is true. Unfortunately, I didn’t leave soon enough to prevent you from becoming part of those experiments.” Dad looked like he was about to be sick; his face had gone pale and a sheen of sweat covered his forehead. “When your mom got pregnant with you, they convinced me to let them include you in their latest experiment on fetal intelligence. I knew Maria would never agree, so without her knowledge or consent, we injected her with a new type of genome while she was pregnant, masking it as a vaccine. It mutated your DNA into something…more. Something that gave you super-intelligence.”

  Okay, so I was smart. I knew that already and had come to terms with it. “What’s the problem then?”

  “Your mom found out about the experiments when you were three, about how we’d changed you. That was the beginning of the end. I should never have experimented on my own child or on other children. But I didn’t know the whole truth — not until later — and that’s when I decided to escape. To create the serum to hide your intelligence. I wasn’t going to let them use you.”

  That’s why they were holding a spot for me at Branston. They were waiting for my smarts to kick in. For me to want to join them.

  “You said there were other children who were injected with this same drug? Who were they?” I croaked.

  Dad couldn’t look at me. “You know.”

  Oh god. Max and Zella and Asher. “What about Amy Green?”

  “Yes, she was part of the experiment, too.”

  The room spun, and I dropped into a chair. “But what do they want with us? And what does it have to do with Project Infinity?”

  Dad’s voice was hollow. “Branston wants power, and knowledge is power. They’re building an army of scientists, and they think you’re their first soldier.”

  “Me?” I frowned at him. “There’s nothing special about me. I’m not smarter than anyone here at QT. I’m barely keeping up. And I’m certainly not going to kill anyone.”

  “Lexie, your intelligence isn’t in being book smart. It’s in spotting connections, in bringing things together in new ways. In seeing possibilities. Your mom told me you took one look at the patrol robots and spotted a flaw in his design a dozen of scientists couldn’t fix. You discovered Avery’s calculations were wrong when no one else saw it. Branston’s experiment didn’t work on the other subjects the way it worked on you, and now they realize you could be the key to everything.”

  I shook my head. “But I don’t understand. Why are they trying to sabotage Project Infinity?”

  “Because that’s what they do. They steal the plans and sell them to the highest bidder. Money and power. That’s the currency Branston runs on. They are infiltrating the highest levels of government around the world. And when they have enough leverage, they’ll be able to influence every policy and decision made. They want to destroy QT because, when it fails, there will be no one left to stop them.”

  Mom shook her head. “Lexie, you can’t tell anyone about this. You have to keep it secret, even from your friends.”

  “How can I keep this from them? Branston changed us. They want to use us to take over the world.” I wasn’t going to lie to my friends the way my parents had lied to me. I jumped to my feet feeling like I’d explode if I didn’t move. “I need to go. I can’t think about this right now.”

  “Lexie, please.” My mom put her hand out, squeezed my shoulder. “Please know we only did what we could to keep you safe. We’re still trying.”

  “You can’t keep me safe anymore. No one can.” I shook my head. “I can’t deal with this. I need some time.”

  “Let her go, Maria. She’s smart enough to come to the same conclusions we did.”

  Mom let her hand drop. “Be careful, Lexie. Don’t do anything stupid because you’re mad at us.”

  I glared at her and tried to think of a witty comeback, but there was nothing but an ache in my brain and an echo in my heart. I spun away and darted from the room, blinking back the tears.

  Mom and I settled into a sort of routine over the next two days. She made coffee and worked in Dad’s home office. I spread out on the kitchen table with my calculations, and we both tried to ignore each other. Worry about my friends, about the project, about Branston gnawed at me every time she tried to talk to me about my feelings. I’d snap at her, and then both of us ended up mad.

  It was just better to pretend everything was fine and stay out of each other’s way.

  I threw myself into the calculations. From breakfast to bedtime, I scribbled and typed and rearranged and tried to figure out what the heck an ultraviolet catastrophe had to do with a wormhole. It just didn’t make sense. They were both theoretical. Neither of them existed. But somehow, they were connected.

  The ultraviolet catastrophe explained how radiation worked at different wavelengths and why it didn’t just kill us all where we stood. Avery’s Einstein-Rosen bridge calculations talked about time travel and space-time and matter. There was no connection I could see.

  I read and reread them until the numbers ran together in weird ways. In ways that made no sense. In ways that almost made sense. Raking a hand through my hair, I let out a long breath. I was never going to get this. Maybe there wasn’t a connection. Maybe all we had to go on was Avery’s calculations and the wormhole simulations.

  Maybe I was wrong.

  The chair squawked as I shoved it back to pace the dining room. Everything that had happened in the last few months spun around in my brain. Branston, the drugs, Asher, Dad, QT. They were all linked. In my mind, it looked like a spider web, with me at the center and the connections that had brought me here joining everything together.

  This must have been what my parents were talking about — this ability to see connections. So if there was one between Avery’s calculations and the ultraviolet catastrophe, why couldn’t I find it?

  “Can I make you some dinner before I leave?” My mom called from the kitchen. “I’m going to the hospital to check on your dad. The QT regents are in town to visit, and he wants some moral support.” They’d spent more time together over the last few days than they had in the last ten years. It should have made me happy, but I was too distracted to care.

  “I’m fine. I’ll make a sandwich later.” I leaned against the doorway and watched her pour a glass of milk. “Why are the regents here?”

  “According to Will, they’re concerned about the status of the project. They’re meeting with the directors tonight to talk about if they move forward or put it on hold.”

  I chewed my lip. Evidently, Danvers’ plan to push forward wasn’t set in stone. Good, it migh
t give us a little more time. “Give him a hug for me.”

  “I will.” Her dark eyes searched mine. “Are you all right, Lexie? You seem preoccupied.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You know your father and I love you and want what’s best for you. Branston is out there. We just want you to be safe.”

  “I know you do.” I shoved my hands into my pockets and frowned. “I just need a few more days to figure out what this all means and how to deal with it. Branston performed genetic experiments on me, and now they want me to help them steal scientific secrets to take over the world. I think you can see where I’d need some time to figure it all out.”

  She joined me at the door and kissed my cheek. “I know, honey, and I’m sorry. You know where I am if you want to talk.”

  I nodded. “Thanks, Mom.”

  A few minutes later, I heard the front door shut, and Dad’s car revved to life. I paced toward the window and watched her drive away. The September wind rattled the windows, and a flurry of leaves whirled down the street. Maybe a change of scenery would help. I was kind of craving a pumpkin spice latte from Coco’s, and the fresh air might clear the cobwebs from my brain.

  I turned away to grab my tablet when it suddenly all snapped together, like finding you’d turned a puzzle piece the wrong way.

  If QT was trying to build an Einstein-Rosen bridge, my calculations were definitely the ones they should be using, not Avery’s. But Avery hadn’t been trying to create a wormhole.

  His calculations were for a machine that could destroy the world.

  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.”