3:59 (5 page)

Not just any laser. Josie recognized the double undulators, compact accelerator, and experimental bending magnets right away. It was a prototype of a compact X-ray free-electron laser—an X-FEL—the multimillion-dollar piece of equipment Penelope had suggested they “borrow” from Josie’s mom for their science-fair entry. And it was sitting in Josie’s basement.

Wouldn’t someone at Fort Meade notice that an X-FEL the size of a minivan and worth more than the crown jewels had suddenly gone missing from a heavily secured government facility? How the hell had it gotten into Josie’s house?

Josie eased her way around an overturned table for a closer look at the laser. She’d never seen this version of an X-FEL before but she’d heard her parents discussing it excitedly over dinner for years. It had been one of the priority projects up at Fort Meade: millions in funding, a team of A-list scientists and engineers, top secret specs no one had ever seen.

Josie bent down and examined one of the undulators. It was one of the most high-tech, cutting-edge pieces of equipment in the world and yet . . .

Something wasn’t right. This rig wasn’t shiny and new and gleaming with custom-made components. It was old, gritty, and looked as if it had been pieced together with odd parts and discarded materials from earlier prototypes. Josie peered at the accelerator tube, her nose so close her breath made foggy little clouds against its metal surface. She could clearly see the seaming where different pieces of the cylinder had been fused together. An X-FEL of that caliber should have had a custom-designed accelerator of all one piece, and this one looked almost homemade.

Josie snapped upright. Homemade? Had her mom built a duplicate version of a top secret laser
in their basement
?

“What the hell is going on?”

The words might have come from Josie’s mouth, but they didn’t. She spun around, stumbling over a heavy steel box, and saw her mother standing at the top of the stairs.

“Oh my God,” her mom gasped, taking in the full extent of the damage.

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks,” Josie said under her breath.

Her mom inched down the stairs, as if testing her weight against each step. Her eyes were wide with shock as she scanned the basement from left to right. “What happened?” she said at last, her voice shaky. “Tell me what happened.”

“There was an explosion.”

Her mom whirled on her. “Did you turn it on?” she said breathlessly. “Did you turn on the laser and cause an explosion? Where is the deuterium?”

“Wait, there was deuterium in the house?”

“Tell me!” her mom snapped.

Josie shook her head. “I was upstairs. There was an explosion. It blew the door open.”

Josie’s mom glanced up at the basement door. “Blew the door open?” she said absently.

“Yeah,” Josie continued, “and I found the lab like this.”

“Found the lab like this . . .” Her mom’s voice trailed off.

“Mom, what’s going on? Why do you have the X-FEL in the basement? And why does it look like you made it yourself?”

Her mom turned back to her and opened her mouth to say something, then clapped it shut. She stared over Josie’s head at something against the far wall of the basement. Josie turned, following her gaze to the mirror propped up in the corner.

“Get it out of here,” her mom said without looking at Josie.

“Huh?”

“The mirror. Get it out of the lab. Now.”

“Why?” Josie stared at her mom. The mirror? Really? There was a bootleg weapons-grade laser in the house and her mom was concerned about the mirror?

“I . . . ,” her mom started, her eyes faltering. “I don’t want it damaged. It was my grandmother’s.”

Josie sighed.
Fine, whatever.
She crunched her way to the back of the basement, lifted the mirror, then shimmied through the mess and up the stairs.

As she reached the hallway, she looked down at her mom to ask what she was supposed to do with the mirror. But the words froze on her lips. Her mom sat on a stool, head in her hands.

Josie had no idea what was going on, no hint of what her mom was involved in. Locked doors, homemade lasers, explosions, secrets.

Maybe this had all contributed to her parents’ separation? Maybe there was something going on—something major—that had shut her mom off from her family? Josie made a mental note to ask her mom about it. But not now. With her mom still sobbing in the basement, Josie quietly closed the door.

Josie rested the mirror against the wall outside her bedroom and stared at it. So many odd things had happened since she picked up the stupid thing from her dad’s apartment. Could they all be connected or was it just a weird coincidence?

There’s no such thing as coincidence
. That was practically a mantra around the Byrne household. So if it wasn’t a coincidence, there was something about the mirror that connected the disparate events of the last twenty-four hours. Something concrete and logical. There had to be.

She’d seen the mirror once before, at her mom’s lab on a “bring your kid to work” day back in elementary school. Her mom said the mirror helped inspire her when she was trying to solve a problem in the lab, though why she decided to bring it home a few months ago, Josie had no idea.

It stood about five feet high, with short legs on either side and a rounded top. Garish and ostentatious, the frame was heavily embellished with opulent wood carvings—jagged leaf flourishes that jutted out onto the surface of the mirror, connected by swirling vines that got denser and more entangled as they extended upward. At the top of the mirror, the heavy carved foliage entwined to form a kind of woodland crown, right in the middle of which was an angelic face. Josie’s arms got goose pimply as the delicate face stared at her with dark, unseeing eyes in the muted light of the hallway.

Part of her wanted to beat the mirror to a pulp: smash the glass, dismember the frame, and stomp up and down on its remnants until there was nothing left but dust and slivers. Instead, she found herself dragging the ugly thing into her room, where she shoved aside a beanbag chair and leaned it against the wall.

If the mirror was somehow connected to the flash of light and the explosion in her basement, she was going to figure it out. Maybe it would fix whatever her mom was dealing with. Then maybe, just maybe, Josie could fix her family too.

Josie let out a moan as her eyes fluttered open. Instead of Nick’s face just inches from her own, all she saw was darkness. The bluish light of the moon streamed in through her window, illuminating a patch of floor and bureau, including a loose photo of her and Nick. It was taken just a few weeks ago.

When Nick was already cheating on her.

The image of Madison kissing Nick on the track flooded Josie’s mind. Between the explosion in her mom’s lab and the mystery of the mirror, Josie had almost managed to forget her most recent humiliation.

Almost.

Ugh. Tomorrow was going to be a disaster at school. The embarrassment of getting caught spying on them was salt in the wound of their betrayal. Everyone at school would be talking about it. How was she going to face the shame?

Josie fought the panic welling up inside her. She just needed to get some sleep. Things would seem better in the morning. She rolled on her side, determined to put all thoughts of Nick and Madison out of her mind, and looked at the clock just before she shut her eyes.

4:00 a.m.

“JOSEPHINE, ARE YOU GETTING UP TODAY?”

Josie stared at her bedroom ceiling. Getting up for what? What was the point?

So much for feeling better in the morning.

“Did you hear me?” Her mom cracked the bedroom door. There was a pause where her mom must have registered that Josie was still, in fact, in bed, then Josie felt a whoosh of air as her mom threw the door open. “You’re not even awake yet?”

Silence. Was she going to ask what was wrong? Josie wasn’t sure if she was hoping for it or dreading it.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“No,” Josie croaked.

There was the sound of footsteps across the hardwood floor, stopping short of Josie’s bed. “I’m sorry.” Her mom paused. “You should stay home.”

“Okay.” Maybe she could just stay in bed forever and never go back to Bowie Prep? That seemed like the best-case scenario.

“I’ll call and check in on you from the lab. Try to get some rest.”

Yeah. Rest.

The word
forever
freezes on her tongue. She stares at the antique mirror in the corner of her room. It perfectly reflects her bed.

She glances back at her bed. It’s empty. But when she returns to the mirror, she can clearly see the image of someone asleep in the bed.
Her
bed. She takes a step closer to the mirror just as the girl rolls over. She can see the face clearly now. It’s not just a girl.

Josie’s eyes flew open. She sat straight up in bed and stared at the mirror. For a split second, so fast she wasn’t sure it was real or just a lingering image from her dream, Josie thought she saw someone in the mirror.

A girl.
Her
.

Before Josie’s brain could even register what she saw, the image was gone and the mirror was just a mirror, reflecting the chaotic mess of Josie’s room.

Josie squeezed her eyes shut, trying to recall what she’d just seen. A girl who looked so much like her, standing in the mirror with her hand outstretched as if she were going to reach through the mirror into Josie’s room.

Just like in her dream.
Holy shit.
Josie jumped out of bed. Late afternoon light streamed through the slats in her closed blinds. Her heart thundered in her chest and she was breathing heavily. Fear-induced adrenaline raced through her veins, leaving her dizzy and disoriented.

She’d been having another dream. A dream about her, but not her. Just like all her dreams recently.

Except this time when she opened her eyes, she knew she was awake. Wide awake. She knew she saw someone in that mirror. Someone who looked exactly like her. A twin. A doppelgänger.

Josie looked at her alarm and caught her breath.

4:00.

That time was familiar. What time was it when she dreamed that Nick had given her the necklace? She vividly remembered the red digital readout on her alarm clock: four in the morning. Which meant she’d had the dream at exactly 3:59.