Ultraviolet Catastrophe (9 page)

“Damn it, Lexie.” He slammed a hand down on the back of the couch. “I’m sorry. I didn’t feel like we had another choice.”

The words sliced through me like a knife. “Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? That you can’t trust your own daughter with the truth? Do you even want me here? Or is that another lie, too?”

He still wore his white lab coat over his jeans, the QT logo in navy blue against the white, his name in script below it.

Dr. William Kepler.

We shared a last name, but that was it. I glared at him and waited for him to answer.

Finally, he shook his head. “Everything I’ve done has been to protect you. Your mother and I told you that when you arrived. I’m sorry that meant not being there for you.”

“Really? Because you seem to have plenty of time to ‘be there’ for Jordan Sellers. If Branston wants me that badly, maybe they’re not so bad after all.” My voice broke, and I had to look away.

Dad shook his head. “Branston is terrifying. They have destroyed villages just to show they can. They’ve released bioengineered viruses to threaten governments. They have worked behind the scenes to fund terrorists and fringe groups. They want you to be a part of the team to develop these weapons, to destroy instead of create.”

He still didn’t get it. I didn’t care about Branston. I cared that he couldn’t be bothered to ever tell me the truth, to trust that I might be able to handle it. Anger curled through me like poison, and I hated him at that moment. Hated everything he’d done, even if it had been to protect me.

“I don’t see where you’re much different from them,” I said with a sob, snatching my laptop off the couch and sprinting to my room.

“Lexie!” he called after me.

I slammed the door on him and threw myself on the bed. All I’d ever wanted was my dad to be there. I’d let myself hope moving in with him might rebuild our relationship.

Obviously, I’d been fooling myself.

The ride to QT the next day was one long, awkward silence, broken by Dad’s attempts to explain. I stared out the window and refused to answer. There was nothing he could say. I was done letting him disappoint me. I was still freaked out that Branston was out there looking for me, but right now, Dad was the bigger pain in my ass.

I left him in the lobby without even a glance back, though I could feel him staring after me, feel his frustration. Maybe if I let him stew, he’d finally get the point. I stomped into the classroom and threw myself into one of the clear, plastic chairs.

Some of the other students looked at me, but I glared them down. I was not in the mood for their bullshit today. If Asher thought I needed to stand up to them, then so be it.

“Morning, Lexie.” Max dumped his bag on the floor and sat down beside me. His scraggly beard was gone, and his hair neatly trimmed.

For the first time that morning, I smiled, surprisingly glad to see a friendly face. “New look?”

“Mom said I looked like a hippie.” He sighed and ran his hand over his smooth jaw. “I guess it’s not that bad.”

“I like it. Very preppy.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Preppy. That’s me.”

“Here, let me help.” I reached over and roughed up his hair just as Zella appeared in the doorway. She narrowed her eyes at me before stalking over and taking a seat on the other side of Max.

“Hey, Z,” Max said over his shoulder. “Lexie is trying to make me less preppy. Is it working?”

Her stare was cold, assessing. “I thought you were fine the way you were.”

Max laughed, totally missing her glare. “Always room for improvement, right?”

Zella didn’t bother to answer him and turned to rummage in her bag. I went back to adjusting Max’s hair.

“There.” I leaned back to examine my work, a mock frown on my face. I tapped my chin with my finger. “There’s something missing, I’m afraid.”

Max sighed. “There always is.”

“Hey, stop that. I’m just kidding with you. I think you’re perfect just the way you are.”

“That’s more like it,” he crowed, grabbing me in a headlock and ruffling my own hair.

We both laughed, and I struggled to get away from him. Asher wandered into the room and flopped into the chair across from us. He raised an eyebrow. “Careful there, kids. Someone could poke an eye out.”

“We can only hope,” Zella muttered, loud enough so we all could hear.

Max sat back in his seat with a frown at her, and I tried to smooth down my messy hair. I wasn’t going to let her get to me today.

“What’s the plan?” Asher stifled a yawn and stretched his arms over his head. I tried not to stare as the bottom of his shirt rode up and displayed the muscled strip of skin above his jeans. “More research? Team meeting? What do you think we should tackle, Lexie?”

I shrugged, feeling slightly breathless at the sight. “Zella seems to have taken on managing the project. What do you think?” I asked her. Maybe deferring to her a bit would get her off my back. Or at least show her I was a team player.

She tapped on her tablet and then nodded. “I think we need to keep researching the historical piece while some of us start to tackle the actual experiment. Lexie, why don’t you go back to the library? Max, you can help me today.”

He glanced at me before nodding, and I could read the disappointment in his eyes. I was kind of disappointed, too. I had a feeling it was going to be a long, lonely day in the library.

Amy sauntered in wearing a cute sundress and sandals. She trailed her fingers down Asher’s arm as she sank into the seat beside him. “Hey, guys. What’s up?”

My heart did a weird little twist in my chest. They made the perfect couple — gorgeous and brilliant. Were they together? I stared down at my tablet and pushed away the twinge of disappointment. I wasn’t interested in him like that, no matter how nice he’d been to me last night.

Asher yawned again. “What do you want me to do, Z? Or do I get a free day? I could use a nap.”

Zella shook her head. “Oh, no, you don’t get out of it. I need you and Amy to tackle the computer models and design. We are going to blow Dr. Avery away with this project.”

Asher saluted. “To the lab it is.” He got to his feet and slung Amy’s bag over his shoulder before holding out his arm to her.

Amy slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow with a giggle. “Such a gentleman.”

“Not always,” he said with a wink.

I tried not to vomit.

Zella got to her feet, pointedly ignoring me. “You coming, Max?”

He paused to smile at me. “I’ll catch you later, Lexie?”

“Of course. Have fun, guys.” My whole team left the room together, and I sat there like a loser. So much for things starting to look up.

I spent most of the day in the library again. It was quiet, and nobody paid much attention to me. The panic was back, and I had a dozen different windows open on my computer screen as I searched for answers. I was going to show all of them that, despite the drugs, I wasn’t stupid. I could make it at QT.

First up, I needed to figure out what exactly an ultraviolet catastrophe was. I’d read the definition yesterday, but I still had no idea what it meant. I did a few more online searches and found some good descriptions. Probably a good place to start our paper.

I chewed on the end of my pen. Still didn’t know what it meant, but at least I had something. I stared at the graph beside the definition. The catastrophe predicted that, as the wavelength of light got shorter, the intensity would continue to go up, emitting radiation until it reached infinite levels. Okay, it was starting to make sense. I did a little more searching.

Max Planck was the guy who’d come up with the solution to the ultraviolet catastrophe back in 1900. And that solution was the starting point for the whole branch of science called quantum physics. His research had formed the basis for Einstein’s later work with photon theory.

I pulled together a few more pages of research on the ultraviolet catastrophe and its history. It amazed me how small a community of scientists it was back then. The same names kept popping up: Planck, Einstein, Millikan, Rosen.

Rosen.
Could he be related to Asher? I scanned the library to make sure no one was watching and did a quick search. Really, I wasn’t being a stalker; I was honestly interested, especially if his grandfather had worked with Albert Einstein. He’d always been a hero of mine. The Einstein action figure I’d had to leave behind in Ohio had been a birthday gift from Mom, meant as a joke, but I’d secretly loved it.

The first link confirmed it. Nathan Rosen, Asher’s grandfather, had been Einstein’s assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey, and there, they’d come up with a mathematical solution for a type of wormhole connecting distant areas in space. The Einstein-Rosen Bridge. There was also a reference to the Manhattan Project.

I skimmed through the rest of the article and noticed the names John A. Wheeler and John von Neumann, who were also physicists. Same last names as Zella and Max. They’d all worked on the Manhattan Project. I was willing to bet that wasn’t a coincidence at all.

I knew Oak Ridge had been created as a secret town where many of the Manhattan Project’s most important scientists had lived and researched. To have all of those descendants together again seemed a little strange.

“What kind of secrets have you uncovered today?” Asher asked, dropping into a chair beside me. He tugged something out of his pocket that looked like a mini remote controller.

I clicked the browser window shut so he wouldn’t see my research. I did not want him get the wrong idea. “Nothing too exciting. A few more days and I should have the UVC stuff pulled together.”

He grabbed my pen and balanced it on the edge of the desk. “Cool. I’m sure Z will be relieved to have it done.”

I leaned back in my chair. “Where’s Amy? Did you guys finish your computer models?”

“We made some pretty good progress. She had a meeting with Avery this afternoon, so I figured I’d come here and get something done for a change. Unless you’d like to distract me?” He gave me his heart-stopping, crooked grin.

I shook my head and tried not to roll my eyes at him. “Somehow I don’t think Amy would approve.”

“Aw, don’t be so serious, Lexicon. I’m just flirting with a pretty girl — there’s no harm in that. Besides, Amy and I are just friends.”

“I don’t think Amy would agree. And what did you just call me?”

“What — Lexicon? You know, a dictionary of terms. It suits you, what with your performance yesterday with Zella.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, both at the fact that he’d called me pretty and that he’d actually witnessed my little display. “What’s your nickname then?”

He fiddled with a button on the remote before smiling slowly. “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I can give you some suggestions if you’re having trouble…”

My mouth opened and shut. His blue eyes blazed into mine, and I swallowed. Hard.

Then he sat back, breaking the tractor beam of his gaze. “How about I give you some time to think about it?”

I shook my head, mortified and yet strangely fascinated by the dimple in his cheek as he grinned at me.
Pull it together, Kepler. The guy’s just flirting. You can handle this.
“What does Amy call you?”

“Ah, that would be telling.” He winked, pressed a button, and the pen on the edge of the table disappeared.

I blinked. “How did you do that?”

“Oh, this? Just a simple particle destabilizer. It’s a prototype I’ve been working on. It temporarily changes the frequency of an object’s particles, making them vibrate so fast the item becomes invisible. Once I turn the wavelength off, you can see it again.” He had that falsely modest expression I was coming to recognize. He knew he was a freaking genius. Why did he even bother to pretend at this point?

“Now that I’ve impressed you with my toys, want to grab some coffee? There’s an excellent coffee shop in town. We can make it a study date. I’ll even let you play with it.” He gestured at the remote, and I rolled my eyes.

“I think I’ll pass.”

“Not smart, Lexicon. I can help you with your physics equations. You know I won the Best New Physicist Award when I was thirteen. I even designed Joan here.” He nodded toward the robotic librarian standing at the other end of the room.

Okay, now he was really showing off. I could play that game, too.

“Really? Then how did you miss tweaking the titanium socket screws in their ankle joints? They’re cut at the wrong angle. Another few degrees and an install two inches lower and it’d take care of the lurching.”

He blinked, his gaze flicking to Joan and then back to me, and I bit back a smile at his expression.

His voice was almost strangled as he asked, “How did you do that? We worked on that design for weeks and still couldn’t get it quite right.”

I grinned. “May I should help
you
with your homework.” Part of me wanted nothing more than to say yes to his invitation for coffee. To his sparkling blue eyes and the dimple in his cheek. There couldn’t be any harm in being friends, could there? Except I was pretty sure he had a girlfriend, and I didn’t know how long I’d be able to stay ‘just friends’ with someone who looked at me like that.

Like I was a genius.

I shoved my tablet and notebook into my bag before standing up. “I should be going. My dad promised he’d remember me today. We’re supposed to meet in the lobby.”

Asher got up and walked with me to the library doors. “You know, if he’s too busy, I can always take you home. It’ll be like a carpool. Or taxi service. You can pay me in coffee dates.”

“Thanks, but it’s time my dad took some responsibility for me. At least, for however long I’m here.” I froze, chewed my lip. Where had that come from?

He furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you mean? Where would you be going?”

I laughed, trying to play off my slip-up. “Nowhere in particular. I just mean if I can’t cut it here, maybe they’ll send me back to Ohio.”

Maybe Mom would come back and we could find somewhere else to live, just the two of us. We could go back to being normal. I could forget about the lies and the drugs and the general mess that was my life.

Asher’s jaw tightened. “You belong here with us, Lexie. No matter what you think.”

I shrugged and pushed through the doors to the hallway. “Honestly, Asher, I appreciate the pep talk, but you barely know me. You don’t know anything about whether I’ll fit or not.”

He put a hand on my arm to stop me, and I turned, held frozen by his suddenly serious expression. And then he looked away, scuffed his shoe against the marble floor. Finally, he said, “I know about the drugs.”

His words sucked the air from my lungs with a whoosh. “What did you say?”

“My dad was the one who helped develop them in the first place. That could have been me, Lexie. If things had been different.”

Horror, shame, anger all surged through me, and I put out a hand to steady myself against the wall. Bad enough I knew my own parents had drugged me to keep me average, but knowing Asher had heard about it, too? I wanted the floor to open and eat me whole. What must he think of them? Of
me
?

No matter what my dad said, there had to have been another way to protect me from Branston.

He touched my shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. I’d never say anything.”

I shook my head, too devastated to even respond. The hallway went fuzzy, and I forced myself to breathe in and out, despite the icy clench of my lungs. Just the thought of what my new classmates would do to me if it ever got out that I’d been drugged to stay average made my stomach roil. I’d witnessed enough bullying at Columbus to know that it would be social suicide. I could hear the taunts already — Lobotomy Lexie.

I jerked away from his hand and sprinted away toward the stairwell.

“Lexie!” Asher called.

I shook my head and pushed through the emergency doors to clatter down the stairs. My eyes stung with unshed tears. What had been so wrong with me that my parents would do something like this? They’d taken away a part of me, and now, I was lost. I’d hoped QT might be a chance to become who I wanted instead of being always afraid. Now it had become another prison.