“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.”