Ionic Attraction

by D. R. Rosensteel

  Zach grunted. “But you’re not doing any of those things with it.”

  “I’m doing better. I’m saving the world. Once you finish the modifications, I’ll show you magic you’ve never dreamed of.”

  Like destroying Deer Lodge, Montana. “Let me ask you something. How did you get this thing? The radioactive material is impossible to find, and the special electrical and magnetic components are so rare they might as well not exist.”

  “I have unlimited resources,” Mamont said. “There are few things I can’t get.”

  “You know why I’m asking.”

  Mamont’s mouth turned down. He raised an eyebrow. “No.”

  “Well, you definitely know why I went to prison.”

  “Again, no. I never concerned myself with it.”

  “Let me enlighten you, then. Somebody stole a quark detector from a high-security government building. The cops showed up at my house and blamed it on me.”

  “I see.” Mamont inhaled slowly and crossed his arms. “And because I happen to have it in my possession, you believe I set you up.”

  “At least you admit it.”

  Mamont shrugged. “I admit to having the stolen quark detector, but I had nothing to do with your prison sentence.”

  “And I should trust you just because you’ve never made anyone your assistant before.”

  “I did expect a bit more gratitude.”

  “You’re not the first person I’ve disappointed.” Zach shook his head, redirecting his thoughts. “What do you want your quark generator to do? I need to know so I can make the right modifications.”

  “I need the Collider to concentrate its particle beam. Radial alignment.”

  Exactly the wrong way to build a proton cannon. The blast would be weakened by the alignment Mamont wanted. Zach forced back a smile. “I’ll add a multistage betatron cleaner. Don’t blame me if the whole thing goes up in smoke. You do realize the extent of the power we’re trying to manhandle, don’t you?”

  “Enough to bring about more good in the world,” Mamont said quietly. He pushed the intercom button. “I like your work. I’m assigning you an assistant.”

  An assistant for his assistant who didn’t want to be his assistant in the first place. “This guy just gets more and more ridiculous,” Zach muttered as he reconfigured the detector.

  “Sir?” a panicky voice came from the speaker.

  “Come to the underground, please.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  A few moments later, Piper walked off the hovervator. She stopped in front of Mamont but didn’t acknowledge him or Zach. Piper stood staring at the floor, slowly wringing her hands. She definitely didn’t want to be there. That made two of them. Zach noticed a large purple mark on her arm.

  “I’ve explained to Zachary that you’ll be assisting him,” Mamont said.

  Piper nodded.

  “Why her?” Zach asked, not caring whether Piper was insulted by the question. “Don’t you have a particle physicist on staff?”

  “I volunteered,” Piper said quietly. She wouldn’t look at Zach, but he noticed that every time she glanced at Mamont, her face burned with anger.

  No way had she volunteered.

  “Let me be candid,” Mamont said to Piper. “I expect this to be fully functional. Today.”

  Perfect. The space storm was coming later that evening. If the beam passed through it, it would collapse on itself. Even without the storm, Zach was certain the proton cannon wouldn’t function at full power. Not the way Mamont had asked him to build it. Zach answered for Piper. “Won’t be a problem.”

  “I’ll do whatever I can to help,” Piper added quickly.

  “I don’t need help,” Zach said.

  “Of course you do.” Mamont wrapped his spindly arm around Piper. She flinched and closed her eyes, quickly shielding the purple bruise on her arm with her hand. “This is Piper’s pet project. She calls it Oh Three.”

  Zach flinched. The odd modifications Mamont had asked for suddenly made sense. If the Large Hadron Collider fired a beam through the ozone and the space storm caused it to collapse on itself, that would…actually close the hole. But that meant Piper had been telling the truth. He wasn’t buying it. What was he missing?

  Zach, can you hear me? Mike’s voice echoed in Zach’s head. His heart began to pound. He had gotten signal back somehow. Where are you? Is that Piper Dane? Oh, crap! Is that Mamont? Quick, pretend I’m not here!

  “I told him about the Oh Three project, Professor,” Piper said. As she brushed past Mamont, his hand snaked out and latched onto her arm. She yelped but didn’t try to pull away.

  “Fully functional.” His voice dripped with malice. “Today. Take Zachary to my personal laboratory so he can get to work.”

  Mamont smiled at Zach and turned toward the hovervators.

  “What was that all about?” Zach asked when Mamont was gone.

  “The professor means well,” Piper said. “But sometimes ambition clouds his judgment.”

  Piper was acting weird. What was she up to? First she acted like she was scared to death of Mamont, then she was making excuses for him.

  “What did he do to you?” Zach touched the bruise on her arm.

  She winced. “Nothing, that was from the guard. Zach, I’m so sorry he’s placed you in this position. I swear, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  Yeah, right.

  “Is there a bathroom down here?” Zach asked. He knew there was. He and Jane had found it when they were exploring the underground in the simulator.

  “Right around the corner,” Piper said.

  “I’ll just be a minute.” Zach walked down the corridor and through the men’s room door. Once inside, he checked under the stall doors to make sure no one was there then he lifted his watch and spoke into it. “I’m here. What happened?”

  I was about to ask you the same thing. Mike’s voice had a hint of anger. Pull the watch away from your face. I’m looking up your nose.

  Zach dropped his wrist. “I lost the signal when I went into Mamont’s office. I never got to the fourth floor. He took me right to the underground. Mikey, he’s the one who set me up. He stole the freakin’ quark detector. He’s blackmailing me to turn it into a generator. Made a fake video of Jane attacking Benson. Says he’ll give it to the police unless I help him. I can’t let Jane go to prison, and I can’t go to the police. They’d laugh a parolee like me right back into the slammer for accusing Mamont.” His heart thudded faster. “How is she? Can I talk to her?”

  Yeah, about that. Mamont’s not the one who set you up. But I know who did, and you’re not gonna like it. Nolan and I found files when we were trying to break through the shield in Mamont’s office.

  “What files? What are you talking about?”

  There was momentary silence, and Zach thought he’d lost signal again.

  “You there?”

  It was Jane, dude. She testified against you. Said you were the only person who would even know what to do with a quark detector. I saw the police report.

  Zach suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked from his lungs. His chest felt hollow. “She wouldn’t do that.”

  Sorry, bro. She did it. Stay where you are, we’re coming to get you out. We don’t trust anybody here.

  Jane…it couldn’t be…he’d trusted her. After a year of having it literally beaten into him that not trusting anyone was the only way to survive, he’d let her in. And it was just another setup. The kiss. The bit about Parker being her dad. Another freakin’ setup. More proof. Trust no one.

  “Screw the mission. Let me sabotage Mamont, then I’m outa here. Time to get back to clearing my name.”

  And never think about Jane Lew again.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jane

  What was taking Michael and Nolan
so long? Jane was losing the battle with an impending panic attack. “Anna, can you check on the Keen brothers?”

  Anna tapped away at the keyboard then stopped suddenly and sat straight up. Her mouth opened into an O. “Not good. I don’t think I should have made Mike an admin.”

  “What’s wrong?” Mina asked.

  “He accessed a secure area of the network. Files he had no business getting into. Look at this.” She leaned in to the screen.

  Jane’s breathing restricted. She knew exactly what files Anna meant. Dad had warned her this would happen. Why didn’t she tell Zachary when she’d had the chance? She helplessly watched her lips move as Anna read to herself.

  “Is it true?” Anna asked quietly, still staring at the monitor. She turned to Jane. “You told the police that Zachary is the only person who could have stolen the quark detector? Why didn’t you ever tell us?”

  “I can explain,” Jane said. “I didn’t know why they were asking.”

  Mina glanced at the screen and scowled. “You also told them that he was the most likely person according to the search results of the most powerful supercomputer in existence.”

  Jane shook her head. “That’s not what I said.”

  “You did according to the police report.” Michael burst into the War Room, followed by Nolan. Neither looked happy.

  “You had no right to access those files,” Jane said, her rage boiling as she stormed across the room to meet them.

  “And you had no right to send our brother to jail for something he didn’t do,” Nolan said, getting right in Jane’s face.

  “I didn’t mean to send him to juvie,” Jane yelled. She felt her pulse pounding in her head. “I told them there’s no way he could have done it.”

  “I guess you weren’t very convincing, were you?” Zachary’s emotionless voice came across the speakers.

  “Zachary!” Jane ran to Anna. “Put him on the screen!”

  Within seconds, his face filled the monitor.

  “Where are you?” Jane asked. “Are you all right?”

  His expression was stone cold. “What do you care?”

  “Zachary, please.” She was on the verge of tears now. This was all her fault, and now he hated her for it. “I can explain.”

  “Like I can trust anything you say. I get it now. I know why Parker got me out. You convinced him to ease your guilty conscience. Am I right?”

  “It started out to be that, yes. But it’s not like that now.”

  “Really? Then you could have told me.”

  “I tried to—”

  “You also tried to tell me that Piper was evil, but you know what? She’s practically a prisoner here. Mamont’s a terrorist. You got that part right. And guess what else. He made a fake video that shows you attacking Benson. Threatened to send it to the police if I don’t stay and work for him. So now I get to go to jail for the second time because of you. Have a nice life, Jane Lew. Don’t worry, though. I’ll keep your secret. I still have integrity.”

  Suddenly the image on the screen turned upside down, and a toilet came into view.

  “What’s happening?” Jane screamed.

  “He took his watch off,” Michael snapped. “Guess he’s done talking.”

  “Yeah, I am.” Zachary appeared onscreen again, raising a hammer above his head. Then the hammer descended and the screen went dark.

  “Zachary! No!” Jane slammed her fists down on the War Room table.

  “We’re done with ORDER,” Nolan said. “We have a brother to rescue.”

  “No you’re not!” This was not happening. Jane wasn’t going to stand by and let a stupid misunderstanding derail this mission and her relationship with Zachary. Dad was right. She should have listened to him all along. It wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t done anything wrong. “Did you even read the police report?” she screamed. “No, you didn’t. Because if you did, you would know what really happened.”

  “I read enough of it to know you sicced the police on my brother,” Michael snapped.

  “Show me!” Jane snapped back.

  “Okay, I will.” Nolan pulled a printout from his pocket. “Let me read you the part where you told them Zach was their man.”

  “Read the whole thing. Every word.”

  He read silently. His teeth were gritted and a sneer pulled across his lips. Suddenly, Nolan’s mouth relaxed and his eyes softened. “Oh. Oops. Hey, Mikey, we missed a part.”

  “What?” Michael glared at his brother.

  Jane sighed. “When the police came to us for help, they had already questioned the major scientific organizations. They asked me to research other people who would have interest in a quark detector. Students. Hobbyists. A list of names. That’s all they wanted. Once I fed those parameters to LYDIA, Zachary’s name was the only one that came up. I told them he was a teen genius with an interest in geomagnetism, and that he had written a paper on converting a quark detector into a quark generator. That’s why his name came up in the search. When I found out that the quark detector was taken from a high-security area, I told them there was no way a sixteen-year-old kid could break in no matter how smart he was. They didn’t believe me.”

  “Is it too late to say we’re sorry?” Michael asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jane said. “Zachary hates me. He’s so mad he’ll never forgive me.”

  Nolan shook his head. “Not mad. His heart’s broken.”

  “I know,” Michael said. “Did you feel it?”

  “Yeah.” Nolan sighed. “Right before he smashed the watch. Why did he do that?”

  “Cause he’s Zach,” Michael said. “How does he expect us to rescue him if we can’t even contact him?”

  Feel it? What did they mean, feel it? Did that confirm—“Are you saying that the psychic link between triplets is real?”

  Nolan raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?” He glanced toward Michael.

  Jane put her hands on her hips. “You said Zachary’s heart is broken. That you felt it.”

  Michael nodded. “It’s real. And ours is strong. You ripped Zach’s heart out.”

  Nolan’s mouth puckered. “Technically, Mikey, we ripped it out. Should have read the fine print.”

  Michael’s mouth puckered, too. They faced Jane in unison and said, “Sorry.”

  Jane threw her hands in the air. Sorry. Right. There was nothing she could—wait a minute.

  If Zachary’s heart was broken, that meant…

  And if he was sacrificing himself to keep her out of jail, then…

  And if the kiss meant as much to him as it did to her…

  Time to pull it together, Jane. Zachary needs you.

  And she needed him.

  “I have a plan,” Jane said. “I know who really set him up. And if I’m not mistaken, she’s close to Zachary right now.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Zach

  In hindsight, smashing his only means of communication with his brothers like a walnut was stupid. In the heat of the moment, it had seemed like the right thing to do. Zach wanted to let Jane know how he really felt, and he was pretty sure he succeeded.

  He should just leave. Let Jane go to jail. It would serve her right.

  Who was he kidding? He gathered the pieces of the shattered watch and shoved them in his pocket. Zach left the bathroom with the quark detector and hurried back to Piper. He’d been gone longer than he planned.

  “Fall in?” Piper asked.

  Zach ignored her.

  “The lab is this way,” she said.

  He followed her down the long corridor, recognizing every opening he’d memorized from the simulation. She stopped in front of a room that must have been used for storage at one time but had since been converted to an immaculate laboratory.

  The floor was covered in some shiny
composite that Zach couldn’t name. Massive liquid nitrogen tanks sat next to the exit. The back quarter of the lab was divided by a wire wall with an alloy door that gave the feel of a steel cage. Outside the cage, a fire extinguisher and fire ax sat in a recess of the wall. The cage itself housed a computer system, obviously separated from the rest of the room for security purposes. Also inside the cage was a first-rate lab bench with every tool Zach could imagine. Behind him, shiny metallic supply cabinets with glass doors were filled with wire, chemicals, electrical components, power sources, lasers—it was an inventor’s heaven. Only two things seemed out of place—a metal armchair bolted to the floor beside the bench, and outside the cage, an ancient blade-type switch on the far wall, the kind that reminded Zach of old Frankenstein movies. The antique switch was protected by a titanium grid.

  Zach placed the quark detector on the lab bench and went to work. After what seemed like hours, he made one final connection then stood and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “It would really help if I could see the plans for the Large Hadron Collider.”

  “Why?”

  “The modifications Mamont wants me to make are basically controllers. Beam directors, concentrators, modifiers—but I need specs on the equipment they’re controlling. It’ll save me hours of calculations if I know collimation gaps, beam loss, quench limits, the number of collimators, magnet orientation—without it, I’ll have to back-calculate from the parts I’m building and hope they work.”

  “Oh. Seems like a waste.” Piper got a sly grin and slowly took both of Zach’s hands in hers, staring at the ground.

  He resisted the urge to pull away.

  “Can you keep a secret?” she whispered.

  Her hands were warm, and when she lifted her face, she looked into his eyes as though he was the only person in the universe. The way Jane had in the simulation. He pushed the memory out of his head and nodded.

  “I’m not supposed to show you this, but I feel so bad about what Professor Mamont is doing.”

  She went to the computer and opened a file. A huge holo burst into the air. “Will this help?”