Ultraviolet Catastrophe

At the far end of the room, everyone’s attention was on the podium where Dr. Danvers, dressed in a slinky black dress, tapped at a microphone. “Good evening, everyone. I know we’re gathered here for a celebration, but a shadow lies over us. The death of Michael Avery was shocking and unexpected. Some of you might be wondering what’s next for Quantum Technologies. Tonight, we’re here to both celebrate the legacy of Dr. Avery and talk about our future.”

The heavy glass doors shut behind us, cutting off Danvers’ words and leaving Asher and me alone in the darkened hallway. I tried to ignore the weirdness between us and slipped out of my heels to tiptoe toward Avery’s office at the end of the hall. The overhead fluorescent lights had been shut off, and only the soft light from sconces on the wall lighted the way. The guards who’d been standing watch over Avery’s office were gone, though the door was still blocked with a strip of yellow police tape. Like all the office doors in this wing, there was a keypad and fingerprint scanner.

“Did you bring it?” Asher asked.

I nodded and pulled the envelope from my clutch purse. Inside was a thin sheet of plastic with a copy of Avery’s thumbprint. Asher had pulled Avery’s records, and I’d used the skin-plastic copy machine in my dad’s office to make the print. It always helped to have a genius scientist with access to all the cool machines as a dad.

“Ready when you are.”

Asher typed in the password he’d gotten from hacking into the QT security system, and when the scanner glowed green, I pressed the plastic down, careful to keep my fingers out of the scanner’s light. One long second passed, then two, and finally, the door beeped and swung open.

I ducked under the police tape before I could think about what we were doing. “Let’s get this over with.” I tucked the print scan back into my purse and pulled out a tiny flashlight.

Asher slid into Avery’s chair and booted up the computer. “I’ll start on his computer files if you search the desk drawers.”

“Deal.” Nervous sweat beaded my forehead, and I pushed back the strands of hair plastered to my forehead before yanking open the top drawer and rummaging through it. Mostly office supplies. The guy seemed to have a thing for paperclips. Drawer two was snack foods. A jar of peanut butter, some crumbly crackers, three packets of oatmeal.

Drawer three was full of files. I sank to the ground and crossed my legs beneath my dress, pulling the files out one-by-one and opening them on my lap. I scanned through each document, but most of them were performance reviews or personnel files for Avery’s employees. The last folder seemed to be full of glossy handouts from conferences. I pulled them out one at time. Most of them were for things like the American Institute of Physics or the Biomedical Engineering Society or the Nano Today Conference, but the last brochure in the pile made me suck in my breath.

It was the same one Major Grant had given me on his “visit.”

It was for Branston Academy.

20

“What did you find?” Asher asked. I directed the flashlight to the cover, and his lips thinned. “Why would he have that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they tried to recruit him, too.” I could still feel the sting of Grant’s needle, and I pushed those thoughts away.

I flipped through the pages of the brochure, recognizing the fake smiles I’d seen in my own copy. On the last page, someone had scrawled a phone number in blue ink. I tucked the brochure into my purse and hurried to put the rest of the files back in the drawer.

“Are you finding anything, Ash?”

“Nothing but dozens of project status emails to Danvers and his team, and some pretty hot messages to the latest girl he was hitting on.”

“Oh?” I got to my feet to lean over his shoulder, and he shook his head.

“Keep moving, Lexicon. You can see them later.”

I stuck out my tongue and flicked the flashlight at the old-school clock on the wall. We’d been there seven minutes already. “We should hurry. Danvers will be wrapping up her speech soon.”

He nodded, not taking his eyes from the glowing monitor. It turned his skin a weird shade of blue and washed out his eyes until they looked colorless. “I’m almost done here. Take a look through his bookshelf before we go.”

I nodded and moved over to the tall shelf. It was mostly full of decorative items, a vase, a model of an atom, a few awards. The books were all crowded together on one shelf, and I gripped the flashlight in my teeth, aiming it at each book as I pulled it out. Most of them were texts he’d written or contributed to, a few looked like research books, and there were even one or two spy novels tucked between the scientific texts. I flipped through the pages of each book quickly, but there were no notes, no sign he’d even read any of them. We were wasting our time here, and if anyone caught us…

The glow from the computer faded as Asher shut it down, leaving my tiny flashlight the only light in the room. He moved through the shadows to join me at the bookshelf; I could feel the heat of him before his arm touched mine.

“What can I do?”

I could think of quite a few things he could do, especially in that tuxedo, but I smoothed my suddenly sweaty palms on my dress and turned to face him, the flashlight in my mouth shining directly in his face, turning his eyes into stars. He blinked and threw a hand up to shield his eyes.

“Watch it, Lexicon.” His voice was husky as he tugged the flashlight from my teeth and turned it on me.

It was such an odd feeling, knowing he was there, watching me, studying me, but invisible in the darkness. I forced a smile. “One left to go and then we can get out of here. Though I’m not expecting to find anything.”

“I hope there’s something on the information I copied from his computer. I’d hate for this to be a waste of time.” Asher directed the flashlight to the lowest shelf and then snapped the light off. “Did you hear that?”

My ears strained, but I was more conscious of Asher’s closeness, of the feel of his body beside mine in the dark. A thousand tendrils of heat stretched between us, connecting us. “I didn’t…”

“Shh…” He put a finger against my lips. I froze as his skin touched mine, and a shiver of pleasure snaked through me. I wished I could see his face. I was glad he couldn’t see mine.

And then I heard it too. Voices.

My phone vibrated in my purse, and I pulled it out. The text was from Zella.

Danvers and Kepler on the way.