Coin #2 - Quantum Coin by E.C. Myers Read Free Book Online

it.
    “Ready?” Zoe said. She grabbed his arm, and Jena took his left hand.
    Ephraim reached for the coin. Just before he touched it, the disc wobbled and the controller's screen flickered. He pulled back his hand.
    “You're sure that thing's working?” he asked.
    Zoe frowned and tapped the screen. The coordinates for Nathaniel's universe flickered back on, and the coin repositioned itself by ten degrees. “Yes?”
    “Great…” Jena said.
    “Maybe you should stay behind,” Zoe retorted.
    Ephraim shrugged. “In for a quarter, in for a pound.”
    “It's ‘in for a penny,’” Jena said.
    “Inflation.” He dipped his hand and closed it around the coin, pulling it out of the air.
    The air rippled, expanding spherically from the coin in his fist. The parking lot became a hazy mirage around them, and Ephraim glimpsed a tall, dark building from another universe: the Institute where Nathaniel worked. He'd seen it once before, from the inside, when they'd dropped the older man off.
    Then the shimmery sphere around them abruptly contracted, like a taut rubber band being let go, and the coin pulsed with sudden heat.
    But they were still in his universe.
    “Is this it?” Jena asked. She burped and covered her mouth. “Sorry. I suddenly don't feel well.”
    “Something's wrong,” Zoe said. “We didn't shift.”
    Ephraim shook his head. He'd felt something. As if his stomach were being stretched like taffy and then pounded back into shape with a sledgehammer.
    “What are we doing here?” Shelley asked.
    “Wait. What?” Ephraim asked. He looked at Shelley. “Are you all right?” He looked around. “Where's Mary?”
    “Right here,” Shelley said. She waved her hand. “Hello. But why aren't we at the prom? Where's the limo?”
    “Mary was standing right next to me,” Nathan said. “They both were.”
    “What are you talking about?” Shelley asked.
    “Your sister,” Jena said. “Where's your sister?”
    She stared at Jena. “Where did you come from?” She looked at Zoe. “I didn't know you had a twin, J.”
    “You're supposed to have a twin, Shelley,” Jena said.
    “I think I'd remember that,” Shelley said. “And why are you using my middle name?”
    They stood in stunned silence.
    “Ephraim,” Jena said. “What's going on?”
    “I don't know,” Ephraim said. “I've never seen this before. In some universes there's only one Mary Shelley Morales. Twinning is a random event, so it's just a matter of probability—”
    “How can you be so calm? Something happened to our friend!”
    He didn't remind Jena that he'd once watched Nate shoot one of her analogs dead right in front of him. It was hard to say which was the worse way to go.
    “She's gone,” Zoe said. “I thought I imagined it. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye while we were shifting. It was like one of them merged into the other one.”
    “Guys, what are you talking about?” Shelley asked.
    “Just a second, Shell…er, M.S.” He looked at the others. “We need to talk.” Ephraim and the others walked over to the closed gates of the park. He looked back at the single, confused Morales girl. He'd never seen anyone look so lonely before.
    Jena was crying. “Is she dead?”
    Ephraim shook his head. “She might be…nonexistent.”
    “Then we shifted to another universe, after all,” Jena said. “We just left her behind, and this is a different version of her.”
    Ephraim looked at her empty bucket and at Nathan. “No, we didn't. Zoe, is it possible that an analog switched places with her at the moment we shifted?”
    “Anything's possible at this point. But I don't think so. I saw them…combine. That's the only way I can describe it. I'm sorry. This is effed up.” She tapped her upper lip nervously. “It must be related to what just happened with the coin and controller.”
    “Why doesn't she remember everything that happened tonight?” Nathan asked. He looked pale and completely freaked out. “She acts like