Lost in Time(55)

“My secret.”

“What secret?”

“What I’m hiding here. That’s why you came.”

Slowly, she released her grip on his shirt.

“Follow me,” Hiro said, turning and marching deeper into the tunnel.

They walked in silence. Adeline took out the burner phone, but there was no reception in the tunnel, which explained why Hiro had disappeared from the BuddyLoc app. As they walked, Adeline wished she had left a note for Daniele. Or sent an email to herself, revealing where she was. No one knew she was here. What if this was some sort of dungeon where Hiro was going to imprison her?

But his body language told her that he wasn’t a threat. It was almost like he was afraid of her now. Or maybe he was scared of whatever was waiting at the end of the tunnel.

Up ahead, Adeline spotted a metal door, much like the one in the basement of the home where they had entered the tunnel. There was a panel too, the same type as at the other end.

Hiro pressed his thumb to the glass and the door lock clicked. Hiro opened it, revealing an oval room with three metal doors like the one they had come through.

In the center, on the far wall, was a wide wooden door. Sitting in front of it was a muscle-clad man perched on a small stool. He was looking down at a hardcover novel encased in plastic, the type a library might wrap around a book. He closed the tome and slid off the stool with a creak.

“Dr. Sato,” he said. “Forget something?”

“No. Let us in.”

The burly man eyed Adeline. “She’s a bit young.”

Hiro’s silent stare was like the sun. The muscle man—a bouncer, Adeline assumed—was like a stick of butter. With every second, he melted.

Finally, he reached back and opened the door and held out his hand.

Adeline stood rooted on the spot, taking in the scene.

Tables spread out, wall-to-wall, filled with people sitting at them, studying the cards in their hands, stacks of chips arrayed around them like walls of a fortress, some tall, others crumbling. Dozens of conversations mingled in the air, which was tinged with the clouds from vaping pens.

Adeline stepped forward, through the door, and joined Hiro at the edge of the room.

An attendant in a white shirt and black vest raised a radio to his mouth and whispered something, then pressed a finger to his earpiece, listening.

He turned to Hiro. “We have a spot for you, Dr. Sato.”

Hiro turned to Adeline. “Seen enough?”

“Yes,” she said quietly.

In the tunnel, on the way back, they walked in silence for a while. Finally, Hiro said, “It’s a sickness.”

“Gambling?”

“I wish I could go back and never place that first bet. Never experience the rush from that first win.”

Adeline wasn’t sure what to say to that.

Hiro looked back at her. “Daniele didn’t tell you?”

“About the gambling? No. She knows?”

“Of course. She helped me. She holds my shares in Absolom in a trust. Ninety percent of the dividends go to charity. I gamble with the rest. That feeds the hunger.”

He said it like a fact, but Adeline could hear the shame in his voice.

“As I said. It’s a sickness.”

“That’s why you needed to work on Absolom. For gambling debts back then.”

“Yes.”

At the door, Hiro pressed his thumb to the panel. When the metal slab swung open, another figure was standing in the dark basement.

Elliott.

So that’s who Hiro had called.

His face was grim, but as he stared at Adeline, a small smile began to form. “It was unwise to come here. And very brave. You’re a lot like your father: courageous to a fault. That’s one of the reasons I loved him so much.”

“I want answers.”

“You deserve answers.”

Hiro closed the door, shutting out the light from the tunnel. The three of them stood in near darkness, only the glow from the panel beside the door and the moonlight shining down the stairwell lighting the space. Adeline spoke first.

“Who killed Nora?”

Elliott answered: “I don’t know.”

“Who do you think killed her?”

“Daniele.”

“Why?”

“She’s in love with your father.”

“What?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. She killed Nora because she knew Sam and Nora were in love with each other.”

“But why would she frame my father?”

“To have him all for herself. To control him completely and hide him away from the world.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Think about it, Adeline. You know we’re trying to get him back, right?”

“Yes.”

“If we’re successful, what do you think will happen?”

“We try to prove his innocence—”

Elliott shook his head. “My dear, that ship has sailed.”

Adeline swallowed, the words like a final judgment on the dream she had held onto. “Okay,” she said slowly. “What happens when we get him back?”

“Did you know Daniele bought an island in the Pacific?”

“No.”

“She’s working on treaties with governments around the world to make it a sovereign nation. She’s even begun seasteading to expand it. She’s richer than any of us—and she has wealth beyond Absolom Sciences, money from before, from the other start-ups she funded and public market investments. Things don’t add up about Daniele. What we know is that she’s building something. A sort of paradise hidden away from the world.”