Lost in Time(60)

He squinted at her. “You heard?”

“I was eavesdropping.”

“Good for you,” Elliott said quietly. “Yes, that is the plan. The recall ring essentially uses entanglement to remotely activate Absolom. The machine then uses the entanglement connection to pull the tagged mass across space and time back to Absolom. The problem, as mentioned before, is the mass of the recall ring. Our agreement with the government limits us to using twenty-five grams for testing purposes. Our second problem is time. We don’t know when Sam is—so we can’t send the ring directly to him. But we’ve solved the mass problem.”

Another piece fell into place for Adeline. “Prisoners. I heard Daniele telling a senator you wanted to operate on them.”

Elliott nodded, his face pained. “There was no other option. We’ve been implanting pieces in them and sending them to Sam’s timeline.”

That shocked Adeline. “That’s—”

“Not ideal,” Elliott said simply. “But necessary. Our working theory is that they will arrive long before your father. He simply needs to survive long enough to find the pieces and assemble them.”

“So, piece of cake. Prehistoric Absolom Easter egg hunt on Pangea.”

Elliott eyed her. “If you have a better plan to get him back, we’re all ears.”

Adeline exhaled. She was tired. And frustrated. She had finally gotten her answers. Some of them, anyway. She had hoped they held the key to her father’s safe return. As it turned out, the master plan amounted to a quantum physics Hail Mary.

“What can I do?” Adeline asked.

Elliott studied her. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“The problem,” Hiro said, “is Daniele.”

“How so?”

“She seems to be working with us to get Sam back. But we’re not sure what she’ll do when he returns. Our best guess is that she’ll kill us, the way she did Nora. Or simply send us to another timeline via Absolom. She may have the same in mind for you.”

“How sure are you that she’s the killer?” Adeline asked.

Elliott spoke slowly. “If you eliminate all other possibilities, what remains must be the correct answer. We know Constance didn’t kill Nora. And neither Hiro nor I killed her. We also know Daniele had a motive—her love for Sam. And finally, she had means and opportunity. Ergo, she killed Nora.”

Adeline shook her head. “Her whereabouts were accounted for that night.”

Elliott and Hiro were silent. Both avoided eye contact.

Adeline pressed her point. “That seems like a pretty big hole in your theory.”

“We can explain that,” Elliott said, not looking at Adeline.

“How?”

Elliott shook his head.

“Tell her,” Hiro said. “She can handle it.”

Elliott eyed the other man, then let his gaze drift to the ceiling, the floor joists hanging down. “Our working theory is that Daniele hasn’t killed Nora—yet. But she will.”

Adeline’s mouth ran dry.

“With Absolom Two,” Elliott said. “That’s the other reason she wanted to build it. And the reason she knew it would be used—because she wanted Nora dead and that night she saw the experiment, she thought about doing it, just like we think about sending those tuning bars back to the past and then go find them.”

Elliott put his hands on Adeline’s shoulders. “As I told you before: I think there’s a very good reason why your father wanted you to live with Daniele. You may be the only one who can stop her from using Absolom to kill Nora.”





FORTY-ONE


Sam felt as though he was being slowly suffocated. The smoke from the fire and volcano grew thicker by the second. He couldn’t breathe in now without feeling the acrid sulfuric air burn his nose and mouth.

Lying half-buried in the sand, he suppressed his coughs, terrified that they might draw the dinosaurs and crocs stalking across the dark desert.

He had to get out.

He glanced again at the metal pins he’d collected from the two dead humans. He turned them, watching the lights change from red to green.

What was waiting for him out there?

It was time to find out. And it was probably now or never.

As quietly as possible, he moved the sand off his lower body and stood. With the spear in his hand, he ventured to the end of the skeleton, to the opening where a living croc had ripped through the remains of a dead one.

Sam took out the metal pins, oriented himself toward his unknown prize, and trekked out into the desert.

He navigated by sound, keeping clear of any shifting sand or screeches or feet pounding the ground.

A gentle wind stirred the smoke, reminding Sam of the fog clouds in London, of walking across Tower Bridge one night, Nora beside him.

“I’m worried about Elliott,” she had said.

“Me too. He’s working too much.”

“It’s not just that. He’s obsessing.”

“Over Absolom.”

“Absolom is what he’s working on, but it’s Charlie he’s obsessed with. Do you know what he’s doing in the lab?”

“Something with entanglement. I think working helps him. It’s a distraction.”

“It’s a sand trap. It’s sucking him in.”