Lost in Time(98)

“You’re making a list of the people who might have killed Nora and framed your father.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“True. Nor do I want to. I’m going to help you, Adeline. We’re going to figure it out. Together. And we’re going to get him back.”

Adeline turned and strode out, pausing at the doorway. “But right now, we’re going to have dinner. And we’re going to be civil.”

*

When Adeline’s counterpart left to visit Sam, she texted Elliott, Hiro, and Constance, requesting that they come over.

They met in her basement.

“Let’s start with who killed Nora,” Elliott said. He seemed to be in a perpetual state of being either hungover or slightly inebriated.

“We don’t have time for that right now,” Adeline said.

Elliott stared at her. “I’d say there’s always time to figure out who killed your friend and colleague.”

“We need to focus all of our energy on saving the one friend we can. His name is Sam Anderson, and very shortly, he will be sent back to the Triassic. The only question that matters is how do we get him back?”

Constance squinted. “Well, frankly, forgive me if I’m missing something, but what will we do when we get him back? I mean, he’ll be a wanted fugitive.”

Adeline had never told the group about Absolom Island. She wasn’t about to now. If one of them was the killer, it might be the only place in the world she and her father could escape to.

“I’ll take care of what happens after. How do we get him back?”

“To put it bluntly,” Elliott said, “we can’t.”

“A-2,” Hiro said.

“What does that mean?” Constance asked.

Elliott shifted his head from side to side. “If we transmit him with Absolom Two, we can tag him with entangled particles and use a recall ring—but that’s all theoretical. And A-2 has never been used on humans. And we don’t even have the date and location targeting worked out. Our payloads are all over the map—and timeline.”

“But,” Adeline said, “with A-2, you would know what universe he’s in.”

“Yes,” Elliott said. “We would.”

“What is a recall ring?” Constance asked.

“It’s a prototype we’ve been developing,” Hiro said. “A device that could make the promise of Absolom shipping a reality. You tag a recall ring with entangled particles at an originating Absolom Two machine. Then that machine can use the entangled particles to find the ring—and the mass it’s attached to—in space and time, across the multiverse, and bring it home. You would still have to use drones or human drivers for last-mile delivery, but you could ship something to any Absolom port in the world.”

“Or,” Adeline said, “pull something from the Triassic to the present.”

Elliott exhaled. “In theory. But it’s a long shot—and we won’t be able to send a recall ring with Sam. They’ll search him before departure. It’s far too large.”

“Let’s solve the Absolom Two issue first,” Adeline said. “How?”

Hiro shrugged. “Easy. We tell the government that Absolom needs maintenance. We swap out the control modules with the A-2 modules. No one will know.”

*

Adeline was sitting at the kitchen island when her younger counterpart returned from her visit with her father. She remembered what had been said, how suspicious she had been of Daniele back then.

“How was the visit?”

“Informative.”

Adeline cocked her head. “Do you know the biggest mistake people make?”

“Asking rhetorical questions?”

She smiled. “Making up their minds before they have all the facts. I hope you won’t make that mistake, Adeline.”

As her younger self walked up to her room, Adeline realized why she had done what she did all those years ago. She needed her counterpart to investigate Constance, Hiro, and Elliott to get close to them. Elliott would come to trust her, and for that reason, he would text her when Absolom Two was ready, urging her to keep Daniele away. She would take control of the machine at that moment and send her younger self to the past, to 2008, to start the cycle.

But what would she do after? Would she go back to that night at Nora’s house and kill her? The past had to occur as it had. Or else the universe would break. Someone had to go back and do it. Adeline’s greatest fear of all was that she was that person.

*

The next morning, Adeline visited the print shop inside the Absolom Sciences headquarters.

In the corner, a large-format printer was rolling off a banner for a retirement party for someone named Steven.

The plotter/cutter beside it was slicing up a roll of vinyl for truck decals.

The print shop manager, a man named Roger, who was in his sixties, was sitting on a stool at a raised table with a rubberized top, using an X-ACTO knife to touch up a directional sign that read Café.

At the sight of Adeline, he hopped off the stool and took his thick glasses off, letting them dangle from a cord.

“Miss Danneros. Wasn’t expecting you.”

“Hi, Roger.”

“What can I do for you?”

“I’m wondering if you’re able to print something on a small plastic surface.”