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.”

  In the hotel room, after dinner, Nora sat on a couch, looking out at the River Thames. “You ever think about confessing?”

  “Confessing?”

  “Telling the world that we never thought Absolom would be a reality. That we were faking it in the beginning.”

  “No. Of the things I think about, that’s not one.”

  “I do.”

  “Why?”

  “Guilt. The way people look at me—like I’m some kind of god.” Nora raised her eyebrows as if pained. “I just want to scream: ‘It was all a fluke. A happy accident. We never even thought it would work. I’m a fraud, a big worthless fraud!’”

  Sam laughed. “It’s natural.”

  “What is?”

  “Feeling that way. I imagine all celebrities feel like some of the adoration they receive is undeserved.” Sam shrugged. “Well, the ones who aren’t egomaniacs.”

  Nora stared at a boat on the river, its lights carving into the night as it motored along.

  “We were at the right place at the right time.”

  “We were,” Sam agreed. “And we had the right skills.”

  “Look at what it cost us.”

  Sam squinted at her. “What do you mean?”

  “We did it for all the wrong reasons. For money.”

  “We did it for family.”

  Nora rose from the couch and sat on the coffee table in front of Sam’s chair. “Yes. And look at what happened. You lost Sarah. I lost my parents. Elliott lost Charlie. Constance is still sick, and Hiro still gambles.” Nora closed her eyes as if trying to conjure the right words. “It’s like we made a deal with the devil. We told a lie and got what we wanted but we lost the things we loved—what we truly cared about in the world. In that deep hole, we got wealth and fame and adoration that we don’t deserve.”

  Sam reached out and took her hands. “Hey, where’s this coming from?”

  “I don’t know, Sam. I just feel like the world doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Because you’ve lost someone—”

  “It’s not just Dave. Or my parents. It’s like things don’t add up. Life is surreal, like a dream I can’t wake up from. I feel like it has to have some meaning that I can’t see. What we’re doing has to be part of something bigger.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know… some grand plan.”

  “I don’t know about any grand plan, but I do know Absolom brought us together.” Sam reached up and ran his thumb across her cheek.

  Nora froze, as if the touch had paralyzed her.

  Sam thought she was going to reel back, but slowly, she turned her face into his hand. Her voice was soft and heavy with emotion when she spoke. “Sam, we shouldn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m not a whole person, Sam.”

  “Neither am I. Maybe our halves make a whole. Maybe that’s the grand plan you can’t see.”

  She smiled. “You have a career writing Valentine’s Day cards if Absolom ever goes under.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “It’s still a bad idea.”

  “Look how our last bad idea turned out. Crime almost eliminated. Billions in the bank.”

  *

  Across the sand, a pattering started, pitting the brown expanse all around Sam’s feet.

  Rain.

  The late afternoon storm had come like clockwork, and with it, the wind.

  It took Sam a moment to realize how dangerous that was.

  Like a curtain being jerked back, the thick cloud lifted from the desert and rolled deeper into the interior of Pangea. Within a few minutes, the smoke screen was gone, and Sam was standing in the open, as if he had been swimming naked and the tide had gone out. He hadn’t been the only one swimming across the sea of sand to the shore of the forest. Dozens of bipedal dinosaurs and reptiles were scattered across the desert, looking around, waiting for someone to make the first move. There were even more small quadrupeds, clumped together like schools of fish.

  Sam took off, running for the trees as a Chindesaurus lunged for a nearby seelo, jaws open, tearing into it.

  The carnage had started again.

  FORTY-TWO

  A‌ deline rode the bike through the night, across the Nevada desert, back toward Daniele’s house. She had a decision to make: trust Elliott and Hiro. Or Daniele.

  She sensed that her father’s life hung in the balance. Maybe much more. Maybe the fate of the past. And the future.

  Soon Absolom City rose on the horizon. The solar panels of the sea of glass glittered in the moonlight like the event horizon of a black hole about to swallow her up.

  By the time she reached her home and stowed the bike, Adeline had made her decision. She didn’t know if it was the right one, but she sensed there would be no turning back.

  She walked the streets to Daniele’s home, slipped inside, and re-enabled the security system.

  Adeline half expected Daniele to be sitting by the kitchen bar, a cup of coffee in her hands, a stern expression on her face as she whispered, “I know where you’ve been.”

  But the home was quiet.

  In her bedroom, Adeline took out the burner phone and sent a text to Elliott.

  It’s Adeline. Count me in.

  *

  A text from Elliott was waiting for her that morning.

  Good. Your dad would be proud.

  Adeline typed a response.

  What should I do?

  Elliott replied a few seconds later.

  Install this app.

  Adeline clicked the link and installed an app called VoiceActivate. On the home screen, a collaboration request popped up from Elliott’s number. Adeline approved it, and another message from Elliott appeared.

  Leave the app running. Hide the phone in Dani’s study. Make sure you plug it into the wall. Then get another phone and come to my office at work. We can talk here.

  *

  In the kitchen, Ryan was eating cereal. Daniele was sipping coffee as she read an e-ink paper. She didn’t look up.

  “You were out late.”

  “Seeing some friends.”

  Daniele smiled. “My parents always said, ‘We don’t mind you being out at night. As long as you’re keeping the right company.’”

  The words stopped Adeline cold. Daniele knew. She had to.

  “Well,” Daniele said, setting the e-ink sheet down. “I told myself I wouldn’t lecture you. So I’ll stop. You’re an adult now. Capable of making your own decisions. And mistakes. Sometimes our mistakes are the best teachers.”

  Ryan looked up from the bowl, his spoon hanging in the air. The awkwardness was evident even to him.

  Daniele breezed past Adeline without making eye contact and made her way upstairs, to shower, Adeline assumed.

  For a long moment, she stood there debating whether to follow through with the plan. Hiding the burner phone in the study would be proof-positive that she had betrayed Daniele, a land mine buried, waiting to go off.

  She felt as though she was standing on the precipice now, unsure whether to take the next step or retreat.

  Ryan was staring at her as he chewed his cereal. “You all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You guys are acting weird.”

  “It’s a weird time.”

  Ryan muttered something, but Adeline didn’t hear it. She was already walking down the hall, off the precipice, toward the study, where she stowed the phone under a fabric-covered club chair. The bottom was open enough for sound to reach the device, but the phone was deep enough under there to avoid being seen, even if someone was looking. Reaching into the darkness was the only way to find it. And Adeline felt like that’s what she was doing now: reaching into the darkness.

  She connected the power cord to the wall socket behind the flowing curtain and exited the room, hoping she had made the right decision.

  *

  An hour later, she was walking the halls of Absolom Sciences’ main research building, the Intern badge hanging around her neck, the new burner phone in her pocket.

  In the reception area of Elliott’s office suite, his long-time assistant rose to greet Adeline. “Hello, dear.”

  “Hi, Gloria. I’m here to meet with Elliott.”

  She glanced at the computer screen. “Well, I’m sorry, but you’re not on the schedule, and this is a very busy—”

  The office door opened, and Elliott leaned out. “It’s okay, Gloria. Adeline is always on the schedule.”

  Inside the office, Hiro was sitting in a chair by the window. He rose and nodded to Adeline. His eyes were more kind than she was used to, as if they had a bond now. Adeline had wondered how him divulging his secret to her would change things between them. Would he feel shame at seeing her? It seemed the opposite was the case. The man before Adeline was more at ease, as though revealing his secret had lifted a burden, removed a barrier that had been between them.

  Elliott took a chair opposite Hiro and motioned Adeline to another.

  His phone lay on the coffee table, the VoiceActivate app opened. Daniele was speaking, but Adeline missed what she had said. To her surprise, Constance spoke next.

  Hiro turned to the window as if looking for a way to escape what was being said. “This is private. We shouldn’t be listening.”

  “It might be important,” Elliott said, holding out a hand to silence everyone.

  “They’ve found another one,” Constance said. Her voice was faint, but the phone speaker was turned up enough to hear it.

  “Where?” Daniele asked.

  “In Germany. I’m leaving today to go meet with him.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  “Very.”

  “You’ll do fine. Your body is weak, but your mind is strong.”

  They made small talk then, but there was never any mention of Absolom or Adeline or her father or anything that might be of interest.

  Silence followed for about fifteen minutes. Elliott took the break to order sandwiches for them.

  Thirty minutes later, Hiro wiped a glob of mayonnaise off the corner of his mouth and said, “We’re supposed to meet in the valley in two hours. Maybe she’s done at home for the day.”

  But as he said it, Daniele’s voice called out through the speaker. It was far off. Adeline estimated that Daniele was in the foyer. Another voice joined hers—a woman’s voice, but Adeline couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  The voice drew closer—very close—as if one of them was sitting in the chair where the phone was hidden. Adeline realized then that they were not speaking English.

  Elliott pointed to Hiro, but the scientist shook his head. “They’re speaking Korean, not Japanese.”

  He waited, listening, then drew out his phone.

  “What?” Elliott said, moving to the chair to stare over his shoulder.

  “They’ve mentioned a non-Korean word a few times. Syntran. It’s a Korean company.”

  “It’s one of Dani’s investments,” Elliott said. “One San Andreas funded. What do they do?”

  “Synthetic organs. They grow them for transplant.”

  Elliott exhaled. “It’s just some update from a portfolio company.”

  *

  That afternoon, Adeline sat in a seminar entitled “Entanglement: The Quantum Tie that Binds.”

  Halfway through the lecture, the lights dimmed. The presenter smiled. “Don’t be alarmed. That’s just the machine transmitting. There are typically a few departures each week. That power fluctuation is the sign of a very bad person leaving this Earth.”

  Not always, Adeline thought.

  *

  When she got home, Adeline found Daniele sitting on the back patio, an empty wine glass on the table, staring at the sun hovering over the mountains beyond the sea of glass.

  “Tough day?” Adeline asked, motioning to the wine glass.

  “No. I’m celebrating.”

  “Celebrating what?”

  “A discovery. One that could change everything. A very unexpected discovery.”

  “In the desert?”

  “No. I knew what we would find in the desert. This… this I didn’t see coming.”

  Adeline asked a few probing questions, but it was clear Daniele was keeping whatever this discovery was to herself.

  That night, Adeline texted Elliott.

  Daniele was celebrating some discovery tonight.

  What?

  Don’t know.

  Interesting.

  What was said in her second meeting—with the Korean speaker?

  Unknown. We need a translator. Don’t want to ask anyone around here. Hiro thinks he can find a dealer in Vegas who speaks Korean. Someone who can keep quiet. Should have it translated in a few days.

  What about A-2?

  Adeline wasn’t sure if Elliott would catch on to her shorthand for Absolom Two, but he seemed to understand.

  Almost done. Maybe days away. The tuning bars are pretty close to the predicted time and location now. Hiro and I are hiding some of the progress from Dani. Changing the data we show her.

  Good.

  *

  For the next few days, Adeline’s life settled into a pattern. She went to work at Absolom Sciences, learned what she could, and waited for Elliott to text. But he didn’t. He and Hiro and Daniele spent nearly all their time in the lab or in the desert.

  Finally, before bed one night, she sat at her desk and sent Elliott a text.

  What’s happening? Did you find a translator?

  Yes.

  And?

  The visitor was the CEO of Syntran. She was just giving a business update and talking about some new product offering. But something else happened. Are you alone?

  Yes.

  Put your headphones on.

  She pushed her earbuds in and typed a reply.

  Ready.

  Elliott’s next message was a link to a video taken on a phone. It was shaky, as if the phone was in someone’s shirt pocket and the person was walking around. They were in some kind of medical lab.

  No. It was a morgue. Through a wide window, Adeline saw three metal tables. One had a dead body on it. And Daniele was standing over it.

  The person walked to the window, giving the camera a better look at the body. It was Nora.

  The video stopped, and Adeline stared at it for a long time. Then she typed the three-letter response running through her mind.

  WTF?

  Dani ordered Nora’s body exhumed.

  Why?

  Isn’t it obvious? So she could study how she died. To get the wounds in the right place when she uses Absolom Two to kill her.

  *

  The next morning, Adeline could barely look Daniele in the eye.

  “Everything all right?” she asked, setting her coffee mug on the counter.

  Adeline shrugged. “That’s a bit like asking me how the weather is during a hurricane. My mom is dead. My dad is in the Triassic. It’s not going great, Daniele.”

  “It will get better.”

  “How? When? What’s your plan?”

  “I told you before. I’m going to get your dad back.”

  “How?”

  “As soon as Absolom Two is finished—when it’s accurate enough—I’ll use it. Before Elliott. That’s important. The past can’t be changed, Adeline. And he can’t be reasoned with. Do you understand?”

  Adeline swallowed and nodded.

  “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

  “No.”

  *

  When Adeline got home, a delivery company was unloading a massive box into Daniele’s garage.

  “What’s that?” Adeline asked.

  “It’s for a trip I’ll be taking.”

  “Trip where?”

  “It’s none of your concern.”

  Adeline glanced away, to the street, where two black SUVs were parked. They were unmarked, with dark tinted windows.

  Daniele spoke before Adeline could ask about them. “I’ve hired some additional security. For the house. And the office.”

  “Private security.”

  “Yes. I needed people who only answer to me.”

  *

  Ryan was at a friend’s house, and Adeline was sitting at the outdoor dining table with Daniele when she felt the burner phone buzz with a text message.

  Before she could check it, Daniele reached into her purse, drew out a small box, and pushed it across the table. “I got you a small gift.”