“Seriously, Dani. How long do you think I’ll last out there?”
“You’re going to last as long as you have to, Sam. You’re going to do it because you have to. Because you have two children who are going to be waiting for you to return.”
Sam laughed, a frustrated, hopeless laugh that made him feel even worse. “Return how?”
“You let me work on that.” Daniele held up another piece of paper with a list of three things. “This is what you need to focus on.”
“What is it?” Sam asked.
“Your homework. A book on basic survival, one on desert survival, and one on jungle survival—just in case you arrive in the Jurassic instead of the Triassic. And about that: you need to keep your weight up. If you lose more weight, it will decrease your time distance—you’ll arrive sooner, likely in the Jurassic. More dinosaurs, more rain, probably more disease, and more likelihood of landing in that mass extinction event during the transition between periods. There’s never been a better reason to clean your plate, Sam.”
*
That night, Adeline hugged her brother and found herself telling him that everything was going to be okay, though she wasn’t sure she believed it herself. She wondered if that act was a small glimpse of what being a parent was like.
She knew Daniele was at the Absolom departure facility, visiting her father. The woman had insisted that she see him before Adeline, that she had information to share that her father needed to prepare him for the past.
Adeline had raged at Daniele, screaming at her, but she had barely reacted. She stood there listening, saying nothing, like a massive redwood tree weathering a windstorm. Then, without another word, Daniele had marched out. Which made Adeline even more angry.
After talking with Ryan, Adeline sat at the desk in her bedroom, took out a notebook, and wrote a single line at the top:
Who killed Nora?
Then she crossed out the question mark and added two words.
Who killed Nora and Dad?
Because that’s exactly what they had done. Whoever had framed her father had killed him. Effectively. Soon, he would be put into a box, and he would never come back. That’s what Absolom was. A death chamber. One that simply absolved society from the guilt of executing the people it didn’t want around. Absolom was less messy. More ambiguous.
Adeline decided then that she hated it. She wished her father and his friends had never invented it.
Which brought her to the next order of business: suspects. There was no doubt in her mind who they were. She wrote their names in neat block letters.
ELLIOTT LUCAS
HIROSHI SATO
CONSTANCE NIVEN
Holding the pen above the page, she hesitated a moment, then pressed it in harder than before and wrote the final name.
DANIELE DANNEROS
She paused and stared at the name, a strange sensation coming over her. Daniele had told her about the note her father had found under the dining table in his holding cell. Adeline wondered if she had done that to deflect attention from herself—to make it look like she was helping her, like she was someone Adeline could trust.
Daniele’s voice behind her made Adeline nearly leap out of the seat. She slammed the notebook shut and spun.
“Don’t you knock?”
“I did knock.”
“But apparently you didn’t wait to barge in here.”
Daniele nodded to the notebook. “Working on something?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“On the contrary. What you’re working on is my only business now.”
Adeline swallowed, suddenly nervous as Daniele took a step closer and spoke again, her voice steady and calm.
“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.”
Daniele turned and strode out, pausing at the doorway. “But right now, we’re going to have dinner. And we’re going to be civil.”
FOURTEEN
Sam did indeed force himself to eat that night.
After dinner, he read the survival books Daniele had recommended.
He had to admit: reading calmed his racing, panicked mind. And the words he read gave him confidence about what he would soon face.
The knowledge bolstered his hope that he could actually survive, that he would be reunited with his family. He realized then what a truly powerful thing hope was.
He slept deeply that night. Either because he was weary to his bones or because he had a purpose now. And hope. Maybe because of both.
*
That morning, Sam showered, forced himself to eat every scrap of breakfast, and waited for the wall panel to slide in and reveal the visiting booth. When it did, he sat on the padded stool and waited. Butterflies filled his stomach. His palms began to sweat, and they didn’t stop, no matter how many times he wiped them on his pants.
Trying to look confident for her was only making Sam more nervous.
The door opened, and Adeline charged in and stopped abruptly, face confused as she studied the glass partition. Sam sensed that she had expected to be able to hug him. But the glass wall was more than that. It was a stark reminder that they were separated forever now. Because of Sam’s confession, they would never touch each other again. Never share a meal. Never stand outside in the sun together.
Adeline closed her eyes, and tears gushed out, and her voice was ragged and hurt as she said the word “Dad.”
Sam rose and put his hand on the glass. “I’m here…”
Sam heard his voice trailing off as his own emotions overtook him. He had mentally rehearsed all the things he wanted to say to her, but in that raw moment, it all crumbled like a sandcastle on the beach being hit by a crashing wave.
It was Adeline who composed herself first. She walked to the glass and placed her hand on the opposite side of Sam’s. The tears were still coming but her voice was steadier when she spoke.
“Are they treating you well?”
“Yeah.”
That seemed to steel Adeline. She wiped the tears away with one hand as the other fell away from the glass. She sat at the desk, opened a notebook, and fixed Sam with a serious look.
“They’re only giving me an hour. We should use it wisely.”
“Wisely for what?”
“Work.”
Sam laughed. “Work on what?”
“Figuring out who actually killed Nora.”
The smile faded from Sam’s face. “Adeline, I’ve thought a lot about that.”
“Good,” she mumbled, drawing lines on the page, ready to take notes. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that it would be better for you to let this go.”
She glanced up. Her pen was still on the notebook.
“Since I saw you last, there have been some developments. What’s happening here is complicated. I think it’s better if—”
“I’m not going to let this go, Dad.”
“You have to, Adeline.”
“I can’t.”
“If you don’t, it will eat you up. That’s what scares me the most. It scares me more than Absolom. My fear is that when I’m gone, you’ll obsess over what happened. That you won’t move on with your life. I don’t want this to take your life too.”
“Scares you enough to confess?”
Sam clenched his jaw.
“I’m not dumb, Dad. I know that I’m the only reason you would do it. Me and Ryan. How do you think that makes me feel?”
Sam exhaled. “I’m begging you, Adeline. Move on. It’ll destroy you if you don’t.”
“No, Dad. It will give me strength.”
“Maybe at first. But when you stop making progress, that fire will turn to frustration and then bitterness and then it will rot you from the inside out. You’ll be a shell of who you were meant to be—all because of hate and resentment about what happened. If you don’t get free from it, it will take everything from you.”