Future Shock

34

He turns back to us, his face grim. “Brain damaged.”

08:25

My stomach twists. Maybe Aether wasn’t lying to us about the possibility of brain damage from looking up our future selves. Could this be what the scientists were talking about when they were worried about something happening again?

My God, is this the reason I end up killing the others and myself?

“Hold up,” Chris says, jumping to his feet. “Are we gonna be brain damaged too?”

“What does that even mean?” Zoe asks, her voice rising.

“No, we were all fine—at least while we were in the future,” Future-Adam says. “And I was okay when we got back. I lied to Aether and said I didn’t remember anything to protect all of us. I assume the rest of you did the same.” He pauses, frowning. “Although I can’t say for sure what happened to you. We were split up for questioning as soon as we returned to the present. After that, I never saw any of you again.”

“You never saw us again?” I glance at the younger Adam and our eyes meet. The idea of never seeing him again bothers me more than it should.

“No,” the older version says. “I heard two days later that you were all dead.”

“So you don’t know for sure if we were brain damaged or not?” Zoe asks.

Trent starts flicking his lighter on and off. “Maybe that’s why Adam’s the only one still alive now. They killed the rest of us off because we were damaged and he wasn’t.”

Chris glares back and forth between the two Adams. “Or maybe he’s been working for Aether this entire time, and all of this is bullshit.”

Adam throws up his hands. “I’m not working for them!”

“My younger self is telling the truth. I started working for Aether to find some explanation of why you were all killed. With Lynne’s help, I made sure Project Chronos was shut down and buried forever. That’s why the research facility was empty when you arrived. I couldn’t risk anyone finding out about it.”

“Do you know why we ended up thirty years in the future instead of ten?” I ask.

“I believe the accelerator malfunctioned. It’s possible someone tampered with it, but I could never find any evidence of that, and I don’t know why they would want to send us thirty years forward instead of ten.”

My mind races, processing his words. Everything Future-Adam’s told us makes a lot more sense than me killing the others and then myself. Aether must have set me up to protect their secrets. There’s just one question that his story doesn’t answer.

“Why did Aether let you live?” I ask.

“I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times over the past thirty years. I wish I had an answer for you.”

His voice sounds sincere, but it’s hard to believe he’s telling the truth. How could he not know why he’s still alive? He must have learned something in the last thirty years while working with Aether. Or there must be something that set Adam apart from us, other than the foster care thing.

“So if you’ve lived through everything we’ve been through now…” Adam says. “What can we do differently?”

His future self gives him a sad smile. “We did have a plan to stop Aether and to protect ourselves, but it didn’t go the way we wanted. Maybe all of you can succeed where we failed.”

“What kind of plan?” Chris asks, his voice skeptical.

“Blackmail. We tried to get evidence about what Aether’s been doing to make sure we had leverage against them when we got back to the present. But things went wrong, and the evidence was lost.”

Trent and Chris exchange looks like they’re not buying this. “But how do we get evidence?” Trent asks.

“Talk to Dr. Walters. He lives in a retirement home in the Valley.” Future-Adam checks his watch. “We don’t have much time, and I need to talk to my younger self alone for a moment.” He opens the door and gestures toward it. “Adam?”

Adam stands up slowly. As he follows his older self into the hallway he looks like he’s about to face a firing squad.

“I don’t trust either of them,” Chris says as the door shuts. “Do you believe any of this s**t?”

Trent shoves two of the sodas in his backpack. “I don’t know.”

“I believe him,” Zoe says.

“No surprise there.” Chris turns to me. “Elena?”

I’m not sure how much to say before I talk to Future-Adam myself. His story feels right, and it matches up with what I heard Dr. Kapur and Dr. Walters say. I want to believe Future-Adam, but I still have so many questions and suspicions. I don’t think we’re getting the whole story.

“It could be the truth,” I finally say.

The door opens and the two Adams walk back in. A short talk—I wonder what they said to each other. Adam stares at the floor, the baseball cap low so I can’t see his face.

“Time’s up,” Future-Adam says. “You should head back to my house to change clothes and clean up before you meet Dr. Walters. You’ll also need to get fake fingerprint IDs from this guy I know called Wombat. My car has all the addresses you’ll need programmed into it.”

“You’re not coming?” Adam asks.

“No.” He checks his watch again. “The police will be here any minute to arrest me.”

“Arrest you?” I ask, while Trent blurts out, “What?”

“Come on.” Future-Adam opens the door and slips into the hallway, disappearing before we can ask him what’s going on.

We scramble to grab our coats and backpacks, then hurry after him. He’s waiting at the end of the hallway in front of an unmarked, extra-thick metal door, which has both a fingerprint scanner and a keypad. But he doesn’t open it.

Chris points a finger at Future-Adam, once we catch up to him. “Tell us what the hell is going on.”