Future Lost

7

Another car pulls into the lot. I spin around quickly, instantly on alert, but it’s only Ken’s silver Honda Civic. Perfect. Ken must know what’s going on with Adam, and he can tell me whatever he wanted to say last night.

He wears a nervous smile as he walks up to the door. “Hey, Elena. I didn’t know you were coming by.”

“Where’s Adam? And why won’t my security code work?”

“I don’t know. I thought he was with you.” He types in a new code and lets the system scan him. “Adam changed the code a week ago. He probably forgot to tell you the new one.”

Maybe, but now I’m even more suspicious. The door opens for Ken, and we step inside the entry room. It has plain white walls, an empty receptionist desk, and a long, low couch against the opposite window. I remember when Adam leased the place and I told him it was way too big for what he needed, but he just grinned and said it had room for him to grow.

Ken leads us down a hallway and into the main lab, past another locked door I don’t have access to. The lights flicker on, buzzing to life as we step inside. I glance around the large room, at the white work counters, the beakers and other science equipment, and the computers in the corner. Against one wall there are cages with rats in them, and against another a freezer with vials stored inside it. There’s no sign that Adam has been here, but I don’t know what to look for either. I haven’t been in his lab in weeks. Maybe months.

“Adam was gone when I woke up this morning. I haven’t heard from him all day. I assumed he was here.” I walk over to the rats, whose cages are all labeled with different numbers and words that make no sense to me. “Do you know if he came by?”

“No, I was taking care of my mom.” Ken frowns and moves to one of the computers, then types something into it. “I haven’t talked to Adam today either.”

“Does he have class today?” I should know this. I thought I knew his schedule, but maybe I was wrong.

Ken’s frown deepens, and he rubs the back of his neck. “No, uh…” He glances at the rats scurrying in their cages, then at the door, like he wants to escape.

“You know something, don’t you?” His eyes widen, but he doesn’t answer. My hands tighten into fists, and he takes a step back. My first reaction is to grab him by the shirt, shove him against the wall, and demand answers. But in the last six months I’ve learned not to rush to violence to solve my problems. I no longer punch first and ask questions later.

I force my hands to unclench. “Please. I’m really worried about Adam. I just want to know he’s safe. Last night, it seemed like you wanted to tell me something. What was it?”

Ken’s shoulders relax, but he still looks wary. I punched him once before, when we were in the future, when he refused to come with me and was planning to kill himself. He rubs his jaw, as if remembering the same moment.

“Okay.” He sighs and sits on one of the stools in front of a microscope. “I’ll tell you what I know. But you’re not going to like it.”

“What is it?”

“First, of all, Adam’s not in classes anymore. He dropped out of graduate school.”

“What?” I practically yell it. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. He said he didn’t need it anymore and that it was taking too much time. Time he wanted to spend developing genicote.”

I slump onto a stool beside Ken. How could Adam do this, and without telling me? He knows he has to finish graduate school so that we can then go on to create Future Visions together. We have a plan for our lives, and he’s veering way off course already. Not to mention, working on the cure before finishing the relevant classes in school is reckless, maybe even dangerous. What was he thinking? And how could he keep this a secret from me?

“I was surprised too,” Ken says. “But Adam’s become completely obsessed with developing the cure. That’s what I was going to say last night.”

“I know. He barely sleeps. He doesn’t eat. He’s rarely ever home anymore. I assumed he was going to class at least.” I rub my hands across my face. “I knew it was bad, but I can’t believe he’d go this far.”

“There’s more.” Ken’s voice is low.

The air-conditioning blasts cold air on us, but Ken’s words are what raise every hair on my arms. What else is Adam hiding?

“Tell me.”

Ken takes a long breath and meets my eyes. “Last week he had a meeting. With Aether Corporation.”

An icy fist grips my heart. “No.”

“I couldn’t believe it either, but it’s true.”

It can’t be. Adam would never go to our enemy, the source of all our problems, not after everything they’ve done to us. Not when we worked so hard to keep Aether out of our lives for good. And how could he tell Ken and not me? I shake my head, refusing to accept it. “Why would he do that? Is he out of his mind?”

“I don’t know. He told me about the meeting but didn’t say what they talked about.”

I slam my palm against the counter. “You must have some idea!”

Ken’s face is grim as he glances at the freezer on the wall. “All I know is that genicote is pretty much ready to go, but it’s not enough for Adam. He’s copied the sample we had from the future, and we know it works from the tests we’ve done on the rats. But genicote will kill anyone who hasn’t had cancer by mutating their genes, and neither one of us can figure out how to fix that problem.”

windows, revolving doors, and a row of elevators in the back. I’m not sure where to go, so I walk up to the desk at the front.