As the story unfolded, Adeline sat at the sewing machine and knit the photos of her family together, and her mother sat back in the chair, listening, drifting in and out of sleep.
*
At home, Adeline sat on the couch, feeling more alone than she ever had.
She felt as if the present was slipping away. And the future was rushing forward like an asteroid about to strike her world.
She opened her email and found a cryptic message there from the company she had hired to build the software that searched historical photos, trying to find evidence that Absolom Two had been used before to alter the past.
TESSERACT is done. When should we install?
Adeline typed a quick reply:
ASAP
She tapped the calendar app and stared at the countdowns she had programmed: Charlie: 9 Days Mom: 14 Days Nora: 2,190 Days Dad: 2,256 Days The death dates were closing in.
*
The next day, a team came to Adeline’s house to install the Tesseract array.
At the office, the Absolom Six met in the lab, which had been cleaned since Constance’s accident.
“Where should we start?” Hiro said. “I’ll just say that I don’t have any new ideas.”
“I think we should vote on the idea presented,” Constance said. “I’ll start. I vote no.”
“This isn’t a democracy,” Elliott said. “It’s a company. A company that has made a very large investment in a product that seems to have one use—and it isn’t ours to use, only to offer to governments around the world. I think whether we make that offer should be Daniele’s decision. Her decision alone. It was her money. Frankly, she’s the only reason any of us are here. Or Absolom, for that matter. It was her idea in the first place.”
“I’ve thought about it some,” Sam said. “To be honest, I’m not really thinking clearly right now. I don’t know what the right answer is. What I do know is that I don’t want to vote. You can call that punting or whatever you like, but I just don’t want to make a big decision right now.”
“Then we should delay this,” Constance said.
“Well,” Elliott said, “that’s nice in theory, but what do we tell the eighty-three people working here? You’re laid off until we figure out what to do with our useless transporter box? We’ll call you back when we get in the mood to decide.”
Hiro spoke before the argument could escalate. “I don’t want to vote either. I took this job to get out of debt and because I liked the science. What happens with Absolom is your call, Dani.”
Adeline glanced at Nora, who was studying her hands, which were laid out flat on the table.
“Nora?” she prompted.
The woman spoke slowly, as if the words hurt coming out. “I think there are bad people in this world. People who can’t be rehabilitated. People who only know how to take from others. I want to live in a world where those people don’t exist, but we don’t live in that world yet. Whether it’s our place to do something about that, I don’t know. What I do know is that I don’t want to vote about this either.”
*
That afternoon, Adeline sent the first emails that would begin the negotiations with governments around the world to license Absolom.
*
The next day, Adeline and Nora were the only two of the Absolom Six who came to work. She supposed it made sense: Sam and Elliott were dealing with their own troubles. Hiro was off gambling—at a private game operating outside the lockdowns. Adeline wondered if the stress of yesterday’s discussion had set him off or if perhaps he simply didn’t see the point in working on Absolom anymore—he probably sensed that the work was mostly over. Constance was at home, receiving a treatment.
Adeline looked up when Nora walked into her office.
“I know what you need.”
“What?” Adeline asked.
“Distraction.”
“You’ve got that right.”
“My house. Tonight. Seven o’clock.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“It’s a surprise.”
An hour after Nora left, Adeline got a text on her phone. It was from the Tesseract server in her home. It was nondescript, only two words: NEW MATCH
Adeline hadn’t expected a match so soon. She was still gathering data sources. Tesseract was currently only operating on publicly available images and videos.
She raced home, to the server room with its double-locked door, and sat at the terminal, where she launched the results viewer application.
She was unprepared for what she saw.