“Same principle. When we created Absolom, we weren’t trying to build a time machine. We were trying to build a machine that saved our families. Sure, we wanted to help others, but our intention was to create a better life for our families.”
He paused a moment. The wind blew through the passage, whipping dirt against the clothes Adeline had sewn.
“Did you know your mom used to teach a psychology class about beliefs and reality?”
Adeline smiled. “I did. In fact, I helped her teach it once upon a time. The class was PSYCH 20N: How Beliefs Create Reality.”
“That’s the one.”
“It was all about how our perception of the world around us is shaped by our convictions, mental health, physical health, and environment.”
“Well, I think our beliefs are more powerful than that,” her father said. “I think they—along with time—are the unseen engine of the universe.”
“The missing piece,” Adeline said.
“That’s right. I think beliefs and time determine our future. All those years, when you were thinking about creating a machine to get your lost family member back—and when Elliott was thinking about it—I think it shaped our future.”
“That’s where the missions come from.”
“Yes. Like the universe itself, you can’t say what happened before they existed, only that they do.”
With that breakthrough, Adeline saw it all.
Absolom Island was like the United States of America. A new version. Where America had been a melting pot of people from different places, attracting the best and the hungry and the outcasts from around the world, Absolom Island was a melting pot of people from different times, offering a refuge for people from across the past to build a better future.
Absolom—the machine itself—was a physical manifestation of the march of humanity. It was a device that removed the worst members of human society and rescued the innocent. Adeline wondered if that was the true nature of civilization, if that was humanity’s great work.
“Do you think the world will ever figure out what we’re doing on the island?” Adeline asked.
“Yes. It’s inevitable.”
“What do you think will happen then?”
“I don’t know. But that’s one thing I’ve learned about time: sometimes life gives you problems you can’t solve today. That’s what tomorrow is for. And that’s why you keep going.”
The trail rounded a rock outcropping, and ahead, Adeline spotted the covered wagon off to the side. Rocks formed a ring around a crackling fire, and three very dirty kids sat around it, holding their hands out to warm them. Their mother was writing in a journal—or perhaps drawing—and the father was lying down, hat over his eyes.
He wasn’t asleep, though, because as Adeline and her father approached, he rose and pushed the hat back. “How do you do?”
Sam nodded. “Hello.”
“Y’all on your way to California?”
“No,” Sam said slowly. “We’re going a little farther than that.”
The man studied him. “I see. Well, you looking to trade then?”
“We don’t have anything to trade. We actually just came to help.”
EPILOGUE
Adeline set the coffee mug down on the desk and searched her personal files for a picture of Nathan. She held her breath as she uploaded it to the Tesseract program.
On the screen, a message blinked with a single word: Searching…
Thanks to the last mission with her father, and that conversation on the California Trail, she felt like she had found the missing piece in the grand scheme of things. She understood it all now, the strange force at work, the unseen hand of time.
But she was still missing a very important piece in her own life.
On the screen, that piece appeared in the form of dozens of photos—pictures of her and Nathan, together, performing Absolom rescues in the hours and minutes before earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and other disasters.
The photos told the story of a life together, one spent in service of people only they could save.
*
Three days later, Adeline was standing in a hotel ballroom in San Francisco, watching start-ups pitch investors. It was the same place where she had met Nathan for the first time.
He saw her before she found him. He walked up behind her and mumbled, faking a cough, “San Andreas Capital sucks.”
Adeline chuckled and turned to find Nathan smiling, a badge hanging from his neck that read 2525 Ventures. Its logo featured a large bus with the numbers written across it.