But what were they looking for?
Almost every night, Hiro left the dig site and drove directly to the modest home in Las Vegas. Was he taking what they had found there? That seemed a reasonable assumption to Adeline.
And then there was the room in Constance’s home, with the photos from the past, of people and their locations, spread across the wall like a murder board.
Elliott’s home had a similar room, in the basement, where videos of the night of Charlie’s death played on repeat and photos of that evening hung on the wall.
Were the two connected?
What did it all mean?
Adeline sensed that there was a piece that would tie it all together. Her gut told her that Absolom Two was that piece. And that Daniele was the only person who would give her answers. Getting those answers would be tricky.
She was sitting in the library of Daniele’s home, contemplating what move to make, when the older woman stuck her head in. “I’m home.”
Adeline beckoned for her to enter.
Daniele eyed the finance books on the table. “You’re making progress.”
“I am.”
“Riveting, isn’t it?”
“Mind-numbingly boring.”
“True. And that’s why I appreciate you sticking with it.”
Adeline eyed the dirt and sand on Daniele’s clothes. She sensed this was her opening, the right time to ask the questions burning inside of her. She made a decision then: to lead with the truth.
“I saw you in Death Valley. Digging. I used the app to find Hiro, and I saw him there operating the excavator. I saw all of you there.”
“I know.”
“At first, I thought you might be looking for Dad’s bones.”
“He’s not even in our universe.”
“I remembered that shortly after I thought it. My guess is you’re working on Absolom Two.”
Daniele smiled. “No comment.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“You can ask.”
“Can we use Absolom Two and prevent Nora’s murder? Can we prevent Dad from ever being sent back?”
Daniele reached behind her and slid the pocket door closed. Her voice was hard and serious when she spoke. “No. The past cannot be changed. It must not be changed. For all of our sakes.”
“Why?”
“The past is the causal sequence of events that created our present.”
“Okay. Can you be more vague? What does that actually mean? Why can’t we just go back, stop Nora’s killer, and be done with it?”
“There are several problems with that.”
“Which are?”
“First of all, what you’re talking about is not possible with the current technology.”
“With Absolom One?”
“Correct.”
“But it is with Absolom Two.”
“No comment.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Take it however you like. What you should be focused on are the other problems.”
“What sort of problems?”
“The second problem is what I mentioned before: the present moment that you and I are experiencing now is the eventuality of a series of causal events. Those events, those thin slices of time, all stack on top of each other like building blocks with no end and no beginning. And if you modify one of the blocks we’re standing on right now, do you know what happens?”
“We all fall down?”
“In a sense. Our best guess is that breaking the causality of our reality will make it cease to exist at the moment causality is ruptured. It’s like a black hole. We know that once matter crosses the event horizon, it cannot escape the pull of the singularity’s gravity. For a long time, scientists have theorized about what happens to that matter, but we don’t know exactly. What we do know is that nothing that crosses an event horizon will ever come back.”
Daniele paused. “What you’re talking about—modifying the past—is like crossing a temporal event horizon. What lies beyond is a temporal black hole from which nothing will return. Or ever exist. You. Cannot. Change the past. Do you understand?”
Adeline didn’t respond. The words were like a sledgehammer smashing her hopes.
“In fact,” Daniele said, “it’s possible that breaking causality may be the reason we’re alone in the universe.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Think about it. If another sufficiently advanced species had evolved before us, they would have eventually developed an Absolom machine. And eventually, they would have developed a second version and used it on their past, disrupting the causality in their universe, hence ending that universe. Ergo, why it hasn’t yet happened in this universe and why we are alone—and the likely explanation for how our universe will end.”