“Neither am I. Maybe our halves make a whole. Maybe that’s the grand plan you can’t see.”
She smiled. “You have a career writing Valentine’s Day cards if Absolom ever goes under.”
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s still a bad idea.”
“Look how our last bad idea turned out. Crime almost eliminated. Billions in the bank.”
*
Across the sand, a pattering started, pitting the brown expanse all around Sam’s feet.
Rain.
The late afternoon storm had come like clockwork, and with it, the wind.
It took Sam a moment to realize how dangerous that was.
Like a curtain being jerked back, the thick cloud lifted from the desert and rolled deeper into the interior of Pangea. Within a few minutes, the smoke screen was gone, and Sam was standing in the open, as if he had been swimming naked and the tide had gone out. He hadn’t been the only one swimming across the sea of sand to the shore of the forest. Dozens of bipedal dinosaurs and reptiles were scattered across the desert, looking around, waiting for someone to make the first move. There were even more small quadrupeds, clumped together like schools of fish.
Sam took off, running for the trees as a Chindesaurus lunged for a nearby seelo, jaws open, tearing into it.
The carnage had started again.
FORTY-TWO
A? deline rode the bike through the night, across the Nevada desert, back toward Daniele’s house. She had a decision to make: trust Elliott and Hiro. Or Daniele.
She sensed that her father’s life hung in the balance. Maybe much more. Maybe the fate of the past. And the future.
Soon Absolom City rose on the horizon. The solar panels of the sea of glass glittered in the moonlight like the event horizon of a black hole about to swallow her up.
By the time she reached her home and stowed the bike, Adeline had made her decision. She didn’t know if it was the right one, but she sensed there would be no turning back.
She walked the streets to Daniele’s home, slipped inside, and re-enabled the security system.
Adeline half expected Daniele to be sitting by the kitchen bar, a cup of coffee in her hands, a stern expression on her face as she whispered, “I know where you’ve been.”
But the home was quiet.
In her bedroom, Adeline took out the burner phone and sent a text to Elliott.
It’s Adeline. Count me in.
*
A text from Elliott was waiting for her that morning.
Good. Your dad would be proud.
Adeline typed a response.
What should I do?
Elliott replied a few seconds later.
Install this app.
Adeline clicked the link and installed an app called VoiceActivate. On the home screen, a collaboration request popped up from Elliott’s number. Adeline approved it, and another message from Elliott appeared.
Leave the app running. Hide the phone in Dani’s study. Make sure you plug it into the wall. Then get another phone and come to my office at work. We can talk here.
*
In the kitchen, Ryan was eating cereal. Daniele was sipping coffee as she read an e-ink paper. She didn’t look up.
“You were out late.”
“Seeing some friends.”
Daniele smiled. “My parents always said, ‘We don’t mind you being out at night. As long as you’re keeping the right company.’”
The words stopped Adeline cold. Daniele knew. She had to.
“Well,” Daniele said, setting the e-ink sheet down. “I told myself I wouldn’t lecture you. So I’ll stop. You’re an adult now. Capable of making your own decisions. And mistakes. Sometimes our mistakes are the best teachers.”
Ryan looked up from the bowl, his spoon hanging in the air. The awkwardness was evident even to him.
Daniele breezed past Adeline without making eye contact and made her way upstairs, to shower, Adeline assumed.
For a long moment, she stood there debating whether to follow through with the plan. Hiding the burner phone in the study would be proof-positive that she had betrayed Daniele, a land mine buried, waiting to go off.
She felt as though she was standing on the precipice now, unsure whether to take the next step or retreat.
Ryan was staring at her as he chewed his cereal. “You all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“You guys are acting weird.”
“It’s a weird time.”
Ryan muttered something, but Adeline didn’t hear it. She was already walking down the hall, off the precipice, toward the study, where she stowed the phone under a fabric-covered club chair. The bottom was open enough for sound to reach the device, but the phone was deep enough under there to avoid being seen, even if someone was looking. Reaching into the darkness was the only way to find it. And Adeline felt like that’s what she was doing now: reaching into the darkness.