“No surprise there,” Trent mumbles. “Like they’d care about four dead foster kids.”
Future-Adam stands and walks to the window, resting his hands on the frame as he stares outside. “There’s something we discovered—something you’re going to discover—about what happened to the other people who went to the future. I believe Aether killed all of you to protect this secret.”
“Wait—what other people?” Trent asks.
“I thought we were the first,” Zoe says.
Future-Adam shakes his head. “That was a lie. Aether sent teams of scientists and other people to the future before our group. But they all came back…damaged.”
I knew it. I knew there were others before us. “Damaged how?”
He turns back to us, his face grim. “Brain damaged.”
08:25
My stomach twists. Maybe Aether wasn’t lying to us about the possibility of brain damage from looking up our future selves. Could this be what the scientists were talking about when they were worried about something happening again?
My God, is this the reason I end up killing the others and myself?
“Hold up,” Chris says, jumping to his feet. “Are we gonna be brain damaged too?”
“What does that even mean?” Zoe asks, her voice rising.
“No, we were all fine—at least while we were in the future,” Future-Adam says. “And I was okay when we got back. I lied to Aether and said I didn’t remember anything to protect all of us. I assume the rest of you did the same.” He pauses, frowning. “Although I can’t say for sure what happened to you. We were split up for questioning as soon as we returned to the present. After that, I never saw any of you again.”
“You never saw us again?” I glance at the younger Adam and our eyes meet. The idea of never seeing him again bothers me more than it should.
“No,” the older version says. “I heard two days later that you were all dead.”
“So you don’t know for sure if we were brain damaged or not?” Zoe asks.
Trent starts flicking his lighter on and off. “Maybe that’s why Adam’s the only one still alive now. They killed the rest of us off because we were damaged and he wasn’t.”
Chris glares back and forth between the two Adams. “Or maybe he’s been working for Aether this entire time, and all of this is bullshit.”
Adam throws up his hands. “I’m not working for them!”
“My younger self is telling the truth. I started working for Aether to find some explanation of why you were all killed. With Lynne’s help, I made sure Project Chronos was shut down and buried forever. That’s why the research facility was empty when you arrived. I couldn’t risk anyone finding out about it.”
“Do you know why we ended up thirty years in the future instead of ten?” I ask.
“I believe the accelerator malfunctioned. It’s possible someone tampered with it, but I could never find any evidence of that, and I don’t know why they would want to send us thirty years forward instead of ten.”
My mind races, processing his words. Everything Future-Adam’s told us makes a lot more sense than me killing the others and then myself. Aether must have set me up to protect their secrets. There’s just one question that his story doesn’t answer.
“Why did Aether let you live?” I ask.
“I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times over the past thirty years. I wish I had an answer for you.”
His voice sounds sincere, but it’s hard to believe he’s telling the truth. How could he not know why he’s still alive? He must have learned something in the last thirty years while working with Aether. Or there must be something that set Adam apart from us, other than the foster care thing.
“So if you’ve lived through everything we’ve been through now…” Adam says. “What can we do differently?”
His future self gives him a sad smile. “We did have a plan to stop Aether and to protect ourselves, but it didn’t go the way we wanted. Maybe all of you can succeed where we failed.”
“What kind of plan?” Chris asks, his voice skeptical.