“That son of a bitch,” Chris growls. “I’ll kill him!”
“Maybe there’s another way.” Adam leans forward, setting his mug on the table. “My older self said we could get something to blackmail Aether with, some sort of evidence. Do you know anything about that?”
Lynne tilts her head, considering. “There might be something you could use in the old files we kept from the project. They’re all locked away in Adam’s lab in the Aether building.”
Adam exchanges a look with me. “My future self was right. We do need to break into Aether Corporation.”
Lynne glances back and forth between us, her brow furrowed. “Break in?”
“Hold up,” Chris says. “If Future-Adam knew we’d need evidence, why not just get it himself?”
“Adam isn’t allowed in his lab anymore,” she says. “I’m surprised they let him in the building at all.”
“How could he not be allowed in his own lab?” I ask.
“Adam’s on…well, they call it a ‘personal leave’ but he’s actually been suspended. The board of directors are calling him unstable, but really it’s because of genicote.” At our blank expressions, she continues. “Genicote, the cure for cancer? Adam created the cure many years ago, but he needed funding and distribution and factories that could make it in bulk. He came to me for help, and I convinced Aether to start a pharmaceutical division for him with me as the director. We both knew there were risks working with Aether, but I thought if I helped him, I could protect him from them. And for many years I did.”
“What do you mean, protect him?” Trent asks.
“There’s a…problem with the cure. When used by people with cancer, it’s a miracle drug. With just a few treatments they’re completely cured for life. But if used by someone who doesn’t have cancer, it causes massive mutations that quickly result in death.”
Adam’s jaw drops, his face horrified. “And I could never get rid of this problem?”
“No. You said it wasn’t possible, due to the way the cure works to manipulate DNA. Naturally, the drug had to be tightly controlled to make sure it was never in the wrong hands. That’s one reason it took so long for genicote to be approved and distributed—the risks were too high.” She stares out the window at the crashing waves, lost in the memories.
“Together, Adam and I made sure the truth about genicote remained under wraps, and for years it worked. Until Aether had a few rough years and got greedy. They wanted to sell the drug to the military to use as a weapon. Adam wouldn’t back down, and he’s too well respected and influential for them to ignore. Instead, they’re trying to discredit him. Telling the world he’s a mad scientist so no one will listen if he goes public with what they’re doing.”
“He did seem a bit mad,” Zoe says. “No offense, Adam.”
“Yeah.” Trent nods. “They say there’s a fine line between madness and genius, right?”
Adam rolls his eyes. “Again, standing right here.”
“I can assure you, Adam is perfectly sane,” Lynne says. “But unfortunately he can’t get into his lab anymore, and neither can I. They demoted me to a useless project, managing statisticians.” Her mouth twists like she’s tasted something sour. “I used to oversee some of the most cutting-edge projects in the world that saved millions of lives, and now I work with a bunch of math nerds.”
Chris drums his fingers on the coffee table. “But if you and Adam can’t get in, how are we supposed to get into the lab?”
“I don’t know. Without the code for the keypad, there’s no way in.”
“Keypad?” I repeat. Memories of our time in the Aether building rush back to me. “The heavy door we passed down the hall from Future-Adam’s office—was that his lab?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“Adam wanted us to see that door,” I say as all the dominoes fall in my head. “He made sure we’d walk by it, and he gave us the device to disable the cameras. And—the air conditioning! He was showing us everything we’d need to break into the place.”