The door opened and Adeline looked up to see Daniele Danneros, one of her father’s friends and colleagues.
Adeline had known the woman for a long time (she had been close with Adeline’s mother), but she hadn’t seen her that much in recent years.
Daniele hugged Adeline and explained that she would be coming home with her.
“I want to see my father.”
“We’re working on that.”
“What’s happening? Why are they releasing me and not him?”
“I’ll explain when we get home.”
*
Daniele’s home was quite similar to the one Adeline shared with her father and Ryan. Almost eerily so.
In fact, the bedroom Daniele led her to was a near mirror image of Adeline’s own bedroom. The size was the same and the bed was in the same location. Even the furniture was a similar style.
Daniele seemed to read Adeline’s unease.
“It’s the same builder and floor plan—with some slight modifications. Same interior designer too.”
“I want answers.”
“You should sit down, Adeline.”
“I don’t want to sit down.”
Daniele placed a hand—gently—on Adeline’s shoulder, guided her to the bed, and sat beside her.
“What I’m about to say is going to be hard to hear.”
“What is?”
“It’s going to hurt, but I promise you, it’s going to get better. You just have to give it some time.”
Adeline’s eyes filled with tears. Somehow, in that moment she knew what Daniele was going to tell her. One feeling rose above the others: rage.
“Everyone keeps telling me everything is going to get better. But things just keep getting worse.”
“They always do,” Daniele said. “Before they get better.”
*
A short time after he signed the confession, they came to transport Sam.
The guards shackled his feet, but they didn’t handcuff him. They put him in a straitjacket.
One of them, a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, shrugged as he held the garment up. “I’m sorry, sir, but it’s protocol.”
Sam understood. People sentenced to Absolom were desperate individuals. They had no future. Nothing to lose. No hope.
People with nothing to lose were the most dangerous thing in the world.
The transport van was windowless. Two guards sat across from Sam, stun batons in their hands, at the ready.
Although the Absolom technology had been licensed to every government on Earth, there was only one operating Absolom machine in the world, and it was here, in Absolom City, in the middle of the Nevada desert. The reason was simple: safety.
Victor Levy had been right about one thing: the world was still a little afraid of Absolom, in the same way they had feared the atomic bomb and the Large Hadron Collider when it had first started up. It was a new technology, one that seemed almost surreal at first, a leap forward some still weren’t comfortable with. If there was an accident with Absolom, people didn’t want it to occur near a populated area.
The other reason Absolom Sciences kept the only functioning Absolom machine under their control was practical: they didn’t want anyone studying the technology and reverse engineering it. At the moment, they had a monopoly on exiling criminals from this universe.
Sam felt the van angle downward. They were on a descending ramp now, which meant they had reached the Absolom departure facility in the heart of the city.
The cell they led Sam to wasn’t nearly as plush as the holding room at the police station. It also had a few strange modifications. The walls were padded. There was no metal at all. No bathroom. No mirror. Only a soft floor, a ceiling that couldn’t have been over eight feet tall, and a squishy foam mattress.
He understood why. There was no way for an Absolom prisoner to hurt themselves in here.
The guards removed the straitjacket and left Sam alone in the room for a long time—how long, he didn’t know. There was no clock and no view of the sun.
A woman’s voice came over the speaker and asked him a series of questions—ones Sam had anticipated.
What would he like his last meal to be?
Who would he like to be present for his Absolom departure?
Would he like to update his will?
Who would he like to visit with before his departure?
When Sam had finished answering, the woman told him that he had received several requests for visitation and that it was up to him if they were allowed to visit. The list was one he could have guessed: Elliott, Constance, Hiro, Daniele, and Adeline.
Sam said yes to all of them.
He needed to say goodbye.