Future Shock (22 page)

“Yeah.” He stares at the floor. “That’s why I took the cure. But I was never working for Aether, I swear.”

“Then who recruited you to steal the cure?”

“It was Lynne. Aether never knew about it.”

Lynne—so she
was
in on it the entire time. A memory floats to the surface, from in front of the lab when Lynne asked Adam, “Did you get it?” She wasn’t asking if we got evidence—she was asking if he got the cure.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask, the question that’s been eating me up ever since I saw him drop the case.

He sighs. “I hated lying to you, but I couldn’t tell anyone about my true mission. I knew you would all think I was working for Aether and was somehow behind all of your deaths. And I didn’t trust the others with the cure—especially once I found out what it did to people without cancer. But I’m not a killer. You must know that.”

“I do. That’s why I’m here.”

A sad smile crosses his face. “I wanted to call you, but I didn’t have your number, and I’ve been taking care of my mom all day. And…I didn’t think you wanted to hear from me.”

“No, I should have trusted you. I should have listened to you or come here sooner or…”

“Maybe. But I should have fought harder for you.”

We move together at the same time, our lips meeting in a desperate kiss. His hands slide down my arms, along my tattoos, and I dig my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer. I’m afraid to let go, afraid to let the kiss end, afraid to face what’s coming in the next few hours. Because for the first time since we returned to the present, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

When the kiss ends, he rests his forehead against mine. “I’m really glad you came to see me.”

“Me too. I wasn’t going to, but…I changed my mind.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I knew I wasn’t suffering from future shock, but I didn’t know about the rest of you.”

“Wait,” I say, pulling back. “If Lynne knew about future shock, wasn’t she worried you’d come back crazy?”

“Not really. Dr. Kapur was pretty confident that none of us would suffer from it. Plus, she was desperate. Her daughter is dying from leukemia, so she needed the cure right away.”

“Her daughter…” The photos I saw in the future, of Lynne’s daughter in a hospital bed.

“That’s how I met Lynne. Her daughter is in the children’s ward of the hospital where my mom gets her treatments. Lynne was always there, and we talked about my mom and my studies and this scholarship I got…”

“But how did Lynne know about the cure?”

“When she sent the third group of people to the future, the ones who remembered some things, one of them told her I’d just developed a cure. I didn’t believe her at first, but she convinced me that if I brought the cure back, we could save both my mom and her daughter. That’s why I signed up. Well, that and I was desperate for money. We were about to sell this house to pay off the medical bills before Aether came along with their offer.” He looks down at the floor, sucking in a long breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to, but I couldn’t risk not being able to bring back the cure.”

But as he speaks, I’m not really listening anymore, because his words are like a puzzle piece fitting everything together. Memories flash in rapid succession: the moment before the aperture opened, when Trent reached for the case of genicote. Back in the present, when he told the others, “I swiped something from Lynne’s office we can use as leverage.” Zoe’s girlfriend’s apartment, ransacked as though someone was looking for something. Lynne being out of the office all day.

“Did Lynne call you today?” I ask slowly, not wanting to believe the theory forming in my head.

“Yeah, she called me this morning. She asked if I had any extra doses of the cure, but I didn’t. I asked her if there was a problem. She said no, and then she hung up. Why?”

It’s not Aether Corp trying to kill us. I was wrong this entire time.

Lynne is the killer.

I can’t believe it. I trusted Lynne. She wanted to help us. She
saved
us in the future.

No, she saved
Adam
. The one person who could cure her daughter. She never cared about the rest of us. She just needed to make sure Adam brought the cure back. And she had to make sure he returned to the present to develop the cure in the first place. The rest of us were disposable.

In the future, she lied to us about Dr. Kapur wanting to “purge” us. She’s the one who recruited us in the first place. It all makes sense. Perfect, horrible sense.

Trent must have stolen the cure from her to try to use it to protect us, but Lynne needed that to save her daughter’s life. She must have tracked him down, and when he wouldn’t give it to her, she killed him. The others must have been in on it too, which is why she searched Zoe’s place. Does that mean she didn’t find the cure—does Chris have it? Is that what he meant when he said he was handling it?

I would never believe Lynne could kill someone, but I saw her shoot that cop. She had zero hesitation with the gun. Her aim was perfect. And if she would kill an innocent cop to save her daughter, I can believe she’d kill us too.

“Elena?” Adam asks, searching my face. “Why do you ask?”

“Um. I was just curious because I tried to call her earlier. But she wasn’t in the office.”

“Oh.” He runs a finger along my arm, staring into the distance. “I talked to her when we got back from the future and told her that you thought Aether was going to kill us. She said she’d protect us, but if the others are dead, then…” He trails off and shakes his head. “But it doesn’t matter, because by coming here you’ve already changed the timeline, right?”

“I don’t know.” Chris could already be dead by now. There’s nothing I can do for him or for the others, but I might have time to stop Lynne from pinning the murders on me and getting away with it. It makes me sick, knowing that in the future she’s friends with Adam and he had no idea she was the one behind our murders. That is not going to happen this time.

Adam’s right—I changed the future by coming here, and I can change it again now.

But I can’t call the police. I have no real evidence Lynne is the killer, and I can’t tell them some crazy story about the future and the cure for cancer. I don’t even know where Lynne is right now.

But I know where she
will
be.

“We’ll figure it out.” Adam breaks through my thoughts again, giving me a grin. “Hey, I said I was going to protect you and I meant it.”

I force a smile. “I thought I was the one protecting you.”

“Not this time.” He wraps his arms around me and I breathe in his warmth, wishing I could freeze this instant forever. This memory, this is the one I want to remember. Because I have to lie to Adam to save him.

I can’t tell him about Lynne. He’ll want to come with me, and I care too much about him and his future to risk his life. I have to know that even if I fail, Adam will live to develop the cure and save millions of lives.

“Do you have any food?” I ask. “I haven’t eaten anything all day.”

“Oh, yeah. We have some pasta leftover from dinner. I’ll go fix some for you.”

“Thanks.”

He kisses me quickly and then heads into the kitchen. I watch him as he disappears, memorizing every movement, every line of his body, every strand of his hair. And then I silently slip out the front door.

There’s a message waiting for me when I leave Adam’s. I pace at the empty bus stop while I listen to it.

“Elena, I got your message,” Lynne says, sounding worried. “Call me back right away.”

This is it. I can confront her right now about being the killer, about shooting the others and setting me up…but there’s still a slight chance I’m wrong. I
want
to be wrong.

I dial the number she gave me, and she picks up on the first ring.

“Oh, Elena, thank goodness. Are you okay?”

I sit down hard on the bus stop bench, gripping the phone. For a second I can’t speak, can’t decide what to say to her. “I’m okay. But the others…they’re dead.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I saw them. I-I think Aether killed them.”

She sucks in a breath. “I tried to stop them. I told my boss you had evidence and would use it if something happened, but…No, we shouldn’t talk about this over the phone. They could be listening. I can help you, but we need to need to meet in person.”

A chill creeps along my bare skin. “Where?”

“Somewhere we can talk in private. Aether is looking for you, and I’m sure they’re watching me. We need to be careful.”

“How about…the beach?”

“Oh—I was just about to suggest that. Perfect. Maybe at the fifth lifeguard tower north of the pier?”

I close my eyes, all my suspicions confirmed with those few words. There’s no way Lynne could know my body was found there. She
is
the killer.

If I hadn’t gone to see Adam, I would have trusted Lynne in this moment. I would have met her at the beach, hoping she would help me, never suspecting she was the killer. No wonder she was able to take me down so easily. She used my trust and my desperation against me.

“Elena…are you there?” Lynne sounds so worried that I almost believe she actually cares.

“Yeah. That place sounds good.”

“Perfect. Can you be there around eleven thirty?”

“I’ll be there.”

“I’ll see you then.” Lynne pauses. “And, Elena, be careful.”

“I will.”

The call ends, and I clutch my phone in my lap. In a few minutes this will all be over, one way or another.

I check my watch. It’s after ten, near the end of Chris’s window. For all I know he’s already dead, but I have to try to warn him one last time.

I dial his number, the one the guy at Downey Automotive wrote on the Post-it. It rings twice and then clicks to voice mail. As soon as it beeps, the words rush out of me. “Chris, this is Elena. The killer is Lynne. Stay away from her. Get Shawnda and run—just whatever you do, don’t meet with Lynne. I know you don’t trust me, but please,
please
believe me about this.”

There’s nothing more I can say, so I hang up. Dammit
.
I’m too late. If only he had listened to me earlier, if only I had been up-front with him from the beginning…but he’s probably already dead, and now his son will grow up without a father. Lynne’s taken both of their futures.

I don’t need to see Chris’s body to know how he died. I remember the crime scene photos perfectly. Shot like the other two and ditched on a street corner two blocks from Downey Automotive. I clench my fists, white-hot anger building at the thought of what she’s done. Of how she almost got away with it.

Not this time.

The fifth lifeguard tower stands alone before the waves, a raised white box against the dark sea. I make my way toward it, shoes sinking in the sand, and each step reminds me of when I came here with Adam. I couldn’t understand then why I would kill myself in this spot, but now it seems like I was fated to come here to fight for my future.

By the time I reach the tower, I’m clutching my side and breathing heavily, and I’ve stumbled twice on my weak ankle. Everything hurts, but I can’t lose focus now. I’m early—it’s only eleven—and I check the voice recorder app I downloaded on the bus. I switch it on and then stuff my phone in my underwear, a place I figure Lynne won’t search me if I die. But the police will find it. I just have to get Lynne to confess, so that she won’t get away with our murders. I won’t let Adam spend the rest of his life trusting a murderer.

I lean against the side of the lifeguard tower, scanning the beach around me. It’s pitch-black except for the faint sliver of the moon and the dim light on the sand. Everything here is in black and white—the sand, the water, the sky, the few stars visible over the light of the city. The only thing with any color is the Ferris wheel in the distance.

After some time, a slim figure approaches from the parking lot, moving quickly over the sand. As it gets closer I make out the shape of a woman in a suit. Lynne.

I wait for her to come to me, knowing this has to end here, tonight. I wish I had a weapon or something, but without a gun of my own I’d always be at a disadvantage. She’s probably never been in a real fight before though. My best chance is to get her to confess, distract her, and then attack.

When she’s only a few feet away, she raises the gun with a gloved hand. “Hello, Elena.”

I don’t see any regret or hesitation in her eyes. Her hand is steady as she aims at me. And that certainty, that confidence scares me more than anything else. I
trusted
her. We all did, and now she’s aiming a gun at me like it’s no big deal. How could she lie to our faces, both now and in the future? How could she swear she would help us and then kill us all?

“You don’t seem surprised to see the gun,” she says. “But I had a feeling you knew when you suggested the beach. Did you see that in the future?”

I step back quickly, my feet slow and catching in the sand. Suddenly I doubt my plan. Why did I think I could fight against a woman with a gun? The recording, I remind myself. I have to get her to talk.

“You lied to us all along, both you and your future self,” I say. “Our entire trip to the future was set up just so you could get the cure, wasn’t it?”

“That’s true. Dr. Kapur
did
want to use teenagers, but I had to convince Aether to go along with it so I could recruit Adam. I figured he had the best chance of getting the cure, and I didn’t have time to send multiple teams. And I chose the rest of you to assist him, even if you didn’t know that’s what you were doing. You, in particular, were chosen to protect Adam. From your files I knew you liked to fight for the underdog. That’s why I gave you a gun.”

All this time I thought I was chosen for my memory, but that was another lie. I flash back to the first time I met Lynne. She asked me if I liked to fight and I said, “No, but I will if I have to.’’ I remember her smile at hearing those words.

And on that first day at the Aether facility, they’d left the five of us alone, probably to see what we did and how we interacted. Only after I defended Adam from Chris did Lynne walk in and start talking about the project. Even my feelings for Adam were manipulated from the very beginning.