Dr. Kapur walks in, frowning, with his clipboard under his arm. “Elena Martinez,” he says. I’m not sure if he’s just saying my name or expects an answer. He studies me for a moment and then sits across from me. “How do you feel?”
“Tired and sore.”
He nods and jots something down on the clipboard. “Any…confusion? Memory loss?”
“I…” I have to pretend like I don’t know anything, to stick to the plan Chris laid out, even if I wasn’t intended to be a part of it. I drop my gaze to the table. “I remember entering the accelerator and the light…but that’s it.” I squish my face up like I’m confused. “Did it work? Did we actually go to the future?”
His frown deepens and he taps his pen against his clipboard. “So you remember the moments before you entered the accelerator?”
“Yes.”
“And you remember the time before that—the medical exam, the lunch with the others, and so forth?”
“Yes…”
“Hmm.” He marks things down on the clipboard. “But you don’t remember anything between the moment you entered the accelerator and when you walked out?”
“No, I don’t.” I rub my eyes and try to look pained. It isn’t a struggle since my side still burns with each breath. “So we did go to the future?”
He ignores my question again and leans forward. “How did you get your injuries?”
“I-I don’t know.”
His eyes narrow. “You have a cracked rib, a sprained ankle, and a bruise on your face, and you don’t know?”
I didn’t realize my face was bruised too, but I guess it’s been a while since I checked a mirror. Probably from when Chris punched me. I make my voice go higher like I’m starting to panic. “No—what’s going on? Why don’t I remember?”
He puts his hands on the table, his eyes boring into me. “Elena, are you telling me that you, with your eidetic memory, can’t remember anything from your time in the future?”
“No.” I stare down at my hands in my lap. “I’ve never experienced this before. It’s like I was asleep or something. Big black patches of nothing. I wish I could remember.”
He leans back. “We might have some things that will jog your memory.”
The door opens and a man in a lab coat comes in and drops a black plastic bag on the table. Now I definitely know there are people on the other side of the mirror.
Dr. Kapur removes the walkie-talkie headset and the flashlight from my backpack. “Do you remember buying these? Or why you bought them?”
“No. Sorry.” Seeing the items sitting there makes me squirm. Like at any moment he’ll find a hole in my story or somehow get me to slip up and reveal that I do remember something.
He asks a few more questions about the items and why there was no money in my bag, but I play dumb. But then he removes a crumpled piece of silver paper, and I have to stop myself from showing the emotions flickering through me. Because as he starts to unfold it, I know exactly what it is: Future-Adam’s origami unicorn.
“We also found this in your bag.” He slaps it on the table so that the matte-white side is face up. “What do these numbers mean?”
“I don’t know.” Seeing it again brings back everything—the lies Future-Adam told me, the evidence I found in his house, the memory of Adam and the origami boats in the rain. I swallow hard, fighting the sting in my throat. Was everything we shared in the future a lie? The things he said, the moments we spent together…I thought he was sincere at the time, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was all an act and he never cared for me at all.
I can’t help but wonder—if Adam is working for Aether, will he tell them what the numbers mean? Will he tell him that we’re all faking our memory loss?
The interrogation continues for hours. Sometimes Dr. Kapur leaves and Lynne comes in to ask me the same questions in different ways. But eventually they let me go, after explaining that I should contact them if I remember anything and saying that they want to follow up with me in a week.
I’m sent to the lobby, where I’m given an envelope. I rip it open, and my hand trembles as I stare at the check inside. So many zeroes. This money is my future.