We gather around the door, listening, but I don’t hear anything. No smoke creeps out from under the door. Did she actually set it off? Maybe the smoke bomb isn’t strong enough, or the guard doesn’t think it’s a big enough threat to leave.

The door clicks. It flies open, and there’s the guard, running out. He jumps when he sees us waiting for him, and Chris and Trent easily force the rag over his mouth. He falls limp, and they drag his body inside while Adam wedges something in the door to stop it from closing.

We’re in.

21:46

21:46

The fire alarm blares, the red lights flashing through the haze of smoke. We enter a large space that looks like a chemistry classroom, with countertops and glass cabinets full of beakers, flasks, and brown bottles with red warning labels. A huge whiteboard on the wall is covered in precisely drawn equations—maybe Future-Adam’s writing? There are no windows, but a hallway leads off to other rooms.

Adam moves to the counters and inspects the equipment there, his face set in something like awe or wonder. He must love all this science stuff.

I scan the room for any sign of evidence, while Chris pops open a panel in the ceiling and helps Zoe out. She coughs from the smoke, but her eyes dance with excitement as she hops to the floor.

I nudge her with my elbow. “See, I knew you could do it.”

She dusts cobwebs off her blue hair and grins. “Piece of cake.”

“So we’re inside. Now what?” Trent asks.

“We need to hurry,” I say, checking my watch. There’s no telling if another guard will show up or if one of the guards will wake early. And we only have a little over two hours left in the future.

Adam puts down the beaker he’s been examining. “It’ll be faster if we split up to search.”

We each pick a room, and I’m hit with a blast of cool air as soon as I enter mine, which has row after row of tall, blinking electronic equipment. Probably not the room we’re looking for, but I spot a desk in the corner and riffle through it, just in case. Finding nothing, I check another room, but it’s just a small kitchen and break room.

Back in the hallway, I study the door at the end that no one picked, with a big orange sign that reads CAUTION: BIOHAZARD. I can’t imagine Future-Adam putting the evidence we need in a room like that. I’m not even sure it’s safe for us to go in there without some sort of protective suit.