Yesterday (Epilogue Chapters 76 & 77) The End! (Patreon)

CHAPTER 76

Laura got up from the table and paced around the room. She looked out the window. Wandered over to look at the bookshelf. She took another look... And she made up her mind, her intuition had been pressing her for a while now, it was as if she already knew everything she needed to know about that instrument. She was ready to open the box. She wasn't going to wait for Jonah to come back, she wanted to do a little test without any pressure or interference.

They both suspected that the Metatron was some kind of storage device. They knew it was somehow in contact with something remote as its mere proximity interfered with Jonah's mind, weakening him. She finally convinced herself for that was the perfect excuse. She would activate it before he arrived, just in case, to protect him.

She sensed that the device was or had been in some way connected to those who had purchased the Sertres treatment. Each and every one of them had died in the last few weeks. That fantastic death cure for billionaires and politicians had been able to kill them all in one fell swoop. The world was upside down, on the verge of collapse, as all nations accused each other of treason and the shadow of a great war became more apparent with every piece of news that reached them.

She had a keychain of Adrian's in front of her in a little plastic bag. Eva reluctantly handed it to her. She told her that he had it with him when they found him, that it was apparently part of the treatment, a tracker. A simple metal tongue with a dark wooden blade embedded in it. Laura didn't know how or why, but from her final meeting with Hebert she sensed she would be needing something from Adrian, and when she saw it she knew that was it, and that everything was connected.

She approached the cabinet and slid open the sliding door, then pressed several digits and opened the safe deposit box. Carefully she pulled out the dark wooden box and placed it on the table. She opened it and stared at the metal bar and the tiny blue dot at one end. They hadn’t touched it, had not dared since it had been taken from Sertres’ office. But the time had come. She sensed it. She reached out a finger and gently touch the surface.

She felt a faint current of static electricity. The light flickered. That was it.

She grabbed the metal bar with one hand and Adrian’s key ring with the other.

There was a clicking sound. It was the TV. It turned itself on and within seconds a screeching metallic noise followed by a mayhem of electrical noise filled the room. It faded away. She thought she heard a voice.

–– Hello?

It was Adrian, she recognized him awestruck. His voice sounded muffled through the interference but she knew it was him instantly. Soon after, the image on the television cleared, and the figure repeated his question, longing. He stared startled at her from the screen, surprised and anxious to be heard.

And Laura understood.

CHAPTER 77

Long afterward, a sea of silver light crawled across Arcadia at dawn. That morning, yet another one, several automatic systems were activated and the huge structure came lazily and punctually to life, just as it had done for the past thirty years.

Arcadia, seen from above, was a solitary city, a gigantic star-shaped structure divided by large rings set on a narrow and barren terrain. Around it, everything was still, inert, frozen by the intense cold of the place; its long tunnels, uninhabited, waiting to wake up someday.

On that morning, a red light lit up in the elevated control tower. Then a green one. Data and more data began to scroll across a monitor screen in the center of a large console, and a large metal shutter rose ceremoniously in front of it. A curved glass wall loomed behind it, and the whitish light from outside flooded the command room. In the background, Earth, tilted to one side, became a blue-flecked crescent moon.

Had anyone been in that room, they would have been able to see tiny drops of condensation forming on the glass.

It was oxygen, which was flowing through the room again thirty years later. But there was no one there.

Not yet, they had to wake up.

THE END

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would not have been able to finish this novel had it not been for the help of people very dear to me whom I want to thank one by one:

To my first reader, Carlos, for reading the first hundred pages and encouraging me to continue, for his patience and love during those years.

To my sister Olga, for our endless philosophical talks during the six years it took me to devise and spin the story, and for her valuable historical and bibliographical notes, which helped me shape the mind of Elias Harperin.

To my sister Ana, for keeping the bar high for me even without her knowing it, and for her notes, corrections and careful readings.

To my second reader, Angel Sacristan. Your advice and encouragement were tremendously valuable in times of distress.

To Ana Belso, my private medical teacher, for our long talks about Adrian's medical history and the rare syndrome in Laura and Jonah.

To Ramón Saborido, for teaching me to recognize the value of a comma.

To the late Shangay Lily, for her effective coaching and constant telephone support when I decided to finally dive in, and for her wise advice in facing this challenge when I only had one story to tell.

To Ramón de Madariaga and Covi for their support in my first steps in search for a publisher, and for pushing me to in the end do it by myself.

To Martín Cortes, for helping me to polish the last details.

To my patrons on Patreon for inspiring me to translate it myself and join me in rediscovering and enhancing the story.

To all those who supported the first Spanish edition of "Ayer" in digital and paperback formats, without them this new edition would not exist.

To Eduardo, Rufino and all their family, for allowing me to share days that changed my life.

To my grandfather, who I hope will read it and enjoy it, wherever he is.

To my family, for being the way they are.