After Eden

on it.’

Ryan grimaced. ‘Five, actually. There’s one more person. Our clean-up agent.’

‘What’s that?’

‘A clean-up agent, or cleaner, is an agent that accompanies a time trip to police the mission. They arrive before us and leave after us. It’s their responsibility to ensure that nothing goes wrong. So, for instance, if we had crashed on arrival, our cleaner would have removed the evidence. Or if Ben went AWOL, our cleaner would find him and bring him back to his time. They also ensure the cover story, if needed, is watertight.’

‘Who is your cleaner?’

‘We’re not allowed to know.’

I frowned. ‘There are five of us that know about Eden. And three of you were sent back to change history. You’re just a seventeen-year-old boy. How on earth did you end up on this mission?’

‘Ben’s not my real dad. My real dad is an admiral at the Space and Time Institute. He’s very powerful. His father invented four-dimensional travel. And my mum’s family are all environmental campaigners. My mother lobbied for this mission. They needed someone who could pass for a sixteen-year-old student, so I volunteered.’

‘Slow down,’ I said. ‘Let’s just back up to the part about four-dimensional travel.’

‘Eden . . .’

‘I don’t want to hear any crap about Temporal Laws,’ I interrupted.

‘How did you know I was going to say that?’

‘The look on your face.’

He laughed. ‘So I’m guessing you want to know how four-dimensional travel works.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Many years ago, probably around the time you start getting a few grey hairs and crow’s-feet around your eyes,’ he began.

I shoved him and he fell back against the bed, laughing. ‘I’m just trying to give you an idea of the timescale.’

‘Fine. Give me a date. No more comments about wrinkles and grey hair.’

‘OK, OK,’ he said, holding his hands up. ‘2044. My grandfather, Nathaniel Westland, discovered how to create short cuts through space so that we can travel to distant stars in minutes instead of light years. The same technology allows you to travel through time.’

‘Are there lots of people from the future living among us?’ I whispered, suddenly wondering if all the people who claimed they’d seen flying saucers might actually be right.

Ryan sat up again. ‘No. Just Ben, Cassie, me and our cleaner.’

‘How can you be sure?’

‘Like I said, time travel is owned exclusively by my father’s company. And it is strictly regulated.’

‘But why? It would be amazing to travel back in time and see Charles Dickens in Victorian London or Catherine Howard at her execution.’

‘Gruesome choice.’

‘Just an idea. I’d have thought people would be queuing up to take a journey into the past.’

‘Imagine the terrible things people could do,’ said Ryan. ‘The neo-Nazis travelling back in time to help Hitler win the war, for instance. Altering the timeline. Time travel is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.’

A dull pain began to throb at the back of my eyes. I rubbed my forehead. ‘I have so many questions.’

‘I’ve told you a lot this morning. And you can never tell anyone what you know. The more I tell you, the more difficult that’s going to be for you. I’ve told you enough for you to understand why I’m here and what I have to do. Why our mission is so important.’

I nodded. ‘I could help you.’

He smiled. ‘I was hoping you’d say that.’

‘What can I do?’

‘You can help me get close to Connor. I’ve tried, but unfortunately he doesn’t like me too much.’

‘He does seem to have taken an irrational dislike to you. Almost as though part of him can tell that you’re here to mess up his future.’

‘I need to be close to him if I’m to stand any chance of controlling the events that lead to the discovery of the planet.’

‘I can’t make him like you, but I can make sure that you get to hang out with us after school and on weekends.’

‘That’s what I need. Especially around the date of the discovery.’

‘Which is?’

‘The twenty-third of June.’

‘That’s the day of the ball.’

‘Exactly. But that’s about all I have so far. He talks about a girl, the love of his life, breaking his heart. They have an argument and then, to blow off steam, he goes to look at the stars and discovers this planet.’

Ryan picked up Connor’s autobiography and flicked through the pages, then began reading aloud.

‘We were at a party. I was upset. This girl was the love of my life. After she publicly humiliated me, I left the party and did what I always did when I was upset. I went stargazing. There’s something about all those millions of stars out there in space that’s so humbling. It makes a broken heart seem a trivial thing.’

Ryan dropped the book back on the floor. ‘The girl is obviously you.’

‘How is that obvious?’

‘You’re his oldest friend and he names the planet Eden. I think that’s pretty good evidence.’

‘Circumstantial.’

Ryan shrugged. ‘He doesn’t say which party he was at, although I imagine it must be the leavers’ ball or a party afterwards. Do people go to parties after the ball?’

I nodded. ‘Most people go on to a party.’

‘So this argument – this broken heart – happens at the ball or right after. Then he goes to look at the stars. He would have to have used a telescope to detect Eden’s transit in front of its sun. But he doesn’t say which telescope or where he was. There are several amateur astronomy clubs in Cornwall, but Connor isn’t a member of any of them. And only one has a scheduled viewing night for the twenty-third June and that’s on the Lizard Peninsula.’

‘Can I see his autobiography again?’

‘No. You can’t know Connor’s future.’

‘You do.’

‘Yes, but I have to know. And once my mission is complete, I’ll be heading back to my own time. All this will be history.’

I froze. For a moment it was as though my heart stopped beating. Ryan leaving. For ever. My body was washed with an all too familiar feeling. There was no word to describe it. Loss. Abandonment. The end of hope.

‘Eden?’ Ryan’s forehead was creased with concern.

‘Headache,’ I said, shaking myself out of my miserable trance.

He pressed his thumb between my eyebrows. ‘You’ve had a lot to take in. Lie back, put your head on the pillow.’ I did as he said. ‘Now shut your eyes.’

He sat beside me, gently running the tips of his fingers over my forehead, in a circular motion. I sighed softly and tried to imagine the tension leaving my body, but it was the opposite of relaxing; his touch made me tighten up and all I could think about was breathing.

‘You’re very tense.’

‘I can’t help it.’

Ryan pulled the duvet on top of me so that I was covered from my neck to my toes. Then he resumed rubbing my forehead gently.

‘You’ll get cold,’ I said.

Ryan raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you suggesting I get under the covers with you?’