When we came to the future and started looking into our pasts, I had no idea our actions would affect the people living now. We were supposed to be ghosts of time, flitting in and out of the future without leaving a trace. Now the police are after us and Wombat’s waiting for a date that will never happen. What other echoes will we leave behind in the future?

12:02

12:02

Dr. Walters’s retirement home looks more like a five-star hotel than a place for old people to live out the rest of their days. Automatic doors slide open to marble floors, potted plants, and chandeliers. A nurse pushes an older woman past a sign that points to different rooms: cafeteria, library, game room, media room, exercise room, and medical center. Basically, everything you’d need so you never have to leave the building again.

I head to the front desk, anxious to talk to Dr. Walters and get some answers. The others crowd behind me, and a man with curly red hair smiles from behind the counter.

“Hi, we’re here to see Dr.—I mean, uh, Bob Walters,” I say. I wonder if his name is actually Robert and if I should have said that instead.

But the guy just nods. “Are you on the list?”

“The list?” I shoot a look at the others. Future-Adam didn’t say anything about a list.

“The list of approved visitors.” The guy’s smile drops, and he taps the edge of a fingerprint scanner. “I’ll need you to sign in here.”

So much for our fake IDs. “Um, one sec,” I say. The five of us retreat to the corner to talk.

“What do we do?” Zoe whispers.

Adam removes his baseball cap and runs a hand through his hair. “I’ll have to scan in.”

“No way,” I say. “The police will be able to trace us here.”

“What other choice do we have?”

“How do we know you’re even on the list?” Trent asks.

“My older self told us to come here,” Adam says. “He wouldn’t have sent us if we couldn’t get in. And I can use the device he gave us to knock out the security cameras.”

Trent eyes the guy at the front desk, then checks out the doors. “I don’t know. Maybe we can sneak in somehow.”

Chris shakes his head. “Too risky.”

I weigh all our options but don’t see any other way in. And our trail ends here. Future-Adam gave us no other clues or leads after this. We have to find out what Dr. Walters knows. But I can’t shake the feeling this is a really bad idea. “No, Adam’s right. He’s the only one who can get us in.”

“What about the police?” Chris asks.

“We’ll have to be fast.”