‘Who’s gonna be punished. OK, you don’t have to befriend him, you got friends already. He likes you. Maybe if you were nice to him, he might . . .’ She shrugs her shoulders. ‘You might be able to prevent all this.’

‘He’s not God. He didn’t invent global warming.’

‘Maybe not. But one small act could change the world. Ever heard of the Butterfly Effect?’

Big Ben knows the answer. We all wait to hear what he has to say. But at that moment MC2 appears out of nowhere.

‘Leaps,’ he blinks, ‘what happened in the hall, forget it. You ain’t graduated yet. You and Big Ben just got promoted.’

‘To the Time Squad?’ I say. How can we help run the Time Squad when we’re only 3-leap? That’s too young, even in the future.

‘No. The Infinites. Time Squad’s past tense. You freeze-framed Le Temps. We need your skills.’

‘I can’t because I’m only 3-leap and I’m not allowed to have a tattoo until I’m 4-leap and I can’t live in the future because Grandma wouldn’t have anyone to make her pepper soup when her leg is paining her.’

‘No probs, sis. You got the symbol anyways. Carved two more in The Round. Symbolising you and Big Ben. You get the tat when you level up.’

I open my mouth to a capital O. That explains the two extra signs on the trees. He predicted we’d become Infinites before the Predictive! He’s still talking.

‘You got no choice. Millennia’s speech . . .’ He shakes his head. ‘You faced the Predictive. Now you gotta face down Millennia.’ He pauses. ‘An’ your man leapt 52 years in a race car.’ He disappears, appears on the same spot. ‘You don’t have to LIVE here, just leap, Leaps.

‘Infinites need numbers. We gotta stop the eco-crimes. ROOT FOR THE FUTURE. When Leaps kept vanishing an’ I came to your school, I was head-hunting.’

‘Is our headteacher a criminal too?’

‘No, sis. Head-hunting’s recruitment. I needed kids who took no spit, Leaps scorin’ high on the PPF.’ He looks at me and Big Ben. ‘You two just passed initiation.’

Big Ben scrunches up his forehead. ‘Is it like a ROAD for the future?’

‘I meant R O O T, but ya know what? It could be R O U T E as well. Maestro, Ben!’ He looks at his watch. ‘Meet you at The Round. In five.’

Kwesi, Noon, Ama and Eve are already there. You need eight people for the ceremony, to make the infinity sign. Kwesi looks at no one in particular, making shapes with his hands.

‘Kwesi says choose a letter or the letter will choose you,’ says MC2. ‘He means an initial, like the Time Squad. I’m E, GMT is G, Kwesi’s K. It’s better you choose one yourself. Gives it more grav.’