But Dorothy didn’t feel successful. She watched Roman from the corner of her eye while they stacked the panels into neat rows at the back of the Black Crow.

A dozen questions rose up in her throat, all some variation of What happened to the children?

But she couldn’t ask that question because she knew the answer already. An earthquake was going to hit this city in less than eight hours. Every house in this neighborhood would be reduced to rubble. By this time tomorrow, the little girl with the braids and the boy building the tree house would most likely be dead.

Roman slammed the door to the cargo hold shut, his eyes shifting to the horizon. “We should head back,” he said. “Before . . .”

Dorothy nodded, following his gaze to the sky. The edges of this world had already turned orange and pink. It looked like the city was on fire and Dorothy had to remind herself that it wasn’t yet. But it would be.

“Right,” she said, and she climbed into the time machine after him.

LOG ENTRY—JUNE 27, 2074

05:49 HOURS

THE WORKSHOP

Now that we’ve determined that humanity has free will, and that the future is not predestined, I’d like to take a look at how far that free will extends. In other words, I want to know if my personal ability to make choices different from the choices I’ve seen myself make in the future could change more than what I have for lunch tomorrow.

I’m once again going to travel one day into the future only; this time, I’ll pull up a local news site and read about the terrible things that are going to happen today, and then I’ll attempt to use free will to see if it’s possible to change them. As always, I’ll update on my return.

UPDATE—06:24 HOURS

After scanning the news, I’ve decided to focus my energies on this story:

Motorcyclist seriously injured in hit-and-run crash near Renton.

The motorcyclist in question is an eighteen-year-old kid with his whole life ahead of him, and the crash wasn’t his fault, it was the fault of some jerk-off who didn’t even stop to make sure he was okay. He has some pretty serious injuries, too, so if I can keep this from happening, I can change this kid’s entire future. I did a quick search of the kid’s name, and it looks like he lives in Redmond, which is just a half hour drive from here.

Here’s the plan: I’m going to stop by this kid’s house and tell him that I’m Professor Zacharias Walker (there was a special on me last year . . . I’m fairly well-known at the moment) and that he’s going to be in a car accident today, and so he should avoid his motorcycle for the next twenty-four hours. Wish me luck!

UPDATE—18:56 HOURS

I’ve just returned, and I’m afraid I don’t have good news.

The mission started out well. I got into my car and drove to this young man’s house and told him exactly what I’d planned to tell him, that I’m a time traveler and that he’s going to be in a debilitating accident if he chooses to ride his motorcycle today.