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  ‘To be clear,’ said Scarlett, ‘are you saying that David Maguire did not play any part in the death of Melody Dane?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said.

  The judge had to bring his gavel down several times to silence the court. Maguire summoned Scarlett over and, once order had been regained, she said, ‘In view of this evidence, Professor Maguire would like to alter his statement.’

  ‘You have something to say, Professor Maguire?’ said the judge.

  Maguire stood up, glanced at me, then addressed the judge. ‘Melody Dane was my friend,’ he said. ‘I never cared whether the child was mine but I did care about her. Together, Melody and I shared a common pursuit. We shared a dream. We knew we would change the world, but the world had other ideas. It removed her from that equation. So when I discovered it was possible to alter the past, Melody was my first thought. If it was possible to change the world’s mistakes, I would correct that one. I went back and stopped her dying.’

  ‘How?’ asked the judge.

  ‘I had the seatbelt in my car fixed,’ replied Maguire.

  ‘And what had happened when you arrived back from the jump?’ enquired the judge.

  ‘She was alive. She never died.’

  ‘But that means that ours is not the originating version,’ said the judge.

  ‘That is correct,’ said Maguire. ‘This policy has always been suicidal because it was decided in a world created when I saved Melody. Many believe that all these versions are awfully messy but life is mess. It is messy and chaotic and strange and, as far as I’m concerned, endlessly wondrous. When I saved Melody’s life I was correcting an accident that should never have happened.’

  ‘He’s lying,’ yelled Melody. The man next to her tugged her sleeve and urged her to sit down but there was no containing her anger. ‘You’ve got it the wrong way round. You can’t believe his testimony over mine. This witness has been manipulated by the ETA agent. David Maguire is a murderer. This is the originating version.’

  ‘Silence,’ shouted the judge forcibly.

  Melody sat back down.

  ‘What I would like to know was why it has taken the professor this long to tell the truth,’ said the judge. ‘You stood here accused of murder when, in fact, we’ve just heard that you had saved the life you were accused of taking. Why would you not use this as your defence from the start?’

  Maguire’s reply was spoken loudly enough for the courtroom to hear but it was directed at Melody. ‘You deserved life,’ he said. ‘You deserved everything you have achieved. The Echo Corporation is not what I would have done but it was what you wanted. You always had more business sense and ambition than me. I’m glad I helped you realise your dream.’

  He turned back to address the judge. ‘If I had told the truth then this version would have been destroyed. Melody would have been killed a second time. I never wanted that. I still don’t want that.’

  Even the judge was unable to reclaim the courtroom after this so he announced that the court was in recess while a verdict was reached.

  The only people not talking were Melody and Maguire, who were staring at each other in silent dismay.

  ‘Well done, Eddie,’ said Scarlett. ‘I know it can’t have been easy.’

  ‘What happens now?’ I asked. ‘What happens to me now?’

  ‘The same thing that will happen to all of us. The timeline will be cleaned up. No more multiple versions of the world. Everything we have achieved and all of the mistakes we’ve made are going to be wiped away. A new originating point will be picked and procedures will be put into place to prevent this happening again. That’s the idea.’

  ‘But, how can that be possible if … ’

  ‘Eddie,’ she interrupted. ‘The only thing you need to know is that the world is going back to square one.’

  ‘But won’t it all just happen again?’

  ‘Who knows? They think they’ve done all they can to ensure it doesn’t, but you just heard Maguire. The man who saved your mother, only to have her accuse him of murder, has no regrets.’

  ‘Will I remember?’ I said. ‘All of this?’

  ‘None of us will,’ she replied.

  ‘I don’t want to forget you.’

  ‘One day, you won’t have to,’ she replied.

  The Beginning

  It was the summer holidays and I was cycling around on my own, going nowhere in particular, when I first saw Lauren. It was one of those rare moments, among all those grey rainy days in the valley, when the sun shines and you realise how far you can see. The sky was endless blue, the valley was a hundred shades of green and there she was, running through a field of yellow sunflowers.

  So many colours, but not one that compared with her.

  She was waving her arms and running towards a police car that had just overtaken me. The female police officer smiled at me as she passed but she can’t have heard the girl shouting because she didn’t slow down and her car disappeared around the corner.

  I stopped my bike and stared at the girl. I suppose I must have felt invisible because I was surprised when she saw me.

  ‘Hello? Excuse me. Can you help? I’m lost,’ she said.

  ‘I … er … I was just cycling past,’ I said stupidly. ‘Where are you trying to get to?’

  ‘The cottage where I’m staying. We’ve just arrived. I’m here on holiday.’

  She had short blond hair and green-blue eyes.

  ‘You’re in one of the holiday cottages?’ I said.

  ‘Yes, but I can’t remember what it’s called.’

  I laughed.

  ‘I know. It’s stupid. I think it had something to do with honey. There are roses in the garden.’

  ‘That narrows it down.’

  Her smile was like nothing I had ever seen before.

  ‘I’m Lauren,’ she said.

  ‘Eddie,’ I replied. ‘I’ll help you find your cottage if you like.’

  ‘Thanks. I was beginning to worry that I’d be searching all night and end up getting eaten by wolves.’

  ‘Well, we haven’t found it yet … You still might,’ I replied. ‘Except we don’t have wolves here. It’s more likely you’ll get nibbled to death by sheep.’

  We set off down the road. It was strange how easy she was to talk to but I didn’t question it.

  I stopped walking.

  ‘What is it?’ she said.

  ‘Shout something,’ I replied.

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Anything.’

  At the top of her voice, she shouted, ‘Anything!’

  The word bounced off the hills and came back to us.

  ‘Cool echo,’ she said. ‘It’s like there’s another me shouting back.’

  ‘There isn’t much to do around here. Talking to yourself is the best entertainment we’ve got.’

  ‘I like it,’ she said. ‘Are you on holiday here too?’

  ‘No, I live here.’

  ‘Wow.’

  Even though I normally hated life in the valley, today I understood what she meant. At that moment it looked like the most stunning place on earth.

  ‘It’s not normally like this,’ I said. ‘This is a good day.’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ she replied.

  Acknowledgements

  This book is just one of many altered versions. The numerous echo jumps that produced it were made possible by those who generously spent time reading its ‘originating’ versions. These echo time agents include Lisa Whittaker, Leslie and Lesley Jones (AKA mum and dad), Naomi Colthurst, Sarah Odedina and Melissa Hyder at Hot Key Books and Susan Van Metre at Abrams. Thanks to Madi Bliss for school timetables and to Lauren Bliss for use of her name. The finer points of echo technology were ironed out with the assistance of various pub-based conversations with individuals including (but not exclusively) Tara Cowell, Pete Brooker, Amanda Clyde, Dr Finbar Good, Adam Holt and Natalie Foster. The Echo Corporation apologises for any dizziness or confusion caused while attempting to understand how echo technol
ogy actually works.

  ALSO BY GARETH P. JONES

  The Society of Thirteen

  Constable & Toop

  The Considine Curse

  The Thornthwaite Inheritance

  Gareth P. Jones

  Gareth divides his time between writing books, visiting schools, producing TV programmes and annoying his friends and family by playing the ludicrous number of stringed instruments in his front room. He won the Blue Peter Book of the Year Prize 2012 for The Considine Curse, and The Case of The Missing Cats, the first book in The Dragon Detective Agency series, was nominated for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. The Thornthwaite Inheritance won seven children’s book awards, and his previous books for Hot Key Books, Constable & Toop and The Society of Thirteen, were extremely well-received. Follow Gareth at www.garethwrites.co.uk or on Twitter: @jonesgarethp

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  First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Hot Key Books

  Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0AT

  Text copyright © 2015 Gareth P. Jones

  Cover illustration copyright © 2015 Sam Hearn

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978-1-4714-0417-7

  This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher

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