The Infinite. Patience Agbabi

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      Mrs C Eckler brought her eyebrows down to her eyes. I think she was cross. But I had to know whether he was bad or mega bad. He smiled.

      ‘Never killed no one. Live by the knife, die by the knife.’

      I remember wishing he didn’t talk in riddles. What had knives got to do with it if he never killed anybody? Big Ben put his hand up.

      ‘If you killed your dad in the past, will you die?’

      ‘As I said . . .’ He scrunched up his eyebrows. ‘I never killed no one. But you’re right. You wouldn’t exist if you killed your dad. Your dad wouldn’t meet your mum and hatch you. It would be a time paradox. Heard of the Grandfather Paradox? Same thing. Don’t think it’s ever happened.’ He looked at Mrs C Eckler, who cleared her throat.

      ‘Could you say something about the work you do NOW?’

      But before MC² had time to respond, Jake said: ‘Did you ever steal watches from the future?’

      Trust Jake to ask this. He’s always in trouble and I think he was asking for criminal tips rather than to learn from someone else’s mistakes.

      ‘Yes and no.’ More riddles. ‘I committed crimes but my action’s bin erased. The future ain’t fixed like the past. You can change it.’

      I liked that idea. If you do something stupid in the future, you get another chance and another and another to make it right. You get an infinite amount of chances until it becomes the present. Then it’s the past and you can’t change it any more.

      I think MC² liked that idea as well. He seemed to double in size.

      ‘Now,’ he said, like he was punching a hole in the present, ‘I work for the Time Squad.’

      I heard someone whisper, ‘Thought it was the Rhyme Squad,’ and Mrs C Eckler turned her head but she couldn’t see who it was.

      ‘We fight crime on the time-line. Mostly respond to SOS texts,’ he continued. ‘SOS is code for HELP. If an Anachronism’s bin committed, usually someone’s bin attacked or their life’s in danger. We get there ASAP. Most texts come from the future.’

      ‘Why?’ Jake again. There’s no hope for that boy.

      ‘There’s bin an upsurge of eco-crimes since the millennium. Peeps starting to realise they can make big cash from it. Easier to hide stuff in the future. You don’t mess up history; you’re less likely to get caught. Mostly smuggling. Meat, ivory, extinct animals. Toxic waste. The odd murder. Murderers get life imprisonment. Ad infinitum. Don’t mean 20 years, means you’re locked up till you drop down dead an’ they bury you in the prison vaults.’

      We all did what-big-eyes.

      ‘How can you work in that job when you used to be a criminal?’ Maria, and she didn’t put her hand up. Sometimes she goes out of turn in a high jump competition, gets disqualified and swears in Portuguese. She hates rules.

      ‘They gave me a choice.’ He looked round the room and everyone was holding their breath to see what he’d say next. ‘Work for us or go Young Offenders Unit. I made the right choice.’

      I stood up. ‘How old are you?’ Mrs C Eckler gave me another look.

      ‘15. And a bit. Lost count on my travels.’

      We gasped. You’re supposed to stay in full-time education till you’re 18.

      ‘I’m based in 2048. Different rules. If ya got talent, age don’t matter.’

      Mrs C Eckler cleared her throat as if to make an announcement. ‘In Term four, there’ll be a Leapling trip to 2048 where you’ll have the chance to stay at the Time Squad Centre.’ Class noise. ‘It will be the last opportunity before it moves years. As you know, the future is always in flux. But we can only take four pupils. You have to earn it. I’ll be assessing you on Effort the next two terms and make a selection based on that.’ It all went quiet. There’s fourteen of us. ‘Yes, Ben.’

      A three-second pause. Big Ben often pauses if you ask him a question, like he’s translating it into English. It’s the autism. You need to give him time to process. ‘If you wanted to report a crime . . .’ He paused again. ‘An Anachronism. What number do we text?’

      MC² scrunched his eyebrows again. ‘2000,’ he said. ‘Easy to remember. But text me now, an’ your names, so you got Time Squad number on your memory. An’ I got yours.’ He took a massive silver phone out of his bag. ‘If you come next year, you’ll get a Chronophone. Can text past, present, future. Your TwentyTwenties should work normal.’

      Mrs C Eckler gave him another mega smile. ‘It’s usually against school rules to use phones in lessons but this is a very special occasion. Please do as MC² says.’

      I took out my phone, which is white, and renamed it TwentyTwenty in my head because I liked the echo, typed Time Squad and the number 2000. Then my name, letter by letter: E L L E and pressed send.

      I could see Big Ben wanted to ask another question but he didn’t put up his hand. He sounded like he was going to cough. But Mrs C Eckler could see as well and encouraged Big Ben to speak.

      ‘If you got a Predictive, will you die?’

      Mrs C Eckler cleared her throat. MC² stopped blinking and raised his eyebrows at Ben.

      ‘Leap’s done his homework,’ he said. ‘Predictives are rare, bro. VERY rare. You won’t die. Depends on context, not TEXT. Know what a Predictive is?’

      There was a long pause before Big Ben answered.

      ‘When your phone sends a text before it happens.’

      ‘Close. But it’s not your phone. Someone types a text in the future to the past. Often a call for help. You get one, you gotta act on it.’

      He looked at Big Ben for a long time before he nodded his head and smiled. Mrs C Eckler was looking at her watch.

      ‘MC² is available to sign autographs afterwards and you’ll have the chance to ask him a question 1-2-1, if you didn’t get a chance just now.’

      I didn’t get his autograph. And I definitely didn’t want to talk 1-2-1 with a criminal. It was noisy and I needed to go outside. Walking across the quad, I got out my phone and already there was a message from Time Squad:

      MC².

       Chapter 04:00

       OOPS

      It’s Thursday. I’m not going to school today. I’m tongue- tied.

      Tongue-tied’s not the same as not talking. Tongue-tied feels like someone’s tied up your tongue so you can’t talk. Not talking’s when you could talk but choose to stay silent.

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