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NOTE: There was significant editing done to this edition of the book. If you buy the older version published by HarperCollins you will be missing a new chapter.
Safely ensconced in the past, away from the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation — away from Dr. Emir’s parallel reality machine — the biggest worry in Sam Rose’s life right now? The heat of an Australian summer.
But her phone buzzes: a mysterious notification about the old Jane Doe case. The case buried beneath more layers of Top Secret protocols than anything else in the world. Another woman found, same fracture patterns, same murder weapon.
Sam should let it slide. But she never caught the killer — her killer — and she never determined which version of herself she buried in an unmarked grave. Getting involved threatens the stability not just of her world — Sam’s shocking discovery reveals a silent war that endangers the entire fabric of reality. No one can escape the fall out.
Only one reality will prevail. And every step Sam takes shifts her one step closer to becoming the girl in the grave…
The stunning conclusion to the Time & Shadows series that will have you on the edge of your seat until the final heart-pounding twist. Perfect for fans of J.D. Robb and Philip K. Dick.
“Gripping, edgy, and well-written.” and “Dark and haunting…”
– Romancing The Book Reviews
“Decoherence (n): a period of time when all iterations collapse and there is only one possible reality.”
~ excerpt from Definitions of Time by Emmanuela Pine, I1
Read the opening pages below!
Day 247
Year 5 of Progress
Capitol Spire
Main Continent
Iteration 17—Fan 1
… three. Rose stood and peered through the frosted, warped glass of the conference room as the speaker turned away. It didn’t matter which iteration she was in, Emir was predictable. She had seven seconds to do a head count. She didn’t need that long.
A quick head count was all it took to confirm that the einselected nodes she’d been sent to assassinate were where they belonged.
Every iteration had nodes, people or events that kept that variation of human history from collapsing. Dr. Emir had created a machine that allowed people not only to move along their own timeline, but at critical convergence points, it allowed them to cross between realities. But the Mechanism for Iteration Alignment’s greatest ability was the one that allowed Dr. Emir and Central Command to steer history by erasing futures they didn’t want.
Rose knelt beside the door, did one final sweep for alarms, and nodded for her team to move in. It was her job to cross at convergence points, kill the nodes, and collapse the futures that no one wanted.
One look at the version of herself watching this iteration’s Emir with rapt fascination was enough to make Rose want to snip this future in the bud.
Chubby was the first thing that came to mind. Rose’s doppelganger was enjoying being at the top of the social pyramid and probably gorging on whatever passed as a delicacy here. The squared bangs with a streak of riotous red only accented the corpulence and lack of self-control the inferior other had.
Even with a heavy wood door between them, Rose could hear that this iteration’s Emir was hypothesizing things the MIA was never meant to do. Everyone with half a brain knew that decoherence didn’t combine iterations, it crushed them. Only the true timeline, the Prime, would survive decoherence. Planning to welcome and integrate doppelgangers into the society was pure idiocy.
The techs sealing the door shut gave her the high sign.
Rose nodded to her hacker.
“Cameras locked. Security is deaf and blind, ma’am” Logan’s voice was a soft whisper in her earpiece. He was a genius with computer systems, a fact that had saved him when they collapsed I-38 three years ago. “We have a fifteen-minute window.”
“Hall cleared,” reported Bennet. “Permission to move perimeter guard to the exit?”
Rose nodded. “Permission granted.” She waved for the soldiers to move out. There could be no risk of failure. No chance for the errant nodes to escape, and no risk that her team would get killed here.