“But the future is open, full of possibilities!” I protested. “The past is written, but the future is a blank—”

“True enough,” Me₃ interrupted. “But if you put your mind to it, you can travel a little bit into the future. Collapse down the quantum probability-states, or at least that’s something close to it. Can’t go very far, mind—it sure takes the wind out of you. I only managed it about forty-five seconds. But for those forty-five seconds, _I vanished out of the timeline.”_

“Does Leptoceratops know about this?” Me₂ asked.

“No, Latrodecta does not know. Use it to your advantage. Do it and she’ll think you jumped to the past, and go there accordingly. But we can put an end to her meddlesomeness.” Me₃ went on, clicking a slide, showing a third timeline—his—in a bright yellow. “After waking up from my future-traveling funk, I regained all my memories, including those of this.” He shoved a metal briefcase into my hand and handcuffed it to me. “This is your ace in the hole.”