The Tomorrow Code (42 page)

Tane and Rebecca lay on their backs on the small wooden platform in the center of the two main playing fields and looked up at the stars, for the rain had stopped many hours ago, and the night was clear and beautiful….

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to Mere Whaanga, who provided great wisdom and advice on the cultural aspects of this story, and to Dr. Roger Booth, associate professor of immunology and health psychology at the University of Auckland, whose vivid descriptions of the immune system at work provided the basis for much of the science in this book and made a technical and complex subject highly entertaining. Thanks also to Creative New Zealand for their generous funding, which allowed me time to work on this book.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Whether it’s an undersea encounter with a moray eel or a ride on an elephant with a mind of its own, Brian Falkner often finds himself in strange and exciting situations—just the sorts of adventures he enjoys writing about! While Tane and Rebecca don’t run into any eels or elephants, characters in Brian’s future books had better be prepared for anything….

Brian studied computers in college but left school to pursue his love of writing. After training as a journalist, he worked as a reporter, an advertising copywriter, a radio announcer, and an Internet developer before his first children’s book was published. Now he lives on the North Shore of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, with his wife, their two kids, and two dogs.

To learn more about Brian’s adventures—and his books!—visit his Web site at
www.brianfalkner.co.nz
.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2008 by Brian Falkner

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

Alfred Publishing Company, Inc.: Lyrics from “Big Yellow Taxi,” words and music by Joni Mitchell, copyright © 1970 (renewed) by Crazy Crow Music. All rights reserved by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Lyrics from “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” words by Haven Gillespie and music by J. Fred Coots, copyright © 1934 (renewed) by EMI Feist Catalog, Inc. Rights for the extended renewal term in the United States are controlled by Haven Gillespie Music and EMI Feist Catalog, Inc. Exclusive worldwide print rights administered by Alfred Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing: Lyrics from “Yellow Submarine,” words and music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, copyright © 1966. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Visit us on the Web!
www.randomhouse.com/teens

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Falkner, Brian.

The tomorrow code / Brian Falkner.—1st American ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Two New Zealand teenagers receive a desperate SOS from their future selves and set out on a quest to stop an impending ecological disaster that could mean the end of humanity.

eISBN:978-0-375-89233-2

[1. Science fiction. 2. Environmental disasters—Fiction. 3. New Zealand—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.F1947To 2008

[Fic]—dc22

2007036607

Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

v1.0