Free Forgotten by Kailin Gow Page B

to the doctor here,” Senator Hammond says.
                “Will I get to see Celes and her friend again?” I hear Johnny ask.
                “Maybe if their other friend brings what I need. Go with Scott now, Johnny.”
    I start to panic, because it seems obvious that someone is going to be coming out of the door in front of us any second, but Jack just pulls me back against the wall beside the door, holding me flat. The door opens, and one of the senator’s bodyguards, the one who knocked me unconscious, leads Johnny from the room. He doesn’t even glance our way, though Johnny does. Thankfully, the small boy doesn’t say anything. He just smiles.
                On the other side of the door, the conversation continues.
                “It is vital that we get hold of the machine, Richard,” Senator Hammond says.
                “So you’ve said.”
                “Because it’s true, and it’s time your organization recognized that. Unless Doctor Cook can rebuild the machine for us, or supply us with another, the world, and our future, is in grave danger.”
                I press closer to the doorway, trying to hear more of what’s going on.
                “I tried to recover the machine at Location Six,” Richard says. “Then I tried to capture Sebastian Cook, and I believe he would have been able to replace the machine had he not escaped with the aid of his son, the girl, and the other Faders.”
                “And your son, Richard,” Hammond points out.
                “Yes.” There seems to be extra tension in Richard’s voice then. “Tell me, Senator, why exactly do you want the machine? It can’t be just for fading that boy of yours.”
                “You don’t think I care enough about my son for that?”
                “I don’t think that the fate of the world hangs on it,” Richard points out.
                There’s a pause. “Clever, Richard. All right. It doesn’t make that much difference now, and I guess it at least lets me point out that you and your group have been working on the wrong assumptions about the machine all along.”
                “You’d better have an explanation for that,” Richard says. I know that tone. The last time he used it around me, he was promising that he’d kill me.
                “Don’t make threats you can’t back up,” Senator Hammond says. He’s obviously less worried about Richard than I am. “As for the machine, the fading is just part of what it does; a feature designed to allow travelers to adopt appropriate identities when they arrive.”
                “What do you mean, ‘when they arrive’?”
                Senator Hammond laughs. “I’ll be surprised if you believe this, but I’m convinced the device allows for travel through time. As much as I wish things were different, it is how my son came to me. How yours came to you too.”
                Jack pulls me gently away from the door. “We have to go,” he whispers.
                I know we do, so even though I want to hear what the senator knows about the future, I follow him across the hall to the room Johnny and Scott the bodyguard went into. We pause by the door, then Jack hits the button to open it. The room on the other side is the entertainment lounge Grayson and I spent so much time in. Johnny is there playing a video game, while the bodyguard is standing there watching the door.
                Jack steps forward and hits him before he can even begin to respond, using the same speed that got us up the stairs. Because he isn’t set for the blow, Scott can’t roll with it, and his head snaps back, his eyes rolling back in his head as he crumples to the floor like a falling tree. After the beating he gave me and Grayson, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for