Free Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix Page A

out of her eyes.
    â€œWhy would Gary and Hodge want to end all of time?” she asked. “How does that help them? I thought they just wanted to get rich! What’s the point of being rich if everything’s just going to end?”
    â€œGary and Hodge expected our dimension of time to end,” Jonah said. He cut his eyes toward Jordan, then back to Katherine. “I mean, the dimension I was in and Jordan wasn’t. Hodge told me that was going to happen regardless, because things changed too much with the plane crashing and thirty-six babies staying in a different time. And Gary and Hodge were going to escape to the dimension where nothing changed. Or nothing important, anyway.”
    He’d better not be talking about my dimension! Jordan thought. Making it sound like I’m not important . . .
    â€œBut then you smashed all the dimensions together,” Jordan said accusingly. He hadn’t quite followed all the time-travel hocus-pocus the others had explained to him, and he still wasn’t sure he believed any of it. Even witnessing it himself wasn’t entirely convincing. (What if this wasn’t actually the future he was sitting in right this moment? What if this was just some huge, elaborate trick?) But it kind of felt good to blame Jonah.
    Jonah shook his head. “JB said putting the dimensions back together saved time,” he insisted. “He said everything was fixed. Except for Mom and Dad and Angela and some other adults still being kids.”
    â€œCould that change things enough to end time forever, in all dimensions?” Katherine asked. “Could Gary and Hodge have changed their ages on purpose, trying to make sure the one dimension ended and then . . . then what they did turned out to be more powerful than they expected? So it’s going to ruin everything?”
    â€œOkay,” Jordan said, starting to stand up. His legs were getting stiff. “Let’s find Mom and Dad, and then let’s find those guys Gary and Hodge, and we’ll just tell them they have to make Mom and Dad the right ages again or they’ll ruin time. . . . This is easy!”
    Katherine grabbed Jordan’s arm and tugged him back down.
    â€œStop being so stupid,” she said. “This isn’t easy. You don’t know where Gary and Hodge are. You don’t know what’s out there. You don’t even know where we are!”
    â€œI’m guessing we’re at some office building for Interchronological Rescue,” Jonah said. He sounded almost like that JB guy back home. His voice was just as tense. “Remember, Katherine? That’s the company Gary and Hodge worked for. And those people said something about Curtis Rathbone—remember, he was the head of the company, the one we saw talking on the video way back at the cave, the day we all found out the truth. . . .”
    â€œOh, no. You’re right,” Katherine said, slumping back against the side of the lab desk. “That means . . .”
    â€œRight,” Jonah said. “We’re in enemy territory. And Second’s got to be around here somewhere too. And I bet he has Mom and Dad stashed somewhere we can’t get to.”
    â€œAnd there’s something about this room that would keep the time agency from seeing what happens here . . . so we can’t count on them for any help . . . ,” Katherine whispered.
    They were practically finishing each other’s sentences. For all Jordan could tell, maybe they were practically reading each other’s minds. It was like they were some time-traveling duo who’d worked together for years.
    And it was like they’d both forgotten Jordan was even there.
    Hello? Jordan wanted to say. Katherine’s my sister. It’s my parents we need to rescue.
    And for all their talk, what were these two even figuring out? As far as Jordan could tell, he was