Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix Page A

five minutes of science class, when it seemed like time stopped and the boring teacher was going to ramble on forever.
    â€œJordan, you don’t know all the dangers possible,” Jonah said.
    â€œNot that it’s your fault,” Katherine added quickly.
    That didn’t help. Jordan shot both of them a defiant look, then bent down toward the Elucidators in Jonah’s hands.
    â€œElucidators, send us ahead in time to five p.m. today,” he said.
    Jordan didn’t feel any of the spinning dizziness of his last few trips through time. But maybe he wouldn’t, when he wasn’t even moving ahead a full day?
    Then he saw words glowing near Jonah’s hands: MY ACTIONS ARE BLOCKED BY THE TIME-DEADENING PROPERTIES OF THIS ROOM. YOU MUST LEAVE THIS ROOM TO TRAVEL THROUGH TIME.
    â€œOkay, that’s suspicious,” Jonah said. “Why could we get into this room with time travel, but not out of it?”
    â€œGary and Hodge’s coworkers said it’s a protected space,” Katherine reminded him. She cupped her chin in her hand, as if she planned to think for a long time. “Hmm . . .”
    â€œAre you two going to do nothing but talk about this until five o’clock?” Jordan asked incredulously.
    â€œWe’ve got to figure out what’s going on,” Jonah said. “I don’t trust Second, he’s using Mom and Dad as bait, we don’t even know what year this is—we’ve got to be careful!”
    What was it about Jonah that made Jordan feel so much like punching him?
    â€œRight—Mom and Dad are missing, so I’m not going to just sit here doing nothing!” Jordan said.
    He reached over and grabbed both the cell phone and the plastic card from Jonah’s hands. Then he stood up.
    â€œJordan, wait!” Katherine cried.
    â€œYou’re not thinking this through!” Jonah argued.
    Both of them reached toward Jordan, trying to grab the two Elucidators back. But Jordan was a step ahead of them. He held both Elucidators high over his head, out of their reach. Katherine and Jonah scrambled to their feet, but Jordan anticipated that, too. He took off running toward the door.
    â€œJordan, you don’t know what’s out there!” Katherine called after him.
    â€œStop!” Jonah hissed.
    Jordan reached the door and wrapped his hand around the knob.
    I’ll show them. I’m not as careless as they think, he told himself. He pulled the door open only a crack, so he could peek out, just in case.
    Outside the lab he saw an empty hallway. Maybe it was wildly futuristic; maybe the walls and floors and ceiling were made of some bizarre substance that didn’t even exist in the twenty-first century. Jordan didn’t pay attention to any of that. All he cared about was that the hall was empty. He gave himself an extra second of glancing around to see if there were security cameras anywhere in sight. His brain threw an irritating thought at him: Maybe in the future, security cameras are just woven into the wallpaper orotherwise completely undetectable. . . . But if there were security cameras, wouldn’t the three people who’d come into the lab already have shut them off? Jonah and Katherine had almost caught up with Jordan. He didn’t have time to worry about every little possibility.
    Out of the corner of his eye, Jordan could see Jonah and Katherine reaching for him. Just as he felt them grab for his shirt, he yanked the door open and stepped out into the hall.
    â€œElucidator, take the three of us ahead to five o’clock today!” Jordan muttered.
    The next thing Jordan knew, a very large man smashed into him.
    â€œWhere did you come from?” a deep voice asked.

TWELVE
    Jordan slammed to the floor, which may have been cushioned more than a typical twenty-first-century floor, but he didn’t care about that either. His brain had just figured something out, way too late: Just