Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix Page B

because the hallway was empty and clear at the time you were leaving, that doesn’t mean it would be empty and clear in the time you traveled to. In fact, you knew three people were planning to be in this area at five o’clock. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
    Dimly, he realized that Jonah and Katherine had also toppled to the floor behind him. The fact that they had been reaching out of the protected room to grab him was evidently enough to make them travel through time too. And so all three of them fell like dominos when they ran into the large man.
    â€œWho are you?” the man demanded, still in that amazingly deep voice.
    Duh. He’s the man you were thinking of as Deep Voice, when you were eavesdropping from your safe, secure hiding place, Jordan realized. Of course Deep Voice or one of the other two would be walking into the lab for their meeting now.
    Why did his brain have to get so smart now, when it was too late?
    He decided to let Jonah or Katherine deal with Deep Voice’s questions.
    But the man didn’t wait for any answers. He quickly glanced around, beads swinging out from his head— beads all over a man’s hair? Is that some typical fashion in the future? Jordan wondered. Then the man kicked the door behind them completely open and shoved all three kids back into the lab.
    Jordan, Jonah, and Katherine somersaulted over one another. It was like some pileup on a soccer or football field, where Jordan lost track of whose elbow was in his ear and whose knee was in his stomach.
    Jordan had never felt so guilty about causing a pileup in soccer or football.
    â€œSorry,” he muttered. “Sorry. I should have thought . . .”
    â€œShh,” Katherine hissed at him, as if she still hoped she could hide, even as Deep Voice stared down at them.
    No, not just Deep Voice. Two other people were staring down at them, too: A woman in a bright purple robeand a man with what seemed to be tattoos of eagles and trees across his face.
    Maybe Jordan shouldn’t have gotten so distracted looking at clothes and tattoos and beads. In the next instant, Deep Voice snatched the two Elucidators from Jordan’s hand. And the woman went into a defensive stance and pointed something that looked like a flash drive at all three of the kids.
    â€œDon’t move!” she commanded, just as if she were pointing a gun at them.
    Oh, um, maybe she is? Jordan realized. Maybe that’s what guns look like in the future?
    â€œSpies,” Deep Voice growled.
    â€œThe question is, who are they spies for?” the woman asked, still in her Don’t move or I’ll shoot you stance.
    â€œWe’ll interrogate them separately,” the tattooed man announced. “That should help.”
    Jordan thought that would mean he’d have a few moments to whisper to Katherine and Jonah while they were being taken away. But the tattooed man pointed at three corners of the room, one after the other. Shimmering walls appeared instantly in each of those corners, creating small private cubicles.
    â€œI’ll take the girl,” the woman announced, pulling Katherine up and away from Jordan and Jonah.
    â€œYou want old-timey-clothes boy number one or old-timey-clothes boy number two?” Deep Voice asked Tattoo Face.
    Jordan wanted to protest, I’m not wearing old-timey clothes! But if this was the future, he guessed maybe his clothes would look old-fashioned. Did his T-shirt and sweatpants look as strange to the two men as their tattoos and beads looked to him?
    â€œDon’t—” Jonah started to whisper in Jordan’s ear, but Deep Voice and Tattoo Face were already yanking them apart.
    â€œExcept for their clothes, it looks like they’re pretty much the same person,” Tattoo Face muttered. “So it’s probably not going to matter.”
    Deep Voice pulled Jordan to the nearest cubicle. Although the walls looked see-through from the outside, they