Is he trying to tell me something? Jordan wondered.
He couldn’t figure out what it was, so he just lay still a moment longer. He seemed to be covering Kevin’s body; Kevin sprawled facedown and apparently totally unconscious beneath him.
JB grabbed Jordan’s arm and yanked him away from Kevin.
“Keep your eyes closed, but be ready.” JB leaned close to whisper in Jordan’s ear. He pressed his fingers against Jordan’s neck—was he covering by pretending to check Jordan’s pulse?
“This one doesn’t seem injured, but he is unconscious,” JB said loudly, clearly talking to Cira again. “You checked out that Elucidator you confiscated and determined it would be safe to discharge in an emergency like this, correct? And you had it set for voice commands only for the person touching it?”
Why’s he asking about that? Jordan wondered. Is he trying to tell me something? Does he expect me to leap up and wrestle the Elucidator from Cira and actually get away?
He decided to wait for Cira’s answer.
“Of course,” Cira said. Her voice shook. “I followed procedure.”
“I’m sure you did,” JB said soothingly. “But . . . let me see that Elucidator myself. The one you took from this boy and used just now.”
He’s definitely setting something up, Jordan thought. But how will I know when whatever I’m supposed to be ready for is going to happen?
He dared to open one eye just a crack, enough to see Cira reaching over him to hand JB the Elucidator.
“Got it,” JB said. “Oh—oops!”
Something hit Jordan’s stomach: the Elucidator. JB had dropped the Elucidator on Jordan.
He did that on purpose, didn’t he? Jordan wondered. Then he told himself: Who cares? It happened! This is my chance!
Jordan wrapped his hands around the Elucidator.
“Get me out of here!” he screamed.
JB, Cira, Kevin, and the hospital hallway all vanished instantly.
THIRTY-NINE
Jordan spun through time. It seemed to go on and on and on, just him and the darkness and the spinning.
“Where are you taking me?” Jordan asked the Elucidator.
YOU JUST SAID “OUT OF HERE” the Elucidator glowed back at him. I’M NOT TAKING YOU ANYWHERE AT THE MOMENT.
Jordan realized he was just spinning in place. No wonder he was starting to feel sick to his stomach.
“Take me to my family,” he said, and it felt so good to say those words.
SECOND TOLD YOU THEY WEREN’T ALL IN THE SAME PLACE, REMEMBER? the Elucidator glowed again.
How could a mere glowing light actually look snarky?
Jordan remembered the wording Second had gotten him to use. This time he was going to add to it a bit.
“Take me where I can make a difference—in a way that leads to rescuing my family,” he said.
IF YOU INSIST the Elucidator flashed back.
Jordan began to speed forward. Now he could see lights in the distance that seemed to be moving closer.
Jordan thought of something else to worry about.
“That girl Cira couldn’t follow me, could she?” he asked. “I mean, because you’re not a time-agency Elucidator. Or would there be tracking in the detox suit? Should I—”
He tried reaching for the collar of the suit, to pull it off, but it seemed to have vanished.
IT’S GONE the Elucidator assured him. IT FINISHED DETERIORATING WHEN YOU WERE SPINNING. SO DON’T WORRY. NO ONE FROM THE TIME AGENCY CAN TRACE US.
Jordan didn’t quite trust the way the Elucidator put that.
“Can Second?” he asked. “Can the teenage Second—or Kevin, or whatever his name is?”
But before the Elucidator could answer, Jordan hit the point of time travel where he felt like all the tiniest particles of his body were coming apart. He stopped being able to think.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on a hard floor.
Back in the futuristic lab again? he wondered. Or back in the time hollow? Or back home again in the kitchen? Or somewhere with at least one of my family members?
Dizzily, he sat up and blinked until his eyes started coming into focus.
Blank walls again. Featureless floor and ceiling.
“I’m in the time hollow again? Or is it a different one and I just can’t tell?” he asked the Elucidator.
DOES IT MATTER? the Elucidator flashed back at him. MOST TIME HOLLOWS ARE PRETTY INTERCHANGEABLE.
Jordan tried to look around a little more carefully. He really couldn’t tell if it was the same place he’d been before.
His senses came back a bit more, and he remembered the teenage Second landing on him the last time he was in a time hollow.
“So who’s going to fall on me this time?” he asked. “What should I be prepared for?”
DON’T WORRY the Elucidator flashed back. YOU’RE ALONE HERE UNTIL YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Jordan snorted.
“How do I make a difference in an empty room, all by myself?” he asked.
YOU THINK. YOU LEARN. YOU GROW glowed above the Elucidator. AND MAYBE YOU’RE NOT AS ALONE AS YOU THINK. YOU NEVER ARE.
Jordan snorted again.
“That sounds like something Mom would say,” he complained.
He didn’t want to think about Mom right now, not even about her annoying him.
JUST BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE YOUR MOTHER, THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S WRONG the Elucidator retorted.
Jordan swallowed hard.
“Can you at least . . . show me where Mom and Dad are right now?” he asked. He remembered how useless that question had been when he’d asked the same thing about Gary and Hodge. “Or at least . . . where Second took them after the last time I saw them?”
YOU’RE GETTING BETTER AT ASKING QUESTIONS the Elucidator complimented him.
And then the wall in front of Jordan lit up with such a clear image that Jordan felt like the wall must have disappeared, and he was looking into another room.
There were the teen versions of Mom and Dad, standing absolutely still.
“Mom! Dad!” Jordan yelled, scrambling up and running toward them at top speed.
His face smashed into the very hard, very real wall. Even if he couldn’t see it, the wall was still there.
“Let me through!” Jordan demanded, turning his smashed face toward the Elucidator. Nothing hurt, probably because he was in a time hollow, but what if he’d actually broken his nose? He had to run his fingers over it to make sure it was still okay.
YOU WANT TO BE IN THE DARK EMPTINESS OF OUTER TIME AGAIN? the Elucidator glowed back at him. It hurt to squint at the words. Maybe he’d broken his eye sockets.
“I want to be in that other room with Mom and Dad!” Jordan said. “The one just on the other side of this wall!”
THERE’S NOT A ROOM ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL. YOU ARE JUST WATCHING A—WHAT WOULD YOU CALL IT IN YOUR TIME?—A VIDEO OF YOUR PARENTS the Elucidator told him. DO I NEED TO EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT?
Jordan frowned. He was acting like a little kid who thought the people on TV were really inside the screen. And he’d seen this kind of thing before, back in the time hollow he’d landed in with Mom, Dad, Katherine, and Jonah.
It was easier to be fooled now that he was alone.
“They just looked so real,” he mumbled. “It confused me.”
He took a step back from the wall and peered toward the image of his parents. Now that he knew it was just an image, they seemed impossibly far away.
“You say this is video? Why aren’t they moving?” Jordan asked. “They’re still alive, right?”
Even as he asked the question, he wasn’t actually that worried that they were dead. His parents were standing as still as wax statues, but they looked completely real, completely alive.
SECOND PUT THEM IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION the Elucidator glowed back at him.
Motionless, both of his parents looked even younger than they had back home in their own kitchen or in the l
ab or time hollow they’d been in before. Dad looked like a middle-school boy who’d just heard a fart joke. Or was about to tell one. Mom’s hair flipped out in a goofy way that she never would have allowed as a grown-up, and everything about her was so childish that it didn’t seem weird that she was wearing Katherine’s sparkly CHEER! sweatshirt.
Jordan remembered how, when Second had first taken his parents away, he’d wanted them back to fix all his problems. He remembered how, when he was a little kid, he’d thought they could do anything. He’d thought they were superheroes.
“Rescue me,” he whispered, too softly for the Elucidator in his hand to hear.
Right now, his parents didn’t look like they could rescue anyone. They were the ones who needed him.
Jordan cleared his throat.
“Show me where Second sent Katherine and Jonah,” he asked, trying to sound authoritative.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A SPLIT SCREEN, WITH THEM AS WELL AS YOUR PARENTS? the Elucidator asked.
“Sure,” Jordan said.
Instantly it was like another window opened up on the wall, showing another pair of Skidmores. Katherine and Jonah stood just as motionless as their parents. But there was something fiercer and more defensive about their stance, as if they’d been trying to fight back against Second in the moment before he froze them in place.
“Let me guess,” Jordan said to the Elucidator. “Suspended animation again?”
YES the Elucidator glowed back at him.
“Why?” Jordan asked. “What was Second trying to accomplish, freezing all of them?”
YOU ARE NOT READY TO HEAR THAT EXPLANATION the Elucidator told him.
“Why not?” Jordan asked.
THAT IS NOT FOR ME TO ANSWER the Elucidator glowed back. YOU’LL UNDERSTAND WHEN THE TIME COMES.
“Oh, thanks a lot,” Jordan said sarcastically. “Can’t I time-travel to wherever and whenever the time comes?”
He felt really smart saying that, but the Elucidator just flashed back at him, NO.
Evidently, the Elucidator didn’t have much of a sense of humor.
Jordan spent a moment longer peering at his parents and Katherine and Jonah. Somehow it was Jonah his eyes kept returning to.
Take a selfie—it’ll last longer, Jordan told himself. Except for the old-fashioned clothes and the placement of the chin dimple, Jonah really did look almost exactly like Jordan. No wonder people kept confusing them.
But the longer he stared at Jonah, the more differences Jordan saw. Jonah wasn’t just Jordan’s mirror image. In a way Jordan couldn’t even put his finger on, Jonah looked braver. Also steadier, more composed, and better prepared.
So why is he the one frozen and I’m the only one who can do anything? Jordan wondered.
He took a deep breath and turned back to the Elucidator.
“Okay,” Jordan said. “Tell me how I can rescue all of them without Second finding out.”
THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT the Elucidator told him.
“Yes, it is,” Jordan insisted. “I have to rescue my family!”
YOU DON’T KNOW ENOUGH FOR THAT YET the Elucidator replied.
“Then tell me! Show me! Whatever! Let me do what I need to do to get ready!” Jordan exploded.
ALL RIGHT the Elucidator flashed back. WATCH AND LEARN.
Its slow, steady light seemed maddeningly calm.
The images of Jordan’s parents and Katherine and Jonah vanished from the wall, replaced by a familiar scene: JB and Cira standing over Kevin’s unconscious body in the hospital hallway Jordan had just left.
Am I seeing what happened immediately after I left? Jordan wondered.
“We’re both going to be in so much trouble for that,” Cira was saying. She kept turning her head toward the spot where Jordan had been lying, as if she expected him to come back. So probably he had just vanished.
Cira cleared her throat, as if she was trying very hard to sound and act professional.
“Can you trace that Elucidator?” she asked.
JB was looking down at something cupped in the palm of his hand—probably his own Elucidator.
“No luck,” he said in a clipped voice. “Look, I’ll make it clear in my report that I was the one who dropped that. None of the blame will reflect on you. Since it’s my mistake, I’ll do what I can to pursue the boy who escaped. You take care of identifying and processing that time criminal.”
He pointed at Kevin, who was still facedown.
I bet JB doesn’t even realize who that is, Jordan thought. He probably never got a glimpse of Kevin’s face.
Cira and Kevin and the hospital melted away, and Jordan watched JB floating through time.
“Can’t you just summarize this a little, so I only see the important parts?” Jordan asked the Elucidator.
OF COURSE I CAN the Elucidator replied. YOU HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD IN A TIME HOLLOW. I THOUGHT YOU WOULD WANT TO BE THOROUGH, BUT IF NOT . . .
“I don’t want to die of old age waiting for your video to get to the important parts,” Jordan complained.
TECHNICALLY, NO ONE COULD DIE OF OLD AGE IN A TIME HOLLOW the Elucidator said.
“You know what I mean,” Jordan said.
Evidently, the Elucidator did, because the next thing Jordan saw was JB and a tall, beautiful African-American woman riding in a car together. The woman looked vaguely familiar, and Jordan couldn’t figure out why. Then she winced as if deeply worried, and Jordan recognized her.
Angela? he thought. This had to be the girl who’d shown up at his house with the teenage versions of his parents. Only in this scene, she was an adult.
She’d been really pretty as a teenager. As an adult, she was intimidatingly gorgeous. If Jordan had been JB, he would have been stammering and blushing and having trouble putting two words together.
JB was just slamming his hand against the dashboard.
“Yes, I’m certain that something’s going to happen this morning!” he shouted. “I can’t tell you the nature of the warning we received—it’s incredibly complicated—but all the missing children from the plane are in danger! We’ve got to make sure Jonah and Chip are okay!”
Why does he think all those kids are in danger? Jordan wondered.
Could it possibly be because of what Jordan told him? When Jordan actually meant that his whole family was in danger?
Jordan started to say, Elucidator, is there any way I can get a message to JB, so he at least worries about the right things? But just then Angela and JB both jerked back, as if they’d been hit by some mysterious force. The camera’s focus narrowed to Angela. By the time she’d straightened back up to her original position, everything had changed. She was a teenager again, crying out, “Why can’t I reach the gas pedal anymore? What happened?”
A kid suddenly sitting beside her yelled, “I’ll help! I’ll hit the brake!”
He dived down for the pedals at Angela’s feet.
“No!” Angela yelled back at him. “You’re going to make me crash! I just need to scoot down a little! I’ve got it! Stay back!”
She took one hand off the steering wheel and grabbed the kid by the shoulder, shoving him so forcefully that he slammed against the door on the opposite side of the car.
Shouldn’t he have knocked into JB instead? Jordan wondered. JB was on that side of the car.
His brain was just slow catching up. This was like some logic problem they’d hand out in school: A man and a woman are riding together in a car. Suddenly the woman turns back into a teenager. There’s a teenage boy sitting beside her now, and the man is missing. What happened to the man? Where did the teenage boy come from?
No, that was way too strange to be a logic problem they’d hand out in school. But Jordan knew the answer: The adult JB had turned into a kid again too. Now that Jordan was thinking that way, he could see the resemblance between the adult JB and the gawky, skinny kid sitting beside teenage Angela.
Jordan took a step back from the images s
pread before him on the wall.
“Explain!” he yelled at the Elucidator. “JB was turned back into a teenager again, but there was a cure for him when there wasn’t one for Angela or my parents? Why? Why can’t whoever helped JB help Mom and Dad, too? Why isn’t this problem already solved?”
The Elucidator seemed to be taking forever to answer. Then it flashed two words:
KEEP WATCHING.
FORTY
At first it was excruciating for Jordan to force himself to sit down and pay attention to the continuing scene playing out on the wall. JB and Angela were in a panic over turning into teenagers . . . they were arguing over who was safest driving the car . . . they were turning corners recklessly . . .
Come on! Jordan thought impatiently. Show JB changing back so I know how it can work for my parents!
Then Jordan realized Angela and JB were speeding down the streets of his own neighborhood. Moments later they were face to face with . . .
That’s not me, Jordan had to remind himself. That’s Jonah.
Jordan was kind of impressed with how forceful Jonah was with JB, demanding help for Mom and Dad and a vanished Katherine.
So this was after Katherine was kidnapped by Charles Lindbergh, Jordan realized. Jonah doesn’t know yet that she’s going to come back, safe and sound and sassy as ever.
Jordan didn’t let himself think about how quickly she would vanish again, kidnapped by Second this time.
Keep watching, he told himself. Keep watching.
On the screen JB and Angela, and now Jonah, too, were running around in a panic, then speeding away in a car with an unconscious—and teenage—Mom and Dad. Seemingly just moments later JB, Angela, and Jonah were dangling from the side of an old-fashioned airplane, high above an endless stretch of water.
Okay, I guess Jonah really did have to endure a lot of problems, traveling through time, Jordan thought grudgingly.
He found himself watching in awe as Jonah endured more time-travel dangers, lost JB and Angela, and had to face off against Gary and Hodge all by himself. Meanwhile, the young JB seemed to be slipping into madness, overcome with guilt and worry.