Read Online Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix - Free Book Online Page B

DIDN’T SAY YOU WANTED TO BE WHERE YOUR PARENTS WENT WHILE THEY WERE STILL THERE.
    Was that what Jonah meant about Elucidators being tricky? Jordan had said, Or just take us there. Who wouldhave ever expected that he also needed to say, Take us to that exact moment?
    â€œHey, guys,” Jordan whispered, wanting to point out the words to Jonah and Katherine.
    Just then, Katherine and Jonah both slammed back to the floor. Katherine’s hand went back over Jordan’s mouth.
    â€œSomeone’s coming!” she hissed into his ear. “Don’t say anything else!”
    All three of them cowered, hidden behind a desk. Jordan heard a door opening at the other side of the room. He heard footsteps—had two people just entered the room? Or three or four? He almost missed the sound of the door shutting. Was it being eased together by someone who didn’t want to be overheard?
    â€œAre you sure this is a protected space?” a man’s voice asked. Did he have a strange accent, or was it just anxiety that made him clip his words off so abruptly? “You’re certain no one can detect our presence here?”
    â€œThis is where Gary and Hodge came when they escaped from time prison,” a woman’s voice responded. “And the time agency never knew. So yes, we’re safe here.”
    â€œYou have news of those two? Our top performers?” This was a different man. His deeper voice was harder to understand, but Jordan was pretty sure he was being sarcastic. “I’ve been so worried about them.”
    Was he talking about Gary and Hodge, the same men who had supposedly kidnapped Jordan and Jonah and other kids? Were these people kidnappers too? So were they maybe on the same side as that guy Second, who had taken away Jordan’s parents?
    This was even harder than figuring out what made people not-so-cool kids or losers at school.
    Jordan heard a thumping sound—maybe the woman had hit the deep-voiced man on the arm. “Stop it,” she said. “You know Interchronological Rescue would have gone bankrupt years ago if it hadn’t been for Gary and Hodge.”
    â€œWe’re going bankrupt anyhow, if the time agency has its way,” the first man muttered.
    Jordan wasn’t going to worry about some company he’d never heard of going bankrupt. As far as he was concerned, that was one of those grown-up problems that didn’t affect him.
    â€œYeah, they hate us, but do you think the time agency would actually resort to murder?” the woman asked.
    That got Jordan’s attention. It evidently stunned the two men, too—he heard one of them gasp.
    â€œNo one from the time agency would do that,” Deep Voice argued. “It’d ruin their sense of their own perfection. And they’d have to file a lifetime’s worth of paperwork to justify it.”
    â€œWhy are you making these wild accusations?” the first man asked. “What have you heard?”
    â€œGary and Hodge have gone missing,” the woman said. “I haven’t been able to reach them in any point of time, in any dimension. They vanished completely from August fifteenth, 1932.”
    Jordan snapped his head toward Jonah. Hadn’t Jonah said that Gary and Hodge kidnapped them both from the nineteen thirties? Had Gary and Hodge vanished at the same time?
    Jonah had his brow wrinkled, like he was thinking hard. But he didn’t look nearly as worried as the woman sounded.
    â€œBut . . . but . . . ,” This was Deep Voice again, and he was stammering. “Everything they set in motion is still progressing, right?”
    â€œRight,” the woman said. “Time is going to end. Soon. And unless we find Gary and Hodge, none of us have anywhere safe to escape to.”

TEN
    Katherine’s fingers dug into Jordan’s face, the palm of her hand smashing down harder against his mouth.
    Okay, Katherine, okay! Jordan