Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix Read Free Book Online Page B

someplace safe! Like—the nearest time hollow?”
    In the next instant, the face disappeared from Jordan’s view. So did the tables and the colorful screenlike projections and everything else about the sterile lab. Everything went dark and spinny.
    Time traveling again? Jordan thought.
    But the sensation of spinning and zooming through darkness ended as quickly as it had started. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Jordan was on solid ground again—or, actually, solid floor. He could see a room around him now. But when he looked around for any identifying features or clues about where he was, there weren’t any. The room was just empty and bland, with nothing-colored walls and a nothing-colored floorand lighting that didn’t seem to come from anywhere—it just was .
    The bright colors of Dad’s red shirt and Katherine’s pink-and-purple sweater were even more jarring here.
    So Jonah brought us to a place where there’s nowhere to hide? Jordan thought anxiously.
    Before he could point that out, Dad sat up and said in an amazed voice, “I don’t feel sick anymore.”
    Katherine giggled. “That’s how time hollows work,” she said. “As long as we’re here, you also won’t get hungry and you won’t get thirsty and you won’t ever have to go to the bathroom. It’s like we’re totally outside of time. Nothing changes in a time hollow. Jonah and I were stuck in a time hollow for decades once, and we never got hungry or thirsty that entire time.”
    She had to be making that up. Didn’t she?
    Jordan saw Mom raise one eyebrow questioningly—having her do that with a kid’s face didn’t work as well as when she was a grown-up. Katherine and Jonah ignored her. Dad just patted his stomach.
    â€œYou’re right,” he said thoughtfully. “I don’t feel hungry, and I seem to remember that when I was thirteen the first time around, I was always hungry. It’s so strange—I don’t feel like I need anything at all.”
    â€œI’d take being an adult again,” Mom said, practically inthe same annoyed and annoying tone that Katherine so often had in her voice. Then Mom grimaced. “I guess that’s what both of you, Jordan and Jonah, were trying to accomplish. I do appreciate the effort. But maybe this time around we could take things slow and you could think before you act?”
    Jordan realized that everyone else was already sitting up. He pulled himself up and glared at Jonah.
    â€œI might have taken us to the right time period—Jonah didn’t exactly give us much of a chance to look around,” Jordan complained. “So some man saw us. So what? Maybe he could have helped us. Maybe we could have made up some really convincing story and . . .”
    Jonah and Katherine were both shaking their heads.
    â€œJordan—I recognized that man,” Jonah said. “He’s our worst enemy.”
    â€œGary? Hodge?” Dad asked. “Was it one of them?” He clenched his fists like he was ready to punch someone.
    Jonah and Katherine looked at each other.
    â€œThis guy’s even worse,” Katherine said. “That was Second.”
    Maybe it wasn’t possible to be hungry or thirsty or sick in a time hollow, but Jordan could have sworn he felt his stomach start churning, just at the grimness of Katherine’s voice. She wasn’t joking about any of this. She was terrified.
    But Jordan couldn’t let anyone see that he was scared too.
    â€œYou’re afraid of some guy who’s named for a number?” Jordan asked. “What—is he that proud of coming in second place?”
    By the standards of wisecracking movie heroes, that was pretty lame. But Jordan was proud he could joke at all.
    Nobody laughed.
    â€œSecond’s real name is Sam Chase,” Jonah said, frowning. “He used to work for JB—JB trusted him. He