someplace safe! Likeâthe nearest time hollow?â
In the next instant, the face disappeared from Jordanâs 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 againâor, 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 werenât any. The room was just empty and bland, with nothing-colored walls and a nothing-colored floorand lighting that didnât seem to come from anywhereâit just was .
The bright colors of Dadâs red shirt and Katherineâs pink-and-purple sweater were even more jarring here.
So Jonah brought us to a place where thereâs nowhere to hide? Jordan thought anxiously.
Before he could point that out, Dad sat up and said in an amazed voice, âI donât feel sick anymore.â
Katherine giggled. âThatâs how time hollows work,â she said. âAs long as weâre here, you also wonât get hungry and you wonât get thirsty and you wonât ever have to go to the bathroom. Itâs like weâre 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.â
She had to be making that up. Didnât she?
Jordan saw Mom raise one eyebrow questioninglyâhaving her do that with a kidâs face didnât work as well as when she was a grown-up. Katherine and Jonah ignored her. Dad just patted his stomach.
âYouâre right,â he said thoughtfully. âI donât feel hungry, and I seem to remember that when I was thirteen the first time around, I was always hungry. Itâs so strangeâI donât feel like I need anything at all.â
âIâd take being an adult again,â Mom said, practically inthe same annoyed and annoying tone that Katherine so often had in her voice. Then Mom grimaced. âI guess thatâs 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?â
Jordan realized that everyone else was already sitting up. He pulled himself up and glared at Jonah.
âI might have taken us to the right time periodâJonah didnât exactly give us much of a chance to look around,â Jordan complained. âSo some man saw us. So what? Maybe he could have helped us. Maybe we could have made up some really convincing story and . . .â
Jonah and Katherine were both shaking their heads.
âJordanâI recognized that man,â Jonah said. âHeâs our worst enemy.â
âGary? Hodge?â Dad asked. âWas it one of them?â He clenched his fists like he was ready to punch someone.
Jonah and Katherine looked at each other.
âThis guyâs even worse,â Katherine said. âThat was Second.â
Maybe it wasnât 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 Katherineâs voice. She wasnât joking about any of this. She was terrified.
But Jordan couldnât let anyone see that he was scared too.
âYouâre afraid of some guy whoâs named for a number?â Jordan asked. âWhatâis he that proud of coming in second place?â
By the standards of wisecracking movie heroes, that was pretty lame. But Jordan was proud he could joke at all.
Nobody laughed.
âSecondâs real name is Sam Chase,â Jonah said, frowning. âHe used to work for JBâJB trusted him. He
Katie Salidas, K.A. Salidas