Redeemed (19 page)

Jordan remembered what Deep Voice had said on their trip together through time:
It's possible I'll be arrested when I get back. . . .

Tattoo Face clapped Deep Voice on the back.

“We covered for you, man,” he said. “You know that. You're safe. Stop freaking, or you'll give yourself away.”

Deep Voice didn't look particularly comforted. He had such a massive face that the worry lines on his forehead seemed as deep as trenches.

Doreen looked toward the three kids.

“We have to go to this,” she said. “We'll be back, but you need to
stay here
. You step one foot out of this room and your presence will be detected instantly. Better to let Rathbone think you're trapped in the past than that you returned without completing his task. Better to keep him in the dark.”

“How do we know we can trust
you
?” Katherine challenged.

Points for boldness there, sis,
Jordan thought.

He was still feeling dizzy trying to figure out everything that was going on. Or maybe the dizziness was just a little residual timesickness. Or even a remnant of the illness that seemed so minor now, which had kept him home sick from school back in the twenty-first century.

Regardless, it made it hard for him to think.

Doreen narrowed her eyes at Katherine as if she was seriously considering the question.

“We'll set things up so you can see what's going on in that conference room,” Doreen said. “You'll see Markiel, Liam, and me go in; then you'll see us come out. And if we're not back here five minutes after that, then . . . then . . .”

“Then we're on our own,” Jonah said grimly. “All deals are off.”

Whoa, harsh,
Jordan thought.

He waited for one of the grown-ups to say,
No, no, you wait for us here, no matter what.
He waited for them to say,
Of course we wouldn't leave you completely on your own. Of course you can count on our assistance, regardless of what happens next.

But none of the adults said anything. They just left.

Maybe Jordan and Katherine and Jonah really were all on their own already?

Oddly, as soon as the door closed behind the last grown-up, Jonah turned beseechingly toward Jordan.

“Please tell me,” Jonah began, “that in that other dimension you lived in, Mom and Dad never limited your time on the computer, and you became some genius programming-hacking expert. Please tell me you don't have the same friends I do, and, I don't know, you've been hanging out with Dushaun Ross the past three years. And maybe learned everything he knows?”

Dushaun Ross was a kid in Jordan's class who had probably been born clutching a laptop. Jordan could remember only one conversation he'd ever had with Dushaun Ross: Once, in fifth-grade computer class, Jordan's computer had frozen up. When Jordan raised his hand to ask the teacher for help, Dushaun had reached over and hit some magical
combination of keys that made the computer work again. The whole time, his eyes never even left the screen of his own computer.

Come to think of it, that hadn't actually been a conversation.

“I'm not friends with Dushaun,” Jordan admitted. “And I'm not a computer expert.”

“
Hello
, what about me?” Katherine asked. “Couldn't
I
have been a computer expert in one of the other dimensions?”

“Are you?” Jonah asked.

“No,” Katherine admitted. She tilted her head, considering. “I think, up until the moment we started traveling through time, I was exactly the same person in both dimensions where I had a brother.”

Jordan couldn't decide if he should find that comforting or not.

“But then time travel changed you?” he asked.

Katherine darted her eyes toward Jonah.

“Of course,” she said.

“What about the dimension where you were an only child?” Jordan asked.

“I don't know,” Katherine said, squinting off into the distance. “It's like that's been almost entirely replaced in my mind.”

“Okay, okay, this is not all about you, Katherine,” Jonah
said, walking toward the table where the three grown-ups had stood. As far as Jordan could tell, the area where the keyboard had been was nothing but a smooth tabletop now. “I want to find out about Second, and what he's doing now—both versions of him, if there really are still two versions. But I don't think even Dushaun Ross could figure out how to hack into a computer system that's so far ahead of what we're used to.”

“Maybe it's just, like, idiot-proof now?” Katherine asked, going to stand beside him. “Maybe computers are actually
easier
than we're used to?”

Jonah snorted. “Yeah,” he said. “Like how Elucidators are so easy to operate.”

Jordan wanted to ask the other two a lot of questions before the grown-ups came back. But before he could say anything, the screen that had shown the empty FBI office back in the twenty-first century suddenly went blank. A moment later it flashed to life with a different scene: some sort of futuristic auditorium. A man in an ivory-colored robe walked across the stage.

It was Mr. Rathbone.

“I have sad news to impart to all of you,” he announced, bending his head down in a way that made Jordan think that the man was trying hard to look sad, but probably wasn't. “I have just learned that two of our longtime
employees have lost their lives in a time-travel accident. I have summoned you all together to honor the memories of our good friends, ‘Gary' Giuseppe Payne and Mikhail Grantley Hodge.”

Katherine gasped. “Mr. Rathbone went through with his plans to fake their deaths?” she whispered. “Or—could this be true?”

Jonah muttered, “I never even thought about them having full names. . . .”

“They told us first and last names at the adoption conference, remember?” Katherine said. “But that was so long ago. . . .”

Jordan felt an odd stab of shock. What if this was true? It wasn't as if he'd ever met the two men—not that he remembered, anyway—but he'd just seen them a few moments ago on the screen. And the screen was so crystal clear and lifelike, he'd felt like they'd been right there in the room with him.

But that could have been centuries ago,
Jordan reminded himself.
Time travel messes up everything. They could have stayed alive for just five minutes after I saw them on the screen, and then died traveling home, or they could have lived decades more and died of old age.

A “time-travel accident” wouldn't be dying of old age. It was something that could happen to Jordan, Katherine, or Jonah. Or Mom and Dad.

Words appeared at the bottom of the screen, below Mr. Rathbone's feet:
DOREEN K'ADU'SUPADRE SMITH HAS AUTHORIZED YOU TO SEE HER THOUGHTS AT THIS MOMENT. HERE THEY ARE: RATHBONE IS LYING. HE'S RECEIVED NO CONFIRMED INFORMATION ABOUT GARY AND HODGE BEING ALIVE OR DEAD. WHAT ARE HIS MOTIVES FOR ANNOUNCING THIS?

“Whoa,” Katherine breathed. “Computers can do that now? Let people share their thoughts with each other?”

On the screen a small glow appeared above one of the heads in the audience standing before Mr. Rathbone. Jordan realized that the computer was showing where Doreen was in the crowd. If he'd looked closely, he could have picked her out anyway, because she was right beside Deep Voice, and he stood a full head taller than anyone else.

“What made Mr. Rathbone decide to make an announcement now about Gary and Hodge?” Jonah murmured behind Jordan. “If they didn't actually die, then what else changed?”

“He sent us back in time and Second stole the Elucidator Mr. Rathbone gave us,” Katherine said. “That's what changed.”

“So does Mr. Rathbone know that happened?” Jonah asked.

“He doesn't know where we are now,” Jordan said. “Doreen and Deep Voice and Tattoo Face said so.”

Jonah shot Jordan a look that made Jordan feel really young and childish, almost as if he'd piped up to say,
Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are going to take care of us.

On the screen Mr. Rathbone finished his dramatic pause and looked back toward the audience.

“Giuseppe and Mikhail believed in the mission of Interchronological Rescue above all else,” Mr. Rathbone said, his voice ringing with conviction. Or faked conviction. Jordan really wasn't sure. “At times their zeal was interpreted as . . . well, shall we say, criminal intent by certain agencies that had other, less noble goals of their own.”

Below Mr. Rathbone's feet, more words appeared, giving Doreen's thoughts:
THAT'S HIS ATTACK ON THE TIME AGENCY, IN CASE YOU COULDN'T TELL. HE HATES THE TIME AGENCY.

“In their selflessness, Giuseppe and Mikhail gave me letters of resignation from Interchronological Rescue before their last, most dangerous trip through time,” Mr. Rathbone continued. “They were most concerned that nothing they did might reflect badly on our company.”

Jordan could see that Doreen had a completely different thought:
THEY WERE MOST CONCERNED WITH PADDING THEIR OWN POCKETS AND PROTECTING THEIR OWN SKIN. IF THEY CARED SO MUCH ABOUT INTERCHRONOLOGICAL RESCUE, WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST AVOID DOING ANYTHING WRONG?

“Of course, we all know that their intentions—and actions—were always pure, but the time agency tends to misinterpret,” Mr. Rathbone said. “Even in their last moments, Giuseppe and Mikhail wanted to protect Interchronological Rescue and our mission. Which we will resume as soon as the time agency ends its foolish restrictions. We will do so remembering two good and faithful servants to the cause. In their honor, you may have the rest of the afternoon off. Go, in their memory.”

Doreen's thoughts showed up on the screen again:
HE'S TRYING TO CLEAR OUT THE BUILDING THIS AFTERNOON? WHY? WHAT DOES HE WANT TO DO HERE WITHOUT ANY WITNESSES?

Mr. Rathbone walked off the stage.

“We've only got a few minutes before Doreen and Deep Voice and Tattoo Face come back,” Jordan said. Somehow he couldn't keep the panic out of his voice. “Can we trust what
they're
telling us? Can Doreen really make the computer tell us what she's thinking, or is that just another trick?”

Katherine shrugged. “It seems like
they
think they're telling us the truth,” she said.

“But I think there's a lot they don't know,” Jonah added.

On the screen everyone filed out of the auditorium. Mr. Rathbone stood in the doorway, shaking hands. Behind his mask of grief, he seemed to be watching people's reactions very carefully.

When Doreen's turn came beside the CEO, Mr. Rathbone held onto her hand a moment longer than he had anyone else's.

“Wait—you were one of the background investigators for Giuseppe's and Mikhail's trips, weren't you?” he asked.

Doreen looked over her shoulder toward Deep Voice and Tattoo Face.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “Markiel and Liam were too.”

“But only at the lowest levels,” Deep Voice added, dipping his head humbly. “We can claim no credit for their accomplishments.” He hesitated. “Sir.”

“Then I am sorry for your loss,” Mr. Rathbone said. “I know it's difficult to lose both your friends and your job.”

Doreen gaped at him. “What? You're
firing
us?” she asked.

“No, no, just . . . shifting you to other departments,” Mr. Rathbone said. He smiled as if he thought he was being exceptionally kind and Doreen should thank him profusely. “You'll get your new work assignments tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Doreen said.

She pulled her hand away from Mr. Rathbone and turned toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Mr. Rathbone asked.

“Upstairs?” Doreen said. “To get my things?”

“That won't be necessary,” Mr. Rathbone said. “I've already had the robot movers clear out your desks and box it all up. You'll find all your personal items over there.”

He pointed to the side. The camera angle was wrong for Jordan to be able to see any boxes.

“Ah,” Doreen said, clearly flustered. “Um, thanks.”

“I want everyone to be able to clear out and get to their transports as quickly as possible,” Mr. Rathbone said. “So they can grieve in the privacy of their own homes.”

“You're too kind,” Doreen said. She hesitated, then lurched awkwardly toward Mr. Rathbone. She patted him on the back. “I am sorry for
your
loss too, sir. I know you thought very highly of Gary and Mr. Hodge.”

The words showing her thoughts appeared at the bottom of the screen again:
DON'T PANIC. JUST KEEP WATCHING. AND STAY IN PLACE. WE NEED YOU AS WITNESSES.

“What does that mean?” Jordan asked. “Didn't they say they'd be back in five minutes? And what does she think we're going to witness if everyone's leaving?”

Neither Jonah nor Katherine answered.

But a few moments later, after Mr. Rathbone finished shaking hands and started back toward his own office, Jordan understood. The view on the screen seemed to follow him in a tight little bubble, almost as if a camera hovered over his head and periodically darted in front of or behind him.

“Do you think it's like Doreen put a spy camera on him when she patted his back?” Katherine asked. “I bet she did! Wow! She was smart!”

“So do you think that's what she wants us to witness? What Mr. Rathbone does when everyone else is gone?” Jonah asked.

Jordan, Katherine, and Jonah were all lined up now, staring at the screen. Mr. Rathbone climbed stairs. He stepped into his office. He sat at his desk. He looked at the wall. He lifted a golf club that was sitting beside his desk and swung it. He swung it again. And again.

“Um, do you think all of us have to watch the whole time?” Jordan asked. “Could we maybe just take turns? Like, have one of us watch at a time, and the other two of us can see if we can find another computer that could tell us where Second took Mom and Dad?”