This time he was sure: the wail was coming from the Elucidator, speaking in JB’s voice.
“Jonah, there’s been a mistake,” JB’s voice came out loud and clear and anxious, straight from the Elucidator. “You and Katherine have no business going into the fifteenth century with Chip and Alex. You’re not allowed. You could cause even more damage. And you can’t take the Elucidator or the Taser there—”
“You should have thought of that before you zapped Chip,” Jonah said, and he was amazed that he could sound so defiant, out here in the middle of nothingness. “You should have known that we’d stick together.”
There was a silence, as if JB was trying to accept that. Maybe he hadn’t known they would stick together.
“Look, I’ll tell you what to do so you and Katherine can come back,” JB said, his voice strained.
“No,” Jonah said stubbornly. “Tell us what to do so we can all come back. Even Alex.”
Chip looked over at Jonah, gratitude gleaming in his eyes.
“Jonah,” JB protested. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Certain things have been set in motion. Chip and Alex have to go to the fifteenth century.”
“Then Katherine and I are going too,” Jonah said. He didn’t know how it was possible, but he could feel time flowing past him, scrolling backward. He felt like he had only a few more seconds left to convince JB. “What if…what if we could fix the fifteenth century? Make everything right again? Then couldn’t Alex and Chip come back to the twenty-first century with us?”
Silence.
Jonah had nervous tremors in his stomach. The hand holding the Elucidator was shaking. He wasn’t even sure what he was asking for. But he couldn’t stop now.
“You have to let us try,” Jonah argued. “Let us try to save Alex and Chip and time. Or else…” He had to come up with a good threat. Or else what? Oh. “Or else we’ll do our best to mess up time even worse than Hodge and Gary did.”
The silence from the Elucidator continued. Jonah worried that they’d floated out of range, or that the battery had stopped working, just like a defective cell phone.
Then JB’s voice came through again, faint but distinct.
“All right,” he said wearily. “I’ll let you try.”
The lights on the horizon were getting brighter. Jonah knew nothing about the fifteenth century. He truly didn’t know what he’d just bargained for.
“Wow,” Chip said. “When you make a promise, you really keep it.”
Promise? Jonah wondered. What promise? Then he remembered what he’d told Chip, right after Chip found out that he was adopted. I swear, I’ll do everything I can to help you. It seemed like he’d said that hundreds of years ago, hundreds of lifetimes ago.
No—hundreds of years and lifetimes ahead.
Jonah’s stomach gurgled. He could tell he was out of the nontime limbo because he was hungry again. Starving, in fact.
“Do you think they have good turkey legs in the fifteenth century?” he asked.
There was no time for Chip and Katherine to answer him or even to make fun of his question. The lights were getting brighter and brighter, rushing at them faster and faster and faster….
They landed.
“Welcome to the fifteenth century,” JB said grimly through the Elucidator. “Good luck.”