“AHHHH!” Katherine screamed, crashing to the floor. The Elucidator dropped from her hand.
Jonah bent down to pick it up, but Gary was already there, pulling it away. And…punching in instructions, it seemed. He tucked the Taser under his arm and pounded in a whole string of coding on the Elucidator. Then he looked up, smirking, in JB’s direction.
“Too bad, loser,” Gary said mockingly. “I guess some of us are just better at being persuasive.”
“No—you can’t—” JB gasped.
“Do the age reversal first,” Mr. Hodge suggested from across the room, completely ignoring JB. “This group will be easier to deal with as babies.”
“Yes, sir,” Gary said, grinning broadly as he punched more buttons. He took a step back and pointed the Elucidator toward Jonah and Katherine and all the other kids gathered around Angela.
“You feel well enough to stand up yet, sweetie?” he said to Katherine, who was still sprawled on the floor, recovering from the Taser blast. Emily was bent over her, quietly pulling the barbs out. “That would make things a little easier for me.”
Katherine lifted her head.
“I’m not Daniella McCarthy!” she screamed. She had tears in her eyes—being Tasered must truly hurt. “I lied! I’m not one of your missing kids from history. I’m just—his sister!” She pointed at Jonah. “You have to let me go! You have to let everyone go!”
“No. That can’t be.” Mr. Hodge glared at Gary and hopped toward him, pulling against the ropes. “I thought you said the handprints all matched.”
“They did,” Gary insisted.
“I didn’t touch the rock,” Katherine said. “I just pretended. So you can’t zap me.”
Gary looked at Mr. Hodge, who’d stopped hopping. They both shrugged.
“Oh, well,” Gary said. “Thirty-five treasures, one mistake.” He smirked at Katherine. “I’m sure we’ll find someone who might be willing to take you.”
“You can’t do this!” JB screamed. “That’s another violation of time!”
Gary raised the Elucidator, pointing it carefully again.
“What will you tell our parents?” Katherine demanded.
“Freak rock cave-in. Such a tragedy,” Gary said carelessly. “Thirty-six children killed. And, sadly, the bodies will never be found.”
Jonah thought about his parents losing both him and Katherine, all because Katherine had been so stubbornly loyal. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. But what could he do? Gary had the Taser and the Elucidator. He had muscles in his arms thicker than Jonah’s legs.
Jonah leaped at Gary anyway.
THIRTY-THREE
Even in midair, Jonah had no idea what he intended to do to Gary. Arm-wrestling him for the Elucidator or the Taser was out of the question. Punching him would be as useless as punching a brick wall.
So Jonah decided to take a page out of Katherine’s book. With one hand, he grabbed for Gary’s hair. With the other, he poked his fingers into Gary’s eyes.
“Ow!” Gary screamed. Reflexively, he lifted his hands toward his face. The Taser clattered toward the ground.
Gary trapped it again with one foot.
Jonah let go of Gary’s hair and grabbed for the Elucidator just as Gary was shoving him away, flinging him toward the stone wall.
Jonah slammed against the wall hard. He thought he could feel every bone of his spine hitting rock, one bone after the other. So it took him a few moments to realize…
The Elucidator was in his hand.
“Ha!” Jonah shouted at Gary.
Gary only smiled.
“It doesn’t matter, kid,” he said. “It’s already programmed. That’s one of the newer models—you don’t even have to point it. We just do that out of habit.”
Jonah looked down at the screen of the Elucidator, which seemed to be engaged in some kind of countdown: 10, 9, 8…
As the 7 blinked onto the screen, Jonah threw the Elucidator as hard as he could, toward the far corner of the cave.
“JB!” he screamed. “Make it stop!”
Jonah could see JB catching the Elucidator, hitting buttons. Somehow Jonah managed to get up, to rush across the cave toward JB. Other kids had the same idea, flocking together toward JB. Jonah started to trip over something—the Taser? Wait a minute—where had Gary gone?
“Good-bye, friends,” JB said softly. “I hope you enjoy time prison.”
And then Mr. Hodge vanished, too, from right in the middle of the room.
Stunned, Jonah leaned over and scooped up the Taser. He kept running toward JB.
“Is it safe now?” Jonah asked. “Did you stop the countdown?”
JB still had his head bent over the Elucidator. He was still punching buttons. Jonah crowded close, with Chip and Katherine and Alex pressed in tightly beside him.
JB raised his head.
“I’m truly sorry,” he said. “This is what I have to do.”
He pointed the Elucidator at Alex, and Alex disappeared. Then he turned the Elucidator toward Chip.
“No!” Chip screamed.
Katherine clutched Chip’s right arm and joined her screams to his. Jonah still had the Taser in his right hand, but there wasn’t time to use that. He looped his right elbow around Chip’s arm, hoping to hold him in place. With his left hand, Jonah made a swipe for the Elucidator.
The cave was already melting away.
“Noooooooo….”
Jonah wasn’t even sure who was screaming. Katherine? Chip? Himself? The Elucidator?
Hold on—the Elucidator?
He could feel it in his left hand. He was clutching it as tightly as he was clutching the Taser, as tightly as he had his arm wrapped around Chip’s. But he couldn’t see anything, because he had his eyes squeezed shut.
He dared to open one eye, just a crack.
He and Chip and Katherine seemed to be tumbling through the outer nothingness, but tumbling toward a vague hint of light, far off in the distance.
“Nooo….”