Risked (The Missing ) Read Free Page B

one labeled “survivors” and one labeled “witnesses.”
    Daniella McCarthy’s name, like Chip’s and Jonah’s, had been on the survivors list.
    But is she actually a survivor if she’s really Anastasia and the Internet says Anastasia Romanov died in 1918? Jonah wondered. What sites were we looking at, anyway—would the school librarian say they weren’t reliable?
    But if this was just a case of getting bad info from the Internet, why had Jonah’s own mother been convinced that Anastasia was dead?
    Jonah realized he was still staring stupidly at Daniella.
    “Oh, uh, welcome to Ohio,” he managed to say. “Your family’s moving into your new house right now? To—” He barely stopped himself from saying, To 1873 Robin’s Egg Lane? It would seem way too creepy and stalkerish that he remembered her street address. Especially if she didn’t know . . .
    Wait a minute, Jonah thought. She doesn’t know anything. Daniella McCarthy was the one and only missing kid from history who wasn’t in the time cave that day we found out everything. Because there was some kind of mix-up that delayed her move. So she doesn’t know she’s in the wrong time period. She doesn’t know people have been fighting over whether to take her back to the past or on to the future. She only knows what Chip told her when he called her on the phone, and that was before we knew much of anything ourselves.
    Really, the only thing Chip had talked about with Daniella was her move. Not time travel. Not history. Not her identity.
    Jonah cleared his throat, delaying.
    “To . . . ,” Daniella prompted him.
    “To . . . Hey, wasn’t there some problem with the paperwork for your house? Messing things up? Your parents must have worked it all out, huh?” Jonah asked. As soon as he said this, Jonah realized it was a mistake. He didn’t have a good excuse for knowing about the paperwork problems.
    “Everything worked out. Unfortunately,” Daniella said, with an emphatic eye roll. “I still hate Ohio. And I hate my parents for making me move.”
    “It’s not so bad here,” Chip said quickly.
    Jonah saw that both of them were just acting. Neither one of them actually wanted to talk about the pros and cons of moving to Ohio. Daniella’s bright blue eyes dartedabout, studying first Jonah’s face, then Chip’s. She seemed to be waiting to see what they would accidentally reveal next. Chip was watching Daniella just as carefully, as if waiting for her to ask, Whoa, dude. How is it that you even know about my parents’ paperwork problems? And, while you’re at it, would you mind explaining how you two yahoos knew about my move in the first place—before I did?
    Why didn’t she just come out and ask? Didn’t she trust them to give her a truthful answer?
    Jonah guessed he could see why she wouldn’t. She didn’t even know them, and they knew too much about her. But why had she hunted up him and Chip anyhow? Had Chip even mentioned Jonah when he’d talked to Daniella on the phone?
    “Um . . . did you come looking for us because your neighbor told you about us? Did she say we were on the middle-school welcoming committee, or something like that?” Jonah asked.
    “ Are you?” Daniella asked. She leaned in close. She was probably six or seven inches shorter than Jonah—physically, she shouldn’t have seemed any more threatening than a kitten. But Jonah took a step back.
    What am I supposed to say? Jonah wondered. Should I admit we asked her neighbor nosy questions about her family? Should I tell her we know her original identity?
    “How did you find us?” Chip asked. He put his hand on Daniella’s shoulder, maneuvering her to the side slightly, probably neutralizing any attack she might have been planning to launch against Jonah.
    That’s how you do it, Jonah told himself. You ask a question instead of answering hers. All that stuff about “the best defense is a good offense” probably dates back to the medieval battle