Hodge holds something that does not quite look like a gun, but Jonah is sure he heard a gunshot. JB reprimands Hodge, saying he was not “supposed to bring that into the twenty-first century” (259). “That” is an Elucidator, a device from the future that holds information and allows someone to manipulate time travel and aging.

Hodge, Gary, and JB are from an unspecified time in the future. Hodge and Gary work for a company called Interchronological Rescue. The company’s initial mission was to retrieve babies from the past whose disappearances would not interfere with time and give them new homes in the future. As rich people in the future got greedy, the company’s goals shifted to providing parents with famous kids from the past, even if doing so disrupted time.

Jonah and the other kids were kidnapped from their former lives and de-aged so they could be given to wealthy families. JB stopped the time machine before it reached its destination. Jonah and the others were never supposed to go to the 21st century. Angela then steps from the shadows in the cave and tasers Hodge and Gary. Hodge drops the Elucidator. Jonah picks it up and refuses to hand it over to JB.