A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1)

“All of the information you need will be downloaded to this,” she said. “Don’t worry — we’ve completely overwritten the SQ software, and there are so many firewalls built around this thing that it’s more secure than your own brains. It will have all the information your team will need, although, again, it’ll be encoded.”


“It’s all part of a system called The Art of Memory,” Brint added. “Or TAM for short. It was actually devised by Aristotle so that data could be passed down from generation to generation without risking it falling into the hands of our enemies. Trust me when I tell you that it’s gonna drive you bonkers sometimes. But you can do it.”

“I’ll bet I can do it with my eyes closed,” said Dak.

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” said Sera.

Mari slipped the SQuare back into the satchel then gestured at the menacing door. “This is the HOC — Hystorian Operations Center. Are you two ready?”

Sera glanced over at Dak, who was actually smiling. Smiling. Maybe he’d survive his parents’ disappearance after all. They both nodded at each other with knowing looks.

“We’re ready,” Sera said, right before Dak added his own confirmation:

“The Time Nerds are a go.”





MARI ACTIVATED a touch screen to the right of the door and input a long series of numbers and letters, a longer password than Dak had ever seen anyone use before. This Art of Memory thing seemed for real, and he found himself wishing he hadn’t been so boastful about it. Now he had to live up to the expectation.

A hiss sounded, followed by a hollow, grating scratch as the metal bars of the lock pulled back. Then the door popped open and swung outward with a heavy groan.

“In we go,” Mari said, holding an arm out to indicate the two kids should go first.

Dak gripped the cool surface of the Infinity Ring in his hand and stepped through the opening. Applause broke out and he saw at least twenty people standing up to clap from their various stations of computers and radar screens and monitors and other equipment. They all had hopeful smiles, and for the first time Dak felt the pressure of what they were being asked to do.

Save the world. No biggie, right?

Mari and Brint led them around a wide walkway that skirted the outside edge of the massive operations center. The central focal point was a monitor as big as a movie screen, but instead of displaying a single image it was broken up into dozens of views — everything from live video feed to running numbers to Doppler radar maps.

While Brint plugged the SQuare into a computer, Mari stepped up to a podium that overlooked the crew of workers at their stations. “I want everyone to meet our new Hystorians, granted membership without the usual years of proving ground. Urgent times call for urgent doings. This is Dak, and this is Sera.”

Another round of applause met this statement, and Dak suddenly felt like the biggest idiot ever born. He’d just wanted to whip out the Ring and start touring history. Save the world and find his parents while he was at it. But here was an entire room full of people who were devoting their lives to a noble cause, hoping all along that someone would come along and give them the means to stop an unending series of tragedies.

Mari continued her speech. “We have a lot to do over the next couple of days before we send Dak, Sera, and our insertion squad back in time to fix the Breaks. Our current plan is to begin the operation at 0800 hours on Thursday. I know everyone’s eager to begin, but we need two days to fully prep our new associates.”

She went on to say more, but Dak tuned out. He was having a heavy episode of missing his parents, worrying about what could’ve happened to them. Two days was a long time to do nothing. And while he was here, they were out there somewhere — lost, possibly hurt, maybe running afoul of one of the Time Wardens. Finally, he understood a little about Sera’s haunting Remnant. Loss, mixed with a maddening uncertainty.

He noticed Brint was looking at him expectantly.

“Um, oh, sorry,” Dak stuttered. “Did I miss something?”

Brint smiled. “I asked if you were ready to start meeting people.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure.”

And so they started making the rounds, but all the names and faces quickly became a jumble to Dak. Some dude who was in charge of tracking natural disasters and their frequency. Some chick who watched for anomalies in weather patterns. Some other dude who mapped out daily world events and analyzed them for potential Break material. Some other chick who tracked SQ activity overseas. Other dudes and other chicks who did other things.

Dak kept yawning even though he tried not to — which meant he kept doing that weird contorted face trick. Sera shot him dirty looks about every thirty seconds.

One Hystorian they met stood out from the pack. His name was Riq and he was far younger than everyone else, with dark skin and darker eyes. He was a kid compared to the rest of the geezers in the room.