A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1)

It only took about ten seconds.

The secret panel tore from its hinges and flew through the air, windmilling until it smacked into Brint. He cried out and crumpled to the ground as Mari dove for cover. Dak looked back at the now-open passage to the HOC. Two men in soldier’s gear stood there with guns raised, a red beam blazing out from each of their scopes.

“Get on the ground!” one of them yelled. “Now!”

Dak dropped, bringing his arms up to cover his head — like that’d do any good if one of these thugs decided to shoot a bullet in his direction. Sera cowered in the corner, working on the Infinity Ring nestled in her lap, hidden from plain view. Riq crouched right next to her.

“How dare you come onto our property like this!” Mari shouted. “We’ll report this to every media —”

She wasn’t able to finish before one of the men struck her with the butt of his weapon. She cried out and fell next to Brint, who lay still where he’d dropped.

A rage roared inside Dak — a fury that he never knew was possible all those years he’d spent reading in his room. That already seemed a lifetime ago. He charged the soldier who’d hurt Mari. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he dove and tackled the man, knocking him off balance. The second man was on Dak in an instant, dragging him by the hair across the floor while he kicked out with his feet and wailed from the pain.

The man dumped him into a heap. “One more move or remark that I don’t like, and someone gets shot. Do you understand me? Now where’s the Ring?” Dak saw in horror that the soldier had finally noticed that Sera was not just sitting there, but busy working on something. “Hey! What’re you doing?”

Sera looked back at him, her face lit with fear. “Nothing. I’m just scared.”

“You think I’m stupid? Hand it over!” the man yelled. “I won’t ask again.”

Sera had turned her attention back to the device. “Okay, just one second.”

“Now, you little brat!”

He moved toward Sera, and Dak scrambled to get in front of him. He landed in Sera’s lap just as Riq reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder. There was a click and a beep. The world collapsed into light and sound and they were sucked away from Hystorian headquarters.





SERA RELISHED the escape. The ordeal through the wormhole lasted just a few seconds, the same mind-jolt of movement and streaking turns of light and darkness, the same feeling that her atoms were about to shake loose. And then it was over without transition, that instant shift to stillness and normalcy as if nothing had happened at all. She looked around her.

She was at the foot of a giant pyramid, its huge blocks of yellow stone angling away toward the sky so that she couldn’t even see its apex far above. The ground was dry and dusty, the air around them sweltering hot. She sat in the same position as she had in the hidden room outside the operations center, and the Infinity Ring rested in her sweaty hands. Dak was still sprawled across her lap but quickly scooted away to lie on the ground to her right, his head resting against a block at the bottom of the pyramid.

And Riq was standing just over her shoulder, peering up at the huge structure with such a blank expression that he could have been a wax statue.

“It’s . . .” she started to say. “Do you think they’re okay?”

His dazed eyes finally met hers. “Brint and Mari can take care of themselves. And I’d rather not let them down, so we’ve got a lot to do. No time to mess around.”

Dak had sat up straight with his back against the stone. “Great. They sent the most annoying person in that whole operations room with us. Just great.”

“Dak,” Riq retorted, “be glad you’re a little kid or I’d break your nose about five times to make myself feel better. You think I want to be here?”

Dak glared but kept quiet.

“Sorry,” the older boy muttered. He walked away, went over to sit on a rock that jutted from the sand. “I just wasn’t ready for this. There are people back there . . . I may never see again.”

Sera sighed. The shock of everything had almost overwhelmed the fact that they were sitting at the foot of an actual Egyptian pyramid. And the blocks of stone looked much newer than she would’ve imagined, which meant they’d come far into the past, just as she’d hoped. She wanted to be as distant from the SQ as possible, both in time and geography. She looked at the imposing structure, knowing she should be more impressed, but her eagerness to get on with things outweighed all else.

She stood up and slapped the dust from her pants. She grabbed the Infinity Ring in one hand and took the satchel from Dak, then held both items out in front of her.