A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1)

“People’s gotta eat,” Daniel followed up, a goofy grin on his face. “Or people’s gotta die.”


“Where are you from?” Ricardo asked. “Your accent is . . . weird.”

Sera opened her mouth to speak but Dak hurried to cut her off, scared she’d get something wrong. “We’re immigrants. Been all over. Never settled.” He flashed a quick look at Sera, trying to communicate that being vague was best.

“Got stories to tell, I bet,” Ricardo said. “Stories to hide. Doesn’t matter. We’re all the same now. Brothers, startin’ all over.”

Dak nodded. He liked this guy. “That’s right. Brothers.” He elbowed Sera just to rile her a little. “This one has been a brother to me since before I can remember.”

Sera elbowed him back, much harder. “Yes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to save this one from getting his throat slit or his face beaten in by thugs. Not the strongest boy, I can tell you that. Ugly as a burnt stick, too. But he’s all I got.”

Ricardo and his two friends looked from Sera to Dak and back again, their expressions somewhere between surprise and delight. Then they all burst into laughter.

“It’s gonna be a long voyage,” Ricardo said when the chuckles died down. “It’ll be good to have friends. Especially if this rumor about a mutiny is true.”

Dak’s smiled vanished at that. Reality struck home. “Hey, what do you think about all the people lumped with us? Any chance . . . you know, that they could be involved with the plot?”

Ricardo scoffed and smacked his friend Francisco in the head, ruffling the boy’s mop of hair. “People like us? This riffraff? No way. We’re the dried scum on the bottom of the bucket.”

Dak took a second and scanned the room, searching their company, barely revealed by the soft light of the lanterns. Shaggy hair, ratty clothes, dirty faces, rotten teeth. The lowest of the low, with no aspirations but to earn a next meal. This was exactly what they needed.

He brought his attention back to Sera and their new friends. “How much can we trust you?” he asked Ricardo.

The boy held out his hand. Dak shook it.

Ricardo gave a stiff nod. “Completely. If you’re alone on a voyage, you might as well be dead. Why are you asking? Why so serious all of a sudden?”

Dak looked at Sera, who he knew understood the thoughts going on in his head. Both of them had doubts about their mission, even after hearing firsthand that the Amancio brothers worked for the SQ. It didn’t help that Salvador and Raul seemed all right, while Columbus seemed like a jerk. But the fact of the matter was this: The SQ ruled the world of the future with an iron fist, and the Cataclysm that Brint and Mari had spoken of seemed to be coming faster and harder with each passing day. Dak and Sera had experienced the evidence up close and personal.

They were Hystorians, and it was time for action.

Dak, his resolve solid, faced Ricardo again. “Riffraff is a good name for this group. We might need to turn them into an army.”





SERA HAD always known that she and Dak shared a special link. As different as they were, they thought alike, and often came to the same conclusions. And she’d shared his line of thinking over the last few minutes.

They were here to do a job. Going to Columbus with what they’d learned was out of the question — there wasn’t much of a chance he’d take their word over the Amancios’. Which meant they’d have to get directly involved. But if they were going to stop a mutiny, they’d need help. And the sorry bunch of runaways and criminals surrounding them might be their best shot at finding any. Especially since the SQ probably paid them no attention. Looked at them as powerless and therefore worthless.

“What’s this army stuff about?” Ricardo asked Dak. “Why ya need such a thing?”

Sera leaned forward and whispered in Dak’s ear. “Are we sure about this? Totally?”

“Hey, no secrets,” Ricardo snapped. “Not a good way to start.”

Sera sat back. “Sorry. I was just making sure. This is a big deal.”

“I think it’s okay,” Dak said. “We don’t have much time — it’s supposed to happen soon.”

“What’s supposed to happen?” Francisco asked.

Daniel — the older man who looked lost in a world of his own — suddenly laughed. “Sun’ll go down, I bet. Then the moon’ll come up.” He laughed again, this time with a snort.

“Oh, jeez,” Ricardo said, but his tone was more playful than annoyed or embarrassed. “Our friend is a lot smarter than he looks. Aren’t you, Daniel?”

“Two plus two is four,” the man responded. “Four plus four is eight. Take away the four times two and zero is your mate.”

“Huh?” Dak asked.

Sera liked the man. There was a twinkle in his eye that said he knew more than he was letting on — that maybe he didn’t know how to socialize and this was how he’d learned to make up for it.