“But it has to be logical,” Riq said. “We can’t take any wild guesses.” He didn’t look at Dak when he said it, but Dak knew it was a jab at him.
Sera turned the device off and folded her hands on top of it. “All right then. Let’s all think. No talking for a few minutes.”
Dak pressed his back against the bottom of the pyramid — Seriously, he thought, how cool is this? — and put his head in his hands, closing his eyes. He’d memorized the two sentences and ran through them in his mind. Thinking back to their short time at the Hystorian headquarters, he tried to remember if either Brint or Mari might’ve said something that could’ve been a clue to the password. But nothing came to mind.
Frustrated, he wondered if maybe the message on the SQuare itself was a clue. He pictured the words in his mind. You have one chance to type password. Fail, and device will explode.
“I think I might know what we need to do,” Riq said. “It has to be related to explosives somehow. Bombs. Fail-safes. Bombs have fail-safes, right? A way to make sure they don’t explode?”
“Um” was all Sera got out. “I doubt any of us are experts on that.”
“Well,” Riq replied, “maybe we can hike our way to a local village and ask someone around here about it. Get them to help us figure it out.”
Dak was astounded. “You’re a Hystorian? You really think people in ancient Egypt had bombs? Especially electronic bombs with fail-safes built into the device?”
Riq looked up at the pyramid. “Well . . . no, I suppose not. Got any better ideas?”
Dak went back to brooding with the others. He closed his eyes again to block everything out. Then it hit him, fast and hard. “I’ve got it!” he yelled, standing up.
Sera and Riq jumped at his sudden exclamation, and Dak relished the briefest hint of wounded pride that flashed across his new rival’s face.
“What?” Sera asked. “Spit it out!”
“We’re thinking too much,” Dak said. “Just like anyone else would. But because we know absolutely nothing about this, there’s no way they’d let us risk destroying the thing by guessing at passwords. So they told us what to do, right in front of our eyes!”
He saw a flicker of understanding in the others, and he hurried to spit out the solution before either of them could claim they’d figured it out, too. “Password. We need to type that word. Password. That’s it.”
Sera and Riq exchanged doubtful looks.
“What else could it possibly be?” Dak asked them.
“That’s really risky,” Sera finally said. “What if it’s wrong?”
“Duh!” Dak threw up his hands in frustration. “What if any word we come up with is wrong? Got any better ideas? It seems obvious to me.”
“I think he’s right,” Riq said — which irritated Dak slightly, because it made it harder to hate the guy. “If we only have one chance, it would have to be something that stands out once you see it. And that does. Plain and simple.”
Sera slowly nodded while biting her lower lip. “I guess I’m just scared to death to actually try anything. We only have one shot.”
Dak shrugged. “That’s why you should type it in. Go for it.”
“Why not you?”
“Because I’m the history expert. They need me. Badly.”
“I think you mean history nerd,” Riq muttered under his breath.
“Well, technically you’re right,” Dak said. “As any real language expert should know, the origin of the word dates back to the mid twentieth cent —”
“Maybe later,” Sera interrupted. “As engaging as that sounds, let’s focus on this right now.”
“Okay,” Dak said. “Hand it over, I’ll do it.” He had a burst of confidence that he was right about what to input. Taking the device from Sera, he took a seat and turned it on. The same two sentences popped up on the screen. He drew in a breath, tapped the box, typed out “Password” on the virtual keyboard, then clicked the OK button.
The screen instantly flashed white, and for about half a second Dak thought it was the beginning of a massive explosion that would incinerate him. But then words started to appear.
Break #1
Sally forth, astute and wise
Search the page, find the prize
Centuries pass, mind and heart
Devoted to the Memory’s Art
Dak smiled. “What did I tell you? I solved it with my eyes closed.”
But his victory was short-lived. Below the poem was the most confusing image Dak had ever seen, a hodgepodge of circles and broken lines and shapes. There were Greek letters on one side of the image, and the word “lagoon” on the other.
“What the heck is that?” he asked.
“Spain,” Riq whispered. “We need to go to Spain.”
“HUH?” SERA asked. “What hat did you pull that out of?”
Dak had just been about to ask the same thing. Nothing in the weird picture seemed to suggest Spain. Or anything else for that matter.
Riq was obviously trying to hide a satisfied smile — but not too hard. It sneaked its way across his face. “They gave us something easy to start with. I could’ve done this one after just a couple of lessons.”
“Lessons in what?” Dak asked.
“I told you before — The Art of Memory.”
Sera was nodding. “They mentioned that to us, but didn’t say much about it.”
“It’s an image-based memory trick.” Riq pointed to the screen. “It’s been scrambled up beyond recognition, but if you imagine rotating the pieces around, you can see it’s the Spanish coat of arms.”
Dak leaned in for a closer look. If he squinted, he could almost make it out. “Spain, huh?”
“Not just Spain,” Riq said. “But a city and date, too. The Greek letters actually stand in for numbers — a common practice. And lagoon in Latin is palus. We need to go to Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492.”
Dak recognized the time and place. There was only one possible explanation for why they’d need to go there.
“Hey, you in there?”
Dak blinked — Sera was snapping her fingers under his nose. “Sorry, just accessing the genius shelf in my brain. I know what we need to do.”
Sera’s eyebrows rose, and even Riq looked intrigued.
“There’s an obvious candidate for a Break, something that ends up affecting the entire world for centuries, all the way up to now. Or then. Or when it used to be our now. You get me?”
“Yeah, we get you.” She rolled her eyes a bit. “So what is it?”
“That’s where the ships leave that’ll eventually discover the Americas. The Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. The voyage of the Amancio brothers!”
“Good. Let’s get there, then we can see what else the SQuare has for us,” Sera said.
“Works for me,” Riq said.
Dak felt like leaping in the air and kicking his feet together — he was so excited. But he figured he better act like the mature save-the-world man he’d become, so he simply nodded and said, “Let’s get her done.”
Sera shoved the SQuare into the satchel then pulled out the Infinity Ring. As she fiddled with the programming, Dak moved his gaze to the Great Pyramid towering above them, slanting up and away as if it went all the way to the sky. He thought of the thousands of people who’d worked on it, performing superhuman feats with massive stones that would’ve been difficult to move into place even with modern technology.
“You know,” he said, that comforting and familiar urge to share his great knowledge warming him from top to bottom. “Funny story about the Egyptians. When the royals died, it was very important to prepare the bodies so that they could last forever, mummify them until they were ready to rise up as gods in these humongous tombs. One thing they did was take th
eir brains out, through their nose. Now that’s one big booger. The way they did it was —”
“Dak!” Sera yelled. She smiled when he looked back down at her. “That’s so . . . vastly entertaining, but . . .” She held up the Infinity Ring.
“Time to go?”
“Time to go.”
They gathered around her and touched the Ring. She pushed the button and the Pyramid was yanked away in an explosion of light.
SERA WAS on her back. She opened her eyes to see a perfect blue sky, only a few wisps of clouds flecked across its surface. A warm breeze blew up and over her body, along with the sounds of crashing waves. She sat up to see a stunningly beautiful ocean, the water blue and dark and choppy with whitecaps, several old-timey sailing vessels out on the horizon.
“Wow,” she said, gripping the cool metal of the Infinity Ring in her lap. “That’s awesome. The waves are a lot bigger here than at the beach where we go with your mom and dad.”
“That’s because we go to a bay,” Dak answered from her left. He sounded bitter, and she wondered if mentioning his parents had been a bad idea.
“Yeah, I know. Sorry.” She slipped the Ring back into the satchel.
Riq was sitting cross-legged to her right. “Did everything come through okay? The SQuare? The Ring?”
Sera pulled out the SQuare and inspected it. “They look fine.”
He gave a satisfied nod then turned to look behind them. Sera did so as well. Several small wooden buildings sat a few hundred feet away, and behind them an entire village. People milled about, but it didn’t seem like anyone had noticed the visitors from the future yet.
Sera got on her feet and brushed the sand from her pants. Looking at them made her think of how much they would stand out. “First thing we need to do is find some new clothes.”
Dak was already pointing at a small house on the beach. “Look, they’ve got a bunch of laundry hung out to dry. Perfect!”
“That’s called stealing,” Sera chided.
“Are you kidding me? Small price to pay for saving the world from destruction and mayhem. They’ll have great grandkids who’ll thank us. Come on.”
“Now wait just one second,” Riq scoffed. “I’m not going to run around following two little squirts excited to dress up and play history together. This is serious business, and we need to think things through.”
Sera didn’t want a long argument. She knew Dak had a point about the clothes, but figured saying so wasn’t the way to get Riq on board. “You’re probably right,” she said. “Maybe we shouldn’t worry about the clothes. Let’s just hang out for a while. Talk it over and hope no one spots us.”
Riq looked at her suspiciously. “Well . . . when you put it that way . . . I think we should probably grab those clothes after all. But just don’t do anything stupid!”
He took off in that direction, slipping and sliding in the sand, and Dak was right on his heels. Letting out a sigh, Sera went after them.
A half hour later, Sera, Dak, and Riq were crouched behind an old barrel in an alley on the outskirts of the village. They’d stealthily made their way up from the house on the beach. Some of their newfound clothes — thieves, all three of them! — were too small, some too big. But they’d found just enough to get by. The boys wore linen shirts covered by buttoned jackets that Dak called doublets, with breeches and hose that looked ridiculous to Sera. But not as bad as the twill housedress she had to wear — completely impractical and bulky.
Dak wore a hat as well — low crowned with a wide bill — and kept straightening it, breaking into a smile every time. She knew that he was living a fantasy he would’ve never thought possible just a few days ago. Literally living history. She wished she could be just as excited — but all that occupied her mind was stress and worry.
“Time to check the SQuare for a hint, don’t you think?” Dak said after they’d spent a minute or two spying on the people walking through the streets ahead of them. “If we don’t find a Hystorian for help, we’re sunk.”
“That’s punny,” Riq whispered.
“Huh?” Dak responded.
“Never mind.”
Sera turned and sat down on the ground, then pulled out the SQuare. She flicked it on and the strange diagram — the Art of Memory puzzle — had been replaced by a short menu:
Access Granted
The First Break - Menu
Daily Journal of Activity
Hystorian’s Guide
Identify Break
Locate a Hystorian
Proceed to Second Break
“Seems simple enough,” Sera said. “Dak, you’re the history nerd in this group, so you’ll be in charge of keeping the journal. Just think, if we make all of this happen, you’ll be one of the most famous Hystorians ever.”
Instead of coming back with a smart aleck remark, he smiled pridefully. “That sounds like a job I can handle. But it makes me a little sad to think we’re changing the thing I love so much.”
“We’ll just be making it better. Right?”
Dak nodded, though he didn’t appear so sure.
Sera tapped the screen and frowned. “Wait. Something’s wrong.”
“What is it?” Riq asked. Dak seemed to be daydreaming about his potential role in history.
“I clicked on the ‘Identify Break’ option, and look what happened.”
Data Corrupted
Return to previous menu?
“That’s not good,” said Riq.
“When the SQ attacked,” Sera said, “everything went crazy, and Mari had to yank this thing right off of the main computer. What if she was uploading data? And what if the upload was incomplete?”
“Then we might be in trouble,” said Riq.
“Relax,” said Dak. “We know it’s got to have something to do with the Amancios. We can work it out.”
“Try something else,” suggested Riq.
Sera went back to the menu and tapped on “Locate a Hystorian” as Dak and Riq leaned in to see over her shoulder. A short message appeared, and Sera let out a sigh of relief.
If you’ve solved the puzzle to arrive here, in both time and place, the following riddle will help you find the person you need. If you’ve made a mistake and have gone somewhere else, then you are royally bunked. Good luck.
Sera had just finished reading it when the words faded away and were replaced with a poem:
A wee little bee flies through the sky
It stings your nose and makes you cry
And run on a road till it comes to a tee
Looks out at the bright and brilliant sea
It’s her, you scream, the way it ends
That’s how you must find your friend
“Hmm,” Sera said. The other two made similar sounds as they all stared at the six lines of the poem. Dak even went so far as to scratch his chin, purse his lips, and widen his eyes — he looked like a mad scientist.
“Any ideas?” Riq asked.
“I’ve got a few,” Dak replied, still not losing the comical expression. “Studying the Renaissance era was a hobby of mine for a few months back when I was six. I’m sure that’ll come into play here.”
Sera had to repress a groan — of course, she had no room to talk. She’d first discovered her love of quantum physics when she was four.
She’d also been raised speaking Spanish at home, but she was worried about Dak’s ability to interact with the local Hystorian when the time came. “What do we do about these translation devices in our mouths and ears?”
Riq gave a slight shrug. “Well, it would’ve been nice to train you on them for a while, but they’re not that hard. They’re linked together by radio frequency, and the earpiece can judge almost instantly what language it’s hearing. It’ll translate for you automatically, a
nd trigger the tooth device to alter your words as they come out of your mouth — which means that in each new setting, you want to let someone else speak before you do. The speaking part’s a little tricky; it takes some practice to know how slowly to speak and when to pause, that sort of thing. But the translation of what others are saying — that works like a charm. Maybe let me do the talking as much as possible until you get the hang —”
“Well hello!” someone barked from behind them, cutting Riq off.
Sera turned her head to see an enormous man with a dark beard. He held a long iron bar in one fist, bouncing it in the palm of his other hand. Sera’s heart froze.
The giant took a few steps forward, then leaned down to sneer at them.
“I never thought I’d see it,” he said with creepy awe. “Visitors from the future.”
DAK JUMPED to his feet, dragging Sera to hers as well. Riq stood right beside them as the man took another step closer. He could now reach them if he decided to swing that big iron rod in his hands. And probably not for just a love tap, either.
“Who are you?” Riq asked.
“Who am I?” the man responded gruffly. His lips didn’t move in sync with the words Dak was hearing, which meant the translator device was actually working. Even in the face of certain death by a barbarian, that was pretty cool. “Three little urchins show up in the streets of my town, dressed in ill-fitting clothes, looking as out of place as an anvil in a cooper’s shop, and you ask who I am?”
There was a long moment of silence before Sera said, timidly, “Yes?”
The man let one end of his rod fall to the ground and he leaned on it like a cane. Then he laughed, a deep bellow of a noise that almost made Dak look up to see if it was going to rain.
“We can explain everything,” Sera said. “It’s not what you think.”
“Not what I think!” the man roared. “I just said you were from the future and you didn’t bat an eye or protest! That something you think people go around talking about?”
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