A Mutiny in Time

Prologue

Dak Smyth sat on his favorite branch of his favorite

tree, right next to his favorite friend, Sera Froste. Not a

bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon, he thought.

Beyond the safety of the tree, there was plenty to

worry about. The world was falling apart and the people

in charge of things didn’t seem to care. But Dak decided

not to let little stuff like that bother him now.

Sera apparently agreed. “Feels good up here,” she

said. “Doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, it sure does. Makes me kinda sad I wasn’t born

a monkey. Then I could live in one of these things.”

Sera laughed. “You’ve got the personality of a monkey.

And the smell. That’s two-thirds of the way there,

at least.”

“Thanks,” Dak said, as if she’d just paid him a tremendous

compliment.

A soft breeze made the branches sway back and forth,

just enough to soothe Dak into a partial trance. He and

Sera climbed up the tree every so often when there was

nothing else to do. It gave them a chance to talk, away

from any distractions — distractions like adults, who complained

constantly about taxes and crime rates and, in



whispers, about the SQ. With all the mental static, it was

a wonder Dak and Sera managed to get any thinking

done. Fortunately, they were both geniuses . . . although

in very different ways.

“You excited for the field trip this week?” Sera asked.

Dak looked over at her, slightly suspicious. Their

class was going to a museum, full of history — which he

loved — and not a whole lot of science — which was her

passion. But the question seemed genuine.

“Remember my last birthday?” he asked in return.

“When I got that replica of Thomas Jefferson’s ascot?”

“How could I forget? You came screaming down the

street like a girl who’d just found a bucket full of candy.”

Dak nodded, relishing the memory. “Well, I’m even

more excited about this trip.”

“Gotcha. That’s pretty excited.”

They sat in silence for a while, Dak enjoying the

breeze and the sounds of nature and the break from

the rest of life. Gradually, though, he realized that Sera

seemed far less relaxed. There was an unmistakable tension

in her shoulders that had nothing to do with tree

climbing. He followed her gaze across the yard to his

front porch, where his parents had recently put up a new

flag. The small flagpole affixed to the side of the house

was usually used for seasonal displays — holiday flags in

the winter, the forty-eight-starred U.S. flag in the long

summer months.

Now, for the first time, Dak’s parents had put up

a stark white flag with a black symbol in its center.



That symbol was a circle broken by a curve and a

thunderbolt — the insignia of the SQ.

“Don’t tell me your parents buy into all that,” Sera

said, her voice solemn.

“I don’t think so. They said it’s easier this way. They’re

less likely to be bothered if they just put up the flag.”

“The SQ — they make me sick,” Sera said. Dak had

never heard such fierceness in her voice. “Someone has

got to stand up to them eventually. Or someday it’s going

to be too late.”

Dak listened to her as he stared out into the woods

beyond his house. All that green, all those animals. There

were parts of the world where these kinds of places had

disappeared entirely. He’d read enough history to know

that where the SQ went, trouble followed. He suddenly

felt his own little burst of determination.

“Maybe it’ll be us who stand up,” he said. “You never

know.”

“Yeah?” she answered absently.

“There’s an old saying,” Dak told her. “The times, they

are a-changin’.”

“Ooh, I like that.”

“Maybe that’ll be our motto. Maybe we’ll change

the times someday. Every problem has a solution, right?

And our big brains have got to be good for something.

What do you say?”

She looked over at him and stuck out her hand. He

shook it hard.

Somewhere nearby, a bird chirped excitedly.



Chapter 1



The Only Hope

Brint Takashi stared at the monitor and tried to

remember a time when he didn’t know the world was

about to end.

Mari Rivera, his second-in-command, sat next to him,

and the way she was slowly shaking her head back and

forth, she seemed to be the second most depressed person

on the planet. Brint was the first.

“Well?” Mari asked. “What do you think?”

“What do I think? I think we have a global catastrophe

on our hands,” Brint replied. “Volcanic eruptions

all along the Pacific Rim. Blizzards in parts of South

America that have never even seen snow before. If we’re

lucky, the tropical storm brewing in the Atlantic might

put out the wildfires in the Northeast.”

“Look on the bright side,” Mari said, her voice grim.

“At least people believe we’re in trouble now.”

“People still believe what the SQ tells them to believe.

Because fear is always more powerful than truth.” He ran

his fingers through his dark hair and sighed. “Aristotle



would be so proud. Look what the Hystorians have been

reduced to! The SQ is going to win — even if it means

destroying the world.”

It wasn’t just the natural disasters that had him worried.

Or the blackouts. Or the food shortages. There

were also the Remnants. Every day when Brint went

home and looked at the picture that hung above the

fireplace — he and his wife sitting by a river, the sun

glinting off the water behind them — he felt a

disorienting twist in his head and stomach. A gnawing

gap in his mind that made him extremely

uncomfortable. Someone — at least one someone — was

missing from that photo. It made no sense whatsoever,

but he knew in his bones that someone was missing.

He wasn’t alone in suffering these types of sensations.

More people experienced Remnants with each passing

day. They’d strike when you least expected them. And

they could drive you crazy. Literally crazy.

Time had gone wrong — this is what the Hystorians

believed. And if things were beyond fixing now, there

was only one hope left . . . to go back in time and fix

the past instead.

Mari did what she always did when he was inclined

to whine. She ignored him and moved on to the task at

hand. “What’s the latest on the Smyths?” she asked. Of

all the scientists the Hystorians tracked, they were the

only ones who hadn’t been shut down by the SQ . . . yet.

Brint pulled up their file and pointed out the latest

developments. All of the Smyths’ experiments, findings,



data — every little thing they did in their lab each and

every day — it was all being monitored by the Hystorians.

Without the Smyths’ knowledge, of course. Brint would

be sure to apologize for that after they saved the world.

They both fell silent for a minute, staring at the data

on the screen as if hypnotized. The Smyths were so

close. If only they could figure out the missing piece in

their calculations. If only they could give the Hystorians a

fighting chance at carrying out Aristotle’s two-thousandyear-

old plan to save the world.

“It’s coming, you know,” Mari whispered. “Sooner

than I ever thought.”

Brint nodded as dread squeezed his heart. “I never

would’ve guessed it would be in our lifetime.”

Mari continued, her words like a prophecy of doom

from a wrinkled old oracle.

“It’s coming, all right. The Cataclysm is coming, and

we’ll all wish we were dead long before it kills us.”