A Mutiny in Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

that his parents left the keys out, he’d skipped the mundane details — that the keys were
usually
in a sealed box that was kept in a fireproof safe within a huge wall-sized gun locker. Sera thought it was all a little OCD — but Dak’s parents had always been a bit odd.
    Sera got there first, waiting impatiently in front of the imposing door as Dak approached, jangling the keys in his hand. “It looks like something out of the Dark Ages, doesn’t it?” he asked.
    “How in the world did they forget to put the keys away?” Sera asked. “I’d expect them to catch their flight to Europe completely naked before letting something like that happen.” Dak’s parents went overseas at least once a month for some kind of business venture that no one had ever fully explained to Sera. It was how they made money to support their
real
passion — the oddball experiments and silly research projects rumored to be taking place inside the lab. Sera couldn’t wait to check them out.
    “Let’s just say I helped them along a little,” Dak answered. “I’ve been dying to see what they’ve been up to in here. Dad keeps saying they’ve come up with something really big. Really, really big. Maybe they finally came up with a working model of that regurgitating refrigerator he’s always talked about.”
    Sera summed it up in a deadpan voice: “And so you stole their keys so that you can explore their inner sanctum completely against their will.”
    “I won’t break anything if you don’t.”
    “Pinkie swear?”
    “Pinkie swear.”
    They hooked their little fingers and that was that. Dak’s grandma was half blind and three-quarters deaf, so she’d never know they were up to something.
    Dak flipped through the keys and started matching big ones and little ones with a series of locks that lined the right side of the door. Sera looked on as he worked, trying to hide the impatience that threatened to explode out of her. Here she had the chance of a lifetime to peruse a fully functioning science lab — no matter how silly the things that might be going on within.
    Dak was on his knees now, trying to find the key to fit a lock that was only an inch above the ground.
    “Is it your goal in life to drive me crazy?” Sera asked. “One more minute passes and I’m going to start ninja chopping your skinny head.”
    “You’re awfully loud for a ninja,” he said just as something clicked. “Got it!” The heavy door swung inward with a metallic scrape across the cement floor. Sera slipped past him and went inside before he could even stand up.
    “Hurry and close it,” she whispered to him, as if someone were listening in. She couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. The thought chilled her spine as Dak slammed the door closed.
    There was a bank of switches to her right and she flipped them all, then watched in anticipation as lights flickered on one at a time, revealing the beauty of the lab in slow motion. It was huge, filled with everything she’d ever imagined would be in such a place — computers running along the walls, monitors atop every desk, and a jumble of electronics and chemicals and glassware on every available surface. Freestanding whiteboards were covered with a rainbow scrawl of mathematical and chemical formulas. The whole humongous room was a haven of science. It was far beyond what she’d expected from the Smyths.
    Something to the left caught Sera’s attention. She walked over to see a glass case, about the size and shape of a small refrigerator. Behind the glass, on a felt stand, there was a silvery band of metal an inch thick, shaped like a figure eight and about a foot long. Except for a small touch screen on one side, the object appeared completely smooth and shiny, almost shimmering like liquid. It looked alien — and very advanced.
    “That must be it,” Dak whispered. She didn’t know when he’d appeared at her shoulder. “Their really, really big project. What in the world is