Behind Enemy Lines (2 page)

D
AK SHARED
a glance with Riq and Sera. He saw his own question reflected in their eyes: Could they trust Duncan? Ultimately, though, he figured Duncan couldn’t be SQ, or else he’d have pushed them into the path of the bombs, not saved them. Then again, they had been tricked before.

Dak decided to take the risk. “If you’re our Hystorian, what do you think has gone wrong here?”

Duncan rolled his eyes. “Do ye hear the bombs? The pelter in the streets? C’mon, lad, everything is wrong here!”

But Dak only shook his head. “World War Two was the most destructive war in world history. Millions of people died and the world was never the same again. But even though war is terrible, that doesn’t mean history has gone wrong.”

In fact, Dak was tired of having history go wrong. Everything he understood about the world was based on his knowledge of the past. Having to doubt the history he knew felt like walking across thin ice and wondering when it would all break apart.

“I ken what you mean,” Duncan said. “But the Allies must win this war. If we lose, then it’s not only the Nazis who win. It’s the SQ also.”

Dak closed his eyes. Every student learned about the Second World War in school, and of course, he always knew more about it than the teachers, who usually let him take over the lesson for the class. Not only did this war spread fighting to all corners of the globe, and launch weapons capable of destroying entire cities, losing the war had also shattered the idea of freedom — real freedom — around the world.

On one side were the Axis powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan. Germany was led by Adolf Hitler, someone Dak considered one of the greatest villains of history. Hitler’s goal was to build an empire for the people he felt deserved to live, namely those of his own race and ethnicity. Even thinking of him, and the millions who were killed under Hitler’s orders, Dak felt sick to his stomach.

Much of the world rose up to fight against the Axis powers, but the Allied powers, as they came to be known, were led by the United States, Russia, and Great Britain. That included Scotland, now under air assault.

“But nobody wins this war, not really.” Sera nudged her best friend with her elbow. “Believe it or not, Dak, when you talk, I do pay attention sometimes.”

Dak’s eyes flew open. “What do you mean
sometimes
?”

She only shrugged a halfhearted apology.

“If you listened to
everything
, then you’d know the most important part,” Dak said. “The Axis and Allied powers beat each other into the ground, but a winner does emerge in the end. Because all the destruction creates a void. It leaves a hole for an organization that has been waiting hundreds of years for the right opportunity.”

Riq jumped in. “Shortly after the end of World War Two, the SQ openly revealed itself to the world, offering peace, safety, and progress. The world took hold like a drowning man to a rope. But instead of fulfilling its promises, the SQ only brought tyranny and fear.”

“Aye, it’s as we thought,” Duncan said. “The Hystorians believe the Allies must win this war, or else there’ll be no stopping the SQ.” Then he pushed out his chest to better display his uniform. “It’s why I joined the Royal Navy. I’ve got to fight, do me part. But we need someone to change the direction o’ things. You three.”

Sera shook her head. “Three kids change the direction of a world war? That’s crazy! There’s no way.”

They paused for a moment while an explosion went off very close to them. Something crashed against the side of their shelter, denting the metal behind Riq. They all scooted in closer to the center and waited for the noise of falling debris to fade.

When it did, Duncan said, “It won’t be easy for ye, but it is possible.”

“How?” Riq asked.

Duncan turned to Dak. “Ye’re a dead clever lad for history, right? Tell me, what do the Allies need so they can win?”

Dak snorted. Asking what he wanted for dinner was a harder question than that. “Germany and Italy were very well defended,” he said. “If the Allies are going to win this war, they have to break through those lines.”

“It’s like a soccer game,” Riq said. “You can play defense all you want, but you’ll never win unless you go on the offense to score a goal.”

“Yeah, Riq,” Dak said. “Major world wars are just like soccer games. Just
exactly the same.”

Riq and Dak both grunted as Sera kicked each of them in the shins.
Speaking of soccer, that was pretty good skill,
Dak thought. She’d kicked two different targets at the same time, and pretty hard, too.

“I ken your point,” Duncan said. “Aye, the Allies must break through to Germany and Italy. The best place to do it is the island of Sicily.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Dak said. “Guess who else knows how important Sicily is? Germany! Hitler’s got that place so well defended, the Allies could lose everything if they attack there.”

“How can we help?” Sera asked.

Duncan looked around a moment as if checking for any eavesdroppers, which Dak found odd since they were the only ones in the shelter and the air raid was still going on outside. It wasn’t really a good time for eavesdropping. When Duncan was satisfied, he said, “He’s no Hystorian, but my best mate works in London, in Room 13 of the Admiralty. He told me of a plan there. I’ve sworn to keep it stum, but I think I should tell ye lads.”

To hear better, Dak leaned so far forward he almost lost his balance. He loved the idea of a secret plan!

“What do ye lads think of being spies?” Duncan asked, smiling.

As far as Dak was concerned, that sounded great. He started to tell Duncan about how espionage went back to the earliest days of recorded history, but was cut off by the sound of a woman crying for help out in the alley. Duncan poked his head out the door. “You lot stay here, and be cannie. I’ll go help her!”

He ran into the night while Dak, Sera, and Riq watched from the door, hearts in their throats. He got the woman safely beneath an arched doorway, but as he ran back toward the shelter, another explosion went off and rock toppled from the skies above, filling the alley like an avalanche of destruction.

Riq pulled Sera and Dak to the far end of the shelter, and they watched as large chunks of granite filled the small doorway until, only seconds later, it was completely blocked and everything went silent.

F
OR THE
longest time, Sera didn’t speak. She couldn’t even begin to think of the words that should be spoken in such a moment. The air raid seemed to have ended, or at least, the explosions stopped and the sound of engines passed. But there were no other sounds either, and certainly not Duncan’s cheery voice.

Finally, Sera whispered, “Do you think he’s . . . ?”

She looked over at Riq, who slowly shook his head. “There’s no way he survived that.”

The three friends all dropped their eyes to the ground and shared a moment of silence.

“He died a hero,” Dak said at last. “And he told us enough to get started here. We have a chance to save a lot of lives.”

“Yes, but how?” Sera asked. “The Hystorians can’t honestly expect three kids to conquer Sicily.”

“We’re not conquering anything,” Dak said. “Duncan asked if we could do spy work. I think that means we’re supposed to work behind the scenes. If we succeed, the Allies will do the conquering.”

“So this will be easy,” Riq said dryly. “I suppose we could just start asking around to see if anyone is hiring underage spies.”

“That’s not helping!” Sera sighed. “Listen, we still have the SQuare. It’ll give us the clues we need.” She looked around. “Where is it?”

Sera looked at Dak, who looked at Riq, who looked back to Sera. Suddenly, they were all talking and pointing fingers. Sera had given the SQuare to Dak when they ran into the crowd. Dak had dropped it to help a child that had fallen, but Riq had picked it up. He had tossed it into the shelter when they climbed in, but none of them remembered seeing it since they got inside.

Then Dak frowned and pointed to the entrance. “There it is.”

“There it
was
,” Sera mumbled. Sure enough, a corner of the SQuare could be seen in the entrance, crunched beneath tons of granite, wood, and bricks. Even if they could pull it out — and they couldn’t — it was totally destroyed.

Sera blinked back the sting in her eyes. She wasn’t going to cry, not about
this
.

“If you had the right materials,” Dak said, “you could —”

“Somehow I doubt there’s a wide availability of lanthanum or neodymium in 1943,” Sera said, thinking of the metals she would need to properly repair the SQuare.

“It’s okay.” Riq seemed eerily calm. “We knew this moment would come. We need a new SQuare. You and Dak have to go home and get another one.”

Riq was right — a trip to the future was the only way to get another working SQuare. But she couldn’t ignore how Riq had left himself out of the plan.

“Why not you?” Sera asked. “People back home will want to see you.”

“How would you know?” Riq snapped.

Sera still didn’t understand, but her eyes darted to Dak, who was staring at Riq and slowly nodding as if he had figured out some big secret. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be worth breaking the three of them up.

Dak caught Riq’s eye. “Okay, so where do we go once we get home? Last time we dropped in on the ol’ HQ, we were blindfolded.”

“It’s not hard to find if you know where to look,” Riq said. “Just outside of the city limits is an old shoelace factory.”

“Tiny Worm Shoelaces?” Sera smiled. “Yeah, my uncle drives past that place every day on his way to work. He always makes fun of it.”

“Everyone does.” Dak scoffed. “Seriously, who wants to wear shoelaces that look like worms? So the headquarters are near there?”

“No,” Riq said. “That
is
the headquarters. Tiny Worm Shoelaces is an anagram, a name lame enough to keep the public and the SQ away, but to let all Hystorians know they’re —”

“Welcome,” Sera finished. Once she knew it was an anagram, unscrambling the letters was easy. “Hystorians Welcome. That’s what the building’s name really says.”

“Exactly!” Riq turned his attention to Sera. “You and Dak should find Arin there, and a lot of other people who can load a new SQuare for you.”

“We’ll all go together,” Sera said. “It’s too dangerous to leave anyone behind.”

Riq pressed his eyebrows together and for a moment looked as if he was about to say something. Then he shrugged and said, “If we’re going to be spies, someone has to stay here and start creating a cover story for us. I’ll do that.”

“We have a time machine,” Sera said. “We can build the cover story when we come back.”

“Trust me, it has to be this way.” Riq’s tone was more insistent this time. “Listen, you can warp back to London one week from today’s date. That’ll give me time to get there and start figuring things out.”

“We could meet at the Tower of London, right at noon,” Dak said. “Fascinating place. A lot of beheadings happened there, including a couple of queens. It was also a zoo —”

“No!” Sera felt angry that Riq wasn’t budging, and that Dak wasn’t helping her. “We’re not leaving without Riq. What if he gets into trouble with the SQ?”

“I won’t,” Riq said. “Tower of London, one week from today. I’ll be there.”

“Plug in the coordinates to take us home,” Dak said to Sera. Then he turned to Riq. “Stay safe, dude.”

Sera reluctantly entered the coordinates, but she had no intention of pressing the button to send them away until she convinced Riq, and now Dak, that they must all stay together.

Dak put his hand on the Ring and shared a grim look with Riq that Sera didn’t like. Whatever secret Riq had, it was big, and she was sure by now that Dak knew what it was.

“Take my hand,” Sera said to Riq. “Whatever is wrong, we’ll fix it together.”

“See you in a week,” Dak said. And then before Sera could stop him, he pushed the button that would send them away.

Sera was yanked into the warp still yelling at Dak and holding out a hand to Riq. Dak had a firm grip on her at first, but as they were pulled along the time stream he cried out in pain, and nearly lost hold of her and the Ring. Now it was Sera’s job to grip Dak tightly. She wouldn’t lose him to time the way he had lost his parents.

After what seemed like a particularly long trip, Sera was spat out of the warp onto solid ground. The usual shudder ran through her, but she shook it off and turned her attention toward Dak. He was curled into a ball beside her and visibly shaking.

“Wh-wh-what’s hap-pening t-t-to me?” Dak said.

“Oh,” Sera said softly. “You’ve just had a Remnant.”