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with telling the story backward — he wanted to leave that little tidbit about him stealing their keys until the very end. “It took all weekend, but Sera was able to fill in your missing piece, and now it works.”
    Sera was fidgeting beside him, still on the couch, her knees bouncing. His parents shared a look that he couldn’t quite read.
    Dak decided to keep going, thinking this just might work without an explosion of rage, groundings, unnecessary murders, stuff like that. “Look, we can fill in all the details later — but this is exciting, right? We need to get out there! Sera can explain, but the Infinity Ring is ready to be tested!”
    “Who else knows about this?” Dak’s mom said. Her voice was flat and commanding — it actually scared Dak a little.
    “What . . . what do you mean?” he asked. Sera stood beside him now, and he could tell she sensed the bad shift in the mood.
    Dak’s mother put her hands on his shoulders. “This is important, son. Did you tell anyone what you were up to? Anyone at all? Your grandmother, maybe? Sera’s uncle?”
    “No,” Dak said. He looked over at Sera, who shook her head. “Mom, what’s going on?”
    Dak’s dad drew the curtains closed, his face pinched with worry. “This isn’t a
game
, Dak. What on
earth
were you thinking?”
    He yelled that last bit, something Dak had never, not once, experienced before.
    “I’m sorry, Dad. But . . . we figured it out.”
    “You also might’ve signed our death warrants,” his mom replied.
    “We can’t waste another second,” his dad said. “Show us.”

T HE NEXT couple of hours were a complete nightmare. First, Dak had to sit through Sera’s explanations on how everything worked and how she’d figured it out. His parents were short and bitter as they asked questions and demanded answers. Then Sera’s uncle came over and caused a major scene when he started screaming and yelling. Somehow Dak’s dad was able to calm the old geezer down, convince him that Sera desperately needed their help with an important homework project, and send him on his way.
    Then there was another hour of scientific mumbo jumbo that just about drove Dak over the edge. Just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, he heard someone say his name. His head jerked up and he realized he’d been staring at the floor.
    His dad was standing right in front of him, arms folded across his chest. “Maybe you should try listening harder — you might learn something.”
    “Science isn’t my thing, Dad.” They’d had this conversation a million times. The truth was that Dak did well enough in the subject at school, but it just didn’t interest him. And they were talking about things well beyond anything he’d learned in school anyway. “But I’d be happy to tell you about the political implications after pyroglycerine was developed by Italy in 1847.”
    Sera and his mom were still bent over a SQuare, gesticulating and talking in an excited rush. His mom had the Ring gripped in her left hand. Dak returned his attention to his dad, whose stern expression made his face look like hard stone. Both of his parents looked older than ever before, like they’d aged twenty years in a matter of days.
    And then the lecture began. “I don’t think I need to tell you how disappointed I am that you broke some of our most sacred rules. A lot of bad things could’ve happened. Not just to our research, but to you. Quantum mechanics is
not
something to be messed with. Not to even mention the fact that certain parties wouldn’t be very happy to learn about what we’ve been up to here. Do you understand why we’re so upset?”
    “Yes, sir.” Dak showed a sad face but on the inside he was leaping with joy — this was the lamest, shortest discipline speech he’d ever gotten. “I’m sorry.”
    His dad smiled. “I think she did it, Dak. I think this thing will really work.”
    “You’re serious?” Dak was pretty sure he should be more excited about