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Dak looked less like a wet puppy.
    He started to close the window, but Sera said, “We should leave it open, in case we need to make a quick escape.”
    “Good idea.” Riq frowned at the water now puddled on the floor, but decided it would dry long before anyone happened upon it. “Let’s get this done.”
    He opened the door to the hallway, and then froze, certain he had heard a shuffle in the bushes outside the window.
    Dak looked out, but only shrugged his shoulders. “Nobody except us is crazy enough to be out on a night like this. Must be the wind.”
    “C’mon, then.” Riq led them into a narrow and dark hallway with low ceilings and worn paint. Outside, the rain seemed to have picked up speed. The pelter of drops echoed through the hallway, which masked any sound they might make, but it also made Riq nervous. It concealed any sound from an oncoming guard on his rounds, too.
    Room 13 was marked clearly, but for a place that held such powerful secrets, it didn’t seem to be anything special. Maybe that was the idea. If a German spy got in here, the last place he’d think to look for top secret plans was behind an ordinary door in a narrow basement.
    Dak stepped forward and tried the door handle. “It’s locked.”
    Sera shoved a hand in her pocket and pulled out some slim pieces of metal. “No worries. I’ve gotten pretty good at picking locks by now.”
    “Excellent,” Riq said.
    Sera went down on her knees and stuck the metal pieces inside the handle. While she did, Riq explained to Dak how the few men and women who worked inside this room mostly kept to themselves and seemed very serious about their jobs. “But they’re still just regular people,” he whispered. “Everyday people trying to stop a really bad guy.”
    “Real spies don’t have all the cool gadgets you see in the movies,” Dak said, watching Sera struggle with the lock. “Though I sure wish we had a sonic screwdriver right about now.”
    Riq wasn’t sure he got the reference, but he raised an eyebrow knowingly.
    Sera continued fiddling for several minutes, all the time muttering to herself about the feel of the tumblers. Riq and Dak huddled in close to watch, and neither of them moved when she told them to back off.
    “I can’t . . .” she said. “This won’t . . .” And then, halfway through a sentence that began “We’ll never —” her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “That did it!”
    The lock clicked. Sera rotated it and pushed. “Let’s go in,” she whispered.
    “Why don’t we all go inside?” someone behind them said in an English accent.
    All three kids turned, and sighed in unison. A tall man with wavy brown hair, prominent cheekbones, and bushy eyebrows was motioning them inside Room 13.
    Once inside, he turned on the lights, then shut and locked the door behind him. Sera stood between the two boys, holding each of their hands. Or rather, locking their hands in a death grip. Riq would’ve pulled away, just to preserve some blood flow in his fingers, but Sera looked like she needed his support.
    Okay, he was scared, too.
    “Who are you?” Dak asked.
    “Call me Anton.” Then he chuckled. “I’ve always wanted to get inside the Admiralty, but I never thought three kids would make it so easy for me.”
    “So you’re a spy?” Sera asked.
    “I suppose you could say that.” His eyes rested on Sera’s sack, the one with the Infinity Ring inside, and Riq leaned closer to her to block Anton’s view of it. Anton continued, “But I do not work for Britain or for Germany. They’re too caught up in their war to see the bigger things happening in this world.”
    Riq jutted out his chin. “We don’t care whose side you’re on. We’re not here to fight. We don’t have anything to do with this war.”
    Anton’s smile only widened. “Maybe not
this
war. But our war is even bigger, eh, time travelers?” He chuckled again. “That’s right. We know what you look like now. There is no safe place for you