Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

A few in the crowd heard this and laughed in Diego’s direction. His cheeks burned.

“Hey . . . ,” Diego started, but Petey tugged on his arm.

“Settle down, D. You do not want to pick a fight with Paige Jordan.”

The school bell rang, and the crowd dispersed.

“Come on,” Petey said, pulling Diego along. He kept craning his neck, but he’d lost track of where the girl had gone. Lucy, Paige had said.

Petey and Diego were swept up by a group of their classmates. Everyone was chatting about the gossip of the day, but Diego barely paid attention.

“Hey, this way,” Petey said when Diego started toward their class. He saw that his classmates were heading the other way. “We’re touring the Ice Age exhibit today, remember? For science? Two hours less of class time.”

“Oh,” Diego said, catching up. “Right.”

“Uh-huh,” Petey said, grinning. “I know what’s got you distracted.”

They fought through crowds of lower-grade and high school students and visitors to the museum, finally catching up to the rest of the class as their teacher, Mr. Nelson, was taking attendance. “All right,” he said, “we’ll be joining the other upper-grade classes in the exhibit hall. Right this way.”

“Wait, hold on,” Petey said. He grabbed Diego by the shoulder and turned him toward Sue, the famous T. rex skeleton, a relic from before the Time Collision. “Is that the blond skater that was outside with Paige?”

“No way.” Diego saw that Lucy had traded in her skater clothes for a prim dress with a white collar and high boots, her hair tied back.

“Looks like your crush is actually a Steam Timer.” He punched Diego’s shoulder.

“Maybe,” Diego said. He couldn’t get over how different she looked.

“Come on, you’ve gotta say hi,” Petey said, elbowing him in the ribs.

“Nah,” Diego said. “She probably won’t even talk to me.”

“Come on, D. Besides, she’s gorgeous. If you won’t, I will.”

Diego took a deep breath. “Okay, fine, but you’re coming with me.” He dragged Petey along by the arm and made his way around the back of their class, keeping out of Mr. Nelson’s sight.

Paige spotted them approaching and whispered to Lucy. They shared a laugh, and Diego wanted to die. Still, he wasn’t going to turn back now. He willed one foot in front of the next until they were right beside the girls, who were now acting more interested in Sue, as if Diego and Petey didn’t exist.

“Hey,” Diego said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“What you want, North-sider?” Paige snapped.

Diego looked at Lucy. She eyed him curiously. “I’m Diego,” he said. “This is Petey. We just want to, um, welcome you to our school, and . . .”

Lucy smirked. “Are you the official Mid-Time welcoming committee?”

She had a thick accent, and it took Diego a second to decipher what she had said. “Oh, you’re from . . .” He was trying to place it. “Over there . . .”

“Over there?” Lucy said. “Indeed . . . if by ‘over there’ you mean across the Vastlantic. And how uninformed of you to think that you’re from here and we’re from there, as if one is superior to the other. If that were true, it would certainly be that there was here and here was there.”

“Wait,” Diego said. “I wasn’t, um, saying that. I just . . . your accent . . . it’s . . . Irish?”

The second he said it, Lucy’s mouth dropped open.

“Oh, sorry, I mean Australian.” There was a more obvious spot he could have named, but it was like his brain was a steam compressor on the fritz.

“My manner of speech is neither from an island of peasant farmers nor one of criminals,” Lucy said.

“Hey,” Diego said. “Watch it. My mom’s from Ireland.”

Lucy made a face Diego couldn’t decipher. “Be that as it may,” she said, “for your information, Mid-Time American, I am a loyal subject of the true sovereign of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty Queen Victoria—”

That was it! England!

“And I’m not new to your school,” Lucy continued. “I was homeschooled when we first got here, but I’ve been here in your eighth grade for a few weeks now. And I will be for the rest of the semester while my father is in town on important business. Now why don’t you little boys go find some other tikes to play with.”

“We’re not little boys,” Diego said. “We’re both thirteen.”

“You sure act like little boys,” Paige said. “Now step off and go back to your playdate.” She and Lucy turned toward Sue.

“Come on,” Petey said. “Let’s go find some real girls to talk to.” He started to turn away.

But Diego stood his ground. There was something about this girl.

“Why are they still hanging around?” Paige said, her back to the boys.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Lucy said.

“Hey,” Diego heard himself blurt out. “You think that T. rex is so cool, maybe you’d like to see a real one.”

This made Lucy glance over her shoulder. “How’s that?”

“Well, my dad loaned the museum some equipment to help install their new T. rex exhibit, and when I helped deliver the loaders, I memorized the combination to the service entrance door. It’s here in the Ice Age hall. That new dinosaur’s got skin and everything. It looks alive.”

“D,” Petey said quietly by his shoulder. “We’re not supposed to leave our class. We’ll get in huge trouble if we’re caught, and our parents will kill us.”

“Well, then, we won’t get caught,” Diego said, shrugging. “Come on, Petey, where’s your sense of adventure?” He grinned at the girls.

Lucy and Paige shared a glance.

“We’re not going to let these North-side runts show us up, are we?” Paige said.

Diego was surprised to see uncertainty on Lucy’s face.

Paige leaned toward Lucy. “It’s not gonna bite.”

“It’s really cool,” Diego added. “Besides, you’ve got me and Petey to protect you.”

“Please,” Lucy said. “I don’t need a boy to take care of me.” She nodded and glanced at Paige. “Let’s humor them.” She took a deep breath as she said it.

Diego glanced back at their classes. “We should stay with our groups until we’re down the hall a little farther. Then watch for my signal.”

After what seemed like a never-ending lecture by Mr. Nelson, the classes split into four-person groups and were allowed to take in the rest of the exhibit on their own. Each student was given a small chalkboard to gather at least three interesting facts from the displays. The boys scribbled down as much as they could at the first exhibit about mammoths and then announced that they were headed for the restrooms, and set off to find Lucy and Paige.

They spotted Lucy with her school group over by an exhibit about glaciers. Paige was with hers by the mastodons. Diego nodded to each of them, then waited over by a diorama featuring Neanderthal hunters confronting a saber-toothed tiger.

“Those would be good friends for you two,” Paige said as she and Lucy arrived.

“Actually,” Petey said, waving his hand dismissively at the exhibit, “that’s not even close to what a real Neanderthal looks like.”

“Like you would know that, North-sider,” Paige said, one eyebrow raised.

“Actually, Petey and I have been out to the wild lands,” Diego said. “We’ve seen the Neanderthals firsthand.”

“Oh, really?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah,” Diego said. He didn’t add that technically they only thought they’d seen a Neanderthal tribe, from a far distance. At the time, they’d been running from that dimetrodon.

“You’ve actually been out to the wild lands?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah, right,” Paige said. “These two couldn’t even survive a walk in Cicero. There’s no way they’ve been out in the wild lands.”

“We’ve been there a few times,” Diego said. “And I’m not sure you could handle it.”

“Oh, I’m about to show you what I can handle,” Paige said, putting her hands on her hips.

“Hold on,” Lucy said, grabbing Paige’s arm. Diego noticed that her eyes had widened. “But aren’t there . . . dinosaurs out there? Like, real ones?”

“Oh yeah,” Petey said, “lots of different kinds. Man-eaters, giant herbivores that could squash you with a single step.”

“It’s not that bad,” Diego said, watching Lucy’s face as Petey went on. “They usually keep to themselves. It’s actually more dangerous if you cross into Algonquin lands without permission, or run into one of those Neanderthal hunting parties.”

“Yeah, right,” Paige said. “You two talk big. I bet you’ve never really been out there.”

“We have, too,” Diego said. “My dad leads salvage expeditions, and he takes us along to help.”

Paige opened her mouth to add more when snickering distracted them.

A group of boys lurked across the hall, with Joe Fish standing in the middle.

“Ugh, I thought I smelled Believers,” Petey said, but he kept his voice quiet enough that the gang wouldn’t hear.

“True Believers?” Lucy asked.

Just then, Fish blew her a kiss. His gang cracked up.

“They’re a lot of filthy hooligans,” Lucy said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Come on, y’all, we don’t need to waste time with them,” Paige said.

“You heard the ladies,” Petey said, catching up.

Diego started after them but paused and turned back to Fish.

Fish’s buddies laughed at this, too. Fish scowled at Diego and made a circular motion, with his finger pointing at the ground. Turn around and walk away. He then raised his thumb to his throat and made a long, slow, cutting motion.

It was all Diego could do to keep his cool. Not even two years ago, they’d been friends, and Fish had even come by the workshop sometimes. Now he was well on his way to being a Time-separatist thug.

“D,” Petey said from a few steps behind him. “Come on.”

Diego tried to swallow his anger. But before he turned away, he held up a hand to his ear, then with the other hand pretended to be turning up the volume dial on a radio. He moved his hand away from his ear and slowly raised his middle finger in time to the dial spinning.

Fish shoved his hands in his pockets, his face so red it looked like he might boil over.

“Why would you do that?” Petey asked as they hurried to catch the girls. “I really don’t want a busted jaw, or worse. You know those guys have roughed kids up, bad.”

“He needs to know that not everyone is afraid of him,” Diego said.

“But I am afraid of him,” Petey said. “I’m sore at him for turning on us as much as you are, but we can’t do anything about it.”

“They shouldn’t act like that toward a girl,” Diego said.

“You two speak for yourselves,” Paige said as they caught up. “Them hoods wouldn’t dare mess with me, or they know what they’d get.”

“Yes,” Lucy said, “we don’t need seventh-grade bodyguards, if you please. We can handle ourselves.”

“Fine,” Diego said.

Petey said, “There’s the service entrance.” He pointed to a door with a keypad lock. “Right, D?”

“Yeah.” Diego led them to the door. He punched in the code.

The door didn’t move.

“I thought you said you had this?” Paige asked. “Or is this just more of your bull?”

“No.” Diego typed in the code again. He’d gone over it in his head. This was definitely it.

Still nothing.

Lucy huffed. “What a bore.”

“Try it slower,” Petey said, “in case the buttons are sticking, or a number isn’t registering.” He gazed back over his shoulder. “But, you know, hurry. Mr. Nelson could come by any second.”

Diego typed the numbers again, and when the door still didn’t budge, he slammed it with his palm.

“Knew you were all talk,” Paige said.

“We should just head back,” Petey added.

“No, wait,” Diego said. “Just . . . hold on.” He closed his eyes and tried to block everything else out. He placed his hand on the keypad. Imagined only the door, the inner workings of the lock. How the keypad mechanism might work . . .

Images flashed in his mind: the pins of the lock, the gears that would twist them into the right shape, the connections to the keypad—

Diego’s fingers found the numbers flashing in his mind. He tapped them in.

A click. He opened his eyes and pushed the door. It yawned into the stairwell.

“Okay, let’s hurry.”

Diego stepped through the doorway, then looked back to find Petey, Lucy, and Paige staring at him.

“That was weird,” Lucy said. “What did you just do?”

“Nothing, I just had the numbers reversed in my head.”

“You did it with your eyes closed,” Paige said.

“I had to remember them from the other day. So are you coming or what?” He held the door and motioned for them to go by.

They filed through, and Diego pushed the door shut but paused. “Ah,” he said, studying the door controls.

“What is it?” Petey asked.

“There’s no lock on this side. We have to leave it open if we want to get back up this way.”

“But if someone notices the door open . . . ,” Lucy said.

“It will be fine,” Petey said. “Won’t it, D?”

“It’s no problem,” Diego said. He closed his eyes again, tried to clear everything and see the door. There had to be a way to make this work—

“This is what you call a plan?” Paige said.

The comment distracted him. Diego breathed deep, trying to shut out the world again.

“I knew this was rubbish,” Lucy said.

Diego lost it again. He spun around. “What are you all afraid of? No one comes down here during the day, and the door will look like it’s closed. I’m going anyway.” He brushed past them and started down the stairs, stopping after a few steps. He turned back to see the three looking from one to the other.

“I’m not letting him call me a coward,” Paige said. She took Lucy by the arm and started down the stairs.

Petey glanced at Diego, then shoved his hands in his pockets and followed.

“I feel like they’re watching us,” Lucy said, glancing from side to side.

Diego felt like there were eyes in the dark too, but Lucy sounded terrified. As if she thought one of these creatures would come alive and devour them all on the spot.

“Hang tough, girl,” Paige said, squeezing Lucy’s arm. “You got this. Remember, these things are dead and stuffed.”

Lucy nodded. “Of course they are.”

They passed through the hall and out into a wide rotunda. It was brighter in here, the morning sunlight casting angular beams through round windows in the domed ceiling. In the center of the room stood the giant T. rex.

“Say hello to Wendell,” Diego said.

“Whoa,” Paige said. “Now that’s a carnivore.”

“Largest tyrannosaurus ever recorded in the wild lands,” Petey said.

“He’s majestic,” Lucy said, but she stopped a few feet from the felt ropes that ringed the specimen.

Paige jumped right over them and stepped around one of the dinosaur’s thick legs. She moved under the creature’s chest, running her hand along its skin. “Wait, what,” she said, “this thing has feathers?” She brushed her fingers over soft, scalelike feathers around the creature’s leg. The pattern extended up around the underside of its neck.

“That’s going to be Wendell’s big surprise to the world,” Diego said. “She’s a species of T. rex never before seen.”

“She?” Lucy said. “But . . . her name’s Wendell.”

“She’s actually named after Wendy Dykstra,” Petey said, “the game warden who found the body out beyond the perimeter wall. She knew how important a specimen this was, so she hot-wired a class-four loader robot to get her over the wall before scavengers could.”

“But Wendell is a boy’s name,” Paige said.

“The museum wanted the dinosaur to have a boy name since the skeleton upstairs is Sue, so they changed Wendy to Wendell.”

“That’s how they reward her for her heroics?” Lucy said.

“There’s going to be a plaque by her that explains it,” Diego said. “Everyone will still know about her and what she did.”

“A plaque?” Lucy said. “Well, I guess the Time Collision didn’t change everything. It’s still a man’s world.”

“You got that right,” Paige said.

“Actually, Diego’s mom was part of it, too,” Petey said.

“Yeah,” Diego said, “she caught a glimpse of her on a training flight. She didn’t quite know what she’d seen, but she gave the coordinates to Wendy.”

“Your mom’s a pilot?” Lucy asked, turning away from Wendell. “Is she an explorer, or a bush pilot, or what?”

“She flies search and rescue for the air corps, but she used to be a fighter pilot. She fought against the Aeternum in their raids against New Chicago.”

“A famous fighter pilot,” Petey added.

“You—” Lucy’s mouth fell open. “You’re not talking about Siobhan Quinlan, are you? Not the famous fighter pilot, the hero of Dusable Harbor?”

Diego couldn’t help a wide grin. “Quinlan-Ribera now, but yeah. One and the same.”

“That’s—” Lucy shook her head. “Your mother is my hero. A woman who went well beyond her station in the Victorian world. But hold on . . . did you say Ribera? Like Santiago Ribera?” Suddenly her eyes narrowed. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

“No,” Diego said. “Those are my parents. What’s it to you?”

Lucy kept peering at him. “So . . . you’re saying that the fact that your mother is Siobhan Quinlan, my hero, and your father is Santiago Ribera . . . the purported genius engineer whose own steam converter was found wanting and had to be replaced by my father’s superior Goliath steam converter . . . you’re saying those two things are just coincidence?”

“What do you know about my father?” Diego said.

“Your father is the entire reason we’re here,” Lucy said. “It’s his inadequate steam converter that’s the reason I’m stuck in New Chicago for half a year. So that my father can save your city.”

“Wait,” Diego said. “You’re saying that your father is that Emerson guy my dad was talking about?”

“He’s not some guy; he’s George Emerson, the world’s preeminent steam engineer, who will be knighted by the queen herself, I’ll have you know.”

“Right, him,” Diego said. “We’re only using his old-fashioned steam tech out of pity.”

“Pity?” Lucy nearly shouted. “How dare you? My father is a genius. His converter design is superior to your city’s. Everyone says so.”

“Who’s everyone?” Diego said. “Everybody still living with gas lamps and locomotives? Maybe that’s nice by your standards, but you should open your eyes around town. My dad is a visionary.”

“How much of a visionary could he be if his son is such an arrogant fool?”

“You tell that wannabe,” Paige said.

“Okay, okay,” Petey said. “How about if we rejoin our classes before someone gets hurt?”

“Oh, I’d hate to miss that opportunity!”

The voice echoed out of the darkness. The four whirled toward the hallway they’d come from.

A match was struck, lighting four figures.

Fish sucked on his cigarette, the end glowing, as he and his gang stepped out of the shadows.

“Get out of here, Fish,” Diego said. He tried to sound tough, but his heart was racing. This wasn’t a public place like the exhibit hall.

“Can’t do that,” Fish said. He plucked his cigarette between two fingers and waved it in their direction. “Have to rescue the damsel.”

“What are you talking about?” Petey asked.

“It’s a classic tale, really. Damsel in distress and then along comes a hero and his mates.”

“That punk better not think he’s talking about me,” Paige muttered.

Fish scowled. “Not you, love. That one.” He pointed at Lucy.

“Oh, I’m in no need of a rescue, thank you very much,” Lucy said.

“Sure you are. Look at ya: led into associations with a Mid-Time colored girl and a half-breed clock mongrel.”

“Shut up, Fish!” Diego shouted. “What happened to you anyway?”

“I wised up.”

“Sounds like the opposite,” Petey said.

“You need to step off before you step in it,” Paige said.

Fish shook his head. “It’s like there’s this barking and yapping, but I can’t quite understand what it’s saying. Come on, damsel. Before things get ugly.”

“I think the ugly’s already here.” Paige slapped a fist into her palm and glared at Fish.

“Ooh,” Fish said. “I normally wouldn’t hit a lady, but you don’t count.”

“You’d do well to pay her mind,” Lucy said. “And just because I’m a Steam Timer doesn’t mean I’d want anything to do with you hooligans.”

“I see how it is.” Fish flicked his cigarette aside. “Tommy, Seamus: get Ribera and hold him down for me. Billy, grab the skater girl. She’ll be next. And make sure that Petey-boy sees stars!”

“Run!” Diego shouted. He curled his fingers into a fist as the boys advanced.

“Yeah, right!” Paige replied. She’d already dropped her backpack and skateboard. Billy was just reaching for her arm when she darted toward him, grabbed him by the forearm, and judo flipped him to the floor.

“Whoa!” Petey said.

The move made Fish and the others freeze for a second. Diego saw his chance. He lunged for Paige’s skateboard, grabbed it with tingling fingers, and slammed Fish across the face with it.

Fish crumpled to the floor, rolling back and forth, holding his nose and cursing. Tommy and Seamus rushed over to him.

“Okay, now we might want to run!” Lucy said.

“Let’s go!” Diego darted for the hallway, Petey, Lucy, and Paige right behind him.

When they reached the dark corridor, Diego glanced back and saw Billy staggering to his feet, the other two crouched beside Fish.

“Let’s keep moving,” Petey said. They hurried back to the stairs and up to the service door.

Diego shut it and then punched in the key code, but the lock didn’t engage.

“Are you sure it’s the same code to lock it?” Petey asked.

“Please tell me you thought to check that beforehand,” Lucy said.

“Nah, it’s the same,” Diego said. He had no idea. “Just gotta get it right.”

Footsteps thundered up the stairs from below.

“Hurry up!” Lucy said.

“I’m trying.” Diego glanced through the window and saw Tommy and Seamus coming. “Grab the door and hold it shut!” Diego shouted.

As they crowded around him and grabbed the handle, Diego closed his eyes again. Had to push everything out, had to focus. Just the door. Just the intricacies of that lock . . .

Fists pounded on the door, breaking his concentration.

“We . . . can’t . . . hold them!” Petey shouted.

Diego took a deep breath and held it. Sank into his head. Nothing but the lock. Flashes exploded in his mind. He let the visions reach his fingers, tapped at the keypad, and the lock slid shut.

“Mongrel!” Fish shouted, his face pressed against the window, steaming up the glass. Diego could see the blood dripping down his nose. “You’re gonna pay!”

Diego stepped back, panting, and offered Fish a wordless smile and shrug. Angry muffled shouts and thuds continued behind them as they stepped away.

Once they rounded the corner, they stopped to catch their breath.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Petey asked, gazing at Paige.

“One of our neighbors is a jujitsu master,” she said. “My brother . . . and I used to practice with him.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said, her breath still short. “For getting us out of trouble.”