Armand Baltazar - Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

Daphne hopped over beside him and started yipping excitedly.

“Not now, girl,” Diego said, “I’m busy.” He strained to reach the keys, but they were beyond his fingers. Crud , he thought, glancing around. I’ve got to get those keys! He grabbed a pencil off the desk and tried with that, each time to no avail. Have to get them—I just have to .

Daphne’s rapid panting became slow, even breaths, and then she darted forward, flattening herself and scooting under the tank. She slipped back out with the keys in her jaws.

“Whoa, good girl!” Diego said. He bent down and held out his hand. As Daphne dropped the keys onto his palm, Diego saw a strange, silvery glint in her eyes . . . but then Daphne trotted off, tail wagging, like nothing had happened.

“All right, Daphne!” Petey said, standing behind him.

Diego stood. He watched Daphne go, his head tingling, similar to the way it had after building the gravity board.

“What’s up, D?”

Diego shook his head. He figured he was still a little woozy from his experience with the Sight earlier. A ghost of a headache knocked at the back of his skull, and Marty throwing them across the room hadn’t helped. “Nothing,” he said.

“Come on, man,” Petey said. “We need to scramble.”

“Right.”

“Should I get your mom’s gravity board?” Petey asked.

“Nah, I’ll get it,” Diego said. “You’ve caused enough trouble.” He smiled and punched Petey in the arm, then hurried around the shop, putting a few more things away and grabbing the two boards.

Petey and Diego pushed the Goldfish into the freight elevator and rode to the ground floor. Petey sat in the passenger’s seat as Diego ignited the main boiler. The little car chugged to life. Diego hopped inside and jammed the control levers. The car rolled down the street-level dock and into the green water.

Horns sounded in the traffic-clogged canal as Diego veered among the slower paddle wheelers and faster boiler taxis while watching out for the tromping legs of robots. The little craft was barely visible to the larger ships, sitting just above the water as it did.

As the world bustled around them, Petey pulled an old Sony Walkman cassette player from the glove box and plugged in the cable from a simple set of speakers in the back.

“Which one of these do you like?” he said, flipping through a stack of plastic cassette cases. Petey handled these gingerly; in his house, he was used to music being played from delicate wax cylinders.

“That one,” Diego said, glancing over.

“The Replacements,” Petey said. “Which song?”

“‘Can’t Hardly Wait,’” Diego said. “It should be cued up.”

Petey slid in the tape, and the speakers burst to life.

“Your dad’s music is loud!” Petey shouted.

“That’s the best part about it!”

CHAPTER FOUR

Where Giants and Monsters Be

Diego surfaced beyond the public docks in front of their school. The Field Museum of Natural History loomed over its surrounding streets, a great stone building built back in 1893, sturdy enough to survive the Time Collision with only a few busted windows. With so many other structures destroyed, and with unknown seismic activity still lurking, the museum had been chosen to be the first primary and secondary school in the city. It still held most of its vast collection of artifacts and specimens, including skeletons of many giant creatures that had returned in the new world.

“Just in time!” Petey called, leaping out and tying off the ropes. “We should charge fares for getting kids to school in style. Diego and Petey’s Underwater Cab Service!”

Diego smiled. “Too bad there’s no room for more passengers.”

“The girls can sit on our laps!” Petey said. “Speaking of which . . .” He pointed toward a crowd gathered in front of school. “Get a load of this.”

Diego joined Petey at the edge of the crowd. Everyone watched as two girls skated on the stairs, grinding the rails. The crowd was a mix of times and culture, Steam Timers and Mids, even a few Elders here and there. A teen couple passed in front of them, an Elder boy and a Steam-Time girl, holding hands.

“Dating a Steam Timer would be swell,” Petey said, watching the couple wistfully.

“You’d never be able to handle all the proper manners,” Diego said.

“How do you know? Maybe I’ve been practicing on my own. Good day, m’lady,” he said, bowing like a gentleman.

“Hey.” Diego nudged him. “Not now.”

He nodded to the side of the crowd, where a group of older kids were catcalling at the Elder-Steam couple. The two hurried in the other direction, but not before enduring a barrage of insults. Diego recognized the boy at the center of the group, his fire-red hair springing from beneath a derby cap.

Petey slapped Diego on the shoulder. “Don’t pay him a nickel, D,” he said. “Come on, let’s get a closer look at this rumpus.”

“I should have guessed it was Paige Jordan,” Petey said as they watched. “She’s something, huh?” he said, leaning into Diego’s shoulder.

“She sure is,” Diego said, not talking about Paige.

“Uh-oh,” Petey said, noticing Diego’s stare. “Somebody’s got a doe in his headlights!”

The girl met his gaze, just as she was about to jump her board up onto the rail—

But the board hit wrong, and she crashed to the steps.

The crowd gasped. Paige hurried over to her.

“Girl, you know you’re gonna eat that rail if you pop your board up too soon,” Paige said, hands on her hips. But then she knelt down. “You all right?”

“Fine,” the girl muttered. Her eyes flashed to Diego again.

This time, Paige noticed, and when she saw that Diego was on the other end of that gaze, she rolled her eyes. “Oh, no way. You’re face-planting because of that boy? Get your head in the game, Lucy! He’s just some seventh-grade runt.”

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.”