The Secret War (Jack Blank Adventure) (39 page)

“Of course I chose not to,” Jack said. “I’m not gonna lie down and die for the Rüstov.”

“You mean like Legend did? Like Virtua was willing to? You put yourself ahead of us,” Smart accused. “You hid the truth about the virus, and only acted to stop it once I exposed your secrets!”

“It was the secrets you kept about the SmarterNet that nearly spread the Rüstov virus all over the world,” Jack shot back. “They played you, and you don’t even know it. Anything you got from the Rogue Secreteer, you got from the Rüstov. Obscuro was infected by a Rüstov spy named Glave. That name ring a bell? You did exactly what they wanted you to do, going on TV and getting everyone to fight one another while they moved their plan forward. The Rüstov count on people like you to tear us apart and make us weaker.”

“You’re just trying to shift the blame away from yourself,” Smart said. “You’re the one they’re counting on to defeat us.”

“I think he’s going to be the one to defeat
them
,” Stendeval interjected into the conversation. Everyone
turned to Stendeval, waiting for him to back up his statement. “If you want to persecute this boy, you might as well persecute me. I knew Jack’s story before he did. I knew it when I hid him away during the invasion, and I knew it when I watched over him in the Real World. I was the one who told Emissary Knight where to find Jack so he could bring him home. None of this happened by accident. I knew it all.”

“You knew about this?” Noteworthy asked. “You knew about Jack’s future, and still you brought him here? How could you do that? And why am I the last one to find out about
everything
?”

Stendeval looked at Noteworthy like a teacher being patient with a student who isn’t trying very hard to understand the lesson. “I once met an accomplished poet and thinker who said, ‘What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are small matters when compared with what lies within us,’” he told the wealthy Circleman.

Noteworthy looked at Stendeval like he was speaking another language. “What the devil is that supposed to mean?” he howled. “What lies within him is the Rüstov prince!”

“There’s far more than that inside of Jack,” Stendeval replied. “The only future I believe in is the one that we create. Jack’s future is in his hands, and from what I know of this boy’s courage and resolve, the Rüstov are going to regret making him part of their plans.”

“And you know best, do you? Is that it?” Smart asked Stendeval. “There you go again, making decisions on your own that affect all of us. Your ego puts us all in danger.”

“That is quite a statement coming from you, Jonas,” Stendeval replied.

“The whole of the Inner Circle should vote on what’s to be done with Jack,” Smart fired back. “It’s not for one man to decide for himself behind closed doors. The people of Empire City deserve to know what’s being done about this. Every Circleman here needs to make it clear where they stand—with Jack, or with the Imagine Nation.”

“The Circle already voted on Jack’s future. Last year,” Chi said. “You were there.”

“I wasn’t there,” Noteworthy cut in. “And I’m willing to bet that none of this was discussed back then. Jonas is right. This affects all of us, not just Jack. We have to do
what’s best for
all
the people of the Imagine Nation.”

“Aye,” Hovarth agreed. “The Imagine Nation must come first. For the good of our great land—to protect our
future
—Jack Blank has to die.”

No one said anything for a long half minute. Jack realized Smart did have something to threaten him with after all, and he was seeing it play out here. He hoped that someone else would step up and take his side, but there was nothing but silence. That’s when Jazen Knight spoke up.

“Cowards,” the emissary spat out, eyeing the silent assembly with contempt.

Hovarth’s head snapped up to look at Jazen. “What did you say?” he asked in a slow, smoldering voice.

Jazen didn’t flinch. “I called you a coward, Lord Hovarth,” he replied. “This is the Imagine Nation, not the Assassin Nation. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Hovarth drew out his giant battle-ax and stepped toward Jazen. “No man talks to me that way and lives.”

“I’ve been dead once already,” Jazen said. “It wasn’t so bad,” he added, stepping forward to meet Hovarth chest
to chest. Blue got in between them and pulled his partner back. Stendeval and Chi got in front of Hovarth. Jazen never stopped talking.

“They tell me I’ve been gone a year, but you’d never know it listening to this conversation,” Jazen went on, getting louder after Blue let him go. “Sounds to me like we’re right back where we started!” He looked down at Hovarth, Smart, Noteworthy, and everyone else who’d held their tongues when the warrior king of Varagog had called for Jack’s head. “You all claim to represent the interests of the Imagine Nation, but you don’t even understand what makes this place worth fighting for. This is the land of possibility … of hope … of courage! There’s no place left on Earth like this, and if you harm this boy, it’s already gone. The true greatness of the Imagine Nation isn’t found when times are easy; it’s there when the moment is hard and we rise up as one to meet the challenges we face. When we cast aside differences and triumph together in a way we never could when standing apart. That’s how we beat the Rüstov the first time. That’s what we need to do now. In case you hadn’t noticed, Jack saved the world tonight … from the Rüstov! You’ve got it
backward,” Jazen told Smart. “Either you’re with Jack or you’re against the Imagine Nation. You all need to decide where you stand on
that
.”

When Jazen finished talking, the only sound that remained was the wind blowing through the mountain air. His words hung there in the silent crystal chamber, daring to be challenged. There were no takers.

“I didn’t really save the world,” Jack offered up. “Not alone.” All eyes turned back to him. “I didn’t stop the virus by myself, even if I thought I had to. It was Trea’s work on the virus that made the cure-code possible,” Jack said, giving his lab partner the credit she deserved. “It was you guys fighting the Rüstov so Jazen and I could send the cure out through the SmarterNet,” he added, looking at Hypnova, the Mysterrii, Skerren, Allegra, and Zhi. “And it was you guys.” He pointed at the Inner Circle, Midknight, Ricochet, and Blue. “Trusting one another and working together to keep the peace in Empire City and save lives. It wasn’t easy, but we did it. Everything Jazen just said, we did that here tonight. We did it together. The Rüstov are so cynical. They think they can beat us by turning us against one another, but we’re better than that.
We’re smarter than that. At least, I hope we are. Don’t let them be right about us,” Jack pleaded. “Please?”

Jack was spent. After everything that had happened that night—from the disasters the Imagine Nation had just narrowly avoided to the disaster that this conversation had become—he had nothing left. And now everyone was just staring at him. He was desperate for something to take the focus off him.

“Well?” Jack asked. “Somebody say something.” Nobody did.

Jack’s eyes fell on Allegra. She was staring at him. “Allegra?” he asked her. “What do you think?”

Allegra hit him with a look he couldn’t read one way or the other. Next to her Skerren stared him down with cold eyes that left nothing to the imagination. He walked over to join Hovarth, whose expression had yet to soften since he’d been called a coward by Jazen. Neither his nor Skerren’s reaction came as much of a surprise, but Allegra … Jack stayed focused on Allegra. As Jack fixed his eyes on her, he realized that he was afraid of what she might say, more than anyone else there. He didn’t know what he’d do if Allegra turned her back on him
too. Jack’s shoulders tightened as he waited for Allegra’s answer.

Allegra opened her mouth to speak. “I think …,” she began, then cut herself off. “I think …” She paused again. Then she smiled. “They
aren’t
right about us. We are better.” Allegra reached out a hand to Jack. “Together.”

Jack’s entire body unclenched.

But as Jack reached out to take Allegra’s hand, he saw it. Glave’s body was no longer lying where it had fallen. Then Jack felt it. The ship from hangar 17 dropped its cloak in the airspace across from the SmarterNet. It fired two missiles from underneath its wings. Jack looked up in terror when the new machines in the area broke through onto his internal radar. He’d been so focused on the conversation that he hadn’t even noticed them until it was too late. He grabbed Allegra’s hand and stepped out in front of her, throwing his other hand out toward the two rocket-fueled killers that were flying right at him. No, not at him, he realized. In the split second he had to read their targets, Jack saw the missiles were aimed at the SmarterNet. The Rüstov were trying to kill the cure-code’s broadcast. He managed to turn away one missile, altering its flight path
to shoot past the mountain harmlessly. The other one crashed into the sidewall of the chamber. A fireball filled with a million crystal shards rushed down toward Jack and the others like a wave of flaming shrapnel. “Down!” somebody shouted. Jack didn’t know who.

Everything went black.

“I told you, Jack,” a smug voice purred in the darkness. “I told you it would end like this.” It was Khalix. Jack recognized his voice as soon as it faded in. There was no more static surrounding it. It came in crystal clear.

Jack felt tired, like he’d woken up an hour too early after going to bed several hours too late. He wanted to rub his eyes, but he couldn’t find his hands. He couldn’t feel or see anything. It was a little bit frightening, but he was in no immediate pain. If anything, he felt like he was
floating in an endless void. He was nothing but a thought. Nothing but an idea.

“Where are we?” Jack heard himself ask.

“Right now? Just passing Jupiter’s twenty-third moon,” Khalix replied. “It’s quite a view. You could get up and take a look if you were awake, but we can’t have that.”

Jack searched his memory, trying to piece together what was going on. The last thing he knew, he was trying to cover Allegra as the missile struck Mount Nevertop. The fire and glass were raining down…. He was unconscious. That had to be it. “This a dream,” Jack decided. “I’m dreaming.”

“There’s no dreaming in cryo-sleep,” Khalix told him. “You’re sedated for the journey back to Rüst. Of course, that’s no reason we can’t still talk, you and I. We can talk about
my
dreams …,” the Rüstov prince mused. “They’re finally coming true.”

A cold wave rippled through the void, rolling over Jack as he realized Khalix was telling the truth. Flashes of memories hit him like snippets of film flapping through a projector onto a theater screen. Glave’s men coming off the starship, surprising the wounded Inner Circle …
Left-Behinds dragging his body out from underneath the crystal rubble…. He remembered the dazed, helpless feeling of being loaded onto the ship before it took off.

They finally did it
, Jack thought.
They got me…. I lost
.

There was nothing Jack could do about it now. There was no one left to help him. He was all alone. Caught in the void, Jack felt like gravity suddenly grabbed hold of him, pulling him down backward into a black hole. His heart would have been racing if he could have felt it beat. He would have been hyperventilating if he could have felt himself breathe, but none of those feelings existed in this place. There was only his mind, racing around in a circle like a hamster on a wheel.

“That’s right, Jack,” Khalix said, perhaps sensing his fear. “It’s time. Time for both of us to claim our destiny. Your power … our technology … we’re going to make an unbeatable team. Only now,
you’re
going to see what it feels like to be trapped in this body. The last thirteen years have been yours,” Khalix said. “The future belongs to me.”

The future
.

Khalix’s words echoed through Jack’s mind, and then
something clicked inside his head that slowed the pace of his descent into fear and despair. It was something Stendeval had said:

The only future I believe in is the one that we create
.

Stendeval had told everyone that he was counting on Jack to defeat the Rüstov. That his courage and resolve would make the Rüstov regret they’d ever heard the name Jack Blank. Jack grabbed on to that thought and held on to it like it was a life preserver. “What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are small matters when compared to what lies within us,” Jack told himself.

“What’s that?” Khalix asked, and Jack realized he’d said that last part out loud. At least, he’d said it in a way that Khalix could hear.

“Bring it,” Jack told the parasite, throwing down the gauntlet.

Khalix was silent for a moment. Jack felt like the royal parasite was surprised.

“If you want to scare me into giving up, you’re gonna be disappointed,” Jack continued. “I’m not afraid of the future anymore, Khalix, no matter how bad it looks. You still have to make it happen. Bring it on,” Jack said again.
“We’ll see who’s still standing when tomorrow finally comes.”

“We … we will, Jack,” Khalix replied, his voice catching a moment on the first word. “We will, indeed.”

Khalix kept talking, but Jack stopped listening. He dropped back, deep into the pit of his own mind, and did his best to ignore his other half. For better or for worse, they were stuck with each other for the rest of this long, crazy ride. Jack thought about the fight ahead of him. He hoped that he’d be strong enough to win it. He’d find out soon enough.

The future was about to begin.

If you’re reading this, it means that the second book is done. I’m not going to lie to you…. Part of me has no idea how that happened. I am never going to complain about writing like it’s a job, but really … this was a tough one. For a second novel, this book came with some pretty big firsts.

This was the first time I’ve ever written anything with a deadline. In the past I’ve never had any pressure to finish a book, other than that which I put on myself (significant pressure, to be sure, but still a very different feeling). This is also the first book I’ve written since becoming a parent, and I can assure you that any free time I used to have for writing is very much a thing of the past. I am writing
these lines while my son sleeps, and I fully expect to be interrupted any second now. Add to that the stress of a daily commute to New York City, a real job at MTV, and the madness of spring break in Acapulco, and you’ve got a very busy, very memorable year in which I somehow, someway produced a book. Luckily for me, this year also produced one last notable first: Today is November 1, 2010, and the first day of my life as a full-time writer. It’s a new adventure for me, and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. So here’s to the new chapter in my life, and to the people who made
these
new chapters (in Jack’s life) possible: