The Secret War (Jack Blank Adventure) (6 page)

“You want to talk about embarrassing?” Allegra replied. “I slept through Midknight’s mission prep! I can’t believe you guys didn’t wake me up for that.”

“There wasn’t any mission prep,” Jack replied. “It was just: ‘Jack, can you stop the train? No? Okay, we’re going in.’”

“You know, if you’d fired on the train tracks, that would have made more sense,” Skerren said. “Speedrazor couldn’t have pushed that car across the desert sand. Not fast enough to escape, anyway.”

Jack had to admit Skerren had a point. Midknight had been preaching patience and strategy to him ever since his apprenticeship had begun. Skerren had clearly been paying attention. “Thanks, Skerren,” Jack said. “Where were you when I needed you?”

Skerren put his hands up. “I specifically told you to
‘lorem ipsum dolor sit.’
It’s not my fault you don’t listen.”

“Right,” Jack said. “I’ll try to work on that.” It always took him a little extra time to realize when Skerren was making a joke. It wasn’t like Skerren’s jokes were bad or anything; they were just so unexpected that it was hard to tell when he was kidding. A sense of humor was a relatively new development for him.

“Hey, who was that girl with the gibberish touch, anyway?” Jack asked Skerren. “Lorem something? She was incredible.”

“She
was
very good,” Skerren agreed.

“She was an evil witch,” Allegra said harshly. Jack and Skerren both looked at her, surprised by her reaction. “What?” Allegra asked them both. “Maybe I’m not as quick to compliment supercriminals as the two of you.”

“Nothing wrong with giving credit where credit’s due, Allegra,” Midknight said, joining the conversation. “And she wasn’t always a supercriminal, either. She used to be just like you. Her name is Lorem Ipsum, and she was a student in the School of Thought.”

“She was in our program?” Jack asked. He could hardly believe it. “What happened?”

“I wish I knew,” Midknight replied. “I’m not in the Inner Circle, so I never really got all the details. I
can
tell you she was slated to be my sidekick at the end of her first year, but she dropped out before she ever got that far.” Midknight frowned. “Had some issues with her father. A very controlling man. He wanted to handle her training himself.”

“That obviously worked out great,” Allegra said.

Midknight shrugged. “I like to think things could’ve been different, but who knows? The right influence is
important, but in the end it’s up to the individual. Seeing her here now, running with Speedrazor’s gang … it’s a shame. Makes me wonder if we’re giving you three enough independence. The time is going to come when you have to make your own decisions about things. You won’t have any experience with that if we keep holding your hands all the time.” Midknight rubbed his chin, turning the matter over in his head. “No, I’m sure of it,” he said at last. “We need to have you each take on a solo mission this year.”

Skerren’s head snapped around. “A solo mission?” he asked. “Really? What kind?”

“Whatever kind of caper you can get yourself involved in,” Midknight replied. “There’s certainly enough supercrime to go around these days. It’ll be interesting to see how you kids go about taking the bad guys on by yourselves. And it’ll be good to have you out there. We’re practically outnumbered as it is.”

Jack couldn’t argue with that. The Imagine Nation’s heroes had been so busy dealing with supervillains lately that they hardly had time to pay attention to the Rüstov anymore. Fear of a second invasion didn’t grip Empire City the way it used to. It had taken a backseat to more
immediate concerns. That was partly a good thing because it meant less pressure on Jack and the Rüstov infection he carried. It was also a bad thing because of the Rüstov spyware virus that only he and Stendeval knew about. The biological virus that the Rüstov parasites used to infect living creatures and take them as host bodies was bad enough. Their
computer
virus posed a whole other threat to Empire City’s Mecha population and, by extension, the world at large. The spyware virus let the Rüstov see and hear everything an infected system came in contact with. They could even override an infected Mecha’s programming and use it like a puppet. Jack found out that that was how the Rüstov got past Empire City’s defenses back during the invasion. The virus was still out there, and no one was dealing with it except him.

Blue and Ricochet discussed the matter of the solo projects with Midknight and agreed that the sidekicks should each take on a case of his or her own. Their fellow students, Trea and Zhi, would fill in as sidekicks in the meantime. Allegra raised her hand with a question. “Does that include Jack, or does the project he already has count toward this assignment?” she asked.

Jack tried to wave Allegra off as she was talking, but it was too late. She’d already said it. Jack put his palm to his forehead and groaned.

“Sorry, I figured they knew,” Allegra told Jack, realizing the three mentor heroes didn’t have any idea what she was talking about. They stared at her with inquisitive eyes, and she felt compelled to explain further. “There’s some secret project Stendeval has Jack working on,” she said reluctantly. “We don’t know what it is.”

Blue looked at Jack. “Secret project?” he asked. “What’s that about?”

“It’s nothing,” Jack lied. “Just stuff I work on in my lab. You know, I work on machines. I build things. It’s part of how I’m supposed to develop my powers.”

“How come we never see any of these things?” Skerren asked.

“Trust me,” Jack said. “After tonight I’m going to start busting them out on missions. I need all the help I can get out here.” Jack hoped his explanation would satisfy everyone’s curiosity. The last thing he wanted to talk about was what went on in his lab.

Before anyone could ask any more questions, the wind
started to pick up, coming out of nowhere and blowing hard enough to overtake everyone’s attention. Jack and the others squinted and turned their backs into the breeze as sand whipped into their faces.

“Is that it? Is that them?” Jack asked, thankful for the interruption. He put up a hand to shield his eyes and craned his neck to look up at the sky. Dark clouds were gathering around the moon. There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, and then a large flying boat burst out from the clouds. The massive ship just appeared out of thin air, directly above the train wreck.

“It appears our Secreteer is here to tie up loose ends,” Ricochet announced.

“Whoa,” Jack said, genuinely impressed by the ship’s stunning, sudden appearance. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Nobody does, Jack,” Midknight replied, patting Jack on the back. “Nobody ever does.”

It was truly a fantastic sight. The large wooden ship was decorated with shiny gold fixtures, ornately carved figureheads, and stained-glass windows that basked in the glow of gas lamps and the full moon’s light. It was the kind of ship that Jack would have expected a pirate to go sailing
around in, only in place of the mast and sails, the ship had a giant hot air balloon. A massive fabric envelope fashioned in a dynamic mosaic of colors was covered over with thick webbing and strapped tightly to the ship’s railing. At the rear of the ship, a large iron cauldron filled with purple flames pumped hot air into the balloon and kept the vessel afloat among the clouds. Standing at the helm was a figure in a black cloak. The Secreteer’s appearance was exactly what Jack had expected, but the ship he’d arrived in was anything but. Jack had lived in the Imagine Nation a full year without seeing a Secreteer. Now he wondered how he could possibly have missed them.

“They fly around the world in these things and nobody notices?” Jack asked. “I thought Secreteers kept a low profile.”

“They can fly around in anything they want,” Blue said. “Secreteers have memory powers. Nobody can remember anything about a Secreteer unless the Secreteer wants them to. You’ll see.”

Jack did his best to do just that, but from his angle below the ship he couldn’t make out much. The Secreteer made no effort to address the heroes. Jack watched as the
mysterious figure briefly surveyed the scene before turning and leaving the wheel of the ship. The Secreteer’s black cloak twirled up behind him and flapped in the wind as he vanished from sight. Seconds later twin streams of dark purple smoke dove out over the railing and shot down like missiles. They didn’t hit the ground, but rather spun out in spiral patterns, swirling through the air. The smoke spread quickly as the wind began to howl, and in an instant everything was pitch black. Thick, murky vapors filled the area, and Jack couldn’t see anything, not even his friends right there next to him.

Now Jack could understand why the Secreteers creeped Blue out.

Jack heard yelling. The train’s passengers were scared. He didn’t blame them. If he hadn’t known what was going on, he’d have been terrified himself. He called out his friends’ names and heard his own called back from a dozen different directions. It was no use. The wind was so strong he could barely open his eyes. Still, he did try, and for a split second he was able to glimpse the Secreteer flying around, camouflaged by the smoke. It was only for a second, but it was enough. The black
cloak fluttered in the wind, and Jack drew focus on the elusive Secreteer. He got a good look at her.
Her
. Apparently, he was a she—a tall, dark woman with long, thick dreadlocks tied back behind a beaded headband. Jack locked eyes with her for the briefest of moments, and in that short time span he saw the Secreteer’s eyes narrow with an intense focus. The next thing he knew, the smoggy fumes seemed to single him out and attack him personally. He felt around in front of him, coughing hard. He couldn’t see Allegra; he couldn’t see Blue…. It was like being stuck outside in a hurricane. And then suddenly it wasn’t.

As quickly as the smoke storm had appeared, it was gone. There was one last strong gust of wind, and the air was calm and clear. The flying ship was gone, and so was the Secreteer. Jack, feeling dizzy and disoriented, leaned on Blue, struggling to keep his feet below him. As he looked around, he saw the train passengers were even more out of it than he was.

“Time to get going,” Midknight said to the group.

Jack regained his balance and motioned toward the witnesses stumbling around like they’d just gotten off a
merry-go-round that was spinning at warp speed. “What about them?” he asked. “They look worse than they did before we patched them up.”

“They’ll be fine,” Midknight said. “They all came out of this relatively unscathed, and I’ve already called emergency services in the nearest city. Help is on the way, and we need to be gone before it gets here. Right now the norms over there are still in a daze,” he said, pointing at the people who could no longer be referred to as witnesses. “That’s our cue to leave, before they snap out of the funk they’re in.”

Blue grabbed Speedrazor by the collar and started dragging his unconscious body toward the
Knightwing
glider. Jack, Skerren, and Allegra followed after him and helped tie Speedrazor up in the back of the ship. After that, Jack took the glider up to reconnect with the other half of the ship, which was hovering in the skies overhead, and handed the controls back to Midknight. As Jack, Skerren, and Allegra strapped in for the flight home, the encounter with the Secreteer was the main topic of conversation.

“Well, that was different,” Allegra said as she buckled up.

“Yeah, it was,” Jack agreed. “The Secreteer wasn’t anything like I expected. Coming in on a flying pirate ship like that? That was crazy.”

“Pirate ship?” Allegra laughed. “What are you talking about? The Secreteer came in on a sleigh. I saw it. It was being pulled by a team of flying horses with huge wings.”

“You two need to get your eyes checked,” Skerren said, sitting up in his seat. “The Secreteer showed up on a flying carpet. I was looking right at it. I saw it perfectly.”

Jack looked back and forth between Skerren and Allegra like they were crazy.
Flying carpet? Winged horses?
What where they talking about? “Did you guys hit your heads in the train crash?” he asked them. “It was a flying boat with a huge hot air balloon. You couldn’t miss it.”

“I don’t think so,” Allegra said, shaking her head.

“I know what I saw,” Jack told her. “You don’t forget a thing like that.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Ricochet said. She and Midknight smiled at each other, snickering. Jack didn’t like not being in on the joke. Apparently, neither did Skerren.

“What’s so funny?” Skerren asked, frowning.

Ricochet leaned forward in her chair. “Ask yourselves this, all of you. Do you have any clear memory of what the Secreteer looked like?”

Ricochet waited patiently as Jack, Skerren, and Allegra all fell silent. Jack racked his brain trying to picture the Secreteer’s face. He couldn’t do it.

“Don’t waste your time trying to remember,” Midknight advised everyone. “It’s not going to happen. The Secreteer didn’t just alter the memories of the witnesses on the train. She altered our memories too. They always do.”

“What?” Jack asked. “Why?”

Midknight motioned with his hands. “I don’t ask that question anymore. The Secreteers like to play their cards close to their vests. It’s just the way they are.”

“It’s because they’re paranoid,” Blue called out. “Makes
me
paranoid.”

“Don’t worry,” Midknight said. “They might get a little extreme about how they stay anonymous, but really, we’re all better off this way. The less people know about the Secreteers, the easier it is for them to do their jobs. We trust them to keep our secrets, and so far no Secreteer has ever abused that trust.”

“Yeah, as far as you can
remember
,” Blue grumbled. Midknight gave Blue a you’re-not-helping look. “Hey, I tell it like it is,” Blue told him.

“I don’t get it,” Allegra said. “If they’re going to mess with our heads, why do it this way? Why make us all remember different things that are still wild and unusual? If they’re going to alter our memories, wouldn’t it be easier to just wipe them clean like they did those people back there?”

“They just like to mess with us,” Blue grumbled. “This is exactly what I’m talking about with these guys. I hate this feeling. You can’t even trust your own memories around Secreteers.”