Later, when Lorem’s gibberish touch wore off, the adults told Jack he’d done the right thing, and he’d done the wrong thing. “It’s good that you stopped the heist,” Midknight told him. “But you destroyed the cargo in order to save it. Doesn’t make much sense, does it, son?”
“No, I guess not,” Jack admitted, feeling pretty foolish.
“We don’t even know what was in there,” Ricochet added. “It could have been anything.”
“I’m sorry,” Jack said. “Really. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Blue gave Jack a pat on the back. “Don’t beat yourself up too much, partner. You’re learning. That’s what this is all about. Besides, no one got hurt except Speedrazor. You knocked him into next week, and that’s always a good thing.” Blue put up a fist for Jack to bump.
Jack smiled and gave Blue’s fist a pound. “Thanks, Blue. I just wish I’d been able to get Pain in there with him. I mean, the guy threw you under a train. That’s not cool.”
Blue rubbed his neck and turned to look over at the mangled train cars. “Forget Pain. We’ve got other stuff to worry about,” he said, wincing. “Check it out.”
Jack looked over at the wrecked bullet train and the flabbergasted people who were slowly staggering out of it with their mouths agape. They were people from the Real World. People who weren’t supposed to know anything about superheroes, supervillains, or any other residents of the Imagine Nation.
“Blue,” Jack said, “we don’t have any cover out here.”
“Tell me about it,” Blue replied grimly. “This is a job for the Secreteers.”
CHAPTER
3
The Clandestine Order of Secreteers
After the crash about thirty-five people stepped off the wrecked train in a state of total, wide-eyed shock. No one appeared to be seriously injured, but they had all seen way too much. Some of them were even taking pictures with their cell phone cameras. That kind of thing wasn’t a concern when Jack and his friends fought the CyberRaiders in Machina, or when they ran the Doppelganger Gang out of Hightown. People were used to superfights in those places.
“What happens now?” Jack asked. “Are we going to get in trouble for this?” It was the first time Jack had ever had to deal with Real World witnesses. So far he didn’t like it. One of the first things Jack learned about in the School of Thought were the laws of intervention and secrecy. They were the two guiding principles that governed any and all contact the Imagine Nation had with the outside world. Jack and the others had clearly violated at least one of them.
The law of intervention maintained that interfering with the lives of normal humans was permissible only in order to help them. This law was strictly enforced by the heroes of the Imagine Nation, and regularly broken by the villains they met in battle. The law of secrecy decreed that no direct proof of the Imagine Nation’s existence was ever to be left behind in the Real World. Real Worlders weren’t ready to know about the Imagine Nation or the extraordinary wonders and dangers within it. For more than five hundred years, the Clandestine Order of Secreteers had made certain they didn’t, usually by cleaning up messes like the one Jack and his friends currently found themselves in.
“Don’t worry,” Midknight assured Jack. “This kind of thing comes with the territory. Besides, we’re out in the middle of nowhere right now. This is containable.”
“It’s quite containable,” Ricochet said, agreeing with Midknight. “But it doesn’t really matter where we are. We don’t get to plan out the emergencies we respond to, Jack. We do our part to save lives and defend justice. That’s our job. Covering our tracks is someone else’s responsibility.”
Jack nodded slowly, giving Ricochet a curious look. He agreed that saving lives and upholding the law had to be prioritized above all else, but her carefree attitude toward the witnesses took him by surprise. Allegra apparently felt the same way.
“Ricochet, I don’t mean to be rude, but …” Allegra paused and looked up at her mentor, unsure if she should continue.
Ricochet turned to her sidekick with an understanding smile. “It’s perfectly all right, Allegra. You never have to be afraid to ask me anything.”
“In that case,” Allegra continued, “aren’t we being a little casual about all this? What about the laws of secrecy?”
“Forgive me, I don’t mean to be so cavalier,” Ricochet replied. “The laws of secrecy are very important, and I certainly don’t wish to make more work for the Secreteers. I’m simply saying that we have to focus on our job and allow them to focus on theirs. You may think I seem overly calm about all this, but it’s only because they’re so very good at what they do.”
“How exactly are they going to do what they do?” Jack asked. “This isn’t the kind of thing these people are going to forget anytime soon. Shouldn’t we at least call the Secreteers and tell them what’s going on here?”
“You don’t call Secreteers, Jack. They just show up,” Blue replied. “Trust me, they know to come here. They know everything.” Blue tugged on his collar and looked around, hunching his shoulders with an uneasy look on his face. “Creeps me out, to tell you the truth.”
“Really?” Jack asked. He was surprised to hear Blue admit that he got creeped out by anything, let alone the Secreteers, who were supposed to be good guys.
“The Secreteers have dedicated their lives to guarding over the Imagine Nation’s secrets,” Skerren said. “Are you saying that you—”
“I’m saying that I don’t like secrets,” Blue said, interrupting Skerren. “It’s hard to trust people who keep secrets. Especially people who keep as many as they do.”
Jack froze up at Blue’s comment. He shifted from one foot to the other, hoping that someone else would back up Skerren’s point, because he wasn’t going to touch it. Fortunately, Midknight chimed in and broke the silence.
“Easy, big fella,” Midknight said to Blue. “You’re just not used to working with them yet. When you’ve been through as many of these Real World jobs as Ricochet and I have, you’ll see it’s no big deal. The Secreteers are harmless. We just have to take care of these people until they get here.” Midknight clapped his hands and started giving orders again. “Let’s go, team. First aid kits are on board the glider. Let’s break ’em out and make sure everyone’s okay.”
At Midknight’s direction, Jack and the others tended to the train’s wounded passengers while they waited for the Secreteers to arrive. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to find that the train’s crash-safety measures were just as advanced as the engine Jack couldn’t talk to. A few ugly bruises and scrapes aside, the riders were all doing fine. Almost too fine. They were all well enough to work their cameras and were snapping pictures and recording video like tourists in a theme park. Having grown up as a comic book fan in the Real World, Jack sympathized with their desire to take away some proof of an encounter with costumed superheroes, but he figured the Secreteers had enough to clean up already. He used his powers to delete all the pictures as they were taken. Jack was amazed that the Secreteers managed to keep the Imagine Nation hidden, with all the high-tech gadgets people had these days. He was excited to finally see one and find out how they did it.
Once all the passengers were taken care of, Skerren pried open one of the broken shipping crates that had been thrown off the train in the crash. “‘Intelligent Designs,’” he read off the stylish blue and white boxes that spilled out and piled up at his feet. “What’s that?” he asked Jack.
Jack picked up one of the boxes and examined its sleek corporate logo. He knew the brand well. “They’re a big company out here,” he told Skerren. “They make computers. High-tech toys. Things like that.” Jack looked around and saw more of those very same toys scattered around the crash site. There were smart phones, desktop computers, laptops, and more. Were these what Speedrazor’s gang had been trying to steal? That didn’t seem right.
“What’s wrong?” Allegra asked Jack, picking up on his puzzled expression.
Jack shook his head. “Nothing. I’m just surprised the train’s technology was so advanced. Intelligent puts out some real high-end stuff, but this train … this was another level. Either they’re way ahead of themselves or I’m falling behind.”
Allegra nodded. “I guess that explains it.”
Jack turned to look at Allegra. “Explains what?”
“You getting frustrated and going nuclear out here. When I told you ‘just do it,’ I didn’t think you were going to blow up the whole train.”
Jack tilted his head and smirked at Allegra. “I didn’t blow up the whole train,” he replied, smiling. “I just blew up the most valuable thing on it.”
Allegra laughed. “Right. That’s much better.”
Jack laughed along with her. “I had to do something. My powers were getting me nowhere on this mission. It was embarrassing.”
“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 o
ver 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.
The Secret War Page 4
