“I know who you are, and why you’re here,” she said. “Though I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time in coming.”
Jack nearly choked on a piece of star-shaped fruit he didn’t know the name of. “What do you mean, wasted?” he asked. “I haven’t even told you what I want to know.”
“You don’t have to, Jack Blank,” the Secreteer said. “Your plight is no secret to someone like me. You want to know how to find the Rogue Secreteer.”
Jack stared on in wonder. “How did you know that?” he asked.
“I am a Secreteer myself,” his host replied. “We find things out. It’s what we do.”
“I thought Secreteers just protected secrets people told them,” Jack said. “I’ve never heard of them working to seek them out.”
“We do both,” Hypnova replied. “And we do more. Guarding over secrets is just another way of collecting them, wouldn’t you agree?” Given that he himself was full of secrets, Hypnova’s answer made Jack squirm in his seat.
“Are you the one who wiped all our memories after the fight with Speedrazor’s gang?”
Hypnova was intrigued. “You remember that, do you?”
“It’s how we found you,” Jack said. “I could only barely remember your face. What little I saw of it anyway. But this ship …” Jack tapped his head. “It’s in there.”
Hypnova nodded slowly. “Impressive,” she said. “I’m shocked you were able to retain even a vague memory of me or this ship. You were not supposed to be left with even that. Unless …” Hypnova paused to ponder Jack’s surprisingly strong memory. “Ah,” she said, snapping her fingers. “Unless those details are lodged in the Rüstov’s memory.”
Jack sat up in his chair. “The Rüstov’s memory?”
“Indeed,” Hypnova replied. “Perhaps that’s something you’re able to draw on because of your rather unique relationship with your alien parasite. I’m curious, what else do you two remember?”
“Nothing,” Jack said. “And there aren’t two of us over here. There’s just me.” The thought of sharing memories with his parasite made Jack’s skin crawl. He wondered if their connection had always been that strong or if it was a new development. The thought of losing control of his body to the Rüstov inside him terrified Jack. He hoped more than anything that the parasite wasn’t gaining ground.
Hypnova shrugged. “Have it your way. I ask only because you and I have met before.”
Now it was Jack’s turn to be intrigued. “We have? When?” He thought back, trying hard to recall where he might have encountered Hypnova before this. Nothing came to mind. Bits and pieces of memories fluttered around in his brain like butterflies, all of them just out of reach.
“It was when you went to live in Cognito,” Hypnova revealed. “At Stendeval’s request I arranged lodging for you and implanted in your memory a map-plan of the changing Cognito streets so that you could get around the borough without difficulty. It’s something we Secreteers do for all the people who rent hideouts in our borough. Did you never wonder exactly how you could navigate the ever-changing labyrinth of Cognito without any help?”
“I did, actually,” Jack said.
Hypnova raised a hand. “Now you know,” she told Jack. “I didn’t feel you needed to remember that meeting. Odd that your parasite doesn’t seem to remember it either.”
Jack tugged at his collar. Most likely, his parasite didn’t remember that meeting because it had taken place before he’d reached out to it. Before he’d woken it up. “Why are you telling me all this but you won’t tell me what I came here to find out?”
“Good question,” Hypnova replied. “The answer is because you’re a special case, Jack,” she said, taking a seat across from Jack and putting a hand on his knee. “The truth is, I feel partly responsible for the predicament you find yourself in with Obscuro. It’s why I let you in here to begin with.”
“Responsible?” Jack repeated. “What are you saying?”
Hypnova motioned with her hands. “I’m saying, back when I was implanting map-memories in your head, I may have … glimpsed your secrets. So you see how I know why you’re here today and what you’re worried about as well.”
“Wait a minute,” Jack said, taken aback by the revelation. “What do you mean, glimpsed my secrets? You mean you snuck around in my head?”
Hypnova nodded.
“You raided my memories?” Jack asked. He couldn’t believe his ears. He felt violated.
“I admit I was a bit nosy,” Hypnova replied. “All Secreteers are. It’s just part of who we are, I suppose.”
“That’s what you say?” Jack shouted. “It’s who you are? No apology?”
“Would an apology make you feel better?” Hypnova asked.
Jack stood and threw his hands up. He couldn’t get over how Hypnova was telling him all this like it was no big deal. As far as he was concerned it was anything but. “So you know everything?” he asked.
“Everything,” Hypnova confirmed. “It’s quite a conun-drum you find yourself in. Don’t worry. I won’t reveal any of the details. I am bound not to by the rules of my order. Secreteers don’t tell secrets. They keep them.”
“Yeah, a Secreteer telling secrets … that’ll never happen.”
“You have a right to be upset,” Hypnova allowed.
“Oh, good. I’m glad you’re all right with it,” Jack replied. “How does Obscuro know anything about me if you were the one who snooped? Did you tell him?”
“Yes and no,” Hypnova said. “This is not commonly known, but every secret that a Secreteer collects is eventually uploaded, for lack of a better word, into a shared memory bank that all members of the order can access. It seems Obscuro was so unnerved by what I found in your head that he has opted to betray the order and sell as many secrets as it will take to finance his escape from this planet. But you know that already.”
“Obscuro’s got it all wrong,” Jack said. “He knows about the spyware virus, but he doesn’t know what I’ve been doing to stop it. He thinks the situation is hopeless, but it isn’t. He’s jumping the gun. I need to know what he knows about Glave and the virus.” Jack snapped his fingers. “Wait a minute,” he said. “If you guys share secrets, then you know what Obscuro knows. Please tell me. If we work together, we can stop the Rüstov before they attack.”
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t tell you that,” Hypnova said. “Obscuro has not uploaded anything into the memory bank in quite some time.”
Jack sighed. “Then tell me how to find him. He obviously isn’t shy about talking. He’ll tell me, won’t he?”
“I’m sorry, Jack, but the Rogue Secreteer won’t be telling any more secrets after tonight,” Hypnova said. “He has to pay for what he’s done. Because of our connection to one another, we Secreteers must have absolute trust that none of us will reveal any of the secrets we protect. If even one of us breaks the vows of secrecy, our entire order could collapse.”
“What does that matter if the Rüstov take over?” Jack asked. “Isn’t stopping them more important? You said this was a special case,” Jack argued. “It’s your fault this is happening in the first place! Can’t you make an exception?”
“I already have. The fact that it’s a special case means you get to have this conversation with me,” Hypnova said. “I’ll even let you all remember this encounter after the fact, something my brethren would certainly never allow. I’m simply trying to give you some closure. I know you better than you can imagine, Jack. I know your search for me and for answers about the rogue would continue endlessly without it, and you need to focus on other things. Don’t you?”
Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Hypnova put up a hand to stop him. “Please, I know you have good intentions, but believe me when I tell you I’ve heard it all before. Pleas from secret-seekers looking for answers … assurances that the source of those answers would never be revealed, come what may. A Secreteer who caves in to such arguments is not worthy of the name.”
J
ack slumped back into his chair and threw his half-eaten fruit back onto the buffet. “You weren’t kidding when you said this was a waste of time.”
“No, I wasn’t,” Hypnova told Jack. “Try to see it from my point of view: A secret that everyone knows about is worthless. It isn’t even a secret. This is the currency Secreteers trade in. We can’t very well be expected to devalue it. People trust us with the job of keeping things quiet for the simple reason that we can be trusted to keep things quiet. I can’t tell you anything more. If word got out that another Secreteer was talking out of turn? No one would trust us with anything ever again.”
“A little late to worry about that, isn’t it? In case you haven’t noticed, Obscuro’s already ruining your reputation.”
“Which is why we are going to make an example of him,” Hypnova replied. “His actions threaten everything the Secreteers stand for. We’ll see to it that he’s punished for what he’s done, and we will restore the natural order of things.”
There was a knock on the cabin door, and three Mysterrii poked their heads in. “Hup-hup-hup!” the three of them said in unison. Hypnova nodded toward them, and they left.
“I’m afraid our time is at an end,” Hypnova said. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more.” Hypnova stood up from her seat, reached for her cloak, and shook it out. The ends of the black fabric extended outward, transforming into dark smoke that filled the room with a loud whoosh. The next thing Jack knew, he was standing on the dock with Skerren and Allegra. Hypnova’s ship was rising up into the sky. Jack had no memory of how he’d gotten there.
“She did it again,” Jack said to himself. It took another moment or two before he realized Skerren was holding him by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth.
“Jack … Jack!” Skerren said. “Snap out of it! What did she say?”
Jack shook the cobwebs out of his head and backed out of Skerren’s grip. “They’re going after him,” he said. “They’re going to kill him.”
“What?” Allegra said. “Who? Obscuro?”
Jack nodded, watching helplessly as Hypnova’s ship drifted away from the dock. “We have to follow her,” he said. “Allegra, are you strong enough to carry all three of us? Please tell me you are.”
“Carry all three of us? What are you talking about?” Allegra asked.
“You need to stretch out and hook on to Hypnova’s ship before it’s too late,” Jack said. He pointed to the flying ship slowly sailing off into the sunset. “We can follow her to the Rogue Secreteer. That’s where she’s going now. This might be the only chance we get.”
Skerren and Allegra traded harried looks. Whatever they’d been expecting Jack to say when he stepped off Hypnova’s ship, this wasn’t it. Allegra shook her head and wrapped one of her arms around Skerren and Jack several times. She stretched her other arm way out past the dock’s edge to latch on to the back of the airborne vessel. “Hang on tight,” she said. With a daring leap the trio of children went flying through the air.
Allegra held on as tightly as she could, her steely grip the only thing between her friends and the falls below. Slowly she retracted her arm to pull the group up to the bottom of the ship’s hull, and then shape-shifted into a pocket large enough to safely hold both Skerren and Jack. Hypnova’s ship sailed on, ignorant of the three stowaways who were now on board. Jack and his friends rode away from Empire City in silence without anything even resembling a plan.
CHAPTER
10
Hostile Environment
Hypnova’s ship sailed west beyond the borders of Empire City and on through the clouds for more than an hour until it was alone in the sky. The whole way, Jack looked down from his perch below the ship, watching quietly as the landscape rolled away beneath his feet. The ship sailed over the small towns and villages that were scattered across the hills of the Imagine Nation, heading deeper and deeper into the Outlands.
The Outlands was the name given to the far reaches of the floating island, an untamed, strange wilderness that made up almost half of the Imagine Nation’s landmass. Until that night they were just undeveloped badlands that Jack had heard much about but never seen firsthand. Jack was a stranger to the Outlands, but only because Empire City was the kind of place a person could live his entire life and still not see everything. Between Jack’s work, classes, and other daily distractions in the Imagine Nation’s capital city, he’d yet to have any real time or reason to strike off into the island’s uncharted territories. As the ship began its descent into Gravenmurk Glen, it was clear that he now had both. Given the right reasons, Jack had made the time.
Gravenmurk Glen was a thick forest that started in the mountains behind Empire City, sprawled out across the hills, and ran up to the cliffs on the island’s north edge. The tall trees of Gravenmurk stood over a long, deep ravine that was cut by a river running down from the mountaintops and out into the ocean. Gravenmurk Glen’s trees were packed together so tightly, and the foliage overlapped to such a degree, that any attempt to look into the forest from outside was pointless. A fine white mist coasted slowly over the treetops, the trailing ends of a much thicker fog that snaked between the precious few gaps that did exist among the trees. Despite the strength and weight of the fog in the forest, the landscape was perfectly clear beyond the woodland’s edge. The tall trees seemed to pen in the hazy smog, refusing to let it escape. Jack knew that people who entered the dark woods of Gravenmurk Glen alone often suffered the same fate. He was glad he had his friends with him.
Above, the Mysterrii rigged the sails to catch the headwind, slowing the ship down as it neared the center of the forest. Jack heard Hypnova give the order to prepare to drop anchor. They had reached their destination. A hatch opened directly below Allegra, and a Mysterrii emerged with an anchor that was tied to a massive chain. If the Mysterrii looked up for just a moment, he would spot them.
“We have to get off this ship,” Jack said.
Skerren pointed up at the crew of Mysterrii on the ship’s railing. “Can’t let them see us,” he said. Skerren turned to Allegra. “HALO jump?”
Allegra nodded. “HALO jump.”
Jack groaned. A HALO jump was a High Altitude Low Opening parachute drop characterized by a prolonged rush toward the ground and a last-minute opening of the lifesaving chute. It was a strategic infiltration maneuver that was once routinely employed by Valorian women to get into position before battle. It was a dangerous stunt to pull with all three children jumping at once, but the less time they spent in the air, the less likely they were to be noticed. Allegra put a finger to her lips and, without any further warning, released her hold on the bottom of Hypnova’s ship. Jack’s stomach jumped into his throat, and he resisted the urge to scream as they fell away into the night.
Jack and his friends plummeted from the flying vessel and fell for three full seconds before Allegra morphed her upper body into a parachute that opened with a loud whomping noise. Jack’s body jerked upward painfully as Allegra’s shape-shifting halted the trio’s descent with an abrupt and forceful jolt. Her new form slowed them down just in time to keep them alive. Jack and Skerren hit the treetops at half speed and fell through into the forest. Branches broke under Jack’s body, and twigs whipped against his face as he tumbled down through the unfor-giving brush and finally slammed down against the cold, hard earth.
Jack rolled over and grunted. It hurt, but he’d live. The others would too. Their entry into the glen hadn’t been comfortable or easy, but arriving in comfort and ease hadn’t been the goal. Times like this reminded Jack of just how impressed he was with how strong Allegra had become.
Jack stood up and looked around. It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust, and when they did, he didn’t see much. Night had fallen and the thick canopy overhead blocked out the moonlight almost completely. The weak moonbeams filtering through the trees served only to give the fog an eerie, supernatural glow. The thick, greenish-white fog was everywhere, making it almost impossib
le to see more than a few feet in any direction.
“I can’t see a thing down here,” Skerren said. “Did Hypnova tell you where she was going?”
Jack shook his head. “No.”
“What did she say to you exactly?” Skerren asked.
“I told you,” Jack said. “She said they were going to take care of Obscuro. That they were going to make an example of him. Tonight.”
“That’s it?” Skerren asked. “That’s all she said?”
“Give me a break, Skerren. You saw me. I don’t even remember getting off the ship.” Jack actually remembered much more than that, but he didn’t want to get into what Hypnova had said about his sharing memories with his parasite. He was worried enough about what that meant. He didn’t need Skerren adding to his troubles on that score.
Skerren exhaled noisily and started climbing a tall tree without another word to anyone. Allegra used her stretching powers to help him reach some of the highest branches. Jack couldn’t feel the presence of any machines in the forest except the ones he was carrying in his bag. He was glad he’d taken a minute to grab them before leaving his lab, because once again he was stuck in a place where his powers weren’t likely to be of much use. Skerren’s powers were another story. The children couldn’t see where Hypnova’s ship was heading until Skerren sliced through the trunk of the tree he was clinging to.
“Skerren, don’t!” Allegra shouted, but it was too late. Skerren’s sword chopped off the top of the tree like it was the head of a broccoli stalk. The treetop fell to the ground, revealing a starry night sky and Hypnova’s ship dropping its anchor up ahead.
Skerren quickly hopped down from his lookout point to relay what he’d seen. “The ship looks to be stopping north of here,” he said, pointing. “That direction.”
“I thought you were just going to climb up the tree and look out over it,” Allegra told him. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
The Secret War Page 10
