The Secret War

by Matt Myklusch

  Still, Jack couldn’t deny he needed Trea’s help. That much was obvious as he scanned through what she’d written on his notes, while she went upstairs to get her own drink. The notes she was reading through were from another time, back when Jack had been sure he’d crack the cure-code any day. It seemed like so long ago that he had written them. What little Trea had done that afternoon looked better than what he’d done all month. Maybe T1’s ego wasn’t so misplaced, Jack thought. He couldn’t deny he was burned-out on the project. Maybe a fresh set of eyes was exactly what the job needed.

  “What we need is more information about the Rüstov to help us fight this virus,” Trea told Jack when she came back downstairs. “I was wondering, could we study your infection somehow?”

  “What, you want to dissect me?” Jack asked, joking around. “I’ve already been down that road with Jonas Smart, you know.”

  Trea laughed. “No, nothing like that. I thought it was something you could do. You know, with your powers. Your parasite is a living machine—you could use your powers to try and connect with it. You could learn from it.”

  “No,” Jack said instantly. “I can’t do that.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Trea asked. “I haven’t come across anything like that in your notes yet.”

  “It wouldn’t be in my notes,” Jack said. “Just forget it, okay, Trea? I don’t want to talk about it. Not my favorite subject, you know?”

  Trea furrowed her brow. “This from the guy who doesn’t have a lot of secrets.” Trea paused to gulp down a glowing green energy drink. “Fine. Have it your way, but we’re going to need to get something else to work off of. We need a Rüstov. We need to get a Left-Behind or some other kind of Rüstov tech to compare against all this standard Mecha tech you have.”

  “No argument here,” Jack said. “But where are we going to get a Left-Behind?”

  “Wrekzaw Isle?” Trea suggested.

  “I’m not going back there,” Jack said. That was where he’d left Revile, burning in the heart of an Infinite Warp Core engine. His future self was still there, melting and reforming, over and over. Jack didn’t want to chance running into him again. For all Jack knew, showing up on Wrekzaw with his recently revitalized parasite might just inspire Revile to work harder on finding a way out.

  “Where else are we going to look?” Trea asked.

  Jack rubbed the back of his neck, thinking. “Smart used to have pieces of Left-Behinds all over his lab, but that’s no good either,” he said. “He’d never share that stuff with me, and I’m not about to break back into SmartTower to get at it. Even if I wanted to, these days he’s got power nullifiers all over that building. My powers cut out every time I walk past the place.”

  “It’s too bad we can’t work with Smart,” Trea said. “I don’t like him any more than you do, but you have to admit he is brilliant. He’s forgotten more about chasing down the Rüstov than you or I will ever know. If we were able to join forces with him, I’m sure we’d figure this out. We’d at least have access to the data we need for our work.”

  “We can’t trust Smart with our work,” Jack replied. “You know what he’d do with this information just as well as I do. His priority wouldn’t be solving the problem. It would be solving his problem of how to get back on top. It’s not an option, Trea.”

  “Jack, I’m not suggesting—”

  “And another thing,” Jack interrupted, pointing a finger at Trea. “I don’t trust this SmarterNet he’s using to ‘chase down the Rüstov.’ I mean, really, what does it do? Why won’t he say? How come no one’s asking about that? Smart’s got his secrets just like everyone else, you can count on it. He’s just better at hiding them than I am.”

  Trea shook her head, not even trying to argue with Jack about Smart. “If you would stop for a second and listen,” she told Jack, “you’d realize I’m not talking about actually working with Smart. I’m just saying it’s too bad we can’t. It’s a wasted opportunity, that’s all I’m saying. I’m not foolish enough to expect a fair shake from a man who kidnapped Mechas and kept them in a secret prison.”

  “Secret prison?” Jack repeated as an idea that was stuck all the way in the back of his brain suddenly screamed out for attention. “Trea, that’s it!” he said. “That’s where we’ll find our Left-Behind!”

  “What are you talking about?” Trea asked. “Smart’s secret prison? Jack, they call it that for a reason. No one knows where it is.”

  “I think I might,” Jack said with growing enthusiasm. “Yeah, I think I’ve got a pretty good idea, actually.” Jack fired up a holo-screen on one of his computers and started scrolling through maps of the Imagine Nation until he found what he was looking for. “There,” he said. “There’s gotta be something out there for us. Smart must have had some Rüstov locked up in that prison too. It can’t have been all Mechas, right?” Jack asked.

  Trea put her hands up. “How should I know? If you really think you know where it is, let’s go find out. How are we getting there?”

  “Not we,” Jack told Trea. “Me. You gotta split back up and keep working on those notes. We’ve gotta work this from a couple different angles.”

  “Jack, I’m not staying here while you run off looking for some abandoned prison on your own. What if you find it and there are Rüstov in there? Real, live, hostile Rüstov? You can’t go in there alone.”

  “I won’t,” Jack told Trea. “I’m never alone.”

  “Right,” Trea said. “You, Skerren, and Allegra … you’re like the Three Musketeers, aren’t you?”

  Jack looked over at the operating table where he’d tried reaching out to his parasite a week ago. “Yeah,” he replied. “That’s it. I’ll take Skerren and Allegra with me.” Although that wasn’t what he had originally meant at all.

  CHAPTER

  15

  Family Business

  By lunchtime Jack, Skerren, and Allegra were speeding across the plains of the Imagine Nation on Allegra’s open AirSkimmer. The flying raft moved almost twice as fast as Hypnova’s ship and got them to their destination in nearly half the time. It wasn’t long before Jack looked down over the railing and saw mist-covered treetops spread out far and wide. They were back in the skies over Gravenmurk Glen.

  “That way,” Jack said, pointing toward the back end of the woods and the cliffs on the island’s north face. Homing in on the machine signal he’d picked up in the cave the night before, Jack was leading the group back to the same place where Obscuro had escaped, and possibly somewhere new as well: Jonas Smart’s secret prison.

  “You don’t think he’ll still be there, do you?” Allegra asked.

  “Who, Obscuro?” Jack said. “No. He hasn’t stayed hidden this long by being careless. Even if he was using that cave as a hideout instead of just an escape route, he would have had to abandon it after last night.”

  “You and Obscuro really just talked about your father last night?” Skerren asked. “That’s all?”

  Jack cleared his throat and looked out over the railing. This was the second time Skerren was asking him that. “Pretty much,” he said.

  “Pretty much?” Skerren pressed. “What does that mean?”

  Jack turned to face his friend. “Where’s this coming from, Skerren? You don’t trust me anymore? Don’t tell me Smart’s ads are getting to you already.”

  Skerren shrugged. “It’s not just that,” he replied. “There’s that Glave message about ‘the Lost Boy’ that went out this morning too. You can’t blame me for being a little suspicious. You have been lying to us all for a year now.”

  “I never lied to you guys,” Jack said. “I just didn’t tell you everything.”

  “What’s the difference?” Skerren asked.

  “There’s a big difference,” Jack claimed.

  Skerren’s eyes narrowed, examining Jack like he was trying to spot something out of place. “Just tell me,” he said. “Is this it? Is this the only secret you were keeping from us?”

  Ja
ck could feel Skerren’s righteous eyes boring into his head like lasers. He didn’t want to lie, but everything Stendeval had said earlier that morning was still true. Jonas Smart’s news machine was reawakening people’s old fears about him. Jack couldn’t tell anyone the whole story just yet. Not even his friends.

  “Give it a rest, Skerren,” Allegra said. “Jack wouldn’t keep anything else from us now. Glave’s attack deadline is too close to take any chances.”

  “Thanks, Allegra,” Jack said. “I appreciate that.” Allegra nodded like it was no big deal. Jack cleared his throat again and walked to the front of the AirSkimmer. “We’re here, guys. Bring us down over there, Allegra. Just past the clearing in the trees up ahead.”

  “I see it,” Allegra said. “Here we go, boys. And, Skerren?” she said, turning her head. “Try not to cut any trees down this time around.”

  Allegra landed the ship on the ridge overlooking the river. They’d have to walk from there. The woods looked a lot less scary in the daytime. The fact that a horde of Gravens wasn’t trying to drag Jack and his friends down into the earth didn’t hurt, either. As Jack led Skerren and Allegra back to the spot where Obscuro had vanished, he also walked them through the theory that brought them back to Gravenmurk Glen in the first place.

  “When Trea mentioned the secret prison this morning, it all clicked,” Jack explained as he followed the river through the woods. “It got me thinking about how when Obscuro got away, I felt something funny in that cave he ducked into. Machine signals. They came out of nowhere, like someone just flipped a switch. We were in the middle of the forest with no machines anywhere, so at first I thought it was just the Knightwing pulling in overhead.”

  “How do you know it wasn’t the Knightwing?” Skerren asked.

  “Because I should have felt that ship coming half a mile away,” Jack replied. “I think someone did flip a switch. There’s no way I would have missed it otherwise.”

  “You really think someone was using power nullifiers out here that night?” Allegra asked Jack.

  “Not just anyone,” Jack said. “Smart. Trust me, I’ve been hit with those things enough times to know. I didn’t put it together at the time because I was still in shock over what Obscuro said about my father, but it felt just like it does when I walk past SmartTower. My powers cut out, and then they come flooding back later, when I get far enough away. Smart puts those nullifiers on all his stuff nowadays…. He’d definitely put them on his secret prison.”

  “Here’s the part I don’t get,” Skerren said. “You think Obscuro escaped through there, but stopped to shut off the power nullifiers on his way out? Why would he do that?”

  “Don’t ask me,” Jack replied. “Maybe it was an accident. He could’ve been trying to turn on a light, for all I know. Or maybe they just shorted out. We’ll have to see.”

  “That we will,” Skerren replied, gently pushing a bothersome thorn bush from his path as he hiked along. “We’ll find out soon enough. Smart’s secret prison has been rumored to be hidden somewhere in the Outlands, so I suppose it’s possible. It’s just too bad you didn’t think of this last night when it would have made a difference.”

  Jack grunted as a prickly branch whipped him in the face. “Give me a break, Skerren,” he said. “Like I said, I wasn’t exactly thinking straight when this all went down.”

  It was the understatement to end all understatements. “Not thinking straight” was one thing, but Jack’s brain had practically folded itself in half when Obscuro had started talking about his missing father. Almost a day later it still wasn’t back to normal. Even with everything that was going on, Jack was well aware that turning Obscuro down might have meant giving up his only chance to be reunited with his family. Jack couldn’t believe he’d done that without even thinking about it. But he couldn’t just run out on the Imagine Nation and leave his friends to deal with the Rüstov alone. He could stay and fight, or he could run and hide. Those were the choices that Obscuro had really offered him, and no matter how badly Jack wanted to find out about his father, he knew he couldn’t go out like that. Of course, that didn’t stop the back of Jack’s brain from grabbing on to Obscuro’s offer and refusing to let go.

  “It’s all right, Jack,” Allegra said. “The important thing is you thought of it now. It can still make a difference.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Jack said as they closed in on the entrance to the cave. “Otherwise, this whole trip is just a big waste of time.”

  As soon as Jack stepped inside the cave, he knew it wasn’t. The cavern was brighter in the light of day, but that hardly even mattered. It could have been darker than the dirty swamp water back at St. Barnaby’s, the New Jersey orphanage in which he’d grown up, and the machines that were built into the cave’s fake rock walls still would have been calling out to Jack like blinking Christmas lights. Microchips and motherboards—thousands of them!—were buzzing away like a vibrating phone on a glass table. There was no doubt about it. This was more than just an ordinary cave.

  How could I have missed this? Jack asked himself, already knowing the answer. Jack shook his head as he found a seam in the wall, cursing himself for being so clueless. Skerren was right—if only he’d been more focused back when it had mattered, maybe Obscuro wouldn’t have gotten away.

  “This is it,” Jack said, feeling out the edges of a hidden door with his fingers. Jack knew he had to shake off his disappointment and keep moving forward. Allegra was right; it wasn’t too late to make a difference.

  Unfortunately, the front door of Smart’s secret prison was in no mood to cooperate. Jack asked it very nicely to open up for him, and it responded with a comment so rude that Jack flat out refused to repeat it in front of Allegra. “Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?” Jack replied, not budging an inch. The door’s aggressive attitude was exactly what he’d needed to get his head screwed on right and get ready for action. Jack didn’t take that kind of lip from any machine, with or without a mouth.

  Jack took a step back so he could take a look at the big picture. Using his powers, he reached out to the door with his mind and looked through its inner workings. “Let’s try this again,” he said once he had everything he needed. “You should know that I’m only asking you to open up nicely because I have manners. I don’t need your permission. You’re an X-15 model SmartLock door with a DeadVolt-brand electroshock deterrent added on. The power nullifiers are off, and I know your systems inside and out. I can take you apart in my sleep, and if I really want to teach you a lesson, I can use whatever power is left in that DeadVolt battery to fry your CPU while I’m at it,” Jack warned the door. “So what’s it going to be? Are we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?”

  The door slid back into the wall like a frightened puppy running off with its tail between its legs.

  Jack smiled at Allegra and Skerren. “Open sesame.”

  “That was awesome,” Allegra told Jack.

  Jack shook his head like it was no big deal. “Security systems always think they’re so tough. C’mon. Let’s go see what’s in there.”

  The three children walked through a short tunnel and emerged into a massive underground chamber that was carved deep into the rock caverns below the forest. The air was cool and moist in the vast, empty space. The floor beneath their feet was nothing more than a small platform anchored to the wall, overlooking a huge vertical shaft that went down hundreds of feet. Jack felt like he was standing on the inside of a gigantic well.

  To his left Jack saw a small metal staircase leading down from the platform to a highway-size ramp that wound itself around the walls and down like a spiral staircase. A giant freestanding tower of video screens stood in the center of the shaft, rising up off the ground floor and climbing all the way up to the ceiling. Countless monitoring stations wound around the video tower from top to bottom, circling it in unbroken loops. The monitoring station chairs were all empty. No one was watching the screens anymore. They were all shut off, burned-out, or crac
ked. It was clear this place had not been active in quite some time, but when it had been open for business, it definitely had been a major operation.

  “I don’t get it,” Skerren said. “I cut off a treetop last night, and we get mobbed by Gravens. How did Smart manage to build this place?”

  “The Gravens are responsible for the earth,” Allegra said. “I guess that means the rocks are on their own. My question is, how did he keep something this big a secret?”

  “He buried it, for one thing,” Jack said. “After that it’s just ‘deny, deny, deny,’” he added from experience. “I’ll tell you one thing, I doubt we’ll find anything here with the SmartCorp logo on it.”

  Jack started down the steps to the main ramp, and Skerren and Allegra followed close behind. As they went, they noticed several other small doors like the one they’d entered through, all scattered about the walls of the pit with their own crooked stairways leading up or down to the main ramp. Abandoned guard stations were posted near each door and set up behind empty gun turrets that were mounted into the walls. It was dark, but rings of emergency lights lined the interior walls all the way down to the ground, giving off a dull fluorescent glow. The cavernous facility felt cold and industrial, and the faded lighting made everything look worse.

  At the bottom of the staircase, Jack saw a battered computer kiosk with a smashed screen and keyboard. He wondered if Obscuro had done that and somehow shorted out the nullifiers in the process. There was no one to ask. The deserted prison was as quiet as a grave. Jack tried using his powers to turn on the tower of screens and see if they could tell him anything. A few sets flickered on briefly to reveal rows of open cell doors, empty hallways, interrogation rooms, and guard stations, but the images quickly blinked out. There wasn’t enough power left to run the giant surveillance tower anymore.

  “Imagine being a Mecha forced to stay here for no reason,” Allegra said.