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.
CHAPTER
30
The Fifth Day
“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.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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:
My agent, Chris Richman, whose sage advice on writing and the business of writing has never steered me wrong. Thank you and the entire Upstart Crow team for your tireless efforts on my behalf.
My editor, Liesa Abrams, who sees the Imagine Nation as clearly as, if not more clearly than, I do. Your careful guidance and keen insights helped me grab a tiger by the tail and shape this story into the one I was trying to tell. On top of that, you are just an awesome person to work with. I am lucky to have you and everyone at Aladdin on my team.
Chris McCarthy and Carlo DiMarco at MTV, whose flexibility and understanding with my schedule made it possible for me to get this book written in the first place. I want to thank you and the whole mtvU crew for your support and friendship over the years. I am really going to miss seeing you guys every day.
My wife, Rebecca, whom I love like crazy. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I may be a guy who always has one foot in the Imagine Nation, but you make sure I always have one foot in the Real World, too. I don’t know where I’d be without you.
My son, Jack, who has changed my life in every way possible, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You never fail to bring a smile to my face, and your mom and I love you very much.
And finally, I have to thank you—the readers. Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy of the first book, and maybe even liked it enough to come back for more with this book. I hope you enjoyed Jack’s latest round of adventures. I am going to do my best to keep you all entertained for as long as I can. Thanks again, and I’ll see you back here next year for the third book.
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