“Don’t,” Jack said. “It surrendered.”
Skerren looked at Jack like he had just said something funny. “Surrender?” he snorted, raising his sword up to strike. “No. No surrender.”
“Skerren, it’s over!” Jack said, stepping in front of Skerren and grabbing his wrist. Skerren’s eyes lit up with barely contained rage. Jack didn’t back down.
“Siding with your own kind, I see,” Skerren said. “Others are going to hear about this,” he warned Jack.
“I don’t care if they do,” Jack said. “You’re not going near this thing. Not until I find out what it knows.”
“What it knows?”
“About me,” Jack clarified. “It recognized me.”
Jack half expected Skerren to cut right through him to get at the Left-Behind, but he didn’t. Much to Jack’s surprise, Skerren took a step back.
“Fine,” Skerren said. “We’ll bring it back alive. We still have to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere tonight.” Skerren took up his sword and stabbed the Rüstov through its good leg, pinning it to the ground. The Rüstov writhed on the ground, helpless. “There. That should do it.” Jack and Allegra were taken aback. Skerren returned to his watch, noting that for all they knew, there were dozens more of them out there.
Thankfully, no other Rüstov troubled the children that night. When the adults returned the next morning, the children had quite a tale to tell. So did Prime and Hovarth. Apparently, the Rüstov encounter was not part of their test. Just like Jazen had said, Left-Behinds generally tried to avoid Revile’s grave. In addition, Jazen had been there to clear the area, and he fully expected them to be alone all night. Prime was very impressed with everyone’s courage under fire and specifically told Allegra how proud he was of her for not activating her distress beacon. Allegra laughed nervously in response to the compliment. Prime gave everyone passing grades with extra praise for not killing the enemy when they didn’t have to. Skerren was pretty sore that Prime wasn’t suspicious of Jack for pushing to spare the Rüstov’s life, but it was Hovarth’s decision that really burned him up.
“Boy, you have surprised even me,” Hovarth said after the children retold the story of their adventure on Wrekzaw Isle. “It seems there is a fire in your belly that not even the Rüstov can put out,” he told Jack. “You have my vote.”
“WHAT?” Skerren cried. He looked hurt and betrayed that his mentor— his idol-was siding with Jack. “You… you’re not really voting for him…,” he stammered out in disbelief. “You can’t!”
Hovarth didn’t need to defend his decision to Skerren, but he did anyway. “He passed the test,” Hovarth said matter-of-factly. “What else can I do?”
“No!” Skerren said. “We hate the Rüstov!”
“And we pity the infected. We mourn them before they die, but perhaps… perhaps this one is different. I, too, would not have guessed it, but Jack has surpassed my expectations. He has proven himself in battle. If I chose not to honor his achievements, the true failing would be mine. To keep my honor, I must grant him my vote. I cannot justify anything less.”
Skerren pointed a finger in Hovarth’s face. “Don’t talk to me about justice,” he said. “We both know how you’ve dealt with Rüstov in the past. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but I haven’t—not ever!”
Skerren didn’t wait for Hovarth’s reply. He just stormed out of the garrison. Jack expected Hovarth to grab Skerren back by the ear and roar at him for his insolence, but he didn’t. He just breathed a heavy sigh and let him go. Jack couldn’t believe Skerren would talk so disrespectfully to his king, but he wasn’t going to waste time trying to figure out what went on in Skerren’s head. Not when there was someone else there whose thoughts were so much more interesting.
This Left-Behind that Jack had helped capture… it knew him somehow. It recognized him. That meant it knew more about him than just about anyone else in the Imagine Nation, and Jack intended to find out exactly what that was.
CHAPTER
12
The One That Got Away
As the Left-Behind was being locked away in the Valorian garrison’s quarantined detention block, Jack was already trying to find out the story behind his newfound status as “Rüstov royalty.” The Left-Behind had knelt before him and called him “my liege.” What the heck was that all about, anyway?
Prime expected it was because Jack had no tech-decay or rust. “A very fortunate case of mistaken identity,” he called it. That was the only explanation. “Why else would a Rüstov cut short an attack just shy of the killing blow, and then kneel down before its target?”
Jack didn’t follow.
“When a Rüstov parasite takes hold of a host body, the Rüstov eye is just the first mark to appear,” Prime told him. “Over time the infection spreads through the body and the signs multiply. Veins turn into circuits, blood turns into oil… the skin mummifies, flaking away to reveal rusted metal bones. You may be infected, but you exhibit none of those features. That’s what saved you. The Left-Behind, no doubt a mid-level Para-Soldier, was mistakenly humbled before your fresh-faced nobility.”
Prime explained that in Rüstov society, only the social elite enjoyed hosts as fresh as Jack appeared to be. Rüstov Para-Soldiers had to push their bodies until the bones turned to dust before they were allowed new hosts, and even then they only got cast-offs from the upper class. The nobles, on the other hand, took fresh hosts from the body farms every day. The Rüstov emperor—the Magus—expected his fellow aristocrats to look presentable, and the penalties for defiling his court with decaying host bodies were severe. The Magus himself went through several hosts a day, casting off bodies at the first sign of the slightest imperfection. The mere hint of a single circuit rising up below soft skin tissue was enough to turn a fresh host body into an imperial hand-me-down.
Jazen agreed that Prime’s theory made good sense, but he still didn’t like that the Left-Behind was there to begin with. Jazen had cleared the area before he had left. If there had been a Rüstov within twenty miles, it should have showed up on his scan. “Somebody sent that Left-Behind after these kids,” Jazen concluded. “Maybe after Jack, specifically. This is the second time a Rüstov has attacked him. Somebody told them where he’d be, and when he’d be alone.”
Hovarth’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t mean to suggest… a traitor?”
“Isn’t that what we’ve been saying all along?” a voice called out from the door. The voice belonged to Speedrazor, who was there with a superstrong Peacemaker called Flex to collect the prisoner. Left-Behinds had to be held in the most secure facilities possible, and that meant an electrocell in a secret undisclosed location. Probably one of the Peacemaker bases, Jack thought.
“I want to know where you’re taking this thing,” Jack told the Peacemakers as they took the Left-Behind into custody. “I helped catch it. I deserve a chance to talk to it and find out if it knows anything about me.”
“Take it up with Circleman Smart,” Flex told Jack as he dragged the one-legged Left-Behind out the door. Jack intended to do just that.
A few days passed before Smart finally agreed to let Jack question the captured Left-Behind. Smart claimed he needed time to set up a full array of translators to record every word that passed between Jack and the creature. Jack wasn’t concerned about any of that. He didn’t have anything to hide—he just wanted to get in there and ask his questions. Now that he knew he could talk to machines— really talk to machines— it was time to see just what this Rüstov knew about him and his past.
Smart got word to Jazen that the creature was being held in the SmartTower subbasement, and Jack was invited to come interview the Rüstov prisoner. However, another round of Smart’s annoying tests came first, and when they were done, Jack could tell that something was very wrong. When Smart’s experiments were complete, Jack found himself alone in the lab. Usually, Smart didn’t trust Jack enough to leave him alone. Jack rode the elevator down to the SmartPrison subbasement and found Stendeval, S
mart, and Chi together outside an empty electrocell. Smart was pacing the room, disgusted. “And to think people have the gall to suggest my Peacemakers are no longer necessary!” he said.
“Jonas, you are jumping to conclusions,” Stendeval told him.
“Am I?” Smart fired back. “This location was classified. It’s impossible to think the creature didn’t have help escaping. There are traitors among us, Stendeval!” Smart looked at Jack as he entered. “Speak of the devil,” he said.
“What happened?” Jack asked.
“Oh, very good,” Smart said. “As if you don’t already know.”
Jack looked to Stendeval and Chi for an answer. “What’s going on?”
“A group of Left-Behinds crossed into the city this morning to free their captured brother,” Chi explained. He motioned to the empty cell. “They succeeded.”
“Wait, they were actually here?” Jack asked. “In SmartTower? This isn’t just another possible sighting?”
“Obviously not!” Smart said, motioning to the empty electrocell. “You expect us to believe you didn’t aid them in any way?” he asked Jack. “Where were you one hundred thirty-seven minutes and forty-nine seconds ago?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “This thing escapes from your prison on one leg, and you’re looking at me?” Jack asked. There was apparently nothing that Smart wouldn’t try to blame on him, he thought. As if Smart didn’t know exactly where he was at all times, anyway. SmartTower tracked Jack’s every move, scanning for his voiceprint, fingerprints, and retinas. On top of that, Jack had just spent the last three hours frozen in carbonite as part of Smart’s latest random experiment. The first time Smart had tried to freeze him, Jack had short-circuited the machine, blowing out the coolant tubes and shooting aerosol carbonite everywhere. However, it had become customary for Smart to have backup machines at the ready for Jack’s tests. The second time around, Jack had been able to endure the freezing without incident. He was getting better at reining in his emotions and keeping his powers under control.
“Jack’s alibi seems solid, Jonas,” Stendeval remarked.
“Frozen solid,” Chi added with a wry grin. Stendeval chuckled; Smart did not. He wanted Jack arrested.
“Jack didn’t have to be physically present to aid in the breakout,” Smart said. “He could have used his powers. He could have terminated the security measures and opened the cell doors for the Rüstov just by thinking about it. He’s part of this—I’m sure of it! I’m the smartest man in the world! Why are you both so intent on ignoring me?
“Come now, Jonas,” Stendeval began. “Jack isn’t going to be arrested. The School of Thought testing cannot be interrupted. You know that as well as I. Unless you have proof of a crime, you’ll simply have to be satisfied with the relentless battery of tests you are putting Jack through.”
“Go ahead,” Smart said through gritted teeth. “Make excuses for him. You’ve done little else since you returned. The fact remains, the creature was secure in its cell before this boy got here. This city was secure before this boy got here, for that matter! He arrives, and suddenly we have Rüstov Left-Behinds coming out of the woodwork. Gangs of Left-Behinds are spotted in the city, and our students are attacked at Revile’s grave—a place, by the way, where Revile no longer even resides!”
“I thought you didn’t believe me about Revile,” Jack said.
“Yes, Jonas,” Stendeval added with an air of suspicion. “I’m curious… do you believe Revile is alive? Or do you just care that other people believe it?”
Smart’s lips curled up into an annoyed smirk. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten,” Smart countered. “But I have a machine that can see into the future. And I have seen, in my TimeScope, Revile alive in Empire City.”
“Where?” Jack exclaimed. “When?!! Doing what?”
Smart’s smug expression faded. “I… can’t say,” he said. “Images in the TimeScope are not always crystal clear.”
“Well, let’s look again!” Jack said. “While we’re at it, let’s find out where that Left-Behind is going to be next. We can see if we’re going to recapture it, or if it’s going to come after me again.”
“No, Jack,” Stendeval said. “Please, put that thought out of your head. Do not seek out a time machine to tell you your future.”
Jack looked at Stendeval. “Why not?”
“The future is always in flux,” Stendeval said. “Hence the static generally found on Jonas’s TimeScreen images.”
“To which I might add, tampering with the time-space continuum upsets the natural order of things,” Chi said. “It creates imbalance in the universe. That balance can be very difficult to restore. I would not advise the use of that machine under any circumstances.”
Smart bristled at Chi’s opinion of his greatest invention. “I don’t know about unforeseen consequences or imbalance in the universe,” he interjected. “However, I will admit that knowledge of the future is not a burden I would trust on the shoulders of a boy like Jack.”
“For once we are in total agreement,” Stendeval said. “We will find the Rüstov another way. Please, Jack, forget that machine exists. Life happens in the present. I suggest you follow the advice of one of your American presidents, a good and honest man from the state of Illinois who once told me, ‘The best way to predict your future is to create it.’”
Reluctantly, Jack agreed. Resigned to leave the future to itself, he turned his thoughts back to the past. Once again, Jack asked Stendeval for hints, clues, or anything he could share about his past. With the Left-Behind gone, Jack was still no closer to finding out who he was and where he came from, how and when he was infected, or why and how he ended up hidden away from the Imagine Nation at St. Barnaby’s. “When will I know?” he asked Stendeval. “You said I’d find out who I was before the time of testing was complete, but now it looks like this Left-Behind is another dead end. I still don’t know anything new.” Stendeval answered by calling for a virtue Jack possessed in increasingly short supply: patience.
Over the next few days, Jack did his best to do as Stendeval asked. He didn’t have much choice in the matter. After the Left-Behind’s breakout at SmartTower, it was an undeniable fact that Rüstov Para-Soldiers were skulking around Empire City in greater numbers than anyone had seen in years. Even Jazen had to admit, these were no mere rumors. The whole city was on high alert. People were worried that it was all just the start of something bigger, and a lot of them blamed Jack for what was going on. They didn’t like the fact that he was training with the Inner Circle. For all they knew, he was the pointman for another invasion. Jazen was taking no chances. He told Jack he had to stay tucked away in the Ivory Tower until things calmed down. Every night the Inner Circle and countless others scoured the city for Jack’s fugitive Left-Behind. Every night Jack waited in vain for news of the Left-Behind’s recapture.
In the meantime, Jack did his best to keep himself busy by practicing his powers with Jazen and Virtua. Despite the commonly held belief that teaching Jack was dangerous, and rising concern about the rate at which his powers were growing, Jazen and Virtua put their faith in what they knew of Jack, rather than what others feared about him.
Jack worked with Jazen to master thought communication with machines. He stayed up nights reading every book he could get his hands on, and spent his days diving through cyberspace with Virtua. There was a sensory deprivation tank in the Ivory Tower’s data center, and Virtua was happy to guide Jack through every cybersite he cared to see.
While he was in C-Space, Jack got a break from the same four walls of Jazen’s apartment. He literally devoured new information about any and all kinds of science and engineering, be it alien, Mecha-based, or otherwise. He was picking up things much faster with the help of the machines. He started talking to every machine he met and absorbing data like it was being uploaded straight into his brain. Jack found that as long as the machine in question was friendly, it was happy to do as he asked and also teach him all it could. Actually speaking
with a bi-org was just as novel and exciting for the machine in question as it was for Jack. Well, most of the time, anyway. It all depended on a given machine’s attitude and personality. Jack still had to hit the books if he wanted to learn how to control every kind of machine that was out there.
Unfortunately, there was only one machine out there that Jack was interested in: the fugitive Left-Behind. Jack was in his room reading with the holo-screen TV running in the background when there was finally a break in the case. It was late at night, and he was just starting to nod off when the TV volume kicked up to its highest level all on its own. A special newsbreak was interrupting the broadcast.
“Jazen, you better get up here!” Jack called out.
Jazen raced upstairs. “What’s going on?” he asked. Jack only pointed to his holo-screen. There wasn’t much to see yet, just a “Breaking News” graphic over a crowd of people and a crime scene. The footage showed yellow holo-tape, flashing police lights, and a lot of concerned faces. The news anchor was describing the scene as the cameras rolled:
“All right, this is live footage we’re taking directly from SmartCams on the scene in Karateka, where early reports indicate that a fugitive Left-Behind engaged one or more heroes in a deadly superfight this very evening. We’re being told that the superfight claimed the life of at least one of the combatants involved.”
Jack and Jazen traded uneasy looks. They quickly turned back to the screen as the SmartCam floated up over the crowd to get a bird’s-eye view of the situation. “Empire City Police aren’t releasing any details yet, but we’re trying to get a better angle for you here,” the anchor continued. “Let’s see if we can’t figure out what’s going on….”
Jack leaned forward, waiting for the SmartCam to draw focus on the crime scene from above. If anyone had to get hurt, he really hoped it was the Left-Behind.
The Accidental Hero Page 19
