“Good,” Virtua said. “If I or my people still pose a threat when we reactivate, you will use it. On all of us.”
“NO!” Jack shouted. “Virtua, you don’t have to do that! I have a cure-code ready! I have it in a beta test right now.”
“It’s too late for that, Jack,” Virtua said. “We can’t rely on experimental cures.”
“And we’re certainly not going to take your word that it is a cure!” Hovarth said.
Jack was about to defend himself against Hovarth’s accusations, but Virtua cut him off before he even started. “We don’t have time to argue. We have to prepare for the worst.”
Midknight spoke up. “Virtua, you can’t expect us to let you—”
“We will not be used as tools in the enemy’s plan,” Virtua interrupted. “Not again. If this is where the Mechas of Empire City meet our end, we will meet it without fear and we will keep our honor. If this is our fate, then so be it. All will know of our sacrifice, and none will be able to question our allegiance after tonight.”
It was clear that it was no use arguing with Virtua. Hovarth put his hand on his heart and bowed his head to her. “I commend your selfless dedication, Lady Virtua,” he said. “Your decision reflects a very Varagog way of thinking.” Jack figured that was probably the highest praise that Hovarth knew how to give. Hovarth turned to Stendeval and the rest of the Inner Circle. “Before I was transported from my home, a crowd was forming outside Castle Varren, waiting for their king to lead them into Machina. Into battle. I’ll lead them there still,” Hovarth said. “We’ll put their energy to good use and enlist their aid to secure the borough.”
“Thank you, Hovarth,” Virtua said. “I wonder if Circleman Noteworthy will be able to say the same about the crowd gathering on the Hightown side of this wall.”
Virtua waved a hand at the growing mass of angry, scared Hightowners across the plaza. All eyes turned to Noteworthy. It was highly unlikely that he commanded the same degree of respect among his constituents that Hovarth did among his subjects. “I can—I can try,” Noteworthy stammered.
“This kind of work needs level heads, Clarkston,” Midknight said. “If you can’t control your people, and I’m not sure that you can, we’ve got to keep them out of Machina.”
“That’s going to divide our efforts,” Jack said. “It will slow us down.”
“We have no choice,” Chi said. “We can ill afford to trade one unruly mob for another. The goal here is to quell the riot. My ninjas will guard the Hightown-Machina border, but it will take time for them to get here.”
“I can help with that,” Midknight told Chi. “You can use the bottom half of my ship as a transport. And I can help you lock down Machina,” he told Hovarth. “I’ll take the top half and round up every hero I can find, starting with Blue and Ricochet. They’ve been looking for me all day anyway. We’ll get this done, Virtua. We’ve done the impossible before—with less time than ninety minutes, too.”
“Aye,” said Hovarth. Stendeval and Chi chimed in with words of encouragement as well. For his part, Jack didn’t like this plan one bit. As far as he was concerned, they were still ignoring the source of the problem. They had a plan for mopping blood off the floor without bothering to first stop the bleeding.
“What about the SmarterNet?” Jack asked. “We still need to shut it down and stop the spread of the virus. Can’t you make Smart do that, now that we know it isn’t just operating in the outside world?”
“We could,” Stendeval said. “Unfortunately, thanks to Lorem Ipsum’s gibberish touch, Jonas Smart won’t be able to tell us where the signal is broadcasting from, let alone how to shut it off.”
Jack threw his hands up in frustration. He hadn’t even thought of that. He cursed the irony of it all. The same stroke of luck that had kept the truth about him and Revile under wraps was preventing them from heading off the Rüstov threat. It didn’t help matters that it was his fault Lorem Ipsum had gotten involved to begin with.
“First things first,” Midknight told Jack. “Even if we were able to shut down the SmarterNet, that still doesn’t do anything to hold off the Mechas that are already infected.”
“We can’t just let it go,” Jack argued. “There has to be something we can do. What if we knew the frequency the SmarterNet was broadcasting at? We could jam it.”
“But we don’t know that,” Noteworthy said. “We have to deal with what we know. We have to use the EMP like Circlewoman Virtua said.”
Virtua glared at Noteworthy. The rest of the Inner Circle did too.
“Obviously, I mean that as a last resort,” he clarified.
“Obviously,” Virtua said, giving Noteworthy another hostile look. Her face was scrunched up in anger and her color had shifted to a deep crimson.
“What can I do, then?” Jack asked, eager to help.
“You can tell us what Smart was going to say before Lorem Ipsum touched him,” Hovarth said.
Jack should have been ready for that response, but he wasn’t. Everyone looked at him, waiting for an answer. “Why—why does that matter now?” he sputtered. “Shouldn’t we be focusing on the virus?”
“It’s a matter of trust,” Hovarth said. “Skerren told me what you did today. If I can’t trust you, then I don’t want to fight alongside you.” Jack didn’t say anything. Hovarth shook his head in disgust. “You need to go home, lad. We’ll figure out what to do with you later.”
“Home?” Jack said. “But, no … I need to … You need me to—”
“I’m sorry, but Hovarth is right,” Stendeval said. “You have to stay out of this, Jack, for a number of reasons. I know your heart was in the right place and why you did what you did, but we’re going to have a devil of a time convincing anyone else of that right now. We can’t deal with this situation and watch over you at the same time. There’s a whole city full of people out there who think you brought this plague down upon us.”
“They happen to be right,” Noteworthy said.
Jack grimaced.
“Jack, listen to me,” Stendeval said. “We can’t afford to have anything happen to you. You’re more important than you know, and it’s far too dangerous for you to be out here right now. You’re safe in Cognito. No one can find you there.”
“Midknight did,” Jack said.
“True.” Midknight shrugged. “But I’m exceptional.”
“Jack, please,” Virtua said, her image flickering and fading. “Any time spent making sure you stay put is time that could be spent rounding up heroes to safeguard my people. I know you want to do something, and I know you did the best you could … but all you can do right now is avoid causing any more trouble. A hero has to put the needs of others ahead of himself.” Virtua’s image faded down to nearly transparent levels. She reached out a hand to Jack. It passed right through him like it belonged to a ghost. “I know you’ll do the right thing.”
Projo fell to the ground with a clang, and Virtua’s image blinked out.
“Ninety minutes,” Midknight said. “What’s it gonna be, Jack?”
Jack hated the position he was being put in. Every piece of him wanted to go out and fight the Rüstov, but he couldn’t very well go against what might have been Virtua’s last words.
“All right,” Jack said, looking down at his shoes. “I’ll go home.”
“I expected nothing less,” Stendeval said. “Midknight, if you could?”
Midknight and Jack squeezed into the top half of the Knightwing and took off. Midknight dropped Jack off in Cognito and turned right around to go find help for the Mechas. As Jack watched the ship blast off into the night, he felt trapped and angry. He couldn’t believe he was really going to sit this thing out. He knew Stendeval and Virtua were right, but that didn’t make doing what they said any easier. It never had. Never once. The only thing that was keeping Jack in his seat was the fact that he didn’t have any idea how to stop the SmarterNet, even if he were allowed to try.
Then Jack noticed a small white
card he’d left on the coffee table earlier. The note he’d gotten from Obscuro. Suddenly it was no longer blank. The words that were now written on the card changed everything.
Jack grabbed his bag and went for the door. On his way outside, Jack reminded himself that he’d promised the Inner Circle only that he’d go home. He never said he’d stay there. Anyway, Virtua’s definition of a hero was different from his own. Different from the one he’d learned from Jazen Knight, that is. Jazen had taught him that a hero is someone who tries to make a difference. A person who gets up every day and tries to make the world a better place. That was the kind of hero Jack wanted to be. That was the kind of hero he’d been trying to be all year. There was a chance he could still do that before it was too late.
CHAPTER
24
Playing the Memory Card
Wearing a hooded zip-up jacket to help hide his once famous, now infamous, face, Jack ran through Varagog Village as fast as he could. Ordinarily, going into Varagog alone at night would have constituted an idiotic risk on his part, and doing so the same night he’d reclaimed the title of Public Enemy Number One wouldn’t have been any smarter, but tonight it was. The village streets were empty. Almost everyone had followed Hovarth out of town into Machina. Still, Jack stuck to the shadows and played it safe. Breaking the rules and taking risks didn’t have to mean being reckless. With a combination of stealth, speed, and luck, Jack reached his destination unharmed. The trick would be staying that way. Jack passed under an arch built into the great wall on Varagog’s south side and ran down the steps toward the Flying Shipyards. Toward Hypnova.
Jack knew where he was going this time around. He didn’t have to search every slip on the dock before finding Hypnova’s ship. He just hoped it would be there, parked in her spot. Sure enough, it was. Jack ran down a rickety flight of stairs and saw the ship tied to the pier, sitting idle. Its black cauldron of purple flames filled the massive hot air balloon above it and held it aloft. Most of the ship’s Mysterrii crewmen were asleep, scattered across the deck and tangled up in the thick maritime rope used for the hot air balloon’s rigging. A few were up on watch duty, and they jumped out at Jack, yelling “Razza frazza! Razza frazza!” as he approached. Jack didn’t ask permission to board. He ran right past the miniature sentries and jumped up onto the deck.
“Hypnova!” Jack called out. “Are you in there?” he asked, banging on the door of the cabin where they’d met during his last visit. “It’s Jack! Jack Blank!”
The Mysterrii went absolutely nuts at Jack’s intrusion. Suddenly they were everywhere, swarming Jack. He grabbed a mop off the deck and swung it around, trying to keep them back. There were too many of them, and they were too quick. The nimble little acrobats surrounded Jack, jumping down from the balloon rigging, springing out of trapdoors and portholes, and overwhelming him with their numbers.
“Hypnova!” Jack shouted as the horde of Mysterrii lifted him up off the ground and held him fast. “Hypnova, I need to talk to you! It’s important! It’s life or death!”
“You’re right about that,” a cool voice replied from the ship’s top deck near the captain’s wheel. “My crew is going to throw you overboard unless you can give me a good reason why they shouldn’t.” Jack looked up and saw Hypnova, as stunning as ever in her green and white buccaneer outfit. Throw me overboard? he thought. Is she serious? She certainly didn’t look like she was kidding.
“I need your help,” Jack blurted out, instantly regretting the words as they left his mouth. It was a dumb thing to say to someone who was looking for a reason not to kill you.
Hypnova laughed. “Not the answer I was looking for,” she said. “I’m afraid that won’t do it.” Hypnova barked out a short command in the Mysterrii’s language, and the little mummies holding Jack started over toward the edge of the ship.
“No!” Jack shouted, starting to get worried. “Listen to me! I didn’t come here empty-handed. I have something you want too!”
“Really,” Hypnova said, skeptical. “And what is that?”
“Redemption.”
Hypnova studied Jack for a moment, and then told the Mysterrii to stop. “What are you talking about?”
“Redemption for what happened with Obscuro,” Jack said. “He’s leaving tonight. He offered to take me with him. He said it wouldn’t be safe for me here after he sold Smart my secrets.”
Hypnova gave Jack a curious look. “That’s true enough. It isn’t even safe for you here on this boat. But why would he offer you that? What does Obscuro care about you?”
“I don’t know,” Jack replied. “He said he feels bad about all this. He has a message from my father…. He said he could take me to him.”
“I see,” Hypnova said, her voice turning from curious to cold once again. “And if I help you escape this place so that you can be reunited with your father, it will redeem me in your eyes.” Hypnova shook her head. “Not interested, Jack. Not at all interested.” Hypnova waved her hand, and the Mysterrii started moving again.
“No!” Jack yelled out again, struggling in vain against the Mysterrii’s grip. “That’s not it. I mean redemption with the Secreteers!” Hypnova looked at Jack as if to say, “Go on.” Jack did. Unfortunately, so did the Mysterrii. He was going to have to talk fast. “Hypnova, I’m sorry you got in trouble because of me,” Jack said. “Really, I am! I would have said something before now, but at first I wasn’t sorry. I was mad at you. I mean, you snuck around in my brain and stole my secrets. That’s messed up. But I’m not mad anymore!”
Hypnova rolled her eyes. “Imagine my relief. If I may be so bold, what brought about this change of heart?”
“Look, it was my fault too, all right?” Jack said. “I get that now. If I’d been honest with everyone in the first place, there wouldn’t have been any secrets for you to steal. None of this had to happen. If I hadn’t let my fears get in the way of what I had to do, none of this would have happened! It’s like they say, you don’t blame a scale for its reflection … or a mirror for its weight, you know?”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.”
“Hypnova, please! Make them stop,” Jack pleaded. The Mysterrii now had him dangerously close to the edge of the ship. They were really going to do this.
“Get to the point, Jack,” Hypnova said. “What do you mean by offering me redemption?”
“I mean Obscuro. I can give you Obscuro. I know where he is.”
“And where is that?”
“It’s hard to explain. I can show you, though. You have to believe me!”
“Why should I? Why should anyone believe you now?”
“If I’m lying, you can always throw me off the ship later,” Jack said. He stopped fighting the Mysterrii as they neared the railing. He wasn’t going to break free of them in time for it to make any difference. His only hope was convincing Hypnova to let him go. “I can take you to him,” he told her. “I just need a ride. He gave me a card telling me where to find him. It was blank before, but it isn’t now.”
The Mysterrii raised Jack up to throw him over the side. “Hypnova!” Jack shouted out in a desperate shriek as they tossed him out into the abyss. He landed hard on the floor of a lifeboat that was tied to the ship’s hull, less than five feet below. Jack’s heart unclenched when he realized the trick. The other end of the boat filled with smoke, and Hypnova emerged from the cloud.
“Apology accepted,” Hypnova said. “You’re lucky I’m so forgiving. Obscuro gave you a memory card?”
Jack nodded and looked over the side of the little boat. Holding on tight to the edge, he looked down at the falls below and shook his head. That had been way too close.
“If you’re lying to me, I still might decide to throw you off.” Hypnova held out her hand. “Give it here.”
Jack dug into his pocket and took out the card. He handed it to Hypnova. He thought her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets when she saw it. She gripped the card like it was a winning lottery ticket.
It read:
Jack—
The time has come for us to take our leave. It is no longer safe for either one of us to remain, and somewhere deep in space there is a father who longs to see his son once again.
The following will lead you to me, but you must hurry.
15 N 27′ 13.25″
144 E 50′ 37.5″
10,000 ft.
Come alone.
—Obscuro
Hypnova looked up from the card to face Jack. “It really is from him.”
Jack nodded. “I didn’t know what the code was at the bottom, but I figured you would.”
“It’s longitude and latitude,” Hypnova replied. “And this third figure … altitude.” She looked up at the sky. “He’s close. We’re practically there now.”
“That’s great,” Jack said. “You think we can get back up on your ship now?”
Hypnova told the Mysterrii to help Jack up onto the deck. By the time he had climbed back up, she was already there waiting for him at the railing. Hypnova handed the card back to Jack. “It was never blank,” she said. “It’s a memory card. Secreteers use their powers to make people forget what’s written on them until such time that they want them to be read.”
“I guess Obscuro’s ready for me now,” Jack said as Hypnova helped him to his feet. “He won’t be ready for you, though.”
“I don’t imagine he will be, no,” Hypnova said. There was something in her voice that was still cautious, still untrusting. “What do you hope to get out of this, Jack? You have to know I’m not letting Obscuro get away this time. I have to capture him or kill him if I want the Clandestine Order to take me back. Even if I do manage to take Obscuro alive, the card says come alone. He’ll know you betrayed him. You’re not going to get to see your father if I come with you tonight.”
“I’m not after information about my father. I’m after the SmarterNet access codes.”
“An opportunity like this might not come to you again,” Hypnova told him. “A chance to reconnect with your family … I know what that means to you. You’re truly willing to sacrifice that?”
The Secret War (Jack Blank Adventure) Page 25