Jack Blank and the End of Infinity (2 page)

It turned out that the Magus’s fresh, smooth-skinned hosts were not completely unblemished after all. Right next to his eye with the Rüstov mark, a large iron horn extended out from his temple, and six swordlike growths fanned out of his back like wings, three to each side. When Jack glimpsed the Magus earlier, he had mistakenly thought those elements were part of his throne. Now he knew differently. They were part of him. The Magus looked like a cyborg version of the devil himself.

The Magus crossed the room and stood over Jack. “Rise,” he commanded. The Rüstov guard stood up and
pulled Jack onto his feet. Jack did not look at the Magus until he had no other choice. The Rüstov emperor took him by the chin and lifted his head up, forcing him to meet his gaze. The Magus stared at him, studying him. Jack thought he was going to melt under the Rüstov leader’s penetrating, heartless eyes. Quite unexpectedly, his lips curled up, forming a thin smile. The Magus gave Jack a light tap on the cheek and rested his hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Welcome home, my son.”

Jack did his best to sound brave. “I’m not your son.”

The Magus frowned and grumbled out a low growl.

Jack dropped to the ground in a heap. A searing hot knife was turning inside his brain. His eye was burning. He pressed his palm against it like he was afraid it might pop out of the socket. Just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, the pain stopped. Jack rolled over onto his back and struggled to catch his breath. When he finally did, he looked up at the Magus and realized something very scary. The Magus hadn’t moved an inch. He had hit Jack with his mind.

Jack tried to get up but decided to give it a few seconds first. He rested on all fours for a moment. The Magus nodded to a guard, who stepped on Jack’s back, pushing
him down. The guard knelt to Jack’s level and grabbed his hair, pulling his head up to face the Rüstov emperor. “I wasn’t talking to
you
,” the Magus said. “You will speak when spoken to. I will not have this reunion with my son spoiled by your filthy tongue.”

Jack was gasping for air. Drool dripped from his lower lip. “What did you just do to me?”

The Magus laughed. “I simply helped your infection along, ever so slightly. Get used to the pain. There’s more to come.”

Jack’s mind was racing. The hopelessness of his situation was starting to sink in. “I can’t . . . I can’t use my powers.”

The Magus smiled with chilling confidence. “Patience . . . you will.”

The guard let go of Jack’s hair. His head dropped and banged against the floor. The light over the Magus’s throne went out, and the Rüstov emperor’s mechanical eye glowed in the darkness. Light trails followed the eye as the Magus turned away and Jack’s vision blurred. He felt dizzy. Somewhere deep inside him, he heard Khalix laughing as the world faded away.

1

Ghost in the Machine

Solomon Roka moved through the Rüstov super-dreadnaught
Apocalypse
with the swift, silent purpose of a black ops
commando. He was a tall man with a lean, muscular build, short black hair, and three
days’ worth of stubble on his face. He wore a formfitting black suit lined with
flexible circuitry and carried a backpack filled with all the tools of his profession.
Roka crept around corners like a thief in the night, and although the time of day in
deep space was relative, he was without question a thief. He was there to steal the
future of the Rüstov people.

Roka approached a sliding metal door with a small
window right at eye level. As he reached out to open it, a green light lit up on its
access panel. He froze in place and his heart followed suit. The door was about to open
from the other side. Rüstov sentries were coming through. They hadn’t seen
him yet, but he had only a few seconds before they did.

Roka had no cover in the empty passageway. The door on the opposite end of
the hall was too far away, but he ran for it, hugging the shadows as he went. The sound
of compressed air being released filled the hallway as the doors began to slide apart
behind him. He had time left for only a simple choice: right or left. The lack of an
exit in either direction was not a problem. The uncertainty surrounding each option was.
Roka made up his mind and activated his Ghost Suit. The circuits covering his body
blazed with light, rendering his molecules intangible as he leaped
through
the wall directly to his left. He just hoped he wasn’t diving
into a situation worse than the one he was trying to escape.

Roka found himself alone when he emerged on the other side of the wall. He
stood on the engineering deck of
the ship, overlooking the
Apocalypse
’s powerful warp core. He had to get his
bearings straight and find his way to the detention block, but first he needed a minute
to collect himself and gather his nerves. They were scattered everywhere, which was
unusual for him. This kind of operation was Roka’s stock in trade, but this was
more than just another job. This breakout wasn’t about money; his own freedom was
on the line this time too. There was something else as well. The
Apocalypse
wasn’t just any Rüstov ship. It was the personal
flagship of the Rüstov emperor. Roka was quite happy to go on living without ever
having the honor of meeting the Rüstov leader.

Getting back to business, Roka activated a holographic map-finder device
on his wrist. It emitted a high-frequency sonar pulse that generated blueprints of the
ship and projected them into the air in front him. The ship’s plans glowed
brightly in the darkness, faded down, and returned as each sonic pulse sounded. Roka saw
where he needed to go. His objective was three hundred feet below him, straight
down.

Roka measured the drop with a laser ruler and took out a length of special
evaporating rope. He latched
himself to a railing overlooking the
ship’s engine, jumped over the top, and dove down alongside the white-hot column
of pure energy that powered the starship’s Infinite Warp Core. Air whistled
through Roka’s hair as he fell, anchored to the walkway above. He swung his feet
out to land as the floor raced toward him. The thin, black rope stretched like a bungee
cord, slowing his descent, and then dissolved into smoke as he touched down softly on
the ground. The jump would have been perfect if not for the fact that he landed right
among a trio of Rüstov Para-Soldiers.

Before the Rüstov even had time to register his presence, Roka
flipped down a pair of shades and set off a light grenade to blind his enemies. He
grabbed the Para-Soldier closest to him by the wrist, turned, and flipped it over his
shoulder. The Rüstov sentry crashed into one of its fellow guards, and Roka
detached a small disk from his belt. He slapped it onto the third Para-Soldier’s
chest. Electric currents poured out of the disk, ripping through the Rüstov’s
body and permanently disabling it. The first two Para-Soldiers were just getting back up
when Roka jumped and threw both feet into them, kicking them back
over the edge of the platform. They fell into the warp core’s towering column
of energy and were vaporized instantly. The whole fight, if it could truly be described
as such, lasted all of seven seconds.

The Rüstov threat neutralized, Roka once again activated his Ghost
Suit and phased through the wall on his right. He emerged in the detention block and
took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for what would be the hardest part of the
mission. Roka walked down the hall, forcing himself to ignore the pleas for help coming
from the prisoners who were locked up in the cells to his left and right. It
wasn’t easy. Roka knew what was in store for them. A long time ago, he’d
been a Rüstov prisoner himself. It was absolutely killing him to leave them behind,
but there was nothing he could do for them. Not here. Not now. But
maybe . . . just maybe, if what he’d been told was true, there was
hope for them yet.

At end of the hall, Roka arrived at a locked door. He could see through
its foggy laser-proof window well enough to make out a prison lab on the other side.
This was it. Roka narrowed the focus on his Ghost Suit to phase only his hand. It
flickered like a faded movie projection as he
ran it through the
lock, shorting out its circuits. The door slid open and Roka entered the lab.

The room was empty, which was good, but Roka still didn’t like what
he found inside. In the center of the lab was an operating table surrounded by
vicious-looking surgical tools and trays of techno-organic hardware. Roka didn’t
know what kind of sick experiments went on in this room, but it was clear that whatever
prisoner had spent time on that operating table wasn’t dealing with the standard
Rüstov infection.

Next to the table was a stasis pod, large enough to fit a single person
inside. Next to that, a holo-screen readout displayed the words “Infection Level:
25%.” Roka plugged a CodeBreaker into a data port on the pod’s access panel,
and the cover rose up like the lid of a coffin. Gas poured out from the inside. As the
vapors cleared, Roka noticed a red light flashing on the pod, blinking out the words
“Incubation Period Interrupted.” He’d set off a silent alarm. Roka
frowned and, in a very businesslike manner, knelt down to remove a pair of special suits
from his pack. He held one out toward the figure in the pod, who was just waking up.
“Put this on. We don’t have much time.”

A groggy voice called out from inside the pod.
“What’s going on? Who are you?”

Roka kicked his pack away and stood up, pulling his suit on over his
clothes. “I’m Solomon Roka. I’m here to rescue you.”

Jack Blank stepped out of the stasis pod and nearly fell over. Roka caught
him and propped him up. “Can you walk?” Jack nodded, and Roka thrust a space
suit into his arms. “Put this on. Quickly. We need to be gone before the guards
show u—”

They moved into the light and Roka stopped talking.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Jack asked.

It took Roka a moment to answer. He was locked in a frozen stare,
transfixed by Jack’s appearance. “You, uh . . .” Roka
shook his head and started sealing up his own suit. “You’ve got something on
your eye, kid.”

Jack touched a hand to his face and drew in a sharp breath. He checked his
reflection in the stasis pod’s glass lid, and sure enough, there it was. A parting
gift from the Rüstov. Just a little something to take home with him. The mark of
Rüstov infection surrounded Jack’s eye like a line drawn with black
paint.

2

The Great Escape

An explosion tore through the
Apocalypse
’s hull and the inescapable vacuum of space ripped Jack and Roka
out of the ship. They shot out into the cosmos wearing the armored space suits Roka had
brought with him. Jack went spinning wildly into the void. His eyes went wide as he
tried to draw focus on the endless sea of stars around him. He was in space. Deep space,
light-years from home. It was almost too much to process. One minute he was sleeping in
a metal pod, and the next thing he knew, some complete stranger had pulled him out here.
His
brain was still playing catch-up. What was he doing in that pod?
Where was
here
? If the dying planets and Rüstov warships
all around were any indication, it was no place good. Jack’s head was full of
cobwebs. The only thing he knew for sure was that he had to get far away from this place
as fast as possible. Unfortunately, he was completely out of control.

Roka tried to grab Jack’s wrist as he went flying through space, but
he lost his grip when they ran into a small asteroid belt. A hailstorm of pebble-like
fragments pelted Jack’s helmet and body, disorienting him. He tried to grab onto
some of the larger asteroids and steady himself, but he couldn’t get a handle on
them. His limbs felt heavy and slow. A watermelon-size meteor struck Jack and sent him
tumbling head over heels. He tried not to panic, but he knew precious time was being
wasted. The Rüstov weren’t going to let him just walk out of here. He had to
get himself together. Hardly an easy thing to do when you are flailing helplessly in
space. Jack watched an upside-down Solomon Roka use the thrusters in his suit to right
himself, and something clicked in Jack’s head. His powers . . . the armored space
suit was a machine.
Jack opened his mind up to the suit as Roka
called to him on a radio in his helmet.

“Use your thrusters! The controls are on your—”

Before Roka could even finish his sentence, Jack engaged his thrusters,
spun around, and steadied himself in a right-side-up position. He noticed something off
in the distance behind Roka. A wrist cannon on his arm called out to be used, and Jack
raised his hand, firing three shots over Roka’s shoulder. All three shots hit
their marks, blasting holes in the Rüstov Para-Soldiers that were silently coming
up behind Roka.

“That’s better,” Jack said. It felt good, using his
powers. It felt even better fighting back against the Rüstov. Jack’s head
cleared a little. He remembered how he ended up in Rüstov space. He’d been
kidnapped by the Rüstov agent Glave after stopping his plot to take over the
Imagine Nation. He remembered Glave’s men pulling his half-conscious body out of a
pile of crystal rubble back on Mount Nevertop. The question was, what had happened after
that?

Roka raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed with how Jack had handled the
Rüstov soldiers. “I see someone found the suit’s blasters. Used this
model before?”

Jack shook his head. “I’m just good with
machines.”

Roka grunted. “You’re gonna have to be. We’ve got
company.” He pointed toward a battalion of Rüstov space-troopers that was
flying out of the
Apocalypse
like hornets from a broken nest.
Jack felt a twinge of pain behind his eyebrows, which rapidly grew in intensity. The
Magus was angry. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he knew it. Jack winced and
reached for his temple, touching his hand against the outside of his space helmet. His
right eye felt like it was on fire, and he heard a voice: