The Secret War (Jack Blank Adventure) (25 page)

“I don’t know, Blue,” Jack said. “I’m so burned-out on this thing, I don’t know if I can.”

“No time to lie down on the job, partner. You gotta push yourself. You owe Jazen that much.”

Jack rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his shoes. He knew what he owed Jazen. He knew it all too well. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him,” Jack told Blue. “I was protecting his memory as much as anything else. You’ve got to believe me.”

Blue nodded. “I believe you, Jack. I just wish you’d told me sooner.” Blue reached over to mess up Jack’s hair. “It’s going to be okay,” he said. “Jazen already beat this thing once, right? That means it’s not invincible. You’ll beat it too.”

“Okay,” Jack said.

“I mean it,” Blue said. “But you gotta focus. You gotta buckle down. I know what’s going on in that head of yours, Jack. You can’t let what that Secreteer said about your dad distract you. This is the most important thing. This right here. Okay?”

Jack nodded silently. Blue knew him so well. What Obscuro had told him about a message from his father had been rattling around in his brain like a lone penny shaking around in an empty tin can. Before that night in the glen, Jack had basically given up all hope that his parents were even still alive. Obscuro’s offer was hard to ignore.

“You know, Jack, I was curious,” Blue said. “The other night when you told us about the virus, you said that you and Jazen broke into SmartTower last year to get some information about who you were. You never told me what ended up happening with that. Did you ever find out anything about your past?”

Jack swallowed hard. He’d known this question would come sooner or later. The simple answer was yes. He had found out way more than he had ever bargained for that night, about both his past and his future. Telling Blue
about it wasn’t quite so simple, especially in a room that he knew was bugged. It wasn’t a subject Jack liked to think about, and it certainly wasn’t anything he wanted to talk about. In the end, he didn’t have to. Blue knew Jack too well. The look on his face gave it all away.

“I hate to see you like this, Jack,” Blue told his sidekick. “I can tell just by looking at ya, you’re all wound up. It’s not just this virus, either, is it?” Jack said nothing, so Blue just kept talking. “Jack, if there’s something else you’re worried Obscuro might say about you, even if it’s something you haven’t told me yet, that’s okay. I’m not gonna be mad. I just want to help you get out in front of this thing.” Blue put his hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Whatever it is, partner, you can tell me. I’ve got your back. Think about it…. If you give up your secrets, they’re not secrets anymore. You sure there isn’t anything else you wanna tell me?”

Jack gave Blue’s words serious consideration. He knew his friend was sincere, and he didn’t want to lie anymore either, but the weight of the secrets Jack carried was like a sack of bricks on his back that even now he didn’t know how to properly set down. Jack was
still deciding what to tell Blue, when the door opened up and Projo flew in.

“I certainly hope there’s nothing else,” Virtua said. “I don’t think my people can take any more of Jack’s secrets.” Jack clammed up as Virtua’s holographic eyes judged him from across the room. “Up, Jack,” she said. “You’re free to go. Come join your friends outside. They’re waiting for you.”

Virtua turned to leave, and Blue rapped his knuckles on the table as he got to his feet. “To be continued,” he told Jack. Jack got up and followed Blue and Virtua out of Securamax, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

Skerren and Allegra were waiting for Jack outside the main gate, but Virtua wasn’t done with him yet. “Can I have a word with you, Jack?” she asked. The tone in her voice conjured up memories of Jack’s days at St. Barnaby’s and getting sent to H. Ross Calhoun’s office. He nodded and followed Virtua a few feet away from the others, where they could speak in private. Projo, Virtua’s orb-shaped image-caster, kept bumping into Jack’s head as they walked. Jack could tell he was doing it on purpose.

“I’m sorry, Jack, but I am very concerned about your apparent lack of progress on the virus,” Virtua began. “Even more so with your lack of focus.”

“That’s not how it is, Virtua. I—”

“Let me speak,” Virtua said, putting up a finger in a manner that shut Jack up immediately. “I don’t think you fully appreciate the position I am in. I have been made party to an imminent threat to the Imagine Nation, a threat that involves using my own people as a weapon. Even worse, I can’t even warn this city of the danger at hand without inviting disaster into the lives of the very people I mean to protect.”

“I hate to be the one to say it, but I don’t think building that wall without telling anyone why did anything to ease the tension,” Jack said.

“That wall is for everyone’s protection,” Virtua replied. “And you are hardly one to lecture me about being open and honest.”

“I know that,” Jack said. “Don’t you think I know that? That’s why I’m trying to make sure the Secreteer doesn’t tell anyone about the virus.”

“If you had simply focused on curing the virus, the
other Secreteers would have dealt with Obscuro on their own. You might have found a cure by now. This brings us to the heart of my dilemma. I cannot rely on you to solve this problem, Jack. While you are scattered, trying to figure out your priorities, the enemy advances unchecked. In the past I would have dismissed Jonas Smart’s paranoia as just that, but we both know the threat is real. Obscuro’s warning, coupled with the Glave and Khalix communications, tell us that this virus is about to go live. I have to plan for that contingency, Jack. I want a copy of all your research on the spyware virus to date.”

Jack looked up, alarmed. “My research?” he asked. “But what if you get infected? The Rüstov would know how close we are to a cure. They might adapt the virus.”

“What’s the matter, Jack? You don’t trust me?”

“No, I do,” Jack said. “I do, it’s just …”

“I need that information,” Virtua told Jack. “It would be one thing if you were working on it, but—”

“I
am
working on it.”

“Are you?” Virtua asked. “It looks to me like you’re letting Trea do all the work while you go chasing after
the Rogue Secreteer. I wonder about your fixation with him…. Is it because he knows your secrets, or because he knows your father?”

“Is that what you think I’m doing out here?” Jack asked. “Obscuro’s offer has nothing to do with me avoiding my lab.”

“So you
are
avoiding it, then.”

“No,” Jack said. “I didn’t mean it like that. Don’t put words in my mouth.” Jack looked away. He could guess how selfish he must have looked in Virtua’s eyes just then, but he couldn’t tell her the real reason he was so freaked out about the prospect of working on the virus. “I’m not avoiding the problem,” he said. “It’s just that I can do more
outside
the lab right now.”

“My IP address is 239847230987230984,” Virtua told Jack, unmoved. “Can you upload your files to that location from here or not?”

Jack sighed. “No, it’s too far away. But Trea uploaded all my research to the lab computers. If you can send a signal to my mainframe in Cognito, I can tell it how to get there and add an authorization code for the data transfer.”

“Good enough,” Virtua replied. She created an info-light data package, a buzzing concentration of computer code stored in a glowing ball of pink light. Jack pressed down on it with his fingers to enter in the access codes to his mainframe. The info-light was hot to the touch. Jack released the data package, and it zipped away through the air like an oversize digital firefly.

“That’ll give you everything I have,” Jack said. “It’s a lot of work, it really is. It’s just lately, I’ve been …”

“Distracted,” Virtua said.

“I have help now,” Jack told her. “I’m going to get back to it. There’s still time.”

“I hope so, Jack,” Virtua replied. “I truly do.”

Jack could tell that Circlewoman Virtua remained unconvinced. She blinked out, and Projo zipped away as Jack’s friends came over.

“What did she have to say?” Skerren asked.

“Nothing I didn’t deserve,” Jack replied. “Did you guys tell her about Noteworthy and Midknight?”

“We told her,” Allegra said.

“Good,” Jack said. “She’ll tell the Circle.”

Rays of light started peeking in through the foundations
of the Hightown towers that were built over the prison. The sun was coming up.

“Two more days,” Blue said. “I’ll see what I can dig up on Midknight before tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get Ricochet to help me.”

“She’s not going to like that,” Allegra said. “Ricochet and Midknight are tight.”

“I know.” Blue frowned. “What about you kids? What’s your next move?”

“We never got any Rüstov tech to help crack the cure-code,” Jack said. “We need Obscuro. He’s got to know something that can help us. He’s still here, I know it.”

“How are you going to find him?” Blue asked.

Jack shook his head. “As crazy as it sounds, we can follow Midknight’s advice for that,” Jack said.

“You mean follow Smart,” Skerren said.

“Obscuro’s not going to leave a hundred million credits on the table,” Jack said.

“Kind of putting all our eggs in one basket, aren’t we?” Allegra asked. “What about the virus?”

“We still have time,” Jack said, trying to convince himself as much as he was the others. “Blue, can you drop me
off in Karateka? I need to talk to Zhi before tomorrow.”

“Today is tomorrow,” Blue said, opening up the door to his HoverCar and sliding over to make room for Jack. “I hope you know what you’re doing, partner.”

“Me too,” Jack said. “Me too.”

Jack was both tired and hungry but couldn’t afford the luxury of eating or sleeping. After he left Karateka, he had time for one quick stop in the Outlands, and then it was straight to Hero Square. He arrived just in time for the SmarterNet launch, and found that half of Empire City was there too. Thousands of people had turned out to get a look at Jonas Smart’s big project. People from every borough filled the square in numbers that reminded Jack of the Rededication Day celebrations.

Smart was holding court nearby, next to a SmartNews
remote broadcast desk that had been set up for the occasion. Words sailed through the air around the SmartNews set, thanks to digital projection signage that called out the NewsNet’s many slogans and catchphrases. Advertisements that read “SmartNews: Our opinions are your facts” and “SmartNews: Information for the
real
Imagine Nation” were impossible to miss, especially for Jack.

“We all know that Jonas Smart is a tireless defender of the Imagine Nation and its people,” Drack Hackman said as he came back from a commercial break. “But even now, with his business struggling and him being out of office for nearly a year, still doing his part to protect us from the Rüstov?” Hackman shook his head in awe. “That’s more than we can say for our current Circleman.”

“A lot of our viewers have been saying that very same thing,” Hackman’s cohost agreed. “Speaking of which, the SmarterNet isn’t the only big story today. Last night there was a break-in at Hightown’s Securamax detention center. As of this morning, prison authorities
still
haven’t been able to locate Clarkston Noteworthy to discuss the security breach.”

“No surprises there,” Hackman said. “He’s probably
sitting on a launchpad in Galaxis ready to blast off right now.”

“Oh, it gets better, Drack,” the cohost added. “Smart-News has confirmed that local adventurer and former Jonas Smart campaign rival Midknight was the one actually breaking into Securamax … helped along by our old friend Jack Blank, no less.”

“Really!” Hackman exclaimed as if this exchange hadn’t been rehearsed a dozen times before the cameras had started rolling. “Three people that Jonas Smart warned us about, all somehow involved in this prison break?” he asked his cohost. She threw up her hands as if she couldn’t believe it either. “That’s astounding,” Hackman marveled. “You know, looking at the turnout we’re seeing here today, I have a feeling that elections in Hightown might go a little differently next time around. You can’t keep Jonas Smart down for long.”

“No, you certainly can’t,” Hackman’s cohost agreed with a hearty laugh.

Jack’s eyes narrowed as he looked over at Smart. His face was stretched across giant holo-screens as he talked with Hightown’s high rollers, shook hands, and smiled.
The man with no heart looked practically giddy with excitement for the launch of his latest invention. Jack had to admit, Smart was pushing all the right buttons. The way he worked the crowd was nothing short of masterful, and his popularity was on the rise once more. He was stoking the fires of people’s worst fears while simultaneously assuring them that everything would be all right because of him, and the crowd in Hero Square was only too happy to thank him for it.
How quickly they forget
, Jack thought. A week ago the pervading feeling in the Imagine Nation had been one of hope for the future. Using a combination of Rüstov spies and the Rogue Secreteer, Smart had seized his opportunity to turn that sentiment around completely. Jack realized fear was like a fuse waiting to be lit. All it takes is someone coming along with the right match. If no one blows it out, sooner or later … boom.

Jack spotted Skerren, Allegra, and Zhi near the Inner Circle’s sphere and was headed in that direction when he got ambushed. “We thought we’d find you here,” a pair of voices said in unison just as Jack approached the sphere. Jack looked up and saw two-thirds of his lab partner blocking
his path. “What’s going on, Jack?” T2 asked him. “You never came back to the lab last night.”

“We heard you got arrested,” T3 added. “What’s
that
about?”

“Hey, guys,” Jack said. “Sorry about that. Last night got a little out of hand,” he explained. “I’ll be back there later today; I just have some stuff I gotta do first. It’s still early.” Jack pushed around the Treas and kept walking.

“Not cool, Jack,” T2 said, keeping pace with Jack until he reached the others. “Not cool at all.”