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Authors: Matt Myklusch

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BOOK: Jack Blank and the End of Infinity
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Calhoun let out an exasperated sigh and looked around. He chewed on the inside of his cheek a moment, then shot a hand to his brow and leaned forward to take a closer look at the flaming wreckage. “Is that a spaceship?” he asked, just now noticing the
Harbinger
.

“It was,” Roka said. “Will it be again? That’s the question.” He pulled a fire extinguisher out of the scuttled cockpit and went to tend to the flames. Calhoun followed him a few steps to get a closer look at the burning ship. His
head snapped around to stare at Allegra, whose gleaming silver skin reflected the light of the fire as she passed him by. Calhoun’s jaw fell open as the reality of the situation began to dawn on him. Jazen stepped forward and gently pushed his mouth shut.

“There. That’s better.”

As the
Harbinger
burned, a glint of light reflected off a broken corner of the ship, and Jack froze. Something about it triggered a memory for him. Not a full memory. Just a flash. A fleeting moment. He stumbled as the flashback hit and grabbed on to Jazen for support. The light gleaming on the ship became the shining tip of the Magus’s iron horn. Jack saw it in his mind’s eye, and the unexpected jolt of that vision nearly knocked him to the ground.

“Jack, what is it?” Jazen asked, but Jack wasn’t there. For a few terrible seconds, he was right back in the Magus’s throne room. The world shook and he was transported to a Rüstov prison lab. He was strapped to an operating table, struggling to get free. He heard the
cling-clang
of surgical tools rattling on trays he couldn’t see. He was staring at a holo-screen with his eyes taped open. He saw the Rüstov Armada on the march. The
extent of their forces was almost impossible to comprehend. Images of explosions and war—real-life footage from the Rüstov’s many conflicts and conquests—played in an endless loop before Jack. A cavalcade of death and destruction paraded around his brain. What were these images? Where were they coming from? Why wouldn’t they—

“Stop!” Allegra pleaded. “Jack, please stop. You’re going to hurt yourself!”

Jack blinked his eyes open and saw that Allegra had wrapped her silvery metal arms around him several times. He was fighting hard to break free, but she had bound him too tight to move. Jack looked around. He was dripping with sweat. He stopped struggling and took a deep breath.

“What just happened?” he asked.

Allegra loosened her grip and let Jack go. “You had a seizure,” Jazen told him.

Jack stretched his arms out and looked around. He was back in New Jersey. Everything seemed okay again, but he knew it wasn’t. Jack shook his head. “That wasn’t a seizure. It was a memory.”
And maybe something else as well,
Jack thought but didn’t say.

“That’s some memory,” Allegra said. “What was it?”

Jack’s whole body shuddered. He rubbed his head. “Last year, I think.”

Allegra put her hand on his shoulder. “What did they do to you?”

Jack took Allegra’s hand. “I can’t say for sure. I have a bad feeling we’re gonna find out, though.” Jack noticed Calhoun studying him with a cockeyed expression. Jack was grateful for his silence, if nothing else. He’d just caught a glimpse of the yearlong nightmare he’d endured, and he didn’t need to hear Calhoun ranting and raving while he tried to figure out what he’d been through. Jack’s eyes turned back to Jazen and Allegra. He may not have had any friends when he was an orphan in Calhoun’s care, but today things were different. He had friends—real friends—and he needed them now more than ever. Jack reached out to Jazen and Allegra and pulled them in close for a hug. It was the first chance he’d gotten to do so since the breakout. The escape was hairy enough all by itself, and the ride home demanded such incredible focus that Jack didn’t even speak to anyone the whole trip. There wasn’t time to take comfort in his friends’ arms before, but Jack needed them now.

“I can’t believe it’s been a year,” Jack said when he finally let go. His eyes were welling with tears. “All that time, and you didn’t give up. Thank you.”


You
didn’t give up,” Jazen said. “We didn’t know what to do or even where to look until we got your messages.”

Jack looked up.
The messages again
 . . . “I don’t understand. What messages?”

Allegra cocked her head sideways. “You know. You sent out distress calls telling us where you were. You led us right to you. I couldn’t believe you were able to contact us without the Rüstov finding out. How did you do it?”

Jack squinted at Jazen and Allegra. “What are you guys talking about?”

“You don’t remember?” Jazen asked.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t remember anything.” As soon as he said it, he shrugged, making an allowance for the flashback that had just hit him like a bag of anvils. “Well, hardly anything. It’s coming back, but . . .”

“It’s okay,” Jazen said, patting his shoulder. “Give it time. It’ll come. In the meantime, we can fill in the gaps. You sent out an SOS that reached the Calculan Planetary
Conglomerate. That’s where you were. Calculan space . . . or what was formerly Calculan space. The Rüstov took it over years ago. Luckily we had access to a famous space-pirate who was used to operating in Rüstov territory.”

“Ah-hem,” Roka said, clearing his throat loudly as he returned from putting out the fires on his ship. “I prefer ‘adventurer’ or ‘entrepreneur,’ if it’s not too much trouble. I’m more of an unconventional businessman, really. I provide a unique and valuable service.”

“Raiding transports?” Jazen asked.

“Raiding
Rüstov
transports,” Roka replied. “I go in and free host-body prisoners.”

“For a price,” Jazen said.

“A very high price,” Roka agreed. “I do good work and I expect to be compensated for my time. Nothing wrong with that, and there’s nothing illegal about what I do, either.”

“Why were you in jail, then?” Allegra asked.

“That’s a separate issue,” Roka said. “The whole situation was completely unwarranted. Not counting the warrant for my arrest, of course.” He turned to Jack to explain. “I tend to operate without licenses or permits. Apparently,
that’s a big no-no in the Calculan sector. After my last job, I was arrested and sentenced to nine hundred and forty-two years in prison by Calculan authorities.”

“That’s a long time,” Jack said.

“I thought so,” Roka agreed. “But I was the only one with the proper experience—and the only one crazy enough—to go in and get you, so the Calculans lifted my sentence in return for bringing you back. And here we are.”

“Here we are, all right.” Jack rubbed his eyes, trying to process everything he’d just seen, heard, and remembered. It was overwhelming.

“For a guy who just got his life back, you don’t seem very happy,” Roka observed.

“That’s the thing,” Jack said. “I’m not so sure I did. I appreciate everything you guys did for me, all of you. And I really am sorry about your ship, Roka, but we’ve got a bigger problem here. It’s not just that I don’t remember sending out a call for help. I don’t even think I could have. I can’t use my powers on anything Rüstov right now. Khalix won’t let me.”

“Who’s Khalix?” Roka asked.

“The Rüstov prince,” Allegra explained.

Jack tapped his temple. “He’s in here with me. All the time now. How could I have taken control of a communications array and sent out an SOS without him knowing? I don’t think those messages came from me.”

“Who did they come from, then?” Jazen asked.

Jack turned up his palms. To him, the answer was obvious. The question was why.

“WHAT THE DEVIL ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT?” Calhoun shouted, startling Jack. “Powers? Space-pirates? Who are the Rüstov? Wait, don’t answer that!” He held up a hand and looked away. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you!” Calhoun rubbed his eyes vigorously and got very upset when he blinked them open to find that Jack and his friends were still there. “No! I’m not seeing this. I’m not! Your insanity is infectious! I’m not going to listen to any more of it.”

“Nobody asked you to listen to anything,” Allegra said.

“I know I didn’t,” Jazen said. “You just invited yourself up here and—”

“I invited
myself
?” Calhoun asked, failing miserably in his attempts to ignore his visitors from the Imagine
Nation. “This is my school! You’re the ones who barged in here and turned it into a war zone!”

“You better get used to it,” Jack said. “This whole planet’s about to become a war zone.”

“Is that a threat?” Calhoun demanded. “Is that a threat?!!”

“Relax, whoever you are,” Allegra said. “You’re not important enough for Jack to threaten.”

Calhoun nearly fell over. “
I’m
not important enough for
him
to— He’s nothing but a future toilet brush cleaner!”

“Toilet brush cleaner?” Roka repeated, his lip curling upward in disgust. Allegra scrunched up her face, clearly grossed out and confused.

Jack traded a knowing look with Jazen and allowed himself a slight chuckle. “Right. I almost forgot about that one. Turns out it might have been better for everybody if I stayed here and did that after all, huh, Mr. Calhoun? That’s not the way things went though.”

“Your fault, not mine,” Calhoun replied. “You never did what was expected of you, Jack. Never once.”

Jack shook his head. “You wouldn’t like it if I did what people expect me to do these days. You were wrong about
me. Everyone here was. You people don’t know a thing about my potential.”

“I know you’re a bad apple,” Calhoun said. “Rotten to the core. I thought I was rid of you, but it appears that if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. You’ll pay for this. Mark my words, Jack, I won’t forget what you’ve done here today.”

Just then the wind picked up and the clouds began to darken and twist in an unnatural swirl. Lightning crashed, and a giant flying boat burst out from behind the clouds in the skies overhead. “Don’t be so sure about that,” Roka said, pointing up at the Secreteer’s ship. Streams of dark smoke flew down from above, and the storm winds blew with all the strength and fury of a hurricane.

“I’m going home now,” Jack told Calhoun. “Sorry we wrecked your generator again. If it’s any consolation, I’m pretty sure this is the last time you and I will ever see each other.”

Calhoun frowned. “I should be so lucky.”

The smoke grew to fill every inch of the air, and Calhoun’s figure was lost within the murky vapors. “We both should,” Jack agreed.

Jack felt Jazen touch his shoulder as the haze closed in. “Jack, when you say the whole planet’s about to become a war zone . . . do you mean what I think you mean?”

Jack turned to look at Jazen before he vanished from sight. “That wasn’t just a memory that hit me back there, Jazen. It was a vision. A vision of what they’re doing right now. The Rüstov are done with those burned-out Calculan planets. They’re on the move, and they’re coming for us. They’re coming with everything they’ve got.”

CHAPTER

4

Homecoming

When the smoke cleared, both on the marsh and in Jack’s head, he found that he was no longer standing in the swamplands of St. Barnaby’s. He rubbed his eyes and looked around at the deck of the Secreteer’s ship. It was flying through the air, with what was left of the
Harbinger
in tow. Jack expected to see the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, but there was nothing on the horizon in any direction. He and his friends had been flying for quite some time.

Jack got on his feet feeling groggy. Up until this point,
he’d been passed out on Jazen, with Allegra leaning up against his other side. Jack’s two friends were both still asleep, along with Solomon Roka. Jack was up before them, most likely because of his Rüstov connection. His bond with Khalix always made it harder for the Secreteers to wipe his memory. It was the one situation in which Jack was grateful for his alien parasite.

The Secreteers were the guardians of the Imagine Nation’s secrets and were the first line of defense against people like Calhoun finding out more than they could handle, but that didn’t make Jack feel any more comfortable around them. He understood why the Clandestine Order needed to do what they did, he just didn’t want to have to see them do it. For one thing, he had already had a bad experience with Secreteers creeping into his head, and for another, he didn’t like the feeling of being put under for any reason. He’d had more than enough of that over the last year.

Jack only felt better once he realized whose ship he was on. As far as he knew, there was only one Secreteer with a flying boat, and that Secreteer was a friend. Sure, she also happened to be the same person who had once nosed
through his memories without permission, but Jack had forgiven her for that. They had bonded when they stopped the Rüstov spyware virus and exposed the Rogue Secreteer as Glave, the Magus’s master spy. Jack saw a hooded figure at the wheel of the ship and ran to her.

“Hypnova!”

The figure turned and threw back her hood, revealing herself as a tall, statuesque beauty with pale skin, stark white hair, and cold, penetrating eyes.

Jack stopped short. “What the . . .? You’re not . . . Where’s . . .?”

The Secreteer gave Jack an impatient look. “Try thinking about what you want to say, and
then
saying it. It usually works better that way.”

“I know you,” Jack said, putting an end to his surprised stammering. “You’re the head Secreteer. Oblivia. I remember you from Gravenmurk Glen. I thought this ship belonged to . . .”

“Hypnova,” Oblivia said, finishing Jack’s sentence. “Yes, I heard you. I’m afraid that she’s no longer with us. She was expelled from our order for violating the vows of secrecy.”

Jack’s face twisted into a mask of outrage and disbelief. “You mean you didn’t take her back? She helped defeat the Rüstov’s spyware virus. She stopped the Rogue Secreteer!”

“Did she? I seem to remember the rogue escaping . . . with you.”

Jack thought for a second. Oblivia was right, of course. Hypnova had told him the only way the Clandestine Order would take her back was if she captured or killed the Rogue Secreteer. Everyone had thought Hypnova killed Glave, the Rüstov spy who had been masquerading as a Secreteer, but he survived. Jack knew that better than anyone.

BOOK: Jack Blank and the End of Infinity
13.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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