Accidental Hero (Jack Blank Adventure) (17 page)

Jack looked over at the SmartWater-CleanWindow with a new idea in his head. He asked Stendeval not to put it away just yet. He looked at the on/off switch at the top of the machine. He focused on it. He focused hard. In his head Jack saw the switch moving. It was part of the machine, a lever with a simple mechanical motion. Jack thought small to think big and managed to flip the
switch, a simple part of a complex machine. SmartWater filled the CleanWindow, humming away with cleansing power.

Jack smiled.

“Impressive,” Stendeval told him. “Most impressive. You control that which you
can
control. The rest will come in time. You’re a quick study, young Jack. Some people never learn that lesson.”

“But I still have so many questions,” Jack said. “Did you really write Chi about me twelve years ago? How did you even know about me? Do you know who my family is, or
where
my family is? Why am I here now?”

“Many questions, indeed,” Stendeval said. “Patience, Jack. The answers will come in time. All in good time.”

“But I just want to know who I am.”

“That is not for me to say—that is for you to say,” Stendeval replied. “I predict that you will tell
me
the answer to that question before you get into the School of Thought.”

“Yeah, right,” Jack said.

“You doubt my word?”

“More like I doubt I’m going to get into the School
of Thought,” Jack said. “How am I supposed to get Mr. Smart’s vote? Do you really trust him to be fair?”

“Fear not,” Stendeval said. “I trust Jonas to be Jonas. Everything will work out in the end. With a little help from you, of course.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will,” Stendeval replied. “In time.”

The next day, Jonas Smart sent a few Peacemakers over to the Ivory Tower to collect Jack for his next test. His men were tall, imposing supers with humorless faces and military crew cuts. Jazen recognized them both. The first one, Stormfront, wore a black and gray supersuit and could control the weather with his powers. The other one, Battlecry, wore black and blue. Battlecry’s supersonic voice was his weapon. One word from him could punch through a brick wall, and he was quick to let Jack know it.

“Just so you know, Rusty,” Battlecry warned Jack on their way out the door, “I could pulverize your bones with a word.”

“You can what?” Jack asked.

“That’s right,” Stormfront added. “All we do all day long is hunt down Rüstov, so don’t think we’re afraid of you.”

Jack wasn’t quite sure what to do with either comment.

“Give it a rest, you two,” Jazen told the Peacemakers. “What are you doing here anyway, trying to play ‘bad cop/ bad cop’? SmartTower is just up the street. We don’t need an escort.”

“Circleman Smart says you do,” Stormfront replied. “He wants every possible precaution taken, what with the increased Rüstov activity we’re seeing.”

“Increased activity?” Jazen asked. “What are you talking about? This boy’s the closest thing to a Rüstov anyone’s seen around here in years.”

“Wrong again,” Battlecry said. “A Left-Behind was spotted in Galaxis just this morning.”

“It was on all the NewsNets,” Stormfront added. “The entire city is talking.”

“A Left-Behind?” Jack asked, looking up at Jazen for an explanation.

“A Rüstov Para-Soldier who got stuck here after the invasion,” Jazen told Jack. “And spotted by whom?” he asked the Peacemakers. “Is this an actual, confirmed sighting or just another rumor you guys are passing off as fact?”

“We don’t have any reason to doubt the NewsNets,” Battlecry replied.

Jazen eyed the Peacemaker skeptically. “Of course you don’t. SmartNews is
never
wrong,” he said with obvious sarcasm. “Let’s just get going—Jack’s going to be late.”

Jazen decided to accompany Jack and his escorts over to Smart’s lab. He had no intention of leaving Jack alone with the Peacemakers. As the four of them made their way through the megametropolis of Hightown, Jack could tell he was in a section of town reserved for the wealthy, which made sense since it was Smart’s neighborhood and he had more credits than anyone. Well-to-do people they passed along the way crossed the street and hid their babies when they spotted Jack. More than a few concerned citizens recognized Jack from the NewsNets and asked the Peacemakers why Jack wasn’t in restraints.

“Ought to be a law against it!” a snooty old man snooted.

“They
do
have a law against it!” his crusty, ancient wife added. “Don’t think you’re fooling anyone,” she told Jack. “We heard all about those Left-Behinds in the city this morning… whatever you all are up to, you won’t get away with it!”

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Stormfront assured the woman. “That’s what we’re here for.”

“Bless your heart,” the crotchety old woman replied.

On the short walk to SmartTower, Jack met several more people who felt the need to comment on the Left-Behind infiltrators and Jack’s “obvious” connection to them. The number of Left-Behinds in the city seemed to go up with each new person they met. By the time Jack got across the street, it was a whole team of Left-Behinds led by Revile that was spotted in Galaxis that morning.

As Jack and the others continued onward, pampered Hightowners also complained about Jack living in their borough. Each time, the Peacemakers pointed to Jazen, who would flash his badge and tell them to get lost. Most Hightowners scoffed at Jazen, too. The idea of an android emissary didn’t suit them any better than a freely roaming
infected child. “Probably another Mecha Collaborator,” one man noted as he passed.

The one person who was nice to Jack was a kid his own age—a boy with red hair who waved and said hello while they waited at the corner for a light to change. The boy’s mother scolded him for it and immediately pulled him off in another direction. Stormfront looked up at one of the SmartCams that was following Jack. “Let’s put that redheaded kid on the watch list,” he said to it.

“Possible Rüstov sympathizer,” Battlecry added. The SmartCam acknowledged the order with a beep and then flew off after the child and his mother.

“Why do you live in Hightown instead of Machina?” Jack asked Jazen as they walked along. “The Ivory Tower is great and all, but these people are the worst.”

“Tell me about it,” Jazen said. “Machina isn’t really built for bi-orgs, though. That’s Mecha-speak for biological organisms like yourself. I have to be a good host to anyone I bring here, and even the nicest building in Machina wouldn’t be too comfortable for you. No bathrooms, no kitchens… rechargeable docking stations instead of beds. You get the picture. Besides, if I live here, I get to vote
against Smart every time he runs for Circleman. Of course, SmartCorp is the biggest employer in the borough, so he still wins every election in a landslide.”

When the group arrived at Smart’s corporate headquarters, Jack was not at all surprised to learn the building was the tallest in Empire City. Smart owned property in every borough, but SmartTower was the crown jewel of his collection. The building did not occupy the central position in the Empire City skyline, but it was the most prominent by far.

The tower was a vertigo-inducing six-hundred-floor structure capped with a spire that was every bit as sharp as the peak of Mount Nevertop. A curved incline sloped down from the pinnacle of the spire, jutting out over the side, then cutting back in to run straight down. The face of the building was half-bare, and half lined with cylindrical windows that began at the bottom floor and ran all the way up to a massive round window at the top. Smart’s office was on the very top floor, behind that massive round window. Much like the man himself, Smart’s office was positioned high above the rest of the city, with a view that overlooked everything.

Jack ran an exhausting gauntlet of security checks on his way up to the office. The Peacemakers took Jack’s fingerprints, scanned his retinas, and recorded his voiceprint. The entire building was riddled with cameras, microphones, and special sensor walls. Once the tower system had Jack’s bio-data, the Peacemakers told him, it would be impossible for him to hide inside the building or disguise himself in any way while there. The sound of his voice would be picked up by hidden audio sensors that would recognize his specific vocal patterns. Anything Jack touched would register his fingerprints. SmartCams and other security cameras were constantly “ret-scanning” the building and would easily identify Jack’s unique eyeballs.

Having taken the necessary precautions, it was finally time to bring Jack before Jonas Smart. The Peacemakers took Jack up to the top floor in an elevator that made the one in the Ivory Tower feel slow. Smart’s lesson was being taught in his laboratory. Battlecry checked in at a ret-scanner to open the lab door, and Stormfront halted Jazen at the entrance.

“School of Thought only,” Stormfront told Jazen smugly, holding up his hand.

Jazen didn’t argue. He simply pointed out that if he couldn’t go with Jack into Smart’s lab, then the Peacemakers couldn’t follow him in there either. Stormfront immediately lost his haughty grin, realizing that separating Jack from the Peacemakers was probably all Jazen hoped to accomplish in the first place. Jack thanked Jazen for coming this far with him and entered the lab. The Peacemakers stayed outside and Jazen waited with them.

Smart’s lab was built like an airplane hangar. It was an immense room, a vast, wide-open space. The smooth contours of the arched ceiling were bright white and backlit by intense lights, the kind you needed sunglasses to guard against. After Jack’s eyes adjusted, he saw an incredibly clean and orderly laboratory with minirobots hard at work in every corner. The lab was a precision machine, illuminated with brilliant light and cast in an unblemished, perfect white hue. Jonas Smart had an experiment in progress for anything and everything you could think of. There were sparks flying and the smell of welding metal in the air. Mechanical assembly lines whirred and chemicals bubbled. Engines ran and turbines turned. The breadth and variety of machines in
the room overwhelmed Jack, reminding him just how much he needed to learn if he was going to master his superpowers. Words scrolled through the air like the holo-signs Jack had seen back in the Hall of Records. Their message was less than inspiring:

THIS WAY, JACK BLANK… YOU ARE LATE… PENALTY POINTS WILL BE ASSESSED.

Jack soldiered on and found Smart in the back of the lab, standing in front of what looked like a tangital chalkboard he could write on with a laser pen. There were three desks before him. Skerren and Allegra were already seated.

“You are four minutes and twenty-seven seconds late,” Smart said, pointing to a timer that was counting away on the holo-board. “In case you are wondering, this is not the way to earn my vote.”

“I’ve been here for twenty minutes,” Jack said. “The Peacemakers had me going through your security checks forever.”

“I’m not interested in excuses,” Smart replied. “Lateness is lateness, regardless of reason.”

“It wasn’t my fault, though. The SmartCams—”

“I’m not complaining, Jack, it was an enjoyable four minutes and twenty-seven seconds,” Smart said. “Truth be told, you’re only here because I am bound to abide by the ruling of my fellow Circlemen. Even so, a student must show respect for his teacher, and as such your conduct is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable.” Jack put up his hands as if to say “I surrender” and sat down. He was off to a great start. Smart scowled at Jack as he took his seat, then resumed teaching.

Smart was supposed to be teaching, anyway, but he was apparently incapable of doing anything beyond bragging about his own intelligence. Five minutes into the lecture, it was plain to see that Smart’s “class” would be little more than a pompous diatribe describing his many great accomplishments: SmartPaper, SmartWater-CleanWindow, SmartTrash-Disintegrators, and more.

“The greatest of all my inventions was the Time-Scope,” Smart said, proudly pointing to an image that flashed on the holo-board. It looked like a giant telescope, except the end with the lens disappeared into some kind of hole torn in the sky. Smart explained that the TimeScope used a supersharp ion-blade attachment
to cut a hole in the very fabric of reality and look deep into the time-space continuum. From there, an imagerelayer inside the TimeScope beamed pictures back to the TimeScreen, where Smart could tune in static-filled snippets of the future like a TV with fuzzy reception. “The further into the future I look, the more static-filled the image becomes. I’ve tried to fix that, but so far, to no avail.” Smart paused, smiling wistfully. “I know what you must be thinking. I create an amazing wonder like this, and still I’m not satisfied. Well, that is what it means to be Jonas Smart. In fact, I believe this device can do more than simply see into the future. My theory is that if someone were to dive through that hole in the fabric of reality, they could physically travel through time.” Smart looked at his students. “Any volunteers?”

Skerren raised his hand. “I volunteer Jack,” he said.

“You can’t volunteer someone else,” Allegra said. “That’s not how it works.”

“Yeah,” Jack said to Skerren. “If you’re so tough, why don’t you volunteer your—”

“Enough,” Smart said. “Your mindless prattle is both tiresome and misplaced. This class is not about you, it is
about me. Now, let’s all take a moment to reflect upon my brilliance, shall we?”

While the students observed the moment of silence, Smart rode around the lab on a floating platform, checking on his many ongoing experiments. He continued his lecture while going from project to project, preoccupied with his own interests as he spoke. He droned on about himself, showing little to no interest in his students.

“By the time I was your age, I had already written volumes and volumes of scientific texts,” Smart boasted. “I redefined scientific theory and was responsible for several magnificent breakthroughs, including MagLev roads! I later tried to change the name to SmartRoads, but the term ‘MagLev’ had already caught on with the public. Something I find to be rather annoying,” he grumbled.