The Secret War (Jack Blank Adventure) by Matt Myklusch Read Free Book Online Page B

only for a second, but it was enough. The blackcloak fluttered in the wind, and Jack drew focus on the elusive Secreteer. He got a good look at her.
Her
. Apparently, he was a she—a tall, dark woman with long, thick dreadlocks tied back behind a beaded headband. Jack locked eyes with her for the briefest of moments, and in that short time span he saw the Secreteer’s eyes narrow with an intense focus. The next thing he knew, the smoggy fumes seemed to single him out and attack him personally. He felt around in front of him, coughing hard. He couldn’t see Allegra; he couldn’t see Blue…. It was like being stuck outside in a hurricane. And then suddenly it wasn’t.
    As quickly as the smoke storm had appeared, it was gone. There was one last strong gust of wind, and the air was calm and clear. The flying ship was gone, and so was the Secreteer. Jack, feeling dizzy and disoriented, leaned on Blue, struggling to keep his feet below him. As he looked around, he saw the train passengers were even more out of it than he was.
    “Time to get going,” Midknight said to the group.
    Jack regained his balance and motioned toward the witnesses stumbling around like they’d just gotten off amerry-go-round that was spinning at warp speed. “What about them?” he asked. “They look worse than they did before we patched them up.”
    “They’ll be fine,” Midknight said. “They all came out of this relatively unscathed, and I’ve already called emergency services in the nearest city. Help is on the way, and we need to be gone before it gets here. Right now the norms over there are still in a daze,” he said, pointing at the people who could no longer be referred to as witnesses. “That’s our cue to leave, before they snap out of the funk they’re in.”
    Blue grabbed Speedrazor by the collar and started dragging his unconscious body toward the
Knightwing
glider. Jack, Skerren, and Allegra followed after him and helped tie Speedrazor up in the back of the ship. After that, Jack took the glider up to reconnect with the other half of the ship, which was hovering in the skies overhead, and handed the controls back to Midknight. As Jack, Skerren, and Allegra strapped in for the flight home, the encounter with the Secreteer was the main topic of conversation.
    “Well, that was different,” Allegra said as she buckled up.
    “Yeah, it was,” Jack agreed. “The Secreteer wasn’t anything like I expected. Coming in on a flying pirate ship like that? That was crazy.”
    “Pirate ship?” Allegra laughed. “What are you talking about? The Secreteer came in on a sleigh. I saw it. It was being pulled by a team of flying horses with huge wings.”
    “You two need to get your eyes checked,” Skerren said, sitting up in his seat. “The Secreteer showed up on a flying carpet. I was looking right at it. I saw it perfectly.”
    Jack looked back and forth between Skerren and Allegra like they were crazy.
Flying carpet? Winged horses?
What where they talking about? “Did you guys hit your heads in the train crash?” he asked them. “It was a flying boat with a huge hot air balloon. You couldn’t miss it.”
    “I don’t think so,” Allegra said, shaking her head.
    “I know what I saw,” Jack told her. “You don’t forget a thing like that.”
    “Don’t be so sure,” Ricochet said. She and Midknight smiled at each other, snickering. Jack didn’t like not being in on the joke. Apparently, neither did Skerren.
    “What’s so funny?” Skerren asked, frowning.
    Ricochet leaned forward in her chair. “Ask yourselves this, all of you. Do you have any clear memory of what the Secreteer looked like?”
    Ricochet waited patiently as Jack, Skerren, and Allegra all fell silent. Jack racked his brain trying to picture the Secreteer’s face. He couldn’t do it.
    “Don’t waste your time trying to remember,” Midknight advised everyone. “It’s not going to happen. The Secreteer didn’t just alter the memories of the