The Secret War (Jack Blank Adventure) by Matt Myklusch

work in, especially after hearing what the Rüstov agent Glave had said, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not after what had happened the last time he’d been down there. Jack looked away from the lab door. His body was weary and his eyelids were heavy. He drifted off without even trying and slept peacefully in his chair until the rumbling of the changing streets woke him up.
    The roaring din of entire city blocks grinding their way into new positions was impossible to sleep through. Jack shot up in his chair as his whole apartment started shaking and rotating counterclockwise. He went to the window and watched as the Cognito landscape did its daily exercises. Whole buildings spun around and sank into the earth, while others rose up out of it, climbing higher into the sky. Bridges separated and reattached to new end points, and street signs scrambled their letters. Roads flipped over and turned around so that dead ends became intersections and intersections became left turns. As the final pieces settled into place, Jack looked over at the building that was coming to rest next to his. It was a crooked tower with plain white walls, just like everyother dwelling in the borough, but Jack recognized the handprint slapped over its front door in bright orange paint.
    “Stendeval!” Jack called out his window, hoping his friend was home. “Are you in there?”
    Moments later Stendeval appeared at his window and smiled. “Jack!” he said. “What a pleasant surprise. It’s not often that the day brings me an old friend for a new neighbor. And this saves me the trouble of coming to you. We need to talk, you and I. I was just about to have some tea up on my roof. Please join me.”
    Jack started to say he’d be right there, but before he even managed to get the words out, there was a flash of light and he felt himself being lifted off the ground. The next thing he knew, he was standing next to Stendeval on his roof deck. Red energy particles twirled about in the air above him and blew away in the breeze. Teleportation used to make Jack queasy, but he was used to it now.
    “Have a seat,” Stendeval said, motioning to a table and chairs next to a small garden that had not been watered in some time. “Let us enjoy the view for a moment.” Jack thanked Stendeval and took a seat. The garden wasn’t muchto look at, but the sun was setting behind Mount Nevertop, and the crystal mountain bent the falling light out in odd, wonderful angles that lit the skyline of Empire City from behind like a halo. It was another beautiful evening in the Imagine Nation.
    “The day is nearly done, but I think I should have enough power left to provide us with some music,” Stendeval told Jack. He had a certain amount of energy available to him each day that he could use to do almost anything. Some things took a little bit of power, some took a lot, and some were beyond even his reach. When his pool of energy ran out for the day, he was just a normal man like anyone else.
    Stendeval held his hand out over the dried-up garden, and the flowers began to bloom. The withered brown stems grew into robust, luscious greens, and vines sprang out of the flower beds, weaving their way up and around the trellis that Jack and Stendeval sat beneath. Every inch of the vines blossomed with brilliant orange and yellow flowers. They were incredibly fragrant, filling the roof deck with an intoxicating aroma like gooey cinnamon cakes dipped in honey.
    “Wow,” Jack said, marveling at the exotic blooms. “That was great. But where does the music come in?”
    “These flowers are called harmonias,” Stendeval explained. “Their scent should help attract a belcanto bird, whose song will be pleasing to us. They live in the hills beyond Empire City. I didn’t have enough power left to find one and bring it here, but the harmonias will take care of that for us. Sometimes we all need a little help to get what we’re after.”
    “Help from flowers?” Jack