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his head.
    “Do it!” Allegra shouted. “Whatever it is, just do it!”
    Jack hesitated. He didn’t know how this would go over with the others, but he couldn’t ask permission. The mentor heroes couldn’t even talk. Jack didn’t know what Speedrazor had in that train car, but whatever it was, Jack couldn’t let him get away with it. He had one chance to stop him. He was still controlling both halves of the
Knightwing
, and the top half, the one still up in the air, was armed to the teeth.
    Jack fired a series of shots from the
Knightwing
gunship. The cargo car that Speedrazor was running off with exploded in a fireball, and when the smoke cleared, the former Peacemaker’s unconscious body was sprawled across the train tracks. As the rest of Speedrazor’s gang escaped in the AirSkimmer, Jack got a good look at their shocked faces. They couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Lorem Ipsum was laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. She was definitely a strange one. The villains sped out of sight, leaving their ringleader behind, and Jack and his friends turned their attention to the wreckage of the train.
    Later, when Lorem’s gibberish touch wore off, the adults told Jack he’d done the right thing, and he’d donethe wrong thing. “It’s good that you stopped the heist,” Midknight told him. “But you destroyed the cargo in order to save it. Doesn’t make much sense, does it, son?”
    “No, I guess not,” Jack admitted, feeling pretty foolish.
    “We don’t even know what was in there,” Ricochet added. “It could have been anything.”
    “I’m sorry,” Jack said. “Really. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
    Blue gave Jack a pat on the back. “Don’t beat yourself up too much, partner. You’re learning. That’s what this is all about. Besides, no one got hurt except Speedrazor. You knocked him into next week, and that’s always a good thing.” Blue put up a fist for Jack to bump.
    Jack smiled and gave Blue’s fist a pound. “Thanks, Blue. I just wish I’d been able to get Pain in there with him. I mean, the guy threw you under a train. That’s not cool.”
    Blue rubbed his neck and turned to look over at the mangled train cars. “Forget Pain. We’ve got other stuff to worry about,” he said, wincing. “Check it out.”
    Jack looked over at the wrecked bullet train and the flabbergasted people who were slowly staggering out of itwith their mouths agape. They were people from the Real World. People who weren’t supposed to know anything about superheroes, supervillains, or any other residents of the Imagine Nation.
    “Blue,” Jack said, “we don’t have any cover out here.”
    “Tell me about it,” Blue replied grimly. “This is a job for the Secreteers.”

CHAPTER
3
The Clandestine Order of Secreteers
    After the crash about thirty-five people stepped off the wrecked train in a state of total, wide-eyed shock. No one appeared to be seriously injured, but they had all seen way too much. Some of them were even taking pictures with their cell phone cameras. That kind of thing wasn’t a concern when Jack and his friends fought the CyberRaiders in Machina, or when they ran the Doppelganger Gang out of Hightown. People were used to superfights in those places.
    “What happens now?” Jack asked. “Are we going to getin trouble for this?” It was the first time Jack had ever had to deal with Real World witnesses. So far he didn’t like it. One of the first things Jack learned about in the School of Thought were the laws of intervention and secrecy. They were the two guiding principles that governed any and all contact the Imagine Nation had with the outside world. Jack and the others had clearly violated at least one of them.
    The law of intervention maintained that interfering with the lives of normal humans was permissible only in order to help them. This law was strictly enforced by the heroes of the Imagine Nation, and regularly broken by the villains