Jack and his fellow students are now well into their School of Thought training and are "sidekicking" for official, card-carrying super heroes. But even though Jack feels more at home in the Imagine Nation, he's still hiding secrets from his friends Skerren and Allegra.
Jack is busy trying to find out how far the Rüstov sleeper virus has spread, working to find a cure, and striving to avoid the dire future that Revile warned him about. Meanwhile, Jonas Smart is working just as hard to discover what Jack is hiding from everyone. When a rogue Secreteer--the protectors of Imagine Nation citizens' secrets--starts selling info to the highest bidder, Smart is ready and waiting. If Jack is going to help prevent a second Rüstov invasion, keep Smart from discovering his secrets, and find out what a shadowy, half-mad Secreteer knows about his long-lost father, he'll need to learn to trust his friends and find the true path toward becoming a hero himself.