“That,” said Honey, sneering, “or he happens to have a deep-seated fear of paisley wallpaper. No, wait, that’s me.”
Nova’s cheek twitched. “What are you doing here?”
“We were curious how your first day went,” said Leroy. He fluffed a dingy floral throw pillow and plopped into one of the armchairs. Honey gawped at him, horrified.
“I was going to come back to the tunnels after I”—she glanced around—“scouted out the place.”
“We figured.” Ingrid made a slow pass around the perimeter of the room, inspecting the drab furnishings and wallpaper. “But we didn’t think that would be such a great idea, in case you’re being followed.”
Nova frowned. “And if I am being followed, you don’t think it’s a problem that whoever’s following me would have just seen three Anarchists letting themselves in to my house?”
“Well, you’re not being followed, obviously,” said Ingrid. “Except by us. We’ve been tailing you since you left Renegade Headquarters. We would have noticed if someone else was too.”
“But you didn’t know that,” said Honey, daring to take another step into the room. “And it still seems risky for you to be coming into the tunnels so long as you’re … that.” Her eyes swept over Nova’s uniform. “We don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves.”
“So, what?” said Nova, crossing her arms. “Am I banished from going home so long as this charade continues?”
“Come on, Nova,” said Ingrid. “It’s hardly a loss. You’re getting a whole house out of the deal.” She opened her arms, gesturing at the room around them.
“All my stuff is there,” said Nova. “My weapons, my inventions, my clothes…”
“You’re not being banished,” said Leroy. “You are always welcome to return, of course. But let’s give it a day or two, just to make sure the Renegades aren’t keeping tabs on your whereabouts. Besides…” He shrugged. “You always spent as much time above ground as possible. I don’t see this being much of an inconvenience for you.”
Nova pinched her lips together, unable to argue that point. “Fine. It’s not like I plan on spending a whole lot of time here, either. As soon as I make it past my first official mission, I’ll be spending any free time at headquarters, learning whatever I can.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Ingrid. She had completed her lap around the room and now stopped in front of the wall with the framed photographs. She took one down from the wall, revealing a bright square of wallpaper where it had hung, indicating just how much the rest of the walls had faded with time.
“Did you learn anything of interest today?” said Leroy, shifting his weight to try to get more comfortable on the lumpy cushions.
Nova tossed the trash bag onto the floor and did her best to recount the day she’d spent touring headquarters. Though she had learned very little about the experiments happening in research and development or anything at all about the Sentinel, she had at least begun to develop a tentative grasp of how the organization functioned. The hierarchy. The structure. The scope of what they were hoping to accomplish.
And it went so far beyond what she’d expected.
Sure, she knew their stance on crime and law enforcement and even on social programs. She knew the Council saw themselves as benevolent leaders attempting to solve all the problems of humanity, without any apparent grasp of how their involvement was only dooming society to helplessness and desperation.
But she had rarely stopped to think of the Renegades as a global organization, with their power continuing to grow with every prodigy who came here to be trained. Were cities around the world becoming as dependent on the rule and protection of prodigies as Gatlon was? How long before all of humanity gave up on personal freedom and responsibility? How long before they forgot what that felt like at all?
She had now seen the proof of their power with her own eyes. Not only in their technology and weapons development, but in sheer numbers as well. She knew that only a fraction of their workforce had been in the training halls when she’d toured them, and she could still feel the way her lungs hitched when she saw them.
So many prodigies, all dressed in those gray uniforms, all sporting those red Rs. Having never seen so many Renegades together at one time, it had been easy to underestimate them as a whole. But there she had witnessed a cacophony of flashes and explosions, natural elements wielded like weapons, prodigies defying gravity and physics, their bodies transforming and flying and brawling and training and on and on and on.
So much power enclosed in one space made her nerves vibrate.
So much.
The Renegades had so much. And what did the Anarchists have?
A bomb maker, a beekeeper, a poison distiller … and her.
It sounded like the start of a bad joke.
But she refused to be swayed from her cause. Seeing the inner workings of the Renegades had changed nothing, other than, for the first time in years, the Anarchists had an advantage. She would learn what secrets were being developed behind closed laboratory doors. She would learn how to undermine their systems and protocols, one way or another. She would learn who the Sentinel was and whatever the Council intended to use him for, and she would stop him before he ever had a chance.
The Sentinel.
That had been something. She was sure she had detected nervousness in Adrian when she’d brought up the soldier. She was sure he had been feigning ignorance, but she didn’t think it was just from her. She had gotten the impression that, whatever he knew, he was keeping it from Ruby and Oscar too.
Which made sense.
Surely, if any of them knew about the Council’s top-secret ventures, it would be him.