“The best part of all this,” she said, “is that I’m going to kill you, and no one will know it was me, because no one will be alive to tell them. Except”—her eyes narrowed as she scanned Adrian and Ruby, the Librarian, and finally Nova—“you’re missing one.”
“And you’re missing some brain cells!” yelled Ruby. She threw her bloodstone at one of the tall shelving units beside Ingrid. The wire spun around a shelf bracket, hooking tight, and Ruby yanked back, bringing the enormous structure toppling down. Ingrid screamed as a shower of guns and ammunition crashed onto her head. The heavy shelves landed on her shoulders. The desk chair rolled out from beneath her and Ingrid collapsed onto the floor—the descent of the shelves caught by the top of the desk.
Growling, Ingrid crawled beneath the desk and lifted the gun.
Adrian turned and threw himself at Ruby in the same moment Ingrid pulled the trigger. The gunshot was deafening in the enclosed space, the bullet lodging itself in a thick encyclopedia as Adrian and Ruby tumbled to the ground. They rolled behind a bookshelf.
With a terrified cry, Gene Cronin turned and started for the stairs, but Nova reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt. She slammed him into a corner behind another teetering shelf. “This wasn’t the plan,” she whispered. “What’s going on?”
“You tell me!” he spat back, his eyes wide with horror. “Ingrid said she was here for new bombshells, but I have the distinct impression I’ve been set up!”
Nova frowned. “What did she tell you yesterday?”
“Yesterday? I didn’t see her yesterday!”
A crash came from the artillery room. Releasing Cronin, Nova peered through a gap in the bookshelf as Ingrid cleared a path through the weaponry that had fallen from the shelves.
Nova searched for Adrian and Ruby, but could see no sign of them in the labyrinth of shelving.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” said Ingrid. “I’m going to kill you, then I’m going to go find your friend and kill him too. The smoky one, right? I’m sure he hasn’t gone far.” She cocked the gun again. “Then, while Captain Chromium is reeling from the death of his only son, I am going to burn down Renegade Headquarters and everything they’ve built. I will show them what it’s like to work so hard for something, only to have it destroyed in minutes.”
As Nova watched Ingrid pick her way through the mess, a movement near the floor caught her eye. She stood on her tiptoes, straining to see over a pile of books, and spotted Adrian. Or, his hand, as he sketched hasty lines onto the floor.
“We could run for it now,” whispered Cronin. “The stairs are right there. We could—”
“Shut up,” said Nova, snarling.
Ingrid rounded a shelf, the gun at the ready as she searched for Adrian and Ruby. She took another step and suddenly the lines drawn onto the floor jerked upward—a rope cutting across the aisle at her ankles. Ingrid tripped. She yelped, crashing to her knees. The gun flew from her hand.
Stepping out from behind a shelf, Adrian stopped the skidding gun with his foot. “You were saying?”
Ruby let out a battle cry and dropped down from the shelf beside Ingrid, landing on her back and wrapping her wire in front of Ingrid’s throat, pulling her head back.
Adrian grabbed the gun and aimed at Ingrid, but in the same moment Ingrid flung herself at the shelf, throwing Ruby’s back against it. Ruby cried out in pain, and her surprise allowed Ingrid to launch Ruby over her shoulders, sending her sprawling onto the floor.
The shelf they had struck wobbled, books sliding and tumbling over the sides. With a roar, Ingrid hooked her elbow around the side of the shelf and tipped backward, pulling it toward her. The shelf fell, toppling over into the next shelf, which smashed into the next, like a row of precarious dominoes, until the room was full of collapsing shelves and falling books.
Cronin shoved Nova aside, ducking past her before she could think to grab him. She snatched the shock-wave gun from her belt and pointed it at him, but hesitated, watching as he bolted up the stairs.
He was gone before the last encyclopedia had dropped onto the growing piles.
“Ruby!” Adrian yelled. Nova crept forward, but couldn’t spot him in the chaos and dust. “Are you okay?”
“Not Ruby,” came a groaning reply. “Red. Assassin.”
“Right. Sorry.”
Nova spotted him crawling out from the pocket of space left by one of the fallen shelves.
Then a flash of royal blue caught her attention. A glowing sphere was anchored to the back wall, the energy inside it beginning to crackle.
One of Ingrid’s bombs, preparing to detonate.
She saw Ingrid standing a dozen feet away from Adrian. Her face was cruel as she stared at him.
Nova’s heart jumped. She lifted the stun gun, but … who was she supposed to aim at? Was she a Renegade today, or an Anarchist? Who was she supposed to be protecting? Who was she supposed to stop?
Ingrid raised her hand, her fingers poised to snap.
Nova screamed, “Adrian, get down!”
Without hesitation, he fell to the ground.
Ingrid snapped.
The explosion shook the building, blowing chunks of the foundation outward. The blow knocked Nova off her feet. She flew backward, crashing into a wall of shelves. A flare of almost unbearable heat surged over her skin and she turned her face away, throwing her arm protectively over her head, at the same moment an avalanche of books tumbled around her shoulders.
It was a mere two seconds of pandemonium, and then it was over. Nova’s ears were ringing and when she dared to lift her head, the air was full of scattered papers and debris and smoke.
Smoke.
“Sweet rot,” she muttered, though she couldn’t hear her own voice inside her head. “Please let that be coming from Smokescreen.”