The wooden floorboards, nailed to wooden beams. The exterior walls might be stone, but everything inside—all the framework, all the furniture, all those books—it was an inferno waiting to happen.
And that didn’t even take into account the room full of ammunition and explosives in the basement, any of which could start detonating once the fire’s heat got to them.
Ingrid’s weight dragged on her as she crossed the vestibule and pushed her way through the main doors.
A crowd of terrified civilians was clustered on the sidewalk in front of the steps. Not just the patrons from the library, but a growing collection of neighbors and onlookers too. Soon there would be media. Soon there would be more Renegades.
Nova ignored them all as she shouldered her way through. The crowd parted, gasps and whispers replacing the fuzzy noises in her skull.
“Official … Renegade … business…，” she grunted, trudging into the street. A man stepped forward, hands extended as if to relieve her of the burden, but Nova snapped at him. “Don’t touch. She’s dangerous.”
He recoiled.
No one followed her as she crossed the street, into the shade of the office building. The dead weight of Ingrid’s body was just becoming unbearable when Nova reached the corner and dropped to one knee, rolling Ingrid off of her. Ingrid landed with a thud and a groan.
Nova sat back on her heels, gasping, and did her best to work out the muscles of her neck and shoulders. “Next time,” she said, “I’m going to let you burn.”
Ingrid groaned again.
Grabbing her elbow, Nova pulled Ingrid up to sitting, then leaned her against the building. She unhooked the handcuffs the Renegades had assigned to her from the back of her belt. Evidently they were handed out to every patrol unit, even though, in this case, Adrian and his team weren’t supposed to be patrolling.
“You shot me,” Ingrid mumbled, her words slurring as she fought to recover from the effects of the shock wave.
“Did not,” said Nova. “I stunned you. There’s a difference.” She slapped one side of the cuff to Ingrid’s wrist.
Ingrid started, her expression starting to clear. “What—”
“I’m only doing one hand,” said Nova. Yanking Ingrid’s arm upward, she attached the other cuff to the bars across the first-floor window. “You’ll be able to free yourself easy, and I’ll chalk it up to a beginner’s mistake.”
Ingrid craned her head, staring blearily at her trapped wrist. “You were supposed to help me,” she said. “They’d be dead by now.”
Releasing a hasty breath, Nova crouched closer to her. “You didn’t warn him at all, did you? You set this all up. You set me up.”
Ingrid coughed. “If I’d told you, you would have gotten trigger shy, and you know it. Just like at the parade. But you’re a smart girl. You should have figured it out.” She scooted herself closer to the wall. “A Renegade team walking right into our hands. The Captain’s son, no less. Finally, our chance to show them the pain and loss we’ve had to suffer. And you ruined it!”
Nova’s body began to shake with restrained anger. She stood and took a step back from Ingrid. “My goals are a bit more comprehensive than taking out one patrol unit. I thought we were together on that.” She shook her head, blinded by frustration. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, I have to go do damage control, because someone completely ignored my plan. The plan that would have protected the Librarian and hidden our connection to him, I’ll remind you.”
“They would have charged him with something,” Ingrid grumbled. “They would have found a reason to arrest him. It was only a matter of time.”
Nova pursed her lips. Yesterday she believed that was true. Now, she was no longer sure. All night long, Adrian and the others had done exactly what they’d said they would do. Watch and wait. They only decided to enter the library after Ingrid revealed herself. If Adrian had intended to plant incriminating evidence, she’d seen no sign of it.
“Maybe, maybe not,” she said. “All we know now is that we’ve lost the Librarian and access to everything that was in that storeroom. The Renegades won. Again.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NOVA STOMPED BACK across the street, her thoughts reeling. She was in this for the long haul. She was acting the part of the Renegade not so she could teach them a lesson today or tomorrow. Not so she could undermine a single mission or take out a single team.