Her speech was followed by a long silence. From the corner of her eye, she could see Ruby and Oscar exchanging stunned looks, but she kept her gaze resolutely on the Captain. Waiting for any reaction that would give away the truth.
He rocked back on his heels, eyebrows shooting upward, and let out an astonished, “You don’t pull your punches, do you?”
Her jaw twitched. “Is he a Renegade or not?”
Captain Chromium sighed. “Not,” he said. “At least, as far as I know. Whoever he is, he isn’t acting on our orders.” He cocked his head, and Nova had the impression that he was watching her far more closely than he had been before now. “And while I appreciate your efforts to defend our reputation, this might be a good time to point out that, as part of the Renegade code, we generally frown on shooting people who haven’t committed a crime.”
He nodded at each of them in turn. “Tomorrow,” he said again, then turned and went to join Tsunami.
Nova clenched her fists, watching him go. She still didn’t know if he was telling the truth, and her own ignorance infuriated her.
“You really shot the Sentinel?”
She glanced at Oscar. “I did,” she said. “He deserved it. I’m pretty sure.”
Adrian coughed.
“But he’s, like, twice as tall as you,” said Oscar. “And probably weighs three times as much.”
“He’s not that tall,” said Nova.
Oscar shrugged. “Just saying.” He shook some chunks of white dust from his hair. “You know, I’m not sure you picked the right alias. Insomnia is too passive. I vote we change it to Velociraptor.”
Ruby laughed. “Relatively small, but surprisingly ferocious?”
“Exactly. All in favor?”
“I like Insomnia,” said Nova, pretending to be annoyed.
Only when it became too difficult did she realize she was smiling.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
SHE DIDN’T WANT TO WASTE her time going all the way to the house on Wallowridge, so instead Nova buried her Renegade communicator band beneath a dead potted plant on the stoop of a small café, three blocks from the entrance to the subway tunnels. She was surprised at how easily she’d adapted to wearing it, and as she made her way through the abandoned subway station and down the dark stairs, she found herself continually checking her wrist, only to remember it wasn’t there.
The moment she was close enough to the Anarchists’ underground encampment, she knew things had changed. Clangs and thumps were echoing through the tunnels, and she passed hundreds of displaced bees, their fat bodies crawling aimlessly along the walls.
She found Honey haphazardly throwing anything within reach into her old wooden travel trunk, filling it with dresses, shoes, silk robes, cosmetics, and an assortment of dust-covered liqueur bottles.
“What’s going on?”
Honey yelped and spun to face her. “That is it, Nova. The next time you sneak up on me, I am leaving a wasp in your bed linens.” Huffing, she tucked a curl of hair behind her ear. “And we’re leaving.”
Nova gulped. “Leaving?”
“Leaving. Now, I have a lot of packing to do, so…” She flipped her fingers, shooing her away, but Nova didn’t move.
“How are you going to get that trunk up the stairs? It’ll weigh a hundred pounds by the time you get all this stuff in there.”
Honey cast a pleading look toward the ceiling. “My problem, not yours. Skat!”
Frowning, Nova turned away. She moved faster now, passing Winston’s abandoned platform without so much as a glance. When she arrived at Leroy’s train car, she heard yelling coming from within. She went inside without bothering to knock. Ingrid and Leroy were both filling boxes and tote bags with as much of Leroy’s lab equipment as would fit.
“Honey says we’re leaving?”
They both glanced at her, and Ingrid’s expression, which was already angry, now turned positively enraged. She didn’t respond, just turned her back on Nova, giving her a good glimpse of the bloodied scarf tied around her upper arm, where Nova had shot her.
“We’re leaving,” confirmed Leroy. “Pack up what you truly need, leave the rest.”
Nova shook her head, her heart beginning to thump painfully in her chest. “We can’t leave.”
“We must.”
“What about—”
“The Renegades are coming, Nova.” Leroy looked up from the box he was packing and fixed her with his black, penetrating gaze. “They could very well be on their way at this minute. I trust you know that better than anyone.”