Page 146 of Renegades

Ingrid was leaning against the side of the building Nova had just passed, one heel casually pressed against the brick, her arms crossed over her chest. She was dressed in something that might have been intended to be a disguise: skinny black pants and a high-collared jacket that covered both her armbands and her midriff. Even her thick coils of hair had been imprisoned beneath a knit cap.

Otherwise, she did not look much different than she had the last time Nova had seen her, after they had fled from the tunnels. Shewas clean and did not seem to have gone hungry, at least, and only when Nova had the thought did she realize some part of her had been worried about her.

“How’s life in the Renegades?” Ingrid said, her voice dripping with disdain. “Have you completely turned your back on us yet, or are you still holding on to the charade that you’re on our side?”

Nova’s jaw twitched. “You and the others knew exactly what my plan and intentions were from the first day I decided to go through with this. Perhaps you’ll recall that you were the one who betrayedme, not the other way around.”

Ingrid waved one hand languidly through the air, as if she had long ago tired of these ruminations, though Nova felt they still hadn’t really had the chance to discuss what happened at the library. She understood that Ingrid had sought to exact some revenge against Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden by harming Adrian, and maybe even killing him. But she still couldn’t fathom what had possessed Ingrid to keep it from her. To lead her into that trap along with the rest of the team.

Except she also knew that she would not have gone along with it. It wasn’t in keeping with her mission, for one, and… she wasn’t convinced that Adrian, Ruby, and Oscar deserved to be incinerated by one of the Detonator’s bombs.

“What do you want?” said Nova. “Cyanide was the one who told you to leave, so if you’re wanting to move in or something, it’s not exactly up to me.”

“Please,” said Ingrid with a snort. “I’ve survived long enough without charity from you or Leroy Flinn or anyone else. The last thing I need is to be holed up in this ghost town.” She shot a rueful look at the surrounding alley.

“Then why are you here?”

“I have a proposition for you,Insomnia.One that stands to serve us both.”

Nova frowned. She knew Ingrid used her Renegade alias only to irritate her. The really irritating part, though, was that it worked.

“A proposition,” Nova drawled.

Ingrid nodded, though a dark smirk had crossed her features. “If you’re willing to hear it. Of course… you don’t have much of a choice. Assuming you don’t want all your new friends at Renegade Headquarters to find out exactly who Nova McLain really is.”

Nova’s brow furrowed, as much in dismay as anything. “Seriously, Ingrid? You’re blackmailing me?” She cast her eyes toward the sky, which had darkened to a cool violet. “What is going on with you? Ever since the Renegade trials you’ve acted like I’ve somehow become the enemy.” She took a few steps closer, tapping a finger against her own sternum. “I’m still Nightmare. I’m still the one you’ve been training for almost nine years, with one purpose. To destroy the Renegades. Not just Captain Chromium or the Council, not just a single patrol unit, but the whole lot of them. The entire organization. Somaybe, instead of sneaking up on me in back alleys and threatening the one mission that might actually stand a chance in helping us accomplish that goal, you should take a moment and remember who we are. WhoIam.”

Pushing herself off the wall, Ingrid sauntered closer until she stood nearly toe to toe with Nova. “I hope you mean that. Because this is your chance to prove it. To show me that what happened at the library was just”—she shrugged wistfully—“an unfortunate but temporary lack of judgment.”

Nova gawked at her. “Sure,” she said slowly, “if you meanyourlack of judgment. If you had trusted me from the start, the entire fiasco wouldn’t have happened. The Librarian would be alive, we’dstill have access to his stockpile and his distributors, and—oh yeah, we wouldn’t have revealed ourselves to the Renegades and been driven out of our own home.”

“Home?” said Ingrid, guffawing. “Those tunnels were never our home.”

“So not the point,” Nova shot back.

Ingrid peered down her nose at Nova, scrutinizing her. “Interesting you should mention the Librarian, given that the only reason I killed him was to protectyou.”

“Right,” said Nova. “I’m sure you weren’t at all concerned with him giving up any number ofyoursecrets. Exactly how many explosives have you and Leroy sold to the Librarian for overseas buyers? It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s an actual war crime, come to think of it…”

Ingrid’s lips curved. It was nowhere near a real smile, but it was a nice change from her scowl all the same. “There again, you and I have something in common. Although it doesn’t much matter at this point if the Renegades discover my crimes, I sense you’re still quite intent on keeping yours hidden. Now—picture this.” She stepped closer and rested an elbow on Nova’s shoulder, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Imagine a scenario in which the Renegades no longer cared to find the mysterious Nightmare. In which they lost interest in uncovering her identity. In which they left her completely alone.”

Nova narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Sounds unlikely.”

“Not,” said Ingrid, lifting a finger, “if they have every reason to believe that Nightmare is dead.”

A chill swept down Nova’s spine, and she did her best to conceal it by shaking Ingrid’s arm off her shoulder. “Tell me this isn’t some roundabout way of threatening to kill me in my sleep. Because,you know…” She gestured to her head. “Sleep. Not really my thing.”

Ingrid let out a bellowing laugh, one that was far more boisterous than Nova felt her comment deserved. “You see?” she said. “Rooming with Honey has a tendency to make one just a little too melodramatic. No, no. I don’t want to kill you. I just want to fight you. Publicly. And in the end, the whole world, especially the Renegades, will be watching as we tear each other apart…” She shrugged. “Metaphorically speaking.”

Nova eyed her, struggling to parse out Ingrid’s meaning from her words. “You want to fake our deaths?”

“Not exactly.” Ingrid brightened. “I want to fake the deaths of Nightmare and the Detonator.”

Nova’s face must have been skeptical, because Ingrid ducked close to her again, her fingers painting an invisible picture into the air. “We’ll stage it to appear as though Nightmare is furious over the death of the Librarian, and she blames me. Or—the Detonator.”

“You are the Detonator.”

“Keep up. We find a public place, and ensure at least one Renegade is present. Not too many. We don’t want them getting in our way before we can finish. You and I fight, in full view of everyone, and in the end… you shoot me at the same time that I blow you up, and everyone sees it happen. Except you’ll be using blanks and I… well, I won’t really blow you up, but I can make it believable enough.” She winked.

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