Page 35 of Archenemies

“Vault?” said Nova, ears perking.

Tina waved a hand absently toward the back wall. “That’s just what we call it. There’s been a surplus of new items coming in lately, what with the library and the Anarchist holdings. I’ve got an entire shelf back there full of confiscated hair accessories from Queen Bee herself, believe it or not.”

Nova coughed. “Do you?”

“Left behind when the Anarchists abandoned theirlair.”

She saidlairlike it was an unmentionable word.

“But for now,” Snapshot continued, her tone brightening, “I think we’ll have you monitor the rentals. This is our checkout form.” She nudged the clipboard with a mostly blank chart toward Nova. “Not the most high-tech system, but you know what they say. If it ain’t broke…” She trailed off.

Nova smiled tightly. She’d always felt that, just because something wasn’t broken, didn’t mean there wasn’t room for improvement. But it didn’t seem wise to be contrary in the first five minutes of her new job.

There were half a dozen sheets of paper curled over the top of the clipboard. Nova flipped the front sheet down and scanned through the columns.

She didn’t recognize any of the names or aliases on the chart, but she did recognize some of the objects they’d checked out. Nova turned the page again and her heartbeat sped up.Suncloak. Key of Truth. Zenith’s Pocket Watch.

“I didn’t know we could rent this stuff.”

“Well, you haven’t been here all that long, have you?” said Tina. “All new recruits require a ninety-day clearance before they’re given access to the stacks.”

Nova set the clipboard back on the desk. “How do we find out what’s available to be rented? Is there a catalog or something?”

“Just the database,” said Tina. “You do know about the database, don’t you?”

Nova nodded. She had spent some time cataloging the new weapons that had been confiscated from the Librarian—a black-market arms dealer—so she was familiar with the system. But no one had said anything about the information being open to all Renegades or that they couldborrowthe stuff.

“But there are limitations on it, right? You wouldn’t just let anyone come in here and take”—Nova hesitated, scanning her own words to make sure she wasn’t overplaying her cards, before continuing—“I don’t know. Ace Anarchy’s helmet, or something.”

Tina chuckled and started digging through a drawer. “Oh, sure. Lot of good it would do them in its current state.”

Nova frowned. Was Tina referring to the lie that the Renegades had promoted to the public for the last ten years, that Ace Anarchy’s helmet had been destroyed?

“But you’re right,” added Tina, handing Nova a three-ring binder. “Each object is coded based on its usability and danger levels. More hazardous objects require higher clearance. This has all the information you’ll need. The code levels are explained on page four,and rental procedures on page seven. Why don’t you start going through it while you wait for Callum?”

Nova took the binder and sat down at the desk. Tina busied herself shuffling around stacks of papers for a moment, then disappeared into the back room again.

Nova opened the cover on the binder. The first page was a short essay describing the importance of maintaining the historical integrity of the artifacts housed in the Renegade collection. Page two listed the expectations of any Renegade wanting to use a weapon or artifact. A sticky note on top of the page pointed out that each Renegade needed to sign a copy of the rules for their files before they could rent their first object.

Page three outlined the steps for searching and retrieval, followed by the procedure for restocking a returned object.

As Tina had said, page four listed the various codes and limitations on the artifacts, and how they were categorized in the larger system. There were types: hand-to-hand combat weaponry, long-distance weaponry, explosives, and the vague yet curious categorization ofunprecedented.There were power sources: user-generated, opponent-generated, elemental, unknown, other. There were danger levels, on a point scale from zero to ten. Some objects were classified by their ease of use—some could be operated by anyone, even a non-prodigy, while others were tied to a specific user and would be useless in the hands of anyone else, such as the coronet that had once been worn by a prodigy called Kaleidoscope.

Nova glanced up to see that Tina had closed the door to the filing room behind her.

Chewing the inside of her cheek, she turned on the computer and pulled up the object database.

She had downloaded a record of the artifact collection weeks ago, but at the time, a search for Ace’s helmet had been fruitless. She’d never taken the time to peruse the list further. Maybe this department kept a more complete record.

She typed a query into the search form.

Ace Anarchy

Two objects appeared on the list. A stone relic found in the debris of the cathedral that had served as a sanctuary for Ace Anarchy before his death (significance: historical; danger level: zero; applications: none). And also something called the Silver Spear.

Nova clicked on it and was astonished to learn that, despite its name, the Silver Spear was not silver at all, but chromium. It was the javelin the Captain had used to try to destroy the helmet, which was now stored among the rest of the prodigy-created weaponry in the warehouse.

She returned to the search field and triedAlec Artino, Ace’s given name, and returned no matches.

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