Atomic Rebooted

38. Records

MIRA

We met on the rooftop, right after I'd changed into my new disguise. I ran a hand through my shoulder-length brown hair, trying to get used to to the feeling of it. I'd been so used to tying my hair back, and the weight of this was different.

"You look good—like a normal person." He nodded his approval, then tilted his head to the side and squinted. "What about the hat?"

"Oh, this?" I snatched it out of the backpack, feeling the acrylic blue-gray threads beneath my fingers. "Wasn't sure how to wear it."

"I can help you." He hesitated, however, in reaching out. "Do you trust me?"

I knew it was just about helping with my civilian look, something I'd never been trained to do. That's all it was for him, at least.

But that wasn't the case for me. I felt like I was standing at a crossroads, a threshold, a point of no return. Like for some reason, what I said would change the course of history completely.

Did I trust him? Enough to betray my handlers, my parent company by working with him without their express permission?

"Yes."

It wasn't a reluctant answer by any means. But it was a leap of faith all the same.

He gently took the hat from my hands and adjusted it towards the back of my head, so it looked more like a halo in the imagery of saints on my head, and was more floppy than I'd tried.

"You look like a normal girl," he promised. "No one will think that you're a Sentinel."

I nodded. "Good. Where are we going first?"

"City Hall, to the official archives," Henry said as I set down the backpack and closed the abandoned pigeon coop. "They'll have copies of any public statements and declassified police records on the fire with Heretic—that was when she became a supervillain, defined her career. They have nearly everything, including all the birth and death records in the city."

I nodded, following him to the fire escape once more.

"So, how did your day go?" He asked, as if we were two perfectly ordinary people, doing ordinary things.

Which I guess we were pretending to be, but still.

"Stopped a car-jacking." I didn't know why I was telling him that, but it spilled out all the same. "Saved that poor old lady from some thugs. Had them captured before the police actually showed up, or the rest of my team, for that matter."

"You handled it on your own then?" He sounded surprised. "I thought most Sentinels would wait for backup."

"Not my team's strategy," I admitted. "I'm the only speedster among them, so they can't get to the scene of things as fast as I can. Sometimes they don't show up, because they know I can solve a petty thief problem before they could even try."

"That explains a lot," he muttered.

"Like what?"

"Why you're able to be here, without getting yourself in trouble." He hesitated before his next point. "Why you're more independent than the others."

"I guess it does," I said softly.

We were quiet on the rest of the climb down, and then the short walk to the tram station outside of the Silver Spires and North Kingsbury High School. The zoning was certainly convenient for parents who lived in the neighborhood.

I found riding on the trams rather exciting. Henry and I listened to another musical while I looked around at all the people. They were doing ordinary things, like playing on their phone, knitting, chatting, or reading the latest edition of the Daily Crown.