cascade | kotlc

3. The Path of the Privileged

 "It has to be Brant," Sophie whispered as she watched the firemen rush around the Piazza della Signoria.

They'd used the obscurer to slip past the police blockades. The fire hadn't killed anyone, and it had been extinguished before it spread to the other buildings.

The fire had been extinguished extremely quickly, June noticed. That meant the Black Swan were definitely active and around, just like the Neverseen.

That... was interesting.

The Palazzo Vecchio's stone walls were blackened and crumbling, and the clock tower was leaning more than the Tower of Pisa. It was disgusting, how the Neverseen could destoy such a historical landmark, just to flush out the Black Swan. They didn't even target the correct building.

The Uffizi was an arched building next to the ruined palace. The police had closed all the landmarks, and an obscurer can't fool sensors and alarms.

"How do you know it's the Neverseen?" Dex asked. "Don't humans have fires all the time?"

"Can't you smell it?" Sophie asked.

Keefe sniffed the air. "It smells like burned sugar."

"That's what the San Diego fires smelled like, Fitz told me," June realized. "Which means it was definitely Brant. He must've sneaked out. I still can't believe you let him go, by the way," she said, looking pointedly at Sophie. "But still. We're supposed to get to the building next door."

"Uh, you guys are totally ignoring the much more important question," Keefe interrupted. He pointed across the courtyard to a weathered marble statue. "Am I the only one who noticed that dude is naked?"

June giggled. "He doesn't even look that good. Fitz has better muscles."

"That's the David," Sophie said, rolling her eyes.

"I don't care what his name is," Keefe said. "I still don't want to see his stuff. It's not great."

"You're not even a girl. I am, and I'm fine," June argued. "It's really not that bad. Just don't look at the balls."

Biana blushed bright pink. "I don't care. It's still private parts."

"It's perfectly fine," June said.

"Yeah, I have to side with my sister on this one," Sophie agreed. "You don't have to look at it if you don't want to. Why are we even talking about this?"

"Because Keefe," June said eloquently.

"You're right," Fitz said. "We need a plan. Personally, I think we should keep following the Black Swan's clues. Once we get into the corridor, I bet the rest of their instructions will make sense, we just need to figure out how to get past security and-"

"Or, we could just do this," June said, snapping her fingers again, causing a boom somewhere in the distance. All the firement and reporters immediately turned towards the sound, rushing to see what the problem was.

"I guess that works," Sophie admitted as they reached the entrance of the museum, which was locked by a stone facade. "How'd you do that?"

"I disrupt soundwaves and combine them together. That was actually the sound of people slurping gelato magnified by a lot. I can make more -- watch."

Another boom, this time sounding like footsteps. Still, it worked.

"Sophie, where are the security cameras?" Dex asked. "I could disable them, or we could just get June to destroy them."