How Much I Know - a Renegades | Marissa Meyer fan fiction

Chapter 12

Kahless met Mirage on her floor after the drama that was the Council meeting. She was eager to learn what the woman had found out.

"Mirage. What happened?" she whispered when she got close enough to the woman's desk.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't done anything of interest today. I only walked that darling Mara out of the Council room. She seems very sweet, albeit not very talkative." Mirage smiled in memory.

Kahless gaped. "So you didn't see if the girl eavesdropped? You didn't follow through with the plan I painstakingly crafted?" She was furious. All of the work she'd done, and it was foiled by one of the only people she trusted.

"I didn't know," Mirage said hastily.

"I sent you a dozen comms! And you replied!" Kahless almost screamed.

"I - I'm sorry," Mirage said, looking at the floor.

"I need to go," Kahless said quickly, before running for the elevators and throwing herself inside. She screamed in frustration and clawed at her hair, almost jamming the 1st Floor button in her haste. She was grateful for the virtually indestructible glass walls as she railed on them. It was almost too soon that she was let out of the car.

She pulled herself together as fast as possible, combing her hands in her hair and wiping her eyes. They were bloodshot, but there wasn't much she could do about that. When the doors opened, her plastered-on smile was as fake as ever.

She strode over to Max's quarantine to find Mara sitting cross-legged facing the glass, and Max on his stomach on the other side. She smiled. This fast friendship would make Kahless's job much easier.

"Hey Max, Mara," she greeted them. She didn't call Mara Miss Umidore because that would get awkward and that was not the atmosphere she wanted to present. They looked away from each other to meet her eyes.

"Hello. Karen, right?" Miss Umidore returned. Kahless nodded, pleased with the manners of the child.

"Hey, Karen." Max's reply wasn't as energetic as Umidore's, but it was enough to make Kahless smile. Max had that effect on her.

She noticed the girl glance between the two of them, recording their encounters. It was not unlike how Kahless took inventory of the entire set before attending to the matter at hand, she noted with some satisfaction.

"Max told me that you would know what we were going to do," Miss Umidore said.

"Yes. Did he explain his condition to you?"

"No. I said that you would tell her what she needs to know," Max explained.

"Good," Kahless noted. "So I'll have to tell you. We shouldn't be overheard." Her gaze swept over the almost-empty ground floor of headquarters. It passed her inspection, seeing as there were only guards and the occasional dawdling superhero. "Max is a prodigy. His power is very strong and very hard to control. His alias is The Bandit because he steals other prodigys' powers for himself. The glass is a barrier that keeps him from taking away all of our superpowers." She paused, checking if Umidore was following her. "It would be a training of your strength if you were to go inside the quarantine regularly and resist his power. Of course, there are other ways we are going to train you, but this is easier since Max is already in on the Council's secret projects."

Miss Umidore nodded. "What is your power? Could I resist that?"

Kahless bit her lip. "I don't know how that would work. My power isn't offensive, and it would be really hard to resist." She tilted her head. "But once you get better we could test it."