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

Chapter 23

When the Council arrived, Kahless had seen the Sentinel get shot multiple times, saw Mara devastated, saw Narcissa scream, saw Nova angry, saw Ingrid do something stupid, saw Adrian do something stupid, saw Gene Cronin die; saw everything get destroyed in one fell swoop.

It was the second worst day of Kahless's life.

She didn't want to answer the Council as to why she and Mara were hiding in the office building, but she also didn't want to make them suspicious by leaving.

Thunderbird flew to the window once Tsunami had put a stop in the flames. "Get down here!" she yelled through the glass. Kahless nodded once and hurried to the stairs. 

"Get to HQ and we expect you to be in the Council room when we get there," Captain Chromium ordered. Kahless nodded and bounded off towards the tallest building in the city.

Her walk was slow and full of the weirdest feeling. Connection. When her mother died, she remembered her own face contorted in a silent scream that no one seemed to hear. No one else cared about the crazed lunatic Margaret except for Kahless. 

Narcissa and Mara were going through that loss then. Kahless didn't know how to help them.

Her head was hung low as she walked through the first floor of HQ. Max watched her from behind the glass and she smiled wearily up at him. Later, she mouthed. He shrugged and turned back to his Gatlon model, using a hammer to smash the library to simulate the explosions' damage.

The elevators opened without event, and the throne room looked exactly the same, but Kahless felt like something was off. Maybe it was just the Librarian's death that knocked difference in the air.

Kahless took her usual position in the shadow behind Thunderbird's throne. It gave her a view of what was happening and kept her out of sight.

In a few minutes, the Council exited the elevator and Captain Chromium said, "We need to talk to you, Kahless."

Kahless emerged from the shadows and came to the center of the room. "What is it you'd like to hear?" she asked, tone perfectly level.

"What happened today? What do you know?" Blacklight asked immediately before the Council was even seated.

Kahless thought quickly about her response. She needed to not make the Council suspicious, but give a reason as to why she was spying on Adrian's team. But they didn't ask why she was there. They only asked what she knew. She was doing her mission, after all.

But they had a record of everything she did with her comm band on. Again, she needed to make an excuse. The Council probably didn't check her comm records, but it would be even more suspicious to have mismatching information.

"I figured that it would be beneficial to watch the library. Mara used to work there, after all. And I thought that having a record of what happened in Adrian's less experienced team should
be documented." Kahless shrugged. "Any documentation is good in my opinion."

The Council nodded. Kahless felt a grin tug at the corners of her lips. The superheroes would be setting double standards if they disciplined Kahless for that. They wanted the information and would ask about it whether the way of recovering the information was acceptable or not.

"What information do you know?" Thunderbird said exasperatedly.

"I'm getting to that!" Kahless said, putting her arms up in defense. "Anyway, Mara and I set up in the office next to Adrian's team. We watched them through the holes in the wall that I drilled earlier -"

"Just get to the effing information!" Thunderbird screeched.

"I'm getting to that!" Kahless said, eyes widening in annoyance. "Well, we saw Adrian's team -"

"Just tell me already!" Thunderbird growled.

Kahless and the rest of the Council members exchanged amused and worried glances.

"The team and Mara and I saw the Detonator - Ingrid Thompson - enter the library. She looked very suspicious; looking up at the team before going inside. It was cause for fear.

"The team briefly debated action, eventually deciding on trying to handle the situation alone on the basis that the Detonator could cause plenty of damage before reinforcements could arrive.

"I didn't get a good view of what happened once they made it into the library, only that a 6 minutes 28 seconds later there was an explosion from the basement.

"In a few minutes, Insomnia transported the Detonator out of the building, most likely to restrain her. Insomnia then returned to the building to help rescue the few remaining victims inside the library.

"A few minutes after that, once explosions and flame had rendered the top floor visible, I could see the Sentinel, also known as Adrian Everheart, attempt to make a deal with Gene Cronin. The Sentinel offered protection, housing, and a clearing-of-the-record in return for revealing Nightmare's identity.

"This plan was foiled, however, when the Detonator, presumably restrained poorly, made herself known again, shooting Gene Cronin fatally before rushing of the scene. Insomnia managed to shoot her in the arm, though.

"Insomnia also shot the Sentinel multiple times.

"The rest you already know."

There was silence in the room before Captain Chromium spoke.

"You're saying that my son willingly crawled back in to a burning building?"

Kahless noted the anger in the hero and answered cautiously, "Yes?"

Tsunami glared softly at the Captain. "Don't shoot the messenger, Hugh."

The hero took a few deep, calming breaths. "All right, fine. Thank you, Miss Loen, for bringing us this useful information. It is greatly appreciated. I just need a while to process what you have just told us. So if you could step out of here for a minute, I would be forever in your debt." He looked like he was struggling for the most diplomatic words to say at the moment.

"Of course," Kahless said, bowing her head slightly before she left. Soon, she could hear screams of frustration originating from that room.

Kahless smirked. If they only knew who the new prodigy on their son's team was.

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"Hey, Kahless!" Max greeted her.

"Hey, Max. so the story of today goes..." She explained the events of that day and the previous night. She relived the memories, not missing a detail or word choice.

"Do you think Nova is making friends with the team?" Max asked.

"I think she is. Unfortunately, that's not a good thing. Getting friendly with the two main Renegades' son is probably not the best plan for killing them."

"I know. I'm worried about her. If she hesitates before shooting Captain Chromium, there's no telling of how she'll hesitate to kill them now." Kahless noticed that he was starting to think like an Anarchist. That was good.

"I hope this spying is worth it for her, though."