Archenemies (Renegades #2)(115)

Planting her feet on a windowsill and securing her hand against the exterior wall, Nova reached for the window breaker hooked over her belt. She fit the cylinder into the bottom corner of the window and pressed the lever, releasing the spring-loaded spike.

The window shattered. Tiny bits of glass rained across the sill and toward the street, sounding like wind chimes as it clinked onto the concrete below. Nova used the breaker to brush away the remaining sharp edges and ducked inside.

The floor was as empty now as it had been when she’d scoped it out earlier that day after inspecting the blueprints she’d taken from Adrian’s house. There were no cameras installed here. No sensors. No alarms.

She jogged to the stairwell and slipped down to the twenty-fifth floor. The door opened on a plain beige hallway that was roped off just outside the stairwell, with a sign that read SECURITY PERSONNEL ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT.

Nova stepped over the rope and crept down the hall. It was lined with closed doors and ID tag scanners. She didn’t slow when she heard footsteps coming from the next hallway, though she was surprised when an unfamiliar woman turned the corner. Rather than the gray Renegade uniform, she was wearing a smart navy suit with an ID tag clipped to the breast pocket.

An administrator, Nova guessed. Not a prodigy.

The woman froze when she saw Nova, her eyes widening.

Nova ripped off one of the gloves and leaped for her. The woman sucked in a breath, but her scream never came. The second Nova’s fingers touched the woman’s neck, her power rushed through her. With a strangled moan, the woman slumped forward into Nova’s arms.

Nova deposited her in an alcove beneath a drinking fountain and snagged the ID tag.

She moved faster now, almost running until she came to the room that had been labeled as the security center on the blueprints. She held the woman’s tag against the scanner and it blinked green. Nova turned the handle and pushed open the door.

She was greeted by a wall of monitors showing a hundred different views of headquarters, and two empty chairs.

Nova stepped into the room.

Something whipped out from behind the door, stabbing her in the thigh. Nova cried out as the barb ripped out of her, leaving a gash in her pants. She buckled to one knee, feeling like her leg had just had a bite taken out of it. Within seconds the flesh around the wound started to burn, as a trail of blood dribbled to the floor.

“Are you messing with me?”

She looked up. Standing over her, Stingray slammed the door shut, his face twisted in disgust.

“You give Sketch and his loser friends all that trouble, and this is all you’ve got? I saw you on the cameras the second you stepped into the stairwell.” He gestured toward the bank of screens. “What a waste. Thought you were supposed to be some hotshot villain.” Sneering, he crouched at her side. “At least we’ve got a few minutes to kill before that paralysis wears off. Might as well see who we’ve got here.”

He reached for her mask. Nova ground her teeth, resisting the urge to pull away as his clammy fingers dug beneath the sides of the metal.

His fingertips brushed her jawline, and that was all she needed. Skin touching skin.

Realization spread over Stingray’s face. The amateur mistake he’d just made. Then he tipped onto his side with a heavy thump.

With him unconscious, Nova returned her attention to her wound. She pressed one palm over it and her hand pulled away damp with blood.

Injured and in pain, yes, but she wasn’t paralyzed like Stingray believed.

She rubbed the blood off on the side of her pants and dug a hasty bandage and some healing salve from the kit at her belt, securing it tight around her leg. She could feel the warm press of the Vitality Charm trapped between her jacket and her sternum.

Poison, disease, and evidently venom like Stingray’s too. The Renegades had been fools to stash the medallion away in their vault, without any appreciation. It was just one more example of their arrogance.

With the wound attended to, she turned her attention to the screens.

She spotted Frostbite guarding the main entrance, and Aftershock patrolling the back half of the ground floor. It took longer to find Gargoyle, but finally she spotted him making his rounds near the laboratories on the mezzanine level.

None of them appeared concerned, which was a relief. Stingray must have been confident enough in his ability to take down Nightmare. He hadn’t bothered to alert the rest of his team.

Removing his wristband, Nova stuffed it into her belt, then stepped over Stingray’s sleeping body. Nova approached the controls. She had studied the installation paperwork at length, the coding, the backup software, the fail safes, the alarms. She had planned for various scenarios until her eyes crossed.

In the end, it took just under eight minutes to disable the cameras throughout the building. She shut them all down, sending the system into dead air.

Eight minutes felt like an eternity, but with the security down, her job would be made a lot easier.

Adrenaline was coursing fast through her veins as she left the security room. She barely gave a passing glance to the sleeping woman beneath the drinking fountain. No one had come for her.

The building was mostly empty, but this woman was a reminder that not everyone had chosen to go to the gala that night. There could be more surprises.

She needed to be cautious. Stingray had been cocky and it cost him. Nova wouldn’t make the same mistake.

She arrived at the elevators, but hesitated. Changing her mind, she headed back for the stairwell. Her leg groaned, but she fought through the pain. She focused on counting floors. She kept her mind on the job ahead.