Nova gripped her own smile like a weapon, already concocting a lie about the letter in her hand.
But he didn’t ask about it.
That was stranger than anything. The fact that he still wasn’t talking.
“Oh!” she said, feigning a gasp. “I heard about your run-in with Nightmare. Are you okay?”
One side of his mouth twitched. “Yeah, yeah. She did her sleep thing on me. You know, I’ve heard that a lot of people have killer headaches after she’s put them to sleep, but I was fine. Felt pretty well rested the next day, actually.”
“Oh … well, that’s good.” Nova hoped she sounded confused. “Maybe you’re just more resilient than the rest of us.”
Or maybe I was being nice.
“I seriously doubt that.” His brow furrowed, the grin fading for real this time. “Is it weird to think that maybe she was going easy on me?”
Nova guffawed. It was as fake as she feared it would be. “Nightmare, go easy on someone? That seems out of character.”
“Yeah, I know.” He squinted, inspecting Nova like he knew something. Her pulse thundered. “I know this sounds weird,” he added, “but she seemed familiar.”
Nova’s eyebrows worked their way toward her hairline. “Funny you should say that,” she said, lowering her voice in what she hoped would inspire conspiratorial confidence. “It might not be as weird as you think.”
He blinked, and for a moment he looked like a startled rabbit ready to bolt. She knew he suspected her. That he was well aware of why Nightmare would seem familiar.
But she had to convince him otherwise.
“My patrol unit had a meeting yesterday,” she said, crossing the room to him. His posture was a study of both curiosity and nerves. He should have been wary of being so close to her. If he really did believe she was Nightmare, then he knew how dangerous she could be. How easily she could put him to sleep again. Though maybe that’s what he was hoping she would do.
It would certainly prove his suspicions.
“Adrian has a theory,” she went on. “And at first it seemed a little far-fetched, but now I’m not so sure.”
Callum’s shoulders sank as it became clear that this was not about to become a confession. “What sort of theory?”
“About Nightmare. He’s been investigating her for months now, ever since the attack at the parade. He’s compiled a shocking amount of information and … well.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. Callum leaned in closer. “He thinks she might actually be a Renegade.”
He said nothing. After another strangely silent moment, she saw him become suspicious again. Trying to see right through her.
Finally, he said, simply, “Oh yeah?”
“I wasn’t sure at first, but when Adrian started listing all the coincidences … like that she knew about the helmet, and had access to Agent N … and oh! The mist-missiles? It kind of starts to make sense, right? What if she’s a spy?”
His head cocked to one side. “What if she’s a spy.”
“It would explain a lot.”
“Yeah. It would.”
“So … you think Adrian could be right?”
Callum opened his mouth, but hesitated. Where she had sensed certainty before, she could sense it faltering now. A fault of his own optimism. His belief in humanity.
She realized that Callum didn’t want her to be Nightmare. He was searching for a reason to doubt his own suspicions.
It was the crack she needed to find.
“Callum?” she said again. “Do you think she could be a spy?”
“I think it’s possible, yeah.”
She let herself appear worried. “Then it should be easy to figure out who it is, right?” She gestured toward the front reception area. “We can go through the rental history. Figure out who might have shown interest in those mist-missiles. We could go over some of the security tapes. Whoever she is, she must have left a path. Some clues we can follow. Ruby suggested she could be a recent recruit, but I think it’s more likely to be a civilian. Someone who’s pretending she doesn’t have superpowers at all.”
“She’s short,” said Callum.
Nova’s words, whatever rambling thing she was going to say next, evaporated on her tongue. “Excuse me?”
Callum was close to Adrian’s height himself, and Nova had never sensed how much he looked down on her, literally, until that moment. But that wasn’t unusual. Practically everyone was taller than her. “She’s short,” he repeated. “Like you.”
Her mouth opened. Closed. She tried again. “That’s … good information. That will help narrow it down. I’ll see if we can get more details out of Genissa