Renegades Stories

Chapter 13: Callum

Maggie and Nova were staring at each other like each had seen a ghost. Callum could guess why. The two women looked so similar, it was like they were sisters.

He cleared his throat. "Okay.... Ms. Artino, how about a tour?"

Nova seemed to shake herself. "Okay."

"This is the reception office. Maggie here is in charge of sorting and registering new artifacts. You'll take care of helping people check out and return anything they need."

"What do you do?" she asked.

Maggie spoke. "Wonder Boy oversees all of it. And take over if one of us is sick."

"She is correct! Next room." Callum led Nova through the doors to the files, leaving Maggie to her computer.

The room was lined with filing cabinets, each containing records of all the objects on the floor, as well as some of the smaller objects. Outdated? Absolutely. But Snapshot, his old director, had used it for years. If it was good enough for her, it was good enough for him.

Callum still missed Tina. She had been in charge of the department since the beginning. She had retired six years ago, and only last year had died at the age of seventy-nine. Before her death, he would visit frequently to ask questions, and just... talk. She had been his safe space, his companion, his best friend.

Maggie had joined three years ago, and while it had been nice to not have to do all the work on his own, she had a hard shell that was hard to break. They had a strange relationship. Callum would call them friends. Maggie would call them co-workers who laughed occasionally.

Callum quickly explained the filing process to Nova, who looked mildly interested.

"And now, the most exciting part," he began. He strode to a set of double doors and opened one, ushering Nova inside. "The vault."

He watched as she reacted to the sheer number of shelves and objects in the room. Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth hung open.

"That's a lot of stuff," she said finally.

"And you have access to it all. Well, not unlimited access. You'll have to slide everything by me, and you won't be keeping any of it, of course. It's almost all for rental," he said, smiling giddily at all the treasures.

"What's not for rental?" Nova asked.

"That would be some certain artifacts that are either too old, too dangerous, or too fragile."

"Can I look around?"

"Of course! I'll just... follow you. Make sure nothing breaks." He laughed awkwardly. Captain Chromium had cornered him before Callum had left the night before, asking him to keep an extra close eye on her when looking at artifacts. Saying there were one or two objects that could be a sore subject.

Nova just hummed in response, and began to walk the isles, occasionally stopping to pick something up, or observe something closely.

He was trailing behind her, lost in thought. When he bumped into her. She was holding a mask in her hand, her face pale. He realized what exactly it was. Her mask.

"Why did they keep this?" Nova asked, her voice low.

Callum shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even remember putting that in the system."

He watched as she set it back on the shelf. Her hands were shaking.

On an impulse, he grabbed her hand. "Hey, it's okay. You're a different person than you were ten years ago."

She wrenched her hand away. "I'm not so sure yet."