It felt as if time stood still for Arcturus as his protruding brown eyes were glued to a television screen in a nearby store that he passed by on his way back to Hilbert’s house. He took a few steps back as the words “BREAKING NEWS” became etched into his brain and the captions that reveal about Nova’s location being found. His assumptions were correct: Belinda and Miranda were not to be trusted and they had given Nova’s information to the public. A part of him wanted to rush back to the clinic to demand answers, yet another part knew he’d never receive them. Why would they bother giving him answers?
“How is this even possible?” Murphy asked, shocked and confused by the sudden news.
“Someone knew of Nova being here in the Outskirts and leaked it to the officials.”
“Who could’ve done that?” Constance pondered. “There’s no one else who knows about Nova’s location other than us…”
“That’s where you’re wrong. There was another person–two, in fact.”
“Who?”
“Belinda and Miranda.”
Murphy refuted, “That can’t be! Belinda is the only doctor here. She has been helping all of us here for a very long time.” His exasperated expression showed off his denial.
Arcturus looked away from his gaze and had his eyes on the ground. “Just because you’ve known someone for a long time doesn’t mean you actually “know” them. Every person in this world has skeletons in their closet. Maybe the Belinda you know and the real one aren’t the same people.”
Murphy had his head down. He handed the bags he was holding to Constance. “Constance, please take Arcturus to Hilbert’s place. There’s something I need to confirm…” He ran off; Arcturus kept looking until he was no longer at his line of sight.
Constance turned to him. “You heard what he said. Let’s go.”
Arcturus did what he was told and followed Constance back to Hilbert’s home. All he could think about on his way there was the news report. He couldn’t hear much from the television as the windows barricaded the sound, but it got him worried because he didn’t know the government’s next course of action.
A plethora of questions swirled around his head.How long will it take for them to come to the Outskirts? Instantly? Days? How would they show up? Airship? Some secret passage? How will the people here react when they learn that Nova had been hiding here? What will happen to Sophia and Murphy when people learn that they’ve been sheltering Nova?
He scanned around to see if the civilians were panicking over this news. They had zero reaction, which shocked him. He had expected them to start panicking and fussing over the situation, but they were a lot calmer than he had anticipated. It felt rather unsettling. However, he knew if he were to say something regarding the news, the streets would turn into a frenzy and that was the last thing he wanted. Keeping quiet was the best solution.
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His focus was to follow Constance and continued doing so until they both reached Hilbert’s house. They rang the bell and then went inside once they were granted access. Once Arcturus stepped foot inside the house, he rushed towards the office and opened the door with strong force. Hilbert was startled, but greeted him. Arcturus treaded towards him. Since Constance did speak about him and Nova to Hilbert, he knew it would be fine to ask the inventor some questions; he needed answers of some kind.
“What is with that news outlet?”
“Oh, you saw?”
“I did. What’s going on? Who leaked the information about Nova? Not many people know where he is.” While he had his own assumptions, he needed to make sure there were others. “Were you the one who leaked it?”
Hilbert became baffled. Constance came to his rescue. “Hilbert knows about Nova because of me, but he wouldn’t leak anything to the government!”
“Indeed! Besides, I know who did it. It was Belinda Mathis.”
My assumptions are correct, but how does he know this so well? “Why would she do this? She helped Nova and me out a lot by treating our wounds.”
“She’s nice enough to treat people with their wounds, but it’s mainly so that she can keep tabs on them. What better way to check up on people than to be a doctor? She can ask them questions about their well-being or personal lives while checking up on them. She then reports them all to the government. No one knows this.”
“Hilbert, why do you know this?” Constance asked.
Hilbert became silent. He averted her gaze, pondered before resuming to answer her question with another question: “Can you keep a secret?”
Although he was a bit confused by the sudden secrecy, Arcturus obliged. “Yes?”
Hilbert cleared his throat. “The reason why I know this so well is because I belong to a secret organization dedicated to the liberation of Sirius. Let’s say that I’m like a spy spying on the actual spy. If you’re wondering when the government will come to the Outskirts, it’ll happen within a day, so be prepared. They consider Nova to be dangerous, so they’re preparing for all the firepower they can get.”
Hilbert then handed over Arcturus’s bangle and earring, which was restored like it had never been destroyed. Arcturus was amazed with how pristine it looked. He then looked at his earring, which he reattached to his ear.
Constance noticed his earring, which then caused her to ask, “Speaking of which, you said that you’d tell us about the purple earring.”
Hilbert responded, “Well, I was going to get there. The reason why they’re most likely taking a day to prepare is so that they can program a plethora of Monarch and other hybrid Shifties to focus on capturing him.”
Arcturus stood up and approached Hilbert; his gaze was glued to Hilbert’s. Hilbert reacted by stepping back until his back was touching the wall. Arcturus placed a hand above Hilbert’s head and leaned forward with a serious visage.
“Tell me all you know about these new types of Shifties, now.” He needed to know everything about these new adversaries for both his and Nova’s sakes.
Hilbert started panicking. “Okay, okay. Just take a step back and sit down. I’ll explain everything.”