Mayor Bellamy

Intro Mayor Bellamy stood at the edge of the square, smiling the politician’s smile he’d worn for decades. To them, he was harmless, a man whose mayoral candidacy is being challenged by a cat. That suited him fine. No one ever looked closer when you trained them to laugh. Behind the podium, his black case thrummed faintly, its sound masked by Nina Calder’s midnight mix bleeding through the speakers. She thought her “Classified” frequencies were secret. He’d heard them all. The Archivist’s whispers, the warnings. He wondered if anyone suspected the Archivist and Nina were the same. Perhaps Milo, with his trench coat paranoia, but paranoia only makes a man easy to dismiss. Bellamy scanned the crowd. Mara at her ice cream cart, serving cones to a seagull as if it were normal. Saffron Bale, camera flashing, hungry for a headline. Ezra Cole scribbling strange symbols while Liora pretended they were therapy. Juno skated dangerously close to Theo Larkins, who crouched in the bushes like a vulture. Mira Hunt lingered by the arcade with Peter Carrow, both eyes trained on the machines. Julian Crest twiddled his radio dial, brow furrowed as if decoding the pulse Bellamy had already mastered. Even Amara Quartz, mumbling crystal incantations, seemed to feel the vibration beneath her feet. They all thought themselves players. Conspirators, seekers, eccentrics circling mysteries too big for them. But Bellamy knew the truth. They were distractions—noise in the town’s theater, while he prepared the real performance. He rested his hand on the case. Inside, something waited. Not a bomb, not quite. A key. A frequency woven into the hum of every lamppost, every arcade cabinet, every radio dial. Tonight, he would test it. A small activation, nothing more. A ripple to see who noticed. And if someone did? All the better. After all, it was easier to deal with threats once they revealed themselves. Bellamy smiled again, broader this time, as the crowd bustled, oblivious.