Re-l had seen the bookshop last week, on her first walk around the city, but at that point it hadn't been open. She had made a note of it and moved on. Now she was growing antsy. She needed something to do. And while her ultimate goal was clear, how she was going to get there was not.

In the meantime, she might as well read.

She heard a strange clanging sound when she a couple of streets away from the shop, but it didn't seem to be another siren, just very annoying. It stopped without her doing anything, which was even better. She rounded the last corner to the shop, saw the caravan, saw the cowbells, and stopped dead.

She almost walked away. Irritating superhumans were the last thing she needed right now. But she had really wanted that book, and she had never let anybody stop her from getting what she wanted. Now was not the time to start.

Squaring her shoulders, she slid the door open and slipped inside, making as little noise as possible. This turned out to be futile, because the shop was really not big enough to hide in. Re-l chose option b, and walked up to the counter, studiously ignoring Gabriel.

"Is there anybody here?" she called out, projecting her voice into the back room.