Immediately after returning to Headquarters upon completing a dangerous mission to recover a ghost-form artifact, Agents Herschler, MacMillian, and Morrisson discovered that Kate Hennisson had taken it upon herself to rescue undercover Agent Angela Delafont from the clutches of NextWorld Enterprises. Angela managed to escape, but Kate, who had projected, was captured. Now her body remained in a cryogenic creche at Orpheus Headquarters, while her spirit was in captivity somewhere in the City.
Delafont took the Agents aside and shared with them her concerns that someone within Orpheus Group had deliberately sabotaged the mission. She pointed out that not only had NextWorld ambushed their meeting in the parking garage, but they had also unerringly located Delafont's body, which she had told no one about. And yet, if NextWorld operatives had been simply following her, they would not have waited for Orpheus to figure out the ghost artifact's location before moving to retrieve it themselves. Someone within Orpheus group must have tipped them off, and they could only have done so after Delafont's instructions for finding the artifact had been decrypted. Delafont believed that whoever did this must be someone who was aware of her mission; who had access to the PDA containing her encrypted instructions; who had access to the GPS locator chip that had been implanted subcutaneously on Delafont's body; and who was always in a position to transmit this information quickly and unobtrusively to his receivers at NextWorld.
It was immediately clear that the only employee who fit all of these criteria was Jimmy Spengler.
Returning to the sleeper projection facility, where Spengler was discussing the situation with Walter Hanley and Neel Shivani, Agents MacMillian and Morrisson attempted to distract him while Agent Herschler went to call security. Spengler, realizing that his cover had been blown, brandished a pistol and attempted to escape. Herschler shot him, but a stray bullet from Spengler's gun struck Neel Shivani in the stomach, perforating his liver and leaving him in critical condition.
Agent Morrisson interrogated Spengler and ascertained that he had been providing intelligence to NextWorld for some time, but did not know who his handlers were or to what purpose the information was being used. Spengler was not aware of any specific plans to capture Kate Hennisson, and did not know where she had been taken.
Accompanied by Delafont, the Agents drove to the warehouse where she had been held prisoner before being rescued by Hennisson; however, that facility had already been cleared out, and there were no clues to be found. Then Agent Doug Sands suggested that the Agents attempt to contact NextWorld Operative Cheryl Banning, whom they had rescued during the Elsevier School incident. Banning agreed to meet the Agents at a neutral location and, out of a sense of obligation, provided them with the address of a facility on the 13th floor of a downtown office building where Hennisson's ghost might be held. The facility belonged to a company called Terrel & Squib Pharmaceuticals, which Delafont believed was using NextWorld as a front.
After a day to regroup and recuperate, the Agents launched their assault. Remaining invisible and intangible, they waited for a T&S employee to enter the lobby elevator and rode up with him. Upon entering the 13th floor facility, they were immedaitel detected by Kirlian-sensitive security cameras, and an alarm began to sound. Agent Herschler puppeteered a security guard, while Agent MacMillian manifested in physical form and attacked several more with morphosed body weaponry. They found Hennisson's ghost held in a cage constructed of the same black metal used in NextWorld's "ghost shot" bullets. Herschler intimidated one of the scientists into releasing Hennisson; then Agent Delafont grabbed her and teleported back to Headquarters. Agent Morrisson immediately ripcorded. Then, with enormous effort, Herschler inhabited the entire skyscraper and rearranged its internal geography, allowing Agent MacMillian to open a door on the 13th floor and exit through a service entrance in the building's side alley. Before releasing his hold on the building and making his escape, Herschler quickly scanned the contents of the other rooms on the 13th floor, and made a disturbing discovery — a spectre, held in a cage similar to the one Hennisson was in.
Back at Headquarters, Hennisson's ghost was reintegrated and her body brought out of cryogenic fugue, though she remained unconscious.
Agents MacMillian, Morrisson, and Herschler were asked to personally hand over the ghost fragment to the Board of Directors, and to do so while still projected. They gave the fragment to a man in a white suit who refused to answer their questions.
The next day, all projecting Agents received a memo recommending that they take several paid-leave days away from the office.
When the Agents returned, they were immediately called to a meeting. A man named Tad Eccles told them that Kate Hennisson no longer worked for Orpheus Group, and that he would henceforth be their new Director of Field Operations. Furthermore, he informed them, the Board of Directors had undergone a restructuring, along with a "revision and refocusing of the company's core mission." No longer, Eccles explained, would they be engaging in dangerous corporate espionage with NextWorld or any other competitor. From now on, Orpheus Group would focus on missions that helped ghosts and people haunted by ghosts resolve their issues and move on.
He then left, after thanking the Agents for their time and welcoming them back to what he hoped was "a more palatable" Orpheus Group.