It started out as an ordinary week.
Bob Herschler met Kate Hennisson for lunch. She told him she had something important to tell him, then slid a small object across the table. It was Herschler's apartment key.
"I don't think we should see each other anymore," she said.
She explained that she was undergoing some major life changes, but would not explain further. She promised to tell him about it "once everything is settled down," but warned that they would not be able to resume seeing each other even then. She kissed him on the cheek and walked away.
Herschler immediately embarked on a savage, two-day bender. When he returned home, he noticed something that cut through his hangover instantly: a chalk mark on his mailbox. Small, almost unnoticable, unless one was trained to notice it, as Herschler was.
Inside his apartment, the light on his answering machine was blinking. Herschler pushed the playback button.
"We want you back, Bob. We want you back."
Emile Markham called Herschler and asked to talk to him privately. "About something important," he said.
They met at a local diner. Markham began by admitting that he had lied about not remembering the events that took place at the King Motel several months ago. "I was scared," he said. "But I need someone to trust, and I realized that the only people I trust... are you guys." He then explained that when he first signed on, he had been working as an "inside man" for Walter Hanley. But now Hanley was —
"Stop," said Herschler, interrupting. "Stop right there. Get away from me. Just get away." And without another word, he walked away.
Doug Sands pulled up to the curb in front of his daughter's high school. "You're late," Rochelle told him as she got into the car.
"I know, I'm sorry about that, chili dog. Work's really been kicking my ass."
"Dad?"
"Yeah, chili dog?"
"What do you really do at work?"
Sands shook his head. "I told you, I work with computers. Top secret stuff."
"Mom says you work for the mafia."
"The mafia?" Sands laughed. "Since when did the mafia start hiring black dudes? The mafia, shit, I should get in on some of that. They make good money."
Rochelle didn't seem entirely convinced, so Sands gave her a playful punch on the shoulder. "Look, I said I'm sorry. Come on, we'll stop and get your favorite ice cream."
Agent Emma Macmillian arrived at Orpheus Group Headquarters early the following morning. As she neared the front doors, Walter Hanley approached her. He told her that he had left some personal effects in his office (by this time his resignation was common knowledge throughout the company), but that he had already turned in his keycard. He didn't want to have to deal with Tad Eccles... could Emma perhaps swipe him in?
MacMillian was puzzled and a bit suspicious. She offered to get the items for Hanley while he waited, but he protested that there were a lot of little items and it would take to long to explain where they all were. Then she offered to escort him through the building, so that if he bumped into security there wouldn't be any embarassing questions. Hanley seemed to fret for a moment, then told her to never mind, he would just call Eccles later.
Later that morning, MacMillian was discussing Hanley's strage behavior with Agent Morrisson. Agent Markham came over and told her that they needed to talk, urgently. Before he could explain further, an alarm started ringing. A moment later, Walter Hanley appeared, escorted by two security guards and with his wrists zip-cuffed in front of him. They were headed back towards the interrogation and holding rooms. Hanley looked at MacMillian and Morrisson imploringly as he passed, but said nothing. Then, as they were just passing out of the main office area, Hanley stumbled into Herschler coming around the corner.
"Call Kate," whispered Hanley. "Help me, please."
Herschler took MacMillian aside and warned her to watch out for Agent Markham. Then he asked her to call Hennisson, claiming that he couldn't call her himself but not explaining why.
MacMillian called, and told Hennisson that Hanley had got in trouble with Orpheus security. Hennisson sighed deeply, then said, "Call everyone you trust. Arrange a meeting."
Agent Watts' younger brother, Daniel Watts, walked into an auto repair garage in Eastside and made his way to the office in back. A large, sweaty man sat at a desk, going over his account book with a pen and calculator.
"Hey, Pascal, what's up?"
The sweaty man did not look up. "What do you want, Watts?"
"I heard you got a big shipment in," said Daniel hurriedly, "and, uh, I was hoping you could maybe kick some of that my way. I'm good for it; I got a big opportunity coming up, lot of people asking me for product."
Pascal shook his head. "Can't do it, Watts. That shipment's reserved. For a very special project."
"Ah, c'mon, Pascal. I heard the shipment is huge — no one's going to miss it if I take just a little. I'll cut you in on it, man. These are college kids, I'm selling to, they'll pay anything."
Pascal stopped tapping the calculator and thought for a moment. Then he looked up. "College kids, you say?"
At a nearby coffee house, Agents MacMillian, Herschler, Markham, and Morrisson gathered to meet their former boss, Kate Hennisson. When she arrived, her demeanor was friendly but tense. She introduced herself to Markham, whom she had never met, and did not acknowledge Herschler at all.
Once there, she got straight to the point. For the past year, she and Hanley had been plotting to put the original Board of Directors — the ones who had been in power before the last clash with NextWorld — back in control of Orpheus Group. They had kept everyone out of the loop, because like them, their fellow Agents were all capable of being invisible and incorporeal, and in some cases could possess and read other's minds, and Hennisson and Hanley could not be certain how many of these perfect infiltrators were loyal to Tad Eccles.
"I am prepared to admit that this strategy was a mistake," said Hennisson. "Hanley got in over his head, and we have to get him out of Orpheus as soon as possible."
The team immediately worked out a plan, calling in Agent Doug Sands for backup. Agents Morrisson and Markham both masqued themselves as Tad Eccles and a security guard, respectively, and manifested inside Orpheus Group Headquarters. They proceeded to the holding area and convinced the guards that Henley needed to be transferred immediately. Agent Herschler haunted the Orpheus Headquarters building to monitor the positions of guards and other key personnel. And Agent MacMillian used intimate to divert Tad Eccles and Agent Steve Keller away from Hanley's cell. As soon as Hanley, Markham, and Morrisson were out of sight of security cameras, Herschler altered the internal geography of the building so that the next door they walked through led them to the parking garage, where Sands was waiting for them in a van. The rescue was carried off perfectly, with no one the wiser until long after the Agents were gone.
They regrouped at Agent Markham's house, where they were greeted by Hennisson. She asked Hanley if he still had "the item," and he tapped his chest enigmatically.
"Good work, everyone," Hennisson said. "I have a feeling this is going to go very well."
Meanwhile, Rochelle Sands stood on the curb outside her high school, long after the last bus had left, angrily waiting for her father to pick her up.