Robert Herschler contacted Phillip Nash to find out what he knew about the DEA's involvement with the pigment trade. Nash explained that the DEA believes that Orpheus Group is behind it all and wants to see the company go down. The CIA, meanwhile, only wants to learn what Orpheus Group is capable of and what sort of people they're working for, since "some powerful people are finally getting wind of what you can do, and frankly it scares the shit out of them." The CIA would rather not see Orpheus destroyed, in case Orpheus might one day become a useful tool or ally. Nash told Herschler he could tell him more, but Nash's own superiors would want information from Herschler in return. Herschler said he'd think about it.
Later, Senior Agents Lane, Herschler, and MacMillian were called into a meeting with Director Kate Hennisson and Dr. Neel Shivani. Shivani had come to some conclusions about the phenomenon most projecting Agents called "spite" — the emotional and spiritual malaise that tends to occur after missions involving death or violence, usually accompanied by small, localized lesions in the hippocampus region of the brain. According to Shivani's studies, "spite" is a reaction to some sort of energy that is released by all living things at the moment of death (and to a lesser extent, by ghosts at the moment of discorporation). All living creatures are affected by this "death-energy," but projectors are unusually susceptible to it, and thus suffer aggravated symptoms.
He then took the Agents down to the research labs to see Doug Sands, who was still under observation. Sands had absorbed an enormous amount of spite at the scene of his daughter's death. He was now capable of transforming his spirit-shape at will into that of a monster, by "channelling" his spite. Shivani believed that, given enough spite, any Agent could learn to do this. Furthermore, a projecting Agent should theoretically be able to use fuel normal emanations with spite as well, greatly enhancing their power.
After meeting with Shivani, the Agents turned to more immediate concerns. Hennisson wanted more information about the black bandana-wearing ghosts that had been spotted at numerous pigment dens throughout the City. She also suggested that the clue found Lester Freed's house, pointing to Farther Shores Amusement Park, was worth following up on.
Agent Lane and Junior Agent Matthew Podlowski went to the City Archives Department to look up plans and ownership documents for the amusement park. Although the park was closed in 1990, it was later purchased — through a labyrinth of holding companies — by Lamont Christensen, a wealthy shipping baron living in the City. They also discovered the original blueprints for the park, scribbled over with decades' worth of revisions and additions. One odd detail jumped out at them: the building plans for the "Hall of Mirrors" had been completely blacked out, as though with a magic marker.
Agent MacMillian decided to stay at Headquarters with Dr. Shivani and help him with his research. Together, they made a further discovery: that there is a "background count" of spite in the world, a stable baseline of death-energy that constantly cycles from the dying to the living. However, calculations based on spectre activity and Doug Sands' new abilities seemed to suggest that more spite is being added to the system from outside it — which is to say, from outside of the world. Shivani was deeply disturbed by the implications of this, and urged MacMillian to be careful.
Agent Herschler took Junior Agent Li Xianjin to find Bozzie and ask him about the black bandana ghosts. According to Bozzie, they were actually an organized street gang made up of ghosts, who called themselves the Blasphemers. They had all but taken over the pigment industry in the City, and were led by two former gang leaders who called themselves the Milton Brothers. Mosts ghosts just tried to stay out of the Blasphemers' way, but Bozzie had heard that the gang usually congregated at an old, condemned pool hall on the south end of Dockside.
The Agents quickly located the building in question and spent several days surveilling it. It appeared that most of the pigment was being brought in from Farther Shores Amusement Park across the bay, but that the pool hall served as the Blasphemers' central organization point in the City. After some discussion, the Agents decided to assault the building and destroy it, disrupting the gang's operations until Orpheus was prepared to tackle the amusement park itself.
In the early hours before dawn, Agents Lane, Herschler, and MacMillian led a team consisting of Junior Agents Li and Podlowski, Senior Agent Walter Hanley, Agent Angela Delafont, and Tommy Fabrosi to the pool hall. Hanley and Herschler stormed the front door in corpus, wearing kirlian goggles and weilding guns loaded with ghost-shot. The others phased through the side walls of the building. The fight inside was short and vicious. Agent MacMillian disposed of several ghosts by morphosing herself into a whirlwind of razor-sharp glass shards; Herschler and Agent Li tackled most of the rest with Hanley and Lane providing support. Podlowski intercepted one Blasphemer who attempted to haunt the building and trap the Agents inside it. Fabrosi was momentarily puppeteered and forced to fire his gun at Hanley; Hanley took three bullets to his kevlar vest, but suffered nothing more serious than a fractured rib. Once the building was clear, Angela Delafont enshrouded it, effectively erasing it from existence in the living world.
The Agents returned to Headquarters with no casualties. Across the harbor, from their vantage point atop the highest arch of the Mortal Coil rollercoaster, the Milton Brothers watched and waited.