The Senior Agents were in another tense meeting. Walter Hanley felt that they needed to learn more about this Scott Archer — why he had been dogging Orpheus Agents on their missions, what his true purpose was. Several Agents wanted to approach him directly, but Agent Herschler felt that wouls be a bad idea. Eventually, Kate Hennisson instructed all of the Agents to use whatever contacts they had at their disposal to find out what they could about Archer; it was too dangerous to allow him to remain an unknown. With that, the meeting was adjourned.
Agent Herschler was contacted by Phillip Nash, who said he had information on the whereabouts of Scott Archer. "We heard about your little dust-up over the Milton woman; I thought you might be interested." According to Nash, Archer had gone AWOL since the Delilah Milton incident; the DEA didn't know where to find him. But the CIA knew, and Nash was willing to let Orpheus know if Herschler was willing to provide him with some more information. This time, Nash wanted nonclassified personnel information on all employees currently working for Orpheus Group. "The men upstairs want to run some background checks, make sure you don't have anyone who turns up on Interpol or any of the terrorist watch-lists."
Herchler demurred. He couldn't just show up with Archer's address, because Kate would want to know where he'd gotten it from. He needed a plausible story to explain it. Nash offered to have one of his own men pose as a disgruntled DEA agent and bring the information to Orpheus as a way to get back at his former employers. The false agent would not be connected to Herschler in any way, and his credentials would be solid enough to withstand scrutiny should Hennisson question his bona fides.
Herschler said he would think about it.
Meanwhile, back at Orpheus Group Headquarters, Hanley was looking for Doug Sands, who had not shown up for work and was not answering his phone. Agent Lane went to Sands' house to make sure he was okay. He found the house locked and apparently empty, and his car gone from the driveway. On a hunch, Hanley asked him to pick the lock and take a look inside. Lane found Sands lying on his bed in a projection trance.
There was only one place that Sands would risk an unauthorized projection to go: the spectre hive at Graceful Repose Residential Towers.
Kate Hennisson immediately assembled all Agents and declared that she was leading a task force into the hive to rescue Sands. Agent Lane persuaded her to stay at headquarters and let he and his team go instead. She reluctantly agreed.
Agents MacMillian, Watts, Morrisson, Herschler, and Lane were briefed on the intelligence that Steve Keller had learned during his anti-spectre training. Most spectres cannot "smell" a ghost with high vitality, and will not attack unless the ghost expends a great deal of vitality at once. In other words, in order to pass safely through the hive, the Agents would have to avoid invoking any emanations at all.
The Agents projected and gathered at Graceful Repose Towers. In the ghost-world, it appeared as a monstrous ziggurat of fibrous, organic material, crawling with insectile spectres. Roughly analogous to the building's main entrance was a large, irregular opening.
As they neared the opening, Agent Herschler discovered a strange and disquieting thing. His hands, in spirit-form, had transformed into spectre-like claws. Long hooks of metal extended from the split ends of his fingers. Worried about what his comrades might think, Herschler remained silent about the change and kept his hands unobtrusively covered.
Inside, the Agents found themselves in a long corridor with smooth, black walls. Further in, damaged and crumbling spots appeared in the walls; behind the eroded stone was a pulsing membrane of deep reddish/purple, with blue veins running through it. The crumbled spots grew larger until there was more membrane visible than stone. The Agents encountered a spectre vomiting some sort of gluey substance over the skin-like walls. They froze, and after a brief examination, the spectre moved on.
They passed through a giant organic sphincter covered with cilia-like hairs that attached to their spirit forms and drained them of vitality. They passed through a hall lined with industrial pipes leaking yellow bile. They passed through a place where tattered red curtains hung from the ceiling. They passed through a cavern where the floor was a carpet of limp human hands, growing up directly from the stone.
They found Sands at the far end of the cavern, in front of a giant brick wall. A wide breach in the wall opened onto fathomless blackness.
Doug Sands was crouched on the ground, examining one of the hands. "Rochelle had a ring just like this," he whispered. The others urged him to leave, but he lingered. "I thought I would be able to hear her down here, but I can't find her. I can hear something out there," he nodded towards the hole in the wall, "but it's not her."
Again, the Agents tried to console Sands and bring him out of this place. Eventually, he consented, and led the long walk back to the surface.
Agent Herschler lingered behind, drawn to the blackness behind the hole. It seemed like an almost liquid substance, as though the hole were a well turned up on its edge. Herschler stepped as close as he dared to the edge...
...and found himself walking back to the surface with the others, with no memory of what had happened or how he had caught up.
The Agents emerged from the hive onto the street. As they made their way back to their vehicles, they each stepped over a rose that had fallen into the gutter. Its petals were already beginning to curl and darken.