They ended up walking in that silence for about thirty minutes, slowly making their way up the sidewalk. It was busy down here along the Boston University campus, with the Green Line trains moving through every few minutes. The sidewalks were filled with students, even on the side across the street from the campus buildings. James dodged a few groups of young people coming out of gyms and stores. Meanwhile, Bradley walked steadily forward with the energy sensor now held out in front of him, not caring who he almost collided with.

It wasn’t until they were a little ways past the university and the more college-centric parts of the neighborhood, dodging traffic turning onto the side roads, that James heard the crackle of electricity on the train rumbling past them. As he looked over in horror, he saw sparks flying on the cables above it. Far too many sparks to be normal. 

With a loud bang, the connection exploded, knocking the train swerving on the track. A woman standing at the small stop jumped out of the way to safety as the train derailed, coming to a grinding halt in the gravel just beyond the platform. Inside the train, James could see the crowd of people slamming into each other, some of them pressed painfully against the windows. The train remained upright, but tilted, half on the track with smoke drifting from the connections above.

“That’s us,” he said, darting out into the street and toward the train, dodging a pricy SUV that laid on the horn, clearly oblivious to the scene behind it.

He had basic medical training, just CPR and first aid. And Bradley had a bit more, but nothing major. So James called 9-1-1 as they went, hurriedly giving the woman on the other end their location. As they got across the street, he could hear Bradley calling it in to the Foundation as James motioned for the driver to open the door.

“We just called for help,” James said as the door opened and the driver looked over at him. He nodded a little vaguely, blood dripping from a large cut on his forehead.

There was a first aid kit on the train and he saw a couple young women making their way up to the front as he pulled it off the wall and opened it. “We’re nursing students,” the first one explained. “My cousin is on her way down from the apartments up there, she’s a nurse. We called the police.”

She was talking to him like he was in charge, and for a second he was embarrassed to say anything about his own job. But he should explain why the two of them had just shown up, shouldn’t he?

“So did I,” James said. “We’re not professionals or anything, me and my partner are from the Found-”

“They’re sending some people,” Bradley said from behind him before James could start explaining about ghosts, then made his way over to the driver.

Thankfully, there weren’t any serious injuries beyond the potential concussion that the driver had. Some of the riders were banged up, a few potentially needing medical care. The nurse cousin stayed with the driver while James and Bradley helped the nursing students try to take care of the other passengers. The police arrived after a few minutes and began leading people off of the train. They followed along, but stayed close, trying to blend in with the crowd. James waited to be questioned, but thankfully nobody seemed interested in either him or Bradley. 

About fifteen minutes after that, he saw a Foundation car pull up outside along with the police that were gathering there. Dr. Jolene Oliver got out and looked grimly at James. He silently handed the situation over to her, motioning to the first EMTs who got there, as well as the nursing students and the nurse cousin who was still sitting with the driver. He and Bradley stepped away from the train, ready to be interrogated, only to see that there were no other Foundation liaisons there.

“Weird,” James said as he looked at the small crowd of first responders.

“What?”

“No Foundation except Dr. Oliver. Normally if they knew or even suspected it was one of theirs, they’d be here.”

“Maybe they’re counting us as their representatives?”

“Could be, but that’s pretty stupid.”

“Yeah, well.”

He watched as an ambulance drove off with the train driver, then noticed Dr. Oliver walking toward them. “Captain McManus,” she said.

“James, for the love of God.”

It just kind of slipped out, but thankfully she laughed. “Fine,” she said. “James, then. What game is the Foundation playing here?”

“An excellent fucking question,” Bradley muttered.

“What did they tell you, Dr. Oliver?” James asked.

“Jolene, please,” she said. “And that a Foundation exercise went wrong. Same excuse they gave me yesterday, though they seemed really hesitant to make any connection between the train and the Foundation. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the story changes in the next couple hours.”

She pulled her red hair out of its hair tie and shook it loose, then started gathering it up again into a bun on top of her head. “I saw you at Haymarket,” she said. “Yesterday, when that woman got hurt. So you know.”

“There was one at Park Street too,” he said. “It was a woman who wasn’t involved. I wasn’t able to talk to her or the cops, but it was the exact same thing as Haymarket.”

“They didn’t send me there, probably because no one from the Foundation was involved.”

James nodded, then it began dawning on him. “Wait,” he said. “You mean if we weren’t here, then the Foundation would have just played this off like a typical everyday derailment?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

James looked over to where the passengers were crowded on the platform. Some were walking away while others remained where they were, waiting for whatever alternative transit was going to get them to their destination.

“And they keep insisting it’s a training exercise,” Jolene continued. “But that right there wasn’t a training exercise. There’s no way they’re going to risk hurting civilians or grind the transit system to a halt for regular training. Even if the Foundation wanted to – which they might – they can’t. The city of Boston would tear them to shreds.”

“I think it’s a real case,” James said. “We all do. At least my whole group and some of the other captains seem to. There’s really no other explanation. And they told us that you said you don’t know what caused Connie Evers’ injuries.”

Jolene looked at him, and he flinched in the ice of her stare. “They said what?” she asked, dangerously slowly.

“I know it’s not true,” he added quickly. “But they told us that you, as the doctor, said you didn’t know what caused her injuries.”

“I know exactly what caused her injuries,” Jolene said. “She was electrocuted.”

James swallowed hard as Jolene looked from him to Bradley, then back to him. She couldn’t have been much older than him, if at all, so why did he feel like he’d just talked back to his mother?

“I have copies of the report I sent them,” Jolene said. “It clearly states the cause of her injuries, so I’ll be sure to clarify that with them when I send this report in.”

“I have to call this in too,” James said. “Are you going back now?”

“In a few minutes,” she replied. “I’m not staying late tonight, so they’d better be done with this charade by five.”

He had to laugh, though the very real possibility that they were going to have to stay late wasn’t particularly funny and she clearly knew it too. He took out his phone and stepped off to the side, leaving Bradley and Jolene by the train. A cop was approaching, and that was where Bradley shined anyway, terrifying the cops with monsters and bureaucracy.

He called the main line and was soon directed to the head of the training and education department. “Captain McManus,” Harding said. “Did you complete the mission?”

“No,” he said. “Not yet. A Green Line train derailed and we’re dealing with that. What is going on here?”

He knew he was playing with fire, but that was too much. Yet again, this was a real accident with real injuries. “What do you mean?” Harding asked.

“This was a train full of civilians and both me and a member of my team saw the same energy we’ve been tracing cause a small explosion, which derailed it.”

“Part of the training.”

The lie was so smooth it was almost impressive. “Really?” James asked, glancing over toward Jolene and Bradley. “And was the train full of people part of it? The driver was pretty badly injured. It looked like he might have a concussion. And things might have been worse if there hadn’t been nursing students on board.”

“It’s training.”

“Was the driver an actor?”

There was a dangerous amount of bite in his voice. “This is all part of the training module,” Harding said instead of answering that question. “Please continue and then get in touch with us when you’re done. Is there anything else I can do to help?”

That would imply that he’d done anything to help in the first place. “No, thank you,” James said, hanging up in disgust.

He stayed where he was for a second, watching the branches on the trees across the street wave in the wind as he considered what to do next. Maybe he should call McGovern. The team liaison was a smarmy asshole sometimes, but he was at least human. But something made him pause before dialing McGovern’s extension. Was this malice, incompetence, or a mix of both? If he reached McGovern, would McGovern know anything about what was happening here? 

Instead, he called Rosa, who picked up immediately. “I heard,” she said. “Is everyone okay?”

“We are,” he said. “The driver of the train was pretty banged up and they took him to the hospital. But Rosa, they’re insisting it’s still part of the game. Like, I called and asked flat out if the driver was an actor and he wouldn’t answer me.”

“Who? McGovern?”

“No, the guy running all this, the one with the eyebrows. But they’re not going to acknowledge that anything is wrong and I don’t think we can force them to.”

“So then I guess we keep looking for the source,” Rosa said thoughtfully. “Me and Tim haven’t noticed any changes to the energy on the C line. We’re pretty close to you guys though, so we can be there in a few minutes if you need us.”

“Keep looking,” James said. “I’m going to just keep looking too. That was a powerful surge, so it’s likely something along the Green Line. Maybe on the B line, maybe the energy just got overloaded when it happened to be on the B line.”

“Okay, but call if you find anything. I’ll call Jessamyn now.”

“Thanks.”

He hung up a second later and went back over to Jolene and Bradley. “Okay,” he said. “The Foundation is still insisting that this is some kind of training game. They’re not going to back down on it, either.”

“The driver was concussed,” Bradley said. “I’m not a medical expert, but that guy was fucked up.”

“I am a medical expert,” Jolene said. “And he was fucked up.”

“We need to solve it,” James said. “If we go back and confront the Foundation, they’re going to red tape us until we solve it anyway and then we’ll have to deal with whatever petty bullshit they decide to throw at us in retaliation. I talked to Rosa, we’re all sticking to the plan. There’s still a little ways left on the B line, so we go to the end of the line and see what we see. And I’m going to get us both a coffee because goddamnit, I want one. Does that sound like a good plan?”

The sour look on Bradley’s face showed exactly what he really thought about it, but he nodded. “Sure, whatever,” he said. “Beats going back to the Foundation right now.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” Jolene said, pulling a face that made James like her even more. “I’m dealing with actual injuries on real people, so my report will be evidence of that. The real report, I mean. That wasn’t an actor. I’ve trained with medical actors and absolutely not. Good luck, you two.”

She headed back to her car, leaving James and Bradley standing on the sidewalk. “Coffee,” James said, walking across the street before Bradley could make a comment.

The line at the coffee shop was long, and they stood without speaking in the loud store. The music was pumping from the speakers, a folk band that James vaguely recognized as something Gabriella listened to sometimes. Surrounding them were college students and, unlike earlier, their energy wasn’t giving him energy. Instead, he felt so incredibly old for a moment. He wasn’t. He knew that really, he was still pretty young. But standing here in their midst, he felt ancient. 

He barely even listened to music these days, let alone knew what was cool and exciting. Gabriella would probably have suggestions for him, but he’d have to take them with a healthy amount of old man jokes. Maybe he’d be in the mood for that kind of teasing by the time he got home, but he wasn’t right now.

Finally, they reached the front of the line. “Hey, I’ll have a medium cold brew with a shot of espresso,” James said. “And whatever he’s having.”

“I can get my own,” Bradley said.

“Order a coffee, for Christ’s sake, you’re holding up the line.”

Bradley relented. “Medium iced coffee black, two shots.”

James put his debit card into the reader and Bradley continued to scowl at him, but stuffed a few dollars in the tip jar and moved aside without a fight.

“I’ll pay you back,” he said.

“You bought my ticket.”

“That was nowhere near as much.”

“You just put…Seriously, let me just try to do something nice for you,” James said. “You lost your night off to be here and you’ve barely bitched about it. And we’re basically just trading the same three dollars back and forth. I can buy you a damn coffee.”

Bradley closed his mouth from whatever argument he was about to make. “Thanks,” he said instead.

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CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 13