“Are you seriously calling me right now? This is my one fucking night off this week.”

Bradley sounded pissed as he picked up the phone on James’s second attempt at calling him. But James could barely hear his voice over the noise in the background, loud music and what sounded like a crowd of people.

“Hang on,” Bradley snapped before James could say anything else.

James heard him moving on the other end, then the creak of a door as Bradley said something inaudible away from the phone. As the door closed, the music dropped off so quickly that James was almost startled by the quiet.

“What?” Bradley demanded.

“I’m so sorry, but I need a favor.”

James glanced around his hotel room as though a Foundation spy camera was watching him from the cracked mirror. “Listen,” he started, his hopes for this plan already fading. “Can you come to Waltham? We can bring in another team member to join us for tomorrow and I need you. There’s something weird going on and I don’t think the Foundation is being completely honest about the training. And people are getting hurt. I need backup.”

“Why not ask your actual second in command?”

“She needs to run the team while I’m gone.”

“And not-”

“Bradley, I need it to be you,” James interrupted before the next name came out. “You’ve worked for the Foundation almost as long as I have, you’re not afraid of them, and you have the physical stamina to deal with weird garbage along the subway routes. I’m not tossing Graham or Gabriella into this during their first year and I’m also not risking sending Madelyn to the hospital if things get rough. I’m really sorry to interrupt your night off, but I’ll make it up to you, okay?”

There was a moment of silence. “Waltham?”

“Yeah, hotel rooms were slightly cheaper outside the city and I forgot to book in the Foundation’s block, even if I wanted to. Can you drive out here so I can fill you in on everything before tomorrow?”

“You know the Foundation’s not saving you shit in those blocks,” Bradley said. “I’m in Boston now, I’ll get the next train if you can meet me at the station.”

James was so relieved that he didn’t even bother questioning any of that. “Done,” he said. “Text me when you’re on your way.”

***

Now that he was away from the Foundation headquarters and had spent some time in the normalcy of his messy car and messier thoughts, James was beginning to worry he was just being paranoid. Right now, he was sitting in his car at the train station in Waltham, waiting for Bradley and stewing in the situation. This day was unreal. But the thing was, everything around him was so normal. It was a regular late evening for everyone except James. 

The station in front of him was a small platform downtown, about fifteen minutes away from his hotel. It had a tiny parking lot and there were no buildings to be seen, just a covered wooden platform with an old factory building looming over it from the other side of the tracks. The factory looked a lot like the ones back in Leominster, and was probably also home to businesses and apartments these days. And despite the chilly evening, there were people lingering on the platform and in the lot around him.

His car windows were open for the fresh, almost too cold air, and he could hear the sound of traffic flowing by in the busy downtown area. The sun was down and the streetlights and the river of tail lights lit up the city in a mingled white and red glow as he sat with too much time to think.

This was a stretch, wasn’t it? The Foundation was incompetent, but they’d managed to survive the past couple centuries. Maybe he and Jessamyn had both been frustrated by the day they’d had. They’d separately come to a similar incorrect conclusion that was absurd, but not too absurd when it came to the Foundation. And now he’d dragged Bradley back to work on his night off rather than ignore the offer of bringing on a new person.

The passenger door opened, and he jumped in his seat, spinning around to see Bradley getting into the car. “I need a change of clothes for tomorrow,” he said in place of a greeting. “And a toothbrush.” 

It was still early enough that somewhere had to be open. “Sure,” James said, starting up the car. “Have you eaten yet?”

Bradley laughed and James caught a slight smell of alcohol on his breath in the small space of the front seat. And then everything clicked into place. “Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” he said. “You were on a date, weren’t you?”

“Nope.”

In the streetlight outside, he could see that Bradley was wearing a sleek gray jacket, much nicer than the one he wore to work. And he was usually well put together at work, so that was saying something. His entire outfit was clearly chosen with care to go someplace trendy. 

“You don’t have to lie,” James said. “I shouldn’t have called, it’s your night off. If you want to go back, I’ll drop you off and-”

“I wasn’t on a date,” Bradley said. “Can we please just go? There’s a Target nearby and they close in less than an hour. And traffic is going to suck.”

It was safer to drop the conversation. “I might have a spare toothbrush,” James said as he pulled out of the parking spot and waited for a gap in traffic.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Bradley said, looking out the window at the lights of an oncoming train.

“Is it because of the community toothbrush incident?” James asked, in a useless attempt to steer them into fucked up normalcy. “Because it’s been years, and I had nothing to do with that one.”

Bradley turned and looked at him as James pulled out onto the road, the regret already obvious on his face.

***

A few stops later, they were back at James’s terrible little hotel room. Although the price tag had made his heart briefly pause (a cost hopefully lessened if and when the Foundation reimbursed him), it was a dim room that smelled vaguely of industrial cleaner. But it had two full size beds, a functioning shower, and a desk that currently had his work materials spilling off of it. So it would do.

Bradley walked in behind him and James could feel the silent judgment as he took in the state of the room. “Look, it’s like one night,” James argued before he said anything. “Two maybe.”

“Did you upend your bag over the desk or something?” Bradley asked. “Jesus Christ, you said you checked in at eight.”

That was exactly what he’d done. “We don’t have time for this,” James said, letting the door swing shut behind them. He slid the deadbolt into place. “Listen, I didn’t want to say much outside, but I think the Foundation fucked up and they’re trying to hide it.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“No, I mean with the training specifically. They keep trying to push that they set up this whole training simulation. And I didn’t think they were telling the whole truth anyway because we’re running around Boston and I know the mayor didn’t just tell them, yeah, let’s go for it. But we’re trying to track down the source of an energy spike on the train lines and it’s already hurting people. Including at least two that aren’t involved in any way. One was burned, and we didn’t talk to her because apparently the cops didn’t know the Foundation would be there. And the other one…” He took a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “She was this kid from Rhode Island and I don’t know how she’s old enough to be a captain. But it threw her back on the platform. And I know she’s alive, but I don’t know if she’s okay okay, you know? And I’m not sure what to do beyond keep playing their little game and solve it before someone gets killed.”

He was full on rambling now and he knew it. But he’d been holding that in ever since Jessamyn had brought up her own concerns in that tiny bathroom stall. It wasn’t safe to talk at Headquarters and even if his car was safe, he’d been alone in it until he’d picked up Bradley. 

But the car might not have been safe anyway because planting bugs wasn’t entirely outside of the realm of possibility with the Foundation. It was unlikely, he knew that. James’s luggage had been in his car the entire time, so unless someone had broken in (not difficult, his car sucked. But hopefully they wouldn’t do that), there was nothing that he could have brought in with him. 

Thankfully, no one outside of the North Worcester County team knew he was staying at this hotel, so they couldn’t have gotten to it first. It was finally safe to talk.

He saw Bradley’s gaze go from the scattered tools and notebooks on the desk to the overturned suitcase and clothing on the bed closest to the balcony doors. “Do you think there’s a chance they bugged you?”

“No, I already…”

He motioned toward the mess and Bradley nodded, setting his own plastic shopping bags on the other bed. “So what do we do?” 

“I don’t know yet.”

“Who else knows about it?”

“Me. You. Um, Jessamyn out of Hampshire County. I think maybe Rosa from Palmer too, but I didn’t talk to her after the session.”

He pushed aside a pair of jeans and a hoodie and sat down on the edge of the bed as Bradley continued to stand. “I wouldn’t be surprised if others do too,” he continued. “It’s not like we’re the only ones who know how messed up the Foundation can be. And people in there were pissed. But I don’t know what will happen if they realize we know, you know?”

Bradley nodded, his expression closed off. James suddenly realized exactly how insane he must look right now. “You believe me, right?”

“Yeah, obviously.”

“I’m sorry I’m dragging you into this too.”

“It’s the Foundation, we literally do this every day.”

“Not like this,” James said. “They’re hiding something, but I can’t figure out what or why they’d do it.”

“And we’re working outside their bounds?”

“Yeah.”

“Like we did at Halloween? And kind of did at your aunt’s?”

Okay, he had a point. “Those weren’t in the Foundation’s backyard, though,” James said. “And they think that I think that this is still a training exercise.”

“Then we deal with it.”

Bradley sat down on the other bed and kicked off his dress shoes. Like the rest of his outfit, they were clearly expensive and well cared for. That had obviously been a date that James pulled him away from. But he wasn’t going to share and James could only appreciate the fact that he was here.

“Let’s get some pizza or something, I’m really hungry. What do you want?”

Bradley shrugged, looking around the dingy room. “Whatever you want,” he said. “I need a shower.”

He glanced into the small bathroom with distaste, then went inside, closing the door behind him. Some of the tension left James’s shoulders as he pulled out his phone to look up pizza pickup in the area. Even a scowling familiar face was already making him feel better about this whole situation.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 9