The keynote speaker wrapped up her presentation and there was another, slightly more solid round of applause as she stepped away from the podium. She was then replaced by McGovern, the liaison between the Massachusetts branches and the main Foundation.

“Thank you, Ariel, for that speech,” McGovern said as he also clearly glanced at a text he’d just received. “We’ll be sure to keep those words of wisdom in mind as we come into a new year of working for our fellow man.”

James had so much he could be doing right now. Even if he wasn’t allowed to sneak into work, he could still clean his own apartment. He and Graham did their best, but both worked ridiculous hours at the Foundation, with Graham chilling with ghosts at the Cleary House on the side. Or maybe he could unpack the two boxes that had been sitting in the living room since they moved into their place back in February. He could also get started on the list of complaints that Bradley had been bringing to him and he’d been diligently writing down. There were emails piling up, and he knew it. This was an enormous waste of time. But beside him, Rosa was listening seemingly attentively to McGovern as he laid out the schedule for the morning.

The first session was about budgeting, featuring a glitchy slideshow. As they went through each slide, James realized it was all the information he’d needed and hadn’t had when he took over his branch. Even after they’d finally sent over the training materials, the information he needed hadn’t been in the modules. Instead, he’d had to piece it together over several months of increasingly irritating meetings with both Bradley and McGovern. And now here it was, laid out in a nice little powerpoint presentation at the front of the room, with printouts available for everybody to bring home if they wanted to. And it even included a few shortcuts he hadn’t known before. If he wasn’t so frustrated, he’d be grateful.

Typical. 

The second session started after half an hour of information that would have been incredibly useful about ten months ago. This one was about new and established groups of paranormal creatures and entities that had been moving throughout the New England region. The vampire nest in Westminster was still there, which was fucking lovely. Nothing he liked more than having to deal with vampires, and he didn’t know why they weren’t allowed to eradicate that one. Especially considering the deeply unpleasant experiences he had had with vampires over the course of the past decade. Not many of them, but enough that he didn’t want to play coy with any that happened across his path. 

The populations in the ocean were changing, most likely due to climate change. On the other side of the room, the captain from one of two Barnstable County branches on Cape Cod whispered something with a captain from one of the coastal Maine counties and James took a brief second to thank God that the Nashua River didn’t have much in the way of monsters. Sure, they had to manage the Leominster State Forest and the cryptids it contained, but that wasn’t something that stretched all the way to Europe. At least, as far as James knew.

Central Massachusetts hadn’t shifted much over the past few years, which wasn’t surprising. James honestly couldn’t remember the last big change to their spooky little ecosystem. Things had remained fairly stable in the region and from what he’d heard, that was the same in South Worcester, Franklin County, and Hampden County. He should spend more time talking shop with the central and western Massachusetts branches after this training. It wasn’t like most things they dealt with cared about county lines. Specific ghosts, maybe. But not much else.

And in theory, he should also be working closely with southern New Hampshire. But he wasn’t dealing with that while Patrick was still in charge.

They had basic printed schedules for the two days of training, showing when sessions would take place, but none of their content. So it was a surprise immediately after lunch when Harding, the showstopper from the opening remarks, got up in front of the room.

“We have an exciting afternoon planned,” he said, practically rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “We’re going to have you put those captaincy skills to the test with a simulated case in the city of Boston! Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt?”

The Suffolk County captain was sitting at the table beside James and Rosa and James saw her roll her eyes. She glanced at James and he couldn’t help the slightest bit of a laugh that came out silently as they both turned back toward the front of the room.

“This is not only a test of your skills, but also your overall competency and ability to work within a team. There is no ‘I’ in team, everyone is essential to its success. But your role is very specific. As captain, you have to be a leader. You know that already, of course. But if you want to be a real leader, you need to be aware of your actions at all times and how they impact your team.”

James had received a similar lecture in his training modules months back. Pillar of the community, a role model for his team. Someone they can come to with any concerns and who doesn’t pass his own concerns, worries, or personal life on to them. The buck stops here, the one who makes the tough decisions. James was listening, but his thoughts were more on the practical training that they’d just sprung on them. A scavenger hunt mock case? He’d never heard of anything like that and was pretty sure Amelia would have told him if something similar happened in one of her many training sessions. But if he texted her right now to ask, she’d kill him.

“Anyway, that’s enough chit chat from us,” Harding said with a smile as James realized he’d missed the last part of his speech. “Lets get your teams together and we’ll get started on the fun part of the day!”

***

James was teamed up with two other captains for the practical training exercise. The first was Rosa, who gave him a high five like they were back in high school math class. The second was the captain from Hampshire County. She was a small woman with dark skin and long braids, wearing jeans and a Foundation t-shirt. She smiled widely at James and shook his hand as soon as she got to his and Rosa’s table.

“Jessamyn Roy,” she said. 

“James McManus,” he replied, returning her brisk handshake.

Once the teams were settled in, the Foundation aide at the side of the room came by with folders for everybody.

“You’re all being assigned a station,” Harding said from the podium. “We’re receiving strange energy readings in different places throughout the city, and it’s your job to track down the source and contain it.”

If this was anything like the strange energy readings that Robin had talked about in the months before his death, James was ready for an exciting afternoon full of nothing. He took the folder with a nod of thanks to the young man passing it to him, then set it on the table between him, Jessamyn, and Rosa. 

“This will be a fun change of pace!” Harding continued with a wide smile. “Think of it like a scavenger hunt. Strange things are afoot in the MBTA tunnels and you’re going to find the cause.”

That…just sounded like an ordinary case. And not particularly like the scavenger hunts James had participated in as a child. He glanced over at Rosa, who didn’t seem overly impressed with what was happening either. “I was hoping we’d go over the new tech they mentioned in the email chain last week,” she whispered to him.

He didn’t remember that chain, but still had to agree that it would be a much better use of time than a simulated case. 

“You’ve got your teams,” Harding continued. “And your station assignments are in your folder, along with instructions on how to get there. You’ll receive energy detection tools to determine which path to take as you search for the source of the strange readings. Your station assignment is simply a starting point. You can search the entire length of the MBTA.”

A hand went up near the front. “Does that include the commuter rail and ferries?”

Either of those sounded like an appealing course of action. On one hand, James could go on a boat. He did like boats.

On the other hand, the commuter rail could drop him off in Leominster.

“No, subway lines only,” Harding said, dashing both of those plans. “But that leaves plenty of space to explore.”

Rosa opened the flimsy manila folder. “Park Street,” she read with a shrug. “That’s close enough to here.”

There actually wasn’t much information provided, which was a little strange for a planned training case. The paper inside the folder said exactly what Harding had just described: the Foundation had detected the energy at all the given stations and teams needed to find the source and contain it without causing disruption to the MBTA.

“You need to do this yourself,” Harding said from the podium as they all talked in a low murmur below him. “No disrupting the transit schedule in order to get ahead. I don’t want to hear about any delayed trains.”

“We can’t work miracles,” one captain, a middle-aged man, said from across the room.

“I said don’t disrupt service,” Harding said with an almost genuine smile. “The rest is on them.”

The same captain laughed almost reluctantly and Harding looked out over the group. “Treat it like you would a real live case, but with a bit of friendly competition. While you’re all working to solve it, the first team to find the source will get a prize!”

Oh fun. The last thing James felt like doing was competing. But there was enough excited chatter from the table behind them that James realized his thought process might not be universal here. 

A hand went up from a table nearby. “Are we all on separate cases?” the woman asked.

“Yes and no,” Harding said with a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes this time. “These strange energy readings have been spotted throughout the system, but you’re all going to start on different lines.”

“So we won’t have the same chance of winning?”

“Of course you will,” Harding answered smoothly. “Everyone does. You just need to use your training and intelligence to figure out the next steps once you arrive at your starting point.”

Oh, this was going to be a mess, wasn’t it? 

“But say someone ends up in Somerville and the source is in Dorchester,” the same woman, a thin thirty-something that he didn’t recognize, continued as Harding clearly went to move on. “How does a team starting at Davis Square have the same chance as someone starting at Savin Hill?”

“Everyone has an equal chance of winning!” Harding reiterated. “Now, let’s get out there before the sun starts setting! Everyone be back here for seven o’clock!”

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 5