When Alice woke up the next morning, it was with a clear mind. After leaving Hadley's office, the previous day was a blur of naps and bad tv, but it was perhaps the break her mind had needed.

Despite being pretty much equally upset with Luka and Hadley, she had made a decision. She had already made the decision the day before, but it had been hazy, unfinished. She had to see this case through, for the sake of her own survival, but she also had to think about securing her future. It should be easy for her to leave, when this was all over. It wasn’t too late to choose law school, but she didn’t want to. Not now, when she was finally able to commit to this life, now that her mom finally let her, even if Ravi was still an obstacle. She dressed in the closest thing to business formal she owned, aside from her uniform — a gray pencil skirt and a sleeveless terracotta shirt — and went to meet Hadley in his office.

It was still early, and the air carried the slight chill, that would soon be burned away by the sun. She should probably have stopped for breakfast, especially since she wasn't even sure Hadley would be in yet, but she had half-way convinced herself that he would say no and she wanted to get it over with. She was wearing pumps with the outfit, something she didn't particularly enjoy, and had to take the stroll across the courtyard slower than she usually would. The sun was casting long shadows across the ground and she kept slipping in and out of darkness, but the crest was brightly illuminated as she stepped across it.

The glass tower, on the other hand, was mostly in shadow. The colors were dimmed, and painted the ground with only the barest hint of different hues. The inside also felt colder, somehow, without the colors shimmering across her skin, despite the fact that it was essentially a hothouse. Her heels clicked sharply across the hallway floor, and made her feel both important and exposed. She tapped twice on the door, before trying the handle. It opened, and she let herself inside.

Hadley looked startled by her appearance, as she strode into the office.

She had come with determination, with a prepared speech, but now she faltered.

"Hadley," she said, her voice soft. She couldn't help it. "Did you sleep at all?"

He was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and he looked pale and gray, washed out. Alice sat down gingerly.

"I'm fine," he croaked. He did not seem fine.

"Look, I came here to discuss my role in this job going forward. Why don't we make it a breakfast meeting?"

He blinked at her, slowly. It took a few seconds, but then he nodded. "Okay."

People were always going in and out of the food hall, and since it was morning, it wasn't exactly empty. It wasn't where Alice would have wanted to have this conversation, and by the looks of it, Hadley didn't want to be here at all. He was watching people with suspicion, but without looking directly at anyone, as if he was afraid it might trigger some sort of event, where he would have to engage in conversation with them. She watched him pick his food with little enthusiasm, and got extra for herself. He grabbed a glass of juice, so she poured two cups of coffee. She guided them outside, where he could get some fresh air, and much needed sunshine, and hoped it wasn't too out in the open. She placed one cup of coffee in front of him, and sat down.

She watched him eat, silently, while absently prodding at her own food. Luka was gone, had joined the dark side, and they were supposed to rely on Hadley now, but Hadley looked broken. He didn't look capable of saving anyone, least of all himself. When he finished his food, she pushed her plate towards him, with the extra toast and fruit she had picked for him. He was sipping his coffee, but stopped to frown at her.

"Do you want to talk about how you're doing, or do you want to eat?" Alice asked.

Hadley sighed, but pulled the plate towards him.

Satisfied, she finally started the speech she had prepared.

“Do you remember, when you were prepared to hand the entire case over to me?”

“Yes,” Hadley said, “and you told me it wasn’t fair to you.”

“Right. Because it wasn’t, but I do have something to offer to this case. I just can’t do it alone.” This was the hard part, and she took a breath. “This is no longer a job for an Agent. This case will not be solved in the field, but rather with strategy and leadership. Which is why I don’t need an Agent. I need you.”

Despite her every effort, the statement rang hollow now that she was sitting in front of the fractured remains of Hadley Thomas.

Hadley knew it, too. He sounded highly skeptical when he said, "Me."

"Yes," she said. "Luka was right about one thing. You're the one who's going to stop this, and I want to be there when you do. I want to see this through, Hadley, and I think I'll be an asset to you."

Hadley stabbed a piece of melon with his fork. "Luka took out his tracker."

"What?" Alice asked.

"I have nothing, Alice."

He chewed the melon aggressively, and stabbed another piece of fruit. "I don't know how to find them now. I have no moves left."

"So you're giving up, too?" She couldn't believe it. Everyone were too ready to claim defeat as if lives weren't on the line — as if their own lives weren't.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"What do you think I've been doing all night?" Hadley asked wearily. "I've tried to come up with something else, but I don't know what else we can do."

"What about the Oracles?" Alice asked. "You can still track Luka that way."

Hadley held up his arm, the one with a red plastic armband hanging around his wrist. "They're not going to let me anywhere near the Oracles."

"Right," Alice said. "Are you really going to let everyone die, before you try to negotiate with them?"

Hadley shrugged. "Probably not, but I need Council approval, and they're not giving it until someone important enough gets infected."

"Their children aren't important?" Alice asked, masking the first thought she had, which was: Hadley Thomas wasn’t important enough. That realization was probably responsible for at least one of his cracks, and there was no need to break him further.

"It originated in Mutiny. For now I think they might have decided it's for the best."

"Do you agree?"

He cast his eyes down, which was answer enough. She wondered if his answer would have been different before Luka's betrayal. She wondered if he was considering himself in this, or if he was trying not to.

"I think he was right," she ventured. "I think it might be the only option we have left."

"Yeah, well. If that's our only option, we have to either come up with something else, or wait for the Council to change their minds."

"Luka thought you could do this, Hadley. You're the only one who can."

"Don't," he said. "Don't. I was never the hero, that was all Luka. If he isn't going to save us, no one is. Certainly not me."

Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine," she said. "Do you at least have someone watching Luka? Watching the hospital?"

"What?" He looked nearly startled. "We don't know where Luka is, and — what hospital?"

Giving up Luka felt like releasing wasps into her stomach, digging their way out through her skin. She shivered, but forced herself to focus. Right now Hadley was more important than her doubts. Hadley badly needed purpose, before he sunk himself into a depression. "We know where Luka goes when he doesn't go home. We know where he met the terrorists the first time. They probably don't have an infinite number of hideouts, and they don't know we know about that one. They might come back."

"Right," he said. "Of course."

"Okay," she said. "Do you accept me as your apprentice?"

Hadley nodded. "I guess I do."

"Great," Alice said, flashing him a smile. "Then let's get to work."

Once they arrived back in Hadley's office, Alice watched intently as he called Agents and gave them their new tasks. She clung to every detail, just in case something turned out to be important, but she wasn't given much to work with. They were all short conversations, barely more than a greeting and an objective. He sent a couple to the apartment building, and a small group to the hospital, telling them all not to enter, only to watch. When he was done, he leaned back heavily in his chair.

"You should get some sleep," Alice said. "I'll wake you if something happens."

"I'm fine," he said, but his eyes were closed.

"You're not fine," Alice insisted. "The virus spreads with your heartbeat. You need to allow yourself to rest, to give yourself more time."

"I'm fine, Alice."

"You don't trust me." If they were just waiting, he shouldn't have been so opposed to resting. Except then she would be alone in his office.

He blinked his eyes open with effort. "You still believe in him, don't you?"

She looked him straight in the eyes as she lied. "He infected us both to save himself. No, Hadley. I don't."

"Sorry," he said. "I don't know if I should believe you."

Alice clicked her nails against the worn leather of the armrest. "Is there anything else I can do?"

Hadley buried his face in his hands, which left Alice wondering if he had fallen asleep, as the seconds ticked by.

"You can tell Benjamin his tracker is useless," he finally muttered.

"Benjamin?" Alice asked.

Hadley removed his hands, and leaned forward. "Never mind." He sighed. "I don't know, Alice. Take the day off. I'll call if anything changes."

"Hadley," she said. "I think you should at least talk to the Council. Present your case. We can't just wait around for something that might happen while people are dying."

Hadley raised an eyebrow. "And if I had taken you up on your offer?"

"Then I would have let you sleep. But you won't rest, so neither will I."

"Okay," Hadley said. "But, look, it's really not that simple. I know the Council's position on this, and they're not going to change their minds."

"Why not?"

"It's a question of balance, Alice. If they surrender any amount of power to the Rogues, that balance shifts. It becomes inevitable that more people will want the perceived freedom afforded to the Rouges, that they'll leave the Academy behind, and we're already short on Agents." He sighed. "Meanwhile, the real problem is that the Rogues think they can do whatever they want, but someone still has to clean up their messes, which falls to our Agents. More Rogues means less Agents, which means that things are more likely to fall through the cracks. They're only trying to keep the community safe."

"Right." Sure, it made sense, but only if you assumed you couldn't work with the Rogues at all. Only if you weren't willing to try. "So, what then? We wait?"

"We wait," Hadley confirmed. "The world doesn't stop because this guy is out there. We still have Agents in the field, on other tasks. There are still things that need to be done."

Alice nodded, absentmindedly. She was unclear on whether "this guy" was Luka or the bad guy, but she didn't press the issue. She was trying to think of something else, anything else they could do.

She could go to the apartment building, hope the concierge was the one she had already talked to, hope he might recognize her as someone Luka knew.

She could go back to any of the places she knew the bad guys had been, looking for clues the Agents might have missed.

It was all a waste of time, and she knew it. It would be more to keep herself busy, than because she thought it would actually get her anywhere. She glanced at Hadley, looking even paler in the glow from his laptop. "Walk me through it," she said. "What are you doing?" While she was just sitting here, she might as well learn something. He waved her over to his side of the desk, and she perched on the corner of the table.

"All Agents have trackers." He tilted the screen towards her. He was looking at a map, red dots scattered across the surface like constellations. Most of them were clustered in pairs or small groups. "Some of them are looking into strange magical occurrences. Some are patrolling. Some have… other missions."

She chose to ignore the last part, knowing exactly what it meant. "How do you get reports of magical occurrences, if the Rogues aren't cooperating?"

"There are markers, in electrical grids, temperature changes, things we can watch for. There is the news, which is rarely helpful, but sometimes is. The Oracles spots Strays, of course, but sometimes they spot other things. I get the reports, and send a team."

"Don't you ever miss it?" Alice asked, leaning back on the desk. "Being out there?"

He hesitated, watching the dots move. "I don't think I was meant for that life," he said, which wasn't an answer. She wanted to ask what happened to him, but there was no way their relationship was ready for that question.

A knock sounded on the door, saving them from the promise of an awkward silence. A pair of Agents entered, coming to a stop in the middle of the room, nearly standing at attention. They were both in dark suits, a man and a woman. They both had dark hair, but the woman had dark skin, while the man was pale.

"Sir," the woman said. "We found Agent Barnes."

"Dead or alive?" Hadley asked.

"Alive, sir. He's in the hospital. He wants to see you."