Sitting around the conference room table, the team remains quiet. Tense. Colonel Cullen sits at the head of the table, his eyes narrowed and his fingers steepled as he stares at Alice's vision on the massive screen.
"How confident are you that this is what you said," he asks Alice without looking at her.
"Very, sir. Bel- Agent Eliz verified it."
The Colonel sighs. "And you checked it as well, Captain?"
Edward ignores the desire to shift in his seat. He listened to the recording of Alice's mutters and groans. It sounds like it matches the words on the screen but he has no confidence in it. Everything is unfamiliar again. "I did."
Training is canceled for the day as the team devotes itself to trying to figure out the vision. Jacob sits with his hands in his lap, bored and out of his element. Emmett's arms cross his chest as he leans back in his chair. Alice and Bella occasionally jot down a note before striking through it in annoyance. It's late in the morning, and the team feels no closer than they did when Alice had the vision the afternoon prior.
"If I could just figure out where..." Alice says, under her breath.
"Shhh," Bella says. The tap of her pen seems louder than reality.
Edward stares at the screen. He memorized the words an hour ago and now they float in and out of his thoughts. River eyes... Bella's angry eyes... Nailed with blood... Emmett quietly returning to Edward's house... Death-filled sky... Awkwardly returning the team to the facility...
"I have a question," he says, before he even realizes he is talking. "Do you take homonyms in to account?"
Bella's face tightens, but she sits back and exhales. Her brain hurts.
"Yeah," she says. "We try to, at least. Some words require a good guess."
"Like 'eyes?'"
With a quizzical look on her face, Alice looks up. "Eyes? If I remember correctly, my vision was a river actually looking east." She shoots a playful smile to Jacob. "Not literally," she adds.
"I know, but" Edward leans forward, aware that his idea could be incredibly stupid, "What if it's, like, not a metaphor..."
"So, it's the 'River eyes' like the letter I?" Emmett asks, incredulous.
"Maybe," Edward says. The ridiculousness of the theory makes his chest hurt, but it feels like the only productive thing he's done all day.
"Then it could be the Mississippi," Alice says. Her voice is soft, not necessarily believing the idea but definitely not dismissing it. "Maybe."
"Have your visions ever done anything like that?" Bella says.
Alice shrugs. "Not that we know. But there's always been a bit of vagueness to them."
"Every oracle is different," Colonel Cullen says, his reasoned voice stopping the discussion. "Agent Adele is still developing. At this point, we have no other options to explore."
The nervous ache in Edward's chest fades.
"Pull up the Mississippi," the Colonel directs.
Alice is already moving her fingers across the tablet in front of her. The words of the vision shrink and a map of the United States to appears. Search parameters appear along the bottom of the screen as they appear: 'Mississippi River,' 'East,' 'Twins.' Brightly colored dots appear scattered across the eastern seaboard: cities, landmarks, points, that all contain the word 'Twins.'
She continues tapping and a search database appears. The same parameters are copied in to it and lists appears with the name, age and location of every twin in the eastern United States.
"Little invasive," Edward says, absently though not the least bit surprised.
"This is nothing," Emmett replies.
"How should I narrow it down from here?" Alice asks, ending the brief levity.
"Every town has history," Bella says, focused on her notes. "We can't narrow that down until we know what we're looking for. 'Cardiac hospitals,' maybe, for 'Town of hearts?'"
Her head swims with theories and ideas. Blood runs hot through her neck as if her brain is drinking it from the rest of her body. The tips of her fingers tingle. Visions, the stress of them, the importance, the need to think uniquely is one of her favorite things to do. She wants to commend Edward for his idea, that the 'River eyes' could be the Mississippi, but she far too focused on solving the riddle. It's going to be a very long day for her.
"Charity?" Jacob says, not entirely confident. "Like, highest levels of donations?"
For hours they fail to find the town of hearts. The Colonel brings in sandwiches for those who want them. Discussion is sporadic as their minds tire.
"It would be great if we knew what we were looking for," Edward says, exhaustion thick in his voice.
"Everything is too vague," Bella says. She sits back and rubs her shoulders.
"Goddammit," Alice suddenly says, under her breath like an angry 'Eureka.' She drops her head, letting it land lightly on the table as she pushes her tablet aside. "Hartsville."
"Hartsville, Agent?" the Colonel asks.
"Hartsville," Alice repeats. "Town of hearts."
"That's it?" Emmett asks. It's the first he's spoken in over an hour.
"How did you find that?" Jacob asks, a bit impressed.
"Looking at a list of all the cities east of the river," she says, sitting back in her seat with an annoyed huff.
Bella can't help but smile as she looks to Edward. "Looks like Alice sees homonyms now."
"How many Hartsville are there?" Colonel Cullen's determined tone prevents Edward from responding to Bella with little more than a retuned grin.
"Two major ones," Alice reads. "Tennessee and South Carolina."
"Pull up Tennessee," Edward says, standing. Tennessee sits on the river and he instinctively feels it's the safer bet to start with. The sudden rush of information is energizing.
A satellite image appears on the screen, revealing a grey triangle in a lush field of green. It's surrounded by pockets of woods, and smaller pockets of houses and buildings. Just south, a dark green river cuts a winding path through the valleys and trees that surround the small city. Remote and quaint. Along side the image, a series of statistics appear that Alice reads off with a rote cadence.
"Settled late seventeen-hundreds... Just over two thousand people... A small battle occurred here during the Civil War." She continues on.
"There's our history," Emmett says.
"What on earth could be happening at a place like this?" Edward says to himself, as he stares at the quiet-looking community. He keeps his arms crossed as he returns to his seat.
"We have ground contacts in Tennessee?" Colonel Cullen says.
"We do, sir," Bella confirms.
Edward bites his lip. Alice had mentioned ground contacts before; certain creatures that remain hidden throughout the country that provide intelligence to Lilim in exchange for protection. It was an off-hand tidbit, but hearing the Colonel mention them makes his stomach sink. This is for real. He's going to be leading the team on a real mission.
"Whoa," Jacob says as he leans over his tablet. "That's cool."
"Is it about Hartsville?" Alice asks, patiently.
"Yeah. They have an abandoned nuclear plant."
The room grows instantly still at the words. Absently, Bella fingers her oleander charm.
"Can you put that up on screen?" Edward asks.
"Sure, um..." Jacob taps his tablet, his forehead wrinkled as he works, "Let me... yeah. There." The statistics on the screen are replaced with a simple picture, split along the middle by a row of thick trees. Along the bottom, yellow grass; on top, a gray monolithic cooling tower stands in the distance like an imposing giant against a white sky.
"Holy shit, that's it," Alice says. Her eyes widen and her mouth drops, breathing deeply. She runs her fingers through her hair.
Clearing her throat, Bella reads the information from her tablet; "The Hartsville Nuclear Plant began construction in 1975 and was funded..." She skims ahead. "Construction on the site was canceled in 1984 after the completion of one of the cooling towers."
"Why was it canceled?" Jacob asks.
"Money is the official reason," Bella says after reading further.
"Agent Adele," the Colonel says as he stands, "See if there are any other reasons in the area for that plant to have been closed when it appears fairly close to completion."
"Yes, sir." Alice says, smartly.
"Agent Eliz."
Bella looks up at the senior officer with tired eyes.
"Get in touch with our ground contact in that region. Maybe sneak in to the facility." He stops and scrunches his nose in a moment of thought. "What type of contact do we have there?"
"A yunwi, sir."
Annoyed resignation flashes momentarily over Colonel Cullen's face.
She glances at Edward and gives a tired smile. "I'll schedule a meeting and fly there tonight."
For a moment, Edward forgets to breath. He knew the team would be busy preparing for the mission, but the sudden pace seems to tighten around his throat. He was hoping, counting, on Bella being there this evening. To talk to about what was coming. Now she's going to be gone.
"Good," the Colonel says. "Captain Masen."
Edward stands as the Colonel leaves the conference room, ending the meeting.
"Good job, Jacob," Edward says, patting him on the back as he walks around the table.
"Thanks," the young soldier says. The broad smile of pride covers his face as Alice winks at him.
"I'll speak with you all in a bit," Edward says, as he walks out of the office.
Colonel Cullen waits across the hall, the familiar, impassive scowl on his face.
"Yesterday go well?" he asks. It's hard to tell if it's curiosity or a challenge.
"It did, sir." Edward's heart pounds with each word, louder in his ears than the steps he takes as he walks with the Colonel down the hall. The party feels like so long ago. "The team seemed to get a lot out of it."
"That's good." The senior officer's words are measured.
"It helped me, I would say," Edward adds, filling the nervous quiet. "I got a good feel for what managing them in the field will be like." The statement sits in his stomach; a disconcerting truth that he wishes he had kept to himself. It makes his arms numb as if he is weaker for admitting it.
The Colonel says nothing. Their steps echo until they reach his office door.
"You don't have much time," the Colonel says, coldly. "Get blue prints of that plant and start planning."
"Yes, sir."
"This is all on you now." Colonel Cullen opens his door. "I would hate to see you dead within the week. We've spent a lot of time on you."
Edward clenches his teeth and tugs on the sides of his black jacket as the door shuts in his face.