Chapter 1 - Hostage Situation

Cecily stood in front of a big screen in a dimly lit room. She clicked a button on the remote she was holding and a neon blue mushroom appeared on the screen. "This is the blue devil, it's a schedule 1 drug. It's more deadly than fentanyl. Anyone found with any on their person or in their system gets a life sentence. No parole."

Harrington looked around the room at the other FBI agents. None of them seemed to question the dubious and unscientific claims. Cecily continued talking. But her words were overshadowed by the existential crisis in Harrington's head. "Am I getting paid to hunt down an innocent man? Am I just another cog in the machine, grinding up people to meet arrest quotas? Am I the problem? Or are they right and did I just poison my best friend?"

Cecily clicked the button and a picture of Marshall and Francis appeared on the screen. "This is Marshall Cuso and Francis Applewhite. They're the ones who brought the blue devil here and started growing it." Click. "This is the town of Averesboro North Carolina. Their water supply was intentionally contaminated with the mushrooms. And they're the ones who did it." She said as she clicked back to the picture of Marshall and Francis.

"Wait, I saw Marshall leaving town before the water supply got contaminated. There were tons of people at the crime scene too." Harrington replied.

Cecily glared at her. "You mean to tell me you let him get away twice?"

"Wait no I told-"

"This debriefing is over. Harrington, come see me in my office."

Harrington started to sweat. Nothing scared her. Except Cecily and her habit of making anyone who disagreed with her a wanted criminal. "You wanted to talk?" She said, trying to sound as casual as possible as she sat down in front of Cecily's desk.

Cecily closed the door and walked up to her, looming over her. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"What?"

"Your best friend gets shot right in the lung, survives, and now you're defending the mushroom guy."

"Okay if you have beef with me then do something about it. But leave Capano out of this. He doesn't work for you anymore."

"Oh I will leave him out of it, if you can get the two most dangerous criminals behind bars. Otherwise Your friend is getting a court mandated blood test. When he's positive for the mushroom, both of you are going to be locked up forever."

Harrington's heart palpitated. She had a choice. Abandon her morals and be under this dictator's thumb forever, or see the only person she truly cared about be imprisoned just because she valued his life more than the law. She decided to throw her morals to the wind.

Meanwhile in Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Francis half listened as Marshall went on a tangent about soil pH and phytonutrients. "So you can't simply grow them with your garden variety fertilizer, you need tortoise dung."

"Marshall"

"But the good news is Zayne knows where to get more-"

"Marshall!"

"What?"

"We can talk about tortoise dung tomorrow. We both just drove from the east coast to California in like two days. We need to take a break. Let's check this place out." She held up a brochure for the park they were at and pointed to a section about a hot spring.

"That's actually not a bad idea. I think I need to take a beat. I'm still hallucinating a little, unless there's actually a weird little guy sitting on your head."

"You're definitely hallucinating." She laughed, "come on." She took his hand and they started climbing down the rock formations to the hot spring.

They couldn't have picked a better time of day to make the half mile trek to the hot spring, the orange sun was setting in the distance and a few crepuscular critters were out and about. When they arrived at the edge of the water, Marshall scanned the surroundings. He felt uneasy despite the complete lack of people and commotion, he couldn't place why though.

"Alright I'll get in but I'm not taking my clothes off, I already have an arson I don't need to add an indecency to the list." He said as he stepped into the water.

Francis rolled her eyes. "There's nobody here, but suit yourself." She dropped her shirt on a rock and followed him in.

He stared off into the distance "How are we even going to do this? I wasn't able to get any of the mushrooms before I escaped. Hildy's got them. She's probably not even using them to help people. God I bet she's using them to try to control people like MKUltra except instead of the CIA it's just one crazy old lady and her goons."

"She got raided by the FBI, she's probably in jail. And anyways you'll figure it out, I mean you figured out how to bring the dead back to life."

He took a deep breath and looked at her. "You're probably right, I should try to take my mind off it."

"Exactly, you spend so much time trying to help everybody else. Why not focus on what you want for a night?"

"You know what, I think I will." He moved closer and slid his hand around her waist. She leaned in to kiss him. But the instant before their lips could touch, the sound of an engine revving interrupted them.

Harrington drove down the highway on her motorcycle. She looked around at the sandy landscape of Joshua Tree. There was nobody around except for some lizards and cacti. Perfect. No witnesses. She pulled into the RV park where Marshall was staying. There were a few other campers there, but people were either inside or away. She tried the handle on the door, it didn't budge. She picked up a rock, smashed the window and climbed through. The lights were off and the camper was unoccupied except for the one signal resident who was illuminated by a heat lamp. "Sorry buddy, nothing personal, it's just business." She said as she extended her hands to pick up the tortoise. A catchy song snapped her out of the moment. It was her best friend's ring tone. She put the tortoise down and answered immediately.

"Capano? Oh my god I'm so glad to hear from you, are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay, you know that, you're the one who-"

"Hey hey I didn't do anything."

"Chill, I was going to say you're the one who called for help when I got shot. I know how phones work, I'm a detective too dummy."

"Right." She sighed with relief. "But how are you feeling, are you having any um after effects? From being shot I mean."

"Hm. I have been seeing some weird stuff, almost like there's a whole other world that's been here all along, but I'm the only one who can see it."

"Okay so you're basically how you always are."

"Hah, yeah pretty much. Oh you know who came to visit me when I was in the hospital? My ex wife and the kids."

"Oh that's great."

"What the hell are you doing here!?" Marshall shouted as he opened the door. Francis arrived at the door just a few seconds after, looking just as shocked as he did.

Harrington hung up the phone, grabbed Socrates and put her pistol to his shell. "Don't move." She said coldly.