The white fog sweeps outwards in a shimmering wave that floods the corner store, then draws back into itself, gathering into one place. Forming into something.

This ghost moment is not as old as the one that Ariana made. It shines a little brighter, melts itself into something with distinct, clean outlines.

When the white light stops its movements, settled into its shape - there’s a ghost woman standing in the corner store.

My fingers tighten around Aiden’s hand, my heart beating hard and fast. I hold onto him for a moment, then nervously let go and move towards the ghost for a better look.

She’s a tall, slender woman, with thick, shiny hair flowing around her shoulders. Her body is all soft curves, but there’s something strong and sharp about her posture. Her head is held high, her shoulders thrown back, her chin tilted up. She holds herself with obvious confidence, but she also looks tensed, poised. Her hands are in the pockets of her slacks.

I can’t make out too much else about what she’s wearing, her face, any of the finer details. She glows softly, formed of that pearlescent white light.

As soon as I get close to her, the memory starts, and she moves into action. I gasp and shiver as she strides right through me.

She paces down the aisle of the corner store nearest to the front door. Her hands stay in her pockets, but she’s got her head turned towards the now boarded-up windows, like she’s staring out through them. Waiting for something.

She pauses, checks the windows, and then sweeps something out of her clothes. I have to step closer to see what it is. When I do, I freeze to the spot, pressing my fingertips over my mouth.

I can only discern the barest outlines of it, but this woman is definitely holding a gun. A pistol.

I suddenly remember the discussion that Team Ghost Office had about the weapon that killed John Botswick. It was a Colt Government, a single-action pistol. Standard-issue spy fare. John Botswick had one, we know - so we assumed he’d been shot with his own gun.

But it looks like this woman has one, too.

As I watch, she starts expertly maneuvering her fingers around it, sliding and unlocking different parts, examining them - doing a field-check. Making sure that everything is working properly.

She finishes up, tucks it away again, and resumes pacing.

The Colt Government was standard among spies, and this woman has one. She's around the same height as the white-haired woman I saw outside of Finley’s office. She carries herself the same way. I can't make out the fine features of her face, but I can see that her lips are a deep color, almost like - like she's wearing lipstick.

“Rouge,” I say softly, and hear Aiden take in a sharp breath behind me.

Rouge doesn’t hear me, of course. She keeps up her swift strides, stalking up and down the aisle - then stops sharply, peering out at the street. Before I can blink, she’s dropped out of sight of the windows, pressed herself up against the wall by the door. She peeks out through the glass of it, holding very still. Then she lets out a soft gasp, straightening up.

Another ghost woman steps through the door of the corner store. She’s in a simple, modest dress with a jumper beneath it. She has heavy bunches of curls, half of them pinned back, the rest kissing the tops of her shoulders.

She’s shorter than Rouge, and she stands in a timid way, like she’s trying to make herself small. I can’t discern any more visual details about her than I can about Rouge, except - I think I see some kind of line down her face, like a scar.

Her hands are shaking so badly that I can make out their movements.

She makes a soft, trembling little noise when she sees Rouge, who instantly pulls her into a tight embrace.

“Darling, what are you doing here?” Rouge holds her close, then takes her by the shoulders and pushes her back. “I’m supposed to meet with him - he’s going to be here any minute! I told you, we have to be particularly careful-”

“I know,” the other woman stammers, unsteadily dragging her sleeve over her eyes. “I just - I had to see you.”

Rouge lets out a breath, peering down into her face. She glances up at the windows, does a careful scan of what’s outside. Then she sweeps the woman with the scar right off of her feet, takes her deeper into the shop.

My eyebrows fly up and my mouth drops open as Rouge pushes the woman up against the wall and places a long, intense kiss on her lips. The woman kisses her back, clutching at her, clinging tightly to her clothes.

I whip around to catch Aiden’s eye, then remember that he can’t see any of this. He’s watching me, not them.

Rouge breaks the kiss off, then gently strokes the other woman’s face.

“Rose,” she murmurs, her voice low and intimate. “Breathe, my love. It’s going to be okay.”

“Rose,” I say out loud, assigning a name to the ghostly face.

“How can you say that, Leyla?” Rose asks, her voice half a sob. “We have so much working against us, and you haven’t even flinched. Aren’t you scared?”

“Leyla,” I whisper, my eyes on Agent Rouge.

“Have faith, darling,” Leyla answers, taking Rose’s hands in hers. “Have faith in the plan. Have faith in us.”

“The plan - we don’t have time…” Rose sniffles, drops her head. “I thought we had more time.”

“I thought so, too.” Leyla bites her lip, gazing down at Rose. “Command is moving much quicker than I thought they would, and now everything is happening so fast… Moves are being made without anyone telling me. I didn’t even know he was coming until he was already here.”

“Why? Why wouldn’t anyone tell you-?”

“Because, love, I’m afraid - I’m afraid that-”

Leyla cuts herself off, her gaze snapping back to the windows. In a graceful movement almost too swift for me to catch, she puts Rose behind her, shielding her from the door. I see the glint of something shiny in her hand.

The Colt. Leyla got it out so fast, I didn’t even see it happen.

She holds perfectly still for a moment, her feet apart in a firing stance, both hands on her weapon, which is aimed at the ground. Then she lets out a relieved exhale, turning back to Rose.

“I thought I heard someth-”

“Why do you have that on you?” Rose interrupts, her voice fractured with alarm. “You - you weren’t planning on-?”

“Darling, of course not.” Leyla tucks her pistol away again, then cups Rose’s face in her hands. “I’m only prepared to defend myself, because - I was just about to tell you. I think he might suspect me. He knows that I’m keeping things from him.”

There’s a heavy silence, and then Leyla adds: “He’s keeping things from me, too. He has plans that I don’t know about, I’m sure of it.”

“That’s why I’m so afraid,” Rose says, suddenly near tears again. “The others before him were bad, but - I don’t know how to explain it. He sounds - he sounds - he’s going to do something terrible, if we don’t stop him. I can hear it. I swear, somehow I can hear it already.”

My eyes widen as the realization breaks over my head. I put my fingers over my mouth, staring at the Guardian of Port Sitka as a ghostly tear rolls down her cheek.

Leyla smooths it away, then bends to press a kiss onto her mouth.

“I won’t let him,” she says, determined. “We won’t let him.”

Rose lets out a teary, helpless sound.

“You’re really willing to face this fight, Leyla? For me?” She hangs her head again, her voice breaking apart. “I can’t run. My Tree is here, this is my home. But you can run. You could get away clean. I keep waiting for you to break down and change your mind, but then every time I look at you, you’re - snorting fire, facing this head-on, putting on your armor - ready for the warpath.”

She stops, takes a staggering breath, and seizes Leyla’s clothes again.

“Don’t you know what we’re up against?” she asks, her voice trembling. “Don’t you ever surrender?”

“Only to you, darling.” Leyla gazes down at her, her voice rich with love. “And I’ve done that completely, with all my soul.”

Rose looks up at her, and their eyes meet. There’s a silence between the two of them, full of meaning.

“I love you,” Leyla says softly, locking her arms around Rose’s waist. “I won’t let them take you away from me. I won’t let them take Charlie, either. I’m keeping you both right here, with me. I swear, Rose. I swear on my life.”

Rose stays silent for another moment, then suddenly buries her face into the curve of Leyla’s neck, flings her arms around her.

They hold onto each other, and hold on tight.

“What do we do?” Rose asks, very quietly.

“We stick to the plan.” Leyla eases her back and looks into her eyes. “We outmaneuver them. We let them underestimate us. They always do.”

Rose nods slowly, tries to take a breath. Leyla smooths another tear off of her cheek with her thumb.

“The people I work for have a phrase they like to use,” she tells Rose. “Domination of the battlespace. It means being the one in control during an engagement with the enemy.”

“Okay…”

“We’re going to let them think they have it. We’ll let him think he has it. That’s how we pull this off.”

“Okay.” Rose takes another shaky breath, but this one is a little deeper. “Okay.”

“Stick to the plan,” Leyla insists again, weaving her fingers through Rose’s. “We do that, no one gets hurt. Is there any way you can go faster, with your part?”

“I’m doing my best,” Rose says, exhaustion woven through her voice. “But it’s a complex piece of magic, and I literally only have so much energy to give it in a day… and I’ve never attempted anything like it before. It’s far from perfect…”

“Don’t fret, love.” Leyla smooths her hands up and down Rose’s arms. “Just keep working.”

“It’s just - it takes up all of my focus and energy, which means I can’t babysit Charlie. I have to leave him alone with Jahn and Scholz. They’re barely even watching him. They leave him alone all the time. That agent could take Charlie so easily, if he tried.”

“But he doesn’t know that,” Leyla says, thinking as she speaks. “When I meet with him, I’ll make him think the opposite. I’ll say that I made some kind of mistake and tipped off Scholz and Jahn. I’ll tell him that they're on high alert, now, that they’re suspicious, that this is the wrong time to try anything. I’ll try to slow this down. Buy us some time.”

“Will that work? Can you sell that?”

“For you?” Leyla trails her knuckles over Rose’s cheek. “And for Charlie? I can do anything. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you both safe. Whatever it takes.”

Rose blinks up at her, suddenly quiet. I think I understand why. Leyla sounds fearless. Ablaze with strength and conviction. Her words are calmly spoken, unwavering - but fiery, her voice filled with courage.

Rose is watching her intently, and her hands have finally stopped shaking. She pauses, then lets out a soft laugh.

“You could lead revolutions and rebellions, you know,” she says affectionately, wrapping her arms around Leyla’s waist. “They’re awfully lucky they haven’t had you working against them this whole time.”

Leyla stops, surprised, then lets out a little laugh of her own. She puts her arms around Rose, too.

For a few silent seconds, they just hold each other.

Leyla lets go, then takes a deep breath. “I’ve got to get you out of here, before he shows up.”

“Shouldn’t you stay?” Rose swipes the back of her hand over her wet eyes. “What will he think if you don’t meet up with him?”

“I’ll meet him later. I’ll go to his hotel, talk to him there.”

Leyla strides across to the counter, goes behind it, and takes something from behind the register. I rush after her to see what she’s doing, and find her writing a note.

It simply says: Meeting’s off.

She tucks it beneath the register, so that only the very corner of the page sticks out. Then she drags her thumb across her lips.

She presses her thumb onto the countertop, near the register, leaving behind a barely-there smear of lipstick. A signal, a hint at the location of the note.

The smudge of lipstick is the same ghostly white as everything else, but I’m willing to bet that in real life, it was a vivid shade of red.

Leyla steps back, brushing her fingers off, and hurries over to Rose again.

“Come on, love,” she says softly, holding out a hand. “I’ll take you home.”

Rose takes her outstretched hand, but doesn’t move.

“Leyla... I meant what I said before. I don’t want you to hurt anyone. Not even that agent. I know that you’ll do whatever it takes to keep us safe, but - please. Promise me you’ll only do that if you have no other choice. Only if you have no other choice.”

“Of course,” Leyla says, without a second of hesitation. She lifts Rose’s hand to her mouth, kisses her knuckles. “I promise.”

She tugs on Rose’s fingers, and they hurry together towards the back door of the corner store.

Before they can get there, they both melt into pools of white smoke that spread onto the floor, then dissolve.

I turn back to the counter, and find the column of featureless white mist there. The ghost moment is over. The shimmering fog flows gently in place, giving me the option to start it again.

I stare at it for a long, silent minute, then turn very slowly to face Aiden.

He blinks when he sees the thunderstruck look on my face.

“What?” he rumbles. “Did you get some new information?”

I let out a dazed laugh, then put one hand on my hip, run the other one over my mouth.

“Ah - yeah, I did. Holy shit. Okay.” I take a second to catch my breath. My head is spinning from everything that I’ve just learned. “Alright, that was - there’s no way I can remember everything that was just said, so…”

I strategize silently, then slip my phone out of my pocket.

“I’m gonna, um - start the memory again, then record myself repeating back everything that they say,” I tell Aiden. “We can transcribe it, after.”

Aiden gives me a nod of assent, then looks around at the abandoned corner store. “Anything I can do?”

“Yeah, you get that poster down off the wall, because that’s coming with us.”

I point to the Campbell’s Soup ad that says The Manhandlers! at the top. Aiden turns, focuses his flashlight on it, and lets out a burst of startled laughter.

“Holy shit. Yeah, that’s too good to leave behind.” He strides around behind the counter, sending up puffs of dust with each step. “This works out. I’m the archivist, so I should be the one to take it down, anyways.”

“Yeah, definitely - it’s a rare and precious document,” I say, still dazed, and Aiden laughs.

He’s going to get serious real fast, though, when he hears what I just heard.

He reaches up to start carefully taking the ad off of the wall, and I press record on the voice memo app on my phone.

I reach out and restart the memory, then watch as the ghost woman - codename Rouge, real name Leyla - materializes by the door, starts to pace. I watch again as Rose steps through the door to join her.

“Darling, what are you doing here?” I say into my phone, repeating Leyla’s words as she begins to speak. “I’m supposed to meet with him. He’s going to be here any minute. I told you, we have to be particularly careful.”

Aiden immediately pauses, twists to look at me with one eyebrow arched high.

I shake my head at him, wide-eyed, still in disbelief.

Just you wait, I mouth at him. This is only the beginning.