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it was a frame job and also look for clues as to who executed it and how and why,” Director Isadoris said. “In the meantime, the new direct assignment for you and Agent Atlas is twofold. One: Discover who, if anyone, framed Gomez and continues to execute small acts of sabotage that are interfering with Agency operations. Two: Look for evidence inside the school regarding why Gomez may have been framed, and ascertain Ms. Pullman’s possible involvement. I’m going to level with you, Agent Zero: With Agent Chum Bucket in NSB custody, our other agents working on the new initiative, and Agents Nineteen and Blue still not ready for fieldwork, you and Agent Atlas are our best chance at finding outanything from inside the school.”
    I nodded. It was pretty simple, though I didn’t really have any idea how I was going to start. Not yet, anyway.
    â€œSpeaking of Agents Nineteen and Blue . . . would it be possible for me to visit them?” I asked.
    Director Isadoris sighed and said, “Yes, but I must warn you that you may not like what you see.”

CHAPTER 10
LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE BIONIC WOMAN
    A GENT SMILEY ESCORTED ME TO THE MEDICAL UNIT. WE DIDN’T pass a single person along the way. The emptiness of Agency headquarters somehow made me feel empty as well. It made me question why any of us were still trying, even though the answer was pretty obvious and undeniable.
    The med unit was very much like a hospital, just with fewer people. It consisted of a few wide, bright, and generically tiled hallways with rooms branching off on both sides. As we entered, I saw a few men and womenin white coats and green scrubs, holding clipboards and discussing something just down the hallway to our left.
    Agent Smiley asked me to follow her into a large room with several huge pieces of machinery that looked straight out of a science fiction movie. In fact, one machine, which was basically just a huge glass tank filled with clear liquid, looked almost identical to a bacta tank. A bacta tank is the thing that they put Luke Skywalker in after Han Solo rescues him on the ice planet of Hoth at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back . I’m not a Star Wars geek, but Dillon definitely was and he made me watch the whole series at least once a year, complete with his thorough breakdowns, commentaries, behind-the-scenes trivia, and explanations of various set pieces.
    â€œIt’s like a bacta tank,” I said as we entered the room.
    Agent Smiley gave me a look. Then she motioned for me to follow her around to the other side, and pointed at the top of the machine.
    Affixed to the top of the metal seal was a long piece of white tape. On it, someone had written these words in thick black marker: Bacta Tank I.
    â€œOne of our lab technicians is a science fiction nerd,” she said humorlessly.
    I resisted the urge to laugh and shook my head as a young guy in a white coat and scrubs entered the room. He walked over to a small desk in the corner and opened a folder. He leafed through the papers for a few moments, jotted something down, and then came over to us.
    â€œCan I help you?” he asked.
    â€œWe’re here to see Agents Blue and Nineteen,” Agent Smiley said.
    â€œOf course,” the doctor said. “This way.”
    He led us into an adjacent room. It was nearly identical to the one we’d just come from. This room also had a bacta tank, except this tank wasn’t empty. Floating inside it, just like Luke Skywalker, was Agent Nineteen. A breathing mask was affixed to his face, and his eyes were closed. I saw several nasty bullet wounds in his torso, as well as several older scars scattered about his abdomen, back, arms, and legs.
    â€œHe suffered the more severe injuries of the two agents,” the doctor said behind me. “He’s currently in a medically induced coma while the tank does its thing, so to speak.”
    â€œA coma?” I said,