From different parts of Boston, Orpheus finds itself host to a group of people who share more than two things in common: the high rate of near death experiences,and the ability to learn to harness either Projecting or Flatlining much faster than most. Collectively referred to as crucible group Alpha (or humorously, the "A-Team") the group is placed under the guardianship of John Carruthers, Kate Denisson and other senior Investigative Consultant agents for training.

During their first night out, the crucible visits a hotel reputedly haunted by a ghost in the kitchen. Along the way, they see some homeless people watching them as they pass... which is strange considering they are all projecting in this mission. When the crucible successfully contacts and bears withness to the ghost within 20 minutes of the mission, the senior crucible begins to realise these new agents may be more versatile than most and requests to the Board to permit them to continue training them.

Andrew discovers that he is HiV positive, as is his partner, but by some stroke of luck the disease is in remission ever since he started learning to project. Believing the illness is halted by the act of being so close to death, he gives it not much thought until he joins Tom Hayes for dinner one evening and learns of his troubled past and his recessive brain tumor.

On the second night out, the group visits the St. Genasius theater in search of missing fellow agents as well as a certain deceased woman by the name of Regina White. With John Carruthers providing back-up the crucible encounters a thorn of Lost Boys, one of which was concealead inside the ghost of Regna White. To quickly flee the scene, John uses his Storm-Wending to bring the whole group outside quickly.

Soon, the crucible begins to get a better hand at things. Though the group has yet to master using Benefits, the act of sharing Vitality and working as a team begins to form even if many members tend to be absent. A new member joins them, under high recommendations from Chet Mason who personally saw to his initial training and watched him successfully bring salvation to a ghost haunting a traffic switch box.

In a later mission, the team is given a black-ops job where there are tasked to monitor the activities of the Mayor's wife. The Mayor suspects his wife is having an affair. But when the mission leads to the team encountering a man called Bishop, and a hint that the fire in the Marion State Penitentiary, the same place where Vincent Fiorello, one of the crucible, used to be imprisoned in. Vincent Fiorello, having possessed the mayor's wife, makes her confess her pigment addiction, as well as type all information she wasa aware of regarding pigment and sends it to ten e-mail accounts.

With the group secretly having meetings with Kate Denisson's crucible, the group begin to work on uncovering what may be secrets that Orpheus group had preferred forgotten. With the data gathered from Orpheus, from the Mayor's wife and from the senior groups personal experiences, a confusing picture begins to form on what may be happening. And when a mission to uncover a ghost haunting a club called Chains ends with the crucible trapped by a pack of Fetches that act with an uncanny intelligence, it takes the combined effort of both crucibles to escape with everyone's lives intact.

Epilogue:
Andrew wakes from a terrible nightmare of blood coated walls, a crying baby and an empty crib. When he realises upon waking from the dream that it happened while he was projecting, he quickly returns to his body and turns to use the phone. But the phone rings before he could dial and on the other end of the line, Kate Denisson asks if she woke him. Andrew replies instead with a question and asks Kate if she had the same dream he did. And Kate's reply sends a shiver down Andrew's spine.