When Summer stepped back into the private room, Ashton and Ned were both sitting in armchairs at either side of the coffee table. Ned looked smug, but Ashton looked satisfied as well. Did that mean he had succeeded in planting a bug on Ned? How did he get away with that without getting caught? Or maybe he had been caught and that is why Maskz looked so pleased. The idea that he enjoyed getting spied on by Ashton was something Summer did not want to think about.

  “Summer,” Ashton called out as soon as she stepped in, “Before you leave I need to speak with you.”

  Right. They needed to check in to see how they each did. Ned, surprisingly, decided to show some decency and left the room. Kayla offered to wait by the car, leaving them alone for the moment. Before Ashton said another word he got up to check to make sure the door was closed properly. Just like Summer he seemed more concerned about the guards listening in than MysteriousMaskz.

  “I managed to plant a bug on Maskz, but he caught me,” Ashton confessed, “He was willing to make a deal, so I accepted.”

  There was no way that ended well, but it wasn’t as if Summer was in a place to judge since she started this whole mess. “What did you give him?”

  “I let him place a listening device on me in return,” Ashton explained, “but I am able to turn it off whenever I truly don’t want him listening in, and he is free to do the same with ours. He even told him if I don’t trust him I am free to dispose of it, but he will get rid of my bug as well.”

  That was both better and worse than Summer had expected. It wasn’t like Ned wasn’t already listening in whenever he wanted anyway, but the significance of the bug bothered her a little bit. “Should I tell you about what I did or not?” she asked.

  “Don’t, just in case,” Ashton decided, “Just because he may already know, doesn’t mean he does.”

  That made sense, so Summer nodded. “In that case, what did you need to talk to me about?” she asked.

  “I went ahead and scheduled your appointment with the psychologist,” Ashton explained, “If everything goes well you can come back to work immediately after.”

  As he explained, Ashton handed over an appointment card with a date, time, and address. It was quite sudden. Summer knew that she couldn’t stay on suspension forever, but she had been so busy she felt like she hadn’t really had that vacation she had convinced herself she was having.

  “What about Kayla?” Summer asked.

  “I will be giving her the information for her appointments as well,” Ashton assured, “Even if she isn’t quite ready to return to work, she should return to the apartments with you. I am sure everything will be fine, though.”

  “Alright. Any cases I should know about before I hop right back in?” Summer asked.

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  “We have been working on testing Untouchable for the most part,” Ashton replied, “The rest of the time has been spent training with our new recruit.”

  “New recruit?” Summer asked, a bit shocked.

  “He came in from Heroix to help with the testing,” Ashton explained, “Since we already knew each other he asked me to help him switch jobs. You might know him as RepliKtion.”

  A certain scene from Heroix HQ surfaced in Summer’s mind. So RepliKtion’s bold quitting announcement really had been related to them? Just what had Ashton been up to while she had been on suspension vacation?

  “What is he like?” Summer asked instead.

  “Motivated,” Ashton replied after a moment, “He probably has just as much reason to go after MysteriousMaskz as we do. He is actually the one who made the bugs we used tonight. He hasn’t got into any trouble so far but I still need to keep an eye on him.”

  “Do I need to be careful around him?” Summer asked, “You know, with being an old hero and all?”

  “You shouldn’t,” Ashton assured, “Though he has already figured out your identity and that we are dating. He is the one who warned me to be extra careful about our information. Apparently everyone is hunting for news about Shadow Phoenix and Golden Reign. Many of them seem to believe we may be the ones who leaked the other information and took down SI.”

  That was scary. No wonder Claudia had been so persistent. She wasn’t just hunting down the identity of a masked hero, but also the potential face behind the fall of SI. If she wasn’t careful she could end up being a scapegoat. Come to think of it, she hadn’t heard anything from her since Maskz had helped them that first day.

  “I guess I will find out when I get back to work,” Summer decided, “Shall we head out?”

  Ashton agreed and they both headed out of the room. Ned was waiting right outside the doorway. He had taken off his cape and headpiece but left the mask on his face. He didn’t say anything as they passed him, but Summer was certain he had been listening in. Before he left, Ashton pulled Kayla to the side and set up her appointments with her.

  The drive home was silent as both of them thought about the coming end of their suspension. It was crazy to think it had already been over a week. If anything, this appointment was a bit late so this wasn’t strange. It just felt strange. At least those tense guards had their own car so they didn’t have to ride together.

  The moment she pulled into her driveway, Summer suddenly realized she had forgotten to use the restroom, and her body was not going to let her forget it a second time. She rushed inside, and by the time she came out, Kayla had already locked herself in the spare room. Since she was alone for now, Summer decided to take some time to investigate.

  Summer opened up her search engine and typed in the information on the business card the reporter had given her. Claudia Jones, a reporter for Hero Daily. Her profile showed up right away, as did her most recent article. It had only come out a few days ago. Summer braced for the worst, expecting to be at least mentioned.

  Instead, the article covered a mysterious place called the Golden Club and its possible connections with the escaped convicted ex-hero Checkmate. In the article, Claudia claimed to have personally run into the man while visiting the Golden Club on personal business. As a reporter she had felt compelled to share this truth with the world.

  For a moment Summer was relieved that Claudia seemed to have forgotten all about her. Then she realized the implications. They had just come from the Golden Club. Summer had wandered around planting bugs everywhere without paying attention to other guests or employees. What if she had also run into Checkmate and not realized it?