Using his extrasensory powers, Cole figures out how Zin got his confederates into Chicago: by taking over the passengers on a train. Although Cole taps into the station's camera, he can't get a clear look at who they are. Meanwhile, an Inixian named Kaden is distributing an alien drug not only to his fellow criminals, but to humans as well. One of Jess' friends has a heart attack induced by the drug. Cole tracks the gas emissions caused by the drug production and follows Kaden to one of his traveling drug-clubs. Displaying a new ability to temporarily change his body, Cole duplicates one of the guards and manages to get close enough to Kaden to capture his life force.

Zin hires the billboard actor whom Cole based his physical appearance on to participate in his plan to frame Cole for murder.

Mel tries to dissuade Jess from meeting with Hunin in Whitechapel to get engaged, but oversleeps. Meanwhile Cole tries to track Suudor and runs afoul of Jager, one of a set of bonded Orsians. He defeats Jager but alerts Parker, his twin-Orsian. Suudor tries to kill Mel and Cole catches up to him but is flash-frozen by Parker. It was a trap to lure Cole in. Suudor goes to kill Mel but Cole manges to recover enough to freeze time, rescue her, capture Suudor, and escape. It turns out Parker and Jager were not any of the escaped prisoners and that Zin already had an organization on Earth prior to the escape. And that Zin had some reason to lure Cole out of Chicago and to London...

The U.S. government project devoted to detecting aliens (from ""Breach"") is back in action. They are keeping the body of Wes Tarber, previously inhabited by the Nodulian Kres alive, and bring Zan (disguised as a ""Dr. Armstrong"") in to revive him. Zan succeeds by injecting it with the essence of Ramel, who didn't get a body in the original takeover because there weren't enough humans on the train. Zin needs access to files in the complex and revives Ramel to get in good, but kills the general he's bribing when the general gets antsy. Meanwhile Cole is analyzing Mel's grandmother's key, which apparently opens some kind of ""door"" beneath the Watchfire. Ramel attacks Cole, who killed his brother previously, but Cole escapes. Cole sneaks into the complex, and finds out that a Vardian ship piloted by an ""Arkin"" crashed into Lake Michigan. A ""Dr. Milos Sandborn"" interrogated the alien and then disappeared before giving his files to the government. Zin wants the files and needs Ramel to help se