The sound of screaming jerked August into wakefulness. Before she quite realized it, she'd run to the front of her cell, hands wide and pressed against the plexiglass door, heart pounding. A man's voice in full-throated agony. There was only one other person being questioned; the elven Mr. Johnson. It had to be him.

Then the nasal voice of Bradley Grimm, the head technician, pitched to be heard over the screams. "Get those damn cuffs off of him."

Her eyes flickered to the rune marked cuffs on her own wrists. He couldn't be a mage, or they'd have cuffed him before the initial tranquilizers had worn off. She glanced again toward the main lab. Unfortunately she couldn't see much from her vantage in the cell. She closed her eyes and concentrated, listening.

The screaming stopped, blessedly. It was quiet. She could hear what must be the same man, his breathing coming ragged and heavy, almost sobs. Other than that, nothing. Why? What was going on out there?

"My God," The hesitant voice was familiar. Rogerson, who usually sat at the foot of the chair and did the actual questioning. "Those are second, maybe third degree burns."

"Obviously." The cold, feminine voice was familiar enough to send a shiver through August. She was one of the higher ranking Mr. Johnson's, whose actual name was Selina Parker. She was known, and avoided, by most of the subordinates. "I think that using these cuffs can give him sufficient motivation to answer your questions."

"I think otherwise." Bradley Gimm's voice was full of irritation. "If you have sufficient authority to remove him from my care, then by all means, do so. Otherwise I will conduct my interviews as I see fit."

Even from her cell, August could feel the tension between them. She shivered, glad not to be the one strapped into the chair between them.

"I would willingly answer the questions." It was the ragged voice of the Mr. Johnson they had been questioning.

August blinked. He was actually coherent after all that?

"I've tried to explain."

"Dear, dear Winston," Selina's voice dripped honey and sarcasm in equal parts. "Details are for stage one of recall. You are in stage two."

"I can't have been here that long." The Mr. Johnson's voice was more confused than fearful.

"You were transferred to us after an unsuccessful session with one of the other labs." Mr. Grimm sounded even more irritated now. "They couldn't break you. So we have a week here to figure out what's blocking the truth."

"I was never in stage one."

"Don't bother calling me a liar, traitor." Selina's voice was an affectionate purr.

"As I said," Mr. Grimm's voice was sharp enough to draw blood. "We have work to do here. After Mr. Johnson's wrists are bandaged, we'll let him rest for a bit and begin again later." There was a pause, and he added. "If you have just come to see the show, it's over for now."

"Oh don't worry, I'll be back later."

"Understood."

August could hear the sharp steps of someone in heels walking to the executive elevators. Selina was leaving.

"Get him out of that chair."

August sagged against the door. While she was sympathetic to the Mr. Johnson, the immediate prospect for her was less than hopeful. They were somewhat understaffed, and currently they were only questioning one person at a time. If he were getting a rest, it would be her turn.

She walked back and sat on the unyielding bunk. She stared at the plexiglass door. Faintly, she could see her reflection. A slender woman with tousled red hair and green eyes. The disposable blue coveralls she was wearing were still stained with sweat, and worse. At least she hadn't been sick on this pair. They were all she had on, save the rune-inscribed cuffs.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. She'd worked for Abbot Northwest since she'd been eighteen. Six years. Both her parents had worked for the company. It was Abbot testing that revealed her potential as a mage, and Abbot tutoring that had brought it out. Helped her through puberty, when if unchanneled, her new magical abilities might have killed her, as they did so many children each year. She'd been glad to work for them, to try and begin to pay back what they had done for her.

She'd joined the company magical lodge; and it had been like another family. Fellow mages, people who understood how she saw the world. Nights where she and her mentor Festin Relman had drank coffee and talked till dawn. She could still remember his patient voice steadying her the first time she called a fire elemental out of the candle he'd set before her.

The world had been so different once she'd become a mage. The shapes, the feel of things around her had changed. What she saw with her new abilities had been breathtaking, beautiful. Now, with the cuffs blocking her abilities, she felt like she was blind, or deaf. Like a large part of the world was cut off.

When her parents had died in a plane accident, Abbot people had been there for her. The company lodge had been there for her. Cards, people who would listen when she just needed to talk, or to weep. They had been her family.

And then she had met Tiffany. Tiffany Hacker, investigative reporter for City Pages. She had a bad reputation among the corps, but August discounted that. Tiffany had reported, and thus revealed, some pretty awful stuff, and helped innocent people who were being hurt. Abbot Northwest could only benefit by other, less scrupulous corps being targeted.

More than that, the vivacious, charming woman she'd met at the Art Institute Mayan Exhibit Opening, was nothing like the voracious harpy that gossip had painted her. They had become friends, and rather quickly had become more than friends.

Some of August's friends at work had cautioned her, but she ignored them. What was idle gossip compared to time spent with Tiffany? She was smart, and funny, and wonderful.

Any mage had hobbies that intertwined with her craft; August's was silver smithing; although technically she worked more often in gold. She started work on a ring for Tiffany, intending to propose. She'd finished it last week. She'd showed it to Festin, her mentor; her best friend in the lodge.

Now he was sitting out there in the lab, waiting to probe her with magic, waiting to help them question her when it was her turn to be interrogated. He'd been her closest, most trusted friend in the company. He'd put the cuffs on her. Tiffany hadn't changed her perception of Abbot. Festin had done that.

Sounds brought her back to the present. Footsteps, many footsteps, as the lab technicians walked Mr. Johnson back to his cell. There came the scraping sound of the Barghests' claws against the tile floor. They were only there as protection, but they always seemed to be interested in Mr. Johnson. Maybe because he was an elf? She wasn't sure.

She heard Festin's whistle, calling the Barghests back to the main lab.

Bradley Grimm was saying, "We can finish your session later. There is always other work we can do."

August looked up at that, knowing that he was talking about her. The Mr. Johnson glanced her way, and just for a moment, their eyes met. He was slender and blonde, a stereotypically handsome elf. Despite the bruising on his face, and the bandages on his wrists, he moved with grace and dignity.

After that brief moment, he glanced away from August and paused. Almost by reflex, one of the techs escorting him shoved a stun baton into the lower left side of his torso. It was on a low enough power setting to cause pain, but not knock him out. He hissed through clenched teeth, as if he'd been expecting it.

"Mr. Johnson?" Mr. Grimm frowned.

"I am ready to finish the session now. I look forward to explaining my innocence."

There was a pause. The other two technicians looked at each other. Mr. Grimm finally said. "This is level two."

"Even so."

Mr. Grimm glanced toward August's cell, and his frown deepened for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Very well, then. We shall continue."

They turned around, and walked him back to the main lab.

August watched him go. He never looked back at her again. He just left, letting himself be led back to one of the questioning chairs. He'd bought her maybe another hour of peace.

She lay on the cot and silently wept.

For two more days it went on. Sleep deprivation, and whatever drugs they were using would have made it hard to tell the days, but she counted shifts by listening to the voice of whoever was head tech at the moment. Three changes meant twenty-four hours.

The asked her about Tiffany. They asked her about her relationship to Tiffany. They asked her about her loyalty to the company. Between the drugs, and Festin's magical prompting, she told them the truths they were looking for. She loved Tiffany, and would support any investigation the woman made. She hated Abbot Northwest, and would gladly betray it. She would willingly kill her mentor.

They ignored the fact that this lab had altered her perceptions of Abbot, had opened her eyes to a side of the company she'd not suspected, not wanted to see or even imagine. Sometimes that hurt worse than anything else they did to her.

Mr. Johnson never stopped trying to explain himself, as if by sheer stubbornness he could convince people who were being paid to torture him, people being paid only to hear what they were instructed to. Listening to him be questioned was almost as bad as her own sessions. It was obvious to her that he'd been framed, that he couldn't have been through a level one session. It was clear that he was in fact much more loyal, even now, than she was.

Where she swore at her tormentors and spat at Festin, Mr. Johnson never seemed to lose his air of dignity and determination. She admired that. She also suspected that it was just going to get him killed faster. She, at least, was giving them what they wanted.

Three days later, things changed. The elevators opened, and she heard the sharp clicking of Mr. Selina Johnson's heels. Instead of going right into the main lab, she walked toward the cells.

August kept her head down, shifting position slightly so that she could watch unobtrusively while her hair obscured things.

The room seemed to darken as Selina walked into the cell area. August shivered, and then realized that the sharp-faced, auburn-haired Mr. Johnson was not alone. Waking with her, close behind her was a dark man wearing reflective sunglasses and a black trench coat. He moved with the easy confidence of a predator. Beside them was another man, big enough to be muscle of some kind, a tall alert blonde woman and, well, August blinked, a bag lady.

The dark man opened one of the other cells, and gestured for Selina to enter it. In a mild tenor voice, he said. "Stay quiet, unless you would prefer to be spattered all over the walls." The tone sent shivers through her.

The blonde looked at him quizzically, and then smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "You do have a way with words, Johnny."

Then they opened another cell, and put the muscled man into it. As he backed into the cell, he held his hands up, as if to show that he carried no weapons. "I know, I know, be quiet." He said.

"Quieter." Snapped the blond woman.

Behind them, the bag lady started exploring the closet at the end. She was carrying a plastic bag that said 'Community Plus' on it. She took several more bags out of it, and then started filling it with Basic Issue coveralls from the closet.

August sat up on her cot. No one in the lab seemed to notice what was going on here. Although that wasn't unusual. When ViP's visited, the normal reaction was to ignore them as much as possible.

The blonde had turned away, and was examining the lockers on the opposite wall of the cells. She appeared to have a maglock card wired to a small device, and she was rapidly opening each locker in turn. Only two of them had anything in them. August's things, and Mr. Johnson's.

The trench-coated man looked at August for a moment, and then turned to the blonde. "Lee. There is someone else here in the cells."

Lee left the supplies she'd been examining and walked over to stand in front of August's cell. In a quiet voice, she asked. "Can you help us?"

"Can you get these off of me?" August held out her wrists, showing the rune cuffs.

Lee smiled, and unlocked the door to the cell. "Not a problem."

From the lab came Bradly Grimm's insistent voice, asking the same series of questions. Mr. Johnson was struggling to answer them, his voice slurred with drugs, pain and sleep deprivation.

"We came to get Mr. Johnson," Lee said matter-of-factly. "Would you like to come with us?"

As she spoke, she was working at the cuffs with a delicate set of lock picks. The bag lady came over. "I think that you might need some other kinds of help." She started petting the cuffs, and murmured something.

There was an audible click. Lee smiled. "Thank you Madeline, that did it."

As the cuffs were removed, August slumped against the wall of the cell. The sudden onslaught of sensation was almost overwhelming. She saw colors, and heard voices. Energies shimmered about her. She recalled having had too much to drink, and almost losing control of the magic. That had been a long time ago, and it had only happened once. This was worse. The drugs they'd used to interrogate her were still in her system and now out of the cuffs, they were affecting her, affecting her magic. Between that, and the sleep deprivation, she could feel it slipping away from her control. She tried to reach out with her mind, to fix it, but she was only making things worse. Energy rose around her like a cloud; she could almost see the flame about to be unleashed.

Then cool hands touched her temples, and a soft voice whispered to her. She felt as if a wind was blowing through her, refreshing her. Things seemed to stabilize around her. She opened her eyes, still tired, still sore, but now in control of herself, and her magic.

The bag lady, no, Madeline, was standing in front of her, looking not really at her, but sort of through her. "All better?"

If August had just kept her eyes closed, that question would have been much more reassuring.

"Yes, I'm better." She spoke quietly, "I'll need some of my things. I can take the mage out for you." She was looking forward to that.

All of her spell focus materials had been her jewelry, and though Festin would probably claim them later, he'd not legally been able to do so before her questioning was done. She sorted her things, and found the ring she was looking for. Putting it on, she said. "I'm ready."

The man with the trench coat came over to her. The mirrorshades he was wearing obscured his eyes. For some reason August found herself glad of that. "We have supplies; concussion grenades, phosphorus grenades, guns. Is there something you would like to use as a weapon?"

Phosphorus grenades. Fire. Her best summoning abilities were with fire. She'd assumed that it wouldn't be an option. "How long does a phosphorus grenade burn?"

He considered it. "About 36 seconds. Long enough to blind anyone fool enough to look at one."

She shook her head. "What I need is the fire, and that's long enough. There is a mage out there to assist with the questioning. I'll take him." Her voice sounded cold, even to her.

Lee nodded. "It has a ten second fuse. I'll count to six and then throw it. Are we ready?"

She switched the grenade to her left hand, and taking a 9mm glock from her shoulder holster, she carefully screwed a silencer onto the end of it.

As she worked, she murmured, "Now, Madeline," She pointed in the direction of the elevators. "Beyond that wall are two rooms full of people, including at least two guards and a mage at a security desk. If they find out what we are doing here, they will call for help, and lost of people with guns will come and hurt us, and the Mr. Johnson that we are here to save." She paused. "Can you make the people in the other rooms go to sleep, and keep them that way for a while?"

Madeline stared at the wall, with that same distracted expression she'd turned on August, and then nodded, as if she was counting the people in the other room, that she couldn't possibly actually see. "Yes, they can take a good nap. It's nice for people to take a nap after lunch."

Lee looked momentarily worried and then shrugged. "Good."

They moved quietly to the main lab area. Mr. Johnson was strapped into one of the interrogation chairs. His eyes were unfocused. IV bags of something greenish were hooked up to hep-locks in his arms. He looked pale and terrible. August wondered if he was dying.

Ignoring him, and the technicians attending him, Madeline turned, seemingly looking through the elevators to the lab and security desk on the other side of the sub-basement. Lee pulled the pin on the grenade and held up her fingers, counting. At six, she slid it out, across the floor to center of the lab.

The two Barghests ignored the grenade, sitting silently, watching Mr. Johnson. The two lower ranking technicians turned, following the grenade with quizzical expressions. Bradley Grimm had been sitting in a swivel chair next to Festin Relman. They both turned, just in time to see not only the grenade, but August herself.

For a moment it seemed to August that everything froze. She thought she would always remember the look on Festin's face, quizzical interest changing to understanding, and then a grim, determined smile. That he could smile like that shouldn't have hurt, after everything else.

The phosphorus grenade went off with a hiss; blazing light overwhelmed the room. The Barghests stood out against it like huge black shadows. All four of the Abbot employees clutched at their eyes. Festin swore.

As soon as the grenade started blazing, August concentrated on it, on the heat, on the fire. Calling with all her power, opening it up.

Johnny pointed his revolver, a large gun made larger by a silencer, and in quick succession, he shot the nearest Barghest in the center of the forehead, and then in the heart.

Bradley was in the act of standing up as Lee walked right up to him. She raised the gun to his head as if she was going to threaten him, but when she spoke, it was clearly to all three of the technicians. "Drop to the ground if you don't want to die."

The barghests slowly swung their heads toward Johnny, and in unison, opened their mouths and howled.

The sound ripped through August like claws, and suddenly everything seemed unsteady. She ignored it, eyes mostly closed, still concentrating on the blaze of the phosphorus grenade, forcing it to open, pulling energy out of it, through it. She could feel the resistance, and pushed harder. Distantly she was aware that she'd fallen to her knees, but it didn't matter. Force the gate open, feel the heat, the flame, the power.

Her eyes were watering as she kept her attention on the grenade. Dark against the light, she could see the Barquest that Johnny had shot, give a little shake. It was healing, so quickly that she could see it. So could he. She was close enough to hear him speak, as he raised a second gun, a Desert Eagle automatic.

"Interesting. How about silver?" He shot twice again.

August's magical call was answered with a roar that matched the rage of the Barquests, the flame of the phosphorous grenade stretched open, and a lizardlike figure emerged. It was fifteen feet long and perhaps three and a half feet wide, open jaws revealing teeth of flame, claws leaving hissing melted tracks in the linoleum. She didn't have to articulate her desire. Kill Festin.

Festin extended his hands, letting go the strands of energy he'd started to weave into a spell, and strove to wrestle control of the elemental from her. She could feel his energies. He was older than she was, had been a mage longer. But she'd called it, and fire was the art she knew best. She might die here. He was going to die first.

To his right, Bradley Grimm was blinking, eyes watering, focusing on Lee. He reached into the right pocket of his lab coat and pulled out an air-hypo filled with something blue.

"Wrong answer." Said Lee, and pulled the trigger. Looking to the other two techs, she said. "You will end up on the floor and quiet." They both dropped faster than Bradley Grimm's body.

August's summoned elemental reared up, jaws laced with smoke and flame. The first bite took Festin across the stomach, and she could feel the pain of it ruin his attempt to break her control. She bore down harder, eyes still averted from the blinding flare of the stun grenade, her rage fueling the creature's attack. He'd lied to her. He'd betrayed her.

The second Barghest healed just as fast as the first had done, and they both leapt forward, still howling.

The first went for Johnny's head. He sidestepped it by about an inch, it's jaws brushing his hair as they snapped shut. The second went for his leg. He jumped up, a surprisingly high jump, about three feet up and to one side. As he moved, he dropped the first gun, the one that had held regular rounds. That hand went into his pocket. In a voice tight with concentration he murmured. "I wonder what narcotic rounds will do?"

Festin writhed helplessly in the grip of the salamander's jaws. His voice came as a strangled scream. "August, I was your friend."

She opened her eyes then. She would watch him die. "No, Festin." Her voice was a whisper, unheard under the howling. "I am here, because you never really were my friend." She kept her focus on the creature as its flaming jaws seared closed the wounds of the dying mage.

Madeline was unstrapping the semi-conscious Mr. Johnson. Carefully she pulled the hep-locks out of his arms, and let them dangle, green fluid from the IV's draining onto the floor to mix with the blood that dripped from his arms. Putting her hands to his temples, she began to hum.

Lee kept her gun pointed in the direction of the technicians, who were cowering behind the farthest interrogation chairs. "Johnny," she yelled. "Would you turn off the goddamn dogs."

The Barhests were whirling, still intent on him. He shot the first mid-leap. "I'm working on it."

August sent the salamander after the other one, and they clashed in a shower of sparks and black fur.

The Barghest Johnny had shot seemed to go limp mid-leap. Johnny dodged it easily.

Mr. Johnson seemed to begin to focus on Madeline then. He blinked, and then gently frowned. "I'm sorry, we have not been introduced."

Lee spared him a glance. "We are here to get you out. This is Madeline."

Johnny shot the second Barghest twice, and it went limp in the salamander's embrace. "The dogs are shut off."

The sudden silence made August's ears ring.

Matter-of-factly, he walked over to the one not being consumed by the salamander and garroted it. "Permanently, in fact."

There was the sound of an elevator going up.

Johnny and Lee looked at each other. "Selina."

Lee looked at her watch. "Okay. We have about three minutes to loot this place and get out."

Madeline smiled at that. "I'll go get the coveralls, then."

Shaking her head, Lee took a bag and walked over to the back wall of the lab. She started emptying the shelving, dumping it all into a bag. "So, Johnny, any ideas?"

August closed her eyes, and slumped to sit in the nearest chair. All that work, and they were just going to get caught again.

Johnny was slowly turning. "Looking at the schematics of the building," He paused, and then pointed through the glass doors that separated the two sections of the lab. Beyond them lay several sleeping technicians and two extremely alert, but calm, barghests. "There should be sewer access in that corner of the building."

From the corner of the room, one of the technicians spoke. "There is a hopper there, but it's not big enough for anyone to climb through it."

Johnny smiled. "That will change."

Mr. Johnson was standing up now, looking strained, but alert. He nodded to Lee. "A pleasure to see you again, Mr. Smith."

She smiled at him. "I had to come for you. You haven't paid me yet." She looked at August. "Could you help Madeline; she went back to get the things from the lockers."

August nodded, and got up. As she walked across the lab, she could hear Johnny behind her. He'd taken out the revolver, and was in the process of emptying and reloading it with narcotic rounds. The phosphorus grenade abruptly went out, and she blinked in the semi-darkness. Thirty-six seconds. She swallowed. It had seemed much longer.

Madeline was stuffing the last of the clean coveralls into one of her bags. August smiled uncertainly and said. "Lee asked me to get my and Mr. Johnson's things."

The muscled man was standing in one of the cells. "Don't leave me here."

Lee came into the cell area. "Selina will be back for you shortly."

He pressed his hands against the plexiglass door. "I know. I know, and that's why I want to leave. You should have seen the way she looked at me."

Lee rolled her eyes.

"You don't know what she's like when she gets mad." The man kept his eyes on Lee. "Please."

Madeline offered August a couple of bags; the plastic kind with built in handles. They both said 'Community Plus' on them. August quickly filled them with the things from the two lockers.

Lee unlocked the cell door. "All right, Demetrius," she said. "Just do what you're told, and come with us."

"You won't regret this."

"I already regret it."

As they walked back to the main lab area, Mr. Johnson was saying to Johnny. "You won't need the guns. I can deal with the Barghests."

Johnny tilted his head to examine the elf, and then gestured with his hand to the doors.

Mr. Johnson stood in front of the double glass doors and extended a hand. With the other, he opened the door, and said quietly. "Lay down."

The barquests silently lay. One of them wagged a tail.

Johnny and Lee looked at each other. It was Lee who spoke. "Well, that saves time and ammunition."

It took Johnny only a few minutes to set up the C4 and blow the back wall out of the cleaning room. Just as he'd said, the hole opened into the sewers. The smell of sewage began to permeate the rooms. The water in the bottom of the curved tunnel looked completely uninviting.

Madeline gave a happy little jump and looked like she would have clapped her hands if they hadn't been full of bags. "Now we can go home."

Johnny motioned everyone to go into the tunnel, and began placing more C4. Lee stayed behind, waving people along with her 9mm. She seemed to be keeping a sharp eye on Demetrius.

Mr. Johnson moved cautiously, as if he needed to see his feet to keep his balance. August stayed close to him, not entirely certain if it was to protect him, or because she somehow wanted him to protect her.

They hadn't gone far, when behind them came the sounds of heavy footsteps, and many masculine voices.

"That would be security." Lee said.

"Good." Johnny's voice sounded right at home in the darkness. "Let them come just a little further."

"You there." An authoritative voice through a megaphone. "Stop and return to the lab."

"Oh, that's likely." Said Lee. "We just went to a lot of trouble to leave."

The sound of heavy boots began to echo through the darkness. Johnny raised a hand, and pressed the detonator he was holding. "Brace yourselves."

A blast of wind and noise hit them.

August clutched at Mr. Johnson, and the force of the blast pressed them against the curved wall of the sewer.

There was a moment of silence, and the sound of things falling.

Lee clicked a flashlight on. "Onward."

August stayed close to Mr. Johnson, wondering where they were going.