I wandered slightly dazed for a few minutes down corridors, ducking into doorways and other corridors to avoid being seen, trying to rub some warmth back into me, my clothing damp from the ice; there was a lot of commotion about the escape of the families, some of the main scientists had also taken the opportunity to escape. The news it seemed was taken one of two ways by the people of the base, many were furious, these seemed mostly the higher officials as they stormed down corridors, a frightened private in tow taking notes and nodding furiously, and then there were those who seemed excited about the escape, others mystified how they had gotten out, one guy was heard commenting that he'd been looking for a way out for months.

Overall the escape had certainly ignited whatever resistance cell was in the facility, though at this point I still couldn't work out if this resistance was part of the military or part of the private corporation that Lindsey worked for. It may even be a third party all together. I recalled Lindsey saying that there were people who had been in this facility for years, maybe something in them had snapped?

It was nearly my twenty minute deadline before I found Wizbit, or should I say Wizbit found me, cloaked under invisibility I ran straight into him

"Ghost you're bleeding, what are you even doing here?" he said dropping his cover

"It's not mine" I told him hastily, trying to move on, he caught me by the arm and I hissed with the pain in my shoulder, he frowned at me, pulling me into a room with a plain desk and chair

"Sit" he ordered, though he didn't physically touch me I could feel the heat of the magic as he healed me, I could have tried to heal it myself but my mind wasn't working as it should have been

"We're leaving, the refugees are out, Convoy is waiting for us, but I don't know how long he'll wait" I told him about my twenty minute deadline.

"So how'd you get the bruises?"

"A guy gave me some trouble" I said trying not to let my cheeks flush

"A guy? One single human guy? Jesus was he a troll or something?" Wizbit fussed

"No, just a guy, Six one, well built but not muscle large, strong . . . blue eyes . . .with hair that sort of . . ." I trailed off as I realised what I was saying, thankful that I couldn't see Wizbit's face from this angle

"Uh huh . . ." he trailed "Well he did a number on your shoulder, dislocated it?"

"Oh no, that was me"

"You?"

"Uh huh, it's a thing that I sort of . . . have you ever kissed someone you were fighting with?" I asked before I could censor myself

"Sure I used to fight with my girlfriend all the time, before making up its pretty . . . wait you mean? . . ." I looked down, focused hard on my feet "I think you'll find that no, I've never kissed someone who was actually trying to kill me, though there was that girl I dated a couple of years ago she was . . . anyway you don't need to know about that and I don't need to know what just happened to you, so shall we move on?" I felt the heat die in his hands, flexed my shoulders, a little stiff but otherwise OK

"Thanks"

"No problem, Lathain just met up with some of the locals, he's talking with them now, might I suggest using a stealthier approach?"

"Not a bad idea" I said, "So What do we know, so far I've got military, private and some resistance in the mix but not entirely sure who to trust" I admitted.

"Well the resistance cell as you call it have been planning an uprising for a long time, buying members and building a following, not hard as most people here seemed to have been brought in on a temporary basis only to be held here indefinitely" he explained "the only problem is that they weren't able to do anything once the families were captured, that sort of squashed their drive as it were. But now that we've let the prisoners free they're letting loose hell" he said

"So who is leading it all?" I asked. Wizbit shrugged

"No idea but I think Lathain is talking with their main people now, I suggest we find him and find out what's going on" he disappeared from view, good idea.

I followed Wizbit's directions since I couldn't see him to a corridor where I could hear two people talking, one was a woman, the other was Lathain. At the end of the corridor was a door, a grunt stooped over a fallen troll in the corridor, examining its wounds

"My work" Wizbit whispered "time for me to get scarce for a while" he said "So far they haven't spotted me and I'd like to keep it that way"

"Fine by me" I told him, he'd be around, I de-cloaked as I passed the troll body, not interested in the grunt and his task I wanted to speak with Lathain so strode straight into the open room, the elf gave me a huge grin.

"Hey Ghost, you're here, just in time"

"Yeah, just in time to leave, wrap up your conversation we're going" The woman he was talking to shot me a look of evils, clearly not used to being ignored, she was slight, well built, a small series of scars on her bare arms told me she was a fighter, and if that didn't do it then the huge scar that went fully across her throat would make you think twice that and the full length Katana across her back certainly did. A sword in a military base meant she liked to be up close to the people she killed, great. I took a second to take in the array of weapons across her person, pistols, rifles, she was a walking armoury; I would have to choose my words very carefully

"And you are?" she asked raising a dark brow in question

"No-one" I said automatically turning my attention back to Lathain "Convoy's waiting"

"I know, he already told me, nice work by the way, but we have a bigger problem" he said "We can't leave yet"

"Seriously? What now?"

"I think I might be able to explain that" the woman stepped forward "K.C" she introduced herself, she offered up a hand "You're just in time to help us bust out of here"

"Ghost" I said taking the hand "So part of this resistance?"

"In a manner of speaking, I've been planning an uprising for some time, ever since the bastards locked me down here" she looked at me hard "I trust you're not here to get in my way?" fine by me, her eyes moved to the doorway behind me "Ah" she said talking to someone there "Find anything to let us know who killed the troll?" She asked the person behind me, "looks like we have a little extra help, this is Lathain and Ghost, Ghost this is one of my men who'll be joining us"

"We've met" the voice behind me said, I felt my stomach fall away and turned slowly to be greeted with those intense blue eyes, the scent of leather and cinnamon reached me "Hello Ghost" he said with a smile, hand held out "Whisperer, pleasure to see you again"

Shit