Now Lathain is a lot of things but he isn't stupid, he caught the look on my face and noted the man stood before me. Whisperer, a runner's name, Lathain caught the flush of red on my face.

"Soooo . . . you two know each other?" he asked

"Not real . . ."

"Intimately" Whisperer interrupted finally taking his eyes off me and putting out a hand to Lathain. The elf looked from Whisperer to me and to the hand before cautiously taking it and giving it a shake, there was an audible crack of bone but neither moved or flinched, I hid my face in my hair as they sized each other up. K.C stepped forward and addressed them both

"When you're ready gentlemen we need to move out now" with that she walked between the two, both dropped their hands so she could pass, Whisperer gave me a nod and followed leaving me to be stared down by Lathain

"Intimately?" he asked in a whisper

"Shut up" I told him and strode out after KC, Lathain took my arm and turned me to face him

"Is this going to be a problem for us?" he asked

"I'll only tell you this once, it's not a problem, I don't even know him and if you don't let go I'll burn you so hard there wont be ash left to scatter" reminded about my charge he dropped my arm as if it were made of larva, I took the opportunity and left, he cursed to himself and followed.

"So where are we going?" I asked the walking armoury that was KC

"We're getting some answers" she replied, her stride long and confident "I want to know what exactly has been going on here for the last five years"

"You've been here that long? Lathain asked in surprise

"Yup" KC replied, I could here chatter over her comm. link, looks like this mutiny of sorts was starting to turn into an all out war. "Your buddy here tells me he's here about some weapon that's being created here, some kind of device, I always suspected something much bigger, we've had a lot of mages come and go, and elf boy tells me his friend can see mana barriers everywhere he walks"

I paused a moment, Lathain nearly bumping into me

"What's up?" he asked me

"Something Lindsey said" I told him, ignoring his questioning look about who Lindsey was "he said that no-one ever leaves the facility, but if mages are coming and going how did he not know about it?"

"Because" Whisperer said coming up behind us "they leave in a body bag"

"So what exactly is going on here?" Lathain asked "Wizbit keeps seeing mana barriers but they're not in rooms, they cut across corridors, randomly, some at weird angles, on all levels he's seen so far.

"So the mages were brought in to set u the barriers" KC guessed

"Must be" I said, "if there are as many as Wizbit is implying then no one mage could sustain them" KC nodded and set off again forcing us to follow. On her arm her comm. unit beeped and a yellow light started to flash, behind me Whisperer's wrist comm. did the same "trouble?" I asked

"Blood reminder" KC muttered "not that we'll need it soon" she didn't elaborate further, I was having a hard time keeping up with her, we took stairs to the upper levels, I was soon feeling out of breath, but given the company I didn't dare complain or ask to rest.

"So you never did tell me what you were doing here" Whisperer said adjusting his glasses and dropping back walk with me, now finally on the flat. His face was bruised purple, nose swollen; he'd changed his T-shirt and jacket since I'd seen him last. I suppose wherever he was going when I'd bumped into him didn't approve of red in their colouring.

"Well I don't like to tell everything about myself on the first date" I quipped, where had that come from? I never flirt with people, never ever!

"Alright then, how about we give a little tit for tat so to speak, you tell me a little and I'll tell you" he offered, his eyes observed me curiously "You first?" he guessed, I shrugged, fine, I could always lie if I needed to. "So what are you doing here?" he asked

Figures it would be that I thought to myself, "I'm with the elf" I said simply, he frowned

"You're not playing the game" he muttered, I gave an apologetic smile

"I wouldn't be good at my job if I told every good looking guy I met my secret plans would I?" It sounded innocent enough to my ears but it also sounded suspiciously like flirting in my head, flirting again? What was wrong with me? "Which begs the question, if you're really interested in playing the game then why are you so happy to give away your base secrets?"

"Oh easy" he said with a smile "It's not my base, they're not my secrets and if you guys are here to do what I think you're here to do then you might just be my ticket out of this hell hole"

"What do you think we're here to do?" I asked, so he was a prisoner down here too? KC stopped ahead of us and broke open the door in front of her, pistol up she fired three shots, I heard rather than saw the three falling bodies of men or women she'd just taken out, she turned her pistol to a figure I couldn't see.

"So then, are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?" she asked

Inside the room was a huge computer screen, several jack points and now three bodies. Stone faced in his seat was a mean ass looking general character, buzz cut, clean shaven, immaculately pressed shirt and jacket and a face full of scars, he grimaced at KC.

"Ms KC" he sneered "And how is it I have come to know the pleasure of your company this morning?"

"Can the crap" she spat "Tell me about the weapon"

"Weapon?" he asked in mock innocence "Ahh Mr Whisperer, I see you join us too, do tell me who your friends are" Lathain was wasting no time heading to the console, shoving one of the dead men aside unceremoniously, a bullet in the mans brain, he began typing furiously.

"The weapon you've been working on right here on this base" KC snapped "Where is it?"

"It's safe" the General said calmly, he didn't seem the least bit perturbed at the gun in his face "I'd like to know how you found out about it, we've been very good at keeping this under wraps from most of the team" he yawned, feigning boredom. "You're due for your blood test" he said nodding his head to the blinking yellow light, he smiled then, a cold cruel smile. Something felt horribly wrong

"Errr KC" Lathain said his voice shaky "you need to see this" On the screen he pulled up files, images and text scrolling faster than I could compute, but some things I recognised, a DNA strand, an invoice for anticoagulant. Lathain held the screen on the invoice, the quantity was huge, several metric tonnes, but why? On a second screen a list of names scrolled, some lit in red, others highlighted in green.

"What does it all mean?" KC asked, her hand steady she positioned herself so she could see the screen without taking her eyes off the General

"They've been draining your blood" Lathain said "They've been taking everyone's blood, samples here and there for years, everyone that comes onto the base they've taken blood"

"The blood tests aren't to check for gas poisoning then" Whisperer said "A lot of caves like this have been known to harbour pockets of natural gases which can be toxic" he explained "I didn't think they would be normal though" he muttered to himself. Lathain gave him a look that told me there was more.

"Those people that never left? They were drained" he said, he scrolled and highlighted the names in red "They didn't have what they were looking for so they were expendable"

"You're using us" KC whispered

"Everyone uses everybody" the General said "fact of life"

"I got it!" all eyes but KC's turned to Lathain, his furious typing now ceased the screen before us shifted and glowed showing a map of the facility "Wow, this is fucked up" he breathed

"What is it?" KC asked

"It's a transmutation circle" Whisperer voiced my thoughts. As Wizbit had seen the facility had several mana barriers mapped around it, each on their own level, protecting some areas, leaving others open, looking level by level they seemed completely random but when viewed overlaid from above they showed a huge circle filled with intricate patterns.

"Oh not good" Whisperer said, his voice mixed awe and fear "Errr Lathain, can you look only at the lower decks for me?" Lathain scowled but did as he was asked, removing the top layers to show the lower layers "That's new" Whisperer said pointing to the lowest structure, a grating with a network of pipes leading to a room which was unmarked on the blue prints. "What is that?" he asked the General; the General of course said nothing.

"I think I know" Lathain whispered "I just pulled up the files, it's a collection chamber"

"For what?" I asked

"Blood"