Blood? Why? The question was instant and voiced by everyone, KC turned our attention back to the General "Just what's going on here?" she demanded, the General said nothing and she put a bullet in his knee, he cried out and hit the floor, but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

"Damn Bitch" Whisperer murmured, disapproval mixed with longing in his voice "We have to go"

"Go? Where?" KC asked

"Here" Whisperer said pointing to the map "Whatever is going on the answer is here, and I don't think we're going to like it"

"The device?" I asked Lathain He shook his head "Gone, someone left with it for Chicago an hour ago, it's gone to auction"

"Then there's no reason to stick around, we have to get to Chicago" I said turning to go, Whisperer grabbed my arm, yelping as my skin shocked him

"Shit" he hissed, putting a singed finger to his lips "So you're not here about these blood experiments?" I shook my head.

"Nope, I had no idea" I told him "and now we're not here, Lathain we're leaving" I said nodding to the elf who continued to plough through data

"Wait" Whisperer stood in front of me hands up "Why did you come? How did you get in?" I felt it then, the pull of magic on my mind, he'd cast a spell on me, I shook my head and pulled my pistol on him, level with his face.

"Don't you dare" I snapped and KC spun to point her gun at the new threat "Don't you dare try use magic to get into my mind" I tried to calm the whirling emotions, tried to stay calm, how dare he! I pulled the hammer on the pistol.

"Give me a reason" KC warned, she had drawn a second pistol, one at the now groaning General, the other aimed at me.

"Ghost, I'm sorry, just I need to know how you got in" Whisperer said hurriedly "We met on the lower levels, did you come in that way? Please Ghost I have to get down there, something very bad is going to happen" I didn't want to believe him but there was something in those blue eyes of his that made me feel like I could trust him, my mind shuddered, was that him or his magic?

"What's so important?" Lathain asked, at some point he'd drawn his own pistol, Whisperer pointed to the screen

"That transmutation circle is being fed, not by magic but by blood" he said "Look if they're collecting blood then whatever it's for isn't just for here, it's for everywhere" he sighed "Look Ghost, look at the schematics" I glanced briefly at the screen "Don't you see, they're harvesting" beside me Lathain lowered his pistol to return to the screen whilst Whisperer continued "the collection tubes are for blood fed from the people on this base" he explained "there are hundreds of people here Ghost" he bit his lip, the frustration evident. "whatever it is it's a big circle, you're a mage you must know how bad this is" he stressed "we have to stop it Ghost"

"We don't even know what it is" I said "And what's this we?"

"For the love of all . . ." he trailed off to halt his curse "Look, if you're not here for this then why are you?"

"We're here to free the families of the inventors and for the weapon" Lathain interrupted, I glanced at him and nearly had to do a double take, he was pale, the blood drained from his face "Mission accomplished, so we're leaving now" he said and moved round to the door, beckoning me to follow, I turned around Whisperer and backed off with Lathain down the corridor, when safe to do so, my counter spell resistance as high as I could tolerate we ran off.

"What do you think he meant?" I asked

"You don't want to know" Lathain carried on running, back the way we had come.

"But you do" I tested "You know"

"Yep, that's why we're getting out of here"

"Wait" I pulled his shirt, making him stop "what's going on?"

"Whips what's his name is right, they're gathering blood, they have pints and pints from each person on the base, they just dumped the lot down a series of tubes, they've been storing it for years" he said running a hand through his hair, agitated "They've been gathering other types of critters too, they even have Wendigo DNA Ghost" he started walking again, I almost had to run to keep up, "They're purists" he spat "God damn idiots want to eradicate the magical genome, mages, elves, dwarves everything magical so it's just the humans again and no one else" I stopped dead

"But that'll kill . . ."

"Millions Ghost"

"So why are we leaving, why aren't we stopping them?" I was shocked

"Because they're too strong, they already have what they need, this small device for auction, it's nothing, titbits of power when these people have what they really want, they have the real power Ghost"

"But you're an elf Lathain!" Idiot didn't realise that if what he said was true and we didn't stop them then he could die?

Lathain hit something hard and invisible, Wizbit's form shimmered in front of him becoming solid "You're an ass Lathain" Wizbit said "We're stopping this, I just got a load of additional info and they're nearly ready to launch this thing"

"Launch?" I asked

"Remember the rumbling and shaking earlier?" he said, I nodded "Well it's not an earthquake, it's a railroad, one designed to carry the blood that's been collected over the last five years and it's heading out, I found another blueprint for a second circle, but it's not here, it's in Chicago"

"Chicago?" Lathain was curious now

"Chicago" Wizbit confirmed "the train is to link the two circles, I don't know how but I can make a pretty good guess"

"A blood trail" Whisperer supplied coming up the corridor, KC close behind, Wizbit looked from Whisperer's beaten form to myself, I tried to hide the blush, failing completely, Wizbit's mouth formed an 'oh' and turned back to Whisperer.

"That's my theory, whilst you guys have been kept here they've been collecting the blood spilt and storing it, they've dragged in other meta human types for experimentation, adding their genes to the mix too"

"It's the Nazi's all over again" Whisperer murmured

"Nazi's?" KC queried

"German group who wanted to create the perfect pure race, the Arian race, they figured the way to do that was to destroy everyone without those pure characteristics"

"Genocide"her voice was flat

"Yup" the hell of it all hit me, if they were taking meta human blood and transfixing it to a transmutation circle of this size and power then that meant the effects would be far reaching.

"Wait, if they've collected blood from here then they'll have human too right? Wont that be killing absolutely everyone" I asked, Wizbit shrugged

"Maybe, we're only making assumptions here" Whisperer said "I glanced at Lathain and KC, KC was focused on Wizbit. I remembered her earlier comment about someone else being in the facility, she didn't know it at the time but she had come across Wizbit

"Look, this is way over our heads, we've no idea what's going on in this place, our primary mission objective is done and our second is no longer on site so I say we split" Lathain was being uncharacteristically edgy, he never backed down from a fight, so what was wrong with this one? If this Blood circle wasn't stopped then metahumans could be wiped out from here to Chicago, maybe further, and who knows if the circle was constructed correctly? It could destroy everyone. This was exactly the kind of thing Lathain got involved in. Back in Tibet he had told me that he didn't have any family, that he ran in the Shadows to protect the little people, why was he turning his back on them now?

"Well look, as far as I'm concerned my objective was to stop you getting the device which is already on it's way outta here so mine is pretty much complete too, however I'm sticking around" I told the elf "Personally I'd like to know what doom these creeps have been putting in store for us" I could feel the charge building in my arms, I needed to vent. "I don't know what's gotten into you on this case but if you want to leave then go ahead, I'll figure this by myself" I moved to go, Whisperer stood in my way a moment "I'd move unless you want another couple of volts"

He held up his hands and stepped aside "I was just going to say I'd show how to get to where you're going" I turned to face him, "I have a map now" he looked at me Wizbit and Lathain having a murmured conversation with KC "I'd like to get outta here too you know" I rolled my eyes, the need to vent growing

"Fine" I said stepping round him, careful not to touch his skin "Just don't get in my way" I marched off down the corridor.