I made a half hearted attempt to sleep, but it evaded me, the lights and movements of the corridor were a distraction, the need to vent my charge brought me out of bed several times and the discomfort of being around strangers meant I would simply have to put up with it and sleep when this was all over instead. On the table KC's com flashed up, text rolled across the screen, Whisperer, he was in Chicago chasing a lead about Napper, other than that I couldn't see as KC rolled over obscuring the comm. link from view.

I sat on the end of the sofa bed wondering, what was it about that man that I had such a pull for? It wasn't simply his looks, he was handsome yes but there was Lathain who was stunning, no it was something else, I just couldn't put my finger on it. I hated not knowing the reasons behind something. My fingers brushed my lips, remembering the feel of his lips over mine, the heat of his hands through the cotton of my shirt, the press of him . . . my mind trailed off as a realisation occurred to me. I wasn't afraid of him, contact, physical intimate contact and I had embraced it, not run from it, I didn't feel the onset of a nightmare, no shakes, no fits or visions, no flashbacks from my Step father. Did this mean I was healing? It seemed too good to be true, so probably was, and besides I knew nothing about the guy, for all I knew he could be evil, have a girlfriend, a serial cheater . . .

I sighed; this train of thought was depressing and starting to make me feel uncomfortable. I went back to the main room, the air smelling of paint, papers freshly crumpled sat on the desk waiting to let us through to Chicago. The plan of attack was to find the place where the auction was taking place, win or fudge the bid and get hold of the weapon, Whisperer was tracking down more intel on the transmutation circle and how it related to Napper, Wizbit was out shadowing the Device and it's chaperone; how Wizbit or Whisperer had gotten into Chicago I have no clue, apparently Wizbit had taken Adam with him, and would be back by the morning.

I remembered Cakador and looked about the rest of the sleeping forms, at first I thought he had gone, freaked and run loose, but there had been no such alarm, but there was also no cat laying about, the stretcher was gone, packed into a corner, so where was he?

I found him in the corner, curled up beneath the table, a man, one who hadn't been around before, dressed in ill fitting clothes and barefoot. He looked Hispanic, dark skinned and a mess of black hair. I had momentarily forgotten he was a shape shifter; if he was now in human form did that mean he had woken up?

I stepped from the room into the corridor's streets thinking to grab a drink from somewhere; I'd need the caffeine since the brain had decided that the rest of my body should stay awake too. I found a small all night café and ordered a chicory coffee, the girl behind the counter looking very much like she wanted her own shot of caffeine, when she was done serving me she went back to her palm pad, Biology texts scrolled the screen, a college girl. I sat and drank trying to straighten out my head.

I was in a big city, a near dead city, one controlled strictly by the top mega corps with a million cameras and sensors, I would be going into one of the most dangerous cities for a mage, Wizbit had warned me about FID clouds of magic sucking bacteria that blew around the city and were to be avoided at all costs, I was chasing up an item I didn't even want to find, I just wanted to finish my coffee, catch a train back home and curl up and sleep. I wanted to forget all about Lathain's crazy stunts and Wizbit's cold shoulder, wanted to forget about this Whisperer man who made my blood heat just by being in the same room.

I sighed, I missed Torrin, I'd barely been out of the house and in my own place and already I was tired of it, I wanted to go where I felt at home, where I had someone to welcome me. But Torrin had been right that I needed to get out in the world, take my own cases, make a name for myself, get stronger so that I could defeat my step father should he come looking for me again.

Thoughts of my step father made me shudder; I'd been keeping up with the business of course, finding out his latest technological releases, there was a new design of com unit every other week now being released, more if you took in the back door ones for the shadow community. Each one no doubt fitted with the same DNA trace that had been used to track me down that first time, years ago, and the com that had led them to Emmett.

This mission was forcing me out into a world I wasn't sure I really belonged in, broken and tired of it all, I would probably only get people killed. But I stayed, and I knew I would see it through to the end, because that was how Torrin did it.

I dropped my change into the tip box and turned to go, pausing a moment as I saw the palm pad screen, titled "Meta human genetics: the source of the magic". My curiosity –peaked I asked if I could see the screen, the girl looked at me warily a moment

"I'm trying to look up stuff on the T15 genome in Meta humans, but my magic interferes with most devices, I was wondering if you'd mind looking it up for me?" I asked waving a fifty under her nose, she gave me a wary smile then proceeded to flick through the palm pad.

"Looks like the T15 genome is new to meta humans" she said "There's a bunch of stuff here about how the T15 wasn't seen in old DNA profiles, that its only seen in meta humans and those humans which possess magical abilities"

"Mages?"

"Looks like" she said "the T15 genome is a sequence of base pair repeats, each repeating line ordinarily thought of as junk DNA varies from person to person, however scientists in London U.K have theorised that this repetition may be linked to the introduction of the meta humans to the human world" she quoted "Copies of the original human genome project show no indication of this repetition within the sequences, and isolated human tribes throughout the world also do not show this unusual characteristics, however it may be seen readily in any meta human, and to some extent those humans which are able to draw on magical potential energies" she paused to take a sip of her coffee

"So this thing is in all metahumans other than the original pure human breeds?" I mused, interesting

"The Sequence itself whilst varying in length over time appears to be reducing" the girl carried on "Samples of Orc DNA taken in early 2016 show a large quantity of junk repetitions in this area, however decendants of this Orc are shown to have considerably fewer repetitions. Blood samples were analysed from other meta races and were found to show the same drop in quantity seen in the Orc specimen. Some scientists have theorised that the T15 sequence may be a timer and that once the populous expands and reduces the junk DNA to a limited quantity, or indeed breeds it out that the meta humans will cease to exist and the world will return to its human purity" she paused to look at me

"Thank you" I said "That was actually really helpful" I handed over the fifty

"Do you really think the meta humans will die out when this T15 thing disappears?" she asked me, I shrugged

"I have no idea" I told her "there has to be more to the genetics than just this sequence, but its pretty scary stuff in reality" she pondered a moment

"I hope not" she said "My boyfriend is a dwarf, I'd hate for anything to happen to him" I raised a sharp eyebrow, she didn't strike me as the type, she was a pretty tall girl, at least my height, probably more if she straightened up a little, but then you can't help where you find love. I gave her a gracious smile and left.

I found a small comm. unit round the corner from the café, I dumped some change into a sent a text message to Lindsey to let him know I was still after the device but so far had kept Lathain and his team from getting their hands on it. I didn't bother telling him anything else, my only thought was to keep him appraised so he wouldn't go after Torrin, assuming of course that Torrin was in any danger in the first place.

The corridor wind blew around me mussing up my hair, something caught on my boot and made me pause. I looked down to find a playing card stuck there, curious I pulled it from my boot, the front sprayed with sticky blood, the colour bright, almost fake looking, but the smell was coppery so it was real, probably arterial given the spray pattern. It was the ten of clubs, I looked for a bin but didn't see one so stuck it in my pocket thinking to keep it until I came by one, once it was there though it fell from my mind and I forgot about it, much like the man whom it must have belonged to, he wouldn't be needing it where he'd be going. I gave a cursory look about for other signs of a struggle but found none, it must have been dropped here, but whatever.

Back at the office block Lathain was awake and pacing, his quick strides light and easy on the carpet and didn't threaten to wake the sleeping forms as a human's footprints would have. He looked relieved when I entered.

"You're back then" he said, I nodded and moved to remove my coat, careful of the sleeping Orc whose foot twitched idly. "I was worried you'd gone home and left or something"

"I said I'd stay so I will, besides I still have a weapon to retrieve, or destroy, whatever it ends up being" I said. I pulled my hair into two and began to braid one down its full length, a distraction tactic and something to keep my hands busy.

"I'm sorry" Lathain said quietly, I barely heard it "About today, I wanted to turn around and get you but something just stopped me from doing it" he sighed heavily "I don't know what it was, I had that Whisperer guy shouting at me to turn around and for some reason because it was him telling me what to do I just froze up and kept going, I . . . I shouldn't have and I'm a jerk for it" he sat down head rested in a hand looking out the window.

"Are you saying you're jealous of Whisperer?" I said, was he? Had Lathain seen how Whisperer looked at me and seen it as a threat? He'd a funny way of showing his emotions to me since Tibet if that was the case.

"I'm not jealous, I just don't like the guy" he said folding his arms, he stared out the window for a moment "There's just something about him that makes me think he's not such a good guy"

"And any of us are?" I asked, he couldn't answer to that "You left me behind Lathain, you turned your back on me, turned your back on KC and all those other meta humans who were prisoners of that place" I shot him a look "it's like you're a different person, like I don't know you anymore. I bet if I asked you wouldn't tell me about the drake that was after you" He looked down.

"I promise I wont leave you behind again Ghost, this case just got scary for me, it's brought up things in my past that I don't really want to face yet" his eyes were wide and nervous, he looked lost, fragile even, but I was too angry and hurt at him to care just then. I shook my head and stalked to the room where KC and Geraldine were still sleeping, I sighed and fell to the covers of my camp bed and pretended to get some sleep.