[MD2, 5:25PM, a house in the woods]

>Kate went to knock on the door but there was no
>answer. Flynn ran around the back and found the
>door was open so he opened the door and went
>inside. It was dark and very damp in the house.
>He had his gun at the ready the whole time. Kate
>and the others waited outside for him to come back.

Damian and Sharlyn's car was no where in sight. That got Kate to thinking that perhaps Megan had sent them on a wild goose chase, distracting them while something was happening elsewhere. Nonetheless, she circled the building at a distance, analyzing their tactical situation. The team was at a definite disadvantage, but there was so far no indication that there was anyone inside except Flynn.

On the far side of the building, next to a portable generator, a flash of light off something in the grass caught Kate's attention. She moved closer and bent down to examine it. Sharlyn's ID wallet lay open on the ground. "Damn it," Kate muttered as she picked it up.

She went back to where Patrica and Craig were waiting and showed it to them. "They're here somewhere. Flynn could be in trouble."

>" I'm going to have a look for him" Patrica said when
>Flynn was gone for a while.

>"I'm coming with you," Kate said.

"Craig, you take the front door. We'll go in the back. Stay low and watch yourselves. We don't know what we're walking into," Kate added. She knew it was probably not necessary to remind them, but saying it made her feel better.

>They nodded and kept still looking.

>Patrica and Kate walked around the back of the
>house they got there guns at a ready and went in
>after Flynn.

>"Guys over here" Flynn called.

>The girls ran to where he was standing over a
>dead body at the foot of the stairs.

A moment later, the front door flew open with a loud crack as Craig forced it open, cracking the old wood around the frame. Even though they were expecting him, all three agents turned in that directions, leading with their weapons.

"Another one," Kate said when she had reassured herself that it was indeed who she expected it to be.

Craig joined them at the foot of the stairs. The body they were standing over was that of Carol Drazinski. There was no need to check for a pulse to confirm that she was in fact dead. She lay face down in a pool of blood, her head at disjointed angle, not from a broken neck, but from the depth of the slash across her neck.

Kate looked up the flight of stairs, then motioned for Craig and Patrica to take a look around the main level while she and Flynn went upstairs. They crept up, trying to be silent, but the rickety stairs were not cooperating, creaking loudly with every step. They needn't have worried about it. They emerged on the second floor to find only a single room that contained nothing but a very thick layer of dust, undisturbed even by footprints.

"No one's been up here," Flynn said, sounding as disappointed in the fact as Kate felt. Where were they, then.

Kate shook her head. She turned and looked back down the stairs at Carol's body. She could almost see how it had happened. "Burrell must have told her that Janet was up here, followed her up a few steps, and then attacked her."

"That makes sense, but where is he now? He could be long gone. And where are Damian and Sharlyn?"

"Right now, I'm willing to take *not* finding them as a good sign," Kate said.

Craig appeared at the foot of the stairs and motioned to them to come down.

-----

Damian came to with a start. At least he thought he came to, but where ever he was, it was completely dark, so it was hard to tell. He reached out a tentative hand, exploring the surface he was laying on. It was warm and soft, like sand but not, and he detected a woody scent. A sudden sneeze confirmed his suspicion - sawdust. It also made him aware of a throbbing pain at the back of his head, but even that could not account for the sound he was hearing - a low, droning sound, almost mechanical in nature, but with an irregular rhythm.

Slowly, he got up onto his hands and knees. He felt dizzy, and whether the total darkness was making matters better or worse, he couldn't tell. With nothing to indicate where he was in relation to anything else that might be in the room, he began crawling forward very slowly. After what seemed like an eternity, he ran head-first into a wall. No such luck as finding a door immediately, so he made an arbitrary decision and turned right.

Keeping one hand on the wall - it was rough, either brick or stone, and damp - he proceeded slowly, trying to estimate the distance he traveled. After circling the entire room in that manner, he judged it to be about twenty feet square - plenty spacious, but it didn't seem to have a door.

Next, he decided to try the same thing, but standing up. Maybe the door up a few feet and he had just missed it. He got to his knees and started to stand. Big mistake. About halfway up, he hit his head on the ceiling, knocking himself back to the ground.

"Damn it," he muttered.

"Damian, is that you," a groggy voice asked from somewhere in the darkness.

"Sharlyn?"

"Yes. What happened?"

"I don't know. Keep talking so I can find you."

"Okay." There was a moment of silence, then Sharlyn started to hum.

Damian got to his knees again and moved toward the sound. He had traversed only a short distance when he nearly fell over her. He sat down in the sawdust, rubbed the back of his head, discovering a nasty bump there, and sighed. "We need a plan," he said.

-----

Patrica was standing next to what appeared to be a trap door in the floor of a room off the back of the house. When the rest of the team got there, she was standing silently, intently listening to something.

"Do you hear that," she asked as they came into the room.

Everyone stood still and listened for a moment. There was a sound, very faint and far away, a distant droning or humming.

"Have you opened it yet," Kate asked.

"No," Patrica said. "We thought we better wait for you two."

Kate nodded and the team deployed on three sides of the door, guns aimed, while Patrica took hold of the handle and pulled it open. The sound got immediately louder. Another set of stairs led down from the trap door, and a strange reddish light emanated up from it. From where they stood, they couldn't see anyone, but they could hear indistinct voices over the humming sound.

Kate knelt down in front of the stairs to get a view of as much of what was down there as possible. She couldn't see anything but a brick wall and a bit of a dirt floor. "I'm going down first," she said. "Stay close, but at the first sign of trouble, retreat and get help."

She waited for nods from the others and then started down the stairs. A moment later, she was at the foot of the stairs, having met no resistance along the way. In an instant, the rest of the team had joined her. They were in a rather large room, unfinished, with a dirt floor and exposed beams and pipes along the ceiling. No furniture in the room, but all around them, candles of every shape and color burned - hundreds of them - scattered here and there, but there was a distinct path through them which led to a door.


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