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Part Three

There were three broken tubes in front of Nick, along with computers and a terminal that were broken and burnt. Shards of glass were spread all over the floor. However, what caught their attention first were the bodies that stuck to the ground like glue. It smelt like overly cooked meat that went bad.

Although everything was burnt and nothing in her would be able to be used again, it still gave them a good idea of what this place was.

Just from the tubes and computers, they could make out that this was some kind of laboratory.

Darren walked over to one of the counters and examined the material on top of it.

“Someone roasted this place.”

Darren said as he touched the dark substance on the counter with his finger. He rubbed it with his thumb but it was sticky.

“That is what we are here for.”

Skye replied to Darren as she kneeled down next to one of the many burnt corpses.

Skye started poking around at the corpse, while she put something in a plastic bag.

Nick looked at the three broken tubes.

He couldn’t figure it out, but he was wondering why there were only three broken ones when there were a total of four. From the circular area that held the glass of the other three tubes, there was one more that had the same exact circular spot on the ground.

“What are you thinking Nick?”

Illiana asked him as she knelt down and touched the spot he was examining.

Strangely this was one of the only spots on this floor that was not touched by the explosion.

“Look, those three spots are where the broken tubes are, but here there should be one as well. However, no shattered glass at all in this area.”

Nick told Illiana as he looked down at her.

Illiana gave him a smile and nodded her head.

“I was thinking along the same lines. See this space in between this spot and the floor?”

She pointed at a thin line that went around the edge of the circle.

“Whatever was in these tubes, this one was released. If I'm not mistaken the glass that enclosed it should be down here.”

Illiana said as she got up.

There was no way they could retrieve the glass if there was any below. Without the power running and the terminal, they would not be able to see if it was true or not.

If they had the glass they could do a scan on it to see what type of substance it held if any, and maybe find out what the Wells wanted to show off.

“Taylor create a casing.”

Illiana told Taylor.

Taylor nodded his head as he lifted his hand up and with open hands, focused. A blue mist surrounded the area where the tube would have been.

With a quick wave of his hand the mist disappeared and what was left in its place was an ice tube.

Illiana tapped her fingers on the ice.

“What was in here…”

She said to herself softly.

“Something this large, you think it could hold a human.”

Nick commented.

Illiana shook her head.

“I don’t know about that. The Wells wanted to auction off a human? No one would accept that and their status would be ripped from them.”

“How well do we truly know about the Wells? It is not something they haven’t done before.”

Nick said.

“Kid’s right, they were the ones to create the first modified human. At the time they were famed for it, but due to the trouble those modified humans created at a later date the Wells went silent. These days other organizations are using the knowledge the Wells had and built upon it, to create their own modified humans. What is to say they have created something else that deals with humans?”

Darren said what was on his mind before Illiana had a chance speak.

Nick knew that what Darren said was right. Katherine was living proof of that since her mother Diana Wells used humans for her experiments to create another kind of human.

If she did it, there was no telling what the other people in that family were doing.

For now, Nick wanted to keep it to himself.

“My father is good friends with the Wells, and he has no knowledge about them doing experiments on humans. Yeah, I know, who would openly tell someone they were doing human experimentation. However, my father not only helped supply the Wells he also has eyes and ears everywhere.”

Illiana said almost proudly.

For the ten families, if they did not marry inside the family their next best option would be to marry someone who was also apart of the ten families.

It was not strange for a person who married into one of the ten families to gain intel and give it back to their own family. This way information on who the next family heir was or what kind of dealings were going on, was passed around.

Skye placed her hands on a destroyed terminal and leaned forward on it.

“There is nothing useful here, i’ve gathered blood samples from a few of the workers here. Once the lab analyzes it we can find out who these people were.”

Darren squinted his eye as he looked at the terminal Skye was leaning on.

“The outside of it may look like charcoal, but the inside should not.”

Darren suddenly thought to himself out loud as he focused on the destroyed terminal Skye was leaning on. The insides of the terminal appeared in front of Darren's feet. He started rummaging through the cords and processors until he found something that looked like a small chip.

It was as long as a trimmed fingernail, dark in color but it had a flashing blue light.

The others looked at the small chip in between Darren's finger.

“If this chip is what I think it is, we’ll know what was going on here faster than we originally thought.”

Darren said with a grin on his face as the chip vanished from between his fingers.

Taylor patted Darren on his shoulder, but Darren shrugged his hand off.

“Darren you and Skye return to the base, everyone else head home.”

Illiana told the squad.

They found a valuable clue that would hopefully unveil the mystery of what the Wells were up to. It was already late, Illiana was sure everyone was tired too.

“Not you Taylor, you stay here and wait for Ryan.”

Hearing Illiana, Taylor sighed.

----

Back at home, Nick entered his house quietly. Before he went into his bedroom he checked on his mother. She was sleeping peacefully in her queen-sized bed.

He used ‘Providence’ to check her over once more but he found nothing wrong with her. Nick closed her bedroom door and went to his own room.

Nick walked over to his dresser and picked up a framed photo.

In the photo was a little boy with brown hair trying to push away a little girl with blonde hair away. She was trying to cling to him but she had mud on her. He did not want to get his body dirty thus he pushed her away.

Seeing this photo Nick grinned as he set the photo back down.

He remembers that day like it was yesterday. Alex and Nick were both playing at the park when it started raining. Alex slipped and fell into some mud causing her to become dirty, and Nick laughed at her. Since he thought it was so funny she decided to get him dirty as well. Nick’s mother thought it was cute and took a picture of them.

Nick reminisced about the past often when he was alone in his room. It brought him memories that gave him a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest.

Nick sighed as he laid down on his bed and closed his eyes.

“Alex…”

Nick softly said as memories past through his head.