She kidnapped people, brought them down here, and sacrificed

them on that altar to increase her power. “

“I’ve never seen anything so horrible, ” said Fugisawa.

Modred bent down over the headless body of the gunman and

retrieved his pistol. “You’ll see a lot worse, if we don’t stop her soon,

” he said.

Kira looked at Wyrdrune and saw that the stone in his forehead

was still glowing. She frowned and glanced at the runestone in her

palm. It was still burning brightly. “I don’t understand. If she isn’t

here, then why—”

“The shop!” said Modred. “Quickly!”

They ran back up the stairs and passed through the portal into

the basement of the shop. Fugisawa came through right behind

them and was brought up short by what he saw. The bodies of (he

fleeing gunmen, what was left of them, were scattered all around

the basement. There was blood and viscera everywhere, as if they

had exploded. Fugisawa fought down the gorge rising in his throat.

“Damn it!” Modred swore. “They were here!”

They raced up the stairs and into the lab, then went through the

shop and into the street. It was deserted. They ran across the

street, to where the limo was parked at the curb. Wyrdrune leaned

into the driver’s window.

“Did you just see anybody coming out—” He broke off and

recoiled. “Oh, my God!”

There was nothing left of the chauffeur but a mass of blood and

gore.

CHAPTER TEN

He was off the case, just as he’d expected. Watanabe had called

him into the office and given him his little talk, all about what a

good job he had been doing and how everyone knew how hard he

had been working, but what with the pressure from the media and

commissioner, who was getting a lot of heat from the mayor’s