Imhotep’s Key
By Joseph Black
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone
else belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.
Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.
Authors note 1: I am adjusting the Buffy time line slightly, this fic starts just after "Never Leave Me",
moving things back about a month.
Authors note 2: I can’t seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this ‘{*}
anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [*] it’s some ones thoughts.
Authors note 3: This is a continuation of the story started in ‘Rainbow Over Sunnydale’. It would be
helpful to read that fic first.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
Jack Ryan, President of the Untied States is informed that a US General, in charge of a top-secret anti-supernatural taskforce, believing him to be the Anti-Christ has gone AWOL with most of his unit. Investigation of the files left behind led Secretary Brentano to believe that the Generals plan is to open the Sunnydale Hellmouth to thwart Jack’s plan for humanity.
Ryan and his Senior Staff are briefed as to what the Hellmouth is and who is defending it. President Ryan decides that he cannot send normal Special Forces troops to the Hellmouth because General Billingsly had been recruiting from these troops. Instead he decides to send the anti-terror group Rainbow, commanded by an old friend and colleague John Clark to defend it.
Outside Bob Holtzman, a reporter with the Washington Post had been alerted to the meeting by a source and managed to get photos of the Finns as they arrived.
Riley Finn and his wife Samantha brief Clark and his partner Ding Chavez on what goes bump in the night, and the goings on in Sunnydale while they are on their way to Sunnydale. Sam left to gather the rest of their team that had been on leave while Riley, Clark, and Ding head to Sunnydale. Reaching Sunnydale they meet Buffy Summers on patrol and watch her dispatch four vampires.
Back in Washington Ryan is calling it a night when Andrea Price-O’Day, the head of his Secret Service detail informs him that she wishes to investigate the possibility of recruiting some of the Scoobies, and possibly Faith into the SS to help protect Ryan better. Ryan okay’s the mission but insists that he is the final word on Faith.
Riley explains to Buffy what is going on and points out that a group of trained soldiers striking when and how they choose may be more than she can handle. Buffy invites the three men back to her house where Anya informs everyone that Clark is a former CIA agent that D’Hoffryn is interested in because of a campaign of vengeance against a group of drug dealers that had killed Clark’s girlfriend many years ago.
Clark and company stood watch. During Clark’s watch he had Riley brief him in on some of the stuff that had come up that night. Then talked to Buffy and set up some ground rules. He also hires Buffy to help train his men against some of the stuff they might run into around Sunnydale.
The next morning a Forest Ranger shows up at the front door and explains that he has a family treed in a local national park and he would like Buffy’s help as the mother of the family claims that it is invisible wolves that did it. Ding volunteers to go with Buffy and when the Ranger, Robert Broadman discovers that Ding doesn’t have a rifle they stop by a local gun shop where Buffy discovers that her secret ID is even less secret than she thought. She gets a new crossbow and Ding picks up a rifle and puts an order in with the shop owner to add some more heavy weapons to Rainbows arsenal.
The Scoobies and Clark meanwhile research and discover that the demon that has the family treed is likely a ‘shadow hound’, a beast that is used to hunt down people but that can go feral very easily.
Holtzman met with a source he had at Andrews Air Force Base who told him that Clark and Chavez, two people that Holtzman had him looking for had taken off last night with two people that sounded like the Finns. Holtzman had been able to identify Riley from his West Point Year Book. He managed to find Samantha from a story done about her escape from ‘drug runners’ that had wiped out the village where her Peace Corp group had been. He also learned that Riley had been there from a photo he received from a friend that showed that Riley had been in the area of the attack. From the same friend he learned that Riley had been a teaching assistant at the University of California at Sunnydale after he had disappeared into what Holtzman assumed was the world of black ops. Holtzman had also questioned the explosion in London and found out from one of the staffers on the paper that the building had been the HQ for a shadowy organization called The Watchers Council, which the staffers source believed was an Illuminati type organization that believed could possibly had been the power behind President Ryan’s ascension. At the site Holtzman discovered an Email by ‘lttlrdwtch’ that didn’t think too much of that idea. Asking the head of The Post’s IT department to run down this person he was soon handed a piece of Dooggie Howzer Fan Fiction. He was about to throw it away when he noticed that the Author had a UCSD email address. He sent an email off to her asking for an interview.
Fearing that one of his girls may be a potential Slayer Ryan calls Sir Basil the head of English Intelligence and asks him what he knows about the Watchers Council. Basil replies that they are dead. He goes on to explain that an explosion that had happened in London was in fact the Watchers Council HQ. Basil then informs Ryan that it appeared that a Watcher had in fact survived and had fled to the US. Ryan promised to alert Law-Enforcement to help find Rupert Giles, and three young ladies traveling with him.
Willow asks Clark what he knows about Bob Holtzman and panics that he might want to interview her. Clark tells her not to worry and to just write him back and insist that any interviews be done face to face. He assures her that no editor would pay to send a reporter on so flimsy a piece of evidence as an email.
Buffy, Ding, and Broadman manage to rescue Dr. Sandra Sanchez and her two kids. They get them down off of the mountain and into ambulances. On the way back to Sunnydale they fail to notice that a Reporter for the Sunnydale Press watching on the side of the road. He uses a cell phone to contact someone, and then destroys the phone.
Clark had contacted Dan Murray Director of the FBI about the possibility to remove Andrew Wells, the last surviving member of the Troika to Los Angles. Andrew had been captured by Willow while he was buying blood in an attempt to complete a ritual that The First Evil was trying to get him to do. He had already murdered Jonathan Levenson the other survivor of the Troika in an attempt to do this.
Murray sent Pat O’Day, one of his chief troubleshooters, who was in San Francisco on a serial killer case to pick Andrew up, and to check out the local FBI office. Clark Pat, and Willow went to the local FBI office and quickly discovered that the two agents there were aware of what went on in Sunnydale. The had originally been sent to cover the office when the former agents had either died, been arrested, or disappeared in the wake of the investigations spawned by the death of Mayor Wilkens in the graduation explosion. The agents had discovered the true nature of Sunnydale when Agent Conners, the junior agent at the office was attacked by a vampire one night while jogging. When they reported what they had found they discovered that the Initiative was in town already and said they were handling the problem. Frayne Murphy, the SAC of the office, and Sue Connors were then kept in Sunnydale because they already knew what was going on.
O’Day and Clark agreed that the two FBI agents where probably on the level and briefed them on what was going on and called Dan Murray the Director of The FBI to let him know. The night before Clark had had a Radar Imaging Satellite map the underground of Sunnydale. Murray sent the take from the satellite to Sunnydale,
Buffy and Ding returned from rescuing Dr. Sanchez and her kids. Buffy had just found a note from Willow to call her when she heard Giles downstairs. Buffy got down there and found Ding and Giles facing off against each other. Buffy broke it up by introducing the two. Ding and Buffy were surprised when three young women came into the house. Giles introduced them and explained that The First had destroyed The Watchers Council and that the three girls where potential Slayers. He went on to explain that he had sent word out for all potentials to gather in Sunnydale as The First was trying to destroy the line of The Slayers.
Buffy remembered that Willow wanted her to call her. When Willow picked up she pretended that Buffy was someone else and ducked into another room. Willow explained that the President had told Clark that the British had requested that Giles be put into custody. Before Buffy could respond Clark, who had followed Willow requested that he be allowed to talk to Giles. Buffy told him that he couldn’t have him and Clark reassured her that he wasn’t interested in putting him in jail. Clark talks to Giles and convinces him to come down to the FBI office so they can talk.
Riley and Xander had gone out to look for a base for Rainbow and his team to use. Xander showed him the warehouse where Buffy had first run into Glory. Riley decided to take it, then asked Xander about some of the things that had happened while he was gone. Xander let slip that Buffy had died and they had been brought back. Riley was so upset he ordered Xander to wait in the car. While he was getting his temper back under control D’Hoffryn appeared and told him some stuff that Xander had left out, such as the fact that Spike had tried to rape Buffy the year before. D’Hoffryn offered to do something to Xander if Riley would give John Clark an amulet so Clark could contact him. Riley refused, but told the demon lord that he would let Clark know that you wanted to talk him. Once outside the warehouse Riley punched Xander in the head.
Xander and Riley headed for the FBI office. Outside the office Xander returned the favor and decked Riley. Inside Riley told Clark that the warehouse would be suitable. Clark asked Riley what had happened between him and Xander. When Riley explained Clark told him that if he couldn’t work with the Scoobies he would be sent back to Washington.
Buffy and the rest arrived and examined the maps. Giles and Clark reached an agreement then Buffy and Giles went to check out where Buffy had last encountered The First. Their Buffy ran into a powerful vampire who Giles identified as Trifurcates, the first vampire. While she was beaten Buffy still managed to get away.
While Holtzman is researching Sunnydale his editor comes in and tells him that he needs to go with the President because the President seems to have declared war on a US Senator that is running for reelection. Holtzman locks up his files and heads out.
Rainbow Team One arrived and Clark sent Willow and Ding to meet it and secure some place to stay since Buffy’s house was full between the potentials, Giles, and Anya, plus the people that normally lived there.
On Air Force One Holtzman meets and old colleague John Plumber who has information on Clark and the Explosion in London. Holtzman explains some of what he knows and Plumber some of his stuff. Plumber mentions that the man the Brits are looking for, and that which the US is not giving up was a librarian in Sunnydale for several years. Holtzman sighs and begins negotiation with the other journalist as to how they are going to share the story.
Willow, Ding and Colonel Stanley the XO of Rainbow got rooms at a local hotel and Willow performed a revocation ceremony to make them vamp resistant.
Team One arrived at the FBI office and Clark explained what was going on. Major Peter Covington looking the office over told General Clark that he didn’t think that the office was defensible and that they should find a different site to set up if possible. Riley and Xander managed to get the warehouse so as soon as Buffy got back they moved there.
Once there Colonel Stanley discovered that one of the potentials was a niece that he and his family had believed killed in a traffic accident with her mother 13 years ago. He confronted Giles with this information. Buffy stopped it from getting physical, but when she found out that sometimes the Council did kidnap potentials she went to work off some steam. Ding followed her into gym where he watched as Buffy pushed herself through exercises to burn off some of the anger. Buffy explained that the council did have killers working for them, and told him about how she and Faith switched bodies. Ding asked about Faith and Buffy filled him in.
Clark followed Giles up on to a catwalk. Giles explained some of his back history, and the back history of the Council, promising to look into the circumstances of Molly being in the council’s care. Clark accepted this but told him he wanted the stories on the other two girls too.
Everyone got back together to be briefed. One of the troopers, Lt. Kenshin Hiedoki, a loaner to Rainbow from the JSDF told Maj. Covington that one of his ancestors had been a Slayer, and that he had served on the team that deals with the supernatural in Japan. At the briefing Clark laid out who was going where, and what the equipment load out would be. Two of the soldiers that had been assigned super soakers loaded with holy water were a little upset but Clark explained how effective holy water was.
The soldiers still complained about it while waiting to leave and Annabelle, one of the potentials overheard them and panicked. Once everyone had left to do the mission she snuck out. Trifurcates who had fought with The First over keeping Spike alive had gone out to feed. Annabelle was noticed missing and Clark, Riley, and with the two FBI agents to act as guides went looking for her. Clark heard her scream when Trifurcates grabbed her and he managed to kneecap him and escape with Annabelle before she was killed.
Willow had agreed to accompany Pat O’Day back to LA when he transported Andrew Wells. On the road back they were ambushed by a group of thugs that were after O’Day. The First had detected them trying to remove Andrew and brought the thugs along to deal with all of them. Andrew was shot saving Willows life and she lost it. The First noticed something going on back in Sunnydale and left right before Willow changed. She disarmed and immobilized all of the gang bangers and was about to start on them when Pat discovered that Andrew was still alive but fading fast. He pointed this out to Willow so she performed a spell that she said would bind her and the gang-bangers together and told them that they needed to go and confess to whatever crimes they had committed. If they didn’t she warned that she would look them up when she had more time on her hands. She then gathered up Pat and Andrew and disappeared.
The attack on the base was largely a success. They managed to rescue Spike with a minimum of casualties and got some experience going up against supernatural creatures.
At the hospital where Willow teleported them to they got Andrew the hands of doctors and into surgery were they began working on him. Willow was depressed at how close she had come to being ‘Darth Willow’ again and O’Day not understanding what that was about had no way of snapping her out of it. The local police in the form Lt. Jonathan O’Connell show up to question them about the shooting. Pat told him an edited version of the story and O’Connell left apparently satisfied. Buffy and the and the crew who had raided the lair brought their wounded in. Spotting Willow she found out what happened and decided to take Willow home. Clark and the people from the warehouse showed up and Clark informed her that President Ryan was going to be in the neighborhood and wanted to meet with her.
Trifurcates managed to get back to the lair and found The First looking at the manacles where Spike had hung. He chided the First about how he should have let Trifurcates kill him when they had the chance. The First seemed unconcerned. When Trifurcates asked him what they were going to do about it, The First told him that, "That in times of trouble a girl should have her family around her."
Radisson Hotel and Convention Center
295 N. E Street
San Bernardino CA
27Oct2002 - 2145 hrs
President Jack Ryan stood behind the podium in his trademarked blue jacket, tie, and white shirt. He finished his prepared speech by saying, "Questions?"
Reporters immediately shot to their feet trying to get his attention. When Ryan said, "Tom?" Pointing at Tom Donner, John Plumber’s ex-partner, everyone else sat back down. Bob Holtzman listened to Donner’s question with half an ear as he was trying to decide if he wanted to run up to Sunnydale after the press conference and look around.
"Mr. President," Donner began, "Senator Kincaid has responded to the charges you leveled against him earlier today. He called them unfounded and partisan mud-slinging. He claims that you are just trying to stifle dissent. How do you respond to that?"
Ryan had been taking a drink of water as Donner asked his question. He replaced the water glass on the try before answering. "Tom, I think that the Senator’s record speaks for itself. I support everyone’s freedom of speech, and the right of an American to dissent to what his or her government is doing is one of the most cherished rights that we as Americans possess. But what Senator Kincaid is doing is not dissent, which implies that the person taking the stand has studied the issue and has reached the decision that the government is wrong and must be resisted. In Senator Kincaid’s case he has simply set himself up as the Anti-Me, it doesn’t matter what position that I take Senator Kincaid will take the polar opposite with no rhyme or reason to what it is. In one case he even lobbied against a bill that HE introduced that I agreed was a good and needed piece of legislation. That’s not dissent, it obstructionism. As far as the partisan mudsling-charge goes, how can I be partisan? I don’t belong to either of the main political parties. Mud Slinging is defined as making malicious or slanderous remarks about another person. The charges I leveled against Senator Kincaid are taken right from the congressional record. I am lobbying against Senator Kincaid because I think that he is an unnecessary roadblock in the smooth running of this government. He has attempted to block every piece of legislation that I have introduced since the reinstitution Congress and there is every indication that if he is reelected he will continue this trend. As we have seen several times in my Presidency we do not always have the time for such theatrics. I feel strongly that he needs to be removed before we find ourselves in another such situation. Next?"
The reporters surged back to their feet with hands raised calling, "Mr. President!"
"Bob?" Ryan said pointing at Holtzman.
For a moment Holtzman toyed with the idea of asking, "So Mr. President, what’s going on just down the road in Sunnydale?" But that was a question that he wasn’t going to ask till he already knew the answer. So instead he asked, "Looking at what State Senator Burstan is saying he is at least as strong a critic of you as Senator Kincaid, would you really be gaining that much from having him elected?"
Ryan nodded, "Good question," he conceded. "I think though that you are doing State Senator Burstan a disservice by comparing what he is doing to Senator Kincaid actions. Thomas Burstan opposition to me is based on a logical thought process, not political ambition. He believes that I have on several instants overstepped my Presidential authority. But he has also praised my efforts on several other issues. With that I believe that I will be able to work with Thomas Burstan and reach compromises with him. That will be an improvement over Senator Kincaid. Next?"
Holtzman sat back down and wrote up the notes to his question, while listening to what the other reporters were asking. There was something else there, he could feel it, After about twenty minutes Holtzman glanced at Congresswomen Sheila Tucker, he decided that if she didn’t get reelected she could go into acting because she really didn’t look all that unhappy that the only questions concerning her and her candidacy where from the local reporters, and even some of them were going with questions about the Ryan-Kincaid feud.
When the Press Conference ended with the Sergeant-at–arms saying, "Thank You Mr. President!" Holtzman headed for the outside, he wanted to get some fresh air before he went in and covered the meet and greet that Ryan would be doing. Outside the entranceway he found numerous of his colleagues who had not yet kicked the smoking habit stocking up for the time that they would not be able to smoke inside. This annoyed him a little, after all he quit, they could too. Not wanting to breath in the second hand smoke he headed around to the back of the building. He spotted a picnic table lit by a streetlight and headed there. He had just about reached it when he realized the area was already occupied by someone. Holtzman noticed with annoyance that this person was also smoking. He had just about decided to do a walk around the outside of the convention center when he happened to notice the persons press pass, it said, "Sunnydale Press." Holtzman took a second to look the man over, brown hair, dark eyes, medium height and build, wearing a decent suite with brown jacket and tan pants. Walking up to him he held out his hand, "Bob Holtzman."
Jurgis Ewel had watched the other man approach him and had come to the conclusion that he was going to ask him for a cigarette. In surprise he dropped his and held out his hand, "Jurgis Ewel. I’m sorry Mr. Holtzman I didn’t recognize you. I read your column as often as I can, but you don’t look like your picture.
Holtzman smiled, "I keep it ten years out of date on purpose. It’s easier to get people to talk if they don’t recognize you."
Ewel smiled, "If I ever become a big time columnist I’ll have to remember that."
Holtzman nodded, "I’ve been working on a story and Sunnydale came up in it."
Ewel looked interested, "Anything I could do to help I would be happy to."
"Thanks," Holtzman said, "I’m working on a story on Eric Shallot’s disappearance."
Ewel frowned, "I wasn’t aware he had disappeared. When was this?"
"Last year. He was working on a story and had a lead that led him to Sunnydale; he checked into the motel and then went out. No one ever saw him again."
"Man, can’t believe I missed that one," Ewel said, "I can ask around and see if anyone knows anything"
"Thanks, "Holtzman said, "I’ll quote you as a source. I was thinking of running up and doing a quick look around after the press conference tonight."
Ewel frowned, "That’s not a real good idea, we get a lot of unexplained deaths in Sunnydale. It would be better if you had someone to show you around. I’d offer but my editor wants this story on his desk first thing in the morning."
Holtzman nodded, he had mostly come to the same conclusion himself, but it was nice to hear a local confirm his decision.
"If you can come out later in the week I would be happy to show you around, there’s not a whole lot to see," Holtzman offered.
"I’ll see if I can get my editor to cough up the money for a plane ticket."
"So do you know why Shallots came to Sunnydale?" Ewel asked.
"He was following a lead for a script he was doing. He came across some information that indicated that one of the main players had been in Sunnydale right before and he was interested in finding out about him.
"So how long have you worked at The Press?" Holtzman asked he wanted to get a better read on him.
"A little over three years, I started there right before the high school blew up," Ewel answered.
"I hate those kinds of stories," Holtzman said, "What happened there, I checked the our archives, there was a blip the day it happened, then it was like everyone just forgot about it."
"I wasn’t there when the explosion happened. The Mayor had a crony on The Press that covered his appearances. I heard about it on the TV and headed over. I got there about thirty minutes after the blast so all I got to do was interview the survivors. I still remember one. I caught her as she was exiting the crowd and asked her what happened, and if she was all right. She looked at me and said, "Fire bad. Tree pretty," and then headed off down the street."
Holtzman smiled, "I’ve had interviews like that. It’s usually a Congressman though."
Ewel smiled. "We never really found out what happened just before the blast. The people who survived didn’t really talk about it. The crony disappeared without filling a story. It looked like he hit his apartment, packed, and was gone in about fifteen minutes. His cameraman was found in an autistic state with his camera smashed and all of his film exposed,"
"Did you buy the gas explosion story?" Holtzman asked.
"Never heard any other explanation for it, and no one at the paper was interested in looking for another one," Ewel explained. "Personally I expected it to be blamed on gangs on PCP."
Holtzman looked confused.
"Anytime there is a violent incident the story that the local cops give out is that it is gangs on PCP. They’ve gotten better about it in the last couple of years, but looking through the morgue it was just about standard for any number of crimes."
"Like what?" Holtzman asked. He had noticed when going over the back stories that it did seem that Sunnydale had to have one of the biggest drug problems in the country with the number of times that excuse had popped up. Which was interesting because it had never made the list of troubled cities on national polls. Then again Sunnydale seemed to be good at keeping out of the public eye.
Ewel began explaining a number of cases he had come across. They had been doing a give and take for about five minutes when they noticed a black Ford Explorer pull up next to the loading dock of the hotel. Holtzman had noticed the Secret Service agents that had been guarding the entrance and had half expected to be rousted out of here. One of the agents entered a pool of light at the corner of the dock next to the stairs and Holtzman recognized Andrea Price-O’Day waiting for it. Six people got out of the vehicle, four men and two women. Holtzman recognized two of them, The First was John Clark, and he was dressed in a blue sport coat and gray pants. Getting out of the driver’s door was Riley Finn, he was dressed in a dark polo shirt and khaki pants. The other four he didn’t recognize. Two were women; well one was a young blond woman, petite, dressed in a suede skirt and a dark top. The other woman was taller than the first and dark haired. She looked younger too and was dressed in a floral skirt with a black top. The two men were split in age too. The first was younger, black haired, dressed in a dark top, either navy or black with tan slacks. The older man was taller than his companion with graying hair and seemed to be wearing tweed. Andrea went met them at the top of the stairs and shook Clark and Finn’s hands and was then introduced to the others. Holtzman thought he saw some hesitation when it came to taking the small blonds hand but he wasn’t close enough to be sure. She then led them back inside the building and the other agents resumed their positions.
Holtzman turned back to Ewel and found him looking at him. Ewel smiled and said, "You tell me who you recognized and I’ll tell you who I did."
Holtzman thought about it and decided that it would be worth it to know who Ryan was meeting with this late. "Remember the story that Elliot Shallot was looking into?" Ewel nodded that he did. "The tall blond was the story. Shallot was working on a screenplay for a docudrama on Samantha Webber. You might remember her, she was the only survivor from a Peace Corp group that were killed when the village they were in was attacked by drug dealers."
Ewel thought about it for a second, then said, " I kinda remember it, never caught most of the details though."
"The guy’s name is Riley Finn he’s an Officer in the US Army, he was supposedly down in Mexico on leave and escorted her home. It must have been some escort too; they ended up married a couple of months later. Shallot discovered that Finn supposedly was a TA in Sunnydale a month or so before the escort so he came down to Sunnydale to find out if his source was right. He disappeared the first night he was here."
Ewel looked thoughtful, "Sounds like he found something."
Holtzman nodded, "Or something found him." He then looked at the other reporter.
Ewel smiled, "This is the night for coincidences. The blond?" Holtzman nodded. "She was the interview I told you about from the school explosion."
‘You aren’t think of any numbers right now are you?" Holtzman asked.
Not seeing the relevance Ewel said, "No."
"Ah well. I was hopping we could get together another psychic flash and split a lottery jackpot."
Smiling Ewel went on, "Her name is Buffy Summers. I met her again at the new school. The old Principle was killed in the explosion so they had to hire a new one. His name is Robin Wood, a little young but he seems to know his stuff. He has some ideas for improving parent participation that I am looking forward to see if they work."
"Like?" Holtzman asked.
"We’re having a big exchange program this year right before Christmas. He is going to bring exchange students in from all over and then right before they leave he is going to have this big awards banquet/parent teacher’s night to draw the parents in. It’s going to be impressive from the sounds of it."
"Who’s paying for it?" Holtzman asked. Sunnydale didn’t seem to be that affluent of a town.
"Wood got corporate sponsorship for the event. The Nakatomi Corporation has always been interested in educational experiments. They are footing most of the bill."
Holtzman nodded, "When this event goes down send me your notes and I’ll see about running it in The Post under your byline. If nothing else I’ll mention it in my column and source you."
"Thanks, I will," Ewel told the reporter. "Her name is Buffy Summers, her story is kind of impressive too. She got kicked out of her high school down in LA after she burned down the gym. She got in here and got into trouble a couple of more times while she was there."
"What kind of trouble," Holtzman asked.
Ewel filled Holtzman on Buffy being suspected in the death of two different people. The first had been someone who had been dating her mom who turned out to be a serial killer. Buffy had killed him accidentally in the middle of fight when she had pushed him down the stairs. At the time no one had known what he had been up too and there had been talk of first-degree manslaughter charges against her. After a search of his home had turned up the bodies of his previous victims charges had been dropped. The other was in the death of a still unidentified Jane Doe that had been killed in the school library. Her friends had been able to clear her once they had recovered from the wounds they had received in the attack.
"After she graduated she went to UCSD. Her mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor two years ago and ended up dieing from complications from the surgery a couple of months later. She dropped out of school and has been raising her sister since. Robin Wood hired her because he thinks she has a touch with kids and is using her as a councilor at the school. That’s one that I’m not sure about, but so far I haven’t been aware of any complaints against her."
"Dang, that sounds like it would be a hell of a human interest story," Holtzman said.
"I thought so," Ewel said grimly.
"What do you mean?" Holtzman asked.
"I was warned off," Ewel replied.
"By who?" Holtzman asked.
"My editor. He suggested that looking into Ms. Summers background might not be the healthiest move I could make."
"You take his advice?" Holtzman asked now becoming really interested.
"Right now."
"Let me know what you find out."
"Does this mean we’re partners?" Ewel asked smiling.
Holtzman nodded, "On this story anyway.
"The older guy, His name is John Clark. He’s an assistant to President Ryan."
"What is he a troubleshooter?" Ewel asked.
"That’s a fair description for what he does," Holtzman agreed with a straight face. "I didn’t know anyone else." He saw no reason to let Ewel know that the head of the President’s Secret Service Detail had met them.
"I know most of the others. The brunette I don’t know but if I had to guess I’d say that was the sister. The younger guy is named…it’s something weird… Harris is his last name… Xander, that’s it. I think he’s the foreman for a construction crew in town. The older guy I’m surprised to see. Last I heard he was back in England. He’s the old high school’s librarian, his name is Rupert Giles."
Holtzman managed to hide his surprise. That had to be the guy that John Plumber had said that the US was refusing to hand back to the Brits over that bombing that had happened in England. What could all of these people have in common, and why were they meeting with President Ryan?
Holtzman and Ewel exchanged contact information and then headed back into the rally to go back to work. They separated in the lobby. Holtzman went looking for Plumber to tell him that the man his friend in British law-enforcement was looking for was upstairs meeting with Ryan, and that he was accompanied by some locals from Sunnydale. He thought about hanging out and confronting Clark on his way out, but no one really knew that he and Clark had made contact on several occasions and he wanted to keep it that way.
Ewel went toward the men’s room. As he entered the door he glanced in the direction that Holtzman went off in and smiled. That aught to keep The Slayer occupied for a while
Clark followed the group as Andrea led them to were they would be meeting with Jack. The way Buffy had acted the night before when he told her that the President wanted to meet with her had been a riot, he thought that she was going to bolt for the door dragging Willow behind her. He had managed to calm her down explaining that Jack just wanted to meet and talk to her, it wouldn’t be a diplomatic function. She had smiled weakly looking relived and then saying good night had lead Willow out. He had waited with Pat and the others as Andrew and Pete were being worked on. Covington had been done inside an hour, he had been sent home with prescription for painkillers and antibiotics. Alistair, Ding and the others took Pete back to the motel to get some sleep. Alistair had Benton stay behind to be a bodyguard for the General. Clark had tried to send him on too but Benton was adamant, he was staying. Pat gave him a run down on what had happened out on the road and all that Willow had done. Clark was impressed. He was also kind of curious, the KGB had supposedly played around with this stuff back in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. If they had he wondered why they hadn’t been able to make it work. He knew they hadn’t because if they could of done some of the things that Pat had described there is no way he would be standing here. He told Pat about running into his friend Crudge, Pat remarked that if the big demon kept popping up like that he could be a serious problem. Clark agreed, but hoped he took the hint and left them alone.
A pretty Hispanic Doctor came out of the operating area and approached Clark and Pat, "Which one of you is the FBI agent?" She asked.
Pat identified himself.
"Andrew made it thru surgery. It’s still too early to tell if he will make it though. The bullet nicked his liver, and we had to take out his spleen and about six inches of his large intestine. If he manages to fight off the infection then he should be okay."
"How soon can we transport him?" Pat asked.
"I’ll be able to tell you better in the morning. Right now I would say at least a week," Dr. Sanchez answered.
Pat frowned, turning to Clark he said, "I’ll have to call Dan and see about getting some more help out here. I’ll stay until they get here so we can cover Wells till he can be moved."
Clark had agreed with him and told him to feel free about using either Murphy or Connors, the local FBI agents to spell him. Pat thanked Clark then asked Dr. Sanchez where Wells was recovering at. Clark had left then and gone back to the motel. As he was walking to his room he noticed that two different curtains were pushed back as he walked to the end rooms that he was sharing with Ding. He found Ding asleep and quietly had changed out of his clothes and slipped between the sheets.
Clark awoke the next morning and saw that it was after nine. Ding’s bed was empty and there was no sounds coming from the bathroom so he assumed that Ding wasn’t in the room. After taking a shower and changing into clean clothes he went out and found the door to the room that Frank Miller and Cory Unger shared open. Sticking his head in he had found Miller and Unger lying on their beds watching CNN on the tiny television on the room’s dresser.
"’Morning Sir," Unger said, "The Colonel left us behind to let you know that the unit was over at the warehouse getting it set up for Xander’s crew that will be showing up tomorrow."
Clark nodded and thanked the Sergeant. "I’m heading over to the Summer’s residence once I grab some breakfast. I’ll probably be there for a couple of hours."
Unger nodded that he understood. Clark headed down the stairs and was getting into his car when he saw the two of them now wearing jackets were locking up their room.
Clark grabbed a quick breakfast that his wife probably wouldn’t of approved of and headed for Revello Drive. He parked his car and headed up to the door. Annabelle opened the door and smiled embarrassedly at him, "Good morning General," she said as she stepped out of the way, "I want to thank you for saving my life last night. I also want to apologize for putting you and your men’s life in danger."
"Thank you Annabelle," He said as he came in and looked around. The other two potentials and Anya were in the living room going through some thin volumes, Clark didn’t recognize them from yesterday. Giles was in the dinning room talking to someone on his cell phone.
Turning to the teenager he said, "Just please don’t do it again."
Annabelle smiled ruefully, "Not much chance of that, Buffy laid down the law last night when we all got home. If we want to leave we’re free to go, but if we stay, we fight. I’m staying."
Clark smiled at her, inside though he cringed, young girls weren’t supposed to be on the front lines.
Kennedy snorted, "Yeah that was some speech, right out of Patton."
"I rather liked it," Molly said. The only tenseness that happened last night was when Alistair had said that Molly would be staying with him and Giles had pointed out that she would be safer with Buffy. Ding had stepped in and agreed. When Covington had also came down on Ding’s side Molly’s Uncle had been forced to agree. He made arrangements to have lunch with his niece the next day though. "Especially the end. It gave me something of an uplift."
Kennedy reluctantly nodded, "I liked the, ‘It’ll Swallow me whole and it’s going to choke on me’ part myself." Molly nodded agreeing with the other black haired potential.
Annabelle returned to her chair and picked up the volume that she had been reading. "What are you researching now?" Clark asked.
Dawn answered from her corner, "The First, this is all that Giles could find in The Council’s Library before it blew up."
Clark winced at the slim amount that they had. An idea occurred to him, "I could talk to Jack, he has some contacts inside The Vatican, maybe they have some stuff on this thing."
Giles said into the phone, "One moment please. General Clark I would appreciate if you not involve The Vatican in this. They have been trying to penetrate The Council since The Middle Ages and I’d prefer if they stayed on the outside."
Clark turned to face the Watcher, "At this point I would think that you would want all the help you could get."
"It may come to that, but The Catholic Church would demand too high a price for the information."
Clark sighed; he could see he wouldn’t be winning this argument so instead he asked, "Where’s Buffy? I want to talk to her about tonight."
The girls smothered giggles, Clark looked around and saw that even Dawn was getting into the act.
Dawn took her hand down from her mouth and said, "She’s upstairs with Willow trying to decide what to wear. She’s been up there for about two hours."
Clark thanked her and headed up stairs. Once she was sure that Clark wasn’t at the top of the stairs Dawn put down her book and went to Giles. "Why do you really not want the Vatican involved? Their library is supposed to be second to none," she asked the Watcher.
Giles sighed and took off his glasses and pinched his nose, "How do you think The Church would react to the fact that Willow and the others resurrected Buffy? That it was even possible for humans to do it?"
Dawn gulped.
Clark stopped at Buffy’s door and knocked, "It’s John Clark," he called.
"Come on in," Buffy’s voice came from inside.
Clark opened the door and entered the room. The first thing he noticed was the mound of clothes on the bed. Buffy was over by her closet dressed in a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt and was holding a peach colored dress. Willow was leaning up against Buffy’s dresser her hair pulled back into a ponytail and dressed also in jeans and a pink patchwork shirt. "What do you think?" Buffy asked Clark.
"Nice, kind of formal though." Clark replied.
"I am meeting The President," Buffy reminded him.
"This will be a working meeting Buffy, just wear what you would to work. Jack isn’t a stickler for formality, plus if you wear formal wear he won’t be able to relax around you. Trust me you’ll score brownie points if he’s able to relax a little."
Buffy frowned not sure if she was going to take his advice, still she had that suede skirt that she had picked up last week. "Okay, but if he gets upset then I’m going to blame you."
Clark leaned back against the wall, crossed his arms and replied, "I’ll take my chances. On a related subject, have you decided among yourselves who’s going?"
Buffy began putting clothes back on hangers and hanging them back into the closet. Clark knew they all had to come out of there but looking at the mound he didn’t see how. Still his wife and daughters seemed to be able to perform the same magic so maybe it was intrinsic to the female of the species. "It’s going to be Giles, Xander and me," she said from inside the closet.
"You’re not going?" Clark asked Willow in surprise.
Willow shook her head, "I’m still not recovered from last night so I wouldn’t be a whole lot of help, plus someone has to watch the potentials."
Clark nodded, it made sense, Willow was probably had the most defensive capabilities of any of the Scoobies, plus from what Pat had said when she went on the offensive she wasn’t too shabby either. "Can I make a suggestion?"
Buffy stuck her head out of the closet and said, "Sure."
"Take Dawn with you."
Buffy frowned, "Dawn?"
Clark nodded, "She’s smart, and has pretty good instincts. She’d be good to have around."
Buffy picked up nodding when Clark stopped and said, "And?"
"And… Andrea is a little nervous about you and Jack in the same room with each other. You bringing Dawn will show that you aren’t planning anything."
Buffy thought about it for a couple of seconds and then frowning said, "I don’t like using my sister as a voluntary hostage."
"You wouldn’t be doing that, rather think of it as a peace offering," Clark replied. "Andrea gets paid to raise paranoia to unbelievable heights. This would show that you appreciate what she is going thru."
Buffy nodded returned to putting clothes away.
Turning back to Willow he said, "That was some good work you did last night."
Willow blushed, "I almost lost it last night."
"But you didn’t," Clark pointed out. Willow still wasn’t convinced.
"Out of curiosity, who all could you cast that spell on?" Clark asked.
Willow shrugged, "Just about anyone, why?"
"Some times we deal with people who might be playing both ends against the middle, it might be nice if we could keep track of them."
"What I used last night wouldn’t help you that way at all," Willow said, shrinking into her self a little.
Clark seeing that she was uncomfortable didn’t want to push too hard, but also wanted to know the answer to her statement. "Well yeah I can see were you might not want to track the double agent, but I was wondering if you could set it up so that someone else could."
Willow shook her head, "What I meant was that I’m not tracking Soma and his thugs at all. I planted a suggestion that if they didn’t do what I said a red mark the shape of my thumb would show up on their forehead and if they let it go long enough it would start to itch or burn. I didn’t have time to do anything fancy, I needed to get Andrew to the hospital, so I had that one worked out from when I was in my ‘magic is the answer to all things’ phase and we had a shoplifting problem at The Magic Box. If I hadn’t wowed them with what I had done before I doubt that they would have been impressed."
Clark looked at the redheaded witch with respect. He definitely needed to get her on the payroll. "You know what I said yesterday about if you ever decide to lose your amateur status? Don’t call anyone else, call me." Willow smiled at the older man.
While they were talking Buffy managed to get her clothes back to were they were supposed to be and coming out of the closet she headed for the door. "Dawn needs something new to wear so we are heading for the mall. Kennedy mentioned about wanting to do some clothes shopping too so I might as well take any of them who want to go too," she said as she breezed thru the door, "Want to come?" She asked Clark.
Clark stood up straight and shook his head, "I want to see if Giles has time for ‘Hellmouth 102’." Buffy shook her head that anyone would rather talk about the Hellmouth than shop and headed down the hallway, "Dawn! Get your things you need a new outfit to meet The President!" She called down stairs. Dawn’s exited squeal was the answer she got from downstairs.
Clark smiled to himself remembering the young girls excitement that looking at the bounce in her stride she still hadn’t got over. Andrea stopped and opened a door to a conference room. She smiled at Clark and waved him in as he came even with her. The first thing he saw as he entered the room was a huge table. There was still space in the large room to comfortably walk around the table, but only just. Clark had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing, "[I said distance Andrea, but lord!]"
Buffy was thinking similar thoughts. She realized that the table had to be the Secret Services answer to her and Jack in the same room. She thought that she wouldn’t tell the Agent that she could probably pick up the table and hit The President with it.
To a certain point agents on the detail almost had to be mind readers. Andrea didn’t need much to pick up the amusement off of Clark and the bemusement off of Buffy. Good they saw what she wanted them to see. Under the table was a flash-bang device rigged to go off if the table was moved more than four inches in any direction. If what Dan had told her about Ms. Summers senses were true it should have more effect on her than anyone else. In case that didn’t work she had stopped at FBI Armory in LA and talked to the guy in charge. She hadn’t been overly specific on the nature of the threat, just that it would be short range and she had to be able to hit a nimble target. He had an answer ready for her. It was a double-barrel shotgun, sawed off to five inch barrels. She had pointed out with the way shot would spread out from that short of a barrel she would be as great a threat to her principle as the assailant. The gunsmith had smiled and showed her what the shells would be loaded with. It was a six-inch circular net made of piano wire with #4 fishing weights attached to it. She had test fired the piece with two and three-quarter inch shells and been impressed by the size of the holes that the rounds had left in the targets. She had the gun loaded with three-inch magnum rounds and eight-inch nets. She really didn’t expect Buffy to try anything, especially with her sister along, but her motto had always been, "Better to have and not need than need and not have."
She motioned the Sunnydale crew to the other side of the table then took her seat next to the one with the Presidential Seal. Buffy found her seat without problem. It was directly across from the presidential chair, it was also adjusted so that a short person was at the proper level for the table. Dawn sat down next to her, then Giles and Xander. On her other side Clark sat down next to her, then Riley.
"The President will be awhile yet, we snuck you in at the beginning of his meeting with people after his speech. While we are waiting I was wondering if you would be willing to answer some questions?"
"Sure," Buffy replied.
"I want to talk about some of the precautions that I have been taking against supernatural threats. Since I just found about this stuff the day before yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to talk to some experts before I put anything into effect."
"Anything we can help with we would be happy to," Buffy said.
"Okay then this is what I have done so far," Andrea dived right in.
About forty-five minutes later Ryan had just finished shaking hands with one of the local dignitaries when he turned to Arnie and asked. "Do I need to meet with anyone else?"
Arnie shook his head, "No that’s the last of them."
"Okay then I think I’ve left Ms. Summers waiting long enough," Ryan said and headed for the door. His detail let everyone know that he was moving and cleared the doorway for him. He found Congresswoman Tucker surrounded by some of her supporters and said to her, "Congresswoman, I want to wish you good luck next Tuesday and I want to apologize that your event was somewhat overshadowed by what I did earlier today."
Sheila Tucker smiled broadly, "That’s okay Mr. President. I understand how important it is to be a team player. Sometimes you have to support the team."
Ryan smiled and made his good-byes. There was a round of applause as he exited the room. Once pass the reach of the press and their microphones Ryan turned to his Chief-of-Staff and asked, "What bill does she want my support for?"
Arnie smiled to himself, his boy was growing up. There was a time that Ryan wouldn’t have recognized what the Congresswoman was saying. "She wants support on the Irrigation Bill."
Ryan frowned, stopping and turning to his Chief-Of Staff, "I thought that was up in the Washington Area?"
"It is, Sheila is doing a three way deal between her, Congressman Witchel in Washington, and Congressman Beumont in Kamas. They all have some hot potatoes so they’re switching."
Ryan nodded wearily, "Okay no big then, I was going to support the bill anyway."
"The environmentalists aren’t going to like it." Van Dam warned.
"Arnie, in this case the farmers need access to the water. I’d rather back the people growing our food. But just incase the environmentalist had a point I sent Benton out to look into it. His study indicates that given normal rainfall patterns for the area by the time the farmers need the water that fish that the original rules were put into place to protect will be far enough along in it’s life cycle that the lowering of the water levels in the river will have a marginal impact. I’m going with my Presidential Science Advisor on this one."
Arnie nodded already rehearsing the strategy that he would use to deflect the criticism that this move would generate.
Ryan had become so used to just following his Secret Service Detail he sometimes wondered if he found himself alone in some part of these sprawling hotel complexes if he would be able to find his way back to where he started. But his guide seemed to know where he was going and Jack soon found himself being led through a door into a conference room. Jack stopped just inside the door and just stared at the table in it. He wondered briefly, which of the Navy’s carriers had sacrificed its flight deck to make it? Andrea and everyone were standing and he looked at the too innocent expression on her face and had to stop himself from making a comment. Instead looking across the table at the people from Sunnydale he smiled. The small blond smiled back and Jack started around the table. Andrea snarled to herself, and followed her principle.
Giles and the others saw the President coming and got up and let Buffy thru. She met Jack Ryan about half way down the length of the table and stopped looking up at him. Jack smiled down at the small blond, and held out his hand. Buffy smiled back and carefully took his hand. "I’m Jack Ryan, and on behalf of myself, my family, and the country I want to thank you for all that you have done."
Buffy blushed and replied, "I was just doing what I had to do Mr. President. You don’t owe me any thanks."
"Yeah, I know how that works," Ryan replied seriously.
Despite his tone Buffy’s first response is that he was kidding her, but when she looks into his eyes she realizes that Ryan was someone who understands how duty works. He’s someone who has been there and understands. She smiled shyly at him in thanks.
Ryan went on, he turned and presented the man who had come around the table with him, "This is Arnie Van Damm he’s my Chief of Staff. I guess you already met Andrea."
Buffy nodded and said, "This is my sister Dawn," Ryan shook her hand. And this is Rupert Giles, my Watcher."
Ryan shook his hand too, "Mr. Giles, I talked to Tony today and he tells me that they have a branch of their intelligence service that they use for these kinds of cases. They aren’t dedicated to supernatural things but they take care of it if one comes in. They’re going to send one of their senior people over to talk to you."
"Thank you Sir," Giles stammered, and then he realized who ‘Tony’ was and said, "Thank you for going so high to straighten this out."
Ryan shook his head; "John tells me that Buffy needs you here, so I’m going to do what ever I can to make her life easier."
Xander was feeling left out in the background till Buffy turned to him and said, "And this is Xander Harris, he’s one of my oldest friends and has been fighting with me since I moved to Sunnydale."
"Mr. President," Xander said with a firm handshake, "I voted for you."
"Thank you Mr. Harris, that means a lot," Ryan told him.
"And I think you know Riley and General Clark," Buffy finished.
Ryan smiled, "We’ve met."
Arnie made his greetings; Buffy noted that he had no hesitation in taking her hand. Once Arnie had finished greeting people Ryan said," Let’s get this meeting started, I don’t want to rush you but unfortunately I have another day of campaigning tomorrow," he said the last bit with little enthusiasm as he moved back to the other side of the table.
Once everyone was settled Ryan asked, "What else can we do to help you out?"
Buffy chewed her lip for a couple of seconds then said, "Very little right now."
Ryan looked surprised, "You do realize that I just put the full resources of the United States at your disposal right?"
Buffy looked over at Giles and made a ‘go ahead’ motion with her hand. Ryan noticed that Riley looked surprised, and Clark gave him a ‘No Clue’ signal. Dawn looked disgruntled, while Xander looked pissed.
"Mr. President while we appreciate the offer, The Watchers Council has always been autonomous of governments. We find that no mater how just and good they are, invariably they fall. I have no doubt that you are a just and honorable man. You have proven that again and again. However you will be in power at most for another six years, possible only for two. While I don’t doubt that you will be able to hand pick your successor, eventually a person who isn’t just or honorable will come to power. If that were to happen at a delicate time and we allow ourselves to become addicted to the ease of operations that you could arrange then the world could well be forfeit, or The Council could be forced into becoming just another intelligence organ for that nation.
"In the short term, we also would have trouble with several of the Potentials that are coming. They hale from countries and societies that view the Untied States as the source of evil in the world. If we are accepting aid from the US Government how hard would it be for The First to plant the seeds that this is all some scam to turn them against their home countries?" Giles explained in his most reasonable, librarian voice.
Ryan sat there for a minute and thought about what Giles had told him. "We could keep the aid covert, make sure you have food in the larder, provide some transportation on the side, they need never know where it comes from. For that matter we could get potentials that wouldn’t view the US Government as a threat out of their countries and provide cover for them to get to Sunnydale."
"I doubt that the CIA is up to dealing with Bringers and the other forces that The First could bring to bear." Giles told POTUS.
"I wasn’t thinking the CIA as much as a military unit of some type. Reports from last night seem to indicate that troops can encounter these things successfully. What do you think John?"
"Riley?" Clark turned to his expert.
"Aside from the fact that a Marine Company swooping down to retrieve a young girl might generate some questions that we don’t want to answer. Whatever unit we decided to use would have to be briefed in. Rainbow’s troopers handled last night pretty well, but I don’t think that it’s sunk in yet what they actually fought last night. Right now they are still going on training and adrenalin. Once it sinks in that their parents lied to them about monsters not being real we’ll see what happens. With the Initiative we lost about fifteen percent of are people who couldn’t deal with the truth. We might get luckier with Rainbow because the troopies are older and more experienced, but that could work against us too."
"So you’re saying to back off too?" Ryan asked the Initiative Trooper.
"If Giles thinks he can get them out, I say go with it." Leaning over so he could catch Giles’ eye he said to him, "I hope that if it turns out that if you do need help you won’t be too proud to ask for it."
Giles looked uncomfortable but nodded at Riley.
Ryan didn’t like it much; he had hoped that he could come out of this meeting generating a much closer working relationship between the Scoobies and Rainbow, so he decided to back off rather than push and maybe do damage.
"Okay," Ryan told them, "I can’t force you to accept aid, but keep in mind that the offer will always be valid. If you decide you need help it’s here."
Giles nodded and for a second Ryan thought that Buffy was going to overrule the Watcher but in the end she decided to let ride.
Ryan decided on a different tack, "What help can I give you?"
The Sunnydale crew looked confused, "I thought we just covered that." Giles checked himself, "Pardon me, I don’t wish to be insulting."
"No problem, I probably didn’t make myself clear," Ryan replied. "Before I offered the help of the USA, this is a personal offer. You’ll find my personal assets aren’t in the same galaxy as what the US could offer you, but I’m pretty well off and I want to help."
Giles hemmed for a second when Dawn spoke up, "Would you consider floating a loan?"
Ryan didn’t hesitate, "How much?"
Buffy glared at her sister, "We aren’t that tight Dawn, especially when my retainer starts coming in."
Dawn glared back, "Not for US, for the Magic Box. If we are having all of these girls coming it might be a good idea to have the extra space, and the extra bathroom. Plus it would be better to be able to train in the backroom than our basement, higher ceilings and more room. It would give Anya something to do, and the extra money and access to magic supplies would be good too."
Arnie watched as the group bickered, the dynamics going on between them were interesting. Buffy was in charge, but Giles had obviously talked her out of accepting aid. They must have had it out before they left for the meeting, Buffy obviously went with her Watchers experience, but it was equally obvious that neither Dawn nor Xander were happy with the position. He would talk to Jack about it.
Giles looked up from the mini-huddle that the Scoobies had gone into and said, "I’m forty percent owner of the store so we would have to get Anya’s permission before we agreed to anything."
Ryan nodded, "We have phones so you can call her. So how much are we talking about for repairs?"
Giles reluctantly said, "Fifty Thousand for the physical repairs, I’m afraid that Buffy and Willow did a superior demolition job on the interior of the store. Then about forty-thousand to replace lost stock."
Ryan thought about it for a moment, "Okay I can loan you one-hundred and twenty-five thousand, and so it doesn’t count as a gift for tax purposes would three percent interest be acceptable?
"Three per…" Giles sputtered. "I’d have to contact Anya, one moment please," he requested as he got his cell phone out.
Andrea tensed for a moment, her finger on the detonator for the flash-bang under the table but Giles only hit the speed dial on his phone and waited. "Hello Willow. Is Anya there? Yes I’ll wait. Anya? No we are still with him… Yes I will tell him you said hello. Anya, he has offered to loan us the money to fix the store… Yes it should be more than enough to do the job… Three percent… No, not weekly, period…" Giles suddenly pulled the receiver of the phone away from his ear. "I’ll take that as a yes then and that you are giving me power to sign the papers?"
When Ryan saw Giles pull the phone away from his ear he turned to Andrea and ordered, "Have someone go and get my check book."
Andrea motioned to one of the agents that were in the room with them and sent him off.
Giles said his good-byes to Anya and turning to The President stated, "Anya agrees to your terms and has given me permission to sign for the check. She asks for a grace period before she starts paying the loan off."
Ryan waved it away, "Get the store back on its feet first. If this thing blows up on us it won’t make much of difference anyway.
"How are you set up for cash personally Mr. Giles? I know how much it cost to keep a worldwide intelligence agency going. If you couldn’t afford the ninety-thousand to fix the store, how are you going to afford to operate?"
"When I was reinstated as Buffy’s watcher I gained access to several accounts, while they are not bottomless they should see us through this crisis with enough left over to hire someone to ferret out the remaining Council accounts around the world," Giles told him.
Ryan smiled, "The US Government employees some of the best forensic accounts in the world. If you wish we could let them see what they could find of these accounts."
Giles considered the offer, and not seeing anyway of stopping Ryan from doing it anyway said, "That would be very kind of you to do that Mr. President. The extra cash would be welcomed."
Ryan nodded no problem. Turning to Andrea he ordered, "When we get back to Washington have someone remind me to get George Winton’s people on this."
Andrea nodded and made a note.
Turning back to Giles Ryan said, "I have a personal question. I have two daughters, what’s the chance that either of them are potential Slayers?"
Giles thought about it for a moment then said, "My father was head of The Council when you saved the Prince and Princes of Wales. I believe your older daughter was with you at the time. If she were a potential I think my father would have mentioned it to me. I can’t say about your younger daughter. There are tests that can be performed, or I can ask a coven of witches that is helping us if they can tell. The tests can be somewhat time consuming and I’m afraid I’ll be busy for the foreseeable future. If I can squeeze the time in I will, but more likely it will have to wait till the immediate crisis has passed."
Ryan was about to say something when an aid came in and said, "Flash Traffic Mr. President."
Any messages that were marked as Flash Traffic when received where to be put before the President for him to read within ten minutes of receipt. Ryan read the message and frowning handed it to Andrea who read it and getting up said, "Excuse me, I need to check some things."
Ryan turned back to the group and said, "That message notified me that someone broke Liz Elliot out of the hospital that she has been in since she lost it the night that Denver was nuked. They killed two security guards and a floor nurse doing it."
Office of Tucker Contracting
Madrid, Spain
28Oct2002 - 0910 hrs
Hank Summers got off of the elevator and went thru the glass doors into his company’s Spain office. He navigated thru the cubical to the back corner of the office. Normally he worked from the villa that he rented and shared outside the city, but he had gotten a call first thing in the morning that Steve Miller his boss wanted to see him pronto.
During the drive in Hank could not figure out what Steve wanted. The Rodrigo account was ahead of schedule and it had been four months since the Gurtmug project. Surly if something had been going to go wrong there it would have shown up before now?
Getting to his boss’s office he greeted Steve’s secretary with a cheery, "Good morning Consuela!"
Consuela frowned at him and said, "Senior Miller will see you now." She hit the intercom button to let Steve know he had arrived.
Hank was starting to worry; Consuela always had a smile for him. Something was definitely wrong here. Going thru the door Steve was sitting behind his desk with as angry an expression on his face as Hank had ever seen.
Steve waved him to a chair in front his desk and began right in, "Hank we got a letter from the California Department of Youth Services this morning concerning you."
"Why would they send something to you?" Hank asked.
"Because apparently you were ignoring them." Steve replied. "According to them over the last eighteen months they have sent you no less than ten letters, including a register letter that was signed for."
Hank started to sweat, "Steve you have to believe me, I haven’t seen anything from them since right after Joyce died and they let me know that Buffy was appointed guardian for Dawn."
Miller passed the manila envelope over to the other man and ordered, "Check out the top sheet."
Hank did as he was told and saw a photocopy of a tag from a registered letter, Sheila had signed for it. "Steve she never showed to me. You know how she is, she’s convinced that Child Services is trying to foist Dawn off on me, I’ll talk to her when I get home."
Steve shook his head, "I’m afraid that it’s gone a little far for that Hank. The other part of this letter is a notification that if you don’t get this settled then they are going to ask us to attach your paycheck. I don’t think I need to go into details as to what that would mean.
If possible Hank went even paler, "I’ve been making child support payments for Dawn since Joyce’s death, I have it taken right out of my pay. You know that."
Miller shook his head, "They looked at Buffy’s income and they altered what you owed per month. You know how old man Tucker is about family responsibility. I warned you when you cut yourself off that he wouldn’t be happy. Hell if you weren’t such a producer you probably would have been gone then. And before you say anything I know how Shelia is about the girl, but Tucker isn’t going to look at it that way."
Holding up another letter he went on, "This is a forty-five day notification. It’s asking us to set things up so that if in forty-five days you haven’t straiten out this problem that the attachment order will be ready to go into effect. I talked to Human Resources, they tell me that it will take them ten days to get this processed, So what I am going to do is give you a thirty-day leave of absence. I expect you to get this straitened out in that time."
Hank recognized the only chance he was going to get so all he said was, "Thanks," as he headed out the door.
"Don’t thank me," Miller called at his back, "Just get this solved."
Stopping at Consuela’s desk he leaned over and asked the receptionist, "Consuela, I need to get to LA as quickly as can be set up. I don’t care what it costs, who I fly, or where I have to lay over."
Consuela still had a frown on her face and said, "LA? Don’t you mean Sunnydale?"
"I need to talk to my lawyer first and get everything set up. I doubt they would want to see me anyway."
"Si Senior Summers, I will do what I can," She said grudgingly.
"Thanks, I owe you a big one," He said.
"Take care of your daughters Senior Summers, and we will be even."
Hank hesitated, and then headed out.
On the way home he cursed Shelia, lately he had started to come to the conclusion that she had been perhaps the biggest mistake of his life. When the divorce had gone thru Sheila had suggested he take a European posting so he could leave his past behind. He had let her talk him into it, "[Oh come on Hank. You were more than thrilled to leave your ex and kids behind. What was it you called it? Oh yeah, REFRESHING, that’s it. Made you feel like a new man,]" said his conscience quite nastily. Hank turned up the radio so he didn’t have to think.
The house that he shared with Shelia was on a hill overlooking the city. Given the different cost of living between the US and Spain it was much nicer than what he had in the US. As he walked in thru the front door he saw that Shelia was on the back deck by the pool sunning herself. His cellphone rang as he was heading upstairs to pack. "Yes?" He asked into the phone.
"Senior Summers, this is Consuela, I have you booked thru to LA, and the driver will be there in twenty minutes. You need to be ready to catch your first flight."
"Thanks Consuela," he said sincerely into the phone, "I really owe you one."
He went into his room and pulled an overnight case out of his closet. He threw some clothes into it, stopped in his bathroom for his shaving kit and was heading for the door when Shelia came in behind him and asked, "Business trip?"
"Kind of," Hank replied guardedly. "I got a letter from California DYS today at work." He noticed the tightening of the skin around her eyes. "They are going to attach my salary if I don’t get this thing fixed so I have to go."
Shelia’s face darkened, "We decided when we left California that you were going to forget you past, that we were going to start over."
Putting his case down he went started over toward her and said, "You can ignore the fact that I have a minor child. DYS is not going to give me that luxury."
"They want to make you take Dawn," Sheila said, starting to get a little shrill.
Hank stopped about halfway to her, "Somehow after three years I doubt that that’s going to happen. This is going to be a simple trip to straiten out some problems with the amount of child support that I am paying, that’s all."
Sheila sauntered over and Hank felt the urge build up in him. Sheila was everything that Joyce hadn’t been. She had long strait black hair. She had blue eyes, intense under the dark mass, and a slim aquiline face. She was slim with out being skeletal, and she was a little shorter than Joyce. When she got close to him she rubbed up against him and said, "Come on Hank. Forget going back. I found a spot in the garden that I don’t think the neighbors can see," she said, her eyes promising everything.
Hank for a split second reached for her. But then common sense reared its ugly head. Taking a step back he said, "Haven’t you been listening? They are going to attach my salary! Old man Tucker is a fanatic about stuff like that. He feels that if have to be made to take care of your family then you aren’t trustworthy. The last guy who got his paycheck attached wasn’t with the company long enough for it to show up in his check. I. HAVE. TO. GO!"
Sheila wasn’t hearing it though. She started pouting and nearly screamed, "You just want to bring that brat here and spoil our fun!"
Hank at loss turned and started out the door.
"If you walk out that door don’t think about coming back!" She screamed at his back.
Hank who had just picked up his overnight case turned angry for the first time, "Sheila, the house is in my name, and I pay the rent and the bills. If you want to take over those just let me know and I’ll switch it over."
Sheila’s face had gone nearly purple, "All right then, If you leave I won’t be here when you get back!!!" She screamed.
Hank turned back to the door. As he was going thru it he said tiredly, "Do what you have to do Sheila, that’s what I’m doing."
He closed the door and tuned out the tirade that came after him. He walked down to the end of the drive feeling oddly free. When he got down to the end the car wasn’t there yet but he saw the mailman coming down the block. Looking him over he saw that it wasn’t the regular one.
"{Is Miguel sick?}" Hank asked the mailman in Spanish.
"{Yes Senior,}" He replied, "{I am Pedro.}"
"{Do you have anything for Summers?}"
"{Yes, bills only I’m afraid.}" Pedro said as he passed over several envelopes.
"{Pedro, I would appreciate it if you could pass on a couple of things.}"
"{I would be happy too,}" Pedro told him.
"{First thing is, anything from California Department of Youth Services comes directly to me. If necessary I’ll give you number that I can be reached at. Second, I’m going on a trip and Ms. Parsons might be leaving. If the mail starts piling up then could you hold it at the post office please?}"
"(I will pass these requests on to Miguel, I see no problems.}"
"{Thanks,}"
"Ad Nada," The postman replied as he headed off down street. At the corner he turned and vanished around the fence.
The car that was to take Hank to the airport pulled up then so Hank was busy climbing in when a black bird flew up from behind the fence so he didn’t notice it. Even if he had he probably wouldn’t of thought anything of it. Hank didn’t know enough about birds to ask what an American Raven was doing in central Spain.
Buffy glanced around her side of the table and saw that only Clark and Riley seemed to know what The President was talking about. "Who?" She asked for the benefit of the Sunnydale crew.
"Elizabeth Elliot was President Fowlers National Security Advisor. She was the liaison between The White House and the Initiative when it was first put together. She had a bad breakdown the night they nuked Denver and she couldn’t handle the situation. She’s was being treated at a federal institution in Southern New York till earlier tonight. Someone broke her out and killed a couple of the staff doing it. According to what I was given it looks at first blush that it was a Special Forces operation." Ryan explained.
Clark thought about it, "It had to be Billingsly’s people. What would they want her for though?"
Ryan looked over at the Initiative representative here and asked, "Riley?"
Riley considered for a minute then said, "Dr. Walsh and Dr. Elliot were friends, Dr. Walsh mentioned her to me on several occasions. Dr. Elliot had already had her breakdown by the time I was brought on board so I never met her. I know that Dr. Walsh would send her recorded messages from time to time. It was never about what we were actually doing, but I think they might have been using some form of personal code because some of the comments seemed to be too inane for Dr. Walsh to be making."
"So you think that Billingsly might be looking for something that Liz might have been told?" Ryan questioned.
"It’s possible. There is another thing though," Riley went on thoughtfully.
"After Dr. Walsh was killed they did an audit of her files and equipment. They came up empty on a bunch of prototype equipment. Dr. Walsh said she destroyed the stuff but there was no official record of it actually being destroyed, instead it was listed as disposed of," Riley postulated.
"What sort of prototypes?" Andrea asked.
"I was UA when they did the audit. Graham was there and he told me the story. I think he mentioned that about ten of the blaster’s where missing and a bunch of early control chips. Also some of the other equipment like our pheromone detectors and stuff like that." Riley finished.
"Blasters? Like Star Wars?" Ryan asked.
Riley shook his head, "They were basically tasers without needing the wires. They were good for stunning things. That was about it."
Andrea scowled, "What kind of range are we talking about for these things?"
"About twenty-feet," Riley responded. "In a fight between people with blasters and people with guns, bet on the guys with the guns. I doubt that they will come after us with them."
"What about the control chips?" Ryan asked.
Riley shook his head, "I’ll contact Graham and find out about them. If they were what we used on Spike then I can’t see how they would be of use."
Giles frowned, "Could they have been the kind used on you?"
Riley nodded.
"Okay Major, see what you can find out," Ryan told him.
"Uh, I’m a captain Mr. President," Riley corrected him uncomfortably.
Ryan smiled, "Since Rainbow One and Two are run by Majors we thought that a promotion was in order for you so that you will be on an equal footing with them."
Riley smiled, "Thank you sir."
"Congratulations Riley," Clark said.
Riley just nodded.
Ryan smiled, and then got back to business, "Since I have some stuff I need to look at before I can get to sleep and Ms. Summers has to do her patrolling lets wrap this up. I would in the future like to have a longer meeting but we’ll have to see how things work out. Before we call it a night though what about the local law enforcement community? Will they be on our side, or Billingsly?"
Riley thought about it for a minute then said, "Probably neither on their own, they seem good at ignoring things." Xander snorted his agreement.
"I wouldn’t be too sure on that count Mr. President," Clark cautioned.
Turning to his old friend Ryan ordered, "Explain."
"I talked to Pat last night while we were waiting for word on Andrew Wells. He said that when Lt O’Connell of the Sunnydale PD showed up to question him he came loaded for bear and that he seemed to be aware that Willow might be a serious threat."
Buffy nodded also, "I hate to admit it but I think he may be right. Ranger Broadman said that he found out who I was through the local police. I think they might know a lot more about what happens around town than we ever gave them credit for."
Ryan nodded, "Okay, lets make contact with them and get them on our side."
Riley looked glum, "I shouldn’t be the contact person then Sir. Dr. Walsh used me for that and she and they did not have the best of relationships. In fact if possible it might even be a good idea for them not to know that I am even back in town."
POTUS looked over at the newly minted Major and asked, "She did that good of a job alienating them?"
Riley nodded at his Commander-in-Chief, "When we first arrived they were still largely disorganized after the corruption investigations in the wake of the high school blowing up. They didn’t seem to be that useful. Once they got their acts together Dr. Walsh feared that there was still a lot of corruption in their ranks so she wanted them to have nothing to do with us. She threatened their federal funding if they interfered. Things got really strained when Adam got loose and started his killing spree with a twelve-year old. They rapidly figured out it was something to do with us. I think if things went on much longer they would have gone public."
"What can you tell us about them?" Ryan asked.
"When Gideon Scott was elected Mayor in a special election he made a point to not interfere in any of the corruption investigations. He let the state and federal investigators clean out the rotten apples. He appointed Stewart Donaldson as Chief of Police. Donaldson had been a detective second class before the blast and he came through the investigations with pretty much flying colors. Anything he was guilty of was sins of omission rather commission. Donaldson promoted anyone within the department that he felt was worth it then went looking for outside help. One of his first hires was Jonathan O’Connell.
"O’Connell has duel citizenships with the UK and the US. He went to the NYC Police Academy where he graduated somewhere in the middle of the class. He didn’t work for NYPD though; instead he got picked up in New Orleans. The one interesting thing is that he seems to only work the nightshift. He rapidly rose through the ranks and made detective in New Orleans within five years. He was the second in command of their nightshift when Chief Donaldson offered him the position to run the nightshift in Sunnydale. I’ve had a couple of run ins with him, he likes to pretend that he is a dunce but don’t let the act fool you. He is a tough and able investigator."
Ryan digested what Riley had told him, and then turning to Clark he said, "Why don’t you do the contact then, or if Pat is still in town let him introduce you. These sound like they may be people we can work with. If they aren’t then we need to know." Clark nodded that he understood.
"Can I ask a favor?" Buffy questioned.
Ryan glanced over and said, "Sure."
"Could you hold off talking to them for a couple of days? I’d like to talk to them first. I think they owe me an explanation as to why they didn’t make contact with me for the last seven years. Well the last four anyway. When they worked for The Mayor I doubt that I would have liked to talk to them."
Ryan nodded, "Fair enough. John, hold off to Tuesday or Wednesday to talk to the SPD." Clark again nodded.
Ryan then stood indicating the meeting was over. Everyone else stood and Buffy wasn’t sure of the protocol at this point. Ryan moved over by the door and seeing everyone standing on the other side of the table smiled and said, "It’s going to be hard to shake you hand and say goodbye with you on the other side of that slab of wood."
Buffy smiled embarrassedly and followed Giles and Xander out from behind the table, faithfully being followed by Clark and Riley. When Buffy got to Ryan he handed her a small card with a phone number on it. "If at anytime you need to get a hold of me that number is to the duty desk at The White House. Someone there will be able to get in contact with me day or night. If you need anything don’t hesitate to ask." Buffy nodded in thanks and slipped the card into her bag. While Clark was shaking his hands Ryan gave him the signal that he wanted him to call him tomorrow. Clark indicated that he understood.
As he was being escorted to his rooms Ryan turned to Arnie and asked, "What do you think?"
Arnie considered for a second and then said, "I think she has potential. The Xander kid is someone I would want in my corner, he didn’t say a lot in there but he was sure paying attention."
"What did you think of Rupert Giles?" Ryan asked
"Is it too late to give him to the Brits?"
Ryan smiled, "Yeah, I think so. Plus I don’t think the damage that it would do to our relationship with the Sunnydale crew would be worth it. He’s scared Arnie. He was at best a mid-level supervisor; he suddenly had the whole thing thrust on him. Believe me when I say it always looks easy from the outside. You learn how hard it is when your there and it’s suddenly your call. He’s so scared of doing the wrong thing that I’m afraid he might frighten himself into inaction."
"You didn’t do to bad when it happened to you." Arnie pointed out.
Ryan gave his friend and advisor a ‘look’, "Thanks."
Arnie smiled, "No Problem."
Ryan reached his door, turning around before he went in he said to his Chief-of-Staff, "If Giles moves thru an area that I am in and we can arrange a quiet meeting set it up. Hopefully I can talk some sense into him."
Van Damm nodded.
"Okay Arnie, go hit the sack. I won’t be too far behind you.
"Good night Jack," Arnie said as he headed for his own room.
Orange County Correctional Institute for Women.
Los Angeles CA
28Oct2002 - 0134
Faith was screaming, she was sure of it. She couldn’t hear it though with what sounded like a hundred jet engines roaring around her. She had her eyes closed because with the abuse her hands were taking she was pretty sure that if she opened them she would be instantly blinded. Her hands were around something that felt like a metal pipe that she was holding onto with a death grip. Her body wasn’t on the ground but was suspended by the force of the wind on it. She tightened her grip on the metal pole, but it felt like her hands were being sandblasted. As suddenly as she found herself in this situation the wind was gone and she found herself slammed to the ground. She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes.
Looking around the first thing she saw was a retreating wall of swirling debris. Suspended inside of it she saw boards, trees, and occasionally she thought she saw an old tractor flying around in it. Glancing behind her she saw that what she had been gripping was an old manual water pump like they had used in the Old West. She could see where she had been holding on because she had left indentations in the metal. Seeing the indentations reminder her about her hands. When she thought about them they started burning. Glancing down she saw that they looked like they had been dragged across asphalt. She was just starting to look around to figure out where she was when something slammed into the small of her back.
Faiths eyes snapped open and she looked right, then left. She saw she was still in her prison cell. Lifting her hands she saw that they were unmarked, but they still had the ghost of the burning pain from the dream.
"Shit Faith," Sheila, her cellmate and the occupant of the lower bunk who had provided the kick that had woken Faith up said, "Could you F’en keep it down? I got to be up at Three-Thirty to help with breakfast."
A flashlight suddenly illuminated the cell, "You okay NLN?" a voice asked.
Faith rolled her eyes. Brannigan insisted on calling everyone by their last names, since Faith refused to give hers she was listed as NLN or No Last Name. "Yeah, just a dream."
Brannigan growled, "If this is going to happen often then I want you to get something from the Pharmacy to help you sleep. If you don’t, I will."
Faith nodded that she understood.
After Brannigan left Sheila whispered up, "I hate to agree with that prick Faith, but if you’re going to be doing that much I’d F’en appreciate it if you would."
"I doubt it’ll happen again," Faith assured the other prisoner. Sheila just grunted as she rolled over to try to get back to sleep. Faith leaned over the bunk and said, "If it does don’t kick me."
Sheila rolled back so she could look at her cellmate, "Kick you? Faith I’ve watch you do reps with five hundred pounds on the bars. You start doing push-ups when I leave for to help with breakfast and are still doing them four hours later. Believe me Faith; I nudged you with my foot, that’s all. You got some other preferred method of being woke up let me know."
Faith grunted and rolled onto her back. She could not fall back to sleep though, she was sure that the dream she just had was a Slayer dream. The last one had sent her after Kakistos, which had started her little odyssey that had led to her current lodgings.
Ordinarily when a Slayer had one of these dreams they would go to their Watcher and tell him about it. But the last time that she had met with her Watcher she had beat him, kidnapped him, and then tortured him over several hours. She doubted that he would be interested in explaining this dream to her. She supposed she could call Angel and ask him to pass it on, but she had heard that Angel and Wesley weren’t exactly on speaking terms. Sitting in the dark staring at the ceiling for about twenty minutes, the dark-haired Slayer decided that she would have to call Angel. He could then maybe get in touch with either Buffy or Giles and maybe they could figure out what it meant.
Having reached a decision Faith rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. If that had been a Slayer dream and she had been awakened before the finish. She hoped that if it restarted it would skip the first part and just start where it left off.
The Pentagon
Arlington, VA
28Oct2002 - 09:34 hours
Major General Marion Diggs got out of the staff car and waited for his Operations Officer Colonel Duke Masterman to catch up with him before continuing into the huge building. "Find anything else out?"
Showing their ID’s to the guard at the entranceway they were waved thru the metal detectors inside the door. Once they were past the security checkpoint and heading to where the briefing was supposed to be Masterman shook his head and told his commander, "Bernie couldn’t find anything else out. The only thing going on that he can find is that bombing in London last week. He says that those anti-terror guys that helped us in Russia got called somewhere, but no one knows where."
Diggs frowned; he had a bad feeling about this. He had been dubious when he had received orders to come back to the US from his command of The First Armored Division in Germany to evaluate some of the first efforts to beat the Individual Vehicle Information System that US vehicles had onboard that allowed them to share information about what was going on around them and to coordinate with their fellow soldiers much easier. Diggs had been in command both times that it had been used in combat. It was first used in the Persian Gulf during the Bio-War, then in Russia against the Chinese earlier in the year. In both cases it had been a major asset that had helped his forces triumph. The encrypted note from the Mickey Moore, the JCS, ordering him to expedite his return had convinced him that there must be something more to it. While his orders didn’t say to bring anyone with him he was a two-star general so could basically bring who ever he wanted. So Duke Masterman his G-3 got a free trip to DC out of the deal. He had set Col. Bernie Torpon his new intelligence officer to looking to see if they could figure out exactly why he was being summoned. So far there had been no luck.
"I’m being transferred," Diggs told Hamm about two minutes into the walk.
"For what? You performed beautifully against the Chinese. Between us and those Air Force weenies with those Smart Pigs we set ‘em up and Ivan knocked them flat."
"I think that’s the problem. I’m the best we have," he said with little modesty. "There has to be something going on somewhere that we can’t see." While he was speaking they arrived at the door of the briefing room. Being a major general Diggs opened the door and went in. He was surprised to find that aside from Masterman he was the junior officer present.
Waiting for him was General Mickey Moore the Joint Chief of Staff, also present was Tony Brentano the Secretary of Defense. "Pull up a chair Mary we got some things we need to go over," The JCS said.
Looking at the brass Diggs and Masterman sat down. "I guess this means that I’m not going to be evaluating the IVIS decoys eh?"
Pouring a mug of coffee from the carafe on the table, and motioning for the new arrivals to do the same Tony Brentano began, "No General, you will be doing that too. That will be the cover, we need you in that area though," The JCS told the black officer.
"If that’s the cover, what’s the job?"
Brentano looked grim when he said, "How does CinC-CONUS* sound?"
General Marion Diggs thought about it for second, and when he couldn’t come up with a credible threat asked, "Who’s going to be invading us Martians?"
With no humor in his voice Tony Brentano said, "Close."
"[Okay…]" Diggs thought to himself. "I’m a little light up here," He said instead, pointing at the two stars on his shoulder boards.
Mickey Moore smiled and reaching into a shirt pocket he took out and slid a small jeweler’s case over to Diggs. Picking it up and opening it Diggs found the collar insignia of a full general in the US Army. He stared down at the two sets of four stars. Looking back up at his superiors he asked, "What about Pat?" General Patrick Auslander was the current CinC-CONUS.
The JCS replied, "Pat is probably the best administrator and logistical person in the Army. Unfortunately the largest combat command he had was a company in Vietnam. You are the best general officer that has recent command experience in combat.
"Right now we don’t know if this is going to brew all the way up. If it does we need someone who we know can think on his feet and the best we have is you. What we want you to do is to put a command staff together and look at the situation and make recommendations. If nothing happens then it was just an exercise and no harm done. On the other hand if the balloon does go you put on the extra stars and you’ll be in a position to move right in and take over. In that case Pat would be your logistics officer."
"What’s the situation then?" He finally asked.
In reply, Brentano pushed the button on his intercom and said, "Could you send Major Decker in please?"
Major Sheila Decker entered the room and was surprised at the brass that was waiting for her. She wasn’t overly nervous, she had been stationed at The Pentagon for eight months now and Generals, Colonels, or even The Secretary of Defense didn’t hold the same awe that they once had. Still this was the first time she had been called into a meeting with him. She wondered why General Diggs was there; last she heard he was in Germany commanding the First Armour Division.
"Major please take a seat. Mary, if Sheila will take the job we’re going to offer her then she will be the CO closest to the problem area. We thought it would be easier to just brief all of you in at the same time," The JCS explained. Diggs nodded that he understood.
"Before we start the formal briefing we want to show you a video, so just hold your questions." Tony Brentano the Secretary of Defense was more comfortable around computers than the JCS so he started the presentation. The three newcomers watched as it began playing on the screen in the room. It started abruptly, with whirling chaos of a hand-to-hand combat. Diggs managed to pick out that there seemed to be two sides. Side one was dressed in green non-descript uniforms favored by black-op troops, their assortment of weapons also supported that hypothesis. The other side though, no two were dressed the same. Most seemed to favor leather of some kind, the one thing Diggs couldn’t figure out though were the masks, so he asked, "Why are the bad guys wearing Halloween masks?"
"Those aren’t masks," Mickey Moore said bluntly.
"What?" The three officers that were being briefed said almost simultaneously.
Tony Brentano stopped the playback and turning to the three newcomers said, "What you are looking at are the final moments of a black-op operation that went wrong. The group was called The Initiative." He then went on to explain about The Initiative and what it was all about. At first none of the briefee’s wanted to believe what they were being told, but they kept looking up at the screen.
When the briefing finished Diggs finally said, "Well I guess that answers why I was getting such crappy intel from the guy.
Turning more serious Diggs then asked, "Before I answer yes, I got to ask, is there any chance that Billingsly is right about NCA?" (National Command Authority, The President.)
Brentano shook his head, "No, If you knew Jack you’d know it was ridiculous. Plus there is a group that specializes in this stuff that looked into it and they gave him a clean bill."
"What group was that?" Masterman asked.
"They were called The Watchers Council. They specialize in supernatural threats. They had quite an organization set up too.
"Were?" Major Decker asked.
"That explosion in London was their headquarters. There was only one survivor," Brentano said grimly.
"Are we in contact?" Diggs asked.
"Yes, our on site forces is Rainbow, plus Initiative team that didn’t bolt. They contacted the locals Friday and have a base they are setting up in Sunnydale."
"Okay how soon can I get with these Initiative people who didn’t take off?"
"The Locals have some of their own problems so they might not be able to take time off to meet with you. We’ll try to set it up though."
Masterman asked, "How good are they?"
Brentano smiled. Hitting a key on his computer he ordered, "Watch."
Everyone turned back to the screen, for a minute or so it was just the same gut-wrenching action. While it was clear that the Initiative soldiers were giving a good accounting of themselves, it was equally clear that they were slowly losing. Suddenly from the bottom corner of the screen a "V" of people charged into the melee. In the lead were two blonds, a guy wearing a black duster and black pants, and a girl in a white top and black pants. Behind them came a redheaded young woman, a black haired young man, and an older man. The two blonds in front pushed the demons back while the other three ducked back out of camera. The male in the duster was amazing, when he turned back to the camera the three newcomers were surprised when they saw his facial distortion and realized he must be some kind of demon that was helping out. Whoever he was he was a vicious fighter, not quite a berserker, but that kind of a fighter. The small blond woman though was out of this world. They saw her doing things that didn’t seem possible for someone that size.
Diggs like many military men was a history buff. Though his own area of interest was mainly the American Civil War he had studied a little of all military history. He had read of warriors that armies went around rather than trying to go thru. He had never really believed that such a person could be real. Watching the small blond in action he changed his mind. While the bad guys didn’t know she was there they just tried to take her on like anyone else. As they began realize she was there she actually started to push the demons back just by her presence, as she moved they tried to get away from her. A funny moment came when a demon not realizing her proximity suddenly noticed her, even though the demon had at least two feet of height on her, and probably weighed at least three times what she did, none of it fat, he actually turned and looked like he was tiptoeing away. A stream of soldiers began to file behind the two blondes and off screen following the blonde’s companions. The last soldier to file past was also a blond who called to the two fighters and they began falling back too. The group exited the screen with the surviving demons just standing there watching them go.
"The blond girl is Buffy Summers, she was the Watchers Council’s big gun. She’s what’s called a Vampire Slayer. She’s the leader of the Sunnydale group. The other fighter goes by Spike; he’s a vampire that helps them out. The Initiative caught him and put a chip in his head that prevents him from hurting humans. I’m not sure how he got hooked up with the Slayer and her group but he’s helpful enough that they did a mission last night to get him out of an enemy headquarters. That soldier who was the last out is Riley Finn, he’s the CO of the Initiative team that didn’t desert." The Sec-Def explained.
"Okay now that you know the basics here is what I want you to get started on." He went on for about another fifteen minutes explaining and going into more detail, when he was finished he asked, "Any other questions?"
"What limits are there on me for picking my command staff?" Diggs asked.
"Effectively none. It would be good if you could spread your choices out a little to avoid raising suspicion, but if you need them their yours." Brentano answered.
"How about retirees?"
"If they agree they are in."
"Promotions?"
"What ever you need to do, do," Brentano told the General.
Diggs nodded, those were orders that he liked.
"When am I going to take over command of this base?" Major Decker asked.
"Probably not for at least two weeks. We want Rainbow and Team 3 to both be spun up before we affect the change of command."
When the others indicated that they had no further questions Brentano dismissed them, "We set an office up for you to use, the yeoman outside will give you the information. I’m afraid you won’t have much of a staff at the present, but we’ll get them to you as quick as we can. One other thing, Colonel McCloud is being put under your command, he’ll report directly to you."
"How far can we trust him?" Masterman asked.
"If we didn’t think he was trustworthy he would be in Leavenworth," the JCS replied.
Diggs and Masterman exchanged a look; they would both keep an eye on the CO of the Initiative.
Brentano then dismissed the officers and the meeting broke up. Walking to their offices Duke Masterman grew steadily paler. Diggs noticed and asked, "Are you all right Duke?"
"No," Masterman answered truthfully. "I’ve never been real religious, it’s a funny feeling finding out you were wrong about something like that."
Diggs stopped and turned to his operations officer, "I’m going to need you Duke, are you going to be alright? If not I need to know soon."
"I think I’ll be fine, If not I’ll let you know," The Colonel replied.
The trio continued down toward their new office. Diggs turning over what he had just learned, he had never been real religious either…oops.
The Situation Room
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington DC
Jack used the remote to turn off the TV and turned to his Secretary of the Interior and the Director of the INS. Both men were visibly shaken and looked back at their president. "Okay, what I want from you two is for you to go thru your agencies and make sure that there isn’t someone in a small basement office that handles this kind of stuff. If there is someone like this then I want to talk to them."
The Secretary of the Interior spoke first, more that he got himself under control first than his superior position. "Mr. President, I assure you that there isn’t any secret office in my department. The only thing that comes close is that situation out in Nevada, but we have confirmation of fossilized remains of the creature in Mexico so it’s prehistoric not demonic."
"My information suggests that demons have been around that long so that doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t a demon of some kind."
"Twitchel, the man we have monitoring the situation would probably agree with you." The Sec-Interior agreed.
The Director of the INS spoke up, "Sir as far as I know we have nothing to deal with this kind of situation. With our borders it would not be hard for things to pass into and out of the country unnoticed."
"I understand Gentlemen, you might not find anything, but I want to KNOW that there is nothing there rather than just guessing."
Both men nodded that they understood and Ryan thanked them for their time and dismissed them. On the way out Gordon Sellby the Sec-Interior turned and asked, "When are we going to inform Congress of this?"
Ryan looked and replied, "I want to wait till after the Mid-terms, see who we are dealing with."
The Secretary nodded that he understood and left the briefing room. Ryan looked at the stuff on his desk and judged he had about three hours worth of work to do, a light night. Which was good after his weekend."
The Washington Post Building
1150 15th St. NW
Washington DC
28Oct2002 - 1740 hrs
Bob Holtzman headed for his office. He had to finish his story on the President’s trip quick because his wife had managed to set a dinner meeting with her Mexican contact and he needed to get home in time to make it to Falls Church, VA by eight PM. As he came around the corner he saw two people waiting for him outside his office. One was Tom Messenger the head of The Post’s IT department and Oscar Opgood the intern that Holtzman had gotten the Rosenberg lead off of. Messenger simply handed him a stack of printouts and said, "This is what I could find out about the people you asked me to check out." Holtzman thanked the retreating back of the computer expert.
Turning to Oscar he quirked an eyebrow. "Do you have a minute? I found some stuff on the Watchers Council you might want to check out."
Holtzman considered a second then nodded. He opened the door to his office and waved the other man in. Once inside he pulled a chair out to indicate where the intern should sit then sat behind his desk and started leafing through what Messenger had given him. It wasn’t much. Rosenberg seemed to be known in hacker circles but she wasn’t that active. She had been pulling down Suma Cum Laud grades till last year then she dropped three classes at the end of May last year. Holtzman made a note to talk to Messenger about crawling thru people’s private files; The Post didn’t need that kind of scandal. Looking up at the Intern he asked, "What did you find out?"
"The Brits put a lot of their archives up on the net. It’s mostly as scanned jpegs so it’s a pain to go thru. I took a chance and looked thru around the date of the founding of the Council and I got lucky," He pulled out a printout and passed it to Holtzman, it was however in Latin so Holtzman didn’t have a clue to what it said. "William and Mary granted the Council the land their headquarters sat on in perpetuity and gave it to them tax free."
"They say why?" Holtzman asked, interested.
"For services to The Crown by The Slayer, The Slayer was capitalized," Oscar, explained.
"I don’t know much about English History but weren’t William and Mary considered to be good guys? I wouldn’t think that they would have a professional killer on the payroll."
"I wouldn’t think they did either. So I also checked to see if maybe this Council provided royal executioners but I couldn’t find any relationship between them and the Tower of London. So I did a net search on "The Slayer" to see if I could find anything. I got a lot of hits for the Rock Band and one that was interesting." He pulled out another download and handed it to Holtzman, "I have to say before hand if you didn’t like the conspiracy page you are going to absolutely hate this one."
Holtzman looked down at the sheet of paper in his hand and read, "They Walk the Night!" It was the screen shot of a web site supporting an occult bookstore in New Orleans. He gave the intern a very dubious look.
"I know," Oscar agreed, "But it was the only hit I got so I checked it out. According to the guy who does the page he swapped a ‘Gwendolyn Post’ for this info, She was supposedly a Watcher. Now I checked and there was a Post family associated with the Council so I figured what the heck. Brother Rimply, the guy who runs the store is something of an expert on artifacts and the like that supposedly has mystical properties. Ms. Post swapped him the information on The Slayer for the location of something he called the Glove of Myhnegon. Gwen told Rimply that the Slayer was a chosen warrior of good, one girl in all the world with the strength and skill to hunt the vampire and stop their spread. She then went on to explain training and stuff. I’m not saying that I believe this stuff but I thought it was an odd coincidence that of all the names he could pick he managed to tag one that had Council relations."
Holtzman wanted to dismiss this out of hand. Vampires? Get real. But then he remembered the small blond woman that met with Jack last night and the hesitation he thought he saw when Andrea went to shake her hand. "See if you can dig anything else up on this stuff," He ordered the intern. "This is probably nothing, but see were it leads." Oscar nodded and collected his stuff and left.
Holtzman looked at the file that Messenger gave him; he should really get his story done before he dived into that. He decided he had to make a phone call first though. Grabbing his Rolodex he fished a thru to the ‘S’s’ and then found the number he wanted. Glancing at the time he decided that she would be at home so he called her there. She answered on the third ring and said, "Yes?"
"Sarah Jane? Bob Holtzman."
"Bob! Lets see, it’s not my birthday, and Christmas is still two months off, so what do you want?" The voice on the other end of the line asked jokingly.
"Now couldn’t I just call to say hi?" Holtzman returned.
"You could, but you don’t," was the reply.
"Okay you got me," Holtzman conceded. "I need a favor of the research kind."
"Okay just let me get a pen and some paper and let me know what you need," Was the reply.
"I need you to find out why a Rupert Giles left his curatorship in the British Museum to take a High School Librarian job in California about seven years ago."
"He didn’t give a reason beyond family business," came the immediate reply.
"You’re working on the London Bombing too?" Holtzman was impressed that she had turned that information so quickly.
"I’m working the bombing yes, but this isn’t the first story I’ve done that Mr. Giles was the center of," was the reply.
"Oh?"
"About five years ago we had a series of murders were the body of the deceased disappeared. In one case there was a pile of goo found next to the victim that tested positive to one of the previous victims DNA. Well you know how it is; if a weird case comes up I get it. My editor says I have a better survival rate than the other reporters and he doesn’t want to have to break in any more new people. I did a little research and found out that they were all part of a group in collage. They were apparently into some dark stuff, drugs and some told me magic. One of their number died from an apparent overdose and that seems to have done it for the group. About twenty-five years later they started dying under strange circumstances. From what I found the only two to survive are Giles and a chap named Ethan Rayne. When I went looking for him I got a visit from Interpol asking me what my interest in him was. It seems that Mr. Rayne is an international operator, and not a nice one either.
"Giles apparently went straight after his friend died. He bore down and managed to graduate Magna Cum Laud from Oxford with a dual major in Ancient Cultures and Mythology. He got a job at the British Museum and was quite happy there, even up for a curatorship when he walked into the office of the curator and turned in his notice."
"That makes no sense," Holtzman complained.
"Tell me about it," Sarah Jane agreed.
"Could you dig around some more and see if you can find out anything more?" Holtzman asked.
"Why the sudden interesting Giles?" Sarah Jane asked.
"Not over the phone, do you still have that encryption key I sent you," Holtzman replied.
"Sure,"
"Okay I’ll send you an email explaining this. It’ll probably be tomorrow sometime I have a lot on my plate right now."
"All right I’ll see what I can find out in the mean time," Sarah Jane said as she made her farewells.
Holtzman hung upon his end and turning to his computer he started to type. He finished his story in about thirty minutes then went back and proof read it. Making a couple of minor corrections he saved it and set if off to his editor for tomorrows addition. He then called it a night and headed home.
Libby his wife met him at the door with a kiss and a hug. As he jumped in the shower Libby sat outside the shower curtain and asked, "Are you going to tell me what this is about?" So he filled his wife in on what he had discovered in the last couple of days. She snorted at the conspiracy and supernatural stuff. She asked him since he was out there why he hadn’t gone and talked to this Rosenberg girl, so he sent her to look over the printout of headlines that he had kept. That kept her busy till he was out of the shower and getting dressed. "Are these real?" she finally asked.
"As far as I can tell, yes."
"Then I think you did the right thing staying away." Libby was an old school reporter, very little got in the way of her getting a story, but those headlines put a shiver thru her.
Libby finished getting dressed and they took off for Falls Church. Holtzman easily found the restaurant that they were meeting at and pulled in and parked. The place called the "The Malibu Grill" was a chuprascaruia style Brazilian restaurant. The parking lot was packed so it took Bob a couple of minutes to find a parking place. Holtzman helped Libby out of the car and they went to the door. The Maitre de met them and asked, "Yes?"
"Reservations for three, Holtzman," He told the other man.
Scanning his list he found their names and said, "Very good sir, your table is ready, your guest has arrived and he is in the bar."
Holtzman nodded and headed for the bar with Libby since she knew what Pedro de la Hoya looked like. It turned out that it was easy to find him. He was at the bar with a stool on either side of him, and it turned out that Holtzman did know what he looked like, because he had seen him before. Right next to Riley Finn watching Samantha Weber being wheeled into the emergency room of a Mexican hospital.
The Maitre’-d led the party to their table, and then held out the chair for Libby as the two men seated themselves. Holtzman had been surprised when Libby had chosen the churiascaria to eat at. While he enjoyed the restaurant with its emphasis on meat dishes, Libby, while no vegetarian, ate meat in moderation. A churiascaria was basically a buffet, but instead of having steam tables to get your food from waiters brought the various types of meat around to your table on spits. There was a center table that held the salads and cold dishes, as well as the soups that they had for today. Normally Holtzman enjoyed The Malibu Grill, but tonight he wanted to get at his dinner guest. Unfortunately with the waiters coming around constantly to see if you were interested in the meat they were carrying it was impossible to carry on a confidential conversation. Holtzman suddenly realized that must be why Libby picked this restaurant to meet de la Hoya. She must have known that he liked to keep business till after dinner, so she had made it so her husband had to do that. There were advantages and disadvantages to being married. Realizing he would have to wait, Holtzman decided to enjoy the meal and told the waiter he would have a glass of merlot to start his meal. It would be the only one he allowed himself tonight.
The dinner was good as always. Libby contented herself with stuff from the cold table till they brought around a cart with a Chilean Sea Bass on it and had that as her meat portion. De la Hoya favored beef for his meat, while Holtzman had lamb and sausage. During dinner the conversation was light. Bob found Pedro to be a funny and charming dinner companion. He explained that he was a cultural attaché at the embassy and that he enjoyed the job. Personally Libby was pretty sure that he was associated with Mexican intelligence, she wasn’t sure if it was their Civilian or Military Agencies. Holtzman found in talking with him she was probably right. Considering the photo, Holtzman figured he must be military. Finally with dinner over and the trio enjoying their deserts. Holtzman had chosen a Crème’ Brulee’, Libby liked their rice pudding so contented herself with one, and de la Hoya had chosen a flan. The coffee was excellent so they enjoyed a cup till finally de la Hoya put his cup down and started to reach into his coat pocket. He stopped when he remembered that the restaurant was non-smoking and put the cigar back. Holtzman could sympathize, he had quit a couple of years ago, but after a good meal he still got the urge for a good cigar to finish it off. However the week of being banished to the couch by his wife till the stink left his skin wasn’t worth it.
"So Senor Holtzman, while I would never turn down an invitation to having dinner with your charming wife. I must think that there was some ulterior motive to get me to this wonderful restaurant."
Holtzman nodded, "I’m working on a story. A movie producer named Eric Shallot disappeared last year while working on a script. It was going to be a movie about a village in Mexico that was wiped out by rival drug gangs, and about the lone survivor."
"Aldea de Santa Maria," de la Hoya said quietly. Making sure the reporter knew the name.
"Yes," Holtzman agreed.
"I’m afraid I know little about the event beyond what I read in the newspaper. It was a terrible thing. Three hundred people were slaughtered. The whole village, save for Ms. Weber were killed."
"That’s too bad. I was hopping you could tell me what involvement the US Government had in the event," Holtzman asked, baiting the hook.
De la Hoya looked surprised, "I’m afraid your source must be mistaken. While it was originally a police matter, the nature of drug smugglers was such that it was necessary to send the Army in to deal with them. But it was the Mexican Army, not the American," Pedro told the two reporters.
"That’s interesting," Holtzman said as he pulled two photos out his jacket pocket. He passed them over to Pedro.
To his credit, and confirming to Holtzman that he was some kind of intelligence agent, his expression did not change at all. He glanced at both of the pictures and then slid them back to Holtzman. "What is it you want to know?"
"What happened, how was the US involved, and was it a mistake on your part that got Aldea de Santa Maria wiped out?"
Pedro looked at him when he said the last and Holtzman saw some real pain in his eyes, and also a fair amount of anger in them. "No Senor Holtzman, it was no mistake on our part that destroyed that village’" he said tightly, "That mistake was made by the drug lord who forgot, sometimes you need to be careful of the weapons you use, because they can effect a wider area than you originally intend. As for the rest, I would prefer to hold that conversation elsewhere. I have a good memory of this meal and I don’t want to spoil it. De la Hoya wrote an address out on a piece of paper that he pulled out of an inside coat pocket and handed it to Holtzman, "I will meet you there and we will discuss this. I must insist on a quid quo pro from you, this will be an exchange of information, not an interrogation."
Holtzman agreed to this and started to get up. Pedro held up his hand, "I must do this so my conscience is at peace. I strongly advise you and your wife to go home and forget this story. There is nothing at its end but blood and death, and Libby is too young to be a widow."
Libby took a step back, and Holtzman looked at the other man sharply, "Did you just threaten me?"
De la Hoya shook his head, "No Senor Holtzman I did not. I just do not wish your blood on my hands. I will not harm you, nor will my government. I doubt that the US government would either. But you will be treading in Columbus’s footsteps and unless you have your eyes open and are prepared for what you will find you will follow this person that you are doing this story on into oblivion. I will wait at the club for forty-five minutes. If you don’t appear then I will say a quiet prayer of thanks and leave. If you come, I will tell you a story." So saying he turned and walked out. Holtzman settled the bill and the tip, and then they followed him out.
Sunnydale Police Station
256 Main St.
Sunnydale CA
28Oct2002 - 1645 hrs
Lieutenant Jonathan O’Connell looked up at the face of the police station; you could barely see where the masons had replaced the bricks that had been torn out last May. He hoped that Stew had kept their number, he had a bad feeling it might be needed.
He walked into the foyer of the station and was immediately greeted with, "Hey L.T.! The chief wants to talk to you!" From the desk sergeant.
"Thanks Tom," He said back as he headed up the steps. Sheila the chief’s secretary just waived him thru.
Stewart Donaldson, The Chief of the Sunnydale PD, sat behind his desk reading reports. He glanced up and waived O’Connell to a chair, which O’Connell plopped down in. He passed O’Connell an envelope. Jonathan glanced at the postmark and saw that it was from Vatican City in Rome. Pulling the letter out he was unsurprised when it turned out to be a letter of resignation by Tom Gritner their staff psychologist. Tom had been originally hired because he had done a Masters thesis that suggested that people who claimed that the supernatural was real might not be as crazy as normally believed. They had decided to let him discover for himself that he was right. Unfortunately the day after he had come to O’Connell for confirmation of what went on in Sunnydale he had put in for a leave of absence. He had left town the same day and they had gotten a letter from Rome a week later, stating that he was studying at the Vatican and needed a little more time. That had been six months ago, looked like he would be studying there permanently.
Chief Donaldson passed O’Connell a file over. He took it from The Chief and glanced inside, it was empty. "That’s the file where we keep resumes of people who are interested in become staff psychologists. I don’t think I have to remind you then that if we lose Ms. Fraser, we loose federal funding. If that happens a lot of your toys are going to have to go back, including those additions to our armory that Mendi brought in Friday."
O’Connell winced, "With what seems to be coming that might not be the best idea Chief. We’re going to need that firepower."
"It won’t matter what kind of firepower we have Jon, if we lose federal funding we won’t have anyone to use it," Stew replied leaning back into his chair, resting his head on the back of it and closing his eyes. "Is Rachel any closer to figuring out what actually goes on around here?"
O’Connell leaned forward in his chair and shook his head, "I haven’t talked to her in a while, but from what I hear she’s still looking at the casualty rate around here as a manifestation of some kind of chemical poisoning. I think she just spotted the dip in the statistics when The Slayer first came to town and is looking around to see if a business went under, or changed their manufacturing style around that time. I think she believes that it’s some kind of interaction of several chemicals that’s causing the death rates."
"Think about how you’re going to react if she does find out. Your approach with Tom was less than successful."
O’Connell actually looked hurt, "We picked the guy because we thought he could take the truth. With the guff he took because of his paper you’d figure he would be happy to be vindicated. How was I to know he would run off to the Hallowest ground he could find?"
"I’m not blaming you, just pointing out that you need to come up with a better way to do it than, ‘Yeah your right, vampires and demons are real. So, you up for pizza?"
O’Connell winced, deciding to change the subject he said, "Got a call from Dave Whitman today." Stew looked up interested. "Riley Finn is back in town and it looks like he may be staying awhile."
"What makes you say that?" Stew asked darkly.
"He and Xander Harris took that warehouse Dave had on Front St, off of his hands Saturday."
"Any chance they’re just going into business with each other?"
"Unless you think an ex-soldier and a construction foreman can come up with a million dollar unsecured loan," O’Connell replied.
"Unsecured?"
"They transferred the money directly from an account. No mortgage at all."
"Damn," Stew said quietly, "Oh well, at least this time we won’t be guessing where their HQ is."
"You want me to talk to Finn when he comes in? I know what it does to your blood pressure when you do." Jon offered.
Donaldson was actually tempted to let his junior officer do it, but said instead, "Nah, that’s what they pay me the big money for."
"Okay," O’Connell said agreeably, his blood pressure went up during those conversations too. Then remembering something, "Did you see my report on the Wells’ shooting Saturday?"
Donaldson nodded, "I doubt that it was coincidence that a FBI agent was taking Wells out of town, and then Finn buys a warehouse. Assuming that the guy actually was a FBI agent."
"He was, I checked him out with a guy I know in the New Orleans’ Office. Patrick O’Day is Dan Murray’s chief troubleshooter. Murray is the director of the FBI. According to my source though he is supposed to be up in San Fran helping them on a serial killer case."
"Why is that name familiar?" Donaldson asked.
"He was the guy who saved Preside