Here you go Kittens... a little early as I am:
a) on holiday
b) out tonight
c) spending the next couple of hours on a gift. *WINK*
Enjoy.
Katharyn
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Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle – Taking the Initiative (Part 42)
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome.
katharynrosser@hotmail.comSpoiler Warning: Pretty limited. The story occurs in an alternate universe though reference is made to events that occur in both realities.
Summary: Sunnydale does not exist in a vacuum…
Disclaimer: I still don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc, etc. I am making zilch from this series of stories.
Rating: 15
Couples: VW/T and all that means
Notes: This was prompted by a very early question in the posting of this series. I forget who it was by… but it made me go hmmm. See what feedback gets you? You see what a wonderful forum Pens is for fic?
Thanks To: Louise… just Louise this time. The rest of you are all there in my thoughts. But my heart is always hers.
The Sidestep Chronicle
Taking the Inititiative
By
Katharyn Rosser
“Thank you for taking the time to see me Sir, I know that you must be very busy,” the young man sat down in the seat that he had been offered a moment earlier – though the Mayor noticed that he pointedly waited until his host had seated himself – now that was manners. Good firm grip on the youngster too which was always something he approved of. It demonstrated confidence and that was important.
“Busy, busy, busy. You know how that is I am sure. But never
too busy to speak with our Federal officers – without you boys on the job we’d be in lot of trouble now wouldn’t we?” the Mayor asked.
“We like to think so Sir,” the other man replied with a practiced smile, as if he had heard that all before. “In fact that is really the reason that I’m here – even if Sunnydale is a
really nice town. We understand that you have a substantial urban crime problem here in Sunnydale. Drugs related as I understand it.”
“Can’t say that I had actually noticed that,” the Mayor replied, not at all surprised that someone with a handshake like that would get straight to the heart of the matter. Directness. He approved of that too. None of that shilly-shallying. “Say, is that Iowa I detect in your voice?”
“Born and raised Sir.”
“Straight off the farm and into Federal service no doubt.” The Federal employee nodded. “Very commendable. You probably couldn’t tell now, but I hailed from Iowa myself. A lonnnng time back,” The Mayor told him.
“You don’t have the accent Sir… but it can’t be that long ago – you aren’t so old.”
“Now why do the young ladies never say that to me?” the Mayor joked. Not that he had been overly concerned with the ladies in that regard since dear Edna-May passed. He was quite firmly a one woman man. Which was how it should be when two people loved each other.
“I’m sure I don’t know Sir – if I could predict the ladies as easily as I can follow a statistical trend then I might have a little more luck myself.” The task force officer made the joke and then returned to the matter at hand. “Now the incidents I am talking about… Sunnydale PD has been attributing a huge amount of crime in this locality to Gang activity. My taskforce is very interested in anything within that area – particularly the drugs angle. I believe that we are talking about PCP specifically,” the Federal officer continued.
“Ah yes, the unfortunate PCP problem we have here in Sunnydale,” The Mayor remembered now. It had been a while since he had seen the ‘public’ version of the Police reports. “Or rather that we had,” he added cheerily.
“Had, Sir?”
“Absolutely moving into the past tense.” The Mayor beamed. “We have seen a big improvement in that area in the last few months. As I think you would see from our latest figures. Mint?” he offered, stretching out across his desk with the bowl.
“No thank you Sir. I must admit that my figures don’t suggest that at all. Sunnydale appears to be perfectly safe during the daytime… one of the lowest crime rates in the State,” the agent paused as the Mayor nodded, seemingly pleased at the acknowledgement. “But once night falls the picture seem to be totally different. In fact in terms of dead and missing persons you rank right up there alongside some of the bigger cities in the country Sir – and that is straight numbers of incidents, not even per capita. And the Police reports…” The officer stopped to open his briefcase and retrieve the figures in question just as there was a knock at the door. As the door opened without a word from the Mayor the agent turned his head to see who was there.
“Ah Tara, come in, come in. I’d like you to meet our visitor. Tara Maclay, Agent Finn from the National Urban Crime Taskforce. Agent Finn, Tara Maclay – one of the reasons behind our much improved figures of late.”
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Tara stepped into the office and was immediately embarrassed, once again, by the Mayor’s unrelenting praise of her. He was telling the truth, as he saw it, but she couldn’t help wishing that he would stop telling people that sort of thing. Agent Finn, for one, was never going to believe it. That much was clear from his face. Maybe it was her youth. Maybe it was her gender. Maybe it was the fact that she was getting all of the credit alone.
He was quite a rugged individual, looking pretty uncomfortable in his off the rack suit. As if he didn’t quite fit it – even though it actually looked to be the perfect size. She had sat in that same chair in a suit of her own not that long ago – at her interview – trying to pretend that she was something that she really wasn’t. That meant that she thought that she could recognise all the signs.
“Agent Finn is from Iowa,” the Mayor said – as if he was proud of that. It got the visitor out of his surprise though.
The agent sprang to his feet, which she was pleased to see - good manners cost nothing after all Tara. No Sir they don’t. It looked, just from that little gesture, like he had been raised in a manner not unlike her own. He held his hand out to be shaken, but she didn’t need to be able to sense him to know that he was sceptical – and why not? She wouldn’t have believed the alleged success of herself either. But the fact was that in Sunnydale deaths were down for the first time in as long as anyone could remember – even prior to the rising of the Master. Not as low as before that, not yet. But just heading in the right direction. The danger had decreased - at least in the centre of town where she, and more recently Faith, had been focusing their efforts. And there were fewer vampires to threaten anyone anywhere else either.
“Hi, Riley Finn,” he felt the need to introduce himself properly, despite the Mayor’s introduction, of which she also approved of.
“T-Tara Maclay – which you kn-knew,” she gave him a small smile wondering just what the Mayor was going to say to him about the crime figures. The deaths and disappearances figures were accurate enough as far as they went… but what Sunnydale called ‘Gang Related PCP’ incidents would be seen by the rest of the world as an impossible horror if the ‘truth’ was revealed by the government.
It was the ‘impossible’ bit which had required the excuse and now it had come back around to haunt the Sunnydale Police Department. It was clearly her job, as the Mayor’s assistant, to try and make that go away. Some how. Right now she had no idea how she was going to achieve that. It wasn’t like she could just magic the figures out of existence was it?
Well… No. Definitely not.
“Nice to meet you Tara,” he shook her hand, and she could see that he couldn’t quite grasp what her function might be here. What she could do for the Mayor that might have such an effect.
Her function was to save lives and to administer justice. Though that was not what her job description said. To him she would be like some sort of vigilante. But then he would never believe in vampires… or would he?
He had set his briefcase aside when he stood to greet her and now her eyes flicked to it. She wasn’t quite sure what some of the things in there were – but they certainly weren’t just files and stationary – though there were a few papers inside it too and his sandwiches. Built into the foam inside the lid of the case was something that looked sort of like a science fiction ray gun. Donny had used to watch the old black and white Buck Rogers serial when that was repeated. That or Flash Gordon… it looked like something from that sort of program. Fanciful. And beneath that what appeared to be a collapsible baton – but tipping it… there was sharpened piece of wood.
So, it seemed clear, they were all playing the same game here. Dancing around the issue. Her eyes flicked back to Agent Finn and saw that he had noticed where she had been looking. He released her hand and turned back to the case, closing it with a snap. When her eyes met the Mayor’s there was a knowing look there too.
Her employer already knew all about Agent Finn. So if he knew, Agent Finn knew and she knew then why were they all dancing around the matter at all? Tara didn’t like the word and appearance games of politics that much. They seemed so pointless.
The Mayor gestured to a vacant chair and she sat down next to the visitor, waiting for their conversation to continue, hoping that there might be some plain speaking. Just so long as she didn’t have to do it. She wasn’t much of a politician. Not when it came to vampires. She had very fixed and determined views.
It seemed though, as the Mayor spoke up again, that there was no chance of the dance ending just yet.
“I was just telling Agent Finn, Tara, that you are a big factor in the decline of crime here in Sunnydale.” He turned again to the visitor in the suit, “Tara has introduced a number of new, ummm,
initiatives here in town that are really beginning to pay off,” the Mayor continued, summing up the situation.
“Er… yes, well. It-it wasn’t all me,” she said, still unsure of what to say to him. What he wanted to hear. It was the truth as far as it went, but when Agent Finn asked her about those figures what was she supposed to say? And why had the Mayor said the word ‘initiatives’ like that? He was not one to didn’t stress anything unless he meant it. What had he meant?
Agent Finn didn’t immediately follow-up on the compliment the Mayor had paid her. He too seemed to have been struck by the word and the stress that the Mayor had put upon it. She looked back at the Mayor and there was a measuring glint in his eye. It was the same sort of glint that he got when he was about to sink her chances at miniature golf. When he was about to win.
And Tara didn’t even know what the game was yet. There were always things going on around here that she felt she was not quite involved in. Just hovering on the periphery. But as long as it did not interfere with her hunting… or with Willow… then she didn’t much care. The Mayor had a perfect right to his secrets. Everyone had secrets. Everyone. The Agent didn’t notice the Mayor’s look however and after just a second of discomfort he was back into character anyway. Maybe she was getting used to Mayor Wilkins and his ways.
“I’m sure that you did a heck of a lot,” Agent Finn told her pleasantly. His tone suggested that he didn’t quite believe what he was saying. That he was just being nice to her and paying attention to what the Mayor was telling him rather than her modest excuses. “So, Sir, you don’t feel that you
do have a problem?” he asked.
“Now I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Agent Finn.” The Mayor smiled. “We still have our little problems here in Sunnydale but I can assure you that we
are getting there – together.” He grinned at Tara and she returned it with a slightly less expansive smile. “If you’d like a copy of the latest figures then I would be delighted to pass them on to you.”
Tara knew that they really were getting on top of things. He had given her the figures just that morning and whilst interpretation of results wasn’t her specialty the ‘before’ and ‘after’ statistics made interesting reading. It meant that she was getting there – more so with Faith’s assistance. The graphs showed a recent steep drop in the number of deaths, just as they had when Tara herself had arrived. Unofficial as those figures might be right now – at least until items were redesignated as ‘Gang Related PCP.’ Faith was having an impact. They both were. They had managed to assist each other a few times. They both seemed to draw trouble like a magnet… that was a good thing. It stopped Tara having to go looking for it.
She looked at the visitor and saw that, for some reason, that answer wasn’t at all what he wanted to hear. Discomfort suddenly flooded his aura, she hadn’t even needed to ‘look’ to see that, and he started to shift in the chair. He had been hoping for something else. And if the good figures disappointed him then he was looking for… bad ones. He looked right back at her and pursed his lips, thinking. She guessed that he might be about to ask her a question but then, glancing back at the Mayor, thought better of it.
“That would be just fine, thank you Sir. I’m glad that you seem to be overcoming your problems. And, speaking personally, it frees us up to go and take care of other, less fortunate, towns and cities.”
Tara noticed that he didn’t sound so pleased about that. It was forced cheerfulness and when she looked at him, really looked, it was clear that he was hiding something.
“Exactly. I wouldn’t dream of Sunnydale monopolising a moment of your time, or a single red cent of the taxpayers’ money that wasn’t strictly necessary for her people,” the Mayor told him.
“That’s a very prudent and responsible attitude Sir, not too many local authorities take that line,” the agent commented.
“Well there aren’t many towns like Sunnydale Agent Finn,” the Mayor told him.
Tara almost had to laugh. ‘There aren’t many towns like Sunnydale?’ Where a girl could come to fulfil a mission of justice, join with a greater evil, live on the Mouth of Hell and fall for one of the things that she should have been destroying. No, not many places like Sunnydale.
“No Sir there isn’t another Sunnydale.” Agent Finn locked his briefcase and stood up, not knowing he was agreeing with her too. “If you’ll excuse me now Mr Mayor?”
“Absolutely, delighted to see you,” the Mayor told him and they shook hands again.
“Miss Maclay,” he held out his hand again and she reciprocated. He had secrets but otherwise he seemed amazingly open and genuine.
“Nice to meet you,” she told him as they shook and had the feeling he was sizing her up. That was fair – she had been doing the same to him. But she had more methods to work with.
“Tara will get you those figures?” the Mayor said and she nodded.
“Thank you Sir,” and he followed her to the door to the office. “Oh and Sir, Congressman Blim sends his regards.”
“Well isn’t that nice?” the Mayor said. “You be sure to return those regards for me.”
The Mayor sounded delighted to have been remembered by the Congressman, and Tara guessed that it was possible that Agent Finn was trying to demonstrate the circles that he moved in. Where his authority was based – in the Federal Government. Congressman Nathan Blim was a senior politician and, Tara knew, on half of the most powerful committees in the House of Representatives. She had heard whispers that he had Presidential ambitions too. Not that she was very interested in politics – but she had always taken care to learn everything that she could about the Mayor’s associates. One day she might have to know.
For one reason or another.
She doubted that Agent Riley Finn realised that Congressman Blim had been here in Sunnydale no less than three times, that she knew of, to play golf – real golf – with the Mayor. Knowing that, the influence Finn’s statement might have implied fell rather flat – to Tara’s unschooled eye anyway. The Mayor was carefully playing along with being impressed though.
“I will Sir,” the Agent confirmed. “Would you mind if my team and I stuck around, maybe observed your some of your initiatives?” He addressed the Mayor, but he was really directing that question at Tara.
And she knew it. Not that she would be so rude as to give him an answer when that was the Mayor’s prerogative. And the Mayor would have to say no, surely.
Fortunately the Mayor stepped in for her as she expected. “We’re a little short handed right now, and at a delicate stage in that initiative. I’m not sure that we can spare anyone to
show you and your team around, Agent. But feel free to enjoy the hospitality of our town.” It was a meaningless offer, graciously made. “Take in the sights.”
She could almost have kissed him right then… that was a much better excuse than she would have been able to come up with. Politics had given him a gift for finding such escape routes – and the fact was he hadn’t actually lied to this man at all. They were shorthanded… there was just her – at least officially. And things were always at a delicate stage.
But the Agent was a man who appeared to be interested in killing vampires. It was the only politics that was stopping her from wanting his help. Besides there was the definite chance that, if he was encouraged to stay he might get killed. One more person to feel responsible for. One more person to feel guilty about. There was that and fearing just which vampire he might kill…
Her official loyalty had to be to the Mayor. She needed him – just as he needed her. Her true loyalty had to be to saving lives. Including this agent’s if he made it necessary.
And her loyalty to Willow… who deserved none of it.
“Thank you Sir, I’m sure that we will find it very interesting. Goodbye Mr Mayor.”
“Goodbye Agent Finn.”
He followed Tara out of the office and she provided him with the figures she had been looking at herself then watched him go down the corridor shaking his head as he looked at them. Whether he couldn’t believe the statistics, the methods by which they had been achieved or whether he had other reasons she couldn’t tell.
When she went back to the Mayor he had already put on one of his old records. Despite the little shuffle he was doing across to the drinks cabinet his perpetual smile had definitely taken on a harder aspect. He gestured to offer her a drink, which she refused. “Watch out for him, Tara. He isn’t what he says he is.”
“I know,” she replied. “He’s here for the same reason I am.” She was sure of that.
“Not quite Tara, he’s here to find out whether he
needs to be. Still – there are ways of stamping out that sort of curiosity,” the Mayor suggested.
For a moment she thought that he might be suggesting that she arrange for something to happen to the young agent, but he said nothing else. Evidently those ‘ways’ didn’t include her. She was glad of that and was even walking to the beat of the music herself as she left his office and walked down the corridor.
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The Mayor waited until Tara had left the building before making his calls. It was best, he didn’t want anything to spoil that relationship. Certainly not anything as trivial as this little matter.
“Nathan, Dicky. I just had one of your boys in my office. Just as our mutual friend suggested.” The initial warning had come at the last game of golf that they had played here in Sunnydale. The Congressman had a habit of landing in the sand-traps but played a mean wedge to get out of those. He was good at escaping. And then their mutual friend, Lilah, had confirmed the warning.
“No, it was a Riley Finn. F-I-N-N. Finn. Yeah like a fish but with an extra ‘N.’ As you suggested he reacted to the phrase. Not exactly James Bond now is he? Nor with a big future in politics for all his All-American good looks.” He listened to the Congressman’s reply to that. “I think we provided him with some figures that will make the case for us, besides you can head this project off from your end can’t you? If necessary.”
The response seemed positive.
“That’s just dandy Nathan, besides I intend to take some steps… just in case. See you a week on Tuesday? Wonderful… all my love to Sarah. And how is dear Billy doing?” he added the last as an afterthought.
“Trapped in eternal torment in hell dimension? Gee that’s just too bad. I thought he had a lot of potential. Anyway, gotta go... things to do, you know how that is.”
He hung up the phone. Poor Billy, but then he was glad that the Congressman’s nephew wasn’t in Sunnydale – anywhere near his Tara. Somebody might have gotten hurt. Someone other than the people he wanted to.
Having found one of those people, it was time to make sure that they did get hurt.
He picked up the phone once more and dialled, a more local number this time.
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Tara was hunting two blocks over from Main Street when he caught finally up with her. She had been half expecting him since he had left the Mayor’s office earlier that afternoon and it had become obvious that something else was out there hunting. That was either Faith or… him. What he was going to try to and say to her though was the real question.
“Hey er…Tara,” he called to her from across the street. He
was stealthy though. She didn’t rely solely on the pendant for her warnings because she had only enchanted it to trigger to the presence of vampires – not even other demons – let alone humans. She had been taking an irregular route and knew the signs to look for. So to track her down without her knowing exactly where he was… he had either got lucky or he had to be a ‘sneaky guy.’
“Y-You seem to have lost your suit,” she said without any accusation in her voice. He was wearing dark sort of army gear and openly carrying the ray-gun that had been in his case.
He smiled looked her over, “And you don’t. You hunt like that?” he asked her.
She was wearing the same long denim skirt and tie-dyed top that she’d had on that afternoon, with just a jacket added. Nice, bright colours to attract the vampires. “Sometimes, you know it depends what’s clean” She didn’t miss that he had asked her about ‘hunting.’ No more pretence then. They both knew. Besides there was the stake in her hand.
“You can fight in that?” he asked her, clearly sceptical.
But then he was sceptical about everything to do with her hunting – not just her choice of clothes, which served their own purpose. Besides her methods didn’t require her to run or fight. Not unless they went very badly wrong.
“I d-don’t do well with the whole violence thing,” she told him. That was definitely the truth. Flailing around, she was far more likely to injure herself than to damage any vampire. She could manage to find the heart with a hand held stake – that was as much as she had ever needed and even that was a last resort.
“But if those figures are correct then you’re doing something right?” he asked her.
“They’re correct… but it’s not just me,” she told him again. There was Faith too. Albeit only more recently. The Slayer was making her own dint in Sunnydale’s vampires. The dint came before she staked them sometimes, which was a little worrying.
“You have someone who helps you?” he asked.
She nodded.
“But you can’t say who?”
She gave him an apologetic smile even though there really was no apology owed. “Can you tell me who you work for Agent?”
“Touché,” he raised an imaginary sword to her, which with the ray-gun-like thing in hand looked slightly silly.
“Or what you’re really doing here?” she wondered.
He shook his head, embarrassed again. “I guess that I shouldn’t really ask should I, if I’m not willing to tell?”
She smiled and they kept walking.
“Was I really that obvious?” he asked her after a little while of walking down the dark, silent streets. “I mean I always thought I was quite good at undercover.” He paused again, before admitting, “Actually I suck at undercover work. I really, really do. I just did well in class – it’s not the same thing at all.”
“I just saw,” she started trying to reassure him, “I saw into your case, you know…. It had those,” she pointed at the ray gun and the stake tipped baton that hung at his side, “in it.” She didn’t want him to feel that he had failed. It would do no good to either of them.
“Tools of the trade. You’ve got to have the right tools for the job, Tara.”
Yes Sir you do. He sounded just like Daddy when he came out with that homespun stuff. They were more alike than he might have thought. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her home-whittled stake. “N-not quite government issue. You are government?”
He didn’t answer her but nor did he deny it. “You use that thing?” he asked, eyeing the wickedly sharp point of the stake, looking as if he probably didn’t quite get the whole low-tech angle and how it worked.
She was sure that someone had taught him to ‘Keep It Simple Stupid.’ That was a famous one. Even Tara, just working on the second hand military service of her Daddy’s stories had heard of KISS. From the look of all that fancy hardware she guessed that whomever he worked for… just hadn’t. Or it had passed them by. Unless that was their definition of simple… “It-it, you know, works.”
With that there was a twitch of her necklace, it started to abuse her throat, warning her of the approach of a vampire. At the same instant something on him beeped. They both saw the figure crossing the street up ahead, the only thing moving other than themselves… or so it seemed.
They both raised their weapons and both of them were prepared to act when two other figures came out of the same side street, following the vampire. They were dressed in the same clothes as Agent Finn and he lowered his weapon. He didn’t even bother to say anything to her. He obviously didn’t know… he thought that she got up close to vampires to stake them.
He didn’t know that she could use magic… and she wasn’t about to tell him. If there was some sort of government monster squad out there they might have very definite rules on people who used magic… especially those who were going to turn into demons at a later date. Not too much later though. And if he could detect vampires, somehow… might he be able to tell what she was with his beepy thing? But nothing was beeping on him now. Still she hadn’t turned yet had she? Why would it beep now? Unless she used the magic… But if she couldn’t use the magic then what could she do?
“My team,” he said. Just a little pride in his voice – and she was glad that he had friends, or at least colleagues. That was important. To have someone that you could be proud of. Who could she be proud of?
Faith?
The Slayer was nothing really to do with her. They were just in the same town, doing sort of the same job.
Of the Mayor? Of Willow?
No.
No pride there. Shame… pleasure and affection. No pride.
He quickened his pace and Tara, a little curious as to how they operated but more concerned that the vampire was dealt with, was forced to trot to keep up with him as they went up towards the junction around which the vampire and his team-mates had disappeared around.
Then Tara stopped… dead as a thought struck her. What if Willow was out there tonight? Oh by the goddess… no… Willow knew that there was a Slayer here. But… this was different. This, to Willow, would just be a human. Food. It would force Tara to make a choice that she never wanted to make. Not in person.
No, Willow had told her that she was going to be there, at the apartment, early… that she expected Tara’s presence… there was still time yet. Willow would not be out in that alley. Willow had never been late when she had said she was going to be somewhere. Tara guessed that was kind of a virtue. Willow wouldn’t see it that way. But it certainly was right now – if it meant the vampire was not in the way of this team of hunters and their toys. She had no idea what their toys did… except for the stake. That was pretty clear.
She stopped thinking of Willow, but she would have stopped anyway… the reason that her thoughts had turned to Willow was that the pendant had stepped up its sensation as they had moved up the street. That sort of intensity usually meant Willow… or lots of vampires. Tara was thinking it was the latter. She set off after Agent Finn who had already rounded the corner.
Tara followed him around it and saw the forked lightning that shot from one of those ray-guns down the street. Wow… it was a
real ray-gun. The future
really was now. She looked at the stake in her hand. It had served her well so far… besides she had more of them with her and she wasn’t so sure of her aim without the magic. Faith was good with a crossbow but she was less certain of her own capability without the magic. And she couldn’t use the magic in front of the government guys could she?
The vampire struck by the blast was down on the ground and seemed to be out for the count – or at least all twitchy with blue sparks still playing over him. As she got closer, moving cautiously and checking all around her for evidence of the vampires that she had sensed though the pendant, she could see that it was the latter. They had incapacitated it.
They should be killing it. Why weren’t they just killing it? If they could shoot lightning why not crisp it and burn it up?
She moved slower, in part being cautious – but another part of her was curious what they were going to do with it the beast that they had captured… and that was it. They were capturing it…
She stopped. Her concern about more vampires was suddenly split with the worry about what they thought they were doing with it. They seemed about to try and tie it up, she would have protested, shouted at them, but something caught her attention – movement on the rooftops. Movement that before she could speak was dropping from those roofs and surrounding the three-man team.
Three, four, five vampires.
To their credit the team was sharp. One of them was caught kneeling beside their first target and took a blow to the back of the neck, going down hard. The other four vampires paired off to attack the remaining two targets. The team-member who had fallen, who seemed to be called Graham from the shouts of Finn and the other one was about to get bitten.
No. She couldn’t let that happen just to avoid exposing herself. Revealing what she was. Her secret wasn’t worth a life. That was the whole point. As long as she was stood there she couldn’t let that happen to him. The stake she’d been holding was sent streaking towards the biting vampire, but because of the angle she just couldn’t hit the heart. The force of the magical thrust that surrounded and accompanied the stake spun the dead thing backwards all the same. Its target exposed by that spin, the second stake hit just left of centre, imploding the vampire in a cloud of dust.
Finn and his still standing compatriot were doing a pretty good job of holding off the vampires. They had dropped the ray-guns and were wielding their batons, smacking them down on the limbs of the vampires – the sharpened wooden points now revealed. It was a curious fighting style… the impacts of the baton blows were interspersed with attempts to drive that point into the vampires’ chests. They were fighting well, but as it went on for more than a minute they started to tire. The vampires didn’t. Finn got one of them after knocking it flat, plunging the point down through its back to the heart but his other comrade was knocked down himself, clutching his bleeding head and suddenly Agent Finn was facing three vampires all by himself.
More.
Two more dropped over a chain link fence. They paid no attention to her. And that was what finally gave it away. This was an ambush or at least a planned attack rather than a random feeding. Vampires didn’t join forces like this – not without reason – not just for feeding. And if they were ignoring her, then they were here for…
Finn called to her, urging her to get away as he spun around, seeming wild, but delivering blows on several targets to hold them off. She smiled grimly, pretty certain that she had been doing this much longer than he had… and almost as certain that he was going to die, they all were, without more of her help.
She had already pulled out two more stakes and in a moment the vampires’ numbers were back down to three. She closed in on them, trying to get a better angle to deal with the remnants. One more was dusted as she moved forward and suddenly the vampires were looking pretty worried. Agent Finn staked another himself and the remaining vampire started to back away, moving ever closer to where the first of Finn’s men had fallen. The grounded monster hunter swung his baton, albeit rather weakly, tripping the vampire and finishing it with the wooden point, reducing it to so much dust.
Tara moved up to them and saw that Graham, the first to fall, was quite seriously slashed across the stomach. Right through his clothes and deep, from the amount of blood, into his flesh.
“Y-You need an ambulance,” she told them.
They all did. Even Agent Finn was bleeding – small cuts mostly.
“No, no thank you, we have a medevac on call,” he told her. “And-” he was interrupted.
“Already on the way,” Graham groaned
Medevac… they seemed to think it was a good thing, probably something medical from the sound of it. Which was good. They needed it.
“Will you help me get them to an open space?” Finn asked her. “The helicopter can’t get into us here.”
Helicopter? Boys and their toys. “Sh-Sure. Where?”
“The intersection will do fine… enough room there. We have a good pilot,” he smiled then saw that she didn’t get the joke. “What you did back there,” he said as they got out of the side street, “it was amazing… that, that with the stakes and everything. What the hell was that? I
am damn sure that you weren’t throwing those stakes.” He paused. “Pardon my language.”
She said nothing, worried again about what his government manual might say about the use of magic… she guessed from his face that he’d never seen anything like it before. But what could she tell him? It didn’t really matter. They had seen her and whatever they wanted to call it they wouldn’t be able to explain it. Not accurately.
When in doubt the truth is better Tara. Lies will catch you out. Yes Sir.
“If I said magic,” she started slowly and heard the other army guy snort derisively, “Would you believe me?”
They helped Graham and the disbelieving one, who called himself Forrest, slowly down the street.
“Two years ago,” Agent Finn said, “I’d have believed in UFO’s before I would believe in magic. But now… I’ve seen some strange things, but I mean you’re so normal.”
“Thanks,” she said knowing she sounded slightly bitter. So she was normal, big fat hairy deal… and not exactly true. She had no right to sound bitter. Nobody knew. Nobody knew everything. Not the Mayor and not even Willow knew the reality. This guy was right, she
looked so normal.
“Sorry,” he apologised to her. “I know what that sounded like, you helped us and we appreciate it.” Forrest snorted again at that, but Agent Finn pressed on and the wounded agent backed down. “You have to realise that we have very clear descriptions of what is ‘normal’ and what is… well, different,” he told her diplomatically.
“Different is bad?” she asked him.
“Most of the time yeah. You must be the exception.” There was a hint of acceptance there and more than a little respect.
But he was so wrong. She wasn’t the exception at all… she was just waiting alittle longer to become different. She wondered if he might have to hunt her down one day. Then she shook off her thoughts. There were things to do before that. Like getting them to medical help.
“Can… can anyone do that though?” he asked. “If you
are human then what lets you… you know, do that?”
“N-no… I don’t think so anyway. My moth… my family, the women I mean. They’ve always had the knack,” she told him.
“We’re supposed to believe in witches now?” Forrest asked, pressing a bandage to his head. The look Riley shot him seemed to shut him up at last, soTara just chose to ignore him.
“For staking HST’s?” Finn asked. “Sorry I mean, I guess you call them vampires – Hostile Sub-Terrestrials.”
HST’s… cool. She preferred ‘things that had to be destroyed.’ TTHTBD… but it didn’t roll off the tongue so easily – not her tongue at least. The government always had the cool acronyms sewn up. “N-no… we can, you know, we can – they could - do spells and stuff.”
He actually stopped, causing Graham to groan, “Sorry buddy,” he apologised. “You say you can do spells?” he asked her. He sounded as if he didn’t believe it, despite what he had seen. “Like hocus pocus?”
How was he going to explain away her skills with a stake if he couldn’t accept the magic? He was probably looking for some law of physics that might do the trick. There might even be one… but she had always been taught it was magic.
And that it was bad.
She nodded. “Without the, you know, the magic words. The whole ‘Hocus Pocus’ bit”
“Well whatever it was - thanks. You really came through for us there, saved us from a beating,” he told her.
“At least,” Graham groaned in his appreciation. Forrest just snorted again. Definitely unimpressed.
She just smiled, not sure – as always – what to do with gratitude. Gratitude was something that was still new to her. Sometimes she had saved someone… but they were usually shocked. Then she came to Sunnydale and everyone was thanking her.
The Mayor, Faith, Agent Finn.
Never Willow.
Willow was the one reason that theit gratitude was misplaced. How many dead now? Because of what she hadn’t done?
They stayed quiet again until they got to the widest part of the intersection and she could already hear the sound of the helicopter from overhead and then the light was illuminating them.
“You want a lift?” Finn asked her. “We can drop you off somewhere… or take you right out of town if you like?” He seemed rather keen on the latter option. Keener than she was entirely comfortable with… he might have been intending to take her to his leader, commander or whatever they had in the government.
But she had too much to stay for. She had a mission to fulfil – just like he probably had. And then there was Willow… and the future. Or rather the absolute lack of one. One day pretty soon this place of darkness would really be home. She would be part of the darkness.
“This town is really twenty-eight percent better than it was?” Agent Finn asked her as he climbed into the helicopter after the on board medic had helped his team inside.
Tara just nodded and waved them off. Alone in the dark. Little Miss Nobody.
That was the best way to make sure no one else got hurt. She would take the circuitous route back to Willow and see if she couldn’t find herself some more vampires to kill. For her there was no retreat.
------------------
SITUATION UPDATE ALPHA TEAM 1ST RECON ‘I’ SECTION - STOP
LOCATION SUNNYDALE CALIFORNIA - STOP
TEAM WITHDRAWN. FORCES INSUFFICIENT FOR FULL RECON OF AREA. - STOP.
SUNNYDALE IS DESIGNATED A CLASS-FOUR HOTSPOT - STOP HIGH HST ACTIVITY - STOP REDUCED FROM CLASS FIVE IN LAST MONTHS - STOP
LOCATION IS NOT REPEAT NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PROJECT INITIATIVE AT THIS TIME - STOP
ALPHA TEAM RECOMMENDS RE-EVALUATION OF CLEVELAND HOTSPOT AS OPERATIONAL LOCATION - STOP
UNKNOWN PHENOMENON IDENTIFIED IN ASSOCIATION WITH LOCAL AUTHORITIES - STOP ALPHA TEAM RECOMMENDS FURTHER INVESTIGATION AT A LATER DATE - STOP
FULL REPORT TO FOLLOW - STOP
SITUATION UPDATE ENDS - STOP
Congressman Blim handed the report over to his attorney who smiled. “Good news Congressman, Wolfram and Hart are very grateful for your bringing this to our attention.” She looked at the report and took her pen out scrawling through the reference to the ‘Unknown phenomenon.’ She passed it back to him, certain that a ‘corrected’ version would find it’ way into the command structure. She expected equal treatment for the team’s final reports.
“You have
eggs in that particular basket Lilah?” Blim asked.
“Yes sir we do. And we’re pleased that you didn’t have to risk using any of your influence to deny Dr Walsh funding to set up operations there. It would have been, well, shall we just say inconvenient?” Lilah was delighted with the outcome.
“Dicky will be pleased too, he has his own plans for that town you know,” the Congressman took the report back from Lilah.
“Oh we are well aware of that sir,” Lilah assured him. And they were very, very aware of it. Although no decision had yet to been made on whether to support Mayor Wilkins to that ultimate conclusion.
“Would you like to tell him or shall I?” asked Nathan Blim, Chairman of the Intelligence Oversight Committee.
“I’m stopping by Sunnydale on my way back to LA, Congressman, it would be my pleasure,” Lilah told him. And it would be. She was going to be able to keep up with her project. Besides she found herself liking one of her subjects. There was real potential in Tara Maclay.
*********
You hear that baby? I am going nowhere.
at: 5/22/02 2:20:25 pm
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