"So, are we going to do this in stealth mode or just charge and think of a plan later?" Buffy asked, pausing outside the double doors that led into the Watchers' Headquarters and turning to the assembled group behind her.
Jack Arthur raised an eyebrow. "I'd assumed we were just going to confront Mr. Clark," he answered.
Buffy turned to him. "What sense does that make? I mean, we do that and we don't get anywhere, all we'll do is let him know that we're here, and that we know what's going on. That's definitely not a good thing."
"What exactly are we looking for, though?" Ms. Calendar asked. "I doubt he has a signed paper in his drawer stating that he's working for vampires."
"Don't you watch TV?" Buffy retorted. "Anything weird going on with money, bank account records, any documents that look a little suspicious, you know, X-File stuff. We should probably split up, though. Six people roaming around is going to look a little suspicious." She thought for a moment, then nodded to herself, automatically taking charge. "Okay, Willow, you and me will try and get into the back room. I know Mr. Howard had a computer in there, and I'll need you to get into it for me. You," she turned to Jack Arthur, "go with Xander. Check out storage facilities, any place you know you can get into without a problem." Then she turned to Ms. Calendar and Giles. "You two, try not to have any touching reconciliation moments while you're sneaking around, deal?"
Ms. Calendar opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it and just nodded. As one the group turned towards the doors.
* * *
"I don't like this," Willow murmured, peeking through the door to the head of the council's private chambers. "Can't we go to jail for this?"
"Probably," Buffy confirmed. "Of course, you could also go to jail for all that hacking you do for us, and let's not forget that technically I murdered that guy from the Order of Taraka."
"But the Sunnydale Police Department's kinda different from Watcher Security," Willow pointed out nervously.
"Yeah, that's true," Buffy agreed. "But saving the world from the forces of darkness kinda requires that you take a few chances. Is he in there?"
Willow shook her head. "Not yet. But what if he just went to the bathroom or something?"
"That's just a risk we have to take," Buffy answered, pushing the door open entirely and stepping through, then grabbing Willow's arm to pull her in as well. "I'm assuming you know how to work this thing," she added, pointing to the computer.
Willow looked at her with a surprised expression. "Buffy," she started, "of course I do."
"No, I mean aren't all computers like, not the same?"
Willow smiled. "Believe me, I can work it," she said, sitting down at the computer. "Will you watch the door?" she added, paranoia sneaking back into her voice.
Buffy sighed and stood by the entrance. "I don't know what I'm going to do if someone comes in," she muttered, "Just knock them out?"
"That would work," Willow replied as she turned the computer on. Almost immediately it asked for a password. "Hmm," she murmured, becoming engrossed in her work as she checked through drawers, on the calendar in the corner, and underneath the desk in an attempt to find it. Sighing, she sat back down. "Guess, I'm going to have to do this the hard way," she said, and reached into her pocket book to pull out a disk.
"What's that?" Buffy asked, looking towards her.
Inspite of herself Willow grinned. "This is our way in," Willow replied. "Or not," she added, frowning suddenly. "I just created this, I'm not 100 percent sure it's gonna work."
"Well, it's a shot," Buffy answered. "Besides, I trust you."
"Thanks," Willow said, and, with that, inserted the disk into the computer. "Time to see if Hackers 101 paid off."
* * *
Jenny Calendar pulled on the filing cabinet with all her strength and then proceeded to hit it with her knee in frustration when it didn't open on her command. "Damn it!" she cursed.
Giles looked up from his position on the floor beside a pile of files he had just pulled out. "Problems?" he asked dryly.
Jenny blushed. "No," she answered meekly, rubbing her knee slightly. "Just trying to get this thing open."
"Well, you might want to keep it down a little," he recommended. "I doubt it would be a good idea to be found in here."
"Probably not," she agreed, pulling a clip from out of her hair and shaking out her black hair. She inserted the clip into the lock and closed her eyes, murmuring a gypsy spell for luck underneath her breath.
"Hmm?" Giles asked, having heard her.
Jenny smiled. "Sorry, all that research I did trying to restore Angel's soul paid off," she replied. Her smile turned into an outright grin as the filing cabinet clicked and slid open. "Really paid off," she added as she began to pull out a few of the files. Suddenly she turned to Giles. "What are we going to say if we get caught in here?" she wondered, looking around at the files on the floor and the now broken filing cabinet lock. "Somehow I doubt, 'we got lost' is something they're going to believe."
Giles shrugged. "Hopefully we won't get caught," he answered practically.
Jenny rolled her eyes slightly. "Optimism, always a plus," she replied as she opened the top file. She blinked, then turned back to Giles. "We haven't really had a chance to talk much," she murmured.
Giles looked up at her and smiled. "Jenny, I believe we should take Buffy's advice and avoid any personal conversations."
"That's not what she said to avoid," Jenny pointed out. "She said we needed to avoid 'touching reconciliation moments'."
"Well, if we have a personal conversation it will most likely turn into a touching reconciliation moment," Giles replied.
Jenny grinned. "We'll have to have one of those when this is over with," she answered. "What do you say . . . monster trucks?" She laughed when he shuddered. "Tell you what, I'll let you pick."
Giles nodded, and the two of them shared an amused look before turning back to their own research.
* * *
"Where are we going?" Xander asked, as Jack Arthur looked around each corner carefully before proceeding down the hallway.
Jack shrugged. "I don't know," he answered, causing Xander to stop suddenly.
"You don't know?" Xander echoed. "How can you not know! You're a watcher!"
Jack laughed with pure amusement. "I'm the Watcher's pilot," he replied. Xander suddenly looked at him slowly, and blinked. Despite the business suit Jack Arthur looked to be around Angel's age . . . well, Angel's age before he became a vampire, in any case. Obviously Buffy had put more faith in his knowledge of the Watcher's than she should have.
"Then how do you know all that stuff . . . ?" Xander trailed off and looked at him.
"I fly these people around all the time," Jack answered. "You pick up a few things."
"Then where are we supposed to GO?" Xander queried again.
Jack Arthur shrugged again in reply. "We'll find a door, open it, and hope no one's in there," he answered.
"Oh, that's a plan," Xander muttered, groaning as he followed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How do you spell Drusilla?" Willow asked, looking up at Buffy from her seat behind Mr. Howard's old desk. "Is it D-R-U-S-C-I-L-L-A or D-R-U-S-I-L-L-A?"
Buffy looked at her in confusement. "Why do you need to know how to spell Drusilla?" she asked.
"To see what they say about her," Willow replied.
"What?" Buffy shrieked. "Willow, we're supposed to be checking to see if we can find anything about Mr. Clark and his connections . . . I seriously doubt he's working with Spike and Dru!"
"I know, but it's cool," Willow answered, completely relaxed now. She stopped to type for a moment, then grinned. "There's a section on Angel," she said pointedly.
Immediately Buffy abandoned her post at the door and walked around the desk to look at the screen. "Let me read!" she said excitedly.
Willow's eyes widened. "Buffy, the door," she reminded her friend. Buffy blushed and grudgingly returned to the door. "I'll read it to you, okay?" she offered.
Buffy nodded. "Please!"
"Okay, we read all this before," she said, skimming through the early sections on Angel. "Here we go, 'in 1916 Angelus moved to America', blah, blah. Oh, okay! 'According to Rupert Giles, the official guardian of this generation's Slayer, Angelus aka Angel was cursed by the Gypsy Clan Romani several decades ago. This curse returned Angelus' soul to the body the demon currently inhabits, forcing the two to co-exist. This soul-cursed vampire has apparently made good use of his conscience by using his superior knowledge of vampires and their ways to aid the Slayer in her fight to destroy the demons that walk the earth. While this explanation does sound more like a fairy-tale than anything else, the Watcher and Slayer confirm that he has more than proven himself as an ally.'"
"Cool!" Buffy giggled. "Any updates?"
"Um . . . " Willow trailed off and typed in a few things, searching for the most recent entry in Angel's file. "Yeah, but it's just stuff about Ms. Calendar and they get really into the making a vampire human spell and all that, not much personal info. Here's a little blip from Mr. Howard -- 'After having spoken with the vampire myself I concur that he has indeed regained his soul, however that does not excuse this generation's slayer from her actions, and immediately proves that the Council's theory that perhaps the vampire was leading her astray is false.'"
"I am SO not upset he's dead," Buffy muttered. "Does it say anything else?"
Willow shook her head. "Sorry."
"Oh well, I guess it's for the best, since that's not exactly what we came in here to look for," Buffy answered with a sigh.
Willow nodded. "Right. Incriminating info." Pouting slightly, Willow returned to the work at hand.
* * *
"Would you pick a room already!" Xander said angrily, staring at Jack with an annoyed expression. "We've been wandering around the same hallway for a half hour now!"
"Fine!" Jack answered, sounding as annoyed with Xander as Xander was with him. He stopped in front of a door marked PRIVATE and turned the doorknob, only to find it locked. Jack Arthur pulled a lock pick out of his back pocket and began to work.
"Where'd you get that?" Xander asked.
"I come prepared," Jack retorted. "Would you cover me?" he continued. Xander stood in front of him as Jack worked on the lock, and finally the door pulled open. "Let's go," he said. The two of them walked into the room and looked around.
"Wow," Xander whistled, staring in open mouthed shock, as was Jack.
The room was filled with piles and piles of money, stacked on metal shelves that reached up to the ceiling.
"You can say that again," Jack breathed.
"Wow," Xander repeated, with yet another whistle. "Think if we took some it would be noticed?" he asked, turning to the pilot.
Jack shrugged. "I don't know," he answered weakly. "But damn it, I'm tempted."
"You and me both," Xander agreed, taking another step into the room. As soon as he did the door swung shut. Both turned to look at each other, then at the closed door, then once again at each other. "That's not good," Xander muttered.
Jack reached out and attempted to open the metal door, to no avail. "No, that's definitely not," he agreed.
Xander looked at the money for another moment, then towards a telephone that sat on a large metal desk. "Does this thing connect to the head . . . oh, right, you're just the pilot," Xander muttered.
Jack glared at him. "I'm not JUST the pilot," he muttered.
"Oh, then what else are you?"
"I happen to be security, too," Jack answered.
Xander rolled his eyes. "Security?" he repeated. "And you didn't know that this door swings shut? You don't know where the other guards are?"
Jack shrugged. "I never said I was a good security guard."
"God!" Xander shouted. "What? Did you get a personality change when I wasn't looking? What happened to the boring, stuffy, average every-day watcher?"
Another shrug. "I always wanted to be an actor," he answered. "Besides, before Mr. Howard was killed I was on my way up in the ranks."
Xander groaned, walked towards the telephone and lifted it, then sighed in relief. "Just a dial tone," he muttered.
"It's bugged," Jack answered. "Guaranteed."
"Well, it's a little late to worry about that," Xander retorted, as he dialed the number to the hotel at which they'd been staying. "Patch me through to the upper room," Xander ordered to the receptionist, who did as he asked.
"What?" a voice grunted, moaned, and whined all at the same time into the other end.
"Wake up, dammit, and pay attention," Xander complained, not in the mood to deal with Angel.
Angel apparently felt the same way about Xander. "Now you're waking me up in the middle of the day? What does it take to get through to you people, I'm a vampire, the sun's up, what do you think I'm doing, sun-bathing?"
"Shut up! Look, Buffy and the rest of us went to check things out at the Watcher Headquarters, and apparently our watcher friend is NOT exactly a real Watcher."
"Meaning what?" Angel asked, wide-awake now that he realized Buffy might be in danger.
"As in he's the pilot. Just the pilot. As in all those long rambling watcher-chats were just things he picked up. As in we're now trapped in a room full of money, and we can't even spend it cause we're trapped!"
"Then how are you calling?"
"There's a phone here," Xander answered. "It's probably bugged, according to the expert on Watcher's, but I had no choice but to call. Seriously, you get me out of here, no more dead-boy comments."
"When the other's get back I'll tell them," Angel replied.
"You can't come now?!" Xander begged.
Angel shook his head in disgust. "The sun's still up," he answered dryly.
"So? . . . Oh, right, stupid question."
"Is that it?"
"Yeah," Xander sighed. "Just don't forget and think this is all a dream, please?"
"Fine." Angel hung up the phone and was back to sleep in an instant.
* * *
"I think I found something," Jenny Calendar said, looking up at Giles with wide eyes.
Giles immediately moved to her side. "What?" he queried.
Jenny handed him a file. "The money," she replied, leaning next to him and pointing at a certain section on the paper with a perfectly-manicured finger. "Look at Mr. Clark's bank account before and after he became head of the council. Before it was relatively average," she continued, handing him another set of printouts that held the finances for each watcher, "you know, just the basics the Council supplies. Second he became head of the Council his bank account blossomed. He's got over half a million dollars in this account alone."
"It's not positive proof, though," Giles answered.
"It's the closest thing I've found in this," Jenny retorted, motioning to the piles of paper around her. "I say it's good enough. It certainly raises a few questions. The guy only became head of council about, what, two days ago? And out of nowhere he's got a half a mill."
Giles nodded and stood. "I guess you're correct," he said. "I've looked through all of this," he added, motioning to the pile of papers around him and mimicking her motion from before. "There's nothing there."
"Then I suggest we take this," Jenny said, standing, "and get the hell out of here."
"Oh, I don't think you'll be going anywhere," a new voice said. Jenny and Giles turned as one to stare into the cold gray eyes of Mr. Clark.
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
