Chapter
6.08
Wednesday, May 15th, 2002
"There is a train... but Sam doesn't have
the authority on her own to requisition it. Last I knew it was
in the Midwest." Riley's voice was little above a whisper.
"Love, before this goes all Jackanory, d'you
think you could get Phil Silvers here to call off the goon squad
so a man can have a quiet fag in peace?"
Buffy nudged the walkie-talkie that lay on the
floor toward Riley with her foot. "You heard the man. Call
them off. All of them."
Riley picked up the radio. "All units, this
is Alpha One. All units stand down. Repeat, all units stand down.
Mission is aborted."
Spike pushed himself away from the door, only
to have it fall open under the weight of two soldiers in civilian
clothing. Spike merely raised an eyebrow at the men sprawled on
the floor, and then strolled casually to the broken window where
he beckoned to Wes and Willow with the hand that held his lit
cigarette.
The witch and the watcher made their way across
the road and Spike scanned the other houses 'round about for signs
of activity. "You know, Slayer, you were right. Your neighbours
will ignore pretty much anything." When Willow reached
the front porch of the house she paused and muttered a few words
and the barrier that had prevented Graham from getting from the
roof into the house, and the other soldiers from getting out disappeared
as quickly as it had appeared. The pair strolled into the room
where the others had accumulated.
"Sheesh," commented the Wiccan as she
eyed the broken glass and wood all over the floor. "You guys think
you're too good to use a door?" The tip of her tongue peeked
between her teeth as she flashed the blonde pair a grin. She was
followed by a rather sheepish looking Graham.
"Sorry, Man. We couldn't get in." his
eyes travelled with obvious hostility from the bruises forming
on Riley's face, to the vampire who was currently picking stray
fragments of glass out of the window frame so he could use it
as a seat.
"Don't look at Spike," Buffy told him
intercepting the look. "He didn't do it. I did. And I'm not
under his thrall, either. So, just forget that idea, too, along
with any you have about killing him.
There's a kid in the ICU at the hospital tonight
after Sam and her team drugged him, shot him and left him
to die. Maybe, if he pulls through, we find my sister alive and
well, and you leave us all the heck alone, then that kid's godfather
won't use his pull at the Pentagon to see that every man in your
crummy genocidal outfit leaves the army with a dishonourable discharge."
"And if you're really lucky his dad won't
tell the story to his former colleagues at The Washington Post,
or Reuters or even the Stars and Stripes," Willow chipped
in.
Spike finally sat himself down, took a deep draw
on his cigarette and announced, "I love it when all the politico-military
shit works for us for a change." The vampire's eyes rapidly
clouded over as the moment of levity passed. No one could doubt
the gravity with which he framed his instructions. "Now,
tell us what we want to know about this train and make it fast."
"Ri, man. You can't give up secret information
to a sub-T." Before Buffy could silence Graham, Wes's fist
unexpectedly lashed out and caught him in the stomach. As he doubled
over, the watcher's knee came up and caught him in the face. One
last shove left the well-intentioned but ill-informed soldier
lying on his side in a foetal position.
"Okay, people," Buffy took a stance
in the centre of the room, facing off against all the military,
looking each of them in the eye in turn as she spoke. "I'm
only going to say this once. In this scenario you are not the
good guys. You are the stooges. You have been played and made
to dance like little puppets. One of your number has been manipulating
you from within."
Buffy began to pace the floor as she spoke. "Sam
Finn has used you, her personal relationships and her position
in your unit as a cover for her dirty dealings. Unless I've missed
my mark, somehow she worked out that we were onto her—"
"Um, that's kinda my fault. I sent her an
email saying that we knew about the surveillance and how things
had been manipulated to make Spike look guilty, and that her and
Riley should stay out of Sunnydale. I guess I overestimated our
effectiveness as a deterrent." Willow's eyes darted back
and forth between the two blondes as if she expected some form
of instant retribution for her misjudgement.
Spike's eyes glowed with a cold anger. Buffy's
ire ran hot but only lasted for seconds. "Not the time to
be laying blame, or claiming it, Will. There'll be time enough
for that when we get Dawn home." She shifted her gaze to
where Riley still sat on the floor.
"If I'm honest we thought that Riley had
to be in this thing with Sam, but it seems we had that part wrong.
I guess she thought if Spike was taken out and she was holding
my sister that we'd keep quiet, and no one, including Riley, would
find out.
Well, she screwed up. She does not know how much
shit she is in. Now, we are going to find my sister and bring
her home. Riley is going to tell us exactly what we need to know
to make that happen and none of you are going to interfere. If
you're truly the men of honour that this nation's forces are meant
to produce, you might even help. Believe me when I say you do
not want to be in our way."
Spike's cigarette butt sailed past Buffy to bounce
off Riley's leg before Buffy crushed it out with her foot, turning
to give the vampire a withering glance.
"Well, I would spit but it's so crass, and,
hey, when I shoot his back full of arrows, then you can
make with the dirty looks," the vampire gave by way of defence.
"For now, I suggest you get him to start talkin'."
Buffy's gaze turned to Riley and he swiftly got
the point.
"There's a train we use sometimes in the
field. It acts as a mobile lab and containment unit... but it's
not like the Initiative we don't hold specimens long term. There's
no experimentation or anything. It's purely so the techs can work
on any vaccines or anti-toxins that we might need."
Spike burned to make a comment about it being
so much better to know they would exterminate their friends rather
than holding them prisoner, but time wasn't on Dawn's side and
petty bickering would help no one. Just the same, when the dust
of this whole affair settled, Spike was determined to make sure
that Riley knew that the non-human population of this fair burgh
were henceforth outside the military's remit.
"You worry much for man you only know few
days," Lily's eyes scanned the face of the woman she had
come to care for as if she were her own flesh and blood.
"What? No. no. It's just the whole thing
with those creeps being back in town and Rosa... Isn't it?"
Lily shrugged. "Is maybe both? Two years
is long time for young woman or for a lonely little girl. She
should have father, brothers, sisters."
"Lily, I've barely met the guy and you have
us married off."
The Quarnoth demon shrugged. "Is not like
you can play in the field. A good man, he know he no can play
with the heart of a child, and my Marie, she no choose a bad man."
"It's not that simple. I think there's someone
else."
"Pff. Skinny girl with baby horse legs and
cow eyes and her own man. She make her choice. May be right. May
be wrong, but is made. His life no more with those people. You
see. He stay."
"Even if he does stay in Sunnydale, it still
doesn't mean anything."
"No, it no mean nothing that he young,
pretty, smart, has good heart and is comfortable with demons
and he here. What matter is he makes your heart beat like
it no beat since Thomas and maybe sometime soon when he
open his eyes, he feel same way 'bout my Marie."
"Okay, I find him attractive, but that isn't
enough, and even if he did eventually feel the same way, any man
would think twice about taking on a ready made family, especially
one that's not entirely the same species."
"I hear, reason Spike's grandpapa no talk
no more that he do just that." Lily retorted with a smug
grin.
Marie sighed and wandered in the direction of
Lily's kitchen, muttering under her breath in Spanish about interfering
mothers-in-law as she went.
Three black humvees pulled up in front of the
house on Revello, carrying the teams who had been stationed by
Spike's apartment and at his old crypt. The driver of the front
vehicle got out and was going to leave it for Riley's team but
Riley stopped him before he could.
"Stay. We can regroup into teams later.
Graham you're with me in Car 1. Lars, Car 2. Tom, Car 3. I want
you to bring the guys on the other teams up to speed on what's
happening and I want radio silence. If you need to communicate
with the other cars then use the cells. If at all possible Sam
is to be detained for debriefing by the appropriate authorities,
but the safety of the civilians is our first priority."
"Sir? Wouldn't it be safer for them, if
we left the civilians here?"
"It surely would, but you have things the
wrong way round. It's them who're letting us come along."
Back in the house Spike pulled Wesley aside making
sure they faced away from the window. "Here, watcher."
Spike pulled the pouch with the orbs from his
belt and held them out toward the other Brit.
"Are you sure?" Wesley hesitated to
take the orbs, in view of the fact they were all that had kept
Spike undead during the earlier hail of arrows.
"Am I sure you're going to need them more
than me in the middle of whatever goes down out there tonight?
Hell, yeah. Besides, I can always use you as a human shield."
"Don't you want Buffy...?"
"She can use you as a shield, too. Slayer's
a big girl. Doesn't take to bein' overly protected."
"Okay, then. Let's make a move."
Tara's spell showed that although the Sunnydale
group was closing the gap between them and Dawn, it was still
going to be a considerable length of time before they managed
to catch up. If the train kept to its current course, it was going
to be much quicker to arrange an intercept from another direction
entirely.
|
