Chapter 13: Man of Stone

Author's Note: With the recent problem with e-mails, I think some of the updates didn't get their notices sent out. I actually had chapters 11-12 uploaded before this which may not have had their updates sent out. So you might want to go back a couple of chapters if you haven't read them.

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The warehouse district didn't hold much. Besides the obvious. There were some homeless though. With nowhere really to go, they had to stomach the risk of ending up like how the others did, whatever it was.

Currently, the mixed team was working their way through. Questioning whomever would talk to them. It also let Xander let drop some money, however much help it would be, he didn't know. Or what it would be used for. But, it was something. And proved that he still had some kind of heart.

It was odd. To have to drive away and then back to the place where they might find some information. But, McAllister had insisted. And he'd seen the priest pass something to Paul on the way out. Probably Church related and important to drag them there, so he didn't bother trying to find out.

Xander was in the middle of talking to a fifty year old man who looked like he was ten years older. They were around the ubiquitous burning trashcan. It's flickering light cast a rather depressing glow on their surroundings.

"So this guy you said, just took them off, and they never came back?" Xander asked. Pounding the pavement. That was what they called it on those old police shows. Xander idly wondered why they weren't preyed upon by vampires. Maybe it was the smell, he thought.

"Yeah, that's what I said, didn't I?" The man responded. There was something off-putting about chatting with a guy with one eye, but he wanted to find his friends.

"You got a name?"

"Max. Just Max. Young guy. Maybe 25. Sleazy looking. White guy. Slicked black hair. Maybe 5'5".

"Okay. Any idea where I can find him?"

"Comes by every so often. Picks up some guys, promises them money. I thought it was for those bum fights you hear about."

"But, these guys don't come back." Xander frowned. It didn't have to mean a thing. Could have nothing at all to do with their case. A wild goose chase. A dead end. A bad lead. Or it could be the one thread that would lead to everything.

"Yeah."

"Right." It was a good enough lead to follow in the end. Only lead they had to so far. Xander slipped the man a hundred bucks.

"Thanks." The man pocketed the money. Yup, definitely a weird guy.

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It must be his lucky night. Xander watched as a van was being loaded up. The man helping some old guys in shabby clothes was a young guy. Maybe 25. White. Sleazy looking.

"Think that's him?" Curtis asked. The groups had reformed. Cindy and Linda had gone back to base to check out the stuff from Rossetti's. Jack and Paul were following up on the other leads they had gotten. Didn't prove as promising as the first, but they still had to be thorough. Vi had gone with them. That left him with his second in command, two of the slayers, and Eduard. They were seated in the passenger car parked down the block. Xander snapped a few shots on a digital camera from his pack. He uploaded it to the Level 6 support guys. He'd have an identity in a few minutes. Those guys were geeks, but they knew their stuff.

"Looks the part. And it is suspicious, unless he's trying to do the all bum revue of Oklahoma." Xander said. "Although."

"Right. Think we should take him now?" Curtis asked. He no longer rolled his eyes at Xander's dumb jokes.

"No. I want to see where they're going."

The van pulled away, and Curtis pulled out after them. The one car following another thing doesn't really happen. A full cover would have involved at least four cars at a single time, with alternates coming in so the target wouldn't get suspicious. With the tagalong gang there, Xander didn't get that. He got one car. It was like something out of Bullitt, Xander thought. He hoped it wouldn't end like it either.

They followed, luckily again, Max wasn't all that watchful of anything behind him. None of the standard "Am I being tailed?" tricks. After about fifteen minutes, he pulled up at a small rundown apartment building. Condemned. Clearly not a place to put on the late night showing of Oklahoma.

There was a message on his PDA. Xander looked at it and read through the profile that was displayed on it. His boys had come through.

"Anthony Maxwell Lowry. Aka Max. Small time crook. B and e, armed robbery, some leg work for bigger fish. He's henchmen class. Looks like our guy."

A man, dressed in a suit, got out of the building, and walked up to the van. Clearly not the sort of guy that lived in this type of area. Xander saw this from his seat in the car, parked further up the street. Either these guys weren't that cautious, or he just expected everyone to be as paranoid as he was. Xander snapped a picture of the new guy as well, uploading it to his support.

The six men in the back walked out of the van and into the building. The man in the suit and "Max" were talking at the front. An envelope was passed, likely money.

"Alright. You take the van. Let him get up a ways and then take him. He might know something. I'm going in and getting the suit. And his merchandise. Be back in 15 minutes, two doors down. Eduard, you and Mary are coming with me. Abby stay with Curtis."

Xander slipped out of the car with the watcher and his watchee. He took his bag with him. No scattergun this time. It was going to be up close and personal and he didn't want to risk hitting one of the innocents. He had loaded his five-seven with a different type of frangible bullet. Silver pellet loads. Alternated with armor piercing rounds. A mag of that would put damn near anything down.

After the van had taken off and Curtis had followed, Xander went to the building, the others close behind. It wasn't very stealthily, but speed was key in this case. He watched through the still open front door as they went into the third room down the main hall. 3A. Evidently, professionalism wasn't the byword for the night.

He walked closer to the door, and motioned his backup against the wall. They made their way down the hall silently, staying away from the center where loose boards may give them away. Xander checked the door to the apartment. It was halfway rotted through. A simple kick would bring it down. Even more luck. He stood in front of it. And kicked it in, rushing through. He brought his gun up, searching for a target.

What he found, was nothing. It was luck. Of a different sort.

"Damn it." Xander growled. In front of him was an exhausted magic circle. Teleport-out only. Clearly, the man in the suit had an exit strategy.

Xander ran a quick search through the room. There was nothing. It was a sterile jump site. Somewhere out of the way to set up a circle. Nothing more. He didn't want to think about what the poor tricked bastards would be going through.

"C'mon. There's nothing here." Xander said. He walked to the front door. He noted that Curtis was back. He pulled out his cell phone and called his partner.

"Got him?" Xander asked.

"Yeah." Curtis replied, picking up after the first ring. "How about you?"

"They got away. Magic circle. Bring the guy in here. 3A." He hung up.

By time Curtis and Abby brought the flesh broker in, Xander had already set up. A chair found in the next apartment over, a couple of pairs of handcuffs, and a knife from his bag. He just hoped that Max had information. Otherwise six men would likely have died and he would have just given up some more of his soul, all for nothing.

"Sit down." Curtis shoved Max into the chair. Xander walked behind and handcuffed him to it, wrists to chair legs. He glared at the man in the chair.

Curtis saw the expression on Xander's face and walked over.

"We need to talk." Curtis whispered into Xander's ear. He pulled his partner into the small bedroom connected to the main room.

"What happened?" Curtis asked in a quiet voice.

"Screwed up. We should have just grabbed Max when we saw him. The guy had teleported them all away before we even got in the room."

"You made the right call. It's not your fault."

"I know that. Doesn't make it right." Xander shook his head. Then looked at his partner. "And I don't need you to lecture me. I've been through this before. More than you have."

"Xander…" Curtis didn't need to be reminded. The younger man had lost more true allies than the former then current government agent had ever known.

"Forget it. Let's go to work."

The rest of the group, including Curtis stood back, against the wall. Xander would do this alone. It was his responsibility, as was the previous failure.

"Who did you meet?" Xander asked.

"Like I'm going to tell you." Max sneered. "You ain't getting nothing from me pig."

Xander took out his knife and shoved it underneath Max's right kneecap. School of Jack Bauer. It had its moments. Max screamed.

"Who said we were cops?" Xander growled. He twisted it, and pulled it out.

"Who is he?" Xander shouted, pulling the screaming man's head back by his hair. "Don't make me ask again."

"I don't know. I don't know. He bailed me out of the joint a month ago. Called himself Vinge. Said he had some work for me. I didn't ask." Max screamed.

"You didn't care." Xander stated coldly. "You want to live? What else? Or do you want some more iron in your diet?"

"I followed him once. He works out of a bar. Club Zero. That's all I know." Max panted in pain.

"Good." Torture as SOP was not a good idea. People under torture usually talked. If what they were saying was the truth was another matter. But, in this case, Xander knew it worked. He'd seen it in Max's eyes, as clichéd as that may have seemed. Sometimes the worst ways were the best ways.

Xander walked over to where he had set his bag down, putting away his knife. Inside was a small five shot revolver. .22. Throwaway piece. He pulled out another small bag and put on a pair of latex gloves. Then he opened the first bag and pulled the gun out.

"Wait. Wait." Max screamed when he saw the gun. "You said you'd let me live."

Xander walked up to him. He had been extremely careful. He had even worn gloves when he loaded the gun.

"I know." Xander said, coldly. "I lied."

Xander shot him. Twice. In the face. He tossed the gun into the corner and retrieved his handcuffs. He knew that he hadn't touched anything else in the room that would pick up prints. Technically speaking, they weren't supposed to go after targets of opportunity. Humans ones anyway. Which was why Xander used a clean piece.

Curtis and Abby didn't react. They didn't like what Xander had done, but they understood why. Curtis especially. He saw the look on his leader's face. It may have started with an emotional response, but the decision hadn't been due to that. It couldn't, not in the line of work they were in. Wasn't the right, it was the needed one.

Mary and Eduard were stunned silent. Didn't last for long though.

"What was that?" Eduard nearly screamed.

"How could you?" Mary followed up, actually screaming.

"What? Guy was a scumbag peddling flesh. As bad as any vampire. I'm supposed to let him walk for that?" Xander asked. He knew that his execution, or murder depending on the perspective, wouldn't go over well with the Council. But, they needed to learn this.

"He was human!" Mary shouted. Buffy 2.0. She may be getting some real world experience, but in regards to the realities of stopping evil, it wasn't much.

"Yeah. It just makes him easier to kill." Xander replied coolly, looking at the two. "Look. This isn't some game. You let him walk, and there's going to be another load of bodies. You want to be responsible for that?"

Mary and Eduard couldn't meet his eye.

"We don't have time for this. Curtis, get me a location on Club Zero. If we're lucky we can catch Mr. Wizard there. The victims may still be alive." Xander continued, getting his pack and walking to the door.

"We can discuss the moral flexibilities of the job after we stop this thing." Xander said over his shoulder.

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Club Zero. It wasn't much of a place. The Bronze, for the skeezy set. Which would help them get in. It hadn't taken much for Xander to find the place. And only slightly longer to get his people into place.

Xander and some of his team, along with the Council's crew had set up a few buildings down from the bar. He had come up with the plan on the drive over. Quick thinking was becoming a talent for him.

"The subject is one Raymond Vinge. That's from DMV records. Bar owner of Club Zero. There's nothing else. No record, and nothing on him as a player. Either he's really good, or he's small time. Or just plain new. Either way, we're going to need to go in now.

Cindy. I want an astral sweep. Nothing invasive, just let me know what kind of magical defenses he's got. Curtis and I are going through the back. Paul, you Jack and Abby cause a distraction in the front. You'll have the kickoff. Ed, you keep your people here. We'll need a clear line out in case things go south."

Xander didn't want to have the Council going in with him. After what he had just done he couldn't trust them not to be twitchy. He hadn't liked what he'd done, but it had been a long time since he had done anything he liked. It was another mad dog off the street though. Which was good, but he didn't delude himself into thinking that it was the right thing to do. It hadn't been part of fighting the good fight. It was vengeance. Some of it from his anger at himself for screwing up, though intellectually he knew that it hadn't been his fault. The rest of it was from the notion of letting Max go. He'd seen the victims of those that were let go. Teresa. Jenny Calendar. And if it meant his own soul, it was a choice he'd make. Not gladly. But, he'd do it. Loyalty, above all. It had started with his girls. His family. But, given the threats they now faced, it had extended to all of humanity. Well, not all of it. But, Xander believed that there was still some of it that deserved to be saved. There had to be.

Cindy closed her eyes, leaving her body. Her astral body floated out of the SUV she was seated in and floated towards the bar. A quick check of the exterior and there was no evidence of any defensive spellwork. She floated through the walls into the main bar. A few odd non-humans were visible through their auras, but the young witch focused on a glowing barrier that surrounded the upper office. It wasn't much of a defensive spell, but she wouldn't be able to crack it without setting it off. A purely mundane incursion was the only option. She went around to the back and exited the building. She noticed slightly glowing blue lines, signifying power cables. She could see the security cameras. A quick spell and they were set on a loop. It'd last for the next quarter of an hour.

When she got back, Xander was still talking.

"I don't care if you protest Ed. I'm in command, it's my call." Xander said brusquely. "You can either follow it or you can walk away now. Or maybe that's what you want to do. As far as we know, he's human. So it's not like he's just about to murder those six guys. Right?"

It was petty. And mean. But, right here and now, it was just about the only thing that would get through to the White Hats.

"Alright, we'll wait here." Eduard replied. He didn't like Xander's cold execution of the man that he had tortured, but Eduard couldn't completely disregard the feeling that the rogue hunter was right. "But, this is going in my report."

Xander ignored the last bit.

"There's a magical barrier around the office. It prevents magical eavesdropping only. If he set it himself then he doesn't have that much power. Or it's a decoy to hide how much juice he really has. There were cameras around back, but they're taken care of for the next 15 minutes." Cindy reported. "I also noticed some traces of recent spellwork. Either the guy's ported here, or someone just did some magic."

"Okay. Let's go." Xander said. He picked up his bag and started walking down the street, keeping to the shadows. Curtis followed.

They reached the alley in back of the club in less than a minute. There was a small set of stairs leading to the back door of the office. They stayed at the bottom.

"Ball's in play. Twenty seconds." Paul's voice came in through the earpiece Xander had placed in his ear back at the car. He could hear the ruckus that Paul and Jack were getting into. Apparently over the teenage girl they had met. Never mind that they were both almost old enough to be her father. When he heard the bouncers get involved, and the fight start, Xander motioned to Curtis. They pulled on black balaclavas and started up the stairs. Xander covered.

Curtis checked the door. Unfortunately, it was tight against the ground. No place for a fiber optic camera. They'd have to do it the hard way, he thought. Curtis was able to pick the lock in less than thirty seconds, but didn't open the door. Xander came up close, preparing the UMP45 that he had chosen for this part of the mission. If there was anything big inside he wanted something with a bit more power than the handgun he carried. With Curtis now covering him with an MP5, Xander carefully opened the door and pushed it open.

A beat. Nobody came close to investigate. The two men slipped in a bit to investigate, covering the room with their weapons. It was a huge office. A large desk was set near the back, facing towards the front and away from them. Along the walls were bookshelves that Xander could tell housed some old texts along with some seemingly magical paraphernalia. The lights were off, with strategically placed candles casting the only light.

Xander was lucky once again. The six men were tied to eyelets mounted to the floor before the desk. Around them was another magic circle. Xander could identify that it was one used for invocations. It was a sacrifice. The unknown was planning on conjuring something up. Something big if he was using six men. A small altar was set next to it with a large leatherbound book open upon it.

Xander looked at Raymond, now clad in a white linen robe, was on the phone at the desk. He was yelling at his security team to get rid of the trouble makers outside. Apparently, Paul and Jack were still there. And had interrupted the ritual.

Xander crouched low. They were less than ten feet from Vinge, who had his back turned to them. Lucky night. Xander transferred his submachine gun to his left hand as he quietly pulled a M-26 taser from a holster on his belt. He waited until Raymond had set down the phone and then fired twin barbs from the stun weapon which struck Vinge, sending him convulsing to the floor. Xander closed in quickly, making sure the magic user was really out. The nervous systems of wizards and witches could be altered. Some were immune to the effects of such weapons. Raymond Vinge was not one of them.

Xander motioned Curtis over to free the now ex-sacrifices. He turned back to Vinge. A man in his mid thirties, he did not seem the type to coldly murder six men. But, looks could be deceiving. Xander pulled out a pair of handcuffs, these etched with runes to prevent a wizard from opening them magically or telekinetically. They didn't work on more powerful magic users, but he hoped they'd work. He then picked the stunned man up in a fireman's carry and followed Curtis, who by then had already freed the kidnapped men, out the door.

"Dope him. I need to check out the office."

He still had five minutes. Leaving the unconscious bar owner with Curtis, Xander went back up. He give the room a quick once over, making sure that he smudged the chalk circle and grabbed the open book on the altar. From the etchings on the open pages, it wasn't something good. Checking out the shelves, Xander could identify the normal texts that moderately powerful dark practitioners had. On the desk was a laptop. Probably code locked, but Level 6 had hackers. He took that, along with the day planner. There was nothing else of interest.

With less than a minute on Cindy's spell left, Xander quickly set a couple of incendiary charges and placed them on the shelves. He gave one last glance to the room, and left, closing the door behind him.

He met up with Curtis, who was covering the still unconscious Vinge, despite his chemically induced state. They walked down the alley, away from the cameras' view. Xander made a phone call.

"C, I need you to isolate the office. Full containment around the barrier, airtight. I'm lighting it up. Let me know when it's set."

It only took the experienced witch a minute to weave the spell. "It's set, you can proceed."

"That's a go." Xander blew the radio-controlled detonators on his planted explosives. It wasn't long before the room was engulfed in flames, destroying all of the magical items in the office. The fire would burn itself out quickly with only the air still in the room as fuel. Once it was gone, it would burn itself out. The possibility of a backdraft was something he'd have to accept. But, the spell would last long enough for the room to cool down, so it wasn't a big risk.

"Let's go." Xander said to Curtis. He picked up the wizard again, carrying him quickly to their parked cars. He was gagged and placed in the trunk of the passenger car as the teams packed up their vehicles. He noted that Mary didn't look particularly happy about being left out. Her desire to get into the fight overrode her disapproval of Xander's previous actions. Eduard just looked at him. A blank expression on his face. Maybe it meant understanding. Or maybe it meant that he'd do his best to bring him down.

What had just happened could ultimately mean nothing. There might not be a link to Shaun Anderson. But, a couple of scumbags were gone, never to prey upon the helpless. And six were saved that night. Not a bad night's work, if only for a tangent.

A man walked up dressed in shabby clothes before Xander could get in.

"Alexander. We need to see you." The man said, looking straight ahead, eyes unfocused. It was one of the homeless men that they had rescued.

"Come to see us, Alexander." The man continued. His eyes were glowing. Xander watched as the homeless man shook his head and wandered off. Seemingly unaware of his previous words.

Xander knew what he had to do. He had to see the man.