Chapter 21.

SUNNYDALE, CALIFORNIA

11:30 P.M. (PST)

It had been almost an hour since he had hung up on the gloating Ethan Rayne. In that time, Giles had made half a dozen attempts each to contact both the Watchers' Council and the Ruling Legacy House. And, each failure to do so had only served to make him more frustrated and temperamental. Something that would have been a mistake, on the part of the one(s) ignoring him, back in his "Ripper" days!

Then, just as he was about to vent his anger by throwing it through his living room window, the phone rang on his end.

"About bloody time," he muttered (letting it ring twice more before picking it up).

"Hello?" he carefully inquired, in his calmest professional manner.

"Mr. Rupert Giles?" replied the equally inquisitive voice at the other end.

"Yes?"

"Is this the same Mr. Giles who serves as Watcher to the current Slayer?"

Naturally, that piqued his immediate interest. He demanded- - in a tone now more firm than polite- -to know who was calling.

"My name is Father Adam Guiteau. Officially, I am special internuncio between the Vatican and the U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains. But, I'm also personal liaison to the Legacy's Boston House. And, its Precept has informed me that you are their leading expert on occult artifacts of power."

"Forgive me for saying so, Father. But, should you be stating that so boldly on an open line?"

"Don't worry. One of the perks of my official job is access to NSA technology. Including devices that can scramble both ends of a telephonic conversation!"

"In that case, how may I help you?"

"I assume you heard about the heinous attack on the St. Ioannes monastery?"

"A safe assumption, to put it mildly."

"Well, it turns out that it wasn't the first such attack. There was an earlier one, near Prague. And, in both cases, an object of power being guarded by the resident clergy. . .was stolen."

"Oh, dear! What objects of power, specifically?"

"From Prague? An Orb of Thesulah. And, from Crete? A Dagon-sphere."

This time, Giles could not be politically correct in his exclamations.

"Good Lord!"

"My sentiments, exactly," replied the padre.

Giles then calmed down enough to ask how he could be of service. Father Guiteau replied that one of the NATO marines, assisting the Greek army at St. Ioannes, had found evidence that there might be at least one survivor of the massacre. A certain Brother Demetrius, to be exact.

"That evidence," he added: ". . .included documents with the names of both yourself _and_ the current Slayer! Which leads me to believe that this Brother Demetrius might be on his way to see you."

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

(SOMEWHAT EARLIER)

Angel was momentarily dumbfounded by what Boone had so boldly told him. Then, he snapped out of it.

"Is Wolfram and Hart working for the Brujah Clan, now?"

Boone shook his head: "They got their own reasons for wanting you back in L.A. What they are, I don't know. Nor care!"

"Neither do I," replied Angel: "But, as long as I'm still under sentence of Final Death, I know I'm not going anywhere near Cyrus' stomping grounds. For any reason!"

"I was afraid you'd say that," sighed Boone. He then turned to the Fyarl demons, and literally barked an order to them. And, if real life came with sub-titles, that order would have translated into English as:

"OK, boys! Time to go to work."

tbc