Chapter 34
Watchers Council's Underground Facility.
Riley used his passkey to get past the first three checkpoints, but as they came to the medical center, his passkey wouldn't work.
"Damn it, they must've changed the locks since my last visit.""Now what?" Fred asked, looking around at the countless doctors, nurses and security personnel that filled the floor.
"Well, now it's time to become even more creative." Riley smiled and then put his arm around Fred, "How's your head? Still seeing visions of demons?"
Fred looked up at Riley as if he'd lost his mind, "What are you talking about?"
"Just follow my
lead." Riley said and then led the way to main reception desk.
An attractive woman greeted them with a smile, "Hello, how may I
help you?"
"I need to talk to Dr. Bannam right now.
It's an emergency. My wife may have a demon inside her. He's
told me to come as soon as I was sure and I am. Hurry, if it gets
out you won't have a chance to leave that desk. Come on woman, do
you want to die?" Riley yelled at the top of his lungs.
"But, I'm not supposed to..."
"No but's, just
get your butt over to his office and tell him to meet me in the lab.
He'll know where to go. We've been through this before. Hurry.
There's no time for debate. I'm going there now, I just hope I
make it before the demon takes over my wife. My god, she's been
through so much, please help her."
Fred began to moan
and growl and flail her arms in the air as the receptionist looked on
in sheer horror. Within seconds she bolted from her desk and took
off down the hall.
"Nicely done Fred, you had me going
there for a second." Riley said with an appreciative nod, "Okay,
let's get going, we won't have much time."
Fred
followed as Riley led the way through a maze of corridors and labs
until they came to the secured portion of the medical facility.
"From what I remember there are only about a dozen patients that
warrant this kind of security, most are demons, vampires or other
unidentified creatures." Riley said as he looked around the area,
finally stopping in front of a locked door. "The last time I was
here I had to go through some elaborate check points. They took a
retinal scan and handprint as well as a voice recognition program and
there's no way we can do that alone. Which means we need some
help."
"Oh and you have some help lined up do ya?"
Fred asked sarcastically.
Riley grinned, "Not exactly,
but that wouldn't be near as much fun."
Removing a small
metal device from his jacket, Riley walked up to the locked door,
inserted the device into the key slot, pushed a couple buttons and
presto, the door opened.
"Impressive." Fred said as
she followed Riley into the next section of the facility.
There were three hallways as they entered, left, right and straight
ahead. Looking up at the signs above each corridor, they saw one
called, Demon patients, listed to the right, so that's where they
headed.
Calmly walking past the occasional staff and
assorted personnel, they made their way through a series of winding
corridors and down a set of stairs where they came face to face with
Dr. Bannam and a group of four armed guards.
"Riley Finn, I
wasn't expecting you today." Dr. Bannam said as he walked up to
Riley, looking up at the much taller man, "I see you brought the
lovely Miss Burkle along as well. I'd be interested in knowing why
you are here and how you got past the security to get to this
point."
"Hi there doc, I meant to call, but things
happened so fast I had no time." Riley being explaining in a state
of mock panic, "Fred was experiencing some bizarre physical changes
and I had no way to deal with such things at my lab and she kept
calling out for her mother and I thought maybe she could help explain
what Fred was going through."
Dr. Bannam walked over
to Fred, looked her over and stepped back, "She looks perfectly
healthy to me. Perhaps you were mistaken."
Fred then
began convulsing violently, screaming hysterically and then she ran
at the first guard, pawing at his chest as she glared at him with
evil in her eyes.
"What the hell is wrong with her?"
Dr. Bannam asked as he stepped behind Riley.
Riley
grabbed the doctor around the collar and lifted him off his feet
until he was eye level with him, "That's what I'm here to find
out. Just let her see her mom for a couple minutes. It might be all
she needs. We have no idea what kind of power she possesses, but if
it's anything like I suspect, we are all in danger if she doesn't
find out how to control it."
"Fine, but
I'm not letting her out of here if she is out of control, so you
can either take her now or hope a talk with her mother takes care of
this." Dr. Bannam explained as he adjusted his shirt and tie.
"Lead the way, I'll take care of Fred. Let's go." Riley
yelled and pushed the doctor forward, grabbed Fred and rushed down
the hallway with her.
It was a long and tedious walk
through the many security checkpoints, but finally they made it to
the cell they were holding Marisella.
Dr. Bannam opened the door and Fred walked in, then turned and rushed towards the doctor and began choking him.
Riley pulled Fred off and pushed her into the room and closed the door. He ran over to the doctor, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, but she's crazy. She had the strength of ten men the way she attacked me. I'm lucky to be alive."
"I think you better go get someone have a look at you. I sure hope she didn't damage your neck." Riley said, having a hard time keeping a straight face, "I'll stand guard here."
The doctor grabbed at his neck and then took off down the hall.
Inside the room Fred
gave her mother a big hug and then sat down beside her on the bed,
"I'm so happy to be here. Are you okay? Are they treating you
good?"
Marisella took Fred's hand, "Yes, I'm
fine, but you shouldn't be here. I know you aren't scheduled and
I don't want you getting in trouble because of me."
"Oh this is such good news." Marisella said and then soon began shaking and coughing uncontrollably, but she fought hard to keep it under control and made sure to smile back at Fred as she continued, "This ring is my gift to you. I can't explain everything it can do for you, but it has power that you can't imagine. Power, that in the wrong hands could be devastating for your planet. Mostly it's just a pretty ring that is meant to share our legacy with you."
"I will treasure it forever. I can feel an energy coming from it. It feels warm and safe, just like I feel when I'm here with you." Fred smiled a sad smile as she touched her mother's cheek with her hand.
"I have to tell you something that is going to change your life again. I hope for the better, but only time will tell how it unfolds." Marisella said and then slowly got to her feet and walked away from Fred, "I didn't think I'd see you again and I wasn't sure if I should burden you with this news, but now I see it's not a burden at all, it's a blessing."
"What is?"
"I've lived a long time and experienced so many things that I wish I had to share with you, but what I want to share with you now is something I hope you will embrace and be happy about." Marisella paused and walked back over and sat down beside Fred again, "You have a sister."
Fred sat silent, stunned by what she'd just heard.
"I know it's hard to believe and even harder understand, but it's true. I wish I knew more about her, but sadly I've never seen her since she was born. I just hope she's had a good life."
"I don't know
what to say. I can't believe this. Is she older than me or
younger or what? You must know something about her."
"She's five years older than you. I'm sorry, but I don't
know much more." Marisella said somberly, "I had to give her up
for adoption. It's a long story, but I wasn't in a good
situation back then. I was in England at the time and I needed to
get out. I made sure she was safe and given to a good home. I do
know the last name of the people was Raiden. I know they took her
back to the US, but I lost track of them after that."
"I will find out more about them and I will find her to. I
promise." Fred said as she hugged her mother tightly.
Riley knocked and entered the room, "I hate to interrupt, but we
have to go now. Something's not right. I saw some guards rushing
around in the back room and then there was some kind of explosion and
there's no time to figure out what's going."
Fred
nodded to Riley, "Okay, we're ready." and then looked over at
her mother, "Are you sure you can travel?"
"Yes,
I'll find a way." Marisella said softly.
Riley led
the way out of the room and made his way back through the maze of
doors, corridors and was pleased yet surprised at the lack of
security they had to encounter.
Once outside, they were
met by a trio of men in suits.
One of the three men rushed up to Riley, "You need to get back to the lab. It's Oz."
"What about Oz?"
"He's gone." The man replied quickly.
"Okay, he does
leave the lab every now and then, so what's the big emergency?"
"Sampson said he was looking through your tapes and found the one
where you were talking about what to do with Oz after you found out
he was a werewolf. Apparently he went berserk, trashed your office
and then took off."
Riley was furious, but only at
himself for not destroying the tapes long ago, "You better tell me
you had someone follow him?"
"We tried, but he
incapacitated the half dozen men we sent after him. We are working
the streets trying to find out where he might have gone."
"Fine, I'll meet you back at the lab." Riley said with a heavy
sigh and then turned to Fred and Marisella, "Sorry about that. I
was going to take you back to the lab, but I think that's the first
place the Watchers Council will come looking, so I think it's best
to take you somewhere they wouldn't expect."
"Which
would be where?" Fred asked bluntly.
Riley started
walking towards his van as he responded, "I have a friend in
Sunnydale that will be able to keep you both safe. I just hope he's
still around and hasn't gotten himself into another mess."
"That doesn't sound all that reassuring." Fred snickered, "Why
don't I just take her to Buffy's house? Giles wouldn't turn
her in. I trust him. They don't like the bureaucracy anymore than
we do."
"I don't know, I
just can't see Giles keeping something like this from his own
people. "Riley said as he stopped in front of his van, "I can't
force you to go with me, but I think you're taking a risk trusting
anyone associated with the Watchers Council."
Fred
raised her eyebrows and gave Riley a dirty look, "Um hello, I'm
with the Watchers Council. We aren't all bad you know."
"Right, I forgot, you don't seem like the type. Anyway, if
that's where you want to go I'll drive you there." Riley added,
not thrilled with Fred's decision, but still willing to support
her. "Take my card if you need anything."
"Thanks."
Fred said as she put his card into her purse, helped Marisella into
the van and then motioned for Riley to move out.
End of Chapter 34
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