Disclaimer.. Only the bits et, etc…..

Author's Note. Here's another bit to be going on with…. I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and I wish you all a Happy New Year..

Chapter Fifty One.

Friday…..

Rio de Janeiro.

Willow was in the shower and Kennedy was drying her hair. As they performed these tasks the were discussing, loudly, the events of the previous day.

"So you think it'll still be there then. If it was me, I'd have made it disappear like that." Willow snapped her fingers to accentuate her point.

"Unless it's the size of a pea or something, as of zero three hundred their time, nothing had moved in or out of the place. I called Graham last night after you fell asleep to let him know you weren't going back. He emailed me back with the details. He say's feel better, and he'll see you when you're ready. Oh, and Sam woke up. She's preparing a report for you. Details to follow." Called out her lover.

"Good. I have to call in on Doctor Singh in Newark later and discuss the programming for the Buffybot. He thinks that if we rewrite some of the base line code it'll give her a much better speech pattern. Less mechanical, more Buffy."

"Ask him to do something about the skin tone too. The last one still looked way to plastcky. Vamps'll spot it a mile off."

Willow turned off the shower, stepped out, and wrapped a towel around herself.

"I'll need a voice pattern from you, so that they can put the vocal synthesizer into the Kenbot when it's ready." She said.

"I'll do it after breakfast." Replied Kennedy. She caught Willow by the arm as she passed, pulled her close, and gave her a passionate kiss.

"Just don't go playing with the toys, come home and play with me." She added with a wicked grin.

"No contest." Replied the witch.

------------------------------------------

Oxford.

Michelle and Diane were the only two still awake. Justin, Sarah and the youngest slayer of the group had only returned three hours earlier with the beaten and exhausted Hayley. The others were soundly asleep, either in beds or on the couches, no-one wanted to leave until they'd shown their support for Hayley.

"She thought it was at least Saturday, you know." Said Michelle as she poured herself another cup of tea. "It's amazing how she lost all sense of time. We never thought of doing a locator spell, did we."

"Not that it would have done any good. All those sigils that she said were painted on the walls and ceiling would have made it impossible." Said Diane.

Michelle was silent for a moment as she sipped her tea. "When are we going to tell her about Richard." She said, finally.

"When she's had some rest, and something to eat. Telling her while she was still up in the air would have been a bad idea. Justin made the right call there." Replied Di.

There was a shuffling sound and Justin's tousled head appeared round the door. He squinted at them due to the bright sunlight streaming in through the kitchen window.

"Talk of the devil.." Said Di.

"Pardon?" He queried. "I Thought I heard voices. Got any paracetamol, my head's thumping. Oooh and tea."

"You need more sleep, go back to bed I'll bring you some up." Said Di.

Justin nodded and shuffled off back to the spare bedroom.

"That Harry Watkins was a nice bloke. He took us all down to their canteen and gave us coffee and food." Said Michelle.

"Do you think he'll tell anyone?"

"Don't think so, he spoke to Mrs Carter just before we got there. We should thank them for squaring it with him."

"We have to tell Dawn, you know that don't you, 'Chelle. Especially in light of what Bateman was asking about. Hayley doesn't have a say in it now."

"I know. I just hope she gets her strength back. We're a good team, and Dawn needs us to watch her back."

"And we need to find and stop Bateman. Do you think they'll try and pin Richards murder on her?" Added Diane.

"Bloody hope not. Mind you, if Hayle's gets her strength back, just hope we can get to him first. otherwise they'll be finding bits of him in every county."

"Maybe we should call the police and tell them what really happened."

"No. Hayley doesn't talk about it, but Dawn say's that she had a bit of bother back in Oz. Something to do with her foster father. Apparently, he wasn't very nice."

Their conversation continued until the kettle had boiled and Di disappeared to take Justin his tea and paracetamol. Michelle sat in the kitchen alone for a while before yawning loudly and headed for her own bed. When they were all refreshed, the search could start…

-------------------------------------------------------

Leeds.

"This is BBC Radio Leeds. The time is nine a.m. and here is the news. Police are still trying to trace the whereabouts of two teenagers seen running from the scene of the fatal stabbing in Marley Terrace last night. The dead man has been identified as Richard Headland, an Oxford University student, and the owner of the property. Anyone with information on the incident can call the police hotline on 08000 414 5999..."

The elder of the pair switched off the radio before anymore was said.

"Fuck it! They're tryin' t' blame us forrit. That's all we fuckin' need." He said.

The two teens had spent a sleepless night in the abandoned steel mill on the south side of the city with several other dossers. The radio was courtesy of a visit to Tesco's on the way there, to nick stuff to eat.

"But we di'nt do nowt!" Said the younger. "Cept brek in."

Another of the group came over as a discussion around their brazier ended.

"Look. We heard the radio. We aint sayin' that you did it, but we know they're on about you two. We don't want the pigs crawlin' all over this place and us. You're goin' t' av' t' go. Best is to head for Sheffield or somewhere."

"After brekkie?"

No. Now. Sooner the better. Okay?"

The elder of the pair nodded. They gathered their things, there wasn't much, and they trudged out into the sunlight.

------------------------------------

Alnwick.

Thompson drove his car past the driveway to the house and parked in a gateway some distance up the road. Skirting the boundary of the grounds and checking the perimeter, he used a bridleway to reach the rear. Then he climbed over the stile and into the garden.

Entering quietly through the back door he listened for sounds. Silence. She could be asleep. He listened again at every doorway until he reached the cellar access door. Noting that it was slightly ajar, they hadn't left it like that, he drew an automatic from his coat pocket and gently slid back the mechanism. There were still no sounds from the cellar and he crept down them the gun poised in case she was there, waiting.

The door at the bottom was still shut. He opened it carefully and pushed it sharply at the last moment, the intention was to surprise anyone hiding behind it. There was no-one, and the door banged back against the wall. Switching on the light, he saw the manacles in a heap on the floor and entered the room quickly to examine how she'd gotten out of them. That was when the self closer that Hayley had added, quietly returned the door to its closed position behind him.

He whirled around, the gun pointed at the door and anyone that might be there, almost letting off a shot in his panic. Then he spotted the wiped area on the wall where the coated loo paper had erased some of the sigils.

He turned his attention back to the manacles. Seeing the torn up box on the floor he examined it and discovered the staples missing.

"Clever girl." He muttered.

He produced a camera from his pocket and took several shots of the room, then he headed for the door. He found it locked. Pulling out the gun again he shot the lock a couple of times. It fell apart and the door swung slightly ajar.

He left the room as it was, and made his way out of the house, back to his car and drove away. After a few miles, checking and rechecking that he wasn't being followed, he pulled into a lay by and made a call on his mobile.

"Sir. You were right. She did escape."

"Knew it. Was there much damage?"

No sir. I think your experiment was still effective. I've taken some photo's. Looks like she got out sometime in the night. She'd left a trap for someone if they'd gone in unprepared. I had to shoot the lock off to get out."

There was a thoughtful 'Hmmm' from Bateman at the other end.

"Not to worry. I'll see those pictures later, right now I want you to go to Leeds. I've just been listening to the news. There's been no mention of our former guest's possible involvement in Richard's murder. Apparently, two teenagers broke into the house after Levi had left and they must've discovered the body and ran. The police appear to be looking in the wrong direction. I need them to look for her. Go and see your contact there. Make sure they're on the right track."

"Yes sir. I'll see to it."

"The line clicked dead. Thompson pulled out a different phone and dialled another number. A woman's voice answered.

"DS Stoddard."

"Jackie. It's Rob Thompson. I thought I'd give you a call as I'm back in the country again. How've you been…."

-------------------------------------

Thames House. MI-5 H.Q.

Harry steepled his fingers, his elbows on the desk as he pondered what to say. Through the glass partition to his office he could see Jo sat at her desk trying to keep awake, the mug of coffee he'd noted, was already her third.

Ruth came in at that moment with an armful of files.

"Here are the dailies Harry." She said. Harry didn't respond. She followed his line of sight to the blonde in the outer office.

"Something you should be telling me?" She teased.

Harry focussed his thoughts. "No, nothing. Why?"

"You're staring." She cocked her head in Jo's direction. "Is she in trouble?"

"No, no. it's nothing. Just … Assessing."

"Ah, review time. Don't be too hard on her Harry. We were all new at this once."

"Yes, quite." He paused. "Ruth. Would you ask her to come and see me when she's got a minute."

"Ruth smiled. "Yes Harry."

Ruth left. Harry took out his wallet and extracted a ten pound note, the one that had been pushed into his hand by a uniformed Dan Carter as he was walking in from the park earlier that morning. The post it note attached simply said… 'FOR JO-JO'.

---------------------

Area 51.

"This is great, Sam." Willow beamed at the Senior Initiative officer. "It's the first real breakthrough we've had on this." She was reading the first few pages of their report.

"Just sorry we couldn't get Maguire back too." Said Sam.

"We'll get him. His days are numbered." Willow replied, a look of resolve on her face.

"So, what's all this about alien devices? Graham told us a little but he said to wait on your return." Said Riley, giving a nod in his friend's direction.

"When we were here yesterday I kept getting a nudge from the wards. Someone was trying to access the facility from the outside." Said Willow.

"Digging their way in?" Queried Riley.

"No, some sort of energy; but not a magical energy, if you see what I mean."

"Nuclear?" Asked Graham.

Willow shook her head. "Nope. Different. It felt…Alien." She wrinkled her eyebrows at her lack of descriptive expression.

There were puzzled looks from the others.

"It's kinda like, everything has a taste, or a smell. The coven say that my power is kinda strawberry flavour. Althenea's is more vanilla. Evil power tends to be kinda chalky."

"But you said that it wasn't magical power?" Said Sam.

"Same principles apply though. I've not had the experience of nuclear power, and don't really want to, but I guess it'd be like a hot tamale sauce. Static and generated electricity are almost alike. Kinda metallic. This feels pure, clinical, unemotional, no taste at all…. Alien." Replied Willow.

"How are you going to get in. Teleport? Do you need backup?" Queried Riley.

"Nope. Astral projection, and no, thanks for offering. That way if anyone tries to shoot me or capture me they'll find it kinda difficult."

"Oh." Riley sounded disappointed.

Sam looked at her husband, indignantly.

"Riley Finn. You put all thoughts of being the all action hero out of your mind for a few days. We're on leave after the doc clears us." She paused. "And I want to visit Iowa and tell your parents that they're going to be grandparents."

"Yes ma'am." He grinned and gave her a mock salute.

Willow smiled. "Actually, Buffy wondered yesterday if you might be intending to make your vacation a little more permanent, under the circumstances."

The two gave her horrified looks.

"Not a chance." They chorused.

"In fact, we could still pass information to Maguire, or Hecht. As long as we don't meet up with either of them again we could give them as much disinformation as we can. It's on the last page of our report, under 'Recommendations'." Said Sam.

"We all want you to take it easy though. No more missions like Belize; or this one. Buffy…We all want you to take a back seat for a while. We don't want to be raisin' a bunch o' orphans."

There were a few ideas thrown around as to how disinformation might be best disseminated. Eventually Willow had to call a halt to the brainstorming session and informed them of her itinerary

She sat cross-legged on the floor to meditate. A bespectacled image of herself wearing a white lab coat appeared opposite her, smiled at the watching Finns, and disappeared.

Willow's abilities had always amazed Sam, some of it was because of her self control over the awesome forces involved. Sam had tried and failed to make even the simplest of spells work, she just didn't have the ability. It disappointed her somewhat, but as Riley had pointed out, he had married her because she was an exceptional human being, not for her aptitude to cast spells.

-------------------------------------------------

SGC. Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

After her determining that the Asgard beam was functioning correctly, the installation of her other equipment had taken up the rest of the previous day, and most of the evening. She had cancelled her flight back to Colorado and beamed herself back to the mountain in the early hours. After a few hours sleep and a shower; this moment put her in the commissary, eating the specially ordered blue jell-o and reading her emails, when Jack and Daniel entered looking for their own sustenance.

A bowl of fruit loops was placed opposite her and Jack's form appeared in her peripheral vision. Another bowl of what looked like muesli, was placed adjacent and Daniel slid onto the seat.

She made to stand, her inner soldier giving in to the chain of command. Jack waved her down.

There were a few moments silence between the trio before Jack could resist it no longer.

"So, Daniel. You left here around what? Midnight?" He mused, glancing at the archaeologist.

"Eleven thirty." Replied Daniel.

"Ah. That's good. Even for you." Said Jack.

"Thank you Jack." Daniel beamed, as though he were being praised by teacher for doing good work. Sam detected the sarcasm in their tone.

"And what time did you get home, young lady?" The question was directed at Sam.

She almost choked at the comment. "Sir?"

"After three. I know because Siler logged you in." Said Jack, before she could recover.

There were prob…." Sam started.

"Uh. Uh. No. No. I said home by midnight. And just how did you get back. Beaming! Waste of a perfectly good aircraft." Jack was teasing her, again, about her dedication to her projects.

Sam asserted herself. The spoon went into the jell-o with a plop. Her forearms placed flat on the table then looked him straight in the eyes. Her finger prodded the able as she spoke.

"Sir. The other place. You remember. The one that you won't say anything about. They were in a lockdown situation. We had to regain access to our own facility. It cost us a lot of time."

"He's joking, Sam." Said Daniel. A frown crossed his brow. He glanced at Jack. "You are, aren't you Jack?"

"Yeah, sure. You betcha." Grinned Jack.

Sam dipped her head towards her commanding officer and lowered her voice. "Sir. Why can't you tell us what's going on in there? There ware some pretty wild rumours going around on the surface, regarding what might go on down there."

"As, I suspect, there are some pretty wild rumours about what we get up to down here." Said Jack, philosophically. "It's classified Carter. Need to know only."

"And I don't need to know." She said, a tight smile painted on her lips.

O'Neill raised his index finger. "Exactly." He said. He glanced sideways at Daniel, whose face was a picture of anticipation. "And you don't need to know either." He added.

He started eating. Sam opened her mouth to ask again, and he pointed to his food and wagged a finger at her. She kept quiet, and ate her jell-o. When he'd finished, he stood, looked at his watch and beckoned to them both.

"Briefing. My office. Ten minutes. Agent Barrett has an update for us."

-----------------------------------

As Sam came into the office she was talking to Pete on her cell phone.

"Yeah, you too. Look I gotta go, meeting. See you tonight." She said, gently. Glancing at the watching eyes around the room, she blushed, and snapped the phone shut.

Agent Barrett stood up as she slid into her seat next to Daniel, who leaned over and whispered, 'hot date?' as Barrett prepared to start his introduction.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow but said nothing, both of Jack's went into his hairline, and the man seated next to Barrett grinned, his eyes seeming to smile too, and that made Sam a little more comfortable.

"Sorry about that. Boyfriend." She said in embarrassment.

Barrett started his brief. "First, let me introduce you to my new supervisor, Hank Summers….."

He went around the table introducing the others, and acknowledging that he already knew Jack.

Hank made a short speech, telling them that gave them a little of his background in geology and his NID field work over the last few years. There was no mention of family….

"The President has recently given me a new brief. My job now is to help bring all the various parties together, we should be working towards the same goals, I can think of several instances where better communication between us would have seen situations resolved more quickly, or not happen in the first place. General Hammond is still in charge of Homeworld Security, and Jack and I will be working more closely with him to effect this policy."

"What about the Oversight Committee?" Queried Daniel. "Don't we fall under their brief also?"

"Yes. That's still true. However…" Hank paused and glanced at Jack. "…We believe that Mr. Woolsey's acerbic nature sometimes has a detrimental effect on people. I'm here to smooth things over…And maybe…keep him out of your hair a little more." He concluded.

Sam almost jumped for joy at that statement. Daniel gave him a look that said, best of luck with that. Teal'c stayed silent, raised one eyebrow, and slowly turned his head in Hank's direction, his eyes saying much the same thing.

At Hank's nod Barrett continued his briefing.

"Okay. The last few weeks we've been keeping an eye on former Vice President, Robert Kinsey. As we informed you last week, he's dropped off the map, not been seen for a few days. Not outside his house, anyway, which was where we found him, eventually."

"Last place you'd look, naturally. So he's what. A recluse now?" Queried Jack.

"Not exactly. Yesterday he came out of his house at nine a.m., got into his chauffeured car, and drove into Washington." Barrett glanced at Hank. "We're still not sure how it happened, yet, but he gave us the slip. We ended up following an identical car, plates and all…. The only thing we do know, is that his private jet took off just after we discovered we'd lost him."

"Destination?" Queried Jack, interrupting.

"Officially, New York. Unofficially, it could have dropped him off at any point in between." Replied Barrett.

"Or anywhere else." Interjected Daniel.

"Indeed." Added Teal'c. "O'Neill. I believe that he may have used the ploy of following closely to another craft, in order to conceal the signature of his vessel."

Jack nodded. "Yeah. Does anyone else have a bad feeling about all this…?"

There were nods from around the table.

"Okay people. Usual precautions. Kinsey's nasty but not effective on his own. Some of his friends are though. Let's be careful out there." Said Jack.

-----------------------

It was later that afternoon when Jack returned home with an armful of grocery bags, that he discovered his front door ajar…..

-----------------------------------------------------

Prometheus docking area.

Astral Willow made her way through the corridors, occasionally stepping through the doors to see what was in the rooms beyond, after first carefully checking if anyone was watching her. She knew there were security cameras positioned all around, but they weren't her concern. Whilst in astral form she couldn't be detected by them, and because she was projecting her image wearing a lab coat, anyone who saw her physically would assume that she was one of the other technicians, and hopefully not challenge her….

There were a pair of blast doors blocking her access at the end of the corridor. Not really a problem, except that she didn't know what was on the other side. She was assessing what to do when the red light above the door began flashing and the door started to slide to one side. She stepped to the side to see who was opening the door. A straggle-haired, bespectacled, tubby man in a similar white coat to her own hurriedly approached from the other side. He was muttering about geeks, and looking down at a circuit board he was carrying. In doing so, he almost bumped into her. Well it would have been a bump, had she been solid.

He didn't notice her and carried on down the corridor. She turned and her eyes followed him, amazed at his focus on the object. A voice from behind her made her turn back to the open door.

"Coombs. I've found it. You don't need to go for another one!"

That was when she saw it. The designation on the aft tail depicted it as the X-303. Her eyes widened.

"Woah! That's kinda not what I expected." She said.

She stepped over the threshold of the bay as the man came rushing back past her. He still didn't notice her as he passed.

The man who'd called out caught him up from the other direction. He made to tug the board from Coombs, who resisted.

"Felger!" Coombs snapped. "I've got it."

Felger glared at Coombs and let go. They started to move back towards the spacecraft.

She noticed the barcode ID badges the pair wore, mentally she created one, and added it to her image. She sucked in a breath, and followed as the door closed behind her.

"I've got to finish the work on the defence shields. You don't need to help me." She heard Felger saying.

"Yes well I've got to. Colonel Carter told me to. I told you she didn't trust you to finish the job." Coombs hissed.

The banter between the pair continued as they hurried back to the ramp that protruded from the side of the ship.

Willow smiled. She was in. Her inner scientist was unleashed, and she followed behind.

As they approached the ship she saw sentries moving around, and other technicians and military types testing and checking systems. No-one challenged her presumably accepting that she was accompanying the two bickering scientists. Her eyes darted about, taking in all the information that was laid out before her.

Eventually, her guides entered what must be the nerve centre of the ship. The Bridge. A comfortable 'Captain Kirk' type of chair stood on a plinth in the middle of the room. Banks of systems and monitoring equipment lined the walls to its left and the rear, whilst in front was a large screen. There was no-one else here and the two men, still arguing, tried to sit in the big chair at the same time. That caused them to have another argument.

Willow wondered if their constant berating of each other actually achieved any purpose, or whether it was a detriment to their work. If they didn't ague so much, they might possibly achieve more.

As she moved around the room she saw a systems monitoring screen. A schematic on the display told her the status of the ship. She read the list, and committed it to memory.

"Naquadah generators…. Offline."

"Hyperdrive….. Offline."

"Ring Transport.… Active."

"Asgard Beam… Active."

"Weapons…. Offline."

"Defence shields…. Offline."

Not being able to touch anything was a bind. Even so, she could 'feel' the power source that she'd felt the previous day. She wanted to access the systems displayed before her, to find out more about them. On the screen in front of her, the defence shield system suddenly changed its status to 'Online'.

Behind her, there was a chorused "Yes!" from the two men. Then the room became silent. Coombs and Felger had stopped arguing.

She turned to see them gaping a her. Felger recovered first.

"Who are you?" He asked…

---------------------------------

End of Chapter Fifty One.