Title: The Hellmouth is Not Enough (Chapter Six)

Author: Randall Stone

Disclaimer: All characters are belong to someone else.

Summary: England's newest secret agent draws Sunnydale duty.

Notes:
Spoilers: S1-3

Changes: Hopefully everything will be explained in the text. Bug
me if anything is confusing.

Continuity notes:
- S3 proceeded as written (I'm assuming a 'self-healing' view of
history, rather than a 'step on a butterfly and change
everything' view)
- Bond notes: The Connery movies happened, and all the events
from the book happened. None of the Moore, Dalton, or Brosnan
movies have happened. Instead, Bond moved into gradually less
physically demanding roles, finally winding up in an advisory
position for a decade or so before retiring. Think of him as
looking physically the way Connery did in Entrapment.

This is a fun fic, so I'll be playing a little fast and loose with
the characters. They should be recognizable, but I'm not making
any effort to match up with S4 canon.

Note for this chapter: the series' portrayal of a freshman psych
class was so wildly divergent from reality that I'm ignoring it.

Category: B/X
Rating: PG-14- nothing worse than what's on the show.
Feedback: Yes please.

*****

It was a beautiful fall day in Sunnydale, and the steps in front of
Warren Hall were bustling with activity. Eager freshman and
sophomore students were rushing towards classes, while jaded
upperclassmen were busy calculating the minimum number of class
sessions that they would need to attend to ensure a passing grade.

Buffy and Willow were about to enter Warren Hall on their way to
their afternoon psychology class when Xander surprised them from
behind, draping an arm across each of their shoulders.

"And how are the intrepid demon hunters this fine afternoon?" Xander
asked with a grin.

Buffy and Willow responded by almost simultaneously extricating
themselves from his arms and whacking on the shoulder. Xander
rubbed his right shoulder where Buffy had punched him while he
listened to her response.

"I'm fine, no thanks to your itchy trigger finger.

Xander looked at Buffy in surprise. He knew that she wanted to
avoid any public displays of affection in front of Willow until she
had sorted out her own feelings, but she seemed genuinely irritated
with him.

"Sorry, Buffy. I just saw a demon and reacted. All's well that
ends well, right?" He knew she would have a hard time resisting
his puppy dog eyes.

"I guess, but that's the last time I let you point something sharp
in my general direction." Buffy smiled grudgingly.

"I'm glad that's settled." Xander grinned at them. "I wouldn't
want anything to mar my appreciation of these hallowed halls of
education."

"What brings you to these hallowed halls, anyways? Don't you have
real work to do?" Willow asked.

"I heard Riley Finn was lecturing today, and I decided to take the
opportunity to sit in on a class and broaden my educational horizons."

The girls looked at him doubtfully.

"OK, fine. Finn owns the largest chip fabrication plant outside of
Silicon Valley, and landing his business means a big bonus for the
Xand-man."

Looks of understanding passed across the girls' faces, but they
still seemed a little doubtful of the whole idea.

"Don't worry, I won't disrupt the class. I just want to get a read
on Finn, maybe talk to him a bit after class."

---

Though Walsh's class was popular, the lecture hall used for freshman
psychology courses was enormous, which meant that there was plenty
of room for Xander to sit in on the lecture and not be noticed. He
settled down with the girls towards the back of the room after they
had handed in their papers that were due that day.

Xander observed the ebb and flow of the students as they turned in
their papers and settled down for the lecture. About one minute
before the bell rang an odd sight caught his eye.

A young man walked in through the door on Xander's left and walked
towards the turn in table in the middle of the room. He dropped off
his paper and, without breaking stride, continued walking straight
across the room to exit through the doors on Xander's right.

Xander tapped Willow on the shoulder.

"Hey Wills, what's with that guy?"

"Him? Oh, that's Tom. He's in my study group in computer science.
I guess he has to take this class for his major, but he doesn't care
for Walsh or the subject matter. He only comes to class to drop off
his homework and take tests. I don't think Professor Walsh likes
him very much, but it's against university policy to grade on
attendance."

Buffy leaned across Willow to talk to both of them.

"I keep trying to talk Willow around to his point of view, but she
has this whole vision of what college is supposed to be about."

Willow's rejoinder was cut off when a man stood up in the front of
the room and cleared his throat to get the class's attention.

Xander recognized Riley Finn from his file photographs and his
covert surveillance. Seeing him clearly now for the first time,
Xander's first impression was of a powerfully built man who still
carried himself with a military bearing.

Finn waited until the class had settled down to begin his lecture.

"Hello class. As you should remember from the last time that I was
here, I'm Dr. Finn. Professor Walsh has asked me here today to talk
about operant conditioning.

"Now, when I say the words 'operant conditioning', what do you think
of? Those dogs being conditioned to drool when they heard a bell
ring, of course. You might say you've been conditioned to recall
that experiment."

Finn paused to let the polite laughter quiet down, then continued.

"Of course, dogs aren't the only creatures that can be conditioned.
Humans respond to pain and pleasure just as strongly as any other
animal. And when you consider that people are generally defined by
their habits, you see that the ability to change those habits is a
very powerful thing. Like anything powerful, this ability can be
abused."

With that, Finn launched into a description of the Stanford Prison
Experiment. He described how twenty four volunteers were divided at
random into 'guards' and 'prisoners'. The 'prisoners' were then
arrested and transferred to a holding facility beneath a Stanford
lecture hall.

The students sank into their roles with surprising speed. The
prisoners showed signs of depression and extreme stress as the
guards grew more sadistic by the day. Finally, the planned two week
study was ended after only six days because of the extreme effect
that it was having on all of the participants.

Finn used this example to launch into a discussion of the power of
social conditioning and the importance of ethical behavior in
designing psychological experiments.

All in all it was a standard psychology lecture, and if Xander
thought he detected a sinister edge to Finn's words, perhaps he was
simply being influenced by his knowledge of the man. Xander was
pondering these thoughts when the bell rang signifying the end of
class.

Xander waited for most of the students to stream out of the hall,
then made his way down to the front of the room where Finn was just
finishing a conversation with Professor Walsh.

"Dr. Finn. What an honor to meet you."

Finn smiled at him as they shook hands.

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Mr..."

"Harris. Xander Harris."

"Yes, Mr. Harris. Trying to involve yourself in my business again?"

"Well, I'm not sure if you've been contacted by somebody from our
sales force before, but-"

"We both know of what I am speaking, Mr. Harris." Riley sighed.
"You are a clever and resourceful man. Many such men have tried to
involve themselves in my affairs. Unsuccessfully.

"I would suggest that you count your blessings and leave town.
Good day, Mr. Harris."

With that, Riley turned and left the room.

Xander walked back up to where Buffy was waiting as he pondered this
latest development.

"What happened?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, he's proving surprisingly resistant to the Harris charm. Don't
worry, it's just a matter of time." Xander smiled at her. "Say,
where's Willow?"

"She has another class across campus that she has to get to. I'm
done for the day. Well, I'm done with university classes- Giles
wants me to come over for training."

"I'm actually heading that way myself. You want a ride?"

---

Buffy had to admit that while she and cars were un-mixy things, the
Aston Martin was a beautiful machine. From the lavishly trimmed
interior to the powerful rumble of the V12 engine, everything in the
car seemed designed to impress.

Xander didn't seem to be in a very talkative mood, so Buffy had been
losing herself in the riding experience for some time when she
realized that they were going the wrong direction.

"Hey Xand, Giles' apartment is that way." She pointed.

"I know. Don't look now, but I think we're being followed."

Buffy immediately craned her head around to stare at the traffic
behind them.

"Which one?"

Xander shook his head at her impulsiveness.

"The hearse about three cars back. Please look forward and act like
nothing is wrong."

Buffy took note of the large black car before turning back around.

"Why would a hearse be following us?"

"Maybe they heard you're bad for business."

"Gee, thanks. Seriously, how do you know they're even following
us?"

Buffy had hardly finished talking when the unmistakable sound of gun
fire rang out. Xander saw several bullets impact on the rear
windscreen and said a brief prayer of thanks for the bulletproof
glass.

"Xander! They're shooting at- oof!" Buffy's exclamation was cut
short when the Aston Martin leaped forward as Xander floored the
gas.

The tires squealed as Xander took a sharp right turn at speed, but
they held fast to the asphalt. He took the next turn, a left, on a
four wheel drift, straightening out the car just in time to avoid
oncoming traffic.

Xander slowed up a bit and took a few more random turns. He was
just beginning to think that he had lost them when the hearse came
screaming around a corner to fall into place right behind them.

Xander took a moment to get his bearings and come up with a plan as
the gunfire continued to ping off of his rear windscreen. Buffy
started to say something, but he cut her off with a curt hand
gesture. Then he smiled as he realized where he was, before
throwing the car into a hard right turn.

The hearse came around the corner right behind them, and stayed
close behind him as Xander accelerated. Up ahead of them the road
terminated in a construction project. The crew had dug a hole about
three stories deep for the foundation of a new building, but had not
yet filled it in.

When they were about one hundred feet from the hole Xander flipped
open the center console and triggered the smoke screen. Seconds
later he turned the car hard to the right and deactivated the smoke
as the car slid to a stop feet from the pit.

Xander and Buffy then watched as the hearse came barreling out of
the cloud of smoke, completely missing the turn. It easily smashed
through the chain link fencing around the construction site before
launching into a graceful arc from the lip of the hole. The car
slowly rotated in mid air, finally smashing to the ground on its
roof fifty feet below.

As the car exploded into a fireball, cooking off all of the
ammunition that had been inside, Xander turned to Buffy and smiled.

"I believe they were driving to a funeral."

Buffy was still shell shocked by the course of events, and couldn't
muster up a response. She sat mutely as Xander made cell phone
calls to Giles and a man named Felix, explaining that Buffy and
himself, respectively, would be late.

Buffy finally snapped out of it when Xander started the car up and
drove back in the direction of the school.

"Xander, what the hell is going on here?"

"Buffy, we really don't have time for this... fine, I'll give you
the Cliff's Notes version." Xander still had a hard time resisting
her patented Slayer glare. "Basically, Riley Finn is a very bad
man. I'm trying to gather enough evidence to put him away. I work
for the British government."

He held up a hand to forestall her questions. "You're going to have
to wait for the full story. I'm going to try to gather some
information while Finn thinks that I'm dead. Now, I can drop you
off at the school, or you can come along to help. Honestly, I'd
like to have your help, but you're going to have to trust me and do
as I say."

---

"Tell me again why we're breaking into his office on campus." Buffy
whispered to Xander as they sneaked through the faculty offices.

"Because, while he won't keep anything sensitive here, he probably
uses the computer here to access his files." Xander explained, then
stopped walking at the door marked 'Riley Finn'. He tried the
handle.

"Locked." Buffy pulled her arm back, preparing to force the door,
but Xander held his hand up to stop her. He then reached into his
pocket and pulled out a small object that seemed to consist of a
handle with a thin metal bar sticking out of the side.

Xander inserted the piece of metal into the lock and then pulled
the trigger on the device while applying a constant pressure on the
lock. There was a whirring noise as the bar moved up and down,
followed by a clicking noise. Xander tried the handle again and the
door swung open smoothly.

"Electric lockpick." He explained to Buffy. "Don't burgle homes
without it."

Buffy followed Xander into the room and watched as he gently closed
the door and walked over to the computer. She looked over his
shoulder at the computer screen, which was currently displaying a
forbidding looking login box.

"You're going to hack into this?" She sounded doubtful. "No
offense Xand, but I never figured you for a computer expert."

"Hey, I can learn things. Besides," Xander grinned as he felt
something under the desk. "Hacking isn't about the computers, it's
about the people."

Xander held his hand up to show Buffy the post it note that had been
stuck under the desk. Written on the note were a login name and
password. Xander entered these on the computer, then clicked on the
log in button.

He smiled at Buffy again as the computer started to go through the
log in process.

"Et voila! I think I can handle the computer. Why don't you take a
look around the filing cabinets and see if you can find anything?"

Buffy had just reached the nearest filing cabinet when heavy metal
panels suddenly slammed down in front of the door and windows. She
turned to Xander only to see him staring intently at the computer
monitor. Buffy walked over to look at the monitor just in time to
see a video program finish loading and display the familiar face of
Riley Finn.

"I'm afraid you underestimate me, Mr. Harris. Do I really seem the
type of person who would keep their password on their desk?" Finn
laughed. "I admit you are a very talented driver, but you should
leave the psychological evaluations to the professionals."

As Finn was speaking, Buffy and Xander could hear the distinctive
whirr of fans starting up in the ceiling.

"Don't worry, your mistake won't prove fatal- this time. The gas
that's currently being dispersed into the room will render you
quite unconscious, but that's all. Good night, Mr. Harris."

Xander held his breath for as long as he could, and attempted to
force open the door. Buffy added her strength to his, but the metal
that had been designed to resist rifle fire proved impervious to her
Slayer strength.

Xander was forced to take a breath after three minutes, and quickly
fell to the floor unconscious. Buffy was able to hold out longer
thanks to her Slayer physiology, but she still had to breathe. Ten
minutes after Finn's video had finished she too lay unconscious on
the floor.

About half an hour after Buffy had been knocked out the fans
reversed their direction, removing the knockout gas from the air
while clean air came into the room from vents in the floor. When
the automatic sensors determined that the gas level was harmless,
the metal plates covering the door and windows slid open
automatically.

As soon as the panels had retracted the door to Riley's office swung
open, and two figures entered the room to contemplate the
unconscious bodies.

"They look so innocent when they're asleep, Mr. Miller."

"Like little angels, Mr. Grant."

***