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I'm British, so's my spelling. Live with it.
WORK IN PROGRESS - Feedback is greatly appreciated, especially on anything that looks like a continuity or factual error.
Slayer, Las Vegas
By Marcus L. Rowland
VII
The meeting began at nine. Everyone was there except Captain Brass and Buffy. Grissom nodded to Dawn and said "Miss Summers? Is your sister here?"
Dawn's face was pale and her eyes a little red. "She didn't come back last night. I think she's been taken by the Brides. I've called for help."
"What sort of help?" asked Nick.
"They're sending Willow."
"Willow?" asked Grissom.
"She's a wicca. A witch. Really powerful. Famous for it, if you know about magic."
"I remember," said Catherine, "Angel mentioned her once. You don't sound too happy about it."
"It's... kind of dangerous. Angel's never seen her since she got her full power. She's Buffy's best friend but she's done things...last year she fought a hell-god and nearly won, a few months later she bought Buffy back from the dead, just a couple of months ago she cured Buffy when she was shot. But she did it all with black magic, as black as it ever gets, and sometimes it tries to take her over. When her girlfriend was murdered she couldn't bring her back and went looking for vengeance. It was bad, real bad. If she loses control, even for a second..."
"Worse than a vengeance demon?" asked Nick, remembering his last contact with magic.
"They offered to make her a vengeance demon a couple of times. Really wanted her. She turned them down. I think she shought they were too limited."
"What would happen if she lost control?" asked Grissom patiently.
"I only saw it once. She was like... like the Emperor in Star Wars. Only worse. It's... it's like she has this power inside her, like an H-bomb, and she can do almost anything with it. But if she lets it out too far... Once she gets here she'll find Buffy. If they've hurt her there's no way they'd be able to hide from her, no defence when she kills them. But if Buffy is dead she probably wouldn't stop with the Brides... The only reason she isn't here already is that she's in Britain, it's too far for her to teleport so she'll have to take the plane. Won't be here until tonight."
"Then I'd suggest we try to find Buffy first," said Grissom. "Always assuming that she's in need of our help, of course. Anyone have anything to report? Greg?"
"I finished with the photographs last night," said Greg. "No surprises. Fingerprints for Buffy on the prints, for Buffy and Dawn on the envelope. Also prints for at least three others on the envelope, I've identified FedEx employees for two of the three, still working on the third. I've got some partial prints that don't match Buffy or Dawn pressed into the surface of some of the prints, but they aren't anywhere in our database. I'll be honest, the only prints that hit on the database were Buffy, seems she's been in trouble a few times. No outstanding warrants though. One thing, at least three of the photos should have shown reflections of the photographer. They didn't."
"Confirms vampires," said Grissom, "but I guess we knew that already. Nick?"
"I've been down at the range experimenting with some ideas for anti-vampire rounds. While I guess we could make wooden bullets, I'm not up to doing it overnight. But I did come up with this." He pulled a huge revolver from its holster. "Smoothbore, with five black-powder cartridges. I've filled them with hardwood beads, about the size of birdshot. Ought to be fairly effective against bats."
"That could be useful. What about mass producing them?"
"No chance, it's a custom-made gun. But I've got a friend making a couple of hundred riot-gun cartridges with the same beads. He thinks I'm nuts, but he's doing it. Ought to be ready this afternoon."
"Forgot to say," said Greg, "I did a little work on bats myself. I've built a couple of ultrasonic detectors, they'll pick up bat sonar and let us know if they're around."
"Well done," said Grissom, "I've had some ideas along those lines myself, we'd better get together later. Catherine?"
"Nothing immediately helpful, I'm afraid. One thought for the future, though... this building has air scrubbers and other biohazard containment features. It might be possible to extend them to keep out any other vampires that can turn into vapour. A few ultra-violet lamps in the air intakes might be useful, if that's what hurts vampires."
"I'll put in a funding proposal. We can say it's for use if there's a terrorist attack. Sara?"
"Brass has his men taking pictures of the Brides and their dresses to every designer clothes shop in town. We ought to get feedback on that later today with luck."
"And Warrick?"
"Nothing useful on the prints I found at the scene. We need to get back in there, finish checking it out, see if there is any fresh evidence after the attack on Sara last night."
"Okay. Now Jim Brass tells me that Buffy was very active yesterday evening. We had reports of disturbances at half a dozen different bars, when units followed up on the calls they found that every one of them seemed to be having horror theme nights, with what the patrolmen described as excellent costumes. I think we have to assume that the Brides caught up with her at one of the bars and snatched her. But from the looks of things she made quite an impression first, it's possible that some information will be forthcoming."
"Okay, this morning I'll be setting up the anti-vampire camera system I mentioned, covering some key locations in this building. I also want to get together with Greg a little later and discuss the ultrasonic detectors he's built, and some refinements I've thought of. Dawn, you may be able to help with that too, and if there's any news of your sister we'll hear it here first. Warrick, Sara, I'd like you go back to the crime scene and finish up there. Nick, I think you'd better go with them with that gun."
"Take a crossbow too, Sara," said Dawn. "I left one in your car."
"Catherine, Greg" said Grissom, "I'd like you to run forensics on a vampire that Sara arrested last night, he's in one of the holding cells downstairs. Brass has some men standing by to assist you in controlling him. If there's nothing else let's move, we have a lot to do."
After everyone had gone Grissom said "Do you think he bought it?"
Dawn said "Let's hope so. Right now Warrick's our best lead to the Brides, and with luck he'll try to contact them right away. That'd be difficult once he was with Sara and Nick, so it has to be pretty soon."
"It's hard to believe..."
"It's not like he has a choice. They must have caught him on his way out of the studio, before they attacked Sara. Thrall is like brainwashing, you think you're doing the right thing."
"That's not what I meant. That story about the witch, do you think he'd believe all that?"
"He might not, but the Brides will have heard of her. I wasn't exaggerating, she really is that famous if you know magic. She's in no state to deal with something like this right now, but if she was I'd be begging her to take the next flight."
"It's a good thing that Brass still had Buffy under surveillance when Warrick picked her up last night. If only they hadn't lost the car..."
"Buffy would have spotted your guys following her, and I think she must have had an idea what Warrick was up to. Letting herself get caught would be the best way to get to the Brides quickly, and she probably thinks she can break herself out if she has to."
"Let's hope that you're right."
"Even if I am, it doesn't mean we should sit by and do nothing. Can I use your phone? I need to make some calls."
Buffy woke in a grey featureless cell. The only furnishings were a dirty mattress on the floor and an empty plastic bucket in one of the corners. Illumination was a small electric light, high up on one of the walls and protected by thick wire mesh. Nothing that looked promising as a weapon. Her jacket was missing, so were her weapons and the cross and holy water. She felt woozy, and remembered that she'd been drugged. Warrick. He hadn't fooled her, of course, especially when he said that Dawn and Sara had moved her weapons; no way was anyone going to move the troll hammer easily without Slayer strength or a fork-lift truck. She'd expected a quick ride to vampire central; she hadn't expected him to jab her with a hypodermic along the way.
She pulled herself upright and checked the door. Big. Metal. Not promising. There was a small grille at eye level; it showed a fascinating view of a corridor stretching left and right, and a vampire sat opposite reading a copy of USA Today. From the headline it was at least three days old. No sign of the Brides.
"Now here's my plan..." thought Buffy. She sat on the mattress and began to practice one of Giles' meditation techniques, the one that was supposed to focus her energies for a forthcoming struggle. Odd how often she seemed to use that one...
TO BE CONTINUED
