All characters are the intellectual property of their respective creators, film companies, etc.; this story may not be sold or distributed on a profit-making basis.
I'm British, so's my spelling. Live with it.
WORK IN PROGRESS - Sorry, I thought that this would be the last chapter but there will be one more. Feedback is greatly appreciated, especially on anything that looks like a continuity or factual error.
Slayer, Las Vegas
By Marcus L. Rowland
X
"Okay," said Nick, "what we have here is a basic CCTV security system. Six monochrome cameras feeding into a switching unit that records channels one to three continuously and switches between the others randomly, on a timer setting, or under manual control. It's on random here. Tape runs at a third normal speed, each image is a quarter the video frame, so we're not exactly talking high definition, but it ought to give us something."
Sara made notes. "Looks like cameras one and two are on the ceiling above the main sales area. One pointing towards the cash register, two towards the door. Three is behind the counter looking at the customers, four above the cash register looking down at it,, five in the stock room, six in the changing room. Hold it - here's our perps coming in to the shop. Black car outside the window, could be a Volvo S60, which would match what Warrick told us. Difficult to tell, there are a lot of reflections in the glass."
"Which don't include the parps, of course."
"Yeah. Let's freeze this frame a second. If they were human they'd be visible in the mirrors there and there, and in the glass of the counter. There's nothing. Okay, perps one and two are looking at the dresses, perp three is talking to the sales clerk. Notice anything odd there?"
"Not really... wait a second, take it back about thirty seconds and give me the views from cameras one and three side by side."
"Okay.. what have you got?"
"Watch their eyes, and their body movements," said Nick.
"They make eye contact straight away, the perp is saying something. Wait a second..."
"See it? The perp is swaying from side to side as she talks, after ten seconds or so the sales clerk is following her. Her eyes are locked to the perp."
"Hypnotism."
"Maybe, but my guess is that there's more to it than that."
"Magic?" said Sara. "How could we tell?"
"Could be that, or could be something like pheremones."
"Okay, the sales clerk is standing there now, looks like she's in a trance state. Looks like the other two are looking for dresses, while perp three stands by to deal with problems."
"Right, take it forward at normal speed, watch out for anything that might be a clue to their location."
"Okay... looks like perp one has found something she likes, the other two are talking to her. She's taken over at the counter while perp three goes shopping, and the clerk is taking off the security tag. Hey, they've got her wrapping it!"
"That's classy."
"Here's something... another customer. Uh-oh.. perp one is talking to her, looks like she's working the mojo on her. Damn, she's gone under."
On the screen one of the Brides took the hypnotised woman by the arm and led her towards the door. They went out, and outside Nicka and Sara briefly saw the interior lights of the car go on and off again.
"Take that back," said Sara, "See if you can get a good shot of her face. My guess is she's turned up missing or dead."
"Talk about a one-stop shop. Clothes and take-away food..."
"It isn't funny."
"I know. Okay, I'm taking this back at quarter speed, dropping to single frames as we get back. I'm going to freeze it as they go out of the shop.. now."
"What have you got?"
"If I'm not mistaken that's the licence plate of the car reflected in the door."
"Okay, zoom in and see if we can enhance it."
"Okay...", said Nick, feeding the image to a computer, "mirror the image, yep. Correct for perspective. Okay, that's a Nevada plate. Let's enhance... can't make all of it out but the third and fourth digits are reasonably clear. Third is either a 6 or an 8, or possibly a three, fourth is a seven. Let's try that in the database...
"There's a radio intelligence package," the Army technician reluctantly admitted, "it's classified, but let's just say it'll do what you want if you're close enough. Accuracy about plus or minus one percent at short range. But we're talking under a mile."
"Can you put it in a van?" asked Brass.
"It's built into a HumVee. Room for the driver, the tech sergeant that operates it, and a couple of guards."
"Perfect. I need to borrow one, who do I have to talk to?"
"You'd need to start with the base commander, but I'd guess it'd go a lot higher."
"Let's get started then."
"...So the medical examiner slips on the spleen and falls face down onto the corpse," said Catherine, "and that compresses the stomach, so there's this god-awful fart..."
"Okay, now that doesn't exactly gross me out," interrupted Greg, "but it's always nice to be reminded why I prefer to work with teensy little pieces of clue, not the whole enchilada. What do you make of this, sample 33?"
"Gravel embedded in the sole of mister vampire's left shoe. White, about four millimetres on a side, I'd say marble or something very similar. Looks a lot like samples 34 and 35, also from this shoe, and 47 through 51 from the other shoe."
"Let's take a closer look. I'll make a section from 33 and check it under the mineralogical microscope, you want to run the chemical tests on one of the others?"
"Sounds good to me..."
"So," said Grissom, leading the way to a table in the cafeteria, "what are you planning to do once you leave school?"
"College, I guess," said Dawn, munching on a fry, "Mom had a college fund set up for me when she died, there was one for Buffy too but she's pretty much used it all to support us."
"Doesn't she work?"
"Right now she's looking for another job. It's kind of difficult for her to keep one, what with not being able to work nights and the injuries and all."
"Injuries?"
"Cuts, bruises, stab wounds, broken ribs, and she's broken her arm a few times. She heals real fast, but she still has to spend a day or two in bed sometimes."
"A day or two for a broken arm?" asked Grissom, incredulously.
"She heals real fast," Dawn repeated. "Usually her friends can cover for her until she's back on her feet. I help when I can."
"Dawn... it really isn't any of my business, but you're a very intelligent girl and while I appreciate that what Buffy does is important, you can't let it take over your entire life."
"It won't... but it's what I'll be doing for the rest of Buffy's life, unless some sort of miracle stops her being the Slayer without killing her. What do you think the odds are on her reaching thirty? Or twenty-five? Or next week? She's died twice already, how long before it's permanent?"
"I'm sorry... I guess I'm not used to thinking in those terms."
"Nobody is, unless they know someone with AIDS or something. I was fifteen before I realised that she'll never have a normal life or a proper career, and that she'll probably be dead before I graduate. I'm going to do everything I can to help her until it happens. D'you want to change the subject, please..."
"Okay... I have a feeling that we're going to locate the Brides reasonably quickly. When we do, what's the best way to handle it?"
"Help Buffy to escape, if she's still their prisoner, then let her kick ass."
"Okay, that means we need a way to get to her quickly. Where would they have her?"
"If she's still a prisoner they'll either have her in chains or a really strong room, like a jail cell. It'd be somewhere away from sunlight, so that vampires can guard it; humans couldn't do the job, especially if they were in thrall. Probably in a cellar."
"So when we go in we go down, not up. We'll need bolt cutters, battering rams, possibly lock picks. Building plans, probably. What about weapons?"
"Crossbows, there are a couple more in Buffy's bags, guns for any human servants, TASERs are good against vamps and people, and so are swords or axes if people know how to use them. Bring a load of stakes for Buffy, but forget them for anyone else unless they really know what they're doing, most people are too weak and too slow to make them work, and a lot don't even know where the heart is."
"Most people? How about you?"
"I've done it a few times, but mostly they were running at me, I just got the stake up at the right time and their own speed and weight did the rest. 'Course, I've trained a lot with Buffy."
"Anything else?"
"Those shotguns Nick mentioned, and the bat detectors. Flashlights. Holy water. Crosses. First aid supplies, including whole blood and plasma if they've been bleeding her. She's the same group as me."
"Also body armour, from the sound of things, especially something to protect the head and neck. How about preventing thrall?"
"Don't really know. From what I've seen it seems to work like hypnosis, so I'd guess anything that'd prevent you from being hypnotised might work."
"I'll have to look that up."
"When you go in... I'll have to go with you."
"Absolutely not. You're a minor, Dawn."
"I'm the only person you have here who's done anything like this, and you're going to need me."
"Dawn, from the sound of things you're used to sneaking around with one or two people. This is going to be a SWAT operation, it'll be more like the invasion of Normandy. You can ride in the control van, I'll want you there to advise us, but that's as close as you're getting."
"This sucks."
"So does being kept here at headquarters, which is the only alternative I can offer."
"Okay, I'll ride in the van."
"It would help if you could be present when I brief the SWAT team on vampires. It's the same unit that helped with the werewolf case a few months ago so they ought to be able to cope with this. Basically, I'd like you to explain combat techniques, do's and dont's, that sort of thing. We have footage of our prisoner and of your sister dealing with some vampires last night, that ought to help give them the idea."
"Will they take me seriously?"
"They met Oz and saw him change; I think that they're prepared to accept that appearances can be deceptive."
"Hey!" said Buffy.
The vampire guarding her cell looked up, snarled slightly, and returned to its crossword.
"Hey! Any chance of some water?"
"You don't need water," said the vampire. "Few more hours and you'll be dead."
"Fine... in the meantime, you want to explain to the Brides how I've sweated away so much water that my blood clots before they can use it in their ceremony?"
"Blood doesn't clot that fast."
"I'm a Slayer, my wounds heal real fast. That means my blood clots fast too."
"I'll ask."
The guard went off down a corridor. Buffy smiled, then turned her attention back to the floor. By the time he came back she wanted to be ready to escape.
"You've seen the video," said Dawn. "Just to summarise again, try to remember this - a vampire is as strong and as fast as three or four normal men. You aren't, and the only way you'll survive this is by protecting each other. Don't give them any chance to get in close; guns won't phase them much, but TASERs work well, so do crossbows. Crosses and holy water will hurt them, but won't kill them quickly. Sunlight fries them, and that does work fast. Anything else you may of heard of is probably a myth. Garlic won't help, nor will silver bullets, and they can mostly cross running water. They can't turn you into a vampire just by biting you, but if you let them get close enough to bite you're probably dead anyway. If you get bitten and don't get killed you do need medical attention; there's often rotten flesh stuck to their teeth, and that can cause blood poisoning.
"From the sound of it you'll be up against the three Brides, who can turn into bats and maybe mist, you've seen their pictures, some ordinary vampires who can't, and probably a few human servants. The servants will be in thrall, that's like brainwashing, so try not to kill them. And please do your best not to kill my sister, it'll only annoy her."
There was a ripple of laughter from the SWAT team.
"That's about it, really. We ought to know where they are soon enough, and then you can kick vampire ass. Thanks for your time."
Brass rose and said "Thank you, Miss Summers. If there are no further questions I'm sure everyone has a lot to do. Most of you have already had some training with unusual weapons, those who haven't had better carry shotguns with wooden shot. All of you, without exception, will carry crosses and holy water. And yes, that does include you, Bloom...."
"The Centre for Disease Control wants the prisoner," said Grissom as he and Dawn met Catherine in the hallway.
"CDC want a vampire?" said Catherine, "What on earth for? And how did they hear about it?"
"They want to see if they're a significant vector in the spread of AIDS and other blood infections. No idea who told them we have one."
"Okay, I can see that being a concern, but he hasn't even been before a judge yet. He could walk."
"Tell me about it. Don't these guys have any understanding of due process?"
"I doubt it."
"Let's hope it really is the CDC," said Dawn, "not some creepy science guys like the Initiative."
"Who?" asked Catherine.
"It's what they used to call Riley Finn's guys when they were doing experiments on monsters instead of just killing them."
"What happened to them?"
"They got eaten by monsters..."
"Figures."
"Okay, we're pretty sure of the location. This mansion here." said Brass, indicating it on a large map. "There are twenty-odd rooms, wine cellars, storage, and recreation rooms in the basement, and it stands in its own grounds. The owner of record is a Catherine Van Helsing, which might just possibly be an alias, she bought it a little less than two years ago."
"Sounds like vampire humour," commented Dawn.
"She's also on record as the owner of a black Volvo whose registration may match the one we're looking for. It's less than fifty yards from the park, a couple of hundred from the home of our vamp downstairs, and the borders of the driveway are topped with white stone chippings. Marble, which has good reflective properties. We found pieces of marble on our prisoner's shoes."
"Is that enough for us to raid the place?" asked Grissom.
"Not quite, but let me just make a call..." Brass picked up his mobile phone and said a few words to someone. "Okay, Warrick, I want you to call the vampires from your own phone. Just say that you're going to be busy here until the evening and want instructions."
"Okay... Warrick Brown here, I have to stay at headquarters. What should I do?"
"Do nothing," said a female voice, "you will be called when the Master is... ready for you."
"As you wish, mistress..." Warrick ended the call then said "Okay, that was one of the Brides. Sounds like they're up early."
Brass listened to his phone for a moment, then said "She was calling from a room in that house, plus or minus twenty feet which is still well inside its grounds. Okay, we've got building plans from the county office, the judge is ready to sign warrants, and the troops are in the trucks and ready to go. Let's roll."
To Be Concluded (really...)
