Dean Carver inspected the office building his men had rented. After a few minutes he turned around and looked at his assistant.

"Not exactly the standard I'm accustomed to," he said and sighed. "But I think it will be enough for the moment. Status?" he asked.

His assistant took the folder he had under his arm and opened it. "Most of the vampires we selected for this mission arrived in town. The summer is coming to an end and the vampire activity will rise soon. And like you ordered we contacted Sanchez to come to a kind of solution for the situation. No answer."

"That's bad," Carver said. "I hoped we could prevent a war between our organisations, maybe share the hellmouth between the two of us. But now it doesn't look this way. The slayer?"

"She and her support group arrived today. They were on holiday," Paul said and showed his boss the pictures from the airports surveillance cameras.

Carver arched his eyebrow. "She left the Hellmouth? That's very uncommon. Any idea who guarded it during her absence?"

"We are clueless. But it might be this young man," Paul said and pointed at the black dressed man that hugged the slayer. "But we are not sure."

Carver inspected the photo closely. "Is this her boyfriend?"

"It might be," Paul said. "They at least acted that way."

"Our supervisor was right," Carver exclaimed. "This slayer really goes against all rules the Council has set up. How is he by the way?"

"There were a few minor problems with him, but nothing major. Why are you asking?"

"Because I want him here in Sunnydale," Carver explained. "As soon as possible."

"Sir, do you think this is a good idea?" Paul asked. "This individual has a certain habit for stabbing his partners in the back."

"We have no other choice," Carver explained. "There is more going on with the slayer than we thought. We need him here. The slayer is the variable we can't control."

"I will order our base in LA to send him to us," Paul said and wrote the order down on the page. "Something else?"

"No that was it fro the moment," Carver said.

Paul turned around and left the room, leaving the vampire leader of LA on his own.

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It was already dark when Riley left the university building. He didn't mind to help the professor to obtain her cover, but that also took a lot of his time. He walked into the direction of Lowell house as suddenly someone called his name.

"Riley Finn?" the voice asked.

"Yeah," Riley answered and looked around. A second later Xander appeared out of the shadow of a nearby tree. The soldier eyed the newcomer. "Can I help you?"

"Yep," Xander told him with a grin. "You see, I wanted to join the army to fight demons and I wanted ask you where I can sign up."

Riley now had a shocked expression on his face. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Not an officer and gentleman then?" Xander asked, still smiling.

Riley didn't lose a second. He grabbed the Beretta, he had hidden in a holster in the back of his trousers and aimed it at Xander, who in the meantime had drawn his USP.

"Oh please," he mocked the soldier. "You want to shoot at me? That wouldn't be very nice. Especially since I saved your asses last night."

Now Riley realized who was standing in front of him. "You were the guy that shot those vampires," he stated. He took a closer look Xander and slowly lowered his gun.

Xander did the same and put the USP back into its holster.

"Yep that was me," he confirmed the soldier's suspicion. "Don't I get a thank you?"

"Well, thanks," Riley said, still a bit confused about the whole situation. "I don't want to sound rude, but what the hell are you doing here?"

"Me?" Xander asked back, trying to sound as innocent a possible. "Well, I got curious what the army is doing here in Sunnydale."

Riley looked at the young man from head to toe, trying to place him somewhere. "Sorry, but most of that stuff is top secret."

Xander nodded at that. He expected an answer like that. "Okay. Let's try it another way. You have ever seen The Silence of the Lambs ?" Riley nodded. "We play a round of quid pro quo. I ask you a question and after I'm finished it's your turn. If my question touches anything sensitive you say so and I'll ask another question. You okay with that?"

Riley again nodded. "I think that's acceptable," he said and looked around. "But maybe we could continue this conversation somewhere less public."

Xander now smiled at him. "And I know exactly the place for that."

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"Nice place," Riley commented as the two sat down on one of the table in the Bronze.

"Yeah," Xander said and chuckled. "It's also the only place around here. And loud enough so no one will hear us."

The waitress came and took their orders. A minute later she returned with two beers for the two.

"So," Xander said after he had taken a sip from his bottle. "Since this whole idea was mine you can start to ask."

"Okay," Riley said and though about his first question. "Last night, you shot those vampires with a rifle, right?"

Xander nodded.

"So, how did those bullets kill them?" He asked. "I thought vampires couldn't be killed with guns."

"Explosive rounds," Xander simply said.

"Explosive rounds?" Riley questioned confused.

"Yep. They almost immediately blow up once they hit something solid," he explained. "Like the skull of a vampire. They rip the head apart. And for your second question. Well, you watched to many movies. You can't really kill a vamp with a bullet like you can do with a human. But if you blow his head up with a high calibre bullet, well just say the rule doesn't apply here."

Riley nodded, a few things now clearer to him.

"My turn," Xander said. "What are you guys doing here in Sunnydale?"

"I can't tell you that," Riley told him. "That one of the secrets."

Xander nodded. "Then another question. What are you doing with the vamps you captured yesterday?"

Riley shook his head. "Even if I knew, I wouldn't be authorized to tell you. All I can tell you is that were are ordered to capture as many hostiles as possible, not only vamps also demons."

"Hostiles?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, all the of supernatural creatures running around here," Riley explained. "Like I said, I don't know what they want to do with them. But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that they didn't invite them to play a round of poker. The word going around is that they test all kind of poisons and other stuff on the vamps, to figure out how to kill them. I also heard that they dissected one."

"What about, let's say, humans that have certain abilities. Like witches or werewolves," Xander questioned further.

"I don't know. The briefings never said anything about a situation like this," Riley admitted. "But I bet that the guys as the research section would love to get someone like this in their hands."

"And you?" Xander asked.

"I don't know," Riley said. "Orders are orders, if you like it or not."

Xander nodded. "Your turn."

"Why are you asking about what we would do with witches or werewolves?" Riley asked. "Do you know someone like this?"

"That's my secret," Xander told him with a smile. "And even if not. Do you think I would tell you after what you have just told me? Next question."

"Okay," Riley said. "Since you seem like an experienced vampire hunter, what are the most effective ways to kill a vampire?"

"You really want to waste your question this way?"

"Hey," Riley said and smiled. "I just want to see the pissed of looks of our scientist. Will all the stuff you are telling me they will be unemployed at the end of the week."

"Okay, your choice," Xander said with a slight chuckle and took another sip from his beer. "To kill a vamp you ram something wooden in his chest. A stake or a crossbow bolt. Dusts the fucker immediately. Or you cut his head of. A sword, battle axe or machete should do the job. You can also throw him into the sunlight, but since you guys operate at night that might be pretty useless. Crosses cause a vampire pain if you touch him with it and it also repels them if you hold it on front of them. They're also a pretty effective interrogating method. The same goes for holy water. But if you dunk a vamp, let's say in a pool full of holy water, it's eats through him like acid. And last but not least to can set them on fire. That should cover it."

"That's all?" Riley asked.

"Yep," Xander simply said.

"So, what do you use?"

"Me?" Xander asked.

Riley nodded.

"Well, like I said, a high calibre bullet can do the job if you blow a vamps head off. I mostly us hollow points that are blessed by a priest. They stay in the vamps body and burn like crosses, causing the vampire too much pain to do anything other than rolling on the ground in pain," Xander explained. "The explosive rounds also work pretty well. I have them for every calibre I use, but they are too expensive to use them regularly. It would be a waste of money. So I spare them for the real mean guys. What else? Oh yes, I use tracer round for my assault rifles to set vamps on fire. And wooden buckshot in my shotgun shells. Same effect as a stake."

Riley looked at the teen in font of him, trying to get everything he said,

"My turn," Xander said and shook Riley out of his thoughts. "And since I gave you just a lot of information, its only fair if I ask two questions."

Riley nodded.

"So, what were those rifles you shot the vamps with?" he asked.

"Modified taser rifles," Riley answered. "Good to knock out targets."

"Yeah, I saw it," Xander said. "But they take a lot of time to recharge."

"Yeah," Riley said. "It's the energy cell. I only has enough power to fire one shot. After that it needs thirty seconds to recharge."

"That a major drawback," Xander stated. "Thirty seconds can kill you if you fight against vampires."

"You are telling me?" Riley said. "I was there last night. We would have had more casualties if you hadn't assisted us."

"By the way, how is the guy with the injured arm?" Xander asked.

"It was broken," Riley told him. "But he will be up in a few weeks."

"Good to hear," Xander said. "That brings me to my next question. What are you guys? Rangers?"

Riley nodded. "Most of us are Rangers, before they recruited us. How did you guess?"

"Your fighting skills were not as advanced to be Special Forces, but you were still better than normal troops," Xander explained.

"That's another thing bothering me," Riley said." Last night you shot a vamps head off while he was struggling with one of my men. To get the kind of skills you would have to be a member special operations unit. But you can't be older than twenty. It's impossible to get into one of the units in that little time."

"Well, another one of my secrets," Xander told him. "Maybe I will tell you someday."

Xander looked at his watch and gulped the rest of his beer down. "See Riley, you look like a honest guy, but I don't trust your superiors. And all this black operation stuff doesn't create the most trustworthy atmosphere."

"What are we going to do now?" Riley asked.

Xander shrugged. "Well, until something changes I will let you guys do your work and I do mine, which is basically the same kind of work. You guys leave me alone and I will leave you alone. Any problems with that?"

Riley shook his head.

"Okay. Just one thing before I leave," Xander told him. "You guys should carry some normal firearms with you. Just to protect you while your star trek rifles reload. And carry some stakes. Listen to this advice, or a few of your men will leave Sunnydale in a body bag."

"Will do," Riley said. "You gave me a lot to think about."

"Good," Xander said and stood up. He took a business card from his pocket and dropped it on the table. "My cell phone number. Ignoring each other doesn't mean we can't help each other out if things get heavy."

Riley took the card and put it into his pocket. "I will remember this."

"Good," Xander said and turned around, walking in the direction of the exit. Suddenly he remembered something and turned back. "Oh, and don't try to trace the number. You will only waste your time with it."

Riley nodded, but he had a question himself. "By the way, what's your name?"

Xander thought about not giving him his name for a second, but that decided to go for it. "Call me Xander," he said and walked to the exit.