Chapter 21

The Legend of Arinoth

Sunnydale – May 24th

"Oh dear Lord in Heaven," Giles muttered as he walked back to the table where the group was sitting. He carried the file document Xander had retrieved along with a sheaf of notes in one hand. In the other he carried several open books wedged precariously together. He dumped everything down onto the table. Everyone else just stared at him in shock.

He took his glasses off, and wiped his brow. "Willow," he said, "what have you found out from the Initiative files?"

"Nothing," she said. "Last time I checked, they didn't have anything on jornikof demons."

"Did you search for anything on Congressman Greene?" he asked.

"Uh, no," she said. "Should I?"

"Please do. Immediately," he said. Willow took out her laptop and began to connect it up. "Tara," he said, turning his attention to her, "I need you to write down as much as you can about the spell that created the amulet."

"But, Madame LaFusce said – " Tara began.

"I don't give a damn what that woman said," Giles snapped. "I'm sorry, Tara. It's not your fault. But I need to know exactly what was done. It could be a matter of life and death. Possibly Buffy's." Tara nodded and took out a pen and paper.

"Wait," said Anya. "I kept track of all the ingredients they used. You know, for billing purposes. Let me grab it; that should help." Tara and Anya raced over to the counter and began looking through the ledger book.

"What about me, big guy?" Xander asked.

"Can you think of anything useful you can do right now?" Giles asked.

"Gotcha," Xander replied, and leaned back in his chair quietly.

"I got something," Willow said. "It seems that Congressman Greene was on an Initiative watch list. He's been pushing for the formation of a Bureau of Non-Terrestrial Life in order to forward, 'an understanding of demons species, both friendly and hostile, and to develop supportive and defensive structures respectively.'"

"I don't get it," Xander said. "That doesn't sound like the work of a strife demon. It's not very strifey."

"That's because he's not," Willow replied. "They categorize him as human, and they have a fairly recent DNA screen to prove it. And listen to this, his niece is an ethnodemonologist. She even married one. No, wait, two."

"She has two husbands?" Dawn asked.

"No, her first husband was half-demon and is listed as deceased. The other is a restaurateur in L.A."

"Here it is," said Tara, handing Giles the sheet, slightly out of breath.

Giles examined it closely for a few moments. "That makes sense," he said finally. "Madame LaFusce didn't keep me out of this because she didn't like me; she kept me out of this because she knew I'd be able to tell that what it was you were really casting."

* * *

Buffy looked at herself in the mirror. She was dressed in black like the other commandos, but carried no backpack or weapon harness. Her hair had been tied back and tucked under a black stocking cap. They had given her an ear clip communicator to keep in touch with the team. Somehow, the outfit made her more nervous than she normally was.

Major Sheffield walked up to her and handed her a shotgun. "This has got special ammo," he explained. "You should only need one shot, but make sure you're good and close. Then just point it at his chest and pull the trigger. You can't miss."

"No problem," Buffy said, gingerly taking the unfamiliar weight.

"Good," he said. "It's time to go." He turned and walked out the door. After a last look in the mirror, Buffy followed.

* * *

"The other set of papers is part of a demon history," Giles was explaining, holding his notes up to read. "By the sounds of it, it's an oral history, so there may have been some drift in the story. However, I think the gist of it is fairly consistent with what we know so far."

Giles looked down at the translation and began reading. "In the time of the Pharaohs in the Egypt, there was one great priest of Horace named Suankma. Sunankma could perform many miracles and wielded great power. He gained much favor with the pharaoh for his many powers and acts, and soon became a favorite in the royal household.

"Now there was another, an Egyptian of Greek descent, for Alexander had placed his own in power after the conquering of Egypt. This one was Arin-Othep, and he grew jealous of the power that Sunankma had collected to himself. Arin-Othep was himself a sorcerer of great repute, but his power was as nothing compared to the power of Sunankma. So Arin-Othep set out to discover the source of Sunankma's power.

"Secretly he followed Sunankma for thirty days, seeking to find the way of power that the great Sorcerer had. Everywhere Sunankma went, Arin-Othep followed. He enlisted spies from the royal household to be eyes for him. He could not, though, learn Sunankma's secrets, and grew despaired.

"Sunankma had a slave named Torquoth, who knew all things that his master did and said, who followed him as a shadow. Torquoth sought nothing for himself, but only thought to further his master's glory. He desired no thing; and wanted for no desire. Until there came a time when Torquoth looked upon the daughter of a merchant, and desire enflamed his heart.

"Sunankma soon heard of his slave's obsession, and summoned him, telling him that his heart had exceeded his station. Sunankma then sent Torquoth away, telling him that it would be better that the sands consume his flesh and bones than he try to rise above his place.

"Arin-Othep saw this as his chance. He sent men to find Torquoth, and brought him to the palace. He placed upon him a fine robe, and a headdress of a noble. He anointed his head with oil, and gave him a fine room overlooking the gardens. Then he purchased the daughter of the merchant, and gave her to Torquoth as a slave. In return, Torquoth told Arin-Othep of the secret place in the temple, where Sunankma gained his power and learned his sorceries.

"Arin-Othep went there, and found a place to conceal himself, and waited for Sunankma to come, so that he could learn the other's secrets. That night, Sunankma came to his secret place, and casting a circle called forth a demon, and bargained with it. He made pacts with it to speak magics for Sunankma's learning. For this was how Sunankma learned all his magic, through the summoning and bargaining with demons.

"Arin-Othep was furious of this, for in his heart he felt that Sunankma was defiling the house of Horace, and bringing to extinction the race of men. He went then to Pharaoh, and accused Sunankma of heresies, and of endangering the kingdom. Pharaoh dismissed the accusations, and warned Arin-Othep to stay away from Sunankma. The next night, Arin-Othep pleaded his case again with the Pharaoh, and again was warned away. On the third night, desperate, Arin-Othep went to the Pharaoh and offered to him an amulet of his own devising, to make amends for his earlier behavior. The amulet was finely made, and through it, Pharaoh was told, mysteries would be revealed.

"Pharaoh accepted the amulet, and wore it the next day. When Sunankma came into his presence, Arin-Othep retired from the throne room with seven of his students. To them, he had taught powerful incantations, and with them formed a ring in the antechamber. This ring of men cast a spell, and in that instant Pharaoh saw Sunankma revealed as being himself a demon."

* * *

Mac waited until he heard the cars drive away. When he was sure they were gone, he tested his bindings. Major Sheffield had removed his status and ordered him confined to quarters. Since no guard could be spared, he was instead bound to the bed with plastic cable ties, the kind often referred to as 'zip tights.' They were commonly used as makeshift handcuffs by riot police, and so was the case here.

His hands were tightly bound above his head, sturdily run through the headboard of the bed. That, too, was unbreakable. He pulled and strained briefly, seeing if he could snap either the fasteners or the headboard, but neither one showed any signs of surrendering.

Spinning a bit on the bed and twisting himself around, Mac has able to move into a kneeling position. From there, he was able to place his left foot near his hands. With a bit of straining, twisting, and careful finger work, Mac was able to free the small knife he always kept in that boot. Deftly turning it with his fingers, he quickly cut the plastic restraints and was freed.

He replaced the knife in his boot, and then went to quickly assemble his kit. It took only moments to grab all the necessary gear. He couldn't take time to suit-up fully, but he had a backpack with what he needed. He grabbed a pea coat and headed out the door, his exterior calm masking the fear twisting in his gut.

The old woman's rental car was still in the driveway, which was a break. She had apparently gone in the SUVs with the rest of the team. He pulled the .45 caliber pistol from his back and used the butt to smash the window. Simple, he thought, but effective. He brushed the glass away and climbed in.

He set the backpack on the passenger seat of the vehicle, and pulled from it a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. In moments he had the car hotwired and the steering column torn open. He put the car in reverse, backed into the street, and peeled out at high acceleration.

Reaching into the bag again, he drew out the portable command unit. Turning it on, the GPS signals of the seven other members of the team were displayed in two groups, heading towards the airport. He gazed at the blips.

"I can track you, now, laddies," he muttered out loud. "But the question is whether or not I can stop you."

* * *

Buffy sat in the back seat of the SUV watching the town go by. The plan, such as it was, was simple. The congressman had arrived at the Red Lion near the airport. He was traveling with only a few aides, and only two security men. The team would set up a perimeter and maintain 'extraction integrity.' Buffy wasn't sure, but she thought that meant that they were going to hang out with the getaway car.

Buffy, meanwhile, was supposed to go up to the congressman's room, disable the guards, and then fight and kill the demon. Preferably, she'd do all the killing and there would be very little fighting. "Enter, aim, fire," were Sheffield's instructions. "Don't try anything fancy," he added. "Fancy gets people killed."

It seemed simple enough.

* * *

"I hope all of this sounds familiar, so far," Giles said, wiping his brow. "However, this is where it gets particularly interesting. You see, the Pharaoh, upon seeing the demon, grew mortally afraid. Thinking of nothing else but destroying it, he leapt from his throne, seized a spear from one of the guards, and ran Sunankma through.

"Sunankma fell dead instantly, and in that instant the vision of the demon disappeared. Upon every examination, Sunankma proved to be human. He was eventually vindicated of being a dark creature, but by that time the damage was pretty well done.

"I won't bore you with the rest of the details, but suffice it to say that this story is repeated again and again throughout history. It appears next in sixth century Byzantium, only this time the sorcerer calls himself Arinoth instead of Arin-Othep. The head of one of the churches there executes three priests as demons, who later turn out to be human. Arinoth appears at least twelve more times, getting us to today."

"I don't understand something," Xander said, raising his hand. "Are you saying the amulet is wrong, or that this jornikof demon turns back into a human when you kill it?"

"I'm saying, Xander," Giles replied, cautiously picking his words, "that I don't think there is any such thing as a jornikof demon. From what I can tell from this spell, the amulet that is cast doesn't show someone the truth; it's more like a mystical antenna for visions being cast somewhere else."

"From the ring," Willow concluded. "It's not a piece of jewelry, it's a group of people. The ring of people create a vision, and cast that. The amulet receives it and makes the wearer believe it."

"Yes," said Giles, "I think you're right. This amulet shows Buffy whatever the Ring of Arinoth wants her to believe."

"So, the congressman isn't really a demon," piped up Anya, "but Buffy's going to kill him anyway." She smiled at everyone, proud of having figured that out on her own.

"But why?" Willow asked. "And why kill Spike?"

"You mean try to kill Spike," Dawn corrected.

"Yeah," said Willow, attempting to cover up the slip, "of course. My bad."

"The only thing I can think of is that Congressman Greene is intent on forging relations with peaceful demons. The Ring of Arinoth is motivated out of demon paranoia gone amok. It's not enough to kill the demons; the Ring, whoever they are, are willing to kill anyone who associates with them, even if they're human." Giles thought for a moment. "I'm still not sure why they needed to get rid of the vampire, though."

"It's not that Spike was a vampire … is a vampire," said Tara, smiling at Dawn as she corrected herself. "It's the chip in his head. With that chip, he'll be able to tell that the congressman is human, despite what the amulet says."

Everyone pondered that for a moment. It was beginning to make sense.

"What do we do now?" Dawn asked.

"We stop them," said Giles. "Who knows where the congressman is staying tonight?"

Willow raised her hand. "Ooh, me. He's at the Red Lion at the airport."

"All right, let's get going. And let's pray we aren't too late."

* * *

Buffy walked calmly through the lobby of the Red Lion and entered the elevators. She carried a Fed-Ex tube, inside of which was her weapon. She pressed the button for the tenth floor, and the door closed.

"I'm in the elevator," she said to no one in particular.

"Roger that," came a voice in her ear. The communicator was working perfectly. "We have disabled the elevator cameras. You are free to unpack. This mission is a Go. Repeat: the mission is a Go."