Chapter 9
Angel had been doing variations of reconnaissance for quite some time. The ideal method was to try to keep out of sight of whatever man, vampire or other life form was looking for you. When he saw a demon standing guard over the front door of the house, he realized that this was probably where the Order of Taraka was calling home. So the ideal thing do have done would have been to wait until its back was turned then go back to Buffy and Fred.
In fact, that was what he did. Unfortunately he had not identified the guard as a Skilosh demon. One of its distinguishing features an eye in the back of its head. Further, it was more acute than the normal ones, so even though they were running fast through the darkness, three seconds after Angel and Robin started running back to the others a piercing scream split the night air.
"Well so much for getting out quietly," Angel said as he turned to face the Skilosh in front of them.
Even if you're a vampire, or a man who has been fighting demons for twenty years for that matter , a Skilosh demon poses a pretty problem: No matter where you're standing it's fairly hard to surprise it. You had to attack it from the side and Darwin's theory of evolution were knocked out the window because equally well on either side. It was tough enough when the demon was alone -- which they rarely were. The only good thing was that the rest of the house were not Skilosh demons as well.
That was a small comfort to Angel and Robin, however, particularly when there were eight assassins. Three of them looked like they could go ten rounds with Holyfield and not break a sweat. Worse, those were the humans; the demonic killers were even nastier.
Angel noticed all this in a fraction of a second -- he was focused on not getting his head torn off by the Skilosh. The last time he had killed one of these he'd had to use of a truck and a sledgehammer. Since neither item were handy he decided it might be in his best interest to try and take it out some other way.
Maneuvering quickly, he managed to get directly behind it. Then, before it could turn, he brought one of his stakes out. In one swift motion he slammed the stake into the third eye.
The Skilosh let out a scream of pain that would normally bring out the neighborhood. Angel hoped that they would continue to exercise their already sound judgment and stay put.
This demon was out of the picture. Angel had exactly two seconds to savor the victory before he was rushed by a man and a blue demon with grey claws.
He was thrown against the wall. Even as he got to his feet he was bemused by what he saw. So was Robin, who had hit the wall a few seconds earlier but was now standing.
"Demons and humans fighting together," he said. "Martin Luther King would be so proud."
"I guess we can all get along," said Angel before launching himself back into the fray.
One of the men moved in to try and take him down. Angel switched to a defensive posture ---- he still had issues when it came to attacking people. The man pulled out a sword that would do Zorro proud and moved in. Suddenly Angel had fewer compunctions about hurting him. He drew his own blade and moved in.
The man handled the sword very well. Had Angel been human he would have been in serious trouble, but as it was his vampiric agility barely kept him from being hurt. He matched the swordsman parry for parry and thrust for thrust. Then suddenly he detected something out of the corner of his eye. He had just enough time to duck before the blue demon – it looked like a Fortas -- nailed him with a hard blow that knocked him against the wall again. Before he had time to duck, the man with a sword ran him through.
Though it was a documented fact that vampires could survive anything but fire, a stake through the heart and decapitation there was little written mention that everything that would normally killed a person hurts vampires almost as much. And the cliché that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger really didn't apply to those kinds of attacks. Angel barely had enough time to get used to the horrible pain in his stomach before the swordsman pulled out his blade in one swift motion and attempted to cut off Angel's head.
He managed to duck and lift his own sword up in a defensive posture. Angel tried not to show it, but he was beginning to worry. He could probably still take the swordsman, but the Fortas demon would be a serious problem even if he was healthy. Furthermore, these attackers were smarter then the average flunkies in that they weren't playing by the rules that said one on one combat was standard for most attacks. if who was healthy? and altho it's perfectly fine the way it is, consider dropping "that had driven him against the wall"
He looked towards Robin and saw that he probably wasn't going to get much help from him. Two of the demons -- Polgara and a Howler by the looks of it -- and one of the men were putting up an attack. Robin was doing an admirable job of defending himself considering that Polgaras were tough, but this one was almost out of the battle. Eventually, though, he would be overrun.
Which was exactly what happened to himself as a third equally fearsome demon moved in and started to attack him. Angel held up as long as he could but finally dropped his sword.
The demons all crowded around him. The blue one spoke: "This is an unexpected bonus. We get to kill the vampire with a soul."
"So you've heard of me," Angel said in a much weaker tone than he would have liked.
"Yeah, and it looks like you and your friend picked the wrong crowd to mess with," said the other demon. "Your moves may work on the average demon, but as you can see we're better than the average demon.".
"Good line. Put it on your recruitment poster."
"Joking to the last. Shame it has to end this way."
"Who said it does?" Everyone turned toward the voice. All four demons- --- the two would have been assaulting Robin and the two that had him in a bind--- were surprised. The only reason that Angel was that the voice wasn't who he expected.
Fred stood there. She might have been a fearsome sight if the gun she was carrying didn't seem bigger than she was.
"Well, well," said the Fortas. "Little lady with a big gun. What do you think you're gonna do with that thing?"
"Get away from Angel if you don't want to find out." Fred's voice was steely cold.
"You're gonna have to fire a lot of shots to take me down, girl."
"Actually, if I calibrated this thing correctly, one will be more than enough.." She flipped a switch and the gun began humming.
The two demons began moving closer to Fred, almost stalking her.. "You really think you can take us both out?" one said.
"Well, I've never tried it like that before but I find in some cases..." She pulled the trigger. A concentrated laser of roughly 5,000 volts of electricity emerged from the gun. The two demons got one step closer before the power of the beam cooked them like meat on a barbecue. Angel could feel the electricity was still in the air when the blast was finished
".... live fire tests are the best," Fred finished.
The swordsman's concentration had broken, giving Angel enough time to take his own blade, disarm the swordsman and knock him out cold.He turned to Fred. "Not that I don't appreciate the help, but next time could you maybe fry the villains BEFORE they run me through
Fred did her best to look flustered. "Hey, I thought you could take these guys yourself, Mr. Vampire-who-fights-alone-whenever-he-can."
Ignoring her rebuke, which actually made some sense, he turned around: "Buffy decided that you could handle these guys with my help." Fred continued.' She doubled back to take the other side of the alley."
Angel turned around to see Buffy moving like a whirling dervish as she managed to knock out the two other men and finish off the Howler demon in less than two minutes since she had arrived. Robin had recovered his bearings, managing to kill the Polgara. This left a single demon who, showing an incredible amount of sense, had begun to run away. Angel was about to let it get away when he realized that he knew this one. Not just what it was, but who.
"Buffy! Stop him!" Buffy hesitated for a fraction of a second before pulling out her crossbow. She was about to fire when he yelled: "Don't kill him." Again Buffy only hesitated a second before firing a shot into the calf of the demons leg. It seized up and stopped running.
Angel finally reached Buffy who looked a little perturbed. "All right, I stopped him; want to tell me why?"
"Because we're old friends. Battle companions, wouldn't you say Tom?"
"Tom?" Robin, who had caught up with them, asked in a perplexed tone. "What kind of demon name is 'Tom'?"
"He and I were once trapped in an Octavian fighting ring together. Had a hell of a right hook. I knew you were a soulless killer, I just didn't think you'd do it for hire."
Tom Cribb turned and spit at Angel. The vampire quickly dodged the spittle -- not because it was toxic, but because you just can't get spit out of a leather duster.
"Well it's not like I had a lot of options. You try getting a sales position with a face like this."
"Can't argue with that." said Robin
Buffy moved towards him and pushed him to the ground. "Well I guess working for the Order of Taraka was the only place hiring the crème de la crème of demons these days. I got to tell you I'm disappointed. I kind of figured you'd be... tougher."
"Great, The Slayer herself. How does it feel to be just one of many? You know people were scared at you when there was just one of you. Now that you're nobody special no one will even notice when you fall."
"If that's the case why'd you make like a cheetah when you saw me?"
"You have to have pretty big ones to go after a Slayer alone. Besides, I've had enough one-on-ones to last me a lifetime."
"Oh I get it, you're one of those macho creeps who thinks five against one is a fair fight," said Fred. "And they say that demons have no social skills."
"Quite a mouth on that one. I'd like to see how big you'd talk without that jazzed-up super soaker."
"Angel, is there a reason you had us spare this one?" said Robin.
"Yeah, Buffy said that she wanted us to make an example of an assassin to show the Order who's in charge." Angel turned to Buffy. "I can't think of a better demon for the job."
"And you know a lot of people at Angel-Slayer Inc. had..." Buffy fumbled for the word, "....misgivings about torturing a human. I don't think any of them would mind if we messed this one up a little." She gave the demon an icy grin.
The smug impression on Cribb's face began to fade. "You mean that... No, you're the good guys. You don't do that kind of thing."
"You're half right," said Angel. "Sure we are, but we're not foolish enough to think that evil's playing Marquis de Queensbury rules. Sometimes you have to fight dirty to get the right results." He looked at the others. "Let's get started. Fred, you have it?"
Fred reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial and a syringe.
"What ya gonna do, dose me with truth serum?" asked Cribb snidely.
"Nothing so crude, Mr. Cribb. I'm betting that someone in your position has had few encounters with pharmaceuticals." Fred began to fill the syringe. "Baraglite is a hospital drug used to relieve pressure on the lungs in people with cancer. When you inject it into a healthy person, however, the reaction's different. Doesn't kill you right away. No, the pressure in your lungs increases until you feel like you're suffocating."
"So what? That's if you used it on a person. A demon's lungs can take a lot before we cave."
"I'm aware of that. Which is why this particular baraglite is ten times what you'd normally use." Fred finished filling the syringe. "This drug has never been fully tested, but y'all seem to be the perfect guinea pig."
Cribb was beginning to panic. "You're bluffing. Even if something like that existed what would you be doing with it?"
"We run Wolfram and Hart now, Tom," Angel said. "That gave us access to all their clients in L.A. and you would be surprised how many drug companies we now service and what they have developed." He turned to Fred, waiting to give her the OK.. "Of course, we won't have to go through any of this if you'd be willing to talk."
"What do you want to know?" asked Cribb.
"Who hired you to go after Leonard Kopell?"
"Who?"
"Don't play dumb with us. The man the Order told you to kill."
"Hey, me and my friends are just hired help. They give us a target, we go after it. We don't ask questions. That's why we work as well as we do."
It sounded plausible. Under other circumstances Angel might even have believed him, but based on what he knew about the Order the assassins got full information about who they would collect their money from. They had to at least have an idea why they were going after someone. That and Angel didn't really trust Cribb.
"That your final answer?" said Buffy.
"That's all that I know."
"Well then you leave us with no other choice." Angel nodded at Fred. "Do it."
Cribb began to struggle. Buffy yanked on the arrow still lodged in his leg . His scream of pain gave Fred enough time to inject him.
For a moment there was no reaction. Then Cribb began to have trouble breathing and started trembling.
"Doesn't feel too good, does it?" said Buffy. "Feels like you're drowning but you're still dry."
"It's gonna feel worse, when your lungs begin to collapse," Angel said. "I never really appreciated breathing when I was alive but it's one of those things you miss when it's gone."
"And this can go on for a while," Fred him. "I mean it's only going to take fifteen to twenty minutes before your lungs collapse but it's gonna feel like days."
Cribb was frantically gasping for air. He had begun to paw at Angel and Buffy. They waited another few seconds.
"We can make it stop, you know. Just tell us who hired you." Angel sounded as coldly reasonable as anyone who had worked at Wolfram and Hart.
"They'll... They'll kill me," Cribb gasped weakly.
"Well then I guess we're sparing them the time and energy," said Buffy. They began to turn away from him, all with seeming no more interest than if he was an insect.
"Wait...wait..."
Angel turned around.
"The man... said his name was Lee Mercer."
"Why did he want Leonard dead?" Buffy asked.
"He said that he represented a ... a group of power people.... who said it was against their interests... if he met with you." Cribb said weakly.
"And killing us? Was that part of the deal?" said Faith.
"They said...if you were to die... wouldn't be unhappy."
Angel leaned in. "Did Wolfram and Hart hire you?"
Cribb shook his head. "He told us... that it was someone.... higher up ." He grabbed Angel's collar. "For God's sake, stop this!"
"We don't have to, Tom." said Buffy.
"But you're.... you're the good guys. You can't be this.... cruel," said Cribb.
"Sometimes the good guys have to play dirty." said Angel.
"And you misunderstood what she meant," said Fred. "We don't have to help you, 'cause in a few minutes, you'll be fine."
Cribb looked up in astonishment. "What?"
"There's no such thing as demon strength-baraglite. That was a big dose of the normal stuff. It'll wear off in about...two minutes." Even as Fred spoke, Cribb began to breathe easier.
"You...bastards... I'll...I'll..."
"Before you finish that curse perhaps you should remember that we are more than capable of killing you in a very nasty fashion," said Buffy.
Cribb swallowed deeply. Angel bent over him. "Now here's what's going to happen. We're going to leave quietly. Once we're gone, you will go back to your bosses and tell them that the hit is off Leonard Kopell. If he so much as catches a cold, we will find you, your bosses and anyone else that you associate with and fall upon them with the wrath of God. And I'm talking the Old Testament, fire and brimstone God. He is under the protection of Angel-Slayer Inc. That means he's off limits. Are we clear?"
"Crystal."
Angel began walking away.
"I'll call the others. Tell them the search is over," said Fred.
"You think this is over?" Angel and Buffy turned back to Cribb who had regained hi defiant look even though he was still struggling to breathe. "There's more going on here than just Kopell. By the time it is over, you'll wish that you'd died here."
Angel just turned around and walked away, without giving away the slightest hint that he thought the demon might be right.
Angel had been doing variations of reconnaissance for quite some time. The ideal method was to try to keep out of sight of whatever man, vampire or other life form was looking for you. When he saw a demon standing guard over the front door of the house, he realized that this was probably where the Order of Taraka was calling home. So the ideal thing do have done would have been to wait until its back was turned then go back to Buffy and Fred.
In fact, that was what he did. Unfortunately he had not identified the guard as a Skilosh demon. One of its distinguishing features an eye in the back of its head. Further, it was more acute than the normal ones, so even though they were running fast through the darkness, three seconds after Angel and Robin started running back to the others a piercing scream split the night air.
"Well so much for getting out quietly," Angel said as he turned to face the Skilosh in front of them.
Even if you're a vampire, or a man who has been fighting demons for twenty years for that matter , a Skilosh demon poses a pretty problem: No matter where you're standing it's fairly hard to surprise it. You had to attack it from the side and Darwin's theory of evolution were knocked out the window because equally well on either side. It was tough enough when the demon was alone -- which they rarely were. The only good thing was that the rest of the house were not Skilosh demons as well.
That was a small comfort to Angel and Robin, however, particularly when there were eight assassins. Three of them looked like they could go ten rounds with Holyfield and not break a sweat. Worse, those were the humans; the demonic killers were even nastier.
Angel noticed all this in a fraction of a second -- he was focused on not getting his head torn off by the Skilosh. The last time he had killed one of these he'd had to use of a truck and a sledgehammer. Since neither item were handy he decided it might be in his best interest to try and take it out some other way.
Maneuvering quickly, he managed to get directly behind it. Then, before it could turn, he brought one of his stakes out. In one swift motion he slammed the stake into the third eye.
The Skilosh let out a scream of pain that would normally bring out the neighborhood. Angel hoped that they would continue to exercise their already sound judgment and stay put.
This demon was out of the picture. Angel had exactly two seconds to savor the victory before he was rushed by a man and a blue demon with grey claws.
He was thrown against the wall. Even as he got to his feet he was bemused by what he saw. So was Robin, who had hit the wall a few seconds earlier but was now standing.
"Demons and humans fighting together," he said. "Martin Luther King would be so proud."
"I guess we can all get along," said Angel before launching himself back into the fray.
One of the men moved in to try and take him down. Angel switched to a defensive posture ---- he still had issues when it came to attacking people. The man pulled out a sword that would do Zorro proud and moved in. Suddenly Angel had fewer compunctions about hurting him. He drew his own blade and moved in.
The man handled the sword very well. Had Angel been human he would have been in serious trouble, but as it was his vampiric agility barely kept him from being hurt. He matched the swordsman parry for parry and thrust for thrust. Then suddenly he detected something out of the corner of his eye. He had just enough time to duck before the blue demon – it looked like a Fortas -- nailed him with a hard blow that knocked him against the wall again. Before he had time to duck, the man with a sword ran him through.
Though it was a documented fact that vampires could survive anything but fire, a stake through the heart and decapitation there was little written mention that everything that would normally killed a person hurts vampires almost as much. And the cliché that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger really didn't apply to those kinds of attacks. Angel barely had enough time to get used to the horrible pain in his stomach before the swordsman pulled out his blade in one swift motion and attempted to cut off Angel's head.
He managed to duck and lift his own sword up in a defensive posture. Angel tried not to show it, but he was beginning to worry. He could probably still take the swordsman, but the Fortas demon would be a serious problem even if he was healthy. Furthermore, these attackers were smarter then the average flunkies in that they weren't playing by the rules that said one on one combat was standard for most attacks. if who was healthy? and altho it's perfectly fine the way it is, consider dropping "that had driven him against the wall"
He looked towards Robin and saw that he probably wasn't going to get much help from him. Two of the demons -- Polgara and a Howler by the looks of it -- and one of the men were putting up an attack. Robin was doing an admirable job of defending himself considering that Polgaras were tough, but this one was almost out of the battle. Eventually, though, he would be overrun.
Which was exactly what happened to himself as a third equally fearsome demon moved in and started to attack him. Angel held up as long as he could but finally dropped his sword.
The demons all crowded around him. The blue one spoke: "This is an unexpected bonus. We get to kill the vampire with a soul."
"So you've heard of me," Angel said in a much weaker tone than he would have liked.
"Yeah, and it looks like you and your friend picked the wrong crowd to mess with," said the other demon. "Your moves may work on the average demon, but as you can see we're better than the average demon.".
"Good line. Put it on your recruitment poster."
"Joking to the last. Shame it has to end this way."
"Who said it does?" Everyone turned toward the voice. All four demons- --- the two would have been assaulting Robin and the two that had him in a bind--- were surprised. The only reason that Angel was that the voice wasn't who he expected.
Fred stood there. She might have been a fearsome sight if the gun she was carrying didn't seem bigger than she was.
"Well, well," said the Fortas. "Little lady with a big gun. What do you think you're gonna do with that thing?"
"Get away from Angel if you don't want to find out." Fred's voice was steely cold.
"You're gonna have to fire a lot of shots to take me down, girl."
"Actually, if I calibrated this thing correctly, one will be more than enough.." She flipped a switch and the gun began humming.
The two demons began moving closer to Fred, almost stalking her.. "You really think you can take us both out?" one said.
"Well, I've never tried it like that before but I find in some cases..." She pulled the trigger. A concentrated laser of roughly 5,000 volts of electricity emerged from the gun. The two demons got one step closer before the power of the beam cooked them like meat on a barbecue. Angel could feel the electricity was still in the air when the blast was finished
".... live fire tests are the best," Fred finished.
The swordsman's concentration had broken, giving Angel enough time to take his own blade, disarm the swordsman and knock him out cold.He turned to Fred. "Not that I don't appreciate the help, but next time could you maybe fry the villains BEFORE they run me through
Fred did her best to look flustered. "Hey, I thought you could take these guys yourself, Mr. Vampire-who-fights-alone-whenever-he-can."
Ignoring her rebuke, which actually made some sense, he turned around: "Buffy decided that you could handle these guys with my help." Fred continued.' She doubled back to take the other side of the alley."
Angel turned around to see Buffy moving like a whirling dervish as she managed to knock out the two other men and finish off the Howler demon in less than two minutes since she had arrived. Robin had recovered his bearings, managing to kill the Polgara. This left a single demon who, showing an incredible amount of sense, had begun to run away. Angel was about to let it get away when he realized that he knew this one. Not just what it was, but who.
"Buffy! Stop him!" Buffy hesitated for a fraction of a second before pulling out her crossbow. She was about to fire when he yelled: "Don't kill him." Again Buffy only hesitated a second before firing a shot into the calf of the demons leg. It seized up and stopped running.
Angel finally reached Buffy who looked a little perturbed. "All right, I stopped him; want to tell me why?"
"Because we're old friends. Battle companions, wouldn't you say Tom?"
"Tom?" Robin, who had caught up with them, asked in a perplexed tone. "What kind of demon name is 'Tom'?"
"He and I were once trapped in an Octavian fighting ring together. Had a hell of a right hook. I knew you were a soulless killer, I just didn't think you'd do it for hire."
Tom Cribb turned and spit at Angel. The vampire quickly dodged the spittle -- not because it was toxic, but because you just can't get spit out of a leather duster.
"Well it's not like I had a lot of options. You try getting a sales position with a face like this."
"Can't argue with that." said Robin
Buffy moved towards him and pushed him to the ground. "Well I guess working for the Order of Taraka was the only place hiring the crème de la crème of demons these days. I got to tell you I'm disappointed. I kind of figured you'd be... tougher."
"Great, The Slayer herself. How does it feel to be just one of many? You know people were scared at you when there was just one of you. Now that you're nobody special no one will even notice when you fall."
"If that's the case why'd you make like a cheetah when you saw me?"
"You have to have pretty big ones to go after a Slayer alone. Besides, I've had enough one-on-ones to last me a lifetime."
"Oh I get it, you're one of those macho creeps who thinks five against one is a fair fight," said Fred. "And they say that demons have no social skills."
"Quite a mouth on that one. I'd like to see how big you'd talk without that jazzed-up super soaker."
"Angel, is there a reason you had us spare this one?" said Robin.
"Yeah, Buffy said that she wanted us to make an example of an assassin to show the Order who's in charge." Angel turned to Buffy. "I can't think of a better demon for the job."
"And you know a lot of people at Angel-Slayer Inc. had..." Buffy fumbled for the word, "....misgivings about torturing a human. I don't think any of them would mind if we messed this one up a little." She gave the demon an icy grin.
The smug impression on Cribb's face began to fade. "You mean that... No, you're the good guys. You don't do that kind of thing."
"You're half right," said Angel. "Sure we are, but we're not foolish enough to think that evil's playing Marquis de Queensbury rules. Sometimes you have to fight dirty to get the right results." He looked at the others. "Let's get started. Fred, you have it?"
Fred reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial and a syringe.
"What ya gonna do, dose me with truth serum?" asked Cribb snidely.
"Nothing so crude, Mr. Cribb. I'm betting that someone in your position has had few encounters with pharmaceuticals." Fred began to fill the syringe. "Baraglite is a hospital drug used to relieve pressure on the lungs in people with cancer. When you inject it into a healthy person, however, the reaction's different. Doesn't kill you right away. No, the pressure in your lungs increases until you feel like you're suffocating."
"So what? That's if you used it on a person. A demon's lungs can take a lot before we cave."
"I'm aware of that. Which is why this particular baraglite is ten times what you'd normally use." Fred finished filling the syringe. "This drug has never been fully tested, but y'all seem to be the perfect guinea pig."
Cribb was beginning to panic. "You're bluffing. Even if something like that existed what would you be doing with it?"
"We run Wolfram and Hart now, Tom," Angel said. "That gave us access to all their clients in L.A. and you would be surprised how many drug companies we now service and what they have developed." He turned to Fred, waiting to give her the OK.. "Of course, we won't have to go through any of this if you'd be willing to talk."
"What do you want to know?" asked Cribb.
"Who hired you to go after Leonard Kopell?"
"Who?"
"Don't play dumb with us. The man the Order told you to kill."
"Hey, me and my friends are just hired help. They give us a target, we go after it. We don't ask questions. That's why we work as well as we do."
It sounded plausible. Under other circumstances Angel might even have believed him, but based on what he knew about the Order the assassins got full information about who they would collect their money from. They had to at least have an idea why they were going after someone. That and Angel didn't really trust Cribb.
"That your final answer?" said Buffy.
"That's all that I know."
"Well then you leave us with no other choice." Angel nodded at Fred. "Do it."
Cribb began to struggle. Buffy yanked on the arrow still lodged in his leg . His scream of pain gave Fred enough time to inject him.
For a moment there was no reaction. Then Cribb began to have trouble breathing and started trembling.
"Doesn't feel too good, does it?" said Buffy. "Feels like you're drowning but you're still dry."
"It's gonna feel worse, when your lungs begin to collapse," Angel said. "I never really appreciated breathing when I was alive but it's one of those things you miss when it's gone."
"And this can go on for a while," Fred him. "I mean it's only going to take fifteen to twenty minutes before your lungs collapse but it's gonna feel like days."
Cribb was frantically gasping for air. He had begun to paw at Angel and Buffy. They waited another few seconds.
"We can make it stop, you know. Just tell us who hired you." Angel sounded as coldly reasonable as anyone who had worked at Wolfram and Hart.
"They'll... They'll kill me," Cribb gasped weakly.
"Well then I guess we're sparing them the time and energy," said Buffy. They began to turn away from him, all with seeming no more interest than if he was an insect.
"Wait...wait..."
Angel turned around.
"The man... said his name was Lee Mercer."
"Why did he want Leonard dead?" Buffy asked.
"He said that he represented a ... a group of power people.... who said it was against their interests... if he met with you." Cribb said weakly.
"And killing us? Was that part of the deal?" said Faith.
"They said...if you were to die... wouldn't be unhappy."
Angel leaned in. "Did Wolfram and Hart hire you?"
Cribb shook his head. "He told us... that it was someone.... higher up ." He grabbed Angel's collar. "For God's sake, stop this!"
"We don't have to, Tom." said Buffy.
"But you're.... you're the good guys. You can't be this.... cruel," said Cribb.
"Sometimes the good guys have to play dirty." said Angel.
"And you misunderstood what she meant," said Fred. "We don't have to help you, 'cause in a few minutes, you'll be fine."
Cribb looked up in astonishment. "What?"
"There's no such thing as demon strength-baraglite. That was a big dose of the normal stuff. It'll wear off in about...two minutes." Even as Fred spoke, Cribb began to breathe easier.
"You...bastards... I'll...I'll..."
"Before you finish that curse perhaps you should remember that we are more than capable of killing you in a very nasty fashion," said Buffy.
Cribb swallowed deeply. Angel bent over him. "Now here's what's going to happen. We're going to leave quietly. Once we're gone, you will go back to your bosses and tell them that the hit is off Leonard Kopell. If he so much as catches a cold, we will find you, your bosses and anyone else that you associate with and fall upon them with the wrath of God. And I'm talking the Old Testament, fire and brimstone God. He is under the protection of Angel-Slayer Inc. That means he's off limits. Are we clear?"
"Crystal."
Angel began walking away.
"I'll call the others. Tell them the search is over," said Fred.
"You think this is over?" Angel and Buffy turned back to Cribb who had regained hi defiant look even though he was still struggling to breathe. "There's more going on here than just Kopell. By the time it is over, you'll wish that you'd died here."
Angel just turned around and walked away, without giving away the slightest hint that he thought the demon might be right.