stakeout chapter 12

Downtown Sunnydale

Sunnydale, CA

Nov 10, 1998

3:32 PM

Xander was looking dubiously at the candy bar in his hand as he walked down the street. While there were few junk foods that he did not tear into with voracious abandon, this band candy was starting to get to him. Snyder had pressed a box of forty chocolate bars into his hands and now he was trying to figure out how he was going to sell them. He had to do it soon - he was already down three bars that he had eaten that he would have to pay for with his lunch money tomorrow.

Selling at the school was out - every other student was carrying a box of candy. His friends were out for the same reason. And unless the candy had "Jim Beam" on the label, his folks were pretty much out.

Sighing, Xander shifted the knapsack on his shoulder and dropped the candy bar back into the cardboard box. Things would work out, they usually did. Now he had to go and buy some wooden dowels to carve into stakes; Buffy and Faith tore through them like there was no tomorrow.

Not hearing the car pull up to a stop alongside him, Xander looked up when he hear the short honk of a car horn. It was a blue Chevy Caprice, one with a driver that he instantly recognized though the open passenger window.

"Hey Xander, need a lift?" Tim Harris leaned over to peer through the window, the smile unmistakable even with his oversized mustache.

"Hey, Uncle Tim! I can always use a lift." Xander grinned and opened the passenger door, tossing his knapsack and box of chocolates into the back seat before climbing into the front seat. "Whatcha doing out here, Uncle Tim?"

Tim Harris flinched slightly. "Xander, I think you are old enough that you don't have to call me 'Uncle' any more. Just Tim is fine."

Xander grinned again. "OK, what are you doing out here, Just Tim?"

Tim growled, but smiled at the same time. "Smart ass. I had an appointment with a supplier here in town, he going out of business, so I'm buying a bunch of his stock. I was thinking of expanding the inventory, the store has been doing well. Where are you going?"

"I have to buy a bunch of materials for a school project; I was headed over to Smith's Hardware to get them." Xander was usually detailed to buy supplies for the gang, so he had a cover story for when people asked him as to why we would buy wooden dowels, whetstones and other items.

"Smith's Hardware?!?!?! Why the heck you going to that old coot's store when you have my store to go to?" Tim mock-glared at Xander, who pretended to cringe backward.

"Well, if your store wasn't on the other side of town, and I had a ride, I would, but Smith's is 10 minutes away on foot and your store is a half hour away by bus." Xander was speaking in a fake whiny voice, causing Tim to give a short bark of laughter.

"You've got your ride today, sonny, I won't have you shopping at my competition." Tim turned the steering wheel, steering away from downtown Sunnydale. "Gotta support the family business, you know."

Tim was looking away from Xander, so he didn't see the faint bitter smile that quickly morphed into a more mirthful version. "Yep, gotta support the family. Speaking of which..."

Looking back at Xander, Tim gave him a concerned look. "Something wrong?"

Xander gave him a lopsided smile. "I have a bunch of band candy I have to unload. Could I sucker you... convince you to buy a couple of bars?" The look on Xander's face was as innocent as he could make it, considering his joking slip up in making his sales pitch.

"Kiddo, you've got a lot to learn about making a sale. Rule One: Don't let your feelings for the customer affect the sale pitch. Rule Two: You have to sell the product like you really believe in it. Why do you think no one trusts car sales men?" Xander smiled at the last part, as it brought to mind the unctuous smile of Joe Isuzu from the TV commercials.

"OK, let's start again. Hi!, I'm selling this wonderful chocolate confection on behalf of my high school marching band, it contains these wonderful artificial preservatives that will not only cause your skin to break out to the point of leprosy, but keep you from having to get embalmed when you keel over from the sugar shock." The grin on Xander's face while making this incredible spiel was bright enough to dust a vampire.

"Oh crap, you've got to be kidding me." Tim was laughing so hard that driving was beginning to be a problem. "How much is this stuff cost?"

"Only one dollar per bar! And for the low price of five dollars, buy three get two free!!!" Xander was really getting into the 'car salesman' mode of thinking.

Tim snorted. "Yeah, right. How much of this wonderful chocolate do you have?"

Xander reached into the back seat and grabbed the box of candy, holding it in his hands and shaking it. Scowling in thought, Xander stated gravely, "It feels like this box contains about... 37 bars of candy. So for the one time only price of $36.95, you can not only get this wonderful chocolate, you get this lovely white carrying case to transport it in."

Shaking his head, Tim pulled the Caprice into the parking lot alongside Harris Hardware. Dropping the transmission into 'Park,' Tim shut the engine off and got out of the car, Xander following suit on the opposite side. "Tell you what, I'll take twenty of them only because I have twenty bucks I was going to spend on smokes and booze otherwise. I'll see if I can find someone I don't like that I can give them to. That way I can have the pleasure of watching 'them' break out in zits and bounce off walls from the sugar high."

"Sounds good to me," Xander responded, walking up alongside of Tim as they walked toward the store. "Don't you eat chocolate yourself?"

"Nope, when I was your age I had a bad skin problem, cutting off the chocolate helped a lot. I'll give the candy to some of my customers and employees instead." Tim stopped next to the cash register, nodding at the clerk ringing up a customer. "Hey Joe, you remember my nephew Xander?"

"Hey there Xander, been a while since I've seen you," the elderly man called out. "Still hanging out with that cute little redhead?"

Xander came to a dead stop, his mind racing for a moment before calming down. Joe Holbrook had worked at his uncle's store for more than thirty years, and knew both him and Willow from when they were both in kindergarten. His innocent question about his longtime friend did not mean that his secret was on his face for all to see. That was of the good, since he knew that if anyone found out about "the Fluke" he could look forward to a size 8 boot print on his butt courtesy of Oz, not to mention that Cordelia would rip his face off with her bare hands. Come to think of it, Oz would rip his face off for real if he found out about it at the wrong time of the month.

Forcing a smile on his face Xander replied, "Yeah, Willow and I are still friends. Going to the same high school, in fact."

"Still doing your homework for you?" Joe grinned. Turning toward Tim, Joe explained, "I remember that time that the two of them were cutting out dinosaurs for a class project and Xander's were looking more like amoeba than T-Rexes. Finally Willow had to put her hand over his so that he stayed outside the lines when he cut."

Listening to the two older men chuckle at the story, Xander flashed back to the memory of Willow's small hand guiding his own as he used the safety scissors to cut the construction paper for the mobile they were making. Which brought to mind feeling Willow's hand in his as they kissed in her room, her hand sliding from his and up to his face, holding him close to her as her tongue slipped into his mouth; which *then* brought to mind feeling Willow's hand going up his t-shirt against his bare back while kissing in the library stacks.

Mentally shaking that image from his mind, Xander looked around the store, noting that not much had changed. The spray paint cases in the back, the tools on the left, building materials on the right. Dropping his knapsack and box of chocolate on the desk behind the counter he said, "I'm going to grab the stuff I need, Tim. I'll be back in a minute." Seeing his uncle nod, Xander walked into the building materials section.

Tim looked over at Joe to find him looking back at him with a contemplative expression on his face. After a moment Joe said in a lower voice, "It looked like he grew up real good. Doesn't really look like his daddy, does he?"

"Thankfully, no," Tim replied softly as well. Xander wasn't as tall as Tony Harris; he had inherited Jessica's dark hair and eyes. But there was also something missing from his face - the anger and resentment that was always present on his parents' faces.

"If I had to say, he looks more like you than anything. Sure he's isn't your long lost kid there?" Joe was smiling slightly.

"I'm pretty sure not." There was no love lost between Tim and Tony Harris, and a measure of pity for Jessica. But Xander has been the only reason Tim had kept coming around, even if it was for a day or two when he had been on leave from the Army.

"So what is Xander doing here? He going to buy anything?" Joe and Tim watched as Xander walked toward the register, some four foot long three quarter inch dowels in his hands along with what looked to be a couple of hacksaw blades.

"Yeah. Some kind of school project, I guess." The flat tone of voice made the older man look at Tim, who had a slightly tired look on his face which disappeared when he turned to look at Joe. "Xander gets the employee discount, Joe."

"Okay, chief." The clerk took the merchandise from Xander once he got there, then his eyes widened slightly as he saw his boss take two twenty dollar bills from his jeans pocket and hand them to the surprised teen.

"For the chocolate, Xander," Tim explained.

"But you had said that you only wanted twenty bars, Tim." Xander looked from the money to his uncle doubtfully.

"I just remembered someone I really don't like; I'll give the chocolates to their kids, then watch them try and keep up with them." Xander smiled at the image Tim had brought to mind.

"You are a mean, mean man, Tim. Remind me not to tick you off."

"Don't you forget it, Xander."

Underground Storm Drain Seven,

Sunnydale, CA,

Nov 11. 1998

8:37 PM

Gabriel Martin tried to keep his heavy breathing down as he ran behind Tim Harris. Matt Parker brought up the drag, and that was it. Only half the Unit was on its way to a hot zone and if he wasn't sweating already from the run wearing full gear the tactical situation would have done it handily.

Gabriel had shown up early for the nightly briefing and didn't find it unusual to see that Steve Angelo and Scott Kelly working at the computers they had set up at the opposite side of the classroom. What was kind of weird was the amount of giggling that was going on - it sounded like the two deputies were kids doing something that they should not have been doing. But Gabriel was used to strange behavior from the Twins, so he didn't realize something was wrong until the two started actually fighting each other.

His head snapping up as he heard the crash of Scott throwing Steve over a table, Gabriel ran over to the computer station just as Tim and Matt burst out of the Armory and Peter Murray ran in from the firing lanes at the sound of the commotion. Separating the two struggling men took two men on each fighter, and they were struggling so hard to break free that they wound up riot cuffing the techs with plastic zip cuffs hand and foot.

When Gabriel finally was able to find out what the two were fighting about, he couldn't understand what they were talking about; apparently, Tim had brought in a box of school chocolate bars and the Twins had eaten them all. Scott and Steve were actually fighting for the last one when the other team members broke them apart. It wasn't until Peter spoke up that Gabriel realized how serious this had become.

"Uh, boss, we don't have access to the military computer network, right?" Peter was doing something that Gabriel had never seen a black man do - turn pale.

"No, why do you ask?" Gabriel started to turn pale himself as he realized what was on the screens of the computers Scott and Steve had been using.

"Then why do we have the Air Defense display for NORAD Missile Command on the computer?"

After a mad scramble to disconnect the computer modems before the military could trace the hack back to them, Gabriel and the rest were trying to question the still giggling techs when the first bit of luck for the night happened - the computerized phone tap on the Sunnydale High School Library kicked on.

The Twins had rigged the tap and the computers running it to activate only when certain names were spoken or certain voiceprints were identified. Right now the computer screen indicated that Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg were on the line.

After listening to Summers and Rosenberg talk about how the band candy had been cursed and that the whole town had been affected, every sober person in the classroom was speechless. Even the Twins had stopped giggling and looked almost serious.

It wasn't until Summers stated that the band candy had been distributed as a diversion so that a tribute to a demon could be performed and what the nature of the tribute was that everyone turned pale. Upon hearing that the most likely source of the tribute was the Sunnydale Hospital newborn care unit, the deputies broke into action.

Leaving Peter to watch over the two restrained deputies and to continue monitor the taps and the police radio net, Gabriel, Tim and Matt pulled on full tactical gear and ran to the Suburban parked outside the Old Range Building, burning rubber as they sped out of the parking area.

As Matt slalomed around the various car wreaks and bonfires on the streets of Sunnydale, Gabriel was on the cell phone to Sheriff Greer. After a quick sitrep, Greer agreed to put the Sheriff's SWAT team on alert for possible deployment under the guise of offering support to the Sunnydale Police Department to help quell the disorders taking place there. Both men knew that SPD would request help only if the whole town was aflame, but it gave them a pretext to get everyone ready. And they would need the help; with only three men currently on the case, any assault on a nest would be bordering on suicidal.

Coming up on Sunnydale Hospital, Peter called from the Old Range Building. Summers and Rosenberg had talked on the phone again; confirming that four newborns were missing and that they had a possible location on them. Just as the truck was arriving at the hospital, the deputies saw a battered Jeep Cherokee speeding out of the lot. Recognizing the driver as Buffy Summers, Matt immediately slowed down. Knowing that Summers had a better chance of finding the tribute than they did, Gabriel directed Matt to keep following Summers.

His left hand on Tim's shoulder and Matt's hand on his own, Gabriel walked as silently as possible as the three deputies moved toward the end of the storm drain they were in. Standing still as Tim reconnoitered the room ahead, Gabriel and Matt moved up once they saw Tim give the "come up" and "be quiet" hand signals.

Once Gabriel saw what lay ahead of them his heart sank. There were four figures in robes standing around a table that had the four infants on it. Further to the side were two figures that appeared to be dressed in business suits. One was a white male who was talking on a cell phone while the other male who was talking to the figures in robes appeared to be black.

This was the worst kind of situation that Stakeout could find itself in; being shorthanded, hostages, tangos of unidentified types, and the wrong type of weapons to deal with them. Only Tim had a precision weapon, his SIG 551 assault carbine. Matt and Gabriel had their MP5K-PDWs, which due to their short barrels had an effective accuracy range of 15 yards max. Beside that, the only other effective weapons they had were their stakes and edged weapons.

Using the hand signals that Tim had insisted they all learn, Gabriel rapidly signed -Have to call for backup-

-Out of time- Tim replied back. -We go now-

-Don't have weapons or men- Gabriel signed quickly.

-ETA backup?- Tim responded. Gabriel's shoulders slumped slightly. Even with the SWAT team on alert, it would take an hour for them to get there and be ready to engage. They didn't have an hour; they didn't have ten minutes.

-You have plan?- Gabriel had never been afraid to ask his subordinates for ideas, especially when they had more experience in the area.

-Distraction on side, charge in, headshot first, go blades close in- The Teams had learned the hard way that they were better off with edged weapons close in with tangos, since they did more devastating damage than an in-and-out bullet wound could. Short of a head shot or a shotgun blast, vampires were hard to put down with conventional bullets.

-Distraction how?- Gabriel asked. Tim pulled out a flash-bang grenade from his tactical vest and Gabriel nodded. The grenade would cause a brilliant flash and an extremely loud explosion, but no fragments or shrapnel to injure friendlies.

-Target?- Gabriel was asking where Tim would throw his grenade.

-Leaders- It took a moment for Gabriel to realize that Tim meant the two males in suits. It made sense; not only would the blast disorient everyone, the leaders would not guide the defense against the attackers.

-OK. Stack up- Gabriel glanced out of the tunnel and saw that a robed figure was anointing the infants. He pulled down his balaclava mask so that only his eyes were visible and watched the other two men do the same.

Once the three men were standing hands on shoulders in an assault stack, Tim, who was standing at the head of the short line, gave the signal to count down to the attack with his left hand, the flash-bang ready to be thrown in his right. Rocking forward slightly to get the stack synchronized to move in unison, Tim counted down. -Five, four, three...-

At three, Buffy Summers dropped down through a manhole onto the ground behind the four robed figures and with a sunny smile said, "Hi!"

Immediately throwing up the -Hold Fast!- sign, Tim watched as Summers attacked the robed figures with an incredible array of roundhouse kicks, punches and blocks. Two more people dropped on though the manhole and moved toward the infants, intent on rescuing them.

Looking back at his commander and team mate, Tim rapidly signed -No guns, flash bang and blades only- Tim and Matt nodded agreement; with friendlies intermixed with tangos, they could not risk shooting unless close up.

Looking forward again, Tim saw that Summers was fighting two tangos at once while the two other people were trying to fend off the other two tangos. Rocking and counting down again, at -GO- the three deputies rushed into the room as Tim threw the flash-band at the two suits standing off at the side. With a massive roar the exploding grenade blew the two men backward, drawing the instant attention of the fighters who then saw three masked men running full-bore at them.

Matt and Gabriel had drawn their edged weapons in the tunnel. Slashing diagonally, Gabriel's machete took off a tango's hand. Throwing himself backward and screaming, the vampire threw himself backward to dodge another swipe of the razor sharp blade and fell into a shallow pool. Matt swung his replica Roman short sword and caught his vampire in the throat, causing a major spray of blood and a gargling cry but no dusting. Swinging again, this time from the other direction, the blade cut through the neck and spine of the vampire, finally dusting it.

Thrusting out with her stake, Summers was able to dust one vampire as Tim was drawing his own edged weapon. Spinning the Gurka kukri back in his hand, Tim swung the weapon forward. The force of the heavy bladed knife spinning forward was such that the short curved weapon chopped through the vampire's arm below the elbow, the limb dropping and dusting on the ground. As the vampire drew breath in to shriek in pain, Summers' stake slammed into his heart from behind, dusting it.

As Tim looked over at Summers and saw the questions forming in her eyes, there was a low rumbling sound that rapidly built in intensity.

"What the hell is that? The man in the t-shirt called out, a British accent apparent.

Looking toward one of the other drainage pipes, everyone saw the bleeding vampire standing in the middle of the shallow pool just before a giant demon snake appeared in the pipe, its body almost filling the large tunnel. With a roar, the snake grabbed the wounded screaming vampire with its mouth and dragged him back into the tunnel.

"Lurconis, I'm thinking." Summers replied.

Hearing the rumbles begin again, but this time building up faster, Tim called out, "Grab the kids, he's coming back!!!"

As Gabriel, Matt, the British guy and the older woman each grabbed a kid and moved as fast as they could away from the tunnel the demon snake had appeared from, Tim drew his assault carbine forward and brought it to the ready position. There was no way a weapon like that would stop the giant snake, but hopefully it could distract it long enough for the others to get clear.

Summers realized the same thing as well. Jumping up at the ceiling, she grabbed onto a gas pipe and managed to break one end free. Just as the giant snake appeared at the end of the tunnel, Summers pointed the high pressure pipe at the snake and yelled at Tim, "Light me!!!"

Thrusting the muzzle of his carbine into the gas stream, Tim fired a short burst, the flash of the shots igniting the gas and turning the pipe into a blowtorch. Summers aimed it at the demon snake, the roaring flames causing it to shriek in agony. She keep pouring it on, driving the snake back into its tunnel until finally the shrieks faded away.

"This isn't the end of this." Both Tim and Summers looked up to see the black vampire looking down at them through a manhole. "There's going to be hard times ahead." A moment later he vanished.

"They never just leave; they always have to say something," Summers muttered, more to herself than to Tim. He watched as Summers carefully bent the gas pipe double, the steel folding in her hands until the pipe was crimped shut, the flames at the end going out.

"You and I need to talk, mystery man." Tim glanced down at Summers, seeing a look of determination on her face.

"I thought you just said that you wanted us to leave without saying anything?" Tim could see the other people were walking back toward them, the older woman now holding two infants, while the Brit was empty handed.

"Nuh uh, I don't like players I don't know on my field. People who wear masks don't inspire confidence." Tim smirked at the arrogance of the statement before realizing that with his mask on, there was no way for the blonde Slayer to see it.

"It's not like you have a choice, Ms. Summers." Watching the girl stiffen at the use of her name, Tim silently damned himself for the slip up.

"I bloody well think we do, mate." Watching the Brit swagger up to him, Tim knew that use of force was becoming more likely.

Slinging his carbine up under his arm, Tim turned to face him with his hands empty. "We're not at liberty to discuss who we are. Let's just leave it at that." Mentally Tim groaned at his own statement; he sounded like every B-movie spook in creation.

"And if we chose to make it our business?" Seeing the smirk on the Brit's face, Tim knew he was going to make a move. Therefore he was not surprised when the Brit grabbed for his balaclava, intending to rip it off his head.

Juking sideways, Tim snapped his left arm across the Brit's, spinning him sideways and away. Seeing him snarl and rush toward him, Tim waited a couple of heartbeats before rapidly drawing his kukri.

Hearing Summers and the older woman cry out, "Giles!!!", Tim sidestepped and as Giles went past him, spun the kukri into a reverse grip and smacked the Brit on the side of his head with the pommel, dropping him on the ground.

Spinning the kukri into a regular grip again, Tim watched as Summers quickly checked out the Brit, her inspection confirming his words. "He's just knocked out, he'll be fine." Seeing the anger in her eyes, Tim sheathed the blade and called out to his team mates, "Guys, put the kids on the table."

Once the two infants were down and the older woman was standing next to them, the two men moved away from them and following the casually given sign by Tim, moved back toward the tunnel they had entered through. Tim himself moved back toward the tunnel, careful not to turn his back on Summers.

"We trust you can get the kids back to the hospital, OK?" Seeing the short angry nod from the blonde girl, Tim continued speaking. "Sorry about this, maybe another time. Just keep in mind; we're on the same side here."

Turning into the tunnel, Tim still heard Summers mutter, "Sure, same side. Right." Moving at a jog, Tim and the other went down the tunnel, back toward the Suburban.

Old Range Building,

Sunnydale County Sheriff's Academy,

Nov 12, 1998

7:30 PM

Tim stayed standing as the rest of the deputies filed out of the classroom. Debriefing for the night before had not taken long, as it was most a review of stuff that everyone already knew about. Steve and Scott looked a little green around the gills, not to mention what looked to be a breakout of acne on their faces. Tim was more than glad that his own skin problems had kept him from eating any of the band candy.

Once the meeting was over, Gabriel had asked that Tim stay for a moment to talk. Even though the use of force the night before had not been over the line, Tim was sure that he was going to get dressed down for it.

Seeing the look on Tim's face, Gabriel waved him over to a chair and leaned back in his own. "This isn't that kind of talk, Tim. Relax."

As Tim began to relax a little, Gabriel pulled a plain manila envelope from his desk and handed it over to Tim. Just as he was about to open it, Gabriel held up his hand.

"Once Steve and Scott sobered up from the candy this morning, I talked to them about what they were doing in the military computer network. Believe it or not, they were working on a request of mine before the candy made them wonky. I had asked them to look into any unusual weapons being used in Sunnydale because Buffy Summers had mentioned using a rocket launcher. They managed to get this out of Army Criminal Investigation Division archives before they decided it was more fun to hack into NORAD."

Tim opened the envelope and drew out several pages of a computer printed report. Looking at the header, the subject immediately drew his attention.

Theft and Recovery of AT-4 Anti-Tank Weapon, Sunnydale National Guard Armory.

Reading through the report quickly, Tim came to the interrogation of the sentry on duty when the rocket launcher was stolen. Reading the suspect's description, Tim's eyes widened.

Looking up at Gabriel, all he said was, "Read the section on the recovery of the weapon."

Skipping ahead, Tim read the witness statements of the people at Sunnydale Mall where the rocket launcher had been used and left behind. One witness gave a description of the young people whom she had seen use the weapon.

Once Tim looked up again, Gabriel simply stated, "Now read about the disposition of the case."

Tim flipped to the back of the report and read the few paragraphs. Slowly he looked up and stated, "You've got to be kidding me."

Gabriel shook his head. "No. Because there had been a large-scale weapons theft ring running out of the Armory, and one of the suspects in that case matched the description given, this was lumped into the case they already had. The suspects were convicted for stealing military property and arms trafficking and sentenced to long terms at hard labor."

"So the military and the government are no longer looking for the people responsible for stealing the rocket launcher?" Tim asked slowly.

Gabriel shook his head. "No. It's all over. Scott cross-checked the report to see if they were implicated in any other criminal activity and nothing came back. The only thing out there is that some biological samples from the mall were sent to a military lab to be tested and they were determined to be non-human. So except for that, this case was closed."

"So they're off the hook? I'll be damned." Tim shook his head in disbelief.

"If you live right, you probably won't be." Gabriel smiled for the first time. "I'm going to need that back."

Tim handed the report to Gabriel, who put it back in the manila envelope. Switching on a paper shredder, Gabriel fed the envelope in and both men watched as its contents were reduced to half inch strips.

"See you at the truck in a minute."

"Gabriel... Thanks."

"For what? We never had that report."

"Thanks anyway."

end stakeout chapter 12