Part 9 Departures and Arrivals

"So you're sure you don't want someone to go with you Wills?" Questioned Alex.

"Nah I've got it covered. They've already got Angelus locked up. I only have to run down there and do a quick re-soul."

"I can't believe they let Angelus out again. Cordelia knows how dangerous the bastard is. I can't see her wanting to see Angelus ever again." Alex cleared the thoughts away with a shake of his head. "Do you have to go can't you just do the spell from here?"

"We discussed this already. They put his soul in a container to protect it. Somehow it was stolen and I have to track it down first. Plus it takes much less power if I'm closer to the person I'm placing the soul in. I could do it from here, but I would have to be dark veiny Willow again, and no one wants that." 'Me least of all' Willow thought with a mental shudder.

"Can't say I'm happy that your heading down there alone, but do what you have to do and get back. If it looks like you need a hand don't hesitate to call. We are only a few hours away, less if Dawn is driving."

"Stop worrying, I'll be fine. Look I gotta go. See you in a day or two."

"Be careful."

"Always."

Alex watched Willow drive off before heading back into his apartment. "Dawn, did Sam say what time they expected to arrive?"

"Sometime around four. Said she would call when they got in and we could come over and help unload the truck."

"Have you seen their place yet?"

"We jogged past it this morning sleepyhead. It was that blue two story place with the arched windows I pointed out to you." Joked Dawn

"That was why you pointed it out. I thought you were hinting that you wanted a bigger place."

Dawn replied with a smirk. "If I wanted a bigger place we would already be moving. But lucky for you I'm quite happy here in your apartment."

"Lucky me." Walking up behind Dawn he wrapped his arms around her resting his chin on her shoulder. Looking at the laptop screen he asked her, "What exactly are you working on now dear?"

Dawn took his left hand in hers and wove their fingers together before grabbing the mouse with her right. "Got a couple of things running. Since you got me copies of Giles' watcher journals from the past couple of months I started to analyze the vampire's movements. I've plotted all the locations where Buffy has slain vampires during that period. As well I've plotted out the location of any deaths due to 'gang members on PCP'. I've got it running through a sim right now looking for patterns.

"Now that we've got net access here I've done the research on the SGC. In this reality Kawalski didn't survive long. Without someone he trusted to take over SG-1 O'Neill declined the promotion to head up Star Gate Command. Hammond is still the head, and I think we can trust him."

Alex accepted Dawn's assessment of Hammond. If she trusted him despite her hatred of the SGC then he had to be a pretty decent guy.

Dawn broke through his thoughts as she continued her rundown.

"I've put in a material transfer request and the second stargate should be shipped to the SGC this week. We were lucky that the second one is still available here, not traded away to the Chinese as a political bargaining chip. I also have a shipment of sheet steel and the electromagnets you wanted enroute. The magnets were tough to get, they aren't exactly off the shelf you know. Fortunately the latest fusion project was having funding problems and I hijacked their order. They are almost exactly what we were looking for."

Bringing up another window she continued on, "Now I'm not to sure about this here, I pulled up some of the com traffic in the intelligence community. I couldn't decipher ninety nine percent of the stuff, but the routing of some of the traffic was interesting. There have been a lot of hits to our files. A lot more than we were expecting. I even tracked two back, one as far as the Pentagon backbone and the other to Langley. It's the ones that I couldn't track that concern me.

With a shiver Alex silently agreed with Dawn. If she couldn't find out who had viewed their files it was likely section. But why the multiple hits if it was section? And why hadn't Section done anything yet.

"I sent a viral data sieve out to locate any documentation related to us. I got back a couple of hits this morning while you were shopping. The first one came from Riley's CO. Part of his transfer orders included a change of command structure. It names you as one of Riley's commanding officers."

"Any idea of how that came about? I'm not even in the military and they put me in command of a Major. Not seeing the logic here."

"That's from the second hit. The viral picked it up in Langley. Some secretary didn't encrypt her files fast enough and it got a bite. It looks like the DDO requested that Finn be transferred to Sunnydale and placed at your disposal. They are using him to discretely keep an eye on us.

"In addition the viral reported dozens of other hits that I was unable to retrieve. Our presence is causing a big stir in the intelligence community. We've got their attention and right now they don't know what to make of us."

"Could be they are trying to figure out who we work for. You know how it goes. No one wants to piss of another agency by treading on their territory or assaulting their agents. We'll be safe until they figure out that we are independents. With luck we'll be fine until this thing with the First is over."

Alex sighed, "If it wasn't for the need to protect the potentials we could go and settle things with section ourselves. There is no point in hiding anymore, we've attracted their interest and sooner or later they will send a team."

Dawn leaned back into Alex's embrace. "We'll be ready for that. There is no way that I'm letting them take us back."

"We'll be ready." He repeated. "What do you have planned for the rest of the day? We've got a few hours till Riley gets in."

"I was going to wait for the sim to finish, then review the patrol scenarios it presents with Giles. But it won't be done for hours yet. Why what have you got planned?"

"I was hoping to spend some time with my fiancé, just the two of us."

"Oh and what exactly would the two of you be doing?" She asked as she turned towards him with an amused smirk.

"Well I picked up some strawberries and chocolate sauce when I was shopping, but I'm not sure what to do with them, as someone ate all the ice-cream." He mumbled as he nibbled on her earlobe

"Perhaps your fiancé can think of something. Where did you put them?"

"If M'lady would follow me I'll show you."

Dragging her from her chair by their entwined hands he led her to their bedroom.

Birkoff was pissed. His expressions had skipped right past 'kill the bastard' and moved well into 'cut out his heart with a dull spoon. A very dull spoon.'

He'd spent the last ten minutes chasing down a viral data sieve. He'd been forced to offline Section computers for the entire duration to prevent the viral from sending out information. Whoever built it was clever. The viral had placed itself on every computer and half the PADs within the first thirty seconds. It leafed through 80 of section files and 25 of the backups before he had eradicated it.

Now he had to explain to Operations why he had off lined section in the middle of an op. The team in Skopje had survived with one WIA but that was irrelevant. For ten minutes Section had been unable to gather information, track personnel or communicate with their field operatives.

Running a quick system check he verified that the modified antiviral was in place and his system was clean. Checking the logs he confirmed that he had prevented the viral from transmitting anything out of Section. When he checked the origin of the virus his face twisted in utter hatred. "God Damnit Hillenger."

Operations was approaching systems a vague look of disappointment in his eyes. As he got close he heard Birkoff cursing out Hillenger. The disappointment faded to be replaced by a glimmer of curiosity. Birkoff would have a good excuse for off lining if Hillenger and Oversight were involved. Perhaps he wouldn't have to move his status towards abeyance after all. He carefully masked his curiosity as he stepped into systems.

"Birkoff. My office now."

Birkoff punched a couple more keys dumping the log files to a PAD before following Operations back to the perch.

"I want an explanation Birkoff. Section does not go dark without my approval."

"There wasn't time sir. During Hillengers latest search for data he introduced a viral into Section. It was searching for information on the Sunnydale people and set to transmit the data location when found. It would have compromised Section."

"You are sure that it was Hillenger?" If Birkoff had evidence of a breach this serious he could use it against George. A little blackmail to keep him out of Section one or even to give him a foothold in Oversight itself. The other Section's wouldn't tolerate such an abuse of their security.

"Absolutely. The method of entry was the same as before." Birkoff was calming down and was starting to look uncomfortable. "The trouble is the viral didn't originate with Oversight. I haven't had a chance to positively identify the source but it looks like it was Sunnydale. If I can confirm then Sunnydale isn't as strongly affiliated with Oversight as we believed."

"So Oversight is infected with a viral that is transmitting data to a third party."

"Correct."

"And the suspected third party is running on a system you appear to have designed"

Birkoff frowned in disapproval, "It looks that way. I still have to confirm the identity of the third party."

"Get me that data. Follow it up. I want to know everything that Oversight knows about Sunnydale." Operations barked the command.

Birkoff turned and quickly headed to the door.

Greg was staring at his computer confusion written all over his face. He'd just gone back into Birkoff's system when it disappeared. He'd spent the last ten minutes trying every trick he knew just to locate it again.

Now suddenly it was back, and the port he usually accessed Section One through was blocked. As a matter of fact every time he touched Section his process was terminated. That didn't make sense, Birkoff used more finesse than just killing processes. Trying a different route he hit the same wall. Whatever Birkoff changed caused the Section One computers to drop him immediately.

He was still struggling an hour later when Oversight walked up to him flanked by two operative.

"Mr. Hillenger, I'm afraid my initial assessment of you was in error. I have been informed by Data storage that Oversight has been leaking like a sieve for the past three hours. Your services are insufficient and are no longer required. Would you please accompany these two gentlemen?"

"No. I can fix it, just give me one minute."

"You've had three hours while someone has obtained our entire data structure. Your time has past."

As the two operatives dragged Hillenger off for disposal he was still begging for a chance to fix the mistake.

Gesturing to the woman who walked up behind him George began. "I appreciate 'Ones' willingness to assist with the situation. Please take whatever corrective actions you feel you need."

Nodding Quinn pulled out a PAD. "It will just take a moment to install the software, but with a system as large as yours it may take several minutes to clean. I would recommend going dark until the procedure is complete."

Oversight looked around. "The damage is done. They have had three hours in our system what is another few minutes compared to the losses if we went dark."

Quinn shrugged, "Your choice. Shall I begin then?"

Oversight nodded then spoke to the three other people still in the area. "Observe her. If she does anything to further compromise us contain her. If not you may at least learn something."

Without changing his expression George turned and walked away. You would never be able to tell from his face but his temper was boiling. Paul was blackmailing him, forcing him to fill key positions with personnel loyal to 'One'. How long before Paul made a move for Oversight himself. He had no doubt that section had taken full advantage of the hole on oversights security as well. If they had time to send a systems specialist they had time to acquire copies of all his files. If it hadn't been for Hillenger's incompetence this would never have happened. It was just a shame you could only kill a person once.

The ringing phone was answered by an out of breath Alex. "Hello."

"Harris, you up for moving some boxes?"

"Finn. Your early."

"Nooo. Actually we ran a little late. Had a flat on the U-Haul and traffic was brutal." Noticing the panting in the receiver he smirked, "Not interrupting anything are we?"

"Huh, oh interrupting? No we were just exercising. We'll be over after we've showered. We're a little sticky… err… Stinky."

There was a muffled laugh in the background. Riley tactfully chose to ignore the last slip.

"Exercising. Uh huh. Well don't rush on our account. There will still be boxes to unload when you get here, and there's plenty of time to sundown."

"Sundown right, see you in a few."

The sudden dial tone caused Riley to break out in a laugh.

Sam walked over with a box full of dishes destined for the cupboard beside the phone. "What's so funny?"

"Alex and Dawn will be a few minutes they were in the middle of exercising when I called.

"I hope you told him to take more than a few minutes."

"I did, but I don't think it was really necessary. He thought we were early when I called."

Sam smirked, "As interesting as your CO's sex life is, you have boxes to move. Now get to it. I want everything in the house before sunset. That gives you a little under three hours, so move it Mister."

Operations had just finished reviewing the data acquired from Oversight. Birkoff had again exceeded expectations and retrieved all of oversights files. Most of the information would be reviewed later, the sunnydale information was his primary concern right now. It was a real eye opener. Demons and vampires were real. He was still having difficulty wrapping his mind around that. If Oversight had presented it without any backup evidence he would have questioned George's sanity.

Still it would have been nice to have had the information available to him and it wouldn't have been hard to obtain a vampire for proof. He could easily recall dozens of incidents over the years where teams had been lost to terrorists that wouldn't die. At the time they had put it down to a combination of body armor and drugs that allowed them to keep fighting despite lethal wounds.

'Damnit George how many of my people died because you couldn't share. It was your job to make sure that we could do ours. We'll see if you can hold your position after the next meeting of the sections.'

Shrugging off the unproductive thought he focused again on the data in front of him.

The data on Sunnydale and Harris' team was astounding. Oversight had apparently had a person on site for well over six years now, and from the quality of the reports was intimately familiar with Harris and his people. The journal format of the reports however was unusual and they seemed to focus on Buffy Summers a little too much. Then again everything to do with Sunnydale had been unusual why should the informant report things in the normal way.

Bringing up the file on Harris' funding raised further questions. Why tie Harris' directly to the Oversight budget. Section never did that, ever. Tying your entire budget to a single person was unthinkable. The justification listed was insufficient in his view. 'Vetted and capable person. Will do what needs to be done if all Hell breaks loose. Contingency.' Sounded more like quotes from a personnel report than justification for tying a multi-billion dollar account to a single individual. Looking closer at the account he discovered that the link wasn't established until the summer after Harris graduated.

Bringing up the records for that summer he found a discrepancy. The informant claimed that Harris had spent the summer in Oxnard when his car broke down. However Oversight had detailed records of his activities in Phoenix, Denver, and Vegas. Section six had even done a psyche evaluation during his brief stop in Roswell. He'd get Birkoff to chase down the specifics of the discrepancies later.

Operations was getting frustrated nothing in the reports or files gave him the information he was looking for.

How did you get Section One cell phones? What are you doing with a computer running an operating system Birkoff designed? Why did you change your personal information? And why the hell were Riley Finn and his entire team reassigned to you Mr. Harris?

Even combining everything they knew with everything that Birkoff had swiped from Oversight they still had huge gaps in their knowledge. The only way to fix that problem was to send someone to observe.

Pulling up a list of available personnel he started picking a team. He selected three abeyance operatives, as he didn't want to risk quality people on a mission so far outside normal mission parameters.

However the team leader had to be capable of making the right decisions and take appropriate actions in abnormal situations. That narrowed the field to Michael and Davenport. Normally he'd send Michael but with Nikita's recent disappearing and reappearing act his efficiency had dropped. Davenport was the only choice then.

It would be another three hours before Davenport was back from Prague. Giving him nine hours to debrief and rest that left twelve hours to prepare a mission profile. They could use the sim that Birkoff had found in Sunnydale as a starting point. It actually contained quite a lot of useful information.

Bringing up the mail system on his consol he quickly sent a memo to Birkoff with instructions to prepare a packet on the Sunnydale wildlife including the necessary survival techniques. There should be enough information in oversights version of the Initiative files to do the job.

Sending another memo to Walter he attached the Initiative files on Vampires with instructions to prepare hunting kits for a four man team.

Even if most of the team members were in abeyance he'd at least give them a chance at survival. It was rare but occasionally operatives survived long enough to pull themselves out of abeyance.

Finally he directed the psyche profile to Madeline's system. It would be interesting to hear her analysis of this Harris character.

"Finn where do you want this last box?"

"Basement with the rest of the miscellaneous equipment."

"Miscellaneous equipment. Right. You know you could have just written Guns and Ammo on the boxes and passed them off as a magazine collection."

Riley laughed, "I considered it, but Sam labeled all the boxes. It was either Miscellaneous or an itemized list."

Putting the box down with a stack of others Alex replied, "Good choice. Say when do you report for duty?"

"I have a couple of days to get settled. I am supposed to be available a week from Monday. Why?"

"Well I was planning a field trip, and I was hoping you would join us."

"What kind of field trip? I would like the chance to unpack before we start chasing demons all over the country."

"Not that kind of field trip. I need to talk to some people. Thing is it would be better if I had a team especially someone who was military. What do you know about Cheyenne Mountain?"

"NORAD Hq.?"

"No underneath NORAD."

Riley's eye twitched, "Something to do with Deep Space Radar Telemetry. Or so I've heard."

Alex smirked. "Good so we are on the same page. I want to go and visit them. Ask them if they can do us a favor."

Riley sighed, how the hell did Harris know about a top-secret project like the SGC. He'd only found out when his team discovered a sarcophagus while stopping a demonic ritual in an Aztec pyramid. "What kind of favor are you going to ask and how painful is it going to be?"

"Well I was looking to ask them for their Naquadria and the use of their Stargates for a day or three."

Riley choked, "Are you insane. There is no way they are going to hand over their Naquadria. Not to me and especially not to you. And letting you use their gates, not a hope in hell. I don't even want to hear how you expect to talk them into it. Oh wait yes I do, I could use a good laugh." The words whatever resources he requires were running through Riley's head. He couldn't just ask for an armored division, no Harris has to ask the impossible.

"Hmm. What to tell General Hammond? Well I thought I would start with the truth and go from there."

"What your going to walk into a top secret facility babbling about demons and vampires and then ask to borrow their facilities for a couple of days. Oh and I almost forgot, you want to get your hands on a material that is more dangerous than Plutonium. You are insane."

"It took you long enough to realize that. But anyways I think this can work. We'll start with the basics, Time and dimensional travel. Then throw in an imminent global threat on the order of the Gao'uld."

"And you think that is going to do it?"

"Read crazier stuff in their mission reports. But if that fails I still have a plan B fallback. Actually plan B is easier to pull off but the chance of overall mission success is smaller."

"You still haven't told me why you need to do this. Must be a serious big bad if you need Naquadria to take it out."

Alex shrugged, "This won't take it out. The goal is to make it vulnerable and let its other enemies destroy it. This one is so far out of our league that we normally wouldn't stand a chance. We are fighting the First Evil this time. The one who corrupted Lucifer, the light bringer and brought about a war in heaven."

Riley paled. "Your kidding right. Please tell me you're kidding."

"Can't"