Chapter II
If you don't know where you are going, it doesn't matter what road you take.
--Lewis Carroll
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Buffy walked across the UC Sunnydale Campus with assurance and confidence fairly bursting from every pore. Other students stepped out of her way when they saw her coming. It was almost nine o'clock and she had just a few minutes to get to her freshman psychology class, and she just knew that the evil-bitch-monster-of-death professor was gunning for her.
The commons area had nice wide sidewalks with inlaid stones laid out in pleasing geometrical patterns, which was intended for a delightful view from the Administration Building. Unfortunately for the architect's vision, the students preferred direct paths and ignored the sidewalks. So, ugly tracks were worn into the otherwise perfectly maintained lawn and only the unhurried faculty used the sidewalks. There was talk in the administration about ripping up the sidewalks and laying new ones along the natural paths, but someone pointed out that the students would most likely start using the paths of the old sidewalks then, just to be rebellious, so there the matter stood, irritating the hell of the dean whenever he looked out his office window.
These and other pointless thoughts were coursing through Buffy's head when she started across one of the little narrow streets that wandered pleasantly through the campus, but were rendered nearly useless by the frequent 'NO Parking' signs. So Buffy was surprised by a large black Suburban bearing down on her and she jumped out of the way. Her slayer strength sure would have been required to save her life then, except that the driver of the Suburban also had fast reflexes and had instantly swerved out of Buffy's path. And so Buffy advertised some of her unusual ability in a way that she wished she hadn't. She stared at the SUV as it drove off, noting the license plate number as well as the striking woman driving it.
After her two o'clock class, Buffy headed off to meet the Willow at the Espresso Pump. She noticed the black Suburban that almost ran her down that morning parked along the street between the campus and some old warehouses. She slowed her pace and watched as two people hauled some gear out of the back and into the warehouse. She thought that was mildly curious, but went on her way.
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'Go ahead and do it, apologize later.'
-- Admiral Grace Hopper
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That night, on her regular patrol, Buffy decided to swing by the warehouse where she had seen the black Suburban earlier. She couldn't decide whether it was her Slayer Sense or just curiosity that drove her in that direction, but she had learned long ago to trust her instincts and gut feelings.
When she got to the correct block, there were no vehicles parked on the street. But she saw dim lights inside the abandoned warehouse, which seemed unusual enough to investigate. From the sidewalk by the building, she glanced around to see if the coast was clear and when she didn't see anyone around she leaped fourteen feet into the air and grabbed an old but sturdy cast-iron drainpipe. She climbed the pipe to the roof and flipped over the parapet. It took her several minutes of wandering around on the spacious flat roof to discover an access hatch to the spaces below. The hatch appeared to be fastened from the inside, but she broke it easily and disappeared inside the structure.
Buffy stepped carefully along a catwalk near the ceiling. She couldn't begin to imagine the purpose of these catwalks, but she sure found them useful. Avoiding the too obvious ladder down, she reached out to a steel column, and climbed down to the floor. She had spotted the black Suburban, and some unidentified equipment, but she didn't see anyone, or any thing, for that matter.
After wandering aimlessly around the floor of the cavernous warehouse, strolling in and around stacks of ancient crates and huge rusted machinery of unfathomable purpose, she finally found an open entrance to Sunnydale's capacious tunnel complex, with a couple of power lines running down from a portable generator, alongside the black Chevy. Now that's interesting, she thought, I'd better check it out. And she glanced down to see if there was a landing site, and jumped down.
She knew of this tunnel. Giles and Willow had precisely described it to her after she fought Spike for the Gem of Amara. So she knew this would lead to the crypt of gems and jewels that she and the rest of the Scooby's had been ignoring for reasons that were beyond her. She also figured that Spike and Harmony were long gone, and the people up ahead were either grave robbers or looters, and that there might well be other vampires who took up residence in the meantime. So she continued down the well-marked path, which was lit with temporary lights strung up every so often. These people were making absolutely no effort to be inconspicuous.
However, Buffy could see that there was going to be trouble, since she could see evidence of recent vampire activity. So, keeping her ears tuned, she continued forward, striding down the center of the tunnel like she owned the place.
She passed through what looked to be a vampire's luxury bedroom. She noticed a couple of broken ceramic unicorns and thought, Ha! Harmony's been here. Then she saw the corpse hanging in chains. Oh geez, I knew that guy, he was in High School with us. I really need to stake Harmony one of these days. Inside Buffy was torn up, outside she looked calm and unmoved. After as much death as she has seen, she could compartmentalize to a fare-thee-well.
Passing through the vamp bedroom, as she neared the overhead hole to the crypt she heard voices and stopped to listen.
"Oh Francie, just go out with him, have fun and stop worrying about it! I'm sure he's completely forgotten that whole embarrassing thing by now. Oh, and could you do me a favor and drop off my European History paper to Professor Thibodaux? I completely forgot it this morning in my rush to get to work. It's on my desk, should be the one on top. Thanks Francie, look, I have to go now, the clients are starting to arrive. Bye bye!"
"One of these days you'll have to introduce me to Francie, although I feel like I'm getting to know her just listening to your one-sided conversations."
"Oh hush Dixon, you're not supposed to listen when I'm on the phone."
"How can I not hear you when this place is silent as a tomb?"
"Uh Dix, did you just make a joke?"
"Just a little one Syd."
There was silence for a few minutes, except for the clink of metal on metal as the two continued their search. Finally, Sydney said, "Well, we have to face facts, the Rambaldi Artifact isn't here, not the one in the mission statement anyway. Even though that single page you found may cause Sloane to wet his pants, it isn't the one we were sent to get, nor is it the one that poor Able was murdered for."
"I know Sydney, but when does a mission ever go perfectly? The only thing left is to track down Montague's murderer and see if he still has it."
"What the does CIA want with this Rambaldi crapola anyway, Dix? I mean, it has to be complete and total bullshit. And yet, intelligence agencies all over the world are crazy about this stuff. I can hardly believe that Sloane would pay a million bucks for it, that just doesn't seem like a responsible use of taxpayer dollars."
"Man, ya got me Syd."
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'Don't bother bringing a gun to a fang fight.'
--Buffy Summers
'Join the CIA, see the world, meet interesting, exciting people, and kill them.'
--Anon.
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CIA! Buffy decided to fade back into a convenient hollow and wait patiently while digesting this surprising information. Waiting was a strain, but eventually her targets tired of the crypt and climbed down, rolling up the power cord and lights as they went.
As Sydney and Dixon disappeared around a bend, Buffy stepped out of her hiding place and jumped up into the crypt. She looked around with interest and stepped over to the corpse for a closer look using her little pocket flashlight.
She examined the neck wound and said, "Oh great, I recognize the teeth marks," to the empty space, with a look of exasperation.
She jumped back down and followed the tunnel back towards the warehouse. She stopped for a moment and looked around carefully. Her Slayer Sense was tingling a little, but she finally decided it was just residual vampire activity and continued down the tunnel to her targets. Buffy didn't have any problem staying out of sight, but got close enough to overhear:
"Well, I'm at a loss Syd, what's next?"
"Hmm, we need to get Marshal to track that cell phone. That may be our only lead. If there was another clue up there, it's well hidden."
"Sloane ain't gonna like our report."
"Life's tough. If you don't believe me, just ask Able."
"Yeah, you got a point, Syd. I guess we'd better make arrangements to take care of the body. We'll have to see what Sloane wants to do about it."
While Sydney and Dixon were occupied with neatly stowing the power lines and lights in fancy aluminum cases, Buffy quietly sneaked around to the warehouse access hole and jumped up. She quickly went hand over hand up the same column she had come down and made her way up to the catwalk. And not a moment too soon because Sydney and Dixon climbed out of the hole seconds later. While they were arranging their gear in the Suburban, Buffy noticed a vampire sneaking below her. Oh no, she thought, there's gonna be trouble.
As the vamp spotted his prey, and started a fast run and leapt to Sydney's back, Buffy was getting ready to jump over the railing to join the fray. She stopped in surprise though when Sydney apparently responded to a subliminal warning and spun and kicked the vampire with tremendous force, for a non-slayer anyway. Buffy sank back down to her knees and watched the fight below with professional fascination. She could see that Sydney was a tremendously practiced expert at what Buffy could only identify as some sort of mixture of martial arts and kick boxing. Whatever it was, she was good. Buffy could see that Sydney was familiar with fighting stronger and heavier opponents, and used every trick in the book to keep the upper hand, or foot. If her opponent hadn't been a vampire, she would've won handily.
Then Dixon came around the side of the truck with a 9mm Beretta, "Freeze, or I'll shoot!" he shouted.
The vamp, of course, ignored him, so Dixon shot him in the gut. The vampire backed up a step, looked daggers at Dixon, and leapt back to attack a very startled Sydney, this time with a vamped out face. Dixon emptied his gun into the vamp, but to no avail. Buffy could see that Syd was shocked, and she appeared to be tiring. So was Dixon. Now both Dixon and Sydney were fighting the vampire, but they were losing. Then a second vampire joined in.
The agents each grabbed an arm of the first vamp and swung him in an arc, hitting the second and throwing them both yards away. The first fell into the hole to the tunnels below, he bellowed and started to climb back up. Dixon flung himself frantically into the back of the truck, looking for the rifle, he couldn't find it, the vamps were coming back, Sydney was alone out there, so he grabbed the first thing that came to hand, a machete. He leaped out, tripped and rolled into the first vampire, who had regained the warehouse floor. Sydney was trading blows with the second vamp. Dixon, almost to his feet and seeing the first vampire reaching towards him, swung the machete wildly and connected with the vampire's neck, coming very close to decapitating his attacker.
Buffy looked around and saw a foot-long wood splinter hanging near to breaking on one the old wooden truss joists. She cracked it off, and took careful aim. She flung it with a Slayer's speed and accuracy and hit Sydney's vampire in the back. It penetrated his heart and he turned to dust. Sydney kicked through the cloud of dust and tumbled to the floor, looking at the dust cloud in dumbfounded disbelief. Buffy faded silently back into the shadows, unseen. The other vamp slowly burst into dust, the head hanging on by a mere thread for many seconds, until he POOFED! Sydney and Dixon stared at each other, shocked out of their wits.
"How are we going to explain this?" asked Dixon, plaintively.
"Explain it? WE don't even know what happened! Those guys just turned to dust! That. Is. Not. Possible! The only thing that I'm willing to tell anyone is, 'the attackers ran away', that's it. Let's get the hell out of Sunnydale, you drive, I'll try to sleep, I have a class in 'Mysticism In European Literature' in four hours. We can't even ask Marshall for his opinion!"
"Yeah," replied a morose Dixon, "he'd have us locked up in a loony bin."
Buffy smiled as she overheard the last sentence.
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