"What the hell is going on in my base?" breathed Professor Walsh as she confronted the latest in a frustratingly mounting series of problems. Walsh loved control, needed it, and one of the reasons The Initiative was her pride and joy was how nicely everything was under control. Right now, things were emphatically not under control.
One of the things the Initiative had given Sunnydale, along with a lower demon population, enhanced life expectancy, and many more handsome, muscular college students, was state-of-the-art Orwellian surveillance. The Initiative justified the phone taps in the city's emergency services by reasoning that they increased their response time to crises, and provided valuable information about the various bad things happening in the cursed town. This reasoning allowed them to overlook the morbidly lucrative betting pool based around the game of 'guess the demon' played by the phone operators whenever a new body was found mauled "by wild dogs" in Sunnydale.
"When did you notice it?" she asked Doctor Angleman. 'It' was a computer diagram showing the performance of the various bugs the Initiative had strewn throughout the town.
"I was examining the phone systems to see why they malfunctioned earlier," Doctor said, "and noticed that the transmission speed of the bugs was much slower than it should be. It's as though there's a gap somewhere between the bugs picking up something and us receiving it."
Walsh nodded. The gaps were strange, too; the diagram showed a constant gap of a small, almost undetectable duration, but some gaps showed much longer delays between a bug sending data and the Initiative receiving it. "Did you take a look at the system?" She asked. "What kind of data is getting delayed?"
"That's the alarming thing," the Doctor said. "The delayed data shows up as, well, nothing- just the bugs sending a regular report that there's been no communications of note within the emergency services. But the data shows clear evidence of being artificial- of being planted in the transmission."
Walsh leveled a cold, hard stare at the Doctor. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
He nodded. "The evidence shows that the messages from the wiretaps are being intercepted and analyzed at high speed before being passed on... and that whatever's behind it has been denying some information from us and possibly planting false intel within the Initiative. Professor, our bugs have been bugged."
Walsh took a deep breath, controlling herself as frightening possibilities and angry wishes began to whirl in her mind. "Doctor," she said, "assume that all our malfunctions have been caused by sabotage. Find the places where all the systems which have been affected could be influenced, and inspect them in detail." She stalked off without another word, brimming with wrath. Her operation. Her dream. Someone had fucked with her Initiative...
She found Forrest, Graham, and Riley, and was glad that the latter had come back from his... 'strategy discussion' with Buffy in time for this. She needed him especially. "We have a possible intelligence gap," she told them. She didn't inform them of the nature of the problem, and they didn't ask, as per usual, which suited her just fine. The fewer people who knew what was really going on, the better. As of now, she trusted no one. "I need each of you undercover at the hospital, fire department, and police station. Find out if we've missed out on any important information, and report back."
"I call police," said Forrest and Riley at the same time. They looked at each other, then at Graham, but he was already off to inspect fire uniforms. They sighed, and raised their fists.
Riley played rock and Forrest played paper, as per usual. "See you around, Nurse Finn," Forrest said.
Deep beneath the surface of Sunnydale, in the dark places inhabited by dark things, a creature stirred. Young but already swift, lethal, and powerful, instincts prodded its brain into action, as did the silent will of its great Mother. Child. Go. Protect. Bring. Enemies? KILL.
Moving with horrifying speed and absolute silence, the creature began to rise towards the city...
Less than an hour later, Nurse Riley Finn, with the credentials, I.D. Tag, and uniform to prove it, entered Sunnydale's hospital. Immediately he could tell that a great deal indeed had been happening without the Intiative's knowing it. Tension hung in the hospital's cool air, and Riley could see worry in the faces of every doctor he saw. He spotted the doctor and nurse who had treated Buffy after the attack in the graveyard and made his way over there.
"He is dead this time, right?" asked Nurse Ratched. "Really dead?" Riley could see that she had been crying, very hard and very recently.
"He has a hole in his chest the size of a grapefruit," noted Dr. Roy wryly. "I don't think he'll be getting up anytime soon, though I still don't know how such a mistake could have been made. I'm definitely going to have a word with whoever pronounced him dead. I'm more worried about the... larva," he finished. "I'm completely out of my depth on whatever it is. It's still secure, and seems to be very hungry, but..." Riley walked away. He'd heard enough, and was more than alarmed.
Hole in the chest. Larva. Another alien had been born, one with a human host, and it was right here in the hospital. Riley knew that whatever the 'intelligence gap' was, it was serious. The Initiative and its people existed to find out about these things, and stop them before they happened. And what had that nurse meant, 'dead this time'? Quickly finding a secluded corner, he contacted the Initiative, informed them of the situation, and called for backup. Whatever was going on here, he might need help dealing with it.
Then Riley remembered that the communication systems receiving him were on the fritz, along with most everything else in the Initiative. For all he knew, his call had come out in Swahili. He knew Professor Walsh hated the idea of involving civilians, but he needed assistance. Riley called his girlfriend.
"So the material expenditures of EEC are mainly focused on stuff like projective-transistors and other technology that the Initiative uses, which means... that you're not getting any of this are you?" Willow stopped talking and looked doubtfully at her friend.
Buffy smiled. "No, I get the gist of it. EEC probably is linked to Ravnon, and probably did have something bad happen to it in Mongolia, possibly involving an alien. There's definitely at least something going on there. I say we have a talk with Traeten first chance we get."
"Giles said the same thing-" Willow was cut off by the telephone ringing. Buffy grabbed it.
"Hello?" She smiled as she heard her boyfriend's voice. "Oh hey! Huh? Wow. Oh, sure. Yeah, I can be there soon. Okay, bye." She hung up and turned back to Willow.
"Sorry, hunky-yet-overly-dutiful boyfriend calls. Apparently there might be an alien baby in the hospital. I'm gonna go and help him out. Doesn't sound like too much of a biggie, but maybe we can have some private monster-hunting before the ski-mask backup crashes the party."
"Okay, good luck. But if you get covered in acid, don't come back here. I just cleaned the carpet," Willow said. Buffy smiled as she left. Willow turned back to her computer, and started looking for any more information on Jacob Traeten, especially regarding trips to Mongolia...
It was now late at night, the time when the unseen things in Sunnydale walked the streets and alleyways, when dark powers and lethal species were at their strongest, and when lives were apt to be cut horribly short.
Buffy strolled to the hospital.
Riley searched for more clues about the 'larva'.
Professor Walsh received Riley's message in perfect order, and detailed more operatives to the hospital.
Willow found something on the computer that made her gasp. She didn't know her room was being watched.
Steam billowed from a torn-open air vent on the roof of Sunnydale's hospital.
And the vampire known as Spike awoke as he heard what sounded like a scream.
A/N: Everything I wrote about the functioning of the Initiative's phone taps is pulled straight out of my ass; I know nothing about the fine art of covert surveillance. So if you ever need to sabotage government electronic bugs, don't use this as a source.