Chapter 22.

No sooner had Doyle uttered that bewildered inquiry than two more people came barging into the BHPD morgue. Armed just like the mystery woman in the motorcycle helmet, but clothed somewhat differently. More specifically; in USMC camouflage fatigues and ninja hoods. Which, of course, prompted Sykes to aim his Beretta in their direction!

"Freeze!"

"Relax, Detective Sykes," replied the mystery woman. "They're with me."

"And who, pray tell, are you?"

"This is me secretary," Doyle interjected. "Jill Moloski."

Whereupon the "mystery woman" (a young brunette) removed her helmet. . .causing Sykes to aim his gun at her!

"Are you daft, bucko?!" Doyle exclaimed. "I just said. . ."

"I don't know who the frig this is," growled the detective. "But, it _isn't_ Jill Moloski!"

"He's right, Mr. Doyle," replied the brunette. "He ought to know. The real Jill is the high school classmate of his partner's daughter!"

Doyle's eyebrows shot up higher than Fourth of July skyrockets at this unexpected revelation.

"Faith and begora!"

"No; Faith Lehane. Defense Research Initiative!"

"Prove it," demanded Sykes. "And drop that lightning rod, while you're at it. Slowly!"

The young brunette put her TASER rifle on the floor, before carefully withdrawing a black wallet from the left breast pocket of her jacket. Sure enough; the white identification card inside bore the requisite initials in black capitalized letters.

"Now, can my men body-bag this creep before he recovers from his zap?"

Sykes looked at Spike, then back at her, and nodded. Whereupon, Faith's male back-ups stuffed the peroxide blond vampire into a gray canvas bag similar to the one he had been brought to the morgue within. Except, of course, that theirs was lined with blessed silver foil (just like their TASER rifles had blessed silver electrodes)!

"OK," declared the understandably confused police detective. "Now, someone had better start explaining to me what's going on here. And they had better make it good!"

"Fine," replied Faith. "Let's start with that rat/bug thing that killed your friend while the two of you were trying to shoot it."

She pointed behind Sykes, who promptly spun about. . .to see the naked unconscious body of Sylvia. The missing magician's assistant!

"What the. . .?"

"Ever heard of shapeshifting, Detective Sykes?"

"You mean, like werewolves under the full moon? That sort of deal?"

The brunette DRI agent gave a nod of half-hearted agreement. "That's one over-simplified example. Although, not all werewolves require that as a catalyst for the transformation. Some of the older ones- -along with similar organisms- -can change shape as easily as you change socks!"

"I couldn't have put it better, myself, girlfriend," replied a new voice.

It was now Doyle's turn to spin about in complete surprise.

"Who the shite. . .?"

Faith made the introductions. "Detective Sykes? Mr. Doyle? This is Daniel Osbourne. 'Oz' to his friends! What've you got there, Oz?"

"A little device Warren and I were in the last stages of working on, just before Graduation Day. He called it a 'laser-guided liquid nitrox projector.' I just call it a 'freeze-ray.' Watch!"

Whereupon, the young techno-whiz aimed his pisto-shaped device in the direction of Syl's unconscious form. Prompting Doyle's instinctive leap backwards so as not to get caught in the line of fire. This turned out to be a sensible precaution on his part as, two seconds (and one loud "Ka-Whoosh!") later, the knocked out blonde knock-out was completely encased in ice. Quite literally, from head to foot!

"Saint Patrick preserve me!" muttered Doyle.

"Good work, Oz!" exclaimed Faith (much more loudly). "You and the rest of the boys chip that ice block free of the floor while I escort Detective Sykes and Mr. Doyle to the van for some further elaboration."

"You got it."

BHPD HEADQUARTERS,

REAR PARKING LOT

(FIVE MINUTES LATER)

"It started with a Middle Eastern girl called Sinea. The story goes that the shaman of her desert tribe, with the help of two acolytes, summoned a genie to endow her with enough power to slay the vampires plaguing the tribe! The good news is that she slew a lot of them in the years before her own death. The bad news is that she died far short of adulthood. But, the Gleesome Threesome had anticipated that and, so, arranged it that Sinea's powers were automatically transferred upon her death. To another pre-teen virgin birthmarked just like her! It's only since the Crusades, though, that the recruiting process has gotten bigger and more organized."

"Organized how?" demanded Sykes.

"For every Slayer called to active duty, there are dozens of Potentials in the wings, constantly being trained by an outfit called the Watchers' Council. My Watcher was an ex-Potential named Mrs. Peel (nee Emma Knight).* And t seems she got expelled from the Slayer training school after breaking the nose of her own Watcher. A pain-in-the-ass stuffed shirt named Quentin Travers! Anyway, she got demoted to apprentice Watcher-in-training under a guy named Merrick. Unfortunately, she wasn't even half way through teaching me everything Merrick and Travers had taught her when a Baali Gangrel methuselah named Kakistos literally tore her apart. . .right in front of my eyes!"

"A what?!" Sykes could not help exclaiming.

"A really old and powerful vampire," explained Faith. "So old and powerful, his hands and feet are more like semi-cloven hooves! Definitely one of the worst of the worst. In any event, he was on the verge of doing the same to me when a team of Initiative commandos arrived, just in the nick of time, to save my ass. And I've been gratefully working for them ever since!"

U.S. ARMY SECURITY AGENCY,

FORT DEVENS, MASSACHUSETTS

(SIX MONTHS EARLIER)

Special Agent Jeffries looked at the image being securely webcast from an abandoned warehouse in South Boston.

"I take it, from your facial expression, that things didn't go entirely well?"

Preston Lennox shook his head.

"We lost Mrs. Peel. . .and Dart Three."

Jeffries instantly leaned forward; twin fists banging on his desktop.

"What?!"

"The old girl still had enough moves to dust Penn," Lennox explained. "The Caitiff brown-noser who's been running point for Kakistos? But, the big guy, himself, was a different story. He had so much mojo in him that even our TASER rifles- -on full intensity- -couldn't slow him down! In the end, Dart Three saw no other choice but to. . .get in close with a jagged piece of collapsed rafter. The biggest wooden stake he could improvise!"

Jeffries leaned backward in his swivel chair. The palms of both hands meditatively pressed against his face.

"This is really inconvenient, Lennox," he finally sighed a moment later. "We needed Dart Three for that upcoming job in Houston!"

"Can't you just call up Dart One from the bullpen?"

"Negative. She's still too necessary in Sunnydale. As I see it, there's no other choice. We have to activate Dart Two."

Tbc

Glossary:

*Mrs. Peel: yes, the same one played by Diana Rigg on THE AVENGERS (that famous British spy-fi series from the Sixties).

Baali:Kindred term of contempt for any and all demon-worshiping vampires.

Methuselah:Kindred slang term for any vampire over a thousand years old.

Dart Three:the code-name initially given to Newcomer Silas Marner in the "Red Room" episode of ALIEN NATION THE SERIES. As Matt and George didn't allow Jeffries to recapture him, however, I can only assume Project D.A.R.T. gave that designation to whoever replaced Marner.