Imhotep's Key Chapter 3
By Joseph Black
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone else belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.
Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.
Authors note 1: I am adjusting the Buffy time line slightly, this fic starts just after "Never Leave Me", moving things back about a month.
Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this '{*} anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [*] it's some ones thoughts.
Authors note 3: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.
Notes to Reviewers:
Dorothy: I'm not planning on using religion anymore than I need to advance the plot. Personally I agree with what you said. If vamps and stuff where real I think that it would be a person's faith that repelled the nasties. In the Buffyverse though we have to look at some things. In the episode 'Nightmares' The Master was burned just by touching the cross in his den, likewise when Spike draped himself over the cross at the end of 'From Beneath You it Devours' his skin started to sizzle so the symbol has to have some kind of power in and of itself. I think that Whedon could have handled the whole situation better but I guess he didn't want to put up with the controversy that it would have created.
fastpilot: I liked the movie myself. Thanks for the complement on my writing. As far as Patton goes I always wondered what a match up of him vs. Subati the Mongol General who commanded the Golden horde, given the same men and technology would have went. I would have liked to be in orbit watching though.
I don't know if I go along with C.S. Lewis on his statement, whether Christ rose or not he made an awful lot of sense with what he preached.
Harry: Faith is coming, probably next chapter.
ED: Thanks.
StorytellerSJK: Thanks for your review. I'm glad you seem to enjoy reading my story as I get out of writing it. I agree with you about when authors mess with the characters. Generally if I start to read a story and there are more than three alterations I just stop. I feel if you have to make that many changes then you are doing the wrong story. Don't worry about spelling, I promise I will be the last person to throw stones. I admit that I am having the Clancy characters accept this a little quick, though I touch on the why this chapter. There will be some shakes coming; it's just been coming at them a little fast.
John: I'll get updates out as quick as I can, promise. I sometimes wonder if Eliza Dushku realizes what a loyal fan base her character has generated.
Catlimere: No problem with the rant. Personally I have to agree with everything you said. I love people who complain that Buffy wasn't much of a general. Where exactly did Buffy ever get that kind of training? I thought that she did an exemplary job considering what training she had. Also with them keeping secrets, you're right, it's always a bad idea.
JA Baker: Thanks
warren: Do my best.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
Buffy blushed and replied, "I was just doing what I had to do Mr. President. You don't owe me any thanks."
"Yeah, I know how that works," Ryan replied seriously.
Despite his tone Buffy's first response is that he was kidding her, but when she looks into his eyes she realizes that Ryan was someone who understands how duty works. He's someone who has been there and understands. She smiled shyly at him in thanks.
Ryan went on, he turned and presented the man who had come around the table with him, "This is Arnie Van Damm he's my Chief of Staff. I guess you already met Andrea."
Buffy nodded and said, "This is my sister Dawn," Ryan shook her hand. And this is Rupert Giles, my Watcher."
Ryan shook his hand too, "Mr. Giles, I talked to Tony today and he tells me that they have a branch of their intelligence service that they use for these kinds of cases. They aren't dedicated to supernatural things but they take care of it if one comes in. They're going to send one of their senior people over to talk to you."
"Thank you Sir," Giles stammered, and then he realized who 'Tony' was and said, "Thank you for going so high to straighten this out."
Ryan shook his head; "John tells me that Buffy needs you here, so I'm going to do what ever I can to make her life easier."
Xander was feeling left out in the background till Buffy turned to him and said, "And this is Xander Harris, he's one of my oldest friends and has been fighting with me since I moved to Sunnydale."
"Mr. President," Xander said with a firm handshake, "I voted for you."
"Thank you Mr. Harris, that means a lot," Ryan told him.
"And I think you know Riley and General Clark," Buffy finished.
Ryan smiled, "We've met. "
Arnie made his greetings; Buffy noted that he had no hesitation in taking her hand. Once Arnie had finished greeting people Ryan said," Let's get this meeting started, I don't want to rush you but unfortunately I have another day of campaigning tomorrow," he said the last bit with no enthusiasm as he moved back to the other side of the table.
Once everyone was settled Ryan asked, "What else can we do to help you out?"
Buffy chewed her lip for a couple of seconds then said, "Very little right now."
Ryan looked surprised, "You do realize that I just put the full resources of the United States at your disposal right?"
Buffy looked over at Giles and made a 'go ahead' motion with her hand. Ryan noticed that Riley looked surprised, and Clark gave him a 'No Clue' signal. Dawn looked disgruntled, while Xander looked pissed.
"Mr. President while we appreciate the offer, The Watchers Council has always been autonomous of governments. We find that no mater how just and good they are, invariably they fall. I have no doubt that you are a just and honorable man. You have proven that again and again. However you will be in power at most for another six years, possible only for two. While I don't doubt that you will be able to hand pick your successor, eventually a person who isn't just or honorable will come to power. If that were to happen at a delicate time and we allow ourselves to become addicted to the ease of operations that you could arrange then the world could well be forfeit, or The Council could be forced into becoming just another intelligence organ for that nation.
"In the short term, we also would have trouble with several of the Potentials that are coming. They hale from countries and societies that view the Untied States as the source of evil in the world. If we are accepting aid from the US Government how hard would it be for The First to plant the seeds that this is all some scam to turn them against their home countries?" Giles explained in his most reasonable, librarian voice.
Ryan sat there for a minute and thought about what Giles had told him. "We could keep the aid covert, make sure you have food in the larder, provide some transportation on the side, they need never know where it comes from. For that matter we could get potentials that wouldn't view the US Government as a threat out of their countries and provide cover for them to get to Sunnydale."
"I doubt that the CIA is up to dealing with Bringers and the other forces that The First could bring to bear." Giles told POTUS.
"I wasn't thinking the CIA as much as a military unit of some type. Reports from last night seem to indicate that troops can encounter these things successfully. What do you think John?"
"Riley?" Clark turned to his expert.
"Aside from the fact that a Marine Company swooping down to retrieve a young girl might generate some questions that we don't want to answer. Whatever unit we decided to use would have to be briefed in. Rainbow's troopers handled last night pretty well, but I don't think that it's sunk in yet what they actually fought last night. Right now they are still going on training and adrenalin. Once it sinks in that their parents lied to them about monsters not being real we'll see what happens. With the Initiative we lost about fifteen percent of our people who couldn't deal with the truth. We might get luckier with Rainbow because the troopies are older and more experienced, but that could work against us too."
"So you're saying to back off too?" Ryan asked the Initiative Trooper.
"If Giles thinks he can get them out, I say go with it." Leaning over so he could catch Giles' eye he said to him, "I hope that if it turns out that if you do need help you won't be too proud to ask for it."
Giles looked uncomfortable but nodded at Riley.
Ryan didn't like it much; he had hoped that he could come out of this meeting generating a much closer working relationship between the Scoobies and Rainbow, so he decided to back off rather than push and maybe do damage.
"Okay," Ryan told them, "I can't force you to accept aid, but keep in mind that the offer will always be valid. If you decide you need help it's here."
Giles nodded and for a second Ryan thought that Buffy was going to overrule the Watcher but in the end she decided to let ride.
Ryan decided on a different tack, "What help can I give you?"
The Sunnydale crew looked confused, "I thought we just covered that." Giles checked himself, "Pardon me, I don't wish to be insulting."
"No problem, I probably didn't make myself clear," Ryan replied. "Before I offered the help of the USA, this is a personal offer. You'll find my personal assets aren't in the same galaxy as what the US could offer you, but I'm pretty well off and I want to help."
Giles hemmed for a second when Dawn spoke up, "Would you consider floating a loan?"
Ryan didn't hesitate, "How much?"
Buffy glared at her sister, "We aren't that tight Dawn, especially when my retainer starts coming in."
Dawn glared back, "Not for US, for the Magic Box. If we are having all of these girls coming it might be a good idea to have the extra space, and the extra bathroom. Plus it would be better to be able to train in the backroom than our basement, higher ceilings and more room. It would give Anya something to do, and the extra money and access to magic supplies would be good too."
Arnie watched as the group bickered, the dynamics going on between them were interesting. Buffy was in charge, but Giles had obviously talked her out of accepting aid. They must have had it out before they left for the meeting, Buffy obviously went with her Watchers experience, but it was equally obvious that neither Dawn nor Xander were happy with the position. He would talk to Jack about it.
Giles looked up from the mini-huddle that the Scoobies had gone into and said, "I'm forty percent owner of the store so we would have to get Anya's permission before we agreed to anything."
Ryan nodded, "We have phones so you can call her. So how much are we talking about for repairs?"
Giles reluctantly said, "Fifty Thousand for the physical repairs, I'm afraid that Buffy and Willow did a superior demolition job on the interior of the store. Then about forty-thousand to replace lost stock."
Ryan thought about it for a moment, "Okay I can loan you one-hundred and twenty-five thousand, and so it doesn't count as a gift for tax purposes would three percent interest be acceptable?
"Three per…" Giles sputtered. "I'd have to contact Anya, one moment please," he requested as he got his cell phone out.
Andrea tensed for a moment, her finger on the detonator for the flash-bang under the table but Giles only hit the speed dial on his phone and waited. "Hello Willow. Is Anya there? Yes I'll wait. Anya? No we are still with him… Yes I will tell him you said hello. Anya, he has offered to loan us the money to fix the store… Yes it should be more than enough to do the job… Three percent… No, not weekly, period…" Giles suddenly pulled the receiver of the phone away from his ear. "I'll take that as a yes then and that you are giving me power to sign the papers?"
When Ryan saw Giles pull the phone away from his ear he turned to Andrea and ordered, "Have someone go and get my check book."
Andrea motioned to one of the agents that were in the room with them and sent him off.
Giles said his good-byes to Anya and turning to The President stated, "Anya agrees to your terms and has given me permission to sign for the check. She asks for a grace period before she starts paying the loan off."
Ryan waved it away, "Get the store back on its feet first. If this thing blows up on us it won't make much of difference anyway.
"How are you set up for cash personally Mr. Giles? I know how much it cost to keep a worldwide intelligence agency going. If you couldn't afford the ninety-thousand to fix the store, how are you going to afford to operate?"
"When I was reinstated as Buffy's watcher I gained access to several accounts, while they are not bottomless they should see us through this crisis with enough left over to hire someone to ferret out the remaining Council accounts around the world," Giles told him.
Ryan smiled, "The US Government employees some of the best forensic accounts in the world. If you wish we could let them see what they could find of these accounts."
Giles considered the offer, and not seeing anyway of stopping Ryan from doing it anyway said, "That would be very kind of you to do that Mr. President. The extra cash would be welcomed."
Ryan nodded no problem. Turning to Andrea he ordered, "When we get back to Washington have someone remind me to get George Winton's people on this."
Andrea nodded and made a note.
Turning back to Giles Ryan said, "I have a personal question. I have two daughters, what's the chance that either of them are potential Slayers?"
Giles thought about it for a moment then said, "My father was head of The Council when you saved the Prince and Princes of Wales. I believe your older daughter was with you at the time. If she were a potential I think my father would have mentioned it to me. I can't say about your younger daughter. There are tests that can be performed, or I can ask a coven of witches that is helping us if they can tell. The tests can be somewhat time consuming and I'm afraid I'll be busy for the foreseeable future. If I can squeeze the time in I will, but more likely it will have to wait till the immediate crisis has passed."
Ryan was about to say something when an aid came in and said, "Flash Traffic Mr. President."
Any messages that were marked as Flash Traffic when received where to be put before the President for him to read within ten minutes of receipt. Ryan read the message and frowning handed it to Andrea who read it and getting up said, "Excuse me, I need to check some things."
Ryan turned back to the group and said, "That message notified me that someone broke Liz Elliot out of the hospital that she has been in since she lost it the night that Denver was nuked. They killed two security guards and a floor nurse doing it."
Office
of Tucker Contracting
Madrid, Spain
28Oct2002
0910 hrs
Hank Summers got off of the elevator and went thru the glass doors into his company's Spain office. He navigated thru the cubical to the back corner of the office. Normally he worked from the villa that he rented and shared outside the city, but he had gotten a call first thing in the morning that Steve Miller his boss wanted to see him pronto.
During the drive in Hank could not figure out what Steve wanted. The Rodrigo account was ahead of schedule and it had been four months since the Gurtmug project. Surly if something had been going to go wrong there it would have shown up before now?
Getting to his boss's office he greeted Steve's secretary with a cheery, "Good morning Consuela!"
Consuela frowned at him and said, "Senior Miller will see you now." She hit the intercom butten to let Steve know he had arrived.
Hank was starting to worry; Consuela always had a smile for him. Something was definitely wrong here. Going thru the door Steve was sitting behind his desk with as angry an expression on his face as Hank had ever seen.
Steve waved him to a chair in front his desk and began right in, "Hank we got a letter from the California Department of Youth Services this morning concerning you."
"Why would they send something to you?" Hank asked.
"Because apparently you were ignoring them." Steve replied. "According to them over the last eighteen months they have sent you no less than ten letters, including a register letter that was signed for."
Hank started to sweat, "Steve you have to believe me, I haven't seen anything from them since right after Joyce died and they let me know that Buffy was appointed guardian for Dawn."
Miller passed the manila envelope over to the other man and ordered, "Check out the top sheet."
Hank did as he was told and saw a photocopy of a tag from a registered letter, Sheila had signed for it. "Steve she never showed to me. You know how she is, she's convinced that Child Services is trying to foist Dawn off on me, I'll talk to her when I get home."
Steve shook his head, "I'm afraid that it's gone a little far for that Hank. The other part of this letter is a notification that if you don't get this settled then they are going to ask us to attach your paycheck. I don't think I need to go into details as to what that would mean.
If possible Hank went even paler, "I've been making child support payments for Dawn since Joyce's death, I have it taken right out of my pay. You know that."
Miller shook his head, "They looked at Buffy's income and they altered what you owed per month. You know how old man Tucker is about family responsibility. I warned you when you cut yourself off that he wouldn't be happy. Hell if you weren't such a producer you probably would have been gone then. And before you say anything I know how Shelia is about the girl, but Tucker isn't going to look at it that way."
Holding up another letter he went on, "This is a forty-five day notification. It's asking us to set things up so that if in forty-five days you haven't straiten out this problem that the attachment order will be ready to go into effect. I talked to Human Resources, they tell me that it will take them ten days to get this processed, So what I am going to do is give you a thirty-day leave of absence. I expect you to get this straitened out in that time."
Hank recognized the only chance he was going to get so all he said was, "Thanks," as he headed out the door.
"Don't thank me," Miller called at his back, "Just get this solved."
Stopping at Consuela's desk he leaned over and asked the receptionist, "Consuela, I need to get to LA as quickly as can be set up. I don't care what it costs, who I fly, or where I have to lay over."
Consuela still had a frown on her face and said, "LA? Don't you mean Sunnydale?"
"I need to talk to my lawyer first and get everything set up. I doubt they would want to see me anyway."
"Si Senior Summers, I will do what I can," She said grudgingly.
"Thanks, I owe you a big one," He said.
"Take care of your daughters Senior Summers, and we will be even."
Hank hesitated, and then headed out.
On the way home he cursed Shelia, lately he had started to come to the conclusion that she had been perhaps the biggest mistake of his life. When the divorce had gone thru Sheila had suggested he take a European posting so he could leave his past behind. He had let her talk him into it, "[Oh come on Hank. You were more than thrilled to leave your ex and kids behind. What was it you called it? Oh yeah, REFRESHING, that's it. Made you feel like a new man,]" said his conscience quite nastily. Hank turned up the radio so he didn't have to think.
The house that he shared with Shelia was on a hill overlooking the city. Given the different cost of living between the US and Spain it was much nicer than what he had in the US. As he walked in thru the front door he saw that Shelia was on the back deck by the pool sunning herself. His cellphone rang as he was heading upstairs to pack. "Yes?" He asked into the phone.
"Senior Summers, this is Consuela, I have you booked thru to LA, and the driver will be there in twenty minutes. You need to be ready to catch your first flight."
"Thanks Consuela," he said sincerely into the phone, "I really owe you one."
He went into his room and pulled an overnight case out of his closet. He threw some clothes into it, stopped in his bathroom for his shaving kit and was heading for the door when Shelia came in behind him and asked, "Business trip?"
"Kind of," Hank replied guardedly. "I got a letter from California DYS today at work." He noticed the tightening of the skin around her eyes. "They are going to attach my salary if I don't get this thing fixed so I have to go."
Shelia's face darkened, "We decided when we left California that you were going to forget you past, that we were going to start over."
Putting his case down he went started over toward her and said, "You can ignore the fact that I have a minor child. DYS is not going to give me that luxury."
"They want to make you take Dawn," Sheila said, starting to get a little shrill.
Hank stopped about halfway to her, "Somehow after three years I doubt that that's going to happen. This is going to be a simple trip to straiten out some problems with the amount of child support that I am paying, that's all."
Sheila sauntered over and Hank felt the urge build up in him. Sheila was everything that Joyce hadn't been. She had long strait black hair. She had blue eyes, intense under the dark mass, and a slim aquiline face. She was slim with out being skeletal, and she was a little shorter than Joyce. When she got close to him she rubbed up against him and said, "Come on Hank. Forget going back. I found a spot in the garden that I don't think the neighbors can see," she said, her eyes promising everything.
Hank for a split second reached for her. But then common sense reared its ugly head. Taking a step back he said, "Haven't you been listening? They are going to attach my salary! Old man Tucker is a fanatic about stuff like that. He feels that if have to be made to take care of your family then you aren't trustworthy. The last guy who got his paycheck attached wasn't with the company long enough for it to show up in his check. I. HAVE. TO. GO!"
Sheila wasn't hearing it though. She started pouting and nearly screamed, "You just want to bring that brat here and spoil our fun!"
Hank at loss turned and started out the door.
"If you walk out that door don't think about coming back!" She screamed at his back.
Hank who had just picked up his overnight case turned angry for the first time, "Sheila, the house is in my name, and I pay the rent and the bills. If you want to take over those just let me know and I'll switch it over."
Sheila's face had gone nearly purple, "All right then, If you leave I won't be here when you get back!!!" She screamed.
Hank turned back to the door. As he was going thru it he said tiredly, "Do what you have to do Sheila, that's what I'm doing."
He closed the door and tuned out the tirade that came after him. He walked down to the end of the drive feeling oddly free. When he got down to the end the car wasn't there yet but he saw the mailman coming down the block. Looking him over he saw that it wasn't the regular one.
"{Is Miguel sick?}" Hank asked the mailman in Spanish.
"{Yes Senior,}" He replied, "{I am Pedro.}"
"{Do you have anything for Summers?}"
"{Yes, bills only I'm afraid.}" Pedro said as he passed over several envelopes.
"{Pedro, I would appreciate it if you could pass on a couple of things.}"
"{I would be happy too,}" Pedro told him.
"{Fist thing is, anything from California Department of Youth Services comes directly to me. If necessary I'll give you number that I can be reached at. Second, I'm going on a trip and Ms. Parsons might be leaving. If the mail starts piling up then could you hold it at the post office please?}"
"(I will pass these requests on to Miguel, I see no problems.}"
"{Thanks,}"
"Ad Nada," The postman replied as he headed off down street. At the corner he turned and vanished around the fence.
The car that was to take Hank to the airport pulled up then so Hank was busy climbing in when a black bird flew up from behind the fence so he didn't notice it. Even if he had he probably wouldn't of thought anything of it. Hank didn't know enough about birds to ask what an American Raven was doing in central Spain.