Imhotep's Key Chapter 18
By Joseph Black
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. If you recognize any other character they belong to their respective owners. Original characters belong to me. I make no profit off 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.
nascar girl: Sorry for the delay. I hadn't originally planned for Holtzman to show up this early in the story and I had to work through how this was going to change things.
Antonio: Mostly The Council would not release that information. The idea for It is came from a weapon one of my characters had in a Rolemaster campaign. Where the ref got it from I'm not sure. Lara Croft will be popping up every now and then, there will be some interaction between her and some of Angel's people.
Joe: The Church's concern could be that if it got out that it was theoretically possible for humans to perform a resurrection then it could cause a crisis of faith. Obviously anyone who did any research would discover that a person would have to have died a mystical death for the right to be able to be used, but how many people will research it that much? Buffy being brought back could cause the greatest crisis in the church since Martin Luther.
I'm not changing the Avengers time line. But this is hardly a field assignment, she's just going to talk to Giles. What could go wrong? Purdy is a cameo, Lara will be a recurring cameo. And yes it is, I'm putting a cast list together for my next story and I was impressed. Hope you enjoy this part.
Janusi: Welcome aboard!
DavidB226Morris: Lara will not be joining the main cast but she will be popping up now and again. I think Whedon hinted that the Vatican was keeping track of what went on at the Hellmouth in the Fourth Season ep Pangs. I agree with you that the two organizations must have had contact with each other over time. You could well be right about the tie in. I wish they had a little more of a cross between the two than those couple of minutes with Angel in that tomb though.
Dorothy: Sorry this took so long to get out. I agree with you about the Church and how they treat woman. I think they need to do something with the bureaucratic inertia that has set in during the last 2000 years.
Harry: I think Clark might be able to pass those sentiments on to Buff.
Allen Pitt: Thanks for the information on Lord Darcy. Faith is coming, there will more of her in the next story. You are cruel with your suggestion about Buffy.
John: Mendi was referring to Buffy being brought back from the dead, not the ritual to bring Imhotep back.
Paladin Steelbreaker: Thank you for your faith in my story telling skills. Purdy was John Steeds female partner in the New Avengers series from the late seventies. She was played by Joanna Lumley, who now stars in Absolutely Fabulous.
You're on the right track for Hank's fate.
Tjackflash: I've toyed with a couple of story lines with a Buffy/LXG cross, but not for ROS. But there will be further additions as the stories progess.
JA Baker: Hank is going to have an interesting rest of the day, that's for sure.
Don Sample: Thanks for the information.
war90: Not quite Buffy's reaction, but it gave me a grin.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
Fic Starts Here>>>>>>
Holtzman had originally intended to contact Jurgis Ewell as soon as he hit Sunnydale. But, thinking about it as he flew across country, he decided not to. He shouldn't have had too; Ewell should have contacted him as soon as he heard about the shoot out. Small town reporters mostly wanted to hit the big time and this story could well have been his ticket. In the news business, like many businesses, it wasn't just how well you did your job; there was a lot of who you knew too. Jurgis Ewell should have attempted to contact him to talk to the news desk to see about being picked up as a stringer. It would look good on a resume to be able to say he had been published in the Post. The fact that he hadn't indicated that either Ewell had no ambitions past the Sunnydale Press, or he hadn't thought to do it, that bothered Holtzman, because Ewell struck him as someone with ambition and any cub reporter should have contacted him instinctively.
So, when he had hit Sunnydale, he had picked up the rental he had reserved and used his wireless modem to get instructions on how to get to the local FBI office. He hesitated for a second then typed in '1630 Revello Drive' and copying them he set off. He wasn't completely sure how he was going to do it, but he wanted to get a feel for Buffy Summers before he talked to Trag about what he thought was going on in this town.
Finding the address was no problem, but a parking place was something else. Someone must be having a party, he thought to himself, as he was forced to park almost a block away. Walking up to the front door he saw another man coming out from behind the house. He kept watching him because of how shell-shocked he looked. Holtzman gaze followed him untill he shakily pulled out his keys, dropped them, picked them up, did a nice job on the paint around the lock as he tried to get it into the slot, finally managing it, and opening the door. The man climbed behind the wheel and pulled out and drove away. Okay, he didn't drive like he was drunk, Holtzman thought so he shrugged and pushed the doorbell.
To say that the young woman wasn't what he had been expecting was an understatement. For one thing she was smaller than he thought a chosen warrior of the gods to be. She also seemed a little worse for wear. There were brush burns on her face and arms, and a bandage on her leg. The leg injury was probably new; she hadn't been limping when she had met Ryan earlier in the week. But the brush burns wouldn't have been noticeable, and looked like they were at least a week old.
"Hi," Bob began, "My name is Bob Holtzman, I'm a reporter with the Washington Post Newspaper. I sent an email to Willow Rosenberg, about the bombing in London. She seemed to know some of the people involved. I asked if she would be willing to be interviewed and she replied that she would be willing to talk to me. Could I speak to her please?"
The young woman's went hard. Bob was impressed. "I'm sorry, Willow is out of town right now. She should be back later in the week. If you leave a card, I'll pass on that you want to talk to her though," she explained
Holtzman rooted through his jacket pockets and dug up a card. He handed to Buffy and she thanked him and started closing the door. Deciding to go for Plan B, "Are you Buffy Summers?" he asked.
Buffy turned, her eyes narrowing more.
"I have some I'd like to ask you too. Like, 'What's a Slayer going to do now that the Watchers Council has been blown up?"
Buffy's eyes went wide.
"Bingo!" Holtzman exclaimed to himself.
Behind Buffy Summers Rupert Giles, in a gray suit, was coming down the stairs. When he heard what Holtzman had asked, his eyes had narrowed and he started toward the door. Right before he got there, John Clark came into view from around the door.
Rupert Giles spoke first, "I think you must be mistaken, no one here knows anything about what you are asking." Taking the door from Buffy, Giles started to close it.
"Really Mr. Giles. Then why would a respected curator of the British Museum take a job as a high school librarian halfway around the world? Perhaps because his Slayer was going to start at that school?"
Turning back to Buffy, "And why did you burn down Hermany High's gym Ms. Summers?"
"Great," Buffy thought, "It took my dad seven years to ask that question, this guy asks it in the first five minutes."
"Good day, Mr. Holtzman," Giles said frostily and started swinging the door shut again.
Holtzman sent an appealing glance at Clark, but he got no response. So instead just before the door closed he called, "The story is going to get out. I'd rather print facts than guesses. "
The door slowly opened again. Holtzman saw that Clark had drawn Rupert Giles aside and was earnestly talking to him. Turning to the blonde who was blocking the entrance he tried. "Shutting me out isn't going to make this problem go away Ms. Summers."
Buffy snorted, "Talking to you won't do that either. Do you have any idea what you are sticking your nose into?"
"I think I'm starting too. But why don't you set me straight?"
Buffy was stopped from answering when Clark and Giles came back and Clark said, "Won't you come in Mr. Holtzman?"
"Isn't it a little dangerous to invite strangers into a house?" Bob asked.
Buffy shook her head, "He doesn't live here so it doesn't count." As she stepped out of the door she continued, "Plus it's broad daylight out and you aren't smoking."
Elsewhere
Unknown
Unknown
Willow didn't hesitate, she shot her arms out and let the electricity flow. The bolts hit Imhotep right in the middle of his chest and played over his whole body. Bolts that were more powerful than those that had made Glory scream in pain, and Imhotep just laughed.
He stopped laughing and turning his hands as if he was going to lift something, he stared hard at Willow and pushed his hands up. Willow felt just the faintest touch of the power. She could feel that she should have been flung into the ceiling hard enough to pulverize her bones, but she stayed firmly rooted to the ground.
Imhotep laughed again, dropping his hands "We are in the anti-chamber of Hell, Ms. Rosenberg. Our powers can not effect each other."
"So what are we going to do? Have a staring contest for the rest of eternity then?" Willow asked, noting with disgust that her electrical bolts hadn't freed her hands.
"No," Imhotep said, still smiling, "You will slowly unwrap, I will slowly be wrapped, and when the process is complete I will return to the mortal realm, while you take my place here forever!"
Oval Office
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington D.C.
30Oct2002
1320 hrs
"Ryan," Jack said into the phone.
"Jack, John, we've had another development in Sunnydale."
"You found Willow?" Jack asked hopefully.
"No," John shot him down.
"Is it another end of the world thing?" Jack asked. Jack was developing a real need to shoot General Thomas Billingsly. If he had done his job and kept his cover intact then Jack could still be blissfully unaware of Sunnydale, California. and all that went on there.
"Maybe," Clark told his friend, "Bob Holtzman showed up on Buffy's front door asking about the London explosion."
"Wait one," Ryan told Clark. He switched over to his intercom and said, "Ellen? Could you ask Arnie to come down to the office?
"Go ahead," Ryan said when he returned to Clark.
"Not much more to tell, he's in the living room right now talking to Buffy. I need to know how you want to handle this."
Arnie Van Damm, the Presidents Chief-of-Staff hurried into the office, "What's up?"
"Bob Holtzman is in Sunnydale," Ryan said as he put Clark on the speaker.
"Shit."
"Sums it up nicely," Ryan agreed.
"You know him Arnie, can he keep a secret?" Ryan asked.
"He has in the past," Clark said.
That took a second to penetrate, but when it did Ryan exploded, "Damn it John! You know better than that!"
Ryan took a couple of breaths to calm himself then asked, "How long have you been one of his sources?"
" I've given info to him once, it was a quid-pro-quo situation."
"What did you get off of him?" Ryan couldn't figure out what John would have needed off of a reporter.
"I needed the name of who had given him the information that led to that series of articles that almost broke you and Cathy up."
Ryan stared at the phone, he knew that Clark and Cathy had gotten together over something, he had never asked what it was though, "You shouldn't have done that John."
Arnie started to get up to give them some privacy but Jack motioned for him to stay right where he was.
"I had to Jack, Liz Elliot was trying to destroy you and she was doing it in a way you couldn't fight. I owed you a lot. I wasn't going to let her get away with it.
If you want, I'll resign now. Alistair can handle what's going on out here until you can get a replacement."
"No he couldn't," Ryan corrected. "What did you give Holtzman?"
"The deal was he wanted information how I got Gerasmiov's wife and daughter out. He already had almost everything else, I think he must have talked to either Bob Ritter, or Judge Moore because I don't think anyone else had that kind of information. He knew you would do a lot better job than Kealty and he wanted to help the only way he could."
"How long had he sat on the Gerasmiov stuff?"
" A couple of years, he was willing to wait five more too."
"Arnie?" Ryan wanted his Chief-of-Staff's opinion.
"He's good people Jack. You remember how he got Plumber to help gut Tom Donner. That had as much to do with you keeping your job as the Ebola outbreak. And you chose him for the pre-war interview when we helped Russia out. Offer him a good deal, he'll play ball."
"John?" Ryan asked.
"Yes?"
"Offer to embed him in the operation. He can report what he likes; we just want a heads up before he publishes. Start at a week and try to get us as much lead-time as you can. Make sure he understands that this deal only applies to your operation. Buffy and her people are separate and if he gets any interviews it is strictly between them and him."
"Okay Jack," John replied.
"Oh, and John," Ryan said.
"Yes?"
"Thanks, but no more leaks." Ryan said quietly.
"No more leaks," Clark agreed.
"Oh, one other thing. Hank Summers showed up here right before Holtzman with some legal stuff. I don't know what it was about but it got tense for a couple of minutes," Clark said.
Jack scowled, "If he tries anything let me know. I'll see about getting Buffy some good legal help."
1630 Revello Drive
Sunnydale CA
30Oct2002
1024 hrs
Buffy waved Holtzman to the couch as she eased herself back into the chair and started monitoring the take from one of the Predator drones again. Giles sat in a chair across from the reporter just watching him.
Bob waited for either Buffy or Giles to say anything, so when they didn't he began, "Ms. Summers?"
Buffy barely glanced at him and bringing her eyes back to the screen replied, "I didn't agree to talk to you. As far as I'm concerned you're here only until John decides what he's going to do with you."
If Bob didn't know Clark as well as he did that would have sounded really ominous. He was surprised that someone as young as this woman could pull it off.
"I'm not asking for your deep dark secrets Ms. Summers, I'm trying to get a handle on what is going on out here.
"Sunnydale has one of the highest per-capita death rates in the country. The only places that come close is a small town outside of New Orleans, and Cleveland Ohio, though with Cleveland it seems to be localized to a couple of neighborhoods.
The one thing I found interesting, is the death rate fell a month or so after you moved here, and has generally fallen since then. I'm suspicious of coincidences like that."
Buffy scowled never taking her eyes off of the screen, "What part of 'I'm not giving you an interview' hasn't registered? In case you haven't noticed we are a little busy here!"
Holtzman looked around, Ding was at the table enjoying the show. There were four girls sitting in chairs around the room. Two were going through some old books while the other two were whittling what looked like stakes. There were four monitors set up back to back on the table with someone staring at them intently.
Holtzman was about to try a different track when the front door slammed open and another young woman stormed in. She had dark blond, almost brunette hair and was wearing blue jeans and a light blue top. She stopped and turned to the brown haired young man coming in behind her and began angrily, "I don't care how bad you felt when you thought I was dead Xander! The time for you to feel bad was when you decided to leave me at the alter!"
The man, it must be Xander Harris gulped, but defended himself by saying, "Anya, I told you. I saw what our married life could be like; you saw my family, what if I turned into my own dad? I… I couldn't do that to you."
The blonde snorted, "Xander, I was a vengeance demon for over a thousand years, do you think there is a way for a marriage to go wrong that I haven't seen? Do you think I didn't understand what I was getting into? The truth is I was right in the basement of the Magic Box. You proposed to me because you thought we were all going to die, and you weren't prepared to follow through when we didn't. I hate being right!" So saying she turned and stormed into the living room. Noticing Bob Holtzman, "Who is this on the couch, and he is not staying right?"
Holtzman for his part was stunned; this woman was a thousand plus years old?
"He's here only as long as it takes John to figure out what he is going to do with him," Buffy supplied.
"Hopefully it will be before I have to go to bed."
Sunnydale General Hospital.
Sunnydale CA
30Oct2002
1043 hrs
Dr. Sandra Sanchez turned at the call of, "Hey Doc!" Turning she saw Agent Price and the FBI guy from Saturday. She had been called in early because one of her patients had developed an infection.
"Hello," she replied, "What can I do for you?"
Pat O'Day smiled. "We're checking on the condition of the terrorist that Buffy decked."
"It's still improving, he should be waking up soon." Sandra told them as she reached over the desk and grabbed a clipboard with a chart on it. "I suppose you want to check on him personally though."
"Thanks Doc, " Pat told her, "He's about the only lead we got right now."
"Still nothing on Willow huh?" She asked as they stepped into the elevator.
Andrea shook her head, "We have a couple of UAV's orbiting Sunnydale right now, and hope to have one of the same kind of drones that we used in Russia up soon, but so far nothing." Andrea failed to mention the KH-11 and KH-12 spy satellites that had been moved over the city.
Sandra had been impressed, she remembered coming into her son's room at a run when he had called her. She saw that he had logged onto a site and was watching a battle raging in Siberia between the Russians and the Chinese armies. She had stood there entranced for a couple of minutes when it suddenly occurred to her that they were watching real people getting killed. She made him turn it off and forbade him to turn it back on. The next day at work she had gotten into an argument with a co-worker about it. It had gotten heated till she had asked if the other person made it a habit to view snuff films. That had won the argument, but it was also the last time that person had talked to her. Small loss.
A thought occurred to her as the door of the elevator opened, "I thought it was illegal for the military to operate in a law enforcement capacity."
Pat took that one, "The low level drones are part of the Border Patrol, and so that's already law enforcement. The Darkstar is orbiting over Edwards Air Force Base so technically it's still in military air space."
"Well I suppose you guys employ enough lawyers to argue about it," Sandra said in a lightly sarcastic voice.
As they where exiting the elevator Andrea's cellphone rang. She glanced at the window to see who was calling and put the phone up to her ear, "Yes sir?" She listened for a moment then said, "Ben is on his way back to DC now, sir. Pat is here now to help with the investigation and I'd like to stick around till we find out one way or another… I'll stick with either Pat or John and his people so I don't think you need to send any more people out."
Andrea started frowning, "Thanks for the heads up Sir… Jack. Thank you. I will. Have a good day, Jack." Andrea turned her phone off and stuck it back into her purse.
"That was The President," she told the others as they resumed walking down the hall. "He says hi," She told her husband. "And he says Bob Holtzman is at Buffy's."
"The reporter?" Pat asked.
"Do you know any others?" Andrea asked.
"I could hope," was the reply.
They reached the room that the prisoner was in. Outside the door were two FBI agents that the LA office had loaned them. They hadn't been fully briefed about the town beyond a strong suggestion for them not to wander around after dark.
"How's it going Ted?" Pat asked the senior agent.
"Quiet, nothing to report since we came on shift. Sissy Loomis was by about an hour ago. She had been relieved from baby-sitting Wells upstairs and wanted to know if we wanted anything to eat before she took off. There was nobody else except the nurses taking his vitals," He replied nodding toward the door.
"Lets take a look," Pat suggested, thinking about the way Crudge had appeared and disappeared at the magic shop.
Sandra reached for the door. Her fingers had just touched the knob when the monitors inside the room started shrieking. Following her doctors instincts she wrenched the door open and started to throw herself into the room. The sight on the bed drew her up short with a gasp.
Instead of a man lying in the bed there was a mass of large dark colored beetles that totally covered the bed. As the swarm shifted she could glimpse white bone underneath them. They seemed to detect the presence of fresh prey in the doorway and the whole swarm started flowing off the bed.
Sandra felt a strong arm grab her shoulder and pull her out of the room, almost throwing her to the far wall of the corridor. Pat, with his other hand grabbed the doorknob and slammed the door shut. Andrea, already stripping off her jacket, turned to the other two agents and screamed, "Shove your jackets under the door!"
Both agents did as instructed and managed to trap all but three of the beetles in the room. The first Andrea got with a well-placed stomp. The second went down when one of the FBI agents brought his fist down on top of it, splattering the bug all over the floor.
The other agent wasn't quite as quick and the bug jumped up on top of his hand, instantly burrowing under the flesh. The agent yelled and started shaking his arm. Pat managed to grab the arm right below the elbow and clamp down hard. He felt when the beetle traveling under the other mans skin slammed into the obstruction he had made. "Get a scalpel!" Sandra screamed down the hallway as she started reaching for a pair of scissors she had on her belt. She'd just reached the wounded man when the beetle erupted out of the man's arm right through his shirt and suit coat with a spray of blood.
The beetle arced right toward Pat's chest. He'd just started to pull away from it when a clipboard came through and batted the bug against the wall hard enough to splatter it. "Nice forearm smash you got there Doc," Pat said, relieved.
Gulping, Sandra replied, "Thanks, never picked up a racket."
The other agent had grabbed a couple of chairs and a rolling cart and had placed it on top of the coats to keep them in place. Hospital security was running down the hall toward the commotion. Sandra, turned to the leader of the group and called, "Get some mops and insecticide Bill! Then call our exterminators, we have a big job for them."
"Tell them to bring artillery," The wounded agent muttered through clenched teeth.
1630 Revello Drive
Sunnydale, CA
30Oct2002
1056 hrs
"Stay there Buffy, I'll get it," Ding told the Slayer when the doorbell rang yet again.
"Bob?" Ding questioned when he found Ranger Robert Tallman and four other men on the front porch.
"Hey Ding," The big ranger said. "I heard Buffy got hurt, so me and the boys decided to see if she needs any help."