Imhotep's Key Chapter 19
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.
Notes to Reviewers:
sirc: Sorry for how late this has been. Work this summer has been busy. We rebuilt part of a wall and ran a bunch of underground cables that involved a good bit of pick and shovel work, add in a good case of poison ivy when I didn't realize that the two inch root I was hacking through was poison ivy and getting the energy to write wasn't easy. I'll try to pick up the pace.
JA Baker: Don't worry about the lateness. Given how busy you are writing I take it as an honor that you take the time to read and review my fics.
Joe: Thanks for the tip. I hope everyone enjoys what I have planned for Hank. I am stocking the deck a little, but I have plans for dealing with it. I think DDT works on just about everything, that was the big reason it was used so much, add in that it really didn't effect people per-se and it seemed to be the ideal insecticide, unfortunately the effect on the environment was extreme. You'll just have to wait and see what gets unwrapped. (But yeah, waking up a petite red head would be a definite style crimper ;) ).
nascar girl: Don't worry about nagging, sometimes I need some one to give my chain a jerk. Yeah those beetles where high ick factor.
SithelfJen: Thank you. (An Elf of the Sith? There would be something else with a high ick factor!)
Dorothy: I had a similar experience, it was an AC-130 Gunship working over a Taliban base in Afghanistan. And just like you said, it was neat to watch till you realized that you were watching real people, even if they were Taliban, die. I had to turn it off.
John: I'll explain where the bugs came from in a future chapter.
Harry: I think I got that covered.
HecatonchiresLM: Thanks for the spelling correction.
Paladin Steelbreaker: I'm afraid you are going to have to wait a bit for Hank bashing. Hope you enjoy the other things.
Allen Pitt: I don't think it was sloppy, more of not still quite grasping what they are up against. I think the full cast for this one has been assembled, but my plans on how to handle the whole Jasmine thing are firming up nicely.
war90: Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
Fic Starts here
Ding noticed Alistair and the guests they were expecting coming up the walk behind Broadman and his men. "Hey, Colonel," he said to Alistair, "This Ranger Robert Broadman and his men. They're here to see Buffy and to offer some help."
Alistair looked the five men over. All but one was above average in height, with the hard, lean look of men who worked in the outdoors. "Ding's mentioned his trip into woods with you Ranger. It's nice of you to offer to help."
Broadman smiled and held out his hand, "Happy to, though from the looks of the cars around here Buffy already has a lot of help."
Alistair nodded. Turning back to Ding he said, "Ding, this is Purdy. She's Her Majesty's representative here to question Rupert Giles." Alistair's voice still went a little tight when he said the Watcher's name. Alistair had been meeting with his niece everyday and it still rankled that she couldn't stay with him, but after seeing Buffy in action he had to agree that she was better off with the Slayer. Pointing to the other new comers he continued, "This is Lady Lara Croft and Michael Yates, Purdy's bodyguards."
Ding welcomed them to Sunnydale.
"I'm actually here to see the Slayer," Lara corrected. "But when Purdy's boss offered me a free trip to California who was I to turn it down?"
"You want to see Buffy?" Ding questioned.
Lara held up her briefcase and said, smiling, "I come bearing gifts."
Ding smiled back, "Well lets not keep the Lady waiting then," putting slight emphasis on the word Lady.
"Buffy?" Ding called as he came in. "You have visitors!"
Buffy leaned forward in her chair, but not being able to see started to get up.
Seeing her starting to get up Broadman called, "Stay there Buffy, we'll come to you."
"Bob!" Buffy said happily. "What are you doing here?" Then seeing the crowd following him continued, "With lots of friends."
Broadman laughed, "I only claim responsibility for these four," he said indicating the mostly tall lean men with short haircuts surrounding him. The others came with him," he finished pointing at Alistair.
Giles realized that these must be the people sent to interrogate him and stood. The statuesque blonde looked him over then said, "My name is Purdy, I'm here to question you and to determine if you are to be returned to England to face charges in relation to the bombing of the Watchers Council's headquarters."
"There are some seats on the back porch that should allow you to question me without being disturbed," Giles replied, indicating all the activity that was going on in the living and dining room.
Purdy nodded that this was acceptable and waved him on.
Buffy started to get up again to accompany Giles but he waved her back to her seat, "Why don't you stay here and talk to your guests Buffy. You weren't there, so there is no real need to involve you in this."
Buffy shook her head, "You're my Watcher Giles. What involves you, involves me."
"Buffy, please, I'll be fine."
Not liking it but nodding anyway Buffy eased herself back into her chair, but gifting Purdy with a hard glare. Michael Yates stepped between the two.
Purdy and Michael Yates followed Giles through the house and out onto the back porch. Giles took a seat on one side of the table and Purdy took one across from him. Yates leaned back against the railing behind Purdy, where he could keep an eye on the Watcher.
Purdy study the other man carefully, he seemed a little nervous, but that was to be expected. The files she had studied on the flight over had shed very little light about this man. In his late teens and early twenties his nickname had been 'Ripper'. While he seemed to have calmed down after the death of a friend, in what was officially called a "drug overdose", his file still advised caution in a physical confrontation.
"Robison is alive," Purdy started abruptly.
"Is he?" Giles replied in a neutral tone, "That is good news,"
"The last thing he remembers seeing is you leaning over him with a Bringer getting ready to cave you head in with a battle-axe."
Giles held his hand out. Purdy looked at questioningly.
"The First is incorporeal," Giles explained, "If I'm it pretending to be me you won't be able to take my hand."
Purdy had received that info as part of her briefing so she took Giles' hand and unsurprisingly gave it a firm shake. He wouldn't have offered if he couldn't pass.
"That still doesn't explain how you are still alive," she pressed.
"I waited for him to get close, Robison passed out before I took his legs out from under it, then I killed it."
"How did you know it was there? With instincts honed from your years with your Slayer?"
"His shoes squeaked," Giles replied somewhat ruefully.
Not giving his questioner a chance for a follow up he went on, "After that, I collected the potentials that were still alive in the London area and headed for Heathrow. I had an escape kit with me."
"You knew of the explosion?" Purdy asked. She'd have to study the timeline, but she was pretty sure that this was before the explosion.
"No, I had no desire to get into another argument with Quentin Travers. The headquarters was obviously not safe. We had just had an attack. The bringers were killing potential Slayers the world over and they were in London, I felt that it was necessary to get the girls away from there as quickly as possible. We heard about the explosion on the way to the airport. At that point the only potentially safe point I could think of was here."
Purdy nodded, he seemed to be telling the truth, but she had to be sure, too much was riding on this. So she took him through the last couple of months, his relationship with the Council in general and Quentin Travers in particular, and his action on the day of the explosion. She came at it from several different direction till she was finally satisfied that he had nothing to do with the explosion.
Purdy sat back in her chair and relaxed, "Very well Mr. Giles, I have been instructed that in the case I was convinced that you hadn't been doubled I was to offer you what ever help Her Majesty's government could provide."
Giles was somewhat surprised by the sudden shift from interrogation to offer of help. "As I explained to President Ryan when he made a similar offer the, Watchers Council has always been autonomous of governments. Especially now, it would be too easy to allow ourselves to become use to the support. I'm afraid that the Council is going to have to muddle through on our own."
Purdy was silent for a couple of seconds, from her expression she had expected that answer. "One of my Sensies once told me a story. It seems the animals of the forest and the farm got together for a party. Late in the day, when they were all sitting around the fire swapping stories, the conversation turned to who among them was the most powerful. Each of the animals took a turn putting themselves forward as to way they should be considered the most powerful. The Bull touted its great strength, the Fox its slyness, and so on till they came to the Tiger. The Tiger sneered at the other animals and said. 'Pathetic. There is no question that I am the most powerful. My claws and teeth make all of you my rightful prey.'
One by one, the other animals bowed there heads to the truth of this, till the Dog said, 'I don't know about that.'
The Tiger turned on the Dog and snarled, 'You think you are more powerful than I?'
The Dog shook his head, 'I never said that.'
'But you obviously think something is more powerful than me. Tell me, so I can show you how wrong you are. Tell me who or I will kill you!' The Tiger growled as he leapt at the dog.
He never made it, a rifle shot came from behind the Tiger and he was slammed to the ground at the Dog's feet. Standing there behind the Tiger was a man with a gun. The dog stared into the dying eyes of the Tiger and said, 'Nope, I'm not the most powerful, but I have friends.' So do you Mr. Giles," Purdy finished.
Inside the house, Buffy had watched Giles leading the blonde woman outside. From the expression on her face it was clear she wasn't really happy with this turn of events. Bob saw the expression and decided that Buffy need to be distracted.
"Hey Buffy, let me introduce you to my crew," he smiled to himself as she turned away from the kitchen and looked up at him. Pointing to the man at his left he went on, " This is Stephan Moham, he's my second."
"Good to meet you Ms. Summers," the redhead said.
Buffy took a look around at the people with Bob and suddenly felt really short. Stephan was one of the smaller ones at six feet.
The next in line took a step forward and held out his hand. Buffy took it and as they were shaking he introduced himself as, "Josh Lake." Josh was well over six foot tall and had perhaps the broadest shoulders of the group. He had blond hair and hazel eyes.
The other two just nodded as they were introduced. The first was the tallest of the group, but was also the skinniest. He was introduced as Daniel Carlton. Jim DeSouza was the runt of the litter, though he still had almost eight inches on Buffy, he was another redhead, and his freckle-covered face had a smile when he was introduced.
"Nice to meet you all," Buffy said with a smile on her face.
"Plus," Broadman continued, "We come bearing gifts!"
"Ooh," Buffy squealed as she reached out to Pete, "I love getting stuff."
Bob smiled and handed over the brown paper wrapped object. Buffy frowned to herself as she took it. It was heavy and seemed to be in one piece, as she gave it an experimental shake as she took it into her lap. Since everyone knew she was the Slayer, she simply popped to string that the package was wrapped with and then tore the paper off. Lifting the box cover off she stared at what was reveled. Sitting there on the paper was a club. Its haft was made of a sandy colored wood and it had a large stone tied to the head of it with wraps of what looked like rawhide. Buffy glanced up at the Indian ranger with a quirky smile on her face.
He shrugged back, "It's a Chumash war club. They were the tribe that lived in the area when the Spanish got here. It's not an antique or anything, in fact we made it ourselves, but I thought you would appreciate it more than some flowers."
Buffy gave the club a few experimental swings. She found that it had a both a good balance and a good heft. She smiled at the ranger and said, "Now, I just have to find something to bash with it."
Bob smiled back.
Lara Croft glanced at Alistair, nodded at Buffy and quirked an eyebrow, to indicate she'd like an introduction.
Alistair cleared his throat, "Buffy, this is Lady Lara Croft, she's come from England to see you."
"Me?" Buffy asked. When the tall brunette had come in with people from England she had assumed she was part of the blonde's party that were interrogating Giles.
"Yes, I have something to give to you, well the Slayer. It was given to me about five years ago by a shaman down in Indonesia."
"And I thought the US Postal Service was slow," Buffy quipped.
"Well you can blame Quentin Travers for not giving me your address," Lara replied deadpan. "I checked the phone book for 'Slayer, The', but had no luck."
Buffy lips almost quirked into a smile, she really didn't want to like these people, unless and until, they cleared Giles.
Lara lifted the case she was carrying and laid it on Buffy's lap. "I want you to know I'm only the delivery person, not the giver," she said to Buffy, but she caught Ranger Broadman's eye and gave him a look of apology.
Buffy popped the latches and cooed. She lifted the knife out of the case and examined it closely. 'Pretty," She commented she checked out the little man that made up the hilt of the knife.
"It's name is 'It Is", Lara told her, then went on to explain the knifes properties.
Bob wanted to be put out, he hated being upstaged like that, but the look on Buffy's face took the sting out of it.
As Buffy was testing the balance of the knife by twirling it around in one hand in an intricate pattern, John came back down. Alistair introduced him to Lara and told him Giles and Purdy where on the back porch.
Clark frowned when he was introduced to Lara Croft, she saw it and when Alistair was done asked, "Have we met?"
Clark shook his head, "Only indirectly. One of your jaunts through Romania blew an operation that I was supervising. You didn't get any of my people killed, but it was a close thing."
Lara looked slightly abashed, "Sorry about that."
Clark shrugged with a what's done is done expression on his face. Turning to Bob Holtzman, who had been sitting on the couch quietly absorbing everything that was going on and who was getting close to overload, and said, "Come on Bob, lets go some place a little quieter and talk."
Holtzman was grateful for the interruption. He hadn't really wanted to believe what he was hearing, but it was obvious that there had to be something to it. He started getting angry. How could the public not be told about this? How many people got killed in a year because they had no clue that there were things in the night that considered a human beings a food source?
John led the journalist out onto the front porch. He sat down on one of the railings and invited Holtzman to grab another with a wave of his hand. "Welcome to Sunnydale, Bob," he began.
"Hope I'll survive the experience?" Holtzman finished.
"You might not believe me, but yeah I do," Clark returned. "I just finished talking to the President about you."
"And?"
"How would you like to be embedded in my operation like we had reporters with the troops during the Bio-War?"
"What's the cost?" Holtzman returned.
"We get seven days notification before you publish. We'll need the time to get things set up for the fervor that this will set off.'
"What so you can make sure all the files are shredded? I doubt even Callie Weston will be able to write Jack out of this."
"More so we can get the appropriate departments moving to help stem panic when this comes out. This comes out of blue and we could find ourselves facing something that would make the Salem Witch Trials look like Judge Judy."
"Is that why you haven't gone public with this?" Holtzman fired back.
"We can't answer for the previous administration, but we just found out about it last Friday."
"What? I know we had a group operating right here in Sunnydale three years ago, and I have a picture of one of the people involved going into the White House last week, so don't try that we didn't know crap. Have you taken a look at the death rates in this town? In the past ten years something like eleven thousand people have died just in this one town. I wonder how many of those who go missing in a year are joining them?"
Clark was impressed in spite of himself. Holtzman had managed in under a week to penetrate the veil that cloaked the supernatural world since time immemorial. "Do we have a deal? I can't comment on anything until we do."
"Twenty-four hours," Holtzman replied.
"Five Days"
"Forty-eight hours."
"Four Days,"
"Seventy-two hours from deadline. I don't want to get caught in an argument about what constitutes a day."
Clark considered, he doubted he would get a better deal sooooooo, "Deal." Clark then went on and explained what he and the administration had found out in the last couple of days. Holtzman asked to see Clark's hand when he told him about the encounter in the graveyard right after they had arrived.
"Tell me something Bob, this is just personal curiosity, but how did put all this together so fast?" Clark really wanted to know.
So Bob began explaining. He didn't tell John about having a White House source, instead saying he was down there thinking, but after that he more or less stayed to the truth. He had gotten to the part about seeing him and the others arriving in San Bernardino for what he assumed was a meeting with the President when Clark's cellphone went off. Excusing himself, he took a step away and listened. After the first couple of sentences he said, "What? Say that again. Beetles? Okay, I'll see if either Ahmed or O'Connell knows anything about these things. Be careful." He hung up the phone and looked at his brand new embedded journalist, who in turn was looking expectantly back at him, "That was Pat O'Day down at the hospital. The one terrorist we caught has just been killed."
"How?"
"He was eaten alive by flesh eating beetles."
Holtzman grew very pale.
"One other thing Bob," Clark said as he started in. "The deal we worked out applies only to me and my men. Buffy and her people are not part of this. It's completely up to them to whether they talk to you are not. I will not pressure them one way or another, so if they don't want to talk to you, that's it."
Holtzman, still trying to absorb flesh-eating beetles, nodded numbly.
1630 Revello Drive
Sunnydale CA
02Nov2002
0845 hrs
The last three days had not turned up a thing on Willow or Anck-Su-Namun. Xander had been sent to hunt up Amy Madison to see if she would help, but when she had found out that it would be Willow that she was helping she had refused and said anything that happened to her she deserved. Buffy had then called Andre de Vries and asked if he could scrye Willow's location. He'd said he'd try, but called back an hour later and told them her position was being blocked. O'Connell had called his contact with the AFW in New Orleans, but he said that if de Vries couldn't find her then there wasn't anything he could do. Xander, Riley and Sam had gone to Willy's to see what he knew, but it turned out to be not much. For the last two weeks there had been a noticeable drop in the number of clientele at the bar, but no one had come in with an explanation yet. Buffy was getting desperate, her leg still wasn't a hundred percent, but it was good enough. She was going to find her best friend if she had to take Sunnydale apart brick by brick.
Clark had asked her to wait until the General Diggs, the commander of the local military forces, came into town for a briefing by her. So as soon as that was done she was hitting the streets.
"I got it!" Dawn called when the doorbell rang.
They had cleared off of the table so they had someplace to sit and lay things out. Giles would actually give much of the briefing, which made Buffy wonder what she was doing her. She had started in on this argument Clark had quietly took her aside and explained leadership functions. Buffy still didn't like it, but he had made her realize she might learn something from the general too.
Dawn led five people in the room, four of them where middle age males that gave off a strong military presence. The fifth was a young woman who looked out of place with the others. You could also feel the excitement she was trying her best to conceal. They were all dressed in civilian clothes, and the men where wearing sunglasses.
The man in the lead was African American. He was on the short side, but his stocky physique more than made up for it. He looked the people already at the table over. They included Buffy, Giles, Riley, Alistair, and Clark. His gaze rested the longest on Buffy, evaluating her. Cindy had explained exactly what a Slayer was on the plane ride out to Fort Irwin. Diggs wasn't sure what he felt about it. The problem he had was the Mystical Warrior thing, or more to the point the whole warrior thing. People often used the term 'soldier' and 'warrior' interchangeably. The fact of the matter was that they were actually two totally different creatures. Soldiers trained and fought in large formations. They were trained as quickly as possible to do the job and singly were not much more impressive than your average civilian. Warriors on the other hand received extensive training and were individually very lethal. While a good warrior could be a team player, the Mongols were perhaps the best example of this, warriors were often lone wolf types, and from what Cindy told him, the Slayer was designed to be the ultimate lone wolf. While being a lone wolf clearly worked for her, it could make working with her an exercise in futility, if not impossible.
"Ms. Summers, I'm General Marion Diggs. This is my Chief of Staff, Colonel Duke Masterman, My Operations Officer, Colonel Nicholas Eddington, The commander of the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment, Colonel Al Hamm, and my Advisor on the Supernatural, Cindy Eddington."
Buffy nodded at each of the people as they were introduced, she then went around the table and introduced everyone there.
Diggs and the others nodded and shook hands where they were close enough to do it and took the remaining seats around the table. As Diggs pulled himself up to the table he asked, "Still nothing on the missing woman?"
When the others shook their heads he continued, "I have an idea. Cindy here is a sensitive. Last year she was able to find a kidnapped child in the Raleigh area, she's agreed to try to find Willow."
Buffy turned to the woman and asked, "What do you need?"
"Something of Willows. I pick up vibes," Cindy replied, obviously nervous.
"Dawn?" Buffy called.
"What?" Came from the top of the steps.
"Get something of Willows and bring it down."
A couple of seconds later the tall teenager that had let them in came down with a peasant blouse in her hands. Cindy took it from the girl and concentrated over it. After a couple of minutes she looked up and said, "I'm sorry, she's being blocked. Is there anything that would have a strong emotional imprint on it?"
Dawn pales, but nods. She turns and heads back up stairs returning quickly with a white shirt that is covered in thin brown lines. Buffy recognized it and in a warning tone, "Dawn.."
"There is nothing of Willow's with a stronger emotional imprint" The lanky teenager defender her choice.
Giles understood instantly, "Ms. Eddington, I most warn you, if you touch that shirt it will not be a pleasant experience."
Cindy looks over at the Englishman and nodded jerkily, "It rarely is, but it needs to be done," and held her hand out to Dawn.
The instant Cindy took the shirt she shot to her feet and started to shake like she had touched a live wire. She hunched forward and fell to her knees. The instant she hit the floor her clothes and hair turned black. When she looked up her complexion had gone pale and her facial veins traced black outlines on her face. Her eyes were what shocked Diggs the most though. They were black, not the irises, but rather the whole eye; there was no white showing at all.
She looked at Buffy and said in a voice much deeper than her usual speaking voice, "Two down, one to go."