Tara fidgeted and saw Buffy wriggle where she stood. The room seemed to close in on her. They were trapped, after all. With no apparent way out.
"I got nothin', B. Maybe you could fit in the air ducts, but the rest of us is too big." Slamming her hand against the wall, Faith glared at them. "I knew we shoulda left when we had the chance."
Lips tightening, Buffy glared back. "Really? Was that before or after you wanted to run through the base getting information for Giles? Am I the only one that remembers that?" Then Tara saw Buffy's head drop slightly and her hands clenched and unclenched. "Whatever," Buffy said in a softer voice. "If the air ducts are out, we have to find another way." Shifting away from the lab table, she trotted to the far wall. "I know I heard people moving around earlier. If you didn't see anyone in any of the rooms, Faith, we're missing something. Unless they have ghosts as well as demons down here, the door isn't the only exit."
Standing in the center of the room wasn't helping so Tara joined Buffy and Faith and ran her trembling hands over the wall. It was cool and… "Is the wall moving?" she asked hesitantly. Or was it only her own nerves causing the feeling?
"Not moving, Blondie." Faith stood still and leaned into the wall. "Vibrating."
Whatever else she might have said was interrupted by loud banging at the door.
"Damn. It looks like their reinforcements are here." Buffy turned away from their search. "Keep looking."
Tara continued working on the wall but turned her head enough to watch Buffy's progress across the room. She could clearly see the way Buffy's hands played with the dagger tucked into her belt. This wasn't going to be good. Well, actually, she reminded herself, the situation had gone past "not good" a long time ago.
"You got a clue what's causing the wall thing, T?" Faith had stopped touching the wall. Arms crossed, she leaned one shoulder against it and glared at the door – or Buffy. Tara wasn't sure which.
Did she look like an expert in drywall and construction? Tara bit back the comment, though. They were all scared and giving in to that wouldn't find a way out of their predicament. "N-not really," she admitted. "Can you t-tell where the vib-brations start?" It was a shot in the dark. Whatever caused the rumble under her hands didn't seem mystical in nature.
Surprisingly, Faith had at least a partial answer. "No idea about the where, T. Slayer hearing says it's some kind of machine, maybe. Got some kind of buzzing and…" She paused with a frown. "B was right about the voices. I got 'em, too."
That didn't fit. "In the other room?" Hadn't Faith checked on that while they were waiting in the hall?
"No. It was empty when I stuck my head in." Faith's eyes widened. "That don't make… Fuck!" She spun back to the door. "B, we maybe got a new problem."
***
Buffy heard Faith as something heavier than a knock sounded from the hallway. "Sorry. We aren't taking any more problems right now. We've got enough to handle up here." Like the booted foot apparently slamming against the door. "Why don't you take a number or something?"
A large dent suddenly tented the door into the room.
"Or not." Buffy picked up the only weapon other than her knife in the room: a tall, three-legged stool. God, they should have stayed home and let Willow make with the research. And thinking of Willow… "Will, any luck?" Please?
Head nodding, Willow answered, "I managed to break the password. Give me a minute to check things out." Despite the threat of the group in the hallway, her voice rose with excitement. "This place is amazing, Buffy. I've never seen anything like it!"
"Save it, Red." Faith trotted up next to Buffy. "Forget about fighting our way out. The voices… I heard 'em, too. Like I told Tara, they ain't coming from next door. So unless they're hanging out in the air ducts, we're missing a door."
"A secret passage?" Buffy glanced at Faith in disbelief. "Are you crazy?"
Dimples flashing, Faith grinned. "You been saying that since I hopped off the train, B." She grew more serious as the metal in the door buckled further. "Looks like the best option. We got lucky the last time. I don't think them soldier boys are gonna forget the guns if we go again."
"Right. Good point." Abandoning her stool, Buffy looked around the room. She hadn't seen anything the first time she'd done that – and this time was no different. "I don't even know what to look for." There were no candelabras on the wall. No bookshelf to move or books to use as levers.
A hinge snapped off the door. Tara's wards were failing. They were running out of time.
"I've got it!" Buffy was so tense that she jumped at Willow's triumphant shout. "Schematics, memos. All of it."
For once, Faith seemed to share Buffy's emotions. She, too, jerked and then scowled. "Save the celebrating until later, Red. If you got the goods, how the fuck do we get out of here?"
"There's a door in that back wall." Rapid-fire keystrokes exploded under Willow's fingers and a printer on the table next to her began churning out paper.
The back wall? Buffy looked at Faith. They'd been over every inch and hadn't found anything.
"It's hard to tell how to open it, but…" Willow jumped off her stool and grabbed the paper off the printer. "I think you pull here." Clutching the printouts in her left hand, she sprinted past Buffy and Faith and manipulated a thermostat.
Seconds later, a crack appeared faintly in a section of the wall. It continued to grow…and grow until Buffy stared through the opened "door" into darkness illuminated by a strip of pin lights along the floor.
Stay or go?
"What the hell are we waiting on, B?" Faith was already propelling Willow into the opening. "Them guys are getting in any minute. Sounds like they got heavy equipment helpin' 'em out."
She was right. The dull thuds had graduated to sharp, metallic retorts, and there was a quarter-inch gap between the door and frame near the floor. "Tara, you and Willow in the middle, like before. Faith…" Buffy picked up the stool she'd planned to use as a weapon earlier. Her muscles protested along with the metal as she wrenched two of the legs off. "Take point." She tossed one of the legs to Faith and took the rear position.
The door closed soundlessly behind her.
As it did, the lights brightened, revealing smooth rock walls and a long hallway. The voices were clearer. And closer.
Faith's pace slowed, and Buffy nodded in approval. They'd managed to avoid the soldiers behind them…for now. Running headfirst into whoever (or whatever) was ahead would be stupid. Buffy's enhanced hearing kicked in. The voices, the conversation, in front of them grew clearer with each step.
"…this isn't working as planned." A man. Angry and belligerent. "We have to pull up stakes. If we stay, the risk of discovery gets too high."
"I'm not leaving now." Buffy sucked in a sharp breath. Professor Walsh. Willow so owed her. She'd said all along that Walsh was evil. None of her other professors took attendance and handed out so many assignments. "We'll go back to the original plan."
Buffy was listening so intently that she cannoned into Tara when the other girl stopped. Actually, everyone had stopped. She saw Faith raise a beckoning hand and slipped past Tara with a murmured apology for running into her.
"Think it's only two?" Faith used the same piercing whisper Buffy had used in the corridor with the soldiers.
"Maybe." Buffy didn't want to be wrong. Creeping a few feet farther along the passage, she listened more intently. The conversation had halted for the moment. She heard metallic clicks, the whoosh of air (vents? pumps?), and the irritating squeak of wheels against floor. "I can't tell."
"Me, neither. What do ya' want to do?" Faith's eyes flickered toward Willow and Tara, and Buffy suddenly remembered how reluctant Faith was to have her girlfriend on the front lines.
Treading carefully, Buffy whispered back, "I'll go in first." And keep her fingers crossed they were right about the number of people ahead. "Give me a couple of minutes. If you don't hear any screaming, I'm good and you can walk in." She didn't give Faith a chance to remind her that they'd had this conversation before. She was going alone. Faith would just have to face Willow's wrath at not being there to protect her.
Less than a minute later, Buffy found the end of the corridor. A large opening appeared along the right wall. She headed there, barely breathing, and pressed her back into the cold stone. There was more sound now. No voices, though. Those had stopped and hadn't restarted. Between the booming thunder of her heartbeat, Buffy tried to identify what she was hearing.
Beeping. High-pitched and metallic, with long pauses and whooshing sounds in between. Tapping. That, at least, was familiar. Years of friendship with Willow said that was fingertips touching keys in rapid succession. And… Buffy closed her eyes and strained. Rough and arrhythmic scratching.
"What are we going to do for a power source?" The man's voice was loud and so unexpected that Buffy jumped. "The uranium core in this one didn't last a day before it blew the circuits."
Buffy took an automatic step closer. She needed more. She needed to know what Walsh and Ethan had cooked up in their underground hideout.
Superiority oozed from Walsh's voice when she answered. "I've been working on a few options." She laughed, the sound chilling Buffy to the bone. "What would you say if I told you I had a source? A source who found the perfect host for the project?"
Host? Buffy took another step forward.
"You've said that before!" Walsh's companion was getting agitated. His voice rose until it echoed off the walls. "And every time, nothing's worked. Our supplies are running low, not to mention the funding. My superiors want results, Maggie, not more failures. We're out of chances."
Footsteps moved closer to Buffy's location and she scuttled back a few feet. "We don't need more chances. The new host is being delivered tonight. I've got a team bringing her in."