Chapter 18

SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT HILTON

9:15 P.M. (PST)

Willow picked up the cell phone on the first vibration. Caller I.D. showed it was Buffy, so she answered in person.

"Hey, Buffy! Where are you?"

"At SFPD Headquarters. Don't echo me in shock! It'll be quicker if you let me explain."

Fifteen minutes later, Willow was almost as teary-eyed as Cordelia had been. That, in turn, prompted her to ask how the latter was doing.

"She finally cried herself to sleep in one of their coffee-break lounges. Which is why I took the opportunity to call you back and see how you were doing on the hacker front?"

"Not so good," confessed the young computer wizardess: "I spent most of the morning, and all afternoon, trying to get the information you wanted. But, every time I tried to get past the propaganda about how it was donated to the museum, and all that other trivia, I kept getting firewall after firewall!"

"So, in other words, you finally met your match, Young Grasshopper?"

"Not quite! Xander finished transferring his pirated footage to DVD. So, I'm going through it, image by image."

Buffy and Xander had spent nearly all day at the Winston Rayne Museum of Antiquities, covertly noting any and all weak points in its security system. Particularly in the vicinity of "Queen Bessie's Lucky Charm." So as not to arouse suspicion with a cumbersome video camcorder, Xander had stuck a cellular vidphone in his left lapel pocket. And, by simultaneously wearing earphones while rhythmically bobbing his head back and forth, he successfully made it seem like he was just another bored teenager listening to an Ipod!

"Good girl!" exclaimed Buffy: "I'll check back with you when I get back with Cordie. In the meantime, I have another call to make."

SUNNYDALE, CALIFORNIA

9:35 P.M. (PST)

Rupert Giles sighed as he put down the Gothic horror novel he had been reading and answered the insistent ringing of his rotary-dial telephone. For as Jenny Callender, herself, had once noted, he was a very "old-fashioned boy."

"Hello?"

"Hello, yourself, Ripper."

"Oh, Good Lord! What do _you_ want?"

"Now, is that anyway to talk to your oldest mate, mate?"

"With 'mates' like you, one bloody well doesn't need any enemies! So, good..."

"No-no-no-no-no-no-no!" Ethan Rayne hurriedly interjected: "Don't hang up! I have news of vital import, as they say. News that I'm sure the Watchers' Council hasn't shared with you yet."

"What the blazes are you talking about?"

"You get CNN on your local telly? If so, I'd advise you to tune in. Right quick!"

Against his better judgment, Giles did as instructed. What he saw, when the TV finally focused, chilled him to the bone.

"When did this happen?" Giles demanded.

"About an hour ago, your time. I only found out, m'self, just now, while waiting for the stock market report. You see, I finally went legit, Ripper. I'm an investment counselor, now!"

BEL AIR, CALIFORNIA

9:40 P.M. (PST)

Josef Kostan had just finished talking with Buffy Summers. Promising her that he would, indeed, use his considerable influence to make it seem like Allen Francis Doyle came from a very religious family. One that did not permit any kind of physical desecration to their dead next-of-kin not commensurate with embalming. No sooner had he done so, however, than he got a call from Cyrus, veritably commanding him to turn on CNN, right that very second!

The images being telecast from the foothills of Crete made him spit up the contents of the 'Bloody Marie-Verite' " he had just sipped from.

"Does this mean what I think it does?" Kostan finally asked, in a hoarse whisper.

"I hope to Cain not!" was Cyrus' only (yet ironically sincere) reply.

CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO

10:00 P.M. (PST)

The Hopping Ghosts entered the Temple of the Searing Wind's main hall of worship. They formed five rows of ten abreast. And, then they knelt down, in perfect unison, on each of their right knees. Whereupon, Sifu Yu Nohu came out from behind the curtain to the right of the altar.

"My children! I have gathered you here, this evening because of a vision I had. A vision of a bai-kuei-tzu, in the truest sense of the word!"

He then assumed a yoga lotus position on the floor of the hall. Within seconds, a tulpa of Angel was hovering in the air, directly above the sifu's cranium!

"This is the sinner we must deliver up to Yomi's judgment. This...is your target for tonight."

tbc