Title: The Assistant, part 30
Author: Sweetdoggie
Email: (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: R
Summary: More about the Initiative
Spoilers: season 4
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
Willow and Xander showed up dragging Oz and Cordelia. Giles shrugged. They were part of the team as well and needed to be guarded. He gathered them in the living room where he had drawn a large protective circle. After ushering them all into it, he stepped inside himself and sealed it behind him.
“We can talk in here with no danger of being overheard by the Initiative.” He explained what he and Buffy had found out.
“The government?” Xander had asked with incredulity. “I didn’t think the government could find its, uh, behind with both hands and a flashlight. How could it be running a top secret military organization?”
“We aren’t talking State Department here, Xander,” Giles explained. “This is most likely a small, secretly funded spin off of some high level military project. I would imagine that very few people, relatively speaking, know about it.”
He passed out tiny bags on strings no larger than half his thumb length. Willow smelled hers. “Something lemony?”
“These contain a few herbs and things to hold the spell I will perform. One of the ingredients is lemon balm.” He said a small prayer, had them all prick their fingers with the sterilized needles he had thoughtfully included, and then each of them wiped one drop of blood onto their individual bags. “Wear these always, don’t take them off or you won’t be protected. While you wear them the Initiative—or other eavesdroppers—won’t be able to overhear your conversations, even with electronic surveillance equipment.” He watched while they slipped the tiny amulets on and hid them under their clothing.
“Buffy and I will be infiltrating their operations. Willow, have you attempted scrying yet?”
“Yes, but I can’t get a clear channel,” the young witch explained.
“I’ll show you how to fix that,” he promised her. “Now, the rest of you are going to have to be extra careful. Buffy, you mentioned that young Riley lives in an all-male dormitory, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is likely that the other members of his team also live there, that in fact, everyone living in that house is part of the Initiative.”
She tipped her head sideways and thought about it. “I think you’re right. I’ve seen some of the boys that he hangs out with, Forrest and Graham, for example. They seem a little older than the average student, a little tougher maybe.”
“Xander, Cordelia, Oz, your first assignment will be to head down to Willie’s and see if he knows anything. We need information. Be careful, remember not only must you hide from the Initiative, you must also protect yourselves against the clientele that frequent his establishment.”
Xander stood. “Got it, Giles.”
Giles opened the circle and let them out. “Everyone armed?”
They all nodded and set off. Willow remained behind. Giles took her to his study and got down his scrying bowl. He filled it with water, taught her the words of a cantrip that would increase her concentration, and told her to contact Wesley.
He got out another bowl and contacted John Merrick in England. It took a few minutes to establish contact because he needed to wait until the other person looked at a reflective surface. Luckily, Watchers are trained for this sort of thing and Merrick instantly knew what was happening.
“What is it, Rupert? Trouble on the Hellmouth?” the elderly Watcher asked.
Giles explained everything they knew.
“This is very grave news, Rupert. Those fools could upset the harmonic balances that have kept the world on an even keel since the birth of the First Slayer. They must be stopped.”
“Exactly my thoughts, John. Will you take care of the Council end?”
“Of course.”
“Oh, and by the way, you may wish to protect yourself against electronic surveillance. These people rely heavily on technology and we are bound to come under scrutiny.”
“I’ll see to it, Rupert. Good luck and take care of Buffy.”
“I will do so, John.” He broke the connection.
Buffy had cleaned up the evidence of their mystical pursuits and was sitting on the couch waiting for orders.
“We are going to infiltrate their organization, love,” he told her seriously. “It involves some danger for us. If they find out, they can bring the weight of the United States government down on us—I could be deported, you could be jailed, or we could both be detained indefinitely in some remote installation where we would never be heard from again.”
“Scary,” Buffy admitted. “But we still have to know what they’re up to.”
He nodded. “Just so you know.”
Plans laid, they waited while Willow told Wesley what was going on. He said he would call in an hour after he had made an anti-eavesdropping charm for himself. Willow broke the connection and found she was so weak she could barely stand. Giles ended up driving her home. He returned as soon as he could and the phone rang almost the minute he cleared the front door.
“Rupert, what’s all this that young Willow has been telling me?” Wesley asked, deeply concerned.
Giles told him without much fanfare.
“Do you want me to come home?”
“Not right now, Wesley. You are an ace-in-the-hole for us right now. The Initiative doesn’t know about you—or rather, if they do know about you they know you are in LA. They seem to be terribly ignorant about magic. So that’s all to our benefit. Ah, is there any word about Faith?”
“She’s holding her own. They keep her hooked up to IV’s but she’s breathing on her own. It’s more like she’s simply sleeping than in a coma. The doctors say that her brain waves change periodically so they believe she may be dreaming. Has, has Buffy had any more contact with her during the Dreamtime?” His voice was full of hope.
“She’s said nothing, but then Buffy and I have been, um, rather at odds lately. I was behaving like an idiot and she let me know about it. Things were, ah, rather tense around here for a few weeks.”
“But everything is all right now?” Wesley was deeply concerned. He loved the disparate couple and hoped that nothing would upset their marriage.
“We are healing,” Giles replied ruefully. He didn’t want to mention that in his case it was physical as well as emotional.
“Would it be possible for me to speak to her, do you suppose?”
“Wait a moment and I’ll call her.” He put his hand over the phone. “Buffy, Wesley would like to speak with you.”
She pounded down stairs after evaluating their weapons situation. Taking the phone from her husband she grinned into the receiver. “Wes! How are you doing, bro?”
“I believe I should be asking that question of you?” he countered. “Rupert tells me that you two were at odds with each other for a time?”
“Yeah, but we’re much better now.”
“Would you like me to come home and thrash that blighter for you?”
“Oh, Wes, that’s so sweet. I miss you and Faith so much.”
“Have you, have you had any more contact with Faith in the Dreamtime?”
“Not so far, but I’ll call you for sure if I do,” she promised him.
“Thank you Buffy.”
“Take care, Wes. We miss you so much.”
“I miss you too, dear girl.”
They rang off and Buffy turned to her husband. “You’d better treat me right or Wesley is going to come home and thrash you.”
“Behold me in a terror.” Giles could still be kind of snarky, she thought.
“It’s really odd, Professor. We’ve set up the surveillance equipment just like you wanted, but we can’t seem to get a fix on any of them.” Riley told her anxiously. “They must be doing something to block our equipment.”
“Nonsense, Riley. These people believe in magic, for goodness’ sake. I’d be surprised if they even have a computer in the house, let alone anything sophisticated enough for them to block your equipment. Have you been monitoring their phones?”
“Of course, Professor. They received one call from LA yesterday, but we were unable to determine point of origin.”
“What did they talk about?”
“Unknown, Professor.”
“Riley, a phone tap is so simple a child could do it. Why can’t we, with all our technology, manage it?”
“I don’t know, Professor Walsh. My best guess is still that they are doing something to block our equipment.”
“All right.” She thought for a moment. “Have a power outage in Sunnydale soon. Cut their power, phone lines, everything. We’ll be able to tell if they have some sort of generator for their anti-surveillance equipment. If not, we should still be able to hear everything that goes on in the house.”
He nodded. Nothing could be simpler.