For full disclaimer and Copyright information visit Copyright/Disclaimer Page. Continuation of viewing this document is deemed acceptance of all terms on the preceding link.
Riley walked cautiously into the lobby of the Hyperion hotel.
Xander stood before him with a determined look on his face and a
battleaxe in his hand. After a moment of undisguised tension
between them, Angel walked into the room.
"Can I help you?" Angel asked, giving a disapproving glance at
Xander.
"I have some business to discuss, maybe we should talk
privately." Riley said with his own disapproving glance.
"Anything you have to say, you can say in front of Xander."
Angel responded.
Angel cast a surreptitious glance at Xander who shifted his
eyes toward Riley and took an obvious inhale.
Taking the hint, Angel took a casual inhale of breath through
his nose and understood Xander's wariness. He smelled the blood
of at least a dozen demons. At this revelation, he focused his
preternatural hearing and heard Riley's heartbeat racing at
almost twice a normal human's.
Oblivious to their realizations, Riley continued, "Fine, I
need to enlist the aid of Angel investigations to find the home
of a demon underground railroad of sorts. We've been tracking
them from South America and all signs lead to Los Angeles."
Angel had been focused on Riley while he spoke, then he
glanced again at Xander. With another quick flick of his eyes,
Xander indicated the front doors. Angel took another unneeded
breath and picked up the scents of two others outside the doors,
both steeped in demon blood.
"Thank you for wanting to include me Angel, but I have no
business in your business." Xander said and turned to leave.
"Fine. Would you call Gunn and tell him we may have a job?"
Angel said casually.
Xander nodded as he went into the lounge to make the call.
"Gunn, this is Alexander. Angel wanted me to call you and let
you know that we may have a job." Alexander said, trying to
figure out how to tip Gunn off.
"Alright, do I need to come over?" Gunn asked.
"I don't think so, just be available. I was wanting to take
Willie for a walk and hoped you would join me. You know where
Angel likes to walk in the afternoon? Could you meet me there in
a few minutes? I just need to get Willie's things together."
Alexander said, trying to sound normal.
There was a moment of silence on the phone before Gunn
replied, "Uh... yeah, I know the place. I know how much Fred
likes to go on walks with you, still, she should probably stay
home." Gunn said, hoping that he wasn't being too obvious or too
obscure with his question.
"I hate to think of Fred being at home all alone, she's such a
social creature. She really needs to be around other people."
Alexander nearly choked on the words, but had to get the message
across.
"Your right, it would be a shame for her to be boxed in on a
day like this. Go get your things together and I'll see you in a
few." Gunn said quickly.
"See you then." Alexander responded and hung up the phone.
Alexander walked out of the lounge and noticed that Angel and
Riley had gone into Angel's office.
He made his way quickly upstairs and into his room where he
found Wesley watching Willie play in the shower floor.
"Get his things together and meet me in the basement, I'm
going to get Cordelia and we're getting out of here. Gunn's going
to meet us in the tunnel." Alexander said quickly before leaving
again. He was glad that he and Wesley had discussed some of
Angel's adventures during their visits or he might not have known
about the entrance to the tunnels in the basement.
Wesley quickly gathered the baby and went down the back stairs
to the kitchen. He went to the refrigerator and put ten blood
bags into the diaper bag, then from beside the refrigerator he
grabbed a handful each of plastic bags and towels and some
bottles of water. As quickly and quietly as possible he made his
way into the basement to wait for Alexander.
Alexander gathered the comatose form of Cordelia close then
threw her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He quickly made
his way down the back stairs and into the basement where he found
Wesley and Willie waiting for him.
"What's this all about?" Wesley asked with worry.
"I'll tell you once we're in the sewer. Help me get this
open." Alexander said with strain in his voice.
Together they were able to open the heavy door that blocked
the sewer tunnel entrance from the basement. Once through, they
heard movement to their right.
"Nice day for a walk." Alexander said with tense humor.
"Yeah, you wanna tell me what the hell's going on?" Gunn asked
with absolutely no patience.
"Sure, let's get moving and I'll tell you as we go. I assume
we're going to meet up with Fred?" Alexander said.
"Yeah, this way." Gunn said shortly.
"Upstairs, Angel is talking to Riley Finn, he used to be a
member of a top-secret government operation call 'the
Initiative'. They captured demons and performed medical
experiments on them. They are the ones who put a behavior
modification chip in Willie's father's head. They also cut parts
from living demons to make a frankenstein's monster of human,
demon and technology. This guy upstairs just walked in, stinking
of demon blood, and asked for Angel to do a job for him. There
were two of his people guarding the front door, so they probably
had guards on the other entrances too. They are known to use wire
taps, so I have to assume that they were listening to us on the
phone. And I probably just told them all about Willie and myself
if they intercepted my email to the Sunnydalers."
"So what do you think they wanted with Angel?" Wesley asked,
as he tried to remember what he knew of the initiative.
"There's no way to be sure. I'll tell you what I know... they
modified Riley to make him some kind of super soldier, save your
Captain America jokes for the end, please. A few years ago they
figured out that the super soldier thing was killing him by
burning him out. So they had to do an operation to reverse some
of the super soldier effects. One of those effects was a resting
heartbeat of around 150. Just now, Riley had that old familiar
heartbeat which says to me that, at the very least the super
soldier part of the initiative program is still alive, I think
that's enough reason to at least consider that the rest of it has
been revived as well."
Wesley thought for a moment and summarized, "So we have
enhanced human soldiers stinking of demon blood guarding the
front entrance of the hotel. Those seem to be the facts, without
speculation."
"Yes, I'd say that's fair. Guys, do you think I overreacted?"
Alexander asked timidly.
"Not at all Alexander, you acted in the best interest of us
all..." Wesley started.
"What about Angel?" Gunn interrupted.
"I don't think he's in any danger at the moment. If they
wanted to take him against his will, they would have stormed the
place. I'm guessing they are going to try to get Angel to do a
job for them. They'll probably tail him, tap his phone and stuff
to find his contacts. Once they've learned what they want, they
won't need him anymore and then they'll either capture or kill
him. And if that happens, I pray they kill him." Alexander said
with a diminishing voice.
They continued on in silence until Gunn indicated an exit from
the sewer tunnel. Alexander had been so focused on the events
that he had forgotten he was carrying Cordelia on his shoulder
until he tried to climb the ladder.
They emerged from the sewer into a cluttered basement. Gunn
led the group up to the ground floor of an obviously abandoned
building and said, "I'm going to go get Fred, she's nearby. I'm
guessing you think that she's being followed?"
"I have to assume that she is. We also have to get a message
to Angel to let him know that we're safe. He'll be free to do a
lot more if he doesn't have to worry about us." Alexander said
thoughtfully.
"So, the cell phone is probably out of the question." Gunn
said.
"Yeah, it's possible to track your location if you use the
cell. We need to call Angel from a public phone. A short message
so they don't have a chance to track us." Alexander said while
rocking his son in the stroller.
"What message?" Gunn asked impatiently.
"Tell Angel that we went for a walk and met up with Cordelia.
We're going to visit with her for a while so don't worry, we are
all fine." Xander said then turned back to the baby.
"Yeah, that should do it. I'll call from the mall where Fred
is waiting." Gunn said, getting ready to leave.
"Watch out for tails. Stop in and visit with friends if you
need to. We'll be waiting here. If we have to move, we'll need
someplace to meet. Got any ideas?" Alexander said to the group in
general.
"Lorn's bar. It's been empty since it was nearly destroyed."
Wesley said giving Gunn a questioning look.
"Yeah, if I don't see you back here, I'll see you there." Gunn
said on the way out the door.
"Perhaps I should go with him?" Wesley asked, concerned.
"No, if we have to move, I'm depending on you to take care of
Willie. I can't carry Cordelia and Willie both." Alexander said
worriedly.
"Try not to worry Alexander. There is no way for them to find
us. And Angel will be able to take charge of the situation once
he knows that we're safe." Wesley said in a comforting voice.
"Thank you Wesley. I really needed to hear that. When I
smelled that demon blood, I was so scared for Willie. When I
think of what people like that would do to him, I want to kill
them all." Alexander said with a trembling voice.
"It's a father's duty to protect his child to the best of his
ability. It's natural that you would want to remove all threats
toward your child. Just remember, if you kill them, this thing
will follow you around for the rest of your life. Think of
William, do what's best for him and you'll be fine." Wesley said
quietly.
Angel had heard parts of Xander's conversation with Gunn as he
led the soldier into his office. He understood what Xander was
doing and approved. Although he didn't know everything about
Riley Finn, he knew enough. He knew that Finn had been one of the
soldiers that captured and chipped Spike, that the smell of demon
blood that this man carried spoke of years of killing, and that
this man was trying to use him.
"So, I just want to be clear on what it is that you expect me
to do." Angel said, trying to stall to give Xander time to get
everyone out of the hotel. "I'm going to have some coffee, can I
get you anything?" He asked, in the interest of wasting time.
"No, thank you." Riley said shortly. Angel slowly and
methodically prepared a cup of coffee with amounts of sugar and
cream measured with a scientists precision.
Angel took his seat behind the desk and took a slow drink of
coffee, then gave Riley a look that signaled for him to
begin.
"Demons are making their way into this country from South
America. We have been trying to stop it from the other end, but
as soon as we get close to shutting them down, they pack up their
operation and move. The only constant is wherever they set up the
other end of the operation, the demons are always sent to L.A. We
want to find where and how they are coming in and stop them."
Riley said with military efficiency.
Angel wasn't buying it for a minute. A person doesn't live for
250+ years and not learn a few fundamental truths along the way.
If these people were part of a government agency looking for
demons entering the country, they had the resources to accomplish
the task without his help. They were probably here to follow him,
find his contacts in the demon community, and once they were
confident that they knew where the demon population were living,
they would most likely carry out a mass capture or
extermination.
"There was one demon that I could have asked, but he died
about two weeks ago. With the recent upheaval in Sunnydale, my
contacts may not be as easy to reach as usual. I'll have to ask
around and see if I can turn anything up." Angel said slowly with
an aire of professionalism.
Riley nodded as if he approved. Then Angel continued, "You
said 'We', I'd like to know who I'd be working for."
Without a flinch Riley said, "There are officials in the
Venezuelan and Brazilian governments who are aware of demons and
have hired my team to deal with the problem."
"Why should they care? The demons are leaving, I would think
that they would hold the door open and wave 'bye'." Angel said
with forced humor.
"The demons are working as mules for the drug lords of South
America. The government officials are trying to curtail those
illegal activities." Riley said seriously.
Angel fought to keep a neutral look on his face. Angel thought
to himself, [Does this guy actually think I would believe this?
Oh well, I have to keep him talking.] Then he said slowly, "Do
you have any information that I can start with, a name, location,
anything I can use to help me pry for information?"
"Certainly, here is a folder with the solid leads that we've
compiled, so do we have a deal?" Riley questioned as the phone
rang.
"Excuse me." Angel said as he answered the phone.
"Hey Angel, this is Charles. Xander wanted me to let you know
that we went for a walk and met up with Cordelia. We're going to
visit with her for a while so don't worry about us, we're all
fine." Gunn said from the payphone.
"That's good to know, I'm with a client right now, but if I
can get away later I was thinking of stopping by your sister's
place." Angel said in a casual tone.
"I might see you there when we've finished our visit with
Cordy, I've gotta go. Bye." Gunn said before he hung up.
"Bye." Angel said and hung up the phone before turning his
attention back to Riley.
"Sorry about that." Angel said carefully, picking up the
envelope as he got up and walked toward the door. "I think I have
everything I need to get started. I assume that my standard fees
won't be a problem."
"No problem. You can contact me at the number on the envelope
when you have some information." Riley said with a smile.
Angel shook Riley's hand as they approached the front door and
watched as Riley left the building.
He waited, concentrating his preternatural senses to detect if
the soldiers were going to leave. After a few moments of
conversation that was too quiet for Angel to hear through the
heavy doors, Riley left the other two soldiers at the entrance
where they were obviously going to stay.
Angel quickly gathered weapons, a few bloodbags, and a change
of clothes and made his way to the basement. He found the door to
the sewer tunnel closed but not locked. He forced the door open
and made his way as fast as possible to the old abandoned factory
where Gunn's sister had met her final death.