Watcher, Vampire, Slayer, Witch part 5
Disclaimer: See part 1
Chapter 5: Maneuvers
Upstairs, Ann went back to the garage to open the door for the Jaguar. Riley got out of the car, a big grin on his face.
"What a great car. And it's so quiet. We stopped off at my place for some gear I need, and we didn't disturb anyone."
"That isn't me, it came that way. It is a great car, just as it comes, and it's an easy car to perfect."
Riley opened the passenger door and Buffy got out. "Did Willow manage?" she asked.
"She's printing out the pictures now."
>>>|||<<<
"No," Giles said. "I don't recognize any of them. However, it has occurred to me that there is one other Watcher I can still
talk to without compromising our edge."
"Wesley," Ann agreed. "He should still be in the office. I'll go."
"Now?"
"Yes."
Ann disappeared.
>>>|||<<<
Ann and Wesley ported into the library.
"I shall never get used to that," Wesley said.
"Good to see you, Wesley," Giles said.
"Hello, Giles. Ann says you all have a story to tell me."
>>>|||<<<
"But Spike lies a lot," Buffy ended. Spike gave her a sardonic stare. She stared coolly back.
"The physical evidence we have so far is consistent with his story," Ann said mildly, ignoring the by-play.
"And I must agree with his conclusion," Wesley said. "These men are Watchers. They were all around the Center when I was
receiving my final briefings, just before I arrived here. Payton-Jones, Richardson...," Wesley named all seven men.
"Why?" Buffy asked. "Why are they after me and Giles after all this time? Why not just continue to ignore us? Why are they
after us at all?"
"Yeah," Riley said. "Motive is getting really confused here."
"No," Spike took pleasure in pointing out, "whatever the motive is, it's the same as it always has been. We just understand it
even less well than we hoped we did." Ann gave him a grim little smile of approval.
Buffy frowned and paced around the sofa, fingering her necklace. "Why are they after us now?"
"Why Giles, then Buffy?" Tara asked.
"It's not the way I'd do it, if I were planing this," Spike said. "Killing her Watcher is almost guaranteed to piss a Slayer off,
not to mention alerting her. Get rid of the Slayer first, then tidy up by offing the Watcher."
"Sounds logical to me," Riley wasn't pleased to agree with Spike, but he did.
"Switch it around," Ann said.
"Buffy, then Giles?" Tara asked.
"Oh. OK. Giles, what happens if Buffy dies? Once you're able to think about Watcher business, I mean." Willow asked.
"Nothing, now. Neither of us works for the Council any longer."
"And if we hadn't quit?" Buffy asked.
"I'd return to London and report."
"Anything else?"
"I'd be kicked upstairs, I suppose," he replied. "Just another Watcher Emeritus. No more field work, just Council meetings,
training new Watchers, whatever."
"Buffy dies," Riley said, "and you get promoted? That's morbid."
"But you were going to return to England anyway, earlier this fall," Willow said. "Until you changed your mind."
"You were going to go away?" Buffy said. "You were going to bail on me? Giles! Why?"
"Well, Buffy, you did say you hadn't needed a Watcher in a long time."
"I didn't mean it like that, and anyway I said I did need a Watcher now, even if I hadn't needed one earlier."
"And I stayed."
"Who besides Willow knew about this?" Buffy asked.
"My cousin. But, he's, oh, he's not a Watcher, but his wife is. I guess it's possible that the Council knew that I was contemplating returning to my homeland, but I wouldn't have troubled them. I mean it was a profound philosophical disagreement that culminated in my firing."
"It sounds as if the opposition doesn't want you back in London, Rupert," Spike said.
"That works," Willow said. "And they're taking no chances: Buffy alive or Buffy dead; unemployed Watcher or Watcher
Emeritus, they don't want you in England, which is why they kill you first, before you have a reason to return, like an election.
Good. That's consistent. I like consistency."
"I use an absentee ballot," Giles said, slightly bewildered by the sudden mention of politics.
"And it works for me, too," Buffy said. "Since Spike's right, and hurting Giles really pisses me off, they're safer if I'm dead
after they kill him."
"I don't know about that, Slayer. If they just shoot him in a drive by, who do you go after?" Spike asked.
"What do you mean?"
"It may not be just a matter of saving their asses," Spike said. "They may really want you dead, Buffy."
"Not everybody wants to kill me, Spike," Buffy said.
Spike shrugged, but when Buffy's attention shifted from him, he glanced over at Ann, who was, as usual, listening quietly and
intently. She gave him a very slight nod.
"Something you can do in London, that they don't want you to do, that you can't do here." Riley said. "I wonder what exactly
that is, but we can ask them after we catch them."
"And have we a plan for doing that?" Wesley asked.
"I think so," Riley said. "I can think of two, one using Spike, the other using Giles. Giles is more dependable, but his script is trickier, and it requires that the store phone be tapped." He elaborated on his plan. Finally he said, "So what Giles says to
Anya must be believable, and precise enough to bring them where we want them. My only worry, well, one of my worries,
actually, is can Anya remember to ask the right question? The one that Giles can answer in the right way?"
"No. Anya can't follow a script worth a tinker's dam," Giles said. "She improvises with great flair, but one never knows what
she will say, even under normal conditions. I'm not sure she knows herself."
"I don't think that matters," Ann offered. "You never pay any attention to what Anya says, any more than she really pays
attention to what you say. You called her twice from Oakland, and the one side of your conversations I heard were
masterpieces of mutual incoherence. Why change now?"
"Oakland?" Spike asked. "You were in Oakland? Why Oakland?"
"Local music festival," Giles said. "Most enjoyable."
"Is the office phone tapped?" Ann directed the conversation back to a more cogent point.
"We can test that," Riley said. "I brought my gear. Who's at the store now?"
"It should be us," Willow said. "We were on for lunch duty. Anya is still there alone."
"OK. Call Anya, say something, anything. I'll get a read on the levels, and we'll see if it's tapped or not."
"Finn, let's go to Willow's house. These land lines are shielded and rather complex," Ann said.
"Something you did?"
"Some minor improvements," Ann said, vaguely.
"Willow's, then. That OK with you, Willow?"
"Sure."
"We'll be right back," Ann said. She, Willow, Riley and all his electronic gear disappeared.
>>>|||<<<
"Anya's annoyed," Willow announced. "I didn't know she knew middle High German, especially some of those words."
"But the store phone is tapped. So what we need to do now, is figure the best place for a double ambush," Riley said.
"I suggest here," Ann said. "No neighbors, no fuss."
"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver," Buffy said.
Ann grinned at her.
"Exactly," Riley said. "And if the Witches can figure out how to lock car doors, that would help a lot."
"Well," Tara said. "We do have pictures."
"We need a diagram of a lock," Willow said. "So we can see what we're doing."
"Ann probably has a book," Tara said. The Witches moved over to the shelves.
"Far end, third shelf down. Be careful on the ladder. We're running out of cars," Ann said. "Rupert and I need to arrive here
in something. The opposition have seen the Jaguar and the Saturn. We can't drive the Viper, they've seen it, too. I'm out."
"The BMW is in my garage," Giles said.
"Let's assume they've seen it there," Riley said.
"You could borrow the Cobra, I suppose," Wesley said doubtfully.
"I don't want an open car. I'll just go rent a sedan or a coupe," Ann said. "I want at least two hours with it, before I trust it. I'll be back with something nice and solid." She blinked out.
"Cars," muttered Buffy softly.
"Probably a Ferrari," Spike said. "Did Ann enchant a Cobra for you, Wesley?"
"A friend of ours named Gunn has it," Wesley said.
"She does like high level cars," Giles said. "Rather surprising, in a way."
"Fun, though," Spike said. "Is this Gunn a politician?" He blandly met the quick glance Giles flashed at him.
"A former troll, I am given to understand," Wesley said. "Or more accurately, a troll in a former life."
"Buffy, let's go look at the road around the back of Ann's property," Riley said. "As private as it is down there, if we can get them there, we've got an easier job than out the front."
"Calling it a road is an exaggeration," Giles said.
"All the better."
>>>|||<<<
"Think Ann can manage a landslide?" Buffy asked.
"Probably," Riley said. "Do you have any idea what she is?"
"Giles says she's a professional protester. I think he was fooling. She says she's not a witch, but beyond that, no, I have no idea."
"Why is she in Sunnydale?"
"Looking after Tara."
"She sure seems to like Spike a lot."
"I think she's mainly interested because he's sort of helpless."
"I don't think that's it, she doesn't like me at all," Riley said.
"You're not helpless."
"If she can bring down the hill above the cut just west of her front drive, the back way is the only way up to the house. All we
have to do is have Giles ask Anya if the repair crew has fixed the road at 3 Los Robles Road, because if they haven't Ann
will have to use the rear entrance."
"Sounds good," Buffy said.
"And another thing about Ann: When did Spike hit Tara? I think that alone would have gotten him lightly killed."
"At the shop, when her father was here. Ann wasn't there, though, only us and Tara's family. That is strange. Maybe Tara told
her."
>>>|||<<<
"Is Ann back yet?"
"She and the girls are in the garage, working on the rented car," Giles said.
"Which is?"
"A Mercedes sedan. Very suitable for long distance comfortable travel without a chauffeur."
"What are they doing?" Buffy asked.
"Something tedious about emissions. Ann's already installed bullet proofing."
Riley nodded. "Did Willow talk to you about the phone call?"
"Yes. I don't understand how she is going to route it through Oakland, but since it will involve a collect call to my own
phone, I have no objections."
"You should make the call soon, when there is enough light for the opposition to come snooping around. So you call, then you
and Ann disappear from here, and arrive back at the appropriate time."
"How long will it take them to set up the ambush, do you think?" Buffy asked.
"It would take you or me about 15 minutes," Riley said. "But we're going to allow them lots of time, just in case they're
idiots."
>>>|||<<<
"Come in," Ann called. "We're done."
"I don't like the color," Spike said.
"One," Ann said, "I can cope with pale blue for today. Two, you leave this one alone, too. It has to go back. In fact, go
away," she waved one hand at him, and he disappeared. "And stay out of the garage until I say otherwise."
"Bullet proof?" Riley asked.
"With negligible emissions and mileage that should be about 44 mpg in the city and around 56 on the freeway. I don't like the
color either, but I don't want to waste energy changing it and then changing it right back, especially if I have to heal bullet
holes. I have none to spare today. What did you decide?"
"Your back driveway, if you can block Los Robles Road."
"I've been meaning to deal with an incipient washout for months. I must do it before the rains come anyway, so I'll let it go
now. How much time do you want to give them?" Ann's gaze rested on both Buffy and Riley.
"Riley says as much as we can," Buffy said. "In case they're slow."
"But not too much, not enough for a lot of thought, either," Riley said.
"We'll be back just before dark, then," Ann said. "Walk with me, and pick where you want some cameras. Willow and Tara
can work a display spell, so if I set up a couple or three large viewers, you can keep track of what's happening."
"Which will also keep Tara inside," Buffy said.
"It's that, or send her to her aunt's," Ann replied. "I cannot take chances with her."
"Slaughter and maneuver," Buffy muttered.
"That's often the choice," Ann said, coolly.
>>>|||<<<
"Anya, I swear when I get back tonight, you're fired!" Giles slammed the phone down and glared at it.
"Powerful performance," Buffy judged.
"It overflowed with artistic verisimilitude," Spike offered.
"You chewed the scenery," Wesley said.
"And you remembered to mention the back way, so it went better than I was worried it might," Riley said. "Especially when
you lapsed into Greek or whatever it was."
"Let's go, Rupert," Ann said. "Wesley, take off ahead of us. I'll bring the hill down behind us. See the rest of you later. Tara,
you stay inside, with Spike and Gang Long and the guardian lions."
"Yes, Ann."
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