Chapter 4

Witchfinder Chapter  4

By Joseph Black

 

Disclaimer:  Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters.  Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone else you recognize belongs to their respective owners.  Anyone you don’t recognize belongs to me.  I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

 

Spoilers: Buffy to present.  Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

 

Authors note 1:  This is a continuation of the story started in ‘Rainbow Over Sunnydale’.  It would be helpful to read that fic first.

 

Glossary

CNO:  Chief of Naval Operations

CinCSubs: Commander in Chief Submarines
ComSubLant: Commander Submarines Atlantic Ocean

 

Thanks to all that reviewed.  Constructive criticisms always welcomed.  Flames cheerfully ignored.

 

 

 

Fic Starts Here:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  

 

Captain Tom Anderson sputtered, “I’m sorry Ms. Summers, no one told me that the Buffybot was modeled on a real person or that she was in the area.” Captains  as a rule didn’t glare at generals; it took all of Tom’s self-control not to do it anyway.

 

Buffy though had no need for such self-control, “You had to do that didn’t you?”

 

John smiled and shrugged, “Couldn’t resist.”

 

“Try next time.”

 

Before the argument could go any farther Sergeant Osa came into the gym with a light sheen of sweat covering the exposed parts of his body, “The jeep is loaded sir,” he told General Clark.

 

“Okay, I’ll just put the Troll Hammer in the back and I’m ready to go,” Buffy said.

 

“All ready there Buffy,” Osa said, with a little bit of pride in his voice.

 

“I’m impressed,” Buffy said.  Osa almost blushed.

 

Clark, however, was not impressed, “Sergeant, we are short handed enough, we can’t afford having someone on sick call because they threw their back out trying to impress people!”

 

Osa nodded that he understood, “Sorry sir.”

 

Clark shook his head, “Just think next time.  I’ve helped to lift that thing, it’s heavier than it looks, and it looks like it weighs a ton!”

 

Anderson for his part was confused, what the heck could give the beefy soldier problems to lift that Buffy could handle easily?  Judging by her physique she shouldn’t be able to handle more than a hundred pounds, and that might be pushing it.

 

Clark saw Anderson’s confusion so he said, “Captain, let’s head back to my office and I’ll explain exactly what we are doing in Sunnydale, and what I expect your duties, or rather the Buffybot’s duties will be.”

 

Dan Murray, Willow and Buffy headed for the SUV, picking up sergeants Unger and Miller as they went.  Dan was curious about what the machine-gunner had placed in the vehicle himself, especially when he saw how far down on the rear springs the SUV was.  “What are you bringing with you?” He asked.

 

“Everything but the kitchen sink,” Buffy replied. “For the last ascension we needed about a half ton of explosives to kill the demon.  I’m figuring that if we end up having to blow it up you guys can get that stuff.  If it’s unblowaupable then it will be on me and the Troll Hammer. It’s about the heaviest thing we have.”

 

Dan nodded to himself, but if it were that three hundred foot thing, would the hammer be enough?

 

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
8Nov2002
Washington D.C.
14:15 hrs

 

Tony Brentano led the CNO and an unknown Vice Admiral into the Oval Office.  Jack didn’t think he had ever seen the Secretary of Defense with a grimmer expression on his face.  “Mr. President?  You know Admiral Seaton,” he said, gesturing at the CNO, “This is Vice Admiral Dean Winslow, CinCSubs.”

 

“Gentlemen,” Ryan greeted them.  Turning to the SecDef he asked, “You have some options for dealing with these things if they show up?”

 

“I passed the word to General Diggs at Fort Irwin and he’s starting to work up some options.  I sent Col. McCloud out there to act as a supernatural consultant.  He is going to loan Cindy Stewart to Dan and Buffy, he thinks maybe they can use a sensitive to help find this killer.”

 

“We’re here because we worked out some options if General Diggs isn’t capable of handling the demons.”

 

Looking at Tony’s face Jack knew he wasn’t going to like these options.

 

“If conventional weapons aren’t effective on them we have to consider other alternatives,” Tony began.

 

“No,” Jack said emphatically.  “I will not order a nuclear strike on an American city.  Especially one that has either just suffered a devastating earthquake, or one that for all practical purposes has just been nuked once already.”

 

“Jack, I know how you feel, I’m not suggesting this lightly, nor should this option be our primary response.  But, if this is the only way to stop it, do we let that thing get into areas that haven’t been destroyed yet?”

 

Jack frowned; he pushed the call button on his desk, “Ellen?  Could you ask the Vice President to join me in my office?  Tell him it’s important.”

 

Robby Jackson entered the office two minutes later and was quickly brought up to speed.  He wasn’t any happier about this than Jack, in fact, if anything, he was less happy than the President. He actually had to contemplate giving the order to destroy Chinese cities if the nuke that had been targeted on Washington earlier this year had hit.  Jack had decided to ride the attack out on an Ageis Cruiser that had been brought in to guard the Capitol.  If it hadn’t stopped the inbound missile Robby would have been the first black president and his first order would have been to kill God knows how many Chinese in response to the attack.  Now they were talking about killing an American city?

 

“Right now, we are likely only to have to take this option against the Arcrotic Demon,” Brentano explained, “And quite probably not even against that.  We now have over a hundred of the deep penetrator bombs we used in China. Judging by the damage they did to the bridges we targeted to cut the supplies to the army that had invaded Russia, they should be able to take down even the big one. We’ll be able to deliver them from F-117s and that should solve the problem.”

 

“How would the nukes be delivered?”

 

“By Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles fired from a navy submarine off of the California Cost.”

 

“Which sub?”

 

“The USS Connecticut,” Admiral Winslow spoke for the first time. “I know the skipper and even if he is a bit unconventional, I trust him implicitly.”

 

“Who is it?” Robby asked.

 

“Captain Thomas Dodge,” Winslow replied.

 

Robby frowned,   “Isn’t he the guy with a tattoo on his prick?”

 

Jack looked up surprised, “A tattoo on his …?”  He couldn’t finish the sentence.

 

Winslow shrugged, “I understand it involved copious amounts of alcohol after he sideswiped a Russian boomer off of Murmansk.”

 

“Do I want to know what kind of tattoo it is?”  POTUS asked.

 

Robby just shook his head.

 

“Just out of curiosity how did this man get a Seawolf?”

 

“That was my doing,” Winslow said.  “Two years ago I was ComSubLant and I thought that we were getting sloppy in defending ourselves.  I believed that someone in an old diesel boat could raise some Cain along our Atlantic seaboard because my bright boys in their nukes didn’t view those kinds of boats as a threat.  Tom Dodge’s career had largely been in the dumpster after the brushing incident but he still managed to fight his way up to the rank of commander.  I looked his file over and thought he was perfect for the project.  Yancy Graham, who was a squadron commander for the Norfolk area and was one of biggest proponents of the theory that we had nothing to worry about from diesel boats, took to the idea right off, he never got past the surface of the file and figured Dodge for a screw up.  Just to make sure, he gave him every problem case in the Atlantic Submarine Fleet and an old Balao class sub to fix up.  I’m still not exactly sure how they managed to do it, but Dodge nailed both of his assigned targets.  He also did me the favor of providing enough evidence to torpedo Yancy Graham’s career at the same time.”

 

“That still doesn’t explain why he got a Seawolf, hell I’d think the Navy would have kept him and his sub around to keep running training missions if he’s that good at it.”

 

‘I had to make a deal with him, he gets both targets, he’d get a nuke command.  He did such a beautiful job I had to give him Connecticut.  Since he took his crew with him, and I think they had as much to do with the success he achieved, I didn’t see any reason to continue the program. He’s based out of Bangor, Washington, I think they are the best we have in the area.”

 

Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.  He stayed there for over a minute before he rocked back forward.  “Robby?” He asked in a very tired voice.

 

“I think we have to take out the insurance Jack.  If that big demon shows up, the survivors everywhere else defiantly don’t need that thing coming a knocking.”

 

“Let me think on it Gentlemen, I’ll give you my answer by morning.”

 

 

Orange County Correctional Institute for Women.
Los Angeles CA
8Nov2002
11:20 hrs

 

Faith was doing sit-ups in her cell.  Well they were technically called sit-ups because she was curling up to touch her knees with her chin.  But rather than laying on the floor, she had her legs hooked over the top bunk.  She had originally done this by hooking her legs over the cross pieces that made up the bars at the front of her cell, but the guards had pitched a fit.

 

“Hey Lehane,” Brannigan’s voice came from outside the cell, a certain smugness in it, “You’ve got a visitor.”

 

Faith was halfway through a curl when she heard that hated name.  She leaned her head back to stare at the prison guard upside down.  She was seriously ticked at whoever had passed that information on to him.

 

For his part Brannigan was impressed, he was in good shape and he knew he couldn’t hold the position that Lehane was holding this long.  Holding herself perfectly still Faith asked, “Who?”

 

“Some lady shrink wants to talk to you,” He replied.  Bringing his hands out from behind his back he showed the Slayer a prisoner transfer belt and a pair of leg shackles, “You want to talk to her?”

 

 

Route 41
Sunnydale, CA
8Nov2002
11:35 Hrs

On the way out to the airport Dan Murray asked Willow if she had found anything else out in the couple of hours since they spoke last.  Willow shook her head, “Until I get there and check some stuff out personally, I’ve done about all I can.  What’s the story on the current victim?”

 

Dan pulled a notebook out, “She’s a single mother of a newborn, named Wyatt.  She owns a nightclub called the P3; I think it’s a reference to herself and her sisters, well one full and one half.  Her name is Piper, her full sister is named Phoebe, and the half is named Paige Mathews.  They had a fourth sister, but she died two years ago.”

 

“How?”  Buffy asked.

 

“Some kind of accident, the cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma.”

 

“Has their names come up on any of the Wicca Forums?”  Buffy asked.

 

Willow shrugged, “I’ve never come across them.”

 

“Could this not be an ascension then?”  Dan asked hopefully.

 

Willow shook her head, “He’s doing a ritual, I can’t see him following it as exactly as he seems to be, and grabbing someone he can’t use.”

 

“But if you have never heard of her?” Dan asked.

 

“That doesn’t mean much.  According to O’Connell there are about a dozen wizards and witches around Sunnydale that I never got a whiff of either.  The pattern of victims seems to indicate that the Witchfinder is trying to ascend as a Maginus Demon.  All of the sacrifices must be from the same town or city.  The first six victims don’t really matter as long as they have some magical capabilities, it’s the last victim that sets the distance that magically inclined people are effected.”

 

“So, if it was that kind of demon, it means that Piper Halliwell must be a very strong witch,” Dan mused.  “But if that was the case, then shouldn’t you have heard of her?”

 

“If she was a very powerful witch then maybe,” Willow replied, “She could have kept a low profile.  On the other hand, if the killer may be purposely sacrificing low power witches to lull us into a false sense of security, so when nothing happens this week we think the guy blew it, when he has a couple of powerful witches lined up to be his eighth and ninth victims to pump up the level of the demon.  Witches he can sacrifice anywhere up or down the San Andreas Fault.”

 

“And we are bringing him one of the most powerful witches in the world, aren’t we?”

 

Buffy and Willow both nodded at him.

 

Orange County Correctional Institute for Women.
Los Angeles CA
8Nov2002
11:42 hrs

 

Dr. Clarice Golden was nervous.  She had done thousands of interviews over her career, but only rarely had she interviewed people on the other side of the law.  She had gotten a surprising amount of information on Faith.  Somehow her fingerprints had not been entered into the national fingerprint database, but they had been in the prison’s database so Dan Murray had managed to get them. She had found Faith in the Database for the Center of Missing and Exploited Children.  She had managed to track down Faith’s caseworker and had a lengthy conversation with her.  She had anticipated that Faith had been an abused child, but reading between the lines she suspected that Faith might have had a tougher time than she had originally thought.  Which meant that her trust issues would be even bigger than she had anticipated.  Despite what Andrea had requested, she might have to reveal why she was here, just to get the girl to open up.

 

The door to the room buzzed open and a beefy prison guard with sergeant’s stripes led Faith in.  She was actually smaller than Clarice anticipated; she suspected that might be intentional with whoever had created the Slayer in the first place.  A smaller target would be more enticing to a predator.  Faith was wearing blue jeans with a jeans jacket.  Her hands were being held at her waist because of the prisoner transfer belt and she shuffled do to the leg shackles.

 

Faith for her part looked the woman waiting for her over.  She didn’t get any demon/undead vibes off of the woman and her eyes looked almost sympathetic.  It was kind of hard to maintain the anger that she felt at this seemingly harmless lady.  Not that Faith intended to take this woman at face value.  Both Wolfram and Heart and the Watchers Council would be perfectly willing to employ someone who looked like your grandma who would be  willing to dig out your liver with a rusty spoon.

 

“Thank you Sergeant,” the lady said, “Before you leave could you remove the restraints and I will call you when we are done.”

 

“Oh, Doc, I don’t think it would be such a good idea to leave you alone with Lehane here without restraints,” Brannigan began.

 

“But I do,” Clarice said.  “I’ll be perfectly alright.”

 

Clearly not happy Brannigan took off the belt and leg shackles, “That red button on the table is a panic button.  She tries anything you hit that Doc,” he said.  He gave Faith a look to behave, then left the room.

 

“He’s right you know,” Faith said from her end of the table.  “I’m really not happy with you right now.”

 

Clarice was taken aback, “May I ask why?”

 

“How did you find out my last name?”

 

Clarice berated herself, she should have realized that Faith would not have found memories of that name, “I found it on the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children’s database.”

 

“My mother reported me missing?”  Faith asked in a sarcastic voice.

 

Clarice noticed the shadow of hope in her eyes so it hurt when she had to say, “No, your social worker did.”

 

Faith winced and nodded.  “You still took a hell of chance having Brannigan take off the restraints,” she said.

 

“Not really, if you had wanted to hurt me, those shackles really wouldn’t have slowed you down much, would they?”

 

Faith looked at her again.  If she knew she was a Slayer then she came from one of two places, considering how the last time she worked with Wolfram and Hart had worked out she couldn’t see them coming to her again, but she couldn’t see the Council playing this kind of game either.  “If you’re from Wolfram and Hart, I’m not bored enough to take a job from you, and if you are from the Watcher’s Council, after you tried to kill me last time, if you think I’m just going to happily follow you out of prison you’re smoking something.”

 

“I’d never work for Wolfram and Hart.  I’ve never come into contact with them, but the stories I’ve gotten from some of my colleges have left me no doubt what kind of lawyers they are.  As far as the Watcher’s Council goes, someone blew up their headquarters in London a couple of weeks ago.”

 

Faith blinked, “No shit?  I owe someone a favor I guess, so if you aren’t from them who are you with?”

 

“I’m contracted with the United States Government, specifically the Treasury Department.”

 

“What do you want with me?”  Faith couldn’t figure out why the Treasury Department would be interested in her, unless she’d picked up a big inheritance she didn’t know about.

 

“Right now, I would just like to talk.  Find out about you,” Clarice said. 

 

“And after that?”

 

“We’ll see where the conversation goes.”

 

Faith considered for about two seconds.  At least talking to Clarice wasn’t sitting in her cell, “Okay, what do you want to know?” 

 

 

Sunnydale International Airport
Outside of Sunnydale, CA
8Nov2002
11:58 hrs

 

The SUV pulled into a hanger where a VC-20 sat.  Willow saw that the crewman that was waiting at the bottom of the stairs was the same one from her flight to Washington.  She gave him a little wave, which he returned.  The pilot was doing his walk around when he happened to notice Buffy lifting the Troll Hammer out of the Explorer.  His eyebrows almost disappeared into his hair as he watched the rear springs of the SUV lift as Buffy pulled a large hammer out of the back.

 

He walked over and said, “Pardon me Miss, could you put that object over on the scale?”

 

Buffy shrugged and walked over to a cargo scale and laid the hammer on it.  The Air Force Colonel grunted as he watched the needle of the scale go up to over 400 pounds.  Dying to ask how this girl could lift it, never mind carry it around like it weighed a couple of pounds, he decided he didn’t really want to know.  Turning to Dan Murray he said, “Mr. Director, I didn’t factor that into our take off weight, we are going to be slightly delayed as I we remove some fuel.  Your other team member is already onboard.”

 

“Other team member?”  Buffy asked with some suspicion in her voice.

 

“Cindy Stewart,” Dan explained.  “I asked to borrow her when I heard how usefully she was in finding Willow.”

 

Buffy nodded, she probably should have thought of that herself.

 

Twenty minutes later the VC-20 took off and winged its way toward San Francisco, it was a shame that they hadn’t gone through the passenger terminal.  Buffy probably would have spotted her dad and a well-dressed guy carrying a briefcase at the rental counter.