stakeout chapter 1

Alley behind The Bronze

Sunnydale, Calif.

Early August, 1998

The girl had never been so terrified in her life.

If she survived this mess, she was going to listen to her mom when she was nagging her about going out at night.

The girl was running as fast as she could; she was on the high school softball team and could run fast, but the two guys were keeping up with her. It was as though they were toying with her, not really trying to catch her yet.

She had gone to the Bronze with some girlfriends from school when a cute guy asked her to dance. So they danced until her new habit caught up with her.

Begging off to sneak a smoke in the alley behind the Bronze, the girl hadn't been too surprised that the guy followed her there, or that a friend of his came with him.

It was when the cute guy's face changed into that of a monster that things went bad, and then worse when he lunged for her.

The girl's instinctive defense - a kick in the balls - failed when the guy turned sideways and her foot glanced off his thigh. It staggered him for a moment, enough for the girl to see the friend blocking the door into the Bronze, his face that of a monster as well. The music from inside the club was too loud for anyone to hear her scream, so she wheeled about and ran for the end of the alley, the two monsters in pursuit.

The alley let out into another alley, and then another, until she was all turned around and didn't know where she was. She kept running, her feet beating against the pavement, almost drowned out by the louder pounding of the two guys chasing her.

Finally, the girl broke from the warren of alleys and came out alongside one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries - she couldn't tell which one. She knew that running into a deserted cemetery at night was a very bad idea, so she ran parallel to the wall, hoping to come to a busy street with people that could help her. She couldn't keep running much longer - her lungs were burning, her heart was beating what felt like a thousand times a minute, and her legs were on fire.

Chancing a quick glance behind her, the girl saw that the number of pursuers had increased to three - there was someone a few yards behind the first two and those were only ten yards behind her.

Turning back to the front and seeing the lights of cars on a street, the girl tried to speed up, but she was running on the ragged edge now. She pushed harder, seeing salvation ahead.

The girl was so locked onto the busy street ahead of her that she didn't see the broken pavement of the sidewalk. Her toe caught the edge of an uneven section and with a cry fell on all fours to the sidewalk, her hands getting all scraped and banged up. The pain didn't have time to register when the first two monsters finally caught up with her.

The girl had just turned her head when the first monster grabbed her and threw her hard against the cemetery wall. That she did feel - a loud starburst of light and pain that left her gasping and stunned, unable to move.

The monster slammed her back against the wall, his ridged face only inches away from hers. As the monster opened his mouth to reveal fangs, the girl suddenly realized that he wasn't even breathing hard.

"What... what are you???" the girl gasped - she had to know what these people were.

"The stuff of nightmares, babe." The monster twisted her head to the side, exposing her neck. "And you're dinner for tonight."

Just as the monster was about to bite her, the third person ran up to them. He didn't stop, but instead rammed into the monster holding her, knocking her to the ground and the monster into the wall.

The third guy turned and kicked at the second monster, which was coming up to help his friend. The guy's foot landed in his gut, knocking what little wind he had in there out and driving him back.

"Gabe! I'm at 3rd and Montana! I need back up!" The guy shouted to someone they couldn't see. Spinning around, the guy kicked at the first monster, but he backed off enough for the kick to miss.

The second monster snarled "You're going to wish you were dead, man!" and rushed the guy who was just turning around, his hand coming out from under his jacket. The guy's hand shot out and plunged what looked like a wooden stake into his chest.

The girl blinked when the monster turned grey and suddenly exploded into a cloud of dust. Meanwhile the guy turned and faced the first monster, stake at the ready, just in time for the monster's spin kick to knock the stake from his hand.

The guy began to backpedal, his hand going into his jacket again when he tripped over the broken concrete, falling back on his butt. The monster roared in triumph and leapt forward, but the girl, thinking fast, stuck her leg out and tripped him, causing him to stumble but not fall.

Just as the guy on the ground pulled a handgun from under his jacket, an SUV came to a screeching halt on the street next to the monster. As the monster turned his head to look at the truck, a brilliant light flashed from the passenger side window, blinding him temporarily as a voice yelled, "Stop or I'll shoot!!!"

As the monster turned to run, the guy on the ground yelled to the truck "He's a tango, take him!!!"

The monster had taken but one step away from the truck when there was a loud ripping sound . The monster's head blew apart a second before the rest of him turned to dust.

The doors of the SUV opened and two figures jumped out. One was carrying what looked like a silenced machine gun with attached light, while the other one was holding a handgun. The guy with the machine gun ran up to the girl while the other one went to the guy on the ground.

"You OK, Miss? You hurt?" The guy let the machine gun hang from its shoulder strap while he quickly looked over her with a small flashlight.

"I'm... I'm OK. Just... scrapes." The girl tried to get her breath back while trying to speak, and failed miserably.

"That thing didn't bite you, did it?" The guy dropped to one knee and took her chin in one hand, turning her head one way then the other, flashing his light over her neck.

"N...no. Just out... of breath." Now that the guy was close, the girl could see that he was a good-looking guy in his late twenties, with kind brown eyes.

The guy who had been fighting the monsters and the other guy from the truck walked up to them. Truck Guy had red hair and looked a little younger than Machine Gun Guy, while Hero Guy was older, in his late thirties or early forties, with a mustache and a sheepish look on his face.

Machine Gun Guy looked at Hero Guy and stood up. "Next time, you may want to wait for your horse *before* riding off to the rescue, buckaroo."

Hero Guy's sheepish look turned into a frown. "I waited ten seconds for you guys to come up, I wasn't about to lose track of tangos chasing someone."

Machine Gun Guy reached down and helped the girl stand up. "Just be careful, that's all. You have a ride home, Miss?" he asked, speaking to the girl.

"N...no. I caught a ride with my friend to the Bronze." The girl rubbed her hands absently, wincing at the pain from the scrapes.

"Go get the first aid kit," ordered Machine Gun Guy. "I'll call for a cab." Seeing the girl's mouth open to protest, he cut her off. "We'll pay for it. We'd give you a ride, but the less you know about us, the better." The guy pulled out a cell phone and walked off a few steps, dialing a number.

Once the red headed guy went to the truck for the kit, the girl was left standing with Hero Guy, who was adjusting what the girl saw was a radio earpiece and dusting himself off.

"What were those things? How come they exploded? And who are you guys?" The rapid-fire burst of questions didn't seem to faze the guy, who pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter while considering his answers.

"I'm sorry Miss, but we can't talk about it." The guy put a cigarette in his mouth and lit up.

"Hey! I nearly got killed tonight! I want to know what's happening here!" The girl was surprised at how angry she got at the first reply and shocked at the response that followed.

With a sidelong glance toward Machine Gun Guy, who still stood off to the side talking on the phone, Hero Guy looked back at her and sighed.

"Look, all I can tell you is... bring a cross, holy water and a stake along if you insist on going out late at night."

"Those were vampires?" the girl asked in a hushed voice. Hero Guy looked at her for a moment and gave a slight nod.

"So who are you guys?" The girl's voice was even lower now.

"You ever watch westerns?" Hero Guy suddenly asked. When the girl nodded, the guy continued to speak. "So you've seen movies where a town is out of control with bad guys, and a bunch of good guys have to ride in and clean up the mess?"

"Sure. So you guys are the new sheriffs in town?" The girl was being sarcastic, but his response surprised her.

A grin split Hero Guy's face, making him look younger. "You could say that," replied Deputy Tim Harris, smiling lopsidedly.

Sunnydale County Sheriff's Department

Headquarters Building

June 29, 1998

Monday, 2:58 PM

Gabriel Martin did not want to admit it, but he was slightly nervous as he briskly walked through the lobby. The message delivered by his lieutenant that morning had arrived unexpectedly, and was short and to the point: Report to the Sheriff, 1500 hours, 29 June 1998. No explanation was included. Gabriel didn't think that he had done anything wrong, but people didn't get called in to see the big boss like this for good news.

Just before he got to his destination, he ducked into the men's room and checked his appearance in the mirror. Gabriel was the youngest sergeant on the department at age 29 and proud of that fact. Standing six feet tall and weighing 175 pounds, he was not physically imposing. In a dark blue suit, white shirt, and dark red tie, Gabriel looked like an insurance salesman or a bank employee. Only two things attracted notice.

The first was the gold badge neatly hanging from his coat breast pocket. The sheriff himself had given him the sergeant's star after Gabriel had broke a series of convenience store armed robbery cases where the clerks had been brutally beaten. The promotion had been six months ago.

The other thing were the brown eyes that peered out from his tanned clean-shaven face. When he smiled, Gabriel would attract the attention of every female within view, but when he scowled, Gabriel's eyes could make a suspect's blood run cold.

Making sure that his dark brown hair was still neatly combed, Gabriel walked out of the men's room and into the sheriff's office. After the secretary announced his arrival, the sheriff called him into his office, shook Gabriel's hand and waved for him to sit down.

Martin watched as the tall, grey-haired man opened a wall safe and removed some files. Gabriel did not know the sheriff very well on a personal level, but had a great deal of respect for him. John Greer had started out in the 1970's in Los Angeles as a jail deputy, working his way up to patrol lieutenant and joined the Sunnydale department in the late 1980's. After working both in the field and in administration and excelling in both, Greer was elected to his current position the year before. The sheriff was a tough but fair man who did not suffer fools lightly.

"I've been hearing about the work you've been doing at Major Crimes, Sergeant," Greer started out saying. "Your case clearance rate is among the highest in the department and your investigation skills are outstanding. Your squad just cleared those jewelry store robbery cases up in Rosemont, correct?"

"Yes, sir. We arrested the suspect without incident at his home. We also recovered evidence linking him to the holdups. I was at the DA's office today and they feel that we gave them a very strong case." Gabriel was pleased at the complements the sheriff had given him, but was still a little nervous about why he had been called in.

"That's what I like to hear. Do you have any other major cases on deck right now?" Greer asked.

"No, sir. I have the armed robberies at the Charlestown housing development, but I only have to finish up the paperwork for the case," Gabriel replied.

The sheriff smiled briefly. "I'm glad to hear that. There are some new developments that we have to deal with and I want you available. I presume that you've heard about the increase in the violent crime rate in Sunnydale?"

"Yes, sir." Gabriel had noticed that the number of violent crimes had doubled compared to the year before in the city of Sunnydale while they remained about the same throughout the rest of Sunnydale County. Even though the Sheriff's Department had the authority to investigate any crime in the county, as a matter of course the Sunnydale City Police Department investigated crimes that occurred within the city limits. Gabriel had heard that the city police had fumbled some major cases and were trying to keep things quiet.

"You moved up here from Los Angeles when you first joined the department. I sure you've heard stories about some of the strange occurrences that happen in Sunnydale," Greer asked, looking at him closely.

Gabriel was thrown by the question, apparently coming out from left field. "Sure, sir, but I always thought that those were just ghost stories."

The sheriff picked up one of the file folders from the safe. Gabriel could now see that it was a red folder, used for reports from Intelligence Division that contained sensitive information. Greer handed Gabriel the thick folder.

"Well, Sergeant, I going to tell you something about those stories… they're true." Gabriel opened the folder and the title of the report leapt out at him:

Boca Del Inferno - The Hellmouth in Sunnydale.

Gabriel could hardly believe what he was reading. The folder contained substantiated reports of occult and paranormal events and entities. Apparently all this had been taking place in the area that became Sunnydale for decades, going back to when the Spanish settled in the area two hundred years ago. Gabriel turned a page and couldn't help but blink hard - the section was on vampires.

Greer watched Gabriel's face as he read. He knew the first question that Gabriel would ask when he finished reading: he asked it himself the first time he read the report.

"Why hasn't anything been done to stop this?" Gabriel asked incredulously.

"The major events started a year and a half ago, after a fifty year pause," Greer explained. "The sheriff before me and the county supervisors got together with the city council and the chief of police and they agreed that the city could handle it. The problem is that the city hasn't been handling it very well. When I first found out about this I tried to get involved but the county supervisors wouldn't let me. After the last incident, where that foreign kid got killed and those others beat up at the high school, I was finally able to convince the supervisors to let me act."

"How have they been able to keep a lid on this?" Gabriel's head was beginning to spin from the contents of the folder.

"The city isn't the ones keeping this under control," Greer said while looking through another folder. "These are the people keeping a lid on this." The sheriff handed the new red folder to Gabriel. The title page on this file stated simply, Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers.

Greer watched silently as Gabriel read the report on the girl and her activities. After he was done, Gabriel looked up at the sheriff.

"What you are telling me is that vampires do exist and that a bunch of high school kids are the only ones doing anything about it? And the city of Sunnydale and its police department are just sitting around doing nothing?"

Greer smiled grimly. "That's correct. To tell you the truth, I don't think the city knows that Summers and the others are involved and actually helping them out. They did think that Summers was responsible for the last round of attacks at the high school."

"But Summers was cleared, right?" Gabriel was looking down at a surveillance photo of the young woman in question in the folder. It showed her walking down the steps at the front of the high school with a young male with black hair and another young female with red hair. Presumably, they were her friends.

"Right. However, the city dragged its feet in clearing her. Summers went hand-to-hand with cops in two separate occasions and came out on top," the sheriff replied. "And that is where the problem is."

"I don't understand what you mean, sir," Gabriel confessed.

"Buffy Summers took off after the second arrest attempt. We figure that she's not in the city anymore, since the violent attack rate jumped after she dropped out of view," Greer explained. "And no, she is not considered a suspect in any of those attacks. The problem is that we don't know when she is coming back, if at all. We have to plan for that. I'm also offended by the fact that both the city and county of Sunnydale are in effect depending on an 17 year-old high school girl to protect it. So what we are going to do is set up a special unit to deal with these incidents. Officially, we're going to form an anti-crime unit to assist Sunnydale PD. In reality, we're going to take over from the city in dealing with the Hellmouth and the vampire attacks."

The sheriff took the two red folders from Gabriel and placed them back in his wall safe. He removed a regular folder from the safe, closed it, and sat down at his desk again.

"The county board of supervisors has given me the authorization and the funding to form an initial unit of six people to deal with these events for the indefinite future. This task force needs a commander. You interested?" Greer asked, smiling grimly again.

Gabriel was surprised. This was a high risk, high responsibility unit. But given what he had heard about the events in Sunnydale, there was only one response he could give.

"Yes, sir. I'm interested," Gabriel replied. "Who would be the other people on the team, sir?"

"That would be up to you. I'm going to make a couple of suggestions about that, though," Greer said. "You need to select people that can keep their mouth shut. The reason that the city fought us on us taking over is that they're afraid that all this will get out and the city will become a laughingstock. That and the fact that they were covering up a crime wave and doing nothing to stop it."

Gabriel could understand the sheriff's point. Sunnydale, California, could become the next Roswell, New Mexico, complete with vampires ripping the throats out of tourists.

The sheriff handed the folder he was holding to Gabriel. "These are the orders authorizing you to form the unit and to transfer whomever you want to it. I presume you know whom you want already?" the sheriff asked. Gabriel nodded. "Give me their names and we'll get together to talk to them the day after tomorrow. That's as fast as we can do it without attracting notice. This task force will be based out of this office and you will take orders and assignments from me only. Intel Division will provide you with detailed reports of past activity and that will also come through my office."

Greer paused for a second, and then looked straight at Gabriel. "This second suggestion is one you may want to strongly consider. You're SWAT qualified, correct?" he asked, referring to the Special Weapon and Tactics team

"Yes, sir. I'm part of the backup SWAT team," Gabriel had a feeling about what the sheriff was going to say next and he was proven correct.

"You may want to have people on your team who are SWAT qualified. The suspects in these cases are not going to go to jail willingly. If at all," Greer said ominously.

end stakeout chapter 1