| Have a Little Faith, Chapter 37 | |
“Encrypted files,” Alex explained, while she was typing. “Give me some time. I’m not that good at computers. I have some hacker contacts. I can give them a call.”
“I know someone who’s great at computers,” Cordelia said and smiled. She reached for the telephone. “We don’t have to wait for Alex’s contact.”
“It isn’t Harmony?” Lindsey asked.
“No, silly, it’s Willow. She’s a genius
at these things. And I think she owes me.”
“What?” Holland asked. He had been summoned to Hunt Acrey’s office which was located near the top floor.
“The disk with the information,” Hunt Acrey said, putting his hands together. “It is missing.”
“Missing?” Holland asked. He wished Acrey would not be so cryptic.
“Davison apparently had a change of heart and was considering turning the information over to the police. He has been eliminated, but not before he managed to pass the disk on.”
“What?” Holland said, shocked. “Where is the disk now?”
“We think Davison passed it before he died to a car thief named Lina Kadash. If he has it, it is in our enemy’s hands.”
“Enemy?”
“Yes, apparently Miss Kadash was arrested and placed in the custody of her attorney. A man you have failed to kill.”
Holland smiled. “She’s with Lindsey?”
“And the slayer. I understand Holland that you are in charge of keeping Angelus from being staked or re-souled until he is needed for the apocalypse, but this disk may be the key to the children.”
“The seers,” Holland said and got as mad as Holland could get in his cool demeanor. “Brewer was supposed to take them out once they were found, but Lindsey—he must have deliberately lost that case because he knew Brewer would be going after Faith.”
“Very clever. I wish we had not lost him. I was quite disappointed to hear about his defection. Losing his soul was a great—hurt to our organization.”
Holland felt a little uneasy. He was a great spin-doctor, but not to Hunt Acrey. There was a reason he had an office on one of the top floors and Holland was still a junior partner on the seventh.
“You were very fond of him, weren’t you?” Acrey said and smiled, slightly.
“One of my first recruits,” Holland explained.
“That must be the reason he turned out the way he did. The first ones don’t always take. Now he is becoming a menace. I cannot understand why both him and the slayer have not yet been eliminated. I want them out of the way.”
“I have been making arrangements for Angelus to do just that.”
“How will you do that?” Hunt asked, his curiosity peaked.
“Angelus has been like a cat to them, playing with his food. Having fun with them before he strikes. I’ve arranged it so that they are in possession of something he very much wants. He’ll have to kill to get it. Originally I left the slayer’s assassination in Angelus’ hands. It would keep him out of trouble until he was needed for his true purpose. But if the slayer continues to be a burden, I can gave Angelus a reason to kill her.”
Hunt smiled. “Your plan better work.
You’ve always been a model employee Holland, we don’t want to lose you.
I’m sure by now Lindsey and Faith have the disk and any high school hacker
can break the code. So that means the children are safe for now.”
“Yes,” Alex said, into the phone. “I’ve tried that—okay—okay—“ She put the phone down for a minute. “She says ‘hey.’” Alex put the phone back to her ear. “Okay, I told them. What now?” She put the phone to her chest again. “Willow said that she saw Jonathan and he says hey.”
“For god sakes,” Cordelia said. “He was such a nerd. Why would I care what he said?”
Alex sighed and put the phone back to her ear. “Alright. Okay.” She tapped on a few of the keys.
“And we’re in. Thanks Willow. Oh, yeah, here’s Cordelia.” Alex handed the phone to Cordelia.
“Hey, Willow, what’s up? How’s everyone? You seen Oz lately? Oh you guys did? What? Xander seeing Anya? Isn’t she like some creepy demon? Oh yeah. Oh you gotta go. No, I don’t want to hear about Jonathan. Yeah, he’s here.” She put the phone to her chest. “Lindsey, hon, Willow says hi.”
Lindsey smiled. “I think I got that on the first hello.”
“Yeah, he’s still as cute as ever,” Cordelia said. “Yeah, hold on,” she put the phone to her chest again.
“Faith, Willow said hi.”
“I thought they weren’t friends,” Faith whispered to Lindsey.
“I’m not going to ask.”
“This is information about the tracking of three children.”
“Children?” Wesley asked.
“Yes. Three seers. They are supposed to be important. This information is about where they were found and how they are planning to move them to Los Angeles in the next few weeks. There are concerns about their safety. This is flight information.”
“Seers,” Doyle said. “Young seers are very important. This information could be something that was to be auctioned off.”
“Oh Willow,” Cordelia said. “I gotta go.” She hung up the phone. “Someone’s selling kids?”
Lindsey nodded. “We can’t let that happen.”
“There is very little information on the disk,” Alex explained. “The three kids will eventually be brought together.”
"A Holy Triumvirate,” Wesley said.
“A what?” Lindsey asked.
“A holy triumvirate. As they mature, so does their power.,” he explained.
“For good or for evil?” Faith asked.
“Probably with whoever gets them,” Doyle said. “Seers can get visions from the darkside. Ways to corrupt people. But for the most part the Powers that Be are the ones who get a line on the seers. The darkside usually kills them. It sounds like information selling. Either side wants the information.”
“And considering how rough those demons were with me. I don’t think it’s the powers that be who are trying to get the information.”
“I don’t know,” Doyle said. “The powers that be can be down right nasty.”
“Yeah, the Oracles were jerks,” Faith said, then made a weird face. “God rest their souls.”
“He was trying to kill me,” Lindsey said. “And he tried to kill Faith.”
“I’m just saying and all,” Doyle explained. “The Powers that Be sometimes seem like they are doing bad things in the name of justice.”
“He put his hand around my neck. That doesn’t show we are supposed to be on the same side.”
“We’re not talking about this Lindsey. Warriors sometimes gotta be rough. They don’t who to trust or not,” Doyle said. “You did used to work for Wolfram and Hart.”
“I can’t believe you said that,” Lindsey said, suddenly getting enraged. “He was strangling me. He was not working for the side of good!”
“I know that,” Doyle said, with concern in his voice. “What’s gotten into you?”
“That guy was bad.”
“Okay that guy was bad.”
Lindsey looked frustrated. Instead of saying anything else, he walked out.
“I’ll go look on him,” Faith said, getting up.
“No,” Cordelia said. “He’s my husband, I’ll deal with it.” Faith sat down, though she did not want to.
“What was that all about?”
“Lindsey has some issues,” Faith explained.
“He can still feel Angelus choking him.”
She found him sitting by her desk with his head buried in his hands. She came to him. He smiled. She sat down on his lap and he put his hand around her waist. She leaned over and kissed him. When she put her hand on his neck, he flinched.
“There is no rope there, Lindsey,” she said into his ear.
“I know,” he said and tried to touch it, but she swatted his hand away. “But sometimes I can feel it.”
She rubbed his neck. “There is no rope, just my hand. Just my loving hand touching you. All right? Say it.”
“There is no rope,” he said.
“Angelus isn’t here,” she said, kissing his lips. “He can’t hurt you when you’re with me.”
“I know. I want to believe that.”
“You really don’t think you deserve all this.”
Lindsey pulled back slightly.
“I don’t deserve any of this. I don’t deserve to be happy.”
Cordelia smiled. “Of course you do.” She ran her hand down the side of his head. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Be happy Lindsey. You are a good person.”
He pulled her close again and kissed her
on the lips. When they were finished he said. “You make me
happy.”
“How are we doing, Lee?” Angelus asked.
“Nil,” he said. “None of my contacts have heard that the gem was ripped off anywhere.”
Angelus sighed in frustration. He was interrupted when Penn and Alonna entered the room.
“How is it going?”
“Things will be prepared in time,” Penn explained. “A lot of them have wanted a piece of the slayer for a long time.”
Angelus smiled. If they only had the gem, everything would be going according to plan.