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The lights of the city ahead gleamed in the shimmer of the warm air as they came in on their final approach and Doug Masters keyed in a final diagnostics command while adjusting his flight.
"Shift Field holding, we're on final approach now."
"Thanks, Doug."
Xander Harris' voice was calm, almost detached, and Doug knew that the younger man was still studying the latest intelligence provided by Merlin.
"You have a plan of attack yet?"
"Maybe." Xander's voice replied over the communications link. "Working on it."
Doug chuckled, "Don't rush on my account."
Xander shook his head, smiling slightly. "No worries."
Back in his seat, Xander slouched slightly as he toyed with the holographic display floating in front of him. He knew that his team didn't have time for a prolonged investigation, so he was basically stealing all the data from the Miami Dade crime lab and running their raw data back through Merlin.
"It's a Teke." Xander murmured softly, conversing as much with Elan as himself.
"What?"
He looked up and saw Buffy looking at him. "Huh?"
"What did you say?"
"Oh. Our target in Miami is a Teke. You know, like Teep?"
She looked so completely confused that Xander had to chuckle, "He's a Telekinetic. He moves things with his mind."
"Oh." She said, eyes widening. "Human?"
"Maybe. Might be a Witch, or just a Psionic."
She grimaced at him, and he chuckled again, "I mean that he might simply be a human with mental power, but there are several demon types with TK abilities, or close enough to make no difference."
"Oh. Does that help?"
"It might." Xander nodded, "We're going to check out the scene first, try to determine what we're dealing with exactly."
"How can we do that?" Buffy asked, leaning forward.
"Well, if it's a human with the Psionic ability Telekinesis, then I'll be able to see some resonance left in the area from his aura," Xander told her, "If it's a witch, though, we won't find anything. The Orca has passive sensors that should detect any residual demonic energy though, if it's option three."
"Hey..."
Both Buffy and Xander looked over to see Geoff leaning back in his own seat, eying them through slitted eyes.
"What is it, Geoff?"
"If it's a Witch, call in Drake. He's pretty good at sniffing out magic."
Xander nodded, "Alright. There's out plan of attack."
"Just one problem," Doug Master's voice came over their Comm.
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
"We're over the place now and there's more cops down there than at that donut shop we just flew over."
Agent Harry Wolfe, DEA Centac Unit frowned as he looked at the barricade of police vehicles that were clogging the street outside the home of the murdered agent.
"What happened?" He demanded of the first uniform he found, grabbing the guy's shoulder.
The cop started to demand his name in turn, but was stopped by the flash of the Centac badge.
"Uh... Explosion, Sir. Took out the house."
Harry let him go and swore, shaking his head. "Someone is cleaning up after themselves."
"They should have done it earlier," His partner, the beautiful young Hispanic Agent Morales said softly. "Forensics already has everything out of there."
"Apparently not everything," Harry replied, "Otherwise they wouldn't have gone to this measure."
Carmalita had to concede the point as the two of them walked toward the burning house.
Firefighters were on the scene, but were actually being held back by the police, their actions restricted to spraying the house from a distance as men in bulky bomb squad suits completed the ring of PD blue and FD red that encircled the area.
"Hey! You can't come in here!"
Harry looked up to the speaker, a serious black man wearing the black pajamas of the bomb Squad, and nodded respectfully as he flashed his ID again. "What happened here, Lieutenant?"
Al Humphreys looked at the ID then shrugged, "Don't know yet. As soon as we can get in, I've got my best bomb man raring to get another look at the place."
"Another? Is he the one who cleared it the last time?" Carmalita asked.
Humphreys nodded.
"Not that good if he missed this, now is he?" Harry replied.
The big black man bristled, "Now you listen here..."
"Hey Al, it's ok."
Wolfe and Morales turned to see a redheaded man in full bomb disposal gear approaching.
"Hey, Horatio, go on back to work, these two have got no cause to question your work."
Horatio Caine shrugged, "Why not? I'm doing it."
He turned to the two agents, eyeing their IDs for a moment, then nodded to Harry. "I don't think I missed anything the first time around, but if I did I'll be the first to admit it when we finish mapping out the debris pattern."
Harry Wolfe nodded, somewhat surprised by the calmness that the man was exhibiting, "That's fine... But I want to know what happened here."
"Stick around." Al Humphreys promised him, "You'll know when we know."
"Wow."
Xander had to agree with the whispered comment from the blonde Slayer. The house below them was a mass of flames, and the lights of the emergency vehicles around it stretched for blocks in all directions. It was an impressive sight.
Too bad it was compromising their mission.
"I'm getting nothing on the scanners here, Boss." Doug said after a moment. "Could the bomb have masked the signs?"
"Negative. If the scanners are clean, it probably wasn't a demon... I've got no sign of Psionics either."
"Can you see that from up here?"
Xander grimaced, tilting his head in annoyance. "Mostly. If it was someone powerful enough to do what the police reported, I should be able to get *something*..."
"That leaves option three." Andrezj Konzaki said stiffly from where he was seated.
"Yeah, but I don't think Drake is gonna love the idea of flying down into about eighty armed cops to sniff around for a Witch." Xander replied dryly.
"Point." Andy smiled. "Can it wait?"
Xander sighed, "Yeah. But it'll be hours... maybe longer before they clear out enough here."
"It's your call, Boss. Where too?"
Xander shook his head, thumbing the control to close the cargo door they were peering out of. "Take us to our secondary sight, Doug. We'll do this the hard way."
"You got it."
Lee Hatten smiled and embraced the tall dark haired man after he'd cleared airport security, pressing a Glock 21 into his hand as she greeted him, "Good to see you again."
"Thanks, Lee." Niles Barrabas accepted the pistol, tucking it into his waistband and covering it up with his jacket before he separated from the lady. "I'm sorry about Stan. I know you two were close."
Lee nodded, her face a mask. Her relationship with the DEA agent hadn't exactly been public knowledge, especially given that he was happily married and they hadn't stopped at 'just friends', but Niles didn't miss anything.
Stan had helped out the team on one of their missions into Columbia, rescuing a family that had fallen afoul of the Cartels. In the run of it he and Lee had gotten into trouble that had seemed... insoluble at the time. Things had progressed in a very tense situation and gone further than either of them really expected, or wanted.
That was behind them now, though, and Stan's death made it all academic. Now it was about a fallen comrade, one who'd been killed where he was supposed to be safe. A soldier, even a mercenary, expects to die on the battlefield. Not in their own home, amidst the carnage of an attack on their family.
That was a line that the enemy had to be taught not to cross.
"Nanos is in Miami, diving with Aquaman." Niles told her with a hint of a smile, "I called them ahead, told them to start gathering intel."
She nodded, understanding. "What's our mission parameters."
"Until we know more, this is strictly off the books." Niles informed her as they moved through the airport toward the terminus. "Some of our sponsers and employers are a little jittery about it when we operate inside the United States."
Lee smiled, understanding what was said, as well as what was unsaid.
The people who employed Niles and his SOBs regularly had deep pockets. Very deep pockets. That meant, more often than not, government agencies that had a need to remain behind the curtain.
One thing that they could count on when the SOBs went into action was a lot of fires cropping up all over the place, and those people wouldn't like the idea of their nice, comfortable, curtain's burning down.
Well they could all go to hell, at least in Lee's opinion.
Let the fires burn.
"We're at the beta LZ now, boss."
"Thanks Doug. Buffy, Geoff, and I will land and recon. Orbit the area until we call for you."
"You got it, Xan."
Xander keyed in a command sequence, activating the hatch sequence. It slid back on command and in a moment he was looking out over the Miami skyline, lights strung out before him like stars.
"We are in full Knight combat uniform, Commander." Geoff reminded him. "Are you sure we're ready for this step?"
"It's time." Xander replied, glancing back at the others. "Let's go."
"Your choice."
Xander smiled, then stepped out of the Orca.
And right onto the rooftop they were hovering beside.
Buffy and Geoff stepped out beside him, and Buffy shivered slightly as she looked around.
"Why here?"
Xander pointed down to the street and Buffy followed his gesture, "What do you see?"
"People... walking..." She shrugged.
Xander half smiled, "Now what do you feel?"
"Cold. I don't know... Tight." She replied.
"When we get back to Sunnydale I'll show you how to turn what your Slayer senses feel into something your eyes can understand," Xander promised her, "This is the roof of a Demon Bar we identified before we left Avalon. It's like Willies, only... well, more."
"Oh." She softly. "Information?"
"Right. We're going to shake them down."
"I can do that." Buffy smiled slightly.
"You going to tell her what else they do in this bar?" Geoff asked with a hint of a grin.
"Huh?"
Xander shook his head, "Let's just say that... you'd *definitely*need ID to get into this bar."
"Unless you wanted a job here." Geoff added helpfully, "I think they'd overlook the age in your case."
"What!? What's he talking about??" Buffy looked around, confused.
"Just stay close."
The clients of the 'Dead End Alley', those close to the door at least, jumped in startlement as the doorman smashed through the inner door and crashed to the dancefloor, wiping out a half dozen of the human and not so human dancers before skidding to a stop.
The music blared on for a moment until someone finally told the DJ that something was up, and then it screeched to a halt just as three figures stepped inside.
They were a unique group.
The lead man had brown hair, and looked very young, about the age as most of the dancers actually. Behind him, already spreading out to either side, were a young girl who was certainly underage, and another young man, both of them blond.
Oh, and they were armed.
"Hey! Hey! No trouble here!" The bartender slash club hostess hurtled the bar, holding her hands up. "No violence in the club!"
"Sorry lady, I don't have time for the niceties," The brown haired man said grimly, looking around the room. "I need information, and I'm on a tight schedule."
"What information?" The hostess demanded.
"Xander?"
"Not now Buffy," Xander said, waving his free hand as his other dipped into a pocket and withdrew a chain that he lifted up to eye level.
There was a muffled curse of shock as a few people in the crown recognized it, but most just looked on in puzzlement or fear.
"Is that...?" The hostess stared in shock, falling a step back.
It wasn't the symbols he was holding up, she'd seen them before. However when she had it had strictly been 'one to a customer', and there had to be nearly twenty of the things on that chain.
"I'm looking for a Terakan." He replied, "A telekinetic, specifically, but any Terakan will do."
"Geoff?"
"What is it Buffy?"
"Why are their naked people on the bar?"
"They're serving drinks."
"I don't see any glasses."
"Yeah. My kinda bar."
There was a pause.
"Ewww!"
Xander suppressed a sigh, rolling his eyes, and looked back, "Do you two mind? I'm trying to intimidate some demons here."
"Sorry." They replied at the same time.
A few of the demons he was trying to intimidate had gotten the idea that they were dealing with amateurs and were chuckling nastily as they moved toward the trio. Xander turned back, a flare of blue and while flashing from his chest as his Atlantean life stone pulsed.
"Sorry," He grinned at them as his matte black Desert Eagle cleared leather at his hip, "I'm still breaking in my partners here. Normally I work alone."
The hostess, still desperately trying to keep the demons back and prevent an all out fight in her club, looked back at him with a harried look on her face, "Who are you??"
Xander grimaced, sighing, "Your patrons probably know me best as the Seraphim."
To a man, and woman, he could tell who was human and who wasn't in the club by the reactions to that name and again Xander cursed Spike for sticking him with the idiotic name, and then cursed Spike again for actually creating a useful mythos that he'd have to be an idiot to give up.
"The Seraphim doesn't start trouble in demon clubs!" The hostess hissed.
"I prefer not to." Xander corrected her, "But tonight, we have an exception. Terakans. They put a contract on me, and I'm tired of it."
"Terakans never stop," A gravely voice announced from just behind the hostess and Xander looked up at the seven foot tall Horthock demon and nodded.
"I know. That's why I'm going to kill them all," Xander replied with a carefully measured sneer. He was trying to provoke a reaction if there was a Terakan in the group, get them to reveal themselves. "Since they like to act like cowards, attacking from the shadows, I thought I'd just step up the script a little bit."
"Hey boss, how's it hanging?" Alex Nanos grinned as he joined the other SOBs in the large hotel suite that overlooked the Miami skyline.
Niles Barrabas just glanced up, "You find anything, Nanos?"
"Some." The greek sailing master nodded, "It was a hit, paid for by the Columbians according to the word on the street, but the contractor was an independent."
"Do we really care?" Claude 'Aquaman' Hayes asked, shrugging. "The Columbians pulled the trigger, they're the ones we want."
"I want the bastard who killed Stan's wife and son." Lee said grimly with a shake of her head.
In the uncomfortable silence that followed, Niles looked around slowly, "Better we get them both. To send a message."
The SOBs nodded in agreement.
Emilo 'Con Man' Lopez nodded along with them, but also frowned. "Hey guys, you know, getting details on this assassin isn't going to be easy. The boys on the street don't known squat bout him. Just that he's part of some organization, code named 'Teraka'."
Niles Barrabas looked up sharply, eyes blazing. "What did you say?"
"I said that the boys on the street..." Emilo started repeated himself.
"No, the code name!"
"Teraka... That mean something to you, Bossman?" Conman asked Niles.
Niles stared into space for a long moment, then frowned, his whole face darkening. "This is trouble."
"I think we figured that out already, Boss." Claude told him, the big black man's face darkening. "You know something we don't?"
"If it's what I know," Alex Nanos replied grimly, "Then the boss is right. This IS trouble."
"You know about the Terakans, Nanos?" Barrabas asked softly.
"Just rumors, Boss." Nanos replied, "They're been around along time... hard to hide something like that forever."
Niles nodded grimly, "If they are involved... this mission just got a lot more dangerous."
Horatio Caine was not a happy camper.
Nothing made sense. In fact, the very lack of sense was building into a pattern for this case. There was no sign of any accelerants, explosives, detonators, or other flammable items.
In fact, if he didn't know better, he'd think that the house just... decided to blow up of it's own accord.
Blatantly impossible.
It also wasn't something he could take back to Al, let alone those DEA agents.
Caine shook his head, lifting the heavy blast helmet off as he walked back out of the smoldering building and headed toward Al Humphreys. There was only one thing he could do, and that was lay the truth down and hope they believed him.
Maybe the DEA agents had another idea.
"Well, Horatio?" Al asked as Caine came back to the Disposal Unit.
Caine sighed, shaking his head. "I'm stuck, Al."
Al raised an eyebrow, looking at his best bomb man since, well ever. "Stuck?"
"It makes no sense, Sir." Caine retreated into the comfort of protocol. "There's no sign of any explosive."
Agent Carmalita Morales stared at him, wide eyed, then back at the smoldering chunk of rumble that used to be a home.
Caine caught the look and smirked slightly, "I mean other than the obvious."
"Ah." She said, nodding.
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