3.9 The Call, Part One

Quotes

Chase: "Look at it this way, Gabe – if they don't search you, then we'll know passenger profiling is just media hype."

Deaver: "I can't sleep on planes."
Chase [grinning]: "Really? I can do all kinds of things on a plane."

Deaver [after near driving disaster]: "Okay, gimme the keys, Frenchie..."

Jonathan: "... because all the Americans do. ÊYou don't sound American."
[Stefan hits him again]
Stefan: No, I'm French. Would you like me to get a gauntlet instead?"

Stefan [to Jonathan]: "Saucy. ÊThe next one goes through your heart."
Chase: "Oh blah, blah, blah..."

Chase: "So basically, you just do whatever Gregor tells you to because you're afraid of him."
Deaver: "Way to emasculate the vampire."

Jonathan [gesturing to Stefan]: "Although this one doesn't smell quite right."
Chase [shrugs]: "He's French."

Chase: "See? It's all about being chatty."

PeanutGalleryRive: "I'm really excited about the axe..."

Stefan: "I spy, with my little eye, something that starts with 'V'..."
Gabe: "... and ends with '-ampire'."

Spirits are high as the scoobies board a plane headed for England. They settle into their seats. Rachel is already practicing her Gaelic on an affectionately amused Stefan.

The plane touches down at Heathrow Airport, and the kids from McKennit stretch and gather their luggage. On the other side of immigration, their greeted by an associate of Deaver's from the Watcher's Council, one Rupert Giles. He pleasantly asks about their trip as he helps them load luggage into his car. Once they're settled, he drives to a pub for a pint and some more in-depth discussion about everything that is going on.

Once they are ensconced in a private room in the back of the smoky, ancient-feeling pub, Giles tells them that he has booked accommodations for them in Oxford at a Bed & Breakfast run by friends of his. It is a Wiccan family, very much in the know and sympathetic to the Council's cause. Their slayer contact in Oxford is a girl named Rona, who has just recently been assigned there. She is a veteran in this line of work, who has been fighting with them since all the world's potentials first became slayers a few years ago. Giles admits that the sudden abundance of slayers, many of whom know nothing about their powers or the presence of so much demon activity in the world, is creating quite the logistical and administrative nightmare for the Watcher's Council. He goes on to discuss St. Saul, whom intelligence agents are saying is on the move again.

Deaver and Giles retreat for a private conversation while the others drink, talk smack, and peruse the menu full of standard pub grub (Gabe has had one of everything by now). When Giles and Deaver return, Giles bids them farewell. Giving them keys to a car and directions to the B&B (amid reassurances that of COURSE they can drive in England), he leaves them to fend for themselves.

After one misadventure with Stefan behind the wheel, Deaver does a not-quite-hostile takeover of the keys and the rest of the journey passes without incident. The B&B is a little stone house covered in ivy, perfectly at home in the rolling fields of central England. As the scoobies enter, Carrie Chester, an effervescent woman with a thick accent, greets them at the door and cheerily introduces herself.. She points out her children (or at least, that's what the crew thinks she says -- they can barely understand her), and bustles them to their rooms. There's the usual drawing of straws, and (also as usual) Gabe ends up on his own with the other three rooms taken by Deaver and Geoff, Stefan and Rachel, and Chase and Rive respectively.

Following a long nap for the jetlag-y, Carrie serves them a simple and tasty English dinner in the dining room downstairs, excusing herself immediately afterwards. As they are finishing up, Rona arrives. She gives them the scoop on the current vampire scene in Oxford. In a word: active. It seems to her that the local vamps have some sort of organization in place. She speculates that they have a kind of headquarters beneath the town, where there is quite an impressive network of natural caverns and tunnels. Urban legend has it that the vampires host "death parties", and the guests never return home. If these parties even exist, they are invitation-only and very hush-hush, so that the vampires can come up with suitable cover stories for the disappearance and death of so many young people. Supposedly they target those new to town and loner types. The group tells her about the extremely similar setup involving "BYOB" parties in McKennit, and the organization of vampires there; once again, the "coincidences" between the two college towns are striking.

When asked about St. Saul, Rona tells them that he is only tenuously connected to the bulk of vampire activity in Oxford, if at all. He lives in a cave on the outskirts of the town, and has a rep among the other vamps as being an oracle and prophet. As well as being kinda weird, if not crazy. If anyone is in charge, it is a vampire named Gregor; he seems to hold the most sway over the others.

Rona takes them on a nighttime tour of the town and the university. She says that the only part of campus that people really avoid at night is the east side, close to the woods. There are school legends about a girl who died there, and it is just not considered safe. Naturally, Rona spends a good bit of her patrol time going over that area. She points out the library, the records office, and gives them a brief tour of the tunnel system so that they can come and go in spite of the stated "official" hours on campus.

Deciding to take advantage of their first night in town, the group splits up. The two slayers and Stefan decide to walk Rona's usual patrol routes to get a feel for the town's activity level on an average night. Deaver, Chase, Rachel, and Geoff head for the records office to dive straight in to research on Bannon, O'Bannon, and whatever else they can find. Gabe is curious about the Liberal Arts Library's occult section, and decides to browse it to see what kind of resources are at their disposal.

Naturally, the patrol group finds some of the stuff you usually patrol for. Rather than dusting the offending vamp, however, they brutally question him for information on the vampire organization in town and on Gregor, their leader...

In the records office, Rachel is using her alarmingly escalating magical powers to search the records in ... well, record time. Searching for any instances of Bannons or O'Bannons in the first two hundred years of Oxford's existence, they find exactly what they were looking for. Charles Bannon was one of the first professors at the university. He came on from "elsewhere" as faculty at the university's inception in 1096, and was a professor there until 1111.

During that time, he dedicated much of his research to his daughter Rachel, who he said was recently deceased. A few observant people at the time noted that he bore a physical resemblance to one Lady Rachel Clemens (her maiden name was Laidlaw), who was wife to a local Knight and had recently passed away. But then ? Rachel Clemens had died of old age, so that couldn't possibly be the right Rachel. But the name Laidlaw catches Chase's attention. Marie, one of the vampires Chase suspects is following her, is the same Marie who was one of the first female students at Phillipi and had a special relationship with Dr. Bannon. She now uses the last name Laidlaw...

* * *

Gabe browses the occult section of the Oxford library, and while there are a few interesting volumes, the collection is nowhere near the caliber of the one at Phillipi. Disappointed, he leaves the library and calls the others to hook up.

* * *

With the vampire well in hand, the patrol party calls the others to meet them down in the tunnels beneath the records office. When the crew arrives, the hunters tell them that the vamp has agreed to take them to Gregor. Deaver smells a trap, and Chase starts playing Good Cop to Stefan's Bad. Her talkative flirtatiousness and pointed comments about destroying Gregor change Jonathan's (the vampire) initial plan, and he decides to take the scoobies the secret back way, rather than to Gregor's front door where forward progress would have been a bit more ... difficult.

He takes them to a garden gazebo off-campus, and sits down on the bench to give them the lowdown on Gregor Masters. He claims to be 800 years old and one of the founders of the vampire clan at Oxford, but Jonathan isn't sure he's buying that the guy is really that old. According to local lore, one of the founders of the college itself was a vampire, but Jonathan isn't sure he buys that, either. Mostly Gregor is just a big bully, and there are rumors of freaky magi-scientific experiments on other vampires. Jonathan isn't a big fan of the loose "organization" Gregor imposes, and whines about the logistical complications of planning "death parties". One thing is very clear -- he and the others hate Gregor, and if the scoobies really want to do him in, Jonathan will be happy to help.

Jonathan pulls a hidden switch and a door in the floor of the gazebo opens. They descend, and Jonathan leads them through twisting, dimly lit passages. Gesturing to a door at the end of the passage, he tells them those are Gregor's chambers, which he's never seen, and that this is where he says goodbye. He tells Chase with a smile that he hopes to see her again and departs. The slayers and Stefan break down the door, and a tableful of guards look up from their poker spread. A quick and dusty battle ensues. As the slayers start to gain the upper hand, a door at one end of the room bursts open and a tall, athletic looking vamp in full game face and wielding a big sword strides into the room.

The three heroes turn their attention to Gregor, as he growls something unintelligible. The fight goes quickly after Rive removes his sword, along with the hand he was holding it in. Once they dispatch of Gregor, the scoobies enter his room and search the place thoroughly, tucking away anything that may be helpful or of interest. Several curious vampires, who heard the commotion, interrupt them. Noticing the Rive is holding Gregor's sword, they ask if the group has actually ... you know ... gotten rid of him, and they are quite thrilled when the answer is yes. They leave the crew alone and intact, thrilled at their good fortune...

TO BE CONTINUED.