Xander grinned as they approached the car. Yanos had obviously been using most of his time waiting with the Mercedes to chat up passing girls. Several young ladies leaned against the car, all clad in skirts so short and tight, that their choices of underwear were plain to see, even to a human without depth perception! They were giggling and flirting shamelessly with the pretty Yanos, though the driver excused himself immediately he spotted his two passengers returning.
Spike smirked as he climbed into the rear of the car and mumbled good naturedly to the boy in Italian, “Thought you backed Achilles’ team mate, what’s with the female fanclub?”
“I think they liked the car. And it’s fun to look around.”
“Well next time I reckon you toss a bit of raw polish on the paintwork before they arrive mate. That brunette in red would have done a right nice job on the shine with all the rubbin’ her rear end was doing on the hood.”
Xander didn’t follow the conversation exactly, but the gist was clear and smiled as Yanos blushed a little then laughed heartily.
Spike directed the car down a maze of narrow cobbled streets to an obscure address. As they pulled up, he squeezed Xander’s hand and whispered “Just gettin’ some top up juice pet. Traditional family supplier – one of Stefano’s mob – be two ticks. So there’ll be no snoggin’ the lovely driver while I’m gone.” Spike wiggled his eyebrow and gave his companion a light peck on the cheek, then disappeared into the ancient building via a dark alcove.
Xander was still trying to think of enough Italian vocabulary that he might strike up at least a polite conversation with Yanos, when the lad looked into the rear view mirror and said in near perfect English, “William told me that you have not been to Rome before? It is a pity you have so small time. There is much to see, and very good shopping.”
Xander was almost speechless, he had assumed Spike had been speaking the local tongue for the boy’s sake – it was now apparent that the vampire had simply done it… because he could! He gave himself a mental slap and decided that Spike would never really cease to surprise him. He quickly gathered his wits and answered politely, “Will is right, though it was always somewhere that I wanted to see. It would be great if you could recommend one or two men’s shops.” Seeing a flash of puzzlement in the boy’s face, he quickly added”… for clothes, I mean… and shoes.” then blushed profusely.
Yanos smiled at Xander via the mirror, a little too knowingly in the opinion of his embarrassed passenger, but continued, “Of course, I will write some down for you before tomorrow evening. You are having dinner with us all, yes?”
Xander had almost forgotten Senora Di Angelo’s hospitable offer. “Oh… Sure, sure.”
He was just about to think of another topic of conversation when he was startled by the door opening as a grinning Spike piled into the back of the car – a large brown package tied with string in traditional market style, tucked under one arm.
“All good, luv. Bloody marvelous service! Place hasn’t changed a jot in least a hundred years. Just goes to show, why mess with perfection.”
Xander suddenly remembering stories of Spike’s other visits to this city, and pondered, yet again, the concept that his lover no doubt had personal knowledge of any changes in the last century and a half!
Spike, ‘the bouncy’, was apparently in the building, leaning forward to turn up the dance music Yanos had in the CD player, and announcing loudly in an upper crust English accent, “Home, my good fellow, and don’t spare the horses.” Then added almost conspiratorially “Drop us a couple of blocks away though would you, pet? Me and my lover here would like to stroll the last bit. Oh, and tell you what, if you can drop the package off at home for us, here’s a little extra for your trouble.” He winked at the surprised boy and added, “Treat that special friend o’ yours to a night out on us after we’re gone, yeah?” Xander didn’t see how much his vampire handed to the lad, but the wide eyed disbelief and near whispered ‘yes, yes’, then repeated ‘thank you’s’, gave some clue. Xander suspected that the boy would be willing to drive Spike anywhere on the planet, were he to ask!
Spike then leaned over to Xander and whispered, “This all goes belly up with the army boys, we may well need him. ‘E’s a good lad.” Xander squeezed his friend’s hand. They both knew why they would be walking, though what security the Initiative had around their ‘observation post’ was a complete unknown.
Spike adjusted the heat suit then feigned fatigue and placed his head on Xander’s lap, allowing his consort to drape a wrist across his mouth and with the appearance of a caress, fed Spike. Fangs descended, and though the Master Vampire held his ridges at bay, there was little need. Xander was sitting directly behind the driver so they were at hardly any risk of being seen.
Fortified, warmed, and (with a little of Spike’s blood offered in the ‘other direction’) consort-link heightened, the two alighted at the requested two streets from ‘home’. They thanked their driver again, then took a side alley at the rear of the ‘observation building’ to seek some sort of access in, and the third floor.
Xander had been a little concerned that accompanying his physically gifted vampire might require some sort of athletic climbing of ancient guttering, or leaping of roof tops. Instead they simply walked into a rear entry archway to find the building’s central stairwell. It suddenly dawned on Xander that they were ‘visiting’ their spy in the role of a put upon same sex couple, and also realized that they were not one hundred percent sure that this was the Initiative or just some pervert with a telescopic lens.
He followed his blonde up three flights of ancient worn stone stairs, admiring the view, courtesy of Spike’s tight jeans. They arrived at the third floor landing, to face a choice of four doors. Spike shrugged to his partner and selected one that was most likely to lead to the apartment on the front right of the building.
Xander whispered, “What now?” Spike simply grinned and knocked loudly. “Geez Spike, it’s close to three am!” He grabbed his partner by the hand as the door opened.
Chambers was jolted out of his dazed state by a loud banging on the apartment entry door. He had been sitting in semidarkness for most of the evening, it was apparent that his targets were out for the evening as he suspected, the heat equipment would report any bodies returning to their apartment even if his lover boys left the lights off. He had amused himself for the first couple of hours by cleaning his side arm, checking all the monitors and wiping them of dust, and eventually using his camera and night goggles to check out other good folks of Rome who had left curtains open.
Out of habit, he swung the heat monitor to view the door and detecting two warm forms relaxed a little. By the loudness of the knocking, he suspected it was a couple of drunk tourists returning from a night on the town, mistaking his door for their own, it had already happened twice since their team had been here. There was probably no need for concern so he simply straightened up the observation area a little and moved to answer to door.
He opened the door a fraction, then all the way in apparent shock as he realized the identity of the two men in the hallway. Xander suppressed a grin as Spike began to address the open mouthed individual politely in Italian. When the response was a surprised “Hello?”, he switched to his upper-crust English accent.
“I’ll try that again in English for you shall I. Good evening, I’m William and this is my partner Alexander. ” Spike stopped made a point of looking past the man to the array of equipment by the window. “I take it you’ve ‘seen us’ before as we seem to be in the right place. Well done, pet.” Spike making a point of kissing the hand he was holding.
Chambers was utterly speechless, managing only to let out an “Umm geez” whilst rubbing his now very pale face with one hand and trying to think of what to do.
“I shan’t apologize for the lateness of the hour, we simply thought that… how can I put this delicately… we might save you the trouble of ‘waiting up’ as we will be leaving the lights *off* tonight during our lovemaking, so I am afraid you would be wasting your time if you want high quality shots… ” Spike had been smiling pleasantly to that point but switched to menacingly serious, “Alex here and myself are deeply distressed at the thought that you have been using clandestine means to take compromising photographs for *whatever* purpose! We had hoped you were merely some sort of peeping Tom, however your equipment would indicate otherwise. I take it you are selling them? Planning on some form of blackmail? We will of course be contacting the authorities immediately, and I can assure you that they do not take kindly to visitors to their city being harassed in such a manner.”
The young operative realized that being discovered by this pair was one thing, but wondered at the implications of having the authorities involved. They had a cover story but never really had to use it before.
“Look um… um… can you just um… come in and maybe I can explain. You see I’m a, um, private investigator, and um… the pictures won’t be…” Chambers fell silent, realizing that nothing he said now would make it any better.
“We are not really interested in your explanations at this point. Though I’m sure we will both be fascinated to learn who exactly engaged you. Now, if you will excuse us we will wait downstairs for the police to arrive.” With that Spike gave the man an icy stare, pulled out his cell phone, his intent clear then tugged Xander down the stairs. When they reached street level again, Spike did indeed call, but it was Stefano not the police on the other end. The conversation was brief but Xander realized why they needed the help of a local powerbroker.
“Yes… They will need to be here in the next hour, sooner if you can. They just have to pick the kid up and ruffle the feathers a bit…….. Should be fine…… Let ‘em use their little cover story with the *real* authorities, it’ll tie them up for a day or so, figure they’ll shift their little hidey hole after this…… No, don’t let your demons near these guys…… Yep, reckon one or two of your pets can keep track of them on the street……. They’ll be more careful after this but I’m sure you’ll manage. Yeah mate, still have to find HQ, keep you posted as promised…….. Yeah mate good times…… and hey thanks for tonight…. Cheers” Spike snapped the cover of the phone closed and grinned at his consort.
“So what now?”
“We wait for the local bobbies then you an’ I go upstairs so’s I can give you a good seein’ to…. It s'posedly bein’ our holiday ‘n all.” Spike licked his bottom lip ever so slowly and stepped a little closer to his partner. Xander hoped the police arrive sooner rather than later.
Chambers closed the door with a groan. He knew it would be unclear when, or on whose shift their ‘subjects’ had noticed they were being observed, however it was still going to mean a lot of procedural questions. He sighed, pulled out his own phone and dialed his superior to explain the situation. He then briskly tidied away any signs of military style involvement and sat down to wait. Forty minutes later a bored looking officer arrived to collect him for questioning.