In The City Part Five: The Replacements
Her hair was a mess, but the jeans fit, and the tank top she found in the dresser suited her. She could feel the air-conditioning chill her skin. She was alive.
A knock came at the door. She stiffened defensively.
“Not everything’s an attack,” she thought, and then corrected herself. She really didn’t know where she was. She really wasn’t safe.
“You decent?” said a voice from behind the door. It was Oz.
“Yes,” she said, noncommittally.
Oz opened the door and peered in. “Cool. Riley wants to talk to you.”
“Riley?”
“Special Agent Finn.”
“Oh.”
She didn’t like Finn. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but he made her edgy. But then, everything made her edgy. Everything except…” “So,” she said, looking Oz in the eyes, “what are you? An errand boy for the Army?”
Oz pondered.
“Something like that.”
She followed him down the hall. They walked in silence to what appeared to be a living room. There were couches and a television set, and a large coffee table in the center. Riley sat in a comfy-looking chair at one end of the table, reading a file. A young blonde woman sat on the couch, absently flipping through a magazine.
“Justine,” said Riley. “Settle in OK?”
“Fine,” said Justine.
“Good,” said Riley. “So, I bet you’re all wondering why I gathered you here.”
Justine, Oz and the young woman on the couch stared blankly at him.
“Comedy,” said Oz, after a moment. “Not your strong suit.”
“Right,” Said Riley. “I just always wanted to say that. Anyway...”
“Who’s the new girl?’ said the woman on the couch. “And who’s her barber? He should be shot.”
Justine felt her fist clenching, but Oz stepped casually between the two women.
“Justine,” he said, this is Amy.”
Amy smiled, and Justine found herself immensely uncomfortable. Finn annoyed her, but this woman…”
“So you found yourself a slayer, huh?” said Amy. “Got yourself another replacement for the real thing, huh?”
“You’re not a replacement for Willow, Amy.”
“I could be.”
“As I was saying,” interjected Riley, hitting a button the TV’s remote control. “You three have been gathered as members of a response team.”
An image of a skyscraper appeared on the TV screen.
“Wolfram & Hart,” said Justine, under her breath.
“Right,” said Riley. “Headquarters of some major movers and shakers in the occult world. Also, the last known place this man was sighted.
Justine could feel her skin tighten at the man’s image.
“Angel,” she said.
“I understand you have a history with him,” said Riley, rather coolly.
"That’s not going to be a problem, is it?”
Justine looked at the picture of the man, then glanced at Oz, who was watching her. She looked back at Riley.
“What do you want me to do?”
“It’s our job to find out what happened to him. And, if possible, rescue him.”
Justine shuddered. She could feel her teeth begin to clatter, so she clenched them tight. Riley flipped through pictures of the rest of Angel’s team. Some she recognized, some she didn’t. The picture of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce flipped past, and she nearly leapt out of her skin. She couldn’t understand why she was having such a reaction to just the thought of the man.
Riley turned off the TV.
“Our … commander,” Justine noted the hesitation on the words, “the man in charge of this mission, he told me to expect this reaction.”
Justine wanted to leave. Now. Go back to the city and live on the streets again. She didn’t care. She wanted…
“I don’t know exactly what happened with you and Angel,” said Riley. “I never much liked the guy, either.”
“That’s because Angel used to bang his ex-girlfriend,” said Amy. Riley ignored her.
“But the boss says this is a chance to wipe the slate clean—for both you and him. I don’t know what that means, exactly, but I think he may be right.”
Justine relaxed.
“Fine,” she says. “I’ll do it. But why me? Why us?
Riley leaned back in his chair.
“Boss says that, all he knows, is that there’s been a battle foretold—a (continued...)