(Untitled)

[fredburkle]

All the things that I've seen, lived through, experienced, from demons to portals to vampires with souls didn't prepare me for the United States being taken over by Warren Meers. When he took control, I'd never heard of him before. But, not long after Angel and the rest of us soon figured out that Warren and his two friends were from Sunnydale,

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[_wes_pryce_]

With a sigh I hang up the phone and frown. Fred seemed far to concerned, but I suppose that's Fred. She's been doing that a lot over the years and no one ever thought much about it. If I were as paranoid as Meers seems to be I'd have let someone look into that years ago. Maybe he did, I don't know. It's as if we're the friends we used to be anymore. I miss those times, but one can't be careful enough these days. I have my cover up very good, I know this. No one would suspect a cold, ruthless, calculating man, such I as pretend to be, to be important in the resistance.

Opening my drawer I take out a small orb. Glancing around and concentrating on the wards, I make sure no one is watching or listening. Waving over the orb I chant under my breath and a small cellphone appears. It had a glamour over it and disguises my voice to sound like an older arabic male. It's the best way to get in touch with my contact in the resistance. I'm about to call when I can feel the hum of them contacting me. "Ackmed here. May your stars be the luck that is the sunshine and the moonshine in the sahara." Good lord I really think that is a stupid ancient non wisdom.

[fredburkle]

Sometimes I really wanted to laugh at some of the things Ackmed said over the phone, but then I remembered that was his beliefs and his religion and laughing was..just mean. So, with a big grin on my face, I gave him the phrase that let him know who this was, "Hello, Ackmed, this is Malcolm. I need to talk about the vegetables."

Vegetables. I'd always wondered why the word used was vegetables. I never really pondered that question, because I was too busy being nervous about being found out. So, I quietly tapped my fingers on my desk and waited for Ackmed to respond appropriately.

[_wes_pryce_]

Ah, it's my contact from the resistance. Of course. How very useful, in that case I can also ask about someone coming over to if the infected people are magically or mystically influenced. I'm pondering doing that job myself, but then I'd have to use a really strong glamor on myself as well. Let's first see if it can be done.

"Malcolm, my sadik. How good of you to call. The vegetables are doing nicely but the fruit on the trees are blossoming." God, they really should come up with better secret pas words. I feel like sodding James Bond sometimes. "You've called me in a most opportune time. But first, what can I do for you?"

Always hear out what he has to say. He's always on time with the deliverance of weapons. Ones he obviously gets from Wolfram and Hart, I've seen Fred working on some. Or cures for diseases. I have my suspicions he works in Fred's lab, but I'm not going to follow up on that lest I reveal his cover.

[fredburkle]

Relief washed over me as he said the words he was supposed to so that I'd know it was him. "That's real good my friend, real good. But I heard that there's a crop rot that's going around. Hear it's infectin' lots of your vegetables...ruining all that hard work you put into gettin' them fields ready. What's the low down on that, my friend?"

I was so proud of myself for masking my spoken voice, not just with the voice manipulator, but with what I actually said. It was hard at first not talking like myself, but I'd been doing this so long that it was hold hat by now.

[_wes_pryce_]

Perfect, he's going straight to the point I wanted to make. This will save a lot of energy and times dancing around each other. It's very hard to talk in this code but it's the only way to discus things in case the phones are in any way tapped into. Which in my case is highly unlikely with the spells I've put on it. And I've no doubt that Malcolm has taken his own counter actions.

"Yes, this is true my Sadik. Sadly so and we are close to loosing half the crop to this rot. I have been thinking a long time about what to do against it. The only thing I can come up with is that perhaps it is caused by some un-natural insect from outside the field." I'll need to go through my books and look up several other spells then the ones I already know to make sure it isn't magical or mystical. And if it is, I'll need to know what to do against it.

[fredburkle]

"Ah, yes, yes. We have to find out what the cause of this crop rot is and I agree with you about an outside infectant. I'd lay odds on something un-natural myself. If I could get a few samples of your crop, I'm sure I could have a few of my people run some tests and we could isolate your bug in a matter of days." Hopefully. If I couldn't isolate the source of the infection, at least I would be able to rule out mystical or physical.

I waited for Ackmed to say something. Hopefully I hadn't given myself away with the lab talk. I just couldn't help myself when it came to examining and learning about a new subject. I cleared my throat, "How does that sound to you, my friend?"

[_wes_pryce_]

Malcolm certainly knows a lot about laboratories. Which, only furthers my suspicion, that I'm dealing with someone who's working right here in Fred's lab. I have to extra careful when I go down there, make sure to squash down on my normal curiosity and not try to find out who Malcolm really is.

Nodding into the telephone I snort at myself. Such a normal reflex only he can't actually see me agreeing. "This is a very good idea. I'm sure that could be arranged, yes. Though, there some...other...test should be run as well. To see if here isn't any other unatural...occurance." Such as magical. I'd need to leave a message at the usual drop off place with the details and what to do, how to figure this out.

[fredburkle]

"That's wonderful, friend. Now...how do you propose we get these samples to me? I'm open to any way you have in mind, seeing as how we're so...far away from one another. And of course I can run any and all extra tests that you can think of. We want to isolate this nasty critter as soon as possible." I hoped he had a good idea as to how I was going to be able to examine the infected people.

I also wondered how I was going to get those people into Wolfram and Hart, into my lab, and begin testing on them without alerting someone. It would most certainly arouse suspicion and I couldn't have anyone know what was going on. I needed a good cover story and I needed one fast.

[_wes_pryce_]

Bugger, good question. How did I get those people there? I have no idea, I needed to think about that first. Maybe even go see Fred and ask carefully around about some tests, pretend it's all for the research. Yes, that might work. Once I know more about those tests I can perhaps come up with a better plan.

"Uhm, yes. I'll have to talk about that with the farmer association. We need to pick out the worst effected crop." In other words, I need time to come up with a plan. It's times like these I wish I had more then one contact in the resistance. I can leave them a message through the drop off points though, that will probably be the only way.

[fredburkle]

We had to cut our conversation short, because any longer and someone could be tapping us and listening in. "Yes of course. You get all the information you think I'll need and get back in touch with me. Be well my friend." I ended the call and hid my phone and voice manipulator.

I sighed and sat back in my chair, my mind lost in thought. How could I get these people into my lab, run my tests, and find the cure without raising some big, gigantic red flags? I wish I had someone who I could call a friend in all this...someone I could trust with this secret.

I used to have that type of person in my life and his name was Wesley. Wesley was the person I could share and tell everything to and know that it wouldn't go any further and that I would get get sound advice back from him. But those days were long gone and I was alone in this..and it had to stay that way.