Damn this fucking pen.

Spike growled under his breath and threw the pen across his office watching as it hit a vase on a nearby table which promptly smashed to pieces on the floor. He glared at the pen as if blaming it for making the mess before burying his face in his hands. He was exhausted and he just wanted to go to the nearest pub and get absolutely sozzled before going home. He sighed and sat back in his chair staring at the piles of reports and unfinished documents that he knew he would have to finish before going home and felt like ripping them into pieces. He had loved this job at one point. He had come up clean on his Single Scope Background Investigations without a single blemish on his record that had been to problem then he had endured that Physical Fitness Test which had been bloody torturous as far as he was concerned…and that was all before he even got into the FBI training academy. There he had trained and worked his ass off for weeks before finally graduating and being assigned to his first field office which at the time had been in Colorado.

Fast forward 10 years and he was now situated in Los Angeles and his excitement and lust for the job was gone so he counted down the days till retirement even if it still was a long way off. If Spike really thought about it, it wasn’t the job that had changed and neither had he. Anyone who saw him at work could see the passion and devotion he had for this job except Spike of course. He still had all the top cases. Undercover jobs, some in exotic places, capturing the bad guys…Spike was the best no matter what but since Dru had left the scene everyone could tell the difference in him. He was bitter, cynical and cold…but he was one hell of an agent which is why he had been put on this case. Everyone knew that Los Angeles had a somewhat darkness beneath the surface but none had expected just how bad it had gotten. One of the local gangs had been busted just over two months ago for drug trafficking after they had caught their leader Richard Wilkins and almost half his goons waiting at the docks.
They had immediately gone on the attack and Wilkins himself had shot and killed one officer and put another in hospital. After their arrest they had all started denying they were up to anything and so the cops had waited to search the ship that had arrived and found enough cocaine in the cargo hold to keep the entire West coast of America happy but that hadn’t been the worst of it. On board they had found over a dozen girls tied up and locked beneath deck and after some very confusing questioning with much help from translators Spike had stumbled onto something bigger than anything he had worked on. A slave ring.

The news had thrown the entire agency into hyper drive and absolutely everyone wanted to be in on the investigation. Unlucky for them Spike of course got first dibs and he had been stuck with a desk full of paper work since. They had tried again and again to get Wilkins to talk but he didn’t say a word and it looked as if they were getting nowhere fast and it left Spike so frustrated he felt like screaming. He stared down at a photo of him and his ex wife grinning at the camera happily and he picked that up and threw that too. She had no right to be on his desk anymore. She had lost that right the minute she decided that she’d sleep with every male in the country and Spike was sick of having her on his desk everyday reminding him of her. They had been divorced for a month and he still had not had the courage to let go of her completely which was why he still had that damn photo on his desk. Well he was no longer loves bitch.

“stupid bitch.” Spike grumbled rubbing the spot where his wedding ring used to be and sighed once more before finally giving up. He stood and grabbed his coat from the back of the seat before heading for the exit. If he stayed any longer he’d go insane he just knew it. He was down the hallway and standing in the elevator when he saw Harmony Kendal his damn secretary running towards him in her ridiculously high heels. He grimaced at the sight and repeatedly pressed the down button praying to anyone who would listen that the doors would shut before she got there.

“Hey Spike!”
Bugger.
“What’s the matter miss Kendal?” Spike asked in frustration.
“I just got a call from Giles. He wants to talk to you about the whole slave thing.” Harmony smiled blindingly at him. Spike just shook his head at the girls utter lack of intelligence and stepped back out of the elevator heading for his bosses office.
“Your welcome.” He heard harmony mutter behind him but he didn’t care. Women officially meant nothing to him anymore especially one like Harmony. As far as he was concerned they were all bitches.
He knocked on the door to his bosses office and waited for him to call him in before opening the door and approaching his desk. Spike and Giles had met over 4 years ago and had instantly developed a friendship despite their almost 16 year age gap at 46 Giles was much older than Spike but they had somehow managed to bond just fine. Maybe it was a British thing.

“Ahh William glad I caught you.” Giles broke into a happy smile immediately freaking Spike out. At work Giles never smiled at least not lately not with the whole Wilkins thing.
“What’s up?” Spike asked dropping into one of Giles’s leather couches.

“I just had very interesting phone call.” Giles smirked.
“Oh yeah from who?” Spike asked suddenly losing interest, he just wanted to go home and he fiddled with the lighter he held in his hand uninterestedly. He seriously doubted whoever Giles spoke too had any meaning to him.
“Wilkins.”

Spike’s eyes snapped up too Giles’s and Giles almost laughed at his slack jawed look.
“What he want?” Spike asked too excited to hope.
“Well his lawyer informed me that Wilkins requests our company.” He laughed.
“Right then…finally.” Spike grinned madly racing Giles to the door.

The bottle of whiskey would have to wait.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * *

“Hello Lindsey, hello Mr Wilkins pleasure to see you again.” Giles said in a mocking voice. The two men on the one side of the table knew that they were hated by the men on the other and they simply rolled their eyes at Giles stab at being civil.
“Okay so care to tell us what you dragged us down here for?” Spike asked with a raised eyebrow acting as If anything this man was going to say was not worth his time while inside he was ecstatic that they were finally getting somewhere.
“Well my client would like to offer you a deal.” Lindsey smiled charmingly.
“And what’s that?” Giles asked.
“Mr Wilkins has a lot of information to tell you. Valuable information. You cut his sentence to 3 years and its all yours.” Lindsey winced when both men instantly burst out laughing.

“Mr McDonald please do not waste my time. Mr Wilkins is about to be found guilty on murder in the first degree for killing a damn fine cop, attempted murder of another officer, drugs trafficking and god knows what else. Elections are coming up and believe me they are gunna be coming down hard on you too set an example. My bet is that he’s lucky if he don’t get the death sentence…especially when we get proof of this whole human trafficking he‘s been up too” Spike said seriously.
“Im not involved in that!” Richard growled before getting a warning look from Lindsey.
“look if he pleads guilty to all charges and you tell the judge he co-operated in bringing down this whole slave ring what are you offering us?” Lindsey asked.
“Life imprisonment.” Giles replied instantly. He didn’t care if it meant he had too work another 20 years to get to the bottom of the slavery he wasn’t letting this slime ball out.
Lindsey sighed and turned to Wilkins with a grave look on his face.

“I doubt they're gunna budge my advice is take it. Its better that death right?” he advised honestly.
Wilkins sighed and shook his head in disgust.
“Fine I’ll tell you everything I know.” He grumbled staring down at the table.
Giles glanced at Spike giving him a small grin before turning back to the man sitting opposite him with his most intimidating look on.
“There’s this guy okay? Liam O’Connor?”
“Liam O’Connor? The Irish mob leader?” Spike nodded showing he knew who he was.

“Yeah that’s him. They call him Angel cause he looks like just an Angel when underneath…lets say even I shudder. Anyway a few years ago he calls me and says he wants to form an allegiance. Tells me there’s a ship coming in at the harbour with some merchandise he wants on it. He says he’ll pay me 25 grand each time I deliver what’s on the ship. So I get there the first time and see these girls….young some of em no older than my own daughter. Mostly foreign and some couldn’t even speak English and the ones who did couldn’t do anything but sob so I call Angel back asking just what the merchandise is…well what could I do. 25 grand his a hell load of money so I pack the girls into vans and send my boys to drop em off.” Wilkins shrugged.
“What are they being used for?” Giles asked.
“What do you think?” Wilkins laughed evilly.
“So where does Angel keep these girls?” Spike asked clenching his jaw.

“Well that’s the thing. He doesn’t sell em off right away. I drop them off at this centre. Some stay there for years apparently. He trains them you see. He lives in this great big mansion and there are loads of buildings in the grounds that I assumed were for plants or something but boy was I wrong. He trains them how to please people if you get my drift.”
“And where is this shelter?” Giles asked leaning in.
“That I cant tell you…but I can get one of you in.”
Spike and Giles both stared dumbfounded while Wilkins just grinned at them.
“No you can tell us.” Spike said stubbornly.

“Listen im not just leading you there…for starters im not sure where there is. He always made me park the van up outside a gas station of his choice and get into the back blindfolded. He’s have someone pick me up and only when I got there was I allowed to see anything so technically I don’t even know where it is…and even if I did know and did lead you there you wouldn’t find anything. Angel is insane and twisted but he’s smart. The girls are hidden and his estate his huge. Believe me where he keeps them? You’d never find them no matter how hard you look.” Wilkins chuckled as if very amused by all of this.

“Okay…fine…what can you do for us then.”
“Look I can get a friend of mine. Willie . He’s a friend of mine and Angel. I can phone Willie and tell him to tell Angel that my ends closed even though O’Connor probably already knows this and got girls coming in elsewhere. I’ll tell him that I got a replacement for me that he can have and in steps one of your fine officers.” He explained gesturing to them both.
“And Angel and this Willie will buy that?” Spike asked.
“Yes my word is gold to them.”

“What will our officer be expected to do while he’s under cover?” Giles asked a little worry showing in his voice. He knew that who ever he sent in would likely go through hell and the chances of his guy being able to take anything with him to connect to the agency was unlikely. If someone went into the O’Connor estate they’d have to go blind because he knew Angel and he knew that he would find out if anyone working for him wore a wire or was in contact with the cops. Hell Giles knew for a fact that Angel had guys on the force and maybe in the agency who were loyal to him and Giles knew this would have to be handled with care.

“Well Angel's bound to have different guys handling the transportation of the girls now but…he doesn’t trust anyone and I doubt he’d have found someone to take my place in the actual urm…training facility.” Wilkins said averting his eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“I was a…trainer if you will. I worked with the girls to get them…prepared.”
Wilkins shifted uncomfortably and stared up at the two men in front of him.
Boy was this interesting.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“So what do you think?”
Spike looked up from his brandy glass and up at Giles who was sitting there looking uncomfortable.
“im about to go undercover working for one of the most insane bastards in the world training and torturing girls to make them into sex slaves….im just peachy.” Spike grumbled.
Giles simply nodded. What else was there to say really.
“Look Wilkins said everyone is expected to stay at the mansion for 8 weeks working on one girl…this isn’t exactly the greatest mission but it has to be done Spike. You come back tell us where this sick fuck is keeping these girls and then we’ll bring him down okay? I promise.”