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Revenge of the Sword, part 3

Johnny Leong had been every bit as menacing as Duncan had expected. While Duncan had no fear of dying, it could still be a painful experience. Gunshot wounds hurt… as did broken bones, electric shock, and fire. Perhaps it was the mortuary's crematory chamber that unsettled the Highlander slightly as he'd faced down Leong and his revolver, loaded with one shot. Duncan knew he didn't dare die in this place… he had to get the upper hand. If he died, he had no doubt that Leong would load him immediately into a cheap coffin and run his corpse into the oven. He was that kind of man.

That said, Duncan found a calmness in the confrontation that allowed him peace of mind as Leong played a form of Russian Roulette with the Highlander's knee as target. Once the man was tired of the game and ready to kill… Duncan struck. He grabbed the extended gun and twisted around behind Leong, as he ordered the henchman to drop their weapons. Leong's fear of the one round in the chamber of the gun, now pointed at his head, was evident. Of course, in a move designed to anger the man and show that he had style, and a sense of humor… Duncan shot the vase instead before escaping. After all… it wasn't a real Ming vase… just a copy.

He drove furiously to the dojo, hoping that Jimmy would be there. Duncan MacLeod wanted answers.

The crew had finished up for the day and most had left. Duncan found Jimmy sparring with Charlie while Lisa watched.

Storming in, Duncan asked in no uncertain tone for answers about Jimmy's involvement with Johnny Leong… and the tong. An argument ensued… and then a fight… with swords. Suddenly Duncan was in his element… he snatched two of the shorter wakizachis from a display on the wall and full on attacked Jimmy who had grabbed a katana. Centuries of practice and fights to the death with bladed weapons quickly put Duncan on the offensive.

He sliced lightly into Jimmy's mid-section… just enough to draw blood and yet not enough to do any real damage. "Not like the movies… is it?" Duncan taunted. His anger at his near death and likely cremation earlier at the mortuary was aimed at the young film star.

Disbelief crossed Jimmy's face. He'd been so full of himself and his abilities… so certain that he was the best that ever was… he'd never considered that this "old man" could beat him. He backed away, tossed the katana to the floor and stormed out.

Duncan still had no clear answers… but his conversation earlier with Grandfather Lao about wisdom and answers and what a man knows and doesn't know began to make sense. This wasn't about the film… this was about Jimmy… and loyalty. Johnny Leong was not a man who accepted disloyalty. He wanted Jimmy dead because the young man had dared to leave him. That would be bad for business.

Duncan's anger cooled. He carefully replaced the swords into the display rack. He needed to go home… he needed Tessa. Lisa's and Charlie's yelling voices accusing him of upsetting the young man bounced off of him like only so much dust in the wind. He waved their buzzing voices away and turned dully toward the door, ready to leave, and his mind on Tessa's calm voice, her cooling hands… her beautiful smile.

Dawson stood there.

Duncan shook his head. He needed out of this place. He didn't need further complications. He waved the man off as he passed him. Then Dawson's words pierced the veil that Duncan had drawn over the sounds and voices of the dojo.

"That reporter has a tape."

Duncan froze and turned toward Dawson. Tape? he thought with confusion. A copy of that videotape last week? What?

"Can we talk?" Dawson continued.

Duncan looked back at Lisa and Charlie. The two still looked angry as if they somehow wanted Duncan to make everything right… go after Jimmy… save the day… take care of business. They looked at him as if he were some sort of champion whose job it was to make all things better. But this tong thing had to be a matter for the police… he had to stay out of it. He was already too involved. He met Dawson's worried gaze, and nodded. "Come on… we can talk on the way to my car." Dawson followed him out.

"So what tape?"

"Mine. I make notes about your activities on one of those small tape recorders… nothing too elaborate or revealing… mainly where you are, who you meet, what you eat… that sort of thing. When I got back to my office last night, I turned it on to transcribe the notes and erase the tape… Ya gotta understand MacLeod, we're usually very careful about such things. We don't leave them lying around."

"Go on."

"Anyway… I'd made some remarks on the tape as I'd watched you and the others after I left the antique store. I added some additional other comments later in the day. When I ran it back to transcribe them…" Dawson paused and swallowed nervously. "I found out that the remarks I'd made on the tape after I left your place weren't on the tape."

"So… you recorded over them."

"That's what I thought. Then I really looked at the recorder. It wasn't mine. It was the same style and size, but it wasn't mine."

"Why do you think Miss McFarland has it?"

"I… uh… ran into her again after I left your place." Dawson ran a hand through his graying hair. "She apologized to me for sticking her recorder into my face earlier. She came on all friendly and stuff." He grinned and shrugged. "I'm a man. I let my guard down. I shoulda known she was up to something."

"What exactly was on the tape?" Duncan leaned toward the man… his nostrils flared in anger.

"Not much… but I may have used the word… immortal," Dawson said ruefully, and then flinched as Duncan balled his fists and searched for something to hit.

-----

Jimmy Sang's mind was in turmoil. His carefully built persona was crumbling around him. He'd returned to his apartment and was in the shower… pounding the tile with the palms of his hands as the steaming water ran over him. He wanted to hit something… he wanted to break something… but the tile in his shower was not a good place to start.

His legs crumbled under him as he sat sobbing in the water… his mind once more the small boy in the freighter on the passage to America. Around him people wailed as members of their families died in the crowded hold of the ship. He pawed at his grandmother… cold and stiff beside him. His father sat holding Jimmy's younger sister in his arms… a sister who lay limply and stared with dead eyes. Then he stood cowering before his father at the age of sixteen… the old man screaming at him in their native tongue that it was better to be dead than live with this shame. Jimmy's face had burned with the slap and he'd left.

Johnny Leong had offered a smile… understanding… money… anything if Jimmy would just do a few things for him. The devil is beautiful and beguiling Jimmy had once heard someone say. He didn't believe in the Christian devil… but he did believe in evil. He'd been drawn into the world of the tong… and had nearly lost his soul.

"It is important to be honest with yourself about who you are," Grandfather Lao of the Buddhist temple had once told him. "Do no harm to any living creature. You never know… one of them might be a family member." Jimmy had laughed then… and the memory made him laugh now. He'd found his way out of the tong by writing about it… and by intense study of the discipline of the martial arts. Johnny had thought Jimmy was learning them to be a better enforcer… but Jimmy knew that his studies were a means of escape. If he were good enough… he could find another life and reinvent the person he'd become. He could one day stand before his ancestors with pride.

Now… the past was reaching out for him. Johnny Leong would never let this film be finished. He would destroy it… as he'd once destroyed Jimmy's relationship with his father. He wanted Jimmy all to himself. Jimmy's compliance would mean that the others he cared for would be safe. Keeping them safe was more important than making a name for himself. But without the name… could he ever hope to be free.

The water pelted his skin and flowed over him. But his crimes and his guilt did not wash away.

-----

By morning, Duncan had calmed down. He was still calm when a frantic Lisa Scott called him while he was lingering over breakfast as he laid plans for what to do about Randi McFarland and that tape of Joe's. He'd heard nothing from the reporter last night… and her piece on the eleven o'clock news had been about re-zoning. But there had been a smug look on her face as she'd reported… as if she knew something and was sitting on it until she had all the proof she needed.

"What's up?" Duncan asked as he held his cup out toward Tessa to refill with coffee. Richie was going through the classified ads in the paper, mumbling something about a real job and his own place.

"Jimmy didn't show up this morning for filming. I'm worried. I'm afraid something's happened to him."

"He's a big boy. Why call me? Call missing persons."

"Not funny Mr. MacLeod. Listen… I'm trying to keep a lid on all of this. But I need Jimmy in order to finish this film."

"Business first," Duncan snorted.

"That didn't come out right," Lisa said after a pause. "Look… I'm worried he might go after this tong guy you mentioned yesterday. He's not at his apartment… the doorman said he left early this morning. He may do something that he'll regret… or he may die. I'd hate for that to happen. He really can be a nice kid. You've just not seen him at his best."

Duncan sipped on his coffee. Finally he set it down. "What do you expect me to do? I'm not exactly his favorite person."

"Help me find him? Chinatown is a big area. I don't know where to start. Charlie's helping me look, but he doesn't really know this area either, and I doubt either of us will get too far with the locals."

Duncan nodded. He doubted they would either. That was a close-knit community that did not cotton to outsiders. It was one of the reasons that the tong could still exist there. He chuckled, aware that once more he was being drawn into a situation he'd hoped to avoid. "I'll see what I can do," he promised and hung up the phone.

"What are you going to do?" Tessa asked.

"Looks like I'm going back to Chinatown."

"What about that reporter?"

Duncan sighed. "That'll have to wait until she makes a move. I have a feeling that before she goes public with it… she'll do some research… and then she'll ask me for a comment." He winked. "I may have one for her."

Tessa regarded him curiously.

"Oh man!" Richie suddenly complained. "Do these renters realize just how expensive these apartments are?"

"Keep looking Rich," Duncan said playfully pushing the young man's head. "But you might need to set your sights a little lower to start with if this is something you're determined to do."

"Lower?"

Tessa leaned smoothly on the table before him. "Well… you might try finding a paying job first."

Richie paled. "Right… a real job… regular hours… and then a place to live." He returned to studying the classifieds as Duncan kissed Tessa and left. He had an idea where he might start looking.

-----

He found Jimmy outside of the Buddhist temple, signing autographs for the kids of the neighborhood and explaining that the martial arts was not about "kicking butt" but about the discipline and confidence to walk away and know that one was in control. Duncan smiled. There was hope for the young man.

Grandfather Lao came up behind Jimmy and Duncan noticed the reverence and respect with which Jimmy bowed to the old man. Perhaps Lao was another father surrogate for the young man… the counter-balance to Johnny Leong. Duncan could understand that. He'd lost his own father so many centuries before. "You're na my son!" Ian MacLeod had cried again and again as he'd banished Duncan. Had he spent the last four hundred years seeking the same sort of approval in the older immortals he'd come to know? There had been good ones like Connor, Hamza… and Darius. There had been bad ones, who'd led him astray sometimes like Gabriel Piton or Brian Cullen. Duncan chuckled. Jimmy and he were more alike in many ways than was at first apparent. They were both searching for parental approval. Hopefully Jimmy, who had but a single life to live, would find his path sooner than Duncan had.

"Others also look for you," Grandfather Leo said to Jimmy as Duncan slowly approached. Jimmy turned and regarded the Highlander with a look of resignation.

"Tell me about you and Johnny Leong," Duncan prodded gently… hoping that this time… the young man would answer his questions.

"I was his enforcer. I wanted out… I left. Now he wants me dead."

"So go to the police. You likely know enough to put him away."

"I can't" Jimmy said nervously.

Duncan stepped closer. "That's why your father threw you out. You were protecting him by doing Johnny's bidding."

Jimmy nodded. "He said he'd rather be dead than have me working for the tong."

"So who are you protecting now?" Realization dawned on Duncan as Jimmy's eyes flickered toward Grandfather Lao. The young man was protecting him… the temple… the monks.

Gunshots rang out.

Jimmy flung himself atop Grandfather Lao as the crowd of children hit the street with a practiced air. Evidently they'd been witnesses to other shootings in the neighborhood… they knew to hit the ground and remain still.

Catching sight of the gunman… Duncan raced toward him… swiftly disarming him and pounding him into the ground. The man lost consciousness. Duncan pulled back… aware that all was silence. He turned toward the crowd of children once more standing and in a closely formed circle about something on the ground.

Duncan immediately knew… someone was hit. He pushed them aside and knelt by the dead body of Grandfather Lao. Oddly… there was a look of utter peace on the old man's face as if he'd merely gone to sleep… or exchanged one life for another.

Looking around… Duncan realized Jimmy had vanished. He called out for him… but already he could hear sirens. He couldn't leave here until the authorities arrived. Inwardly he groaned. Once more Duncan MacLeod's name would be linked to a murder. He gazed into the blank faces of the children. He didn't dare leave them here alone with the body. But Jimmy needed him… and he didn't want to appear to know too much.

Why was he here? What did he know? His thoughts railed furiously in his mind as he sought a cover story that would get him out of here so that he could get to Leong's place and stop Jimmy… for that was surely where the young man had gone. Duncan feared that even telling the police that would entail his being delayed too long… and he doubted he could get the police to send a unit there fast enough to stop Jimmy from attempting to kill the tong leader.

The young man was headed down a dark path unless Duncan figured out a way to stop him.