Disclaimer: Highlander belongs to Davis/Panzer. They are being borrowed and returned hopefully in about the same shape they were taken in. Jeff, Emmy, and just about everyone else, belong to me. You can use them if you like, just return them please.

Chapter 26

Jeff's phone rang at half past three, and he was pretty sure he knew who it was. He looked at the ID anyway. Yup, it was Rick. "Sorry man, I'm caught up at the paper. They're actually having me write about the drug deals. It's almost done. I'll be down in like twenty minutes."

"That's not exactly why I called. I'm actually not at work," Rick said wryly.

All of Jeff's instincts sprang to life and his hand convulsed on his phone. "Where are you?" he asked, worried. Rick hardly ever left work early, which could mean that something bad had happened this afternoon.

"I'm at the Memorial Gardens."

A place he only went when he was troubled. "Crap. What happened?"

"I just spent the day being watched by another Immortal who's after our friend Marcus."

"Jeez, this man has more enemies than Duncan and Connor combined. Are you okay?" An exaggeration, to be sure, but these were the emotions of the moment.

"Fine, but I'm not very happy. The guy left his name. I'd like you to look through the Chronicles and find every Damien that pops up. I want to find out who this guy is; and then I want to nail him to a tree."

"Whoa, what'd this guy say to you?" Jeff asked. He had never heard Rick talk like a headhunter. He had told Jeff a long time ago that he took yoga and meditation while in college in order to help him control his anger. It helped, also that girls thought you were cool if you did stuff like that.

"It's what he didn't do," Rick replied unhappily, and hung up the phone.

Jeff set down his phone and began typing furiously. He wanted to get this sorted out before bed tonight, and if he was going to do that, he had to get down to Miami. He hated it when Immortals only left their first names. It made things difficult. Instead of being able to access the local hard drive, he would have to drive an hour and a half to base and look manually through every Immortal whose name had ever been or was currently Damien. The worst part was that there could be over a hundred, and he would have to get pictures and information for every single one. His article was finished, so he slapped it onto the editor's desk and headed out the door. This was going to be one long evening, and that would not even include the time he would have to spend studying for the GRE.

"Ah, Mister Read, you haven't been around for a while? How are things?"

Jeff did not have to turn around from the computer he was working at to know who was standing behind him. It was Daniel Goodman, head of the Florida division of the Watchers. Every state had its own head, and he could not stand Daniel. The jerk was one of the Watchers who had fought tooth and nail to keep the Servants from becoming a division back in 2002. The two of them would probably never stop despising each other.

"Well enough, Daniel. I'm surprised to see you here. Aren't you usually up at the Orlando offices?" He turned to face the other man, a fake smile stuck in place.

"Yes, but I have to drop by here once in a while. I usually come by about every other Tuesday. Looks like you just showed up on the right day." Jeff knew Daniel's smile was just as false as his own. The older man nodded his head towards the computer. "Now, is there anything I can help you find?"

Jeff wanted to roll his eyes, but kept from doing so. This was Daniel's way of interfering with his work. "Not unless you can tell me offhand which Immortal who goes by, or has gone by, Damien, wants to kill Marcus Maxwell."

"I thought you were watching Rick Cloud. Has that changed?" Daniel asked with genuine surprise.

Jeff sighed. He did not want to explain this to a pencil pusher who had only spent enough time in the field to know that it sometimes got your suit dirty. "It's complicated. Rick wants to take this guy out."

"Why?"

"He's been following him all day. They spoke at a cemetery this morning and he pushed the wrong buttons. And believe me, Dan, those buttons are hard to push with my Immortal."

Daniel nodded, seeming to have forgotten their differences in talking shop about Immortals. "Yes, I know. It's the only good thing about your assignment. The two of you aren't running around like Duncan MacLeod, trying to save the world from evil Immortals. Still, why would this Damien follow Cloud, if he is after Marcus?"

Jeff smiled wryly. "Because he made the same mistake that so many Immortals do when facing Rick. They think he's just a baby Immortal and he's going to run home to daddy."

"Out of curiosity, have you ever learned who trained Cloud? It would be an interesting thing to add to his history." His expression was one of pure Watcher curiosity.

Jeff shook his head. "Sorry, Danny." He bit the inside of his cheeks to stop a smile forming at the other man's wince. "He's still completely tightlipped about anything in his past before he moved to New York and went to school. I still can't even confirm half of the Immortals we think he killed in South America, let alone anything before that." He turned back to the computer. "If you don't mind, I'd really like to finish my search. I have to get home and study for the GREs."

There was a moment of silence as Daniel digested what he had heard. Then he said, somewhat snidely, "Well, Mister Read, I must say I'm impressed. I never thought of you as someone who would take advanced schooling. Well done, we might make a good Watcher out of you yet. Good luck with your search." Daniel slapped Jeff on the back in a less than friendly manner, and left the room.

Once he was gone, Jeff returned to the hunt. Surprisingly, over the known history of Immortals accessible here, there were only twenty-five who had ever used the name Damien. Ten of those were dead, which left another fifteen to sift through before he would head home. One was a scientist living in Antarctica. Jeff found this rather amusing; there really was no better place to hide on Earth from other Immortals. They were likely to find you on Holy Ground and taunt you, even if they could not kill you there. They were unlikely to take a summer trip to Antarctica to find out if anyone was hiding there.

Two of them were in Asia right now. They seemed unlikely suspects. One was in South Africa fulfilling a spiritual mission. One lived in Northern Canada and had been there for fifty years. So that left about ten who could potentially have left where they were last noted, and come to Florida in the last few days.

None of their Watchers had reported that their Immortals were on the move, but sometimes it took several months for these things to show up in the actual chronicles. They were kept on the Watcher's own personal hard copy file, so that the main chronicles could be updated later. Jeff sighed. It was better than a hundred. Better even than the twenty-five he had started from. He copied down the names so that he could pull up the files again when he was at Rick's the next day, and got up. It had been a long night already and he still had to drive home. His stomach growled and he laughed at himself. He would have to eat something, too.