Chapter Ten
Kronos leaned back in satisfaction, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Glancing to his right, he saw his brother Caspian, to his left, Silas. The smile twitched wider. All that was missing was a certain wily, old immortal, and he would be joining them soon enough. Kronos' smile turned into chuckles, and then an outright laugh.
Silas joined his laughter willingly, comprehension not required for merriment. Caspian, however, merely slashed an evil grin at his brothers, his attention held more firmly by the visibly frightened flight attendant. Kronos was sure he could see his brother scenting the young woman's fear in the air.
"Brother," he stated quietly, putting his hand on Caspian's arm, "you will have plenty of time to play later. I need your attention now." With one last leer at the pretty blonde, Caspian turned back to his brothers.
"So, brother, are you finally going to tell us where we are going?" Silas' voice boomed throughout the empty first class section of the airplane. Kronos was once again thankful that he had purchased all the seats, ensuring privacy for their conversation.
"Yes," hissed Caspian. "Why the need for secrecy? Is there something you don't want us to know?"
"Do you question me, Caspian?" The note of command in Kronos' voice was unmistakable. The habits of one thousand years could be forgotten, but not broken. Caspian immediately came to heel.
"Forgive me brother. I am certain you had a reason for releasing me from that hellhole of a hospital. But I was growing rather fond of the food." A dreamy look crossed Caspian's face as he remembered licking blood off the doctor's face as he lay dying.
Throwing a look of disgust at Caspian, Silas broke in with another question.
"Where is Methos? Does he not ride with us? You said we ride, Kronos. We cannot ride without Methos."
Hearing Caspian snicker, Kronos raised his hand to forestall any comments; comments that were sure to incite anger in their large companion. He did not wish to mediate their bickering during the long flight.
"I will answer all your questions now. The timing has been … problematic to this point. I had only a week to retrieve you both. Explanations had to wait. Your patience will be rewarded." The last was said with a sly grin that heartened both of the former Horsemen. That grin always presaged destruction in the past.
"Now, where to begin? Perhaps with a dark street …" Kronos quickly brought Caspian and Silas up to date on the details of his encounter with Methos in Seacouver. He glossed over Methos' reluctance to rejoin his brothers, and emphasized the importance of the contest. Nothing could be allowed to stand in the way of winning the contest.
"So, it was Methos' idea to have a contest?" Silas seemed confused by this.
"Yes, brother." Kronos felt no need to confuse the large man by explaining that Methos had the offered the contest as a way to avoid dying or rejoining their brotherhood.
"But the contests were for Caspian and me. You and Methos never – And we never had teams before - And we –
"Shut up!" Caspian snapped. "It is simple. There is a contest … we will win. Just as I always did in the past."
"You did not always win!" Silas defended himself. "I remember the time we had to blow feathers, you lost. Methos said I had great lungs. And the time we had to hold a lion carcass overhead. I lifted the carcass off you when you fell." As Silas paused to draw breath, Caspian surged into the gap.
"What of the race? Do you remember the race? Your lungs did you no good that day. Ten times around the camp it was, I lapped you by the fifth circuit. You died in the dust like a dog." Caspian's eyes filled with glee as he recalled his prize from that contest, a tender little morsel of a slave girl. He wondered again how the flight attendant would taste.
Kronos felt like he was caught in the middle of a tennis match forever frozen at match point. Neither of his two brothers had changed, either in their animosity towards one another, or in their disregard of others around them. Although first class was empty, Kronos could not allow the argument to escalate any further.
"Enough!" he roared. The flight attendant, who had been trying to inch even further away from the frightening passengers, jumped and fled first class, heading for the safety of tourist.
"Much though your bickering amuses me, we have more important things to discuss." Kronos sounded anything but amused. "Methos has tried to stack the deck in his favour by sending me off to fetch you. By the time this flight lands, we will have only twenty-four hours before the contest is slated to begin."
"But brother," Caspian interrupted, "he will have set traps for us. He has the advantage. He is the planner, the schemer." Caspian's dislike for Methos shone through the words he spoke.
"You underestimate me brother, just as Methos has." Kronos' voice was once again silky, underscored by a subtle sense of violence barely held in check. "I know exactly what Methos has done to prepare for this contest. I know where it is to be held. I know what safeguards he has put in place. I know just how much it cost me to override those safeguards. Good help is hard to find," he noted, "but I seem to have found it."
"So, you intend to beat him at his own game?" Caspian sounded thrilled at the prospect of seeing Methos humbled.
"But we won't hurt him, will we?" Silas was confused and concerned. "You and Methos always said we never raise a blade to each other in anger."
"Of course not brother." Kronos could afford a little time to soothe Silas now. "I have never wished to hurt Methos. I only want him back with our little family. He has lost his way over the years. Fallen in with a bad crowd." Kronos stifled a grin at the irony of that statement.
Silas seemed satisfied at Kronos' explanation. "How do we help him, brother?"
"Well, we have to eliminate the bad influences on him. My employee has been unable to determine the identity of Methos' second teammate." Kronos almost ground his teeth as he admitted that. "We do, however, know that his first choice was Duncan MacLeod. If we want Methos back, we will have to eliminate Duncan MacLeod."
Caspian and Silas nodded, leaning forward as Kronos unveiled his plan to destroy Methos' last hope.