CHAPTER 9
Breakfast was quiet; everyone was too groggy to make idle conversation. Hira's daughter, whose name they discovered was Rosa, was busy bundling her children into their clothes as Hira bustled around the kitchen making sure everyone had something to eat. Eventually, though, they were all ready to leave and were on their way to Sofia before eight. Hira had decided to drive in her daughter's car, so the journey was a little less cramped than the previous night.
They arrived in Sofia just after midday. Methos had already booked flights for Hira and her family on the phone that morning and Amanda volunteered to pick up a few things for them, so Duncan elected to accompany Hira to the passport office, her family in tow.
Methos robbed a telephone booth of its phone book and rejoined Joe in the jeep. Leafing through it until he found the letting agencies, he tore out the page and started the engine, pulling out into the traffic.
"Tut, tut, tut, petty theft and vandalism, what are we going to do with you?" Joe said with a smirk.
A weak laugh came from the back. "Don't do that," Amy protested. "It hurts too much."
"Drugs wearing off, then?" Methos asked with a smirk.
"If this is the moment where you tell me 'I told you so' again – don't," Amy warned.
"The thought never crossed my mind!"
"Yeah, sure it didn't," Amy muttered.
A few minutes later, Methos parked in front of the first letting office on the list. "This shouldn't take long," he promised as he got out. "Be back in a moment." He was as good as his word and he was back in the jeep with a lease and a new set of keys within ten minutes.
"Did you get somewhere nice?" Amy asked hopefully.
"Actually, I did," Methos replied. "We might as well make ourselves comfortable while we're plotting."
Joe snorted as Methos turned on the engine and proceeded to make his way to the rendezvous point that he and Duncan had arranged earlier. Amanda and Duncan were already there when they arrived.
"Hira has already gone on to the airport," Duncan said as he walked up to the car window. "Did you get someplace?"
"Yep," Methos answered. "Follow me."
Half an hour later, they pulled into the drive of a villa that was situated in the leafy outskirts of the city.
"Very nice," Amanda approved as she got out of the car. "I take back all I said about you having no taste, Methos."
"Why, thank you, Amanda," said Methos sarcastically.
Within ten minutes they were all safely ensconced in the house. Duncan and Joe propped Amy up in the couch while Amanda picked up her car keys again and went shopping for a few essentials for the house.
Methos made himself comfortable in the study and proceeded to make a long list of calls to those he knew in the I.T. business. Eventually, he got hold of the name of a supplier in Sofia who specialised in the kind of computer equipment he was hoping to get his hands on. A quick phone call later and he made arrangements for the equipment to be dropped to the door, no questions asked.
Satisfied he had done all he could do until the equipment arrived, he went to check on Amy's dressings. "This looks good," he said approving as he inspected the wound and bandaged it once more. "You should be able to move around, with care, in the next few days."
"Days!" Amy protested. "But that's ages."
"Oh, stop being such a cry-baby. Believe me, there is a big difference between days and ages – and I should know," he joked.
"Hey, I know what we could do to pass the time," Amy said slyly. "I could fill in a few gaps in your chronicles. You know, sit here quietly, not moving a muscle, taking notes as you tell me what really happened during that visit to Rome in the first century – set the record straight and all that."
"Nice try," Methos replied dryly.
"It was worth a go!" Amy answered with a grin.
It was at that moment that Amanda breezed in with her usual truckload of shopping bags. "Food and toiletries!" she announced breezily as she dropped them on the floor.
"All that?" said Methos as he eyed the bags doubtfully.
Amanda rolled her eyes, picked up the bags again and headed to the kitchen, "Men!"
Methos looked at Amy in bewilderment.
"Hey, don't look at me, I'm with her!"
"Traitor," he accused as she burst out laughing.
"Realist," she contradicted him. "If it was up to you, we'd all be hanging around in this house with no soap or bread!"
"I'm not that bad."
"Near enough, I'm your watcher, remember? I've seen your shopping trolley, no wonder you eat out all the time."
"Nitpicker!" he grumbled as he stood.
"Running away, are we?"
"Damned right! Now I remember why I prefer the pleasure of my own company… "
The doorbell rang and Methos went to answer it. His package had arrived. Paying the guy at the door, he retreated into the study and set the equipment up. Soon he had a decryption sequence running for the laptop. Hoping that this would work, he left it to do its job and joined Amanda and Duncan in the kitchen.
"Hey guys, how's tricks?" he asked cheerfully, helping himself to one of the sandwiches on the table.
"I made a few calls," Duncan told him. "The Valcourts should be here by tomorrow morning. I told them to shake off their watchers before they did so - that is, after I told them what a watcher actually is," he added with a grimace.
"Joe is not going to be happy," observed Methos.
"Joe can live with it," corrected the old watcher as he entered the room. "Desperate times and all that."
"I'm glad to hear it," said Duncan with relief. "I wasn't looking forward to telling you."
"Well, now you don't have to," Joe said comfortably as he took a sandwich and started munching.
"I'll bring a plate into Amy," Amanda said, heaping one with sandwiches and disappearing into the living room.
"So, any luck hacking into the laptop yet?" Duncan enquired.
"The program is still running, we should have a result within the hour," Methos told him as he slouched into his chair.
"Good, then maybe we'll have some answers to this whole mess," Joe sighed. "This situation is beginning to get on my last nerve."
"Right there with you," Duncan muttered. "Being kidnapped twice in the one week is not my idea of a good time. It's positively embarrassing."
"How did they get you this time?" asked Joe.
"I think it was some kind of tranquillizer dart," Duncan replied. "Whatever it was, it was pretty powerful, I actually had a headache for a full hour after I woke up."
"Sounds nasty," sympathised Joe.
"You know, I never figured that out," mused Methos. "How is it that an immortal can take a bullet and wake up right as rain a few minutes later, but dope them up on drugs and it takes hours to wear off?"
"I think it has something to do the fact that we can regenerate more efficiently when we are 'dead'," Duncan ventured. "I mean, I've noticed that when I'm wounded during a challenge, it takes me a while to heal. If I die in the process, however, I wake up totally regenerated."
"I suppose that's as good a theory as any other," Methos admitted. "It also proves that not only is there an immortal involved in this charade, but he's most likely in charge. Only an immortal would know enough about our physiology to realize a tranquillizer would be more effective than a bullet in keeping us quiet for any length of time. A mortal would need that amount of breathing space to take down three immortals simultaneously."
"That's an awful lot of supposition," observed Duncan.
"Oh, I've not even started," replied Methos grimly. "I don't believe that they were merely attempting to kidnap us in the first place, but kill us in one fell swoop. The only reason I believe we're alive is that they expected us all to attack together, not split up and hit both camps concurrently. When they realised they hadn't caught us in the one net, they switched to plan B."
"You know, that makes a scary kind of sense," Joe said. "Watchers killing immortals – I thought that had ended with Horton."
"Not killing immortals, Joe," Methos corrected. "Just putting them under long enough for one of their pet immortals to come along and finish the job. My guess is that Valmont was lurking somewhere out of sensing distance, just waiting for the signal to come in and collect our heads. It would have worked too; if we hadn't split up we'd probably be fish bait by now."
"I suppose that it's a good thing that you took his head, then," said Duncan.
"Joe told you about that, I suppose," Methos said, with amusement.
"He may have mentioned it while you were playing with your new gadget," admitted Duncan.
"It was rather stupid of me, I know," Methos said with a sigh. "I suppose I should have taken a page out of their book and captured him instead. I'm afraid that I let my anger get the best of me."
"All things considered, I think we'll let you away with it, this one time," said Duncan with a grin.
"Nice to know," replied Methos with an answering grin. "Well, I'd better go and check on my 'gadget', it should have cracked it by now." With that, he rose from the table and made his way back into the study.
Sitting down to the laptop, he smiled with relief as he noticed that the 'gadget' had indeed succeeded in decrypting the password. Logging in, he quickly scrolled down the document files. As nothing jumped out at him, he decided to start from the top.
Immediately, he hit pay dirt: inside was a long list of names. He recognised enough of them to realise that it was a list of watchers. The strange thing was that he recognised too many of them. Almost to a man, all the watchers were from the research departments; hardly any of them were field agents.
Usually, in his experience, the watchers that were more likely to go renegade were from the field. Personally, he could understand that; anyone would be sickened if the had to watch an immortal such as Caspian, for instance. These watchers, however, probably hadn't seen a real immortal since their training days. It explained their bad field skills, if nothing else.
He racked his brains to come up with a reason for the predominance of researchers. The only reason that seemed logical was that it had something to do with Tribeau being their ringleader. It made a kind of sense that he would recruit from those watchers he was most familiar with – his fellow researchers.
With a shrug, he decided to leave the whole thing to Joe; it was really his problem anyway. Moving on to the next file, he groaned. It was yet another reference to an ancient text. He very nearly skipped on to the next file when a phrase caught his eye. If he wasn't mistaken, the list of tributes to Ramses that Duncan translated in Constantinople had also mentioned this 'key of Ihmotep'. With a sigh, he read on.
Within moments, he began to giggle as he read about the amazing adventures of Ihmotep the Great while he strived to recover the key created by Tefnut, the water goddess. He had actually known the wily old architect back in that long ago era and he remembered their many conversations with fondness. There was no denying that the man had been a genius, he'd been the Leonardo De Vinci of his day. Not only was he the first to design and build a pyramid, he had also had been a formidable artist, Mathematician and philosopher.
The thing is, Indiana Jones he wasn't! The thought of the stout old architect diving to the bottom of the Nile and wrestling a crocodile in order to retrieve this fabulous key was bloody hilarious. The nearest that old fart got to taking a dip in the Nile was when he took a bath. Methos supposed he shouldn't be surprised. After all, Egyptians had worshipped him as a God in later generations. Compared to that, this was small fry.
It was the appendage at the bottom of the page that really caught his eye, however. It was a short description of the key. With a start, Methos realised that the description fitted the Methuselah stone exactly. Quickly, he did a few mental calculations in his head. Yes, the figures fit, there was about a three hundred year gap between the death of Ramses and Rebecca's first death. Somewhere along the line, the stone made its way from the royal Egyptian treasuries and into Rebecca's teacher's hands.
It was the description of the stone's powers that really made him sit up, though. Apparently, even Rebecca didn't know the full extent of the stone's abilities. Not only did it have the power to hold back the ravages of time in a mortal, it also could be used to find the 'eternal waters' that flowed within the 'garden of the Gods'. The Sumerian account of the 'pool of lights' in the 'Garden of Dilmun' sprung to mind, the similarities were too many to dismiss.
It was the last piece of information that made him nervous. According to this, the stone really was a key. Whoever held it could literally enter the Garden. It did make a kind of twisted sense - if the Ziusudra of legend was supposed to have returned the stone to the waters, he would have needed a way to get in.
It was as if the carpet had been suddenly pulled from under his feet. Here he had been thinking that the worst he was up against was an immortal that wanted invincibility, but now he realised that the stakes were much higher than that. Someone wanted to get hold of the power to change the fabric of reality. The possibilities were endless; anyone with access to the pool of lights could literally recreate the world in his own image.
Methos shuddered. What sort of lunatic would want to play that kind of game? The only immortal he knew that was that power mad was Kronos, and he was long dead. It was all a legend, of course; there mightn't be any thing to it. For all their talk, no one had ever actually seen the stone perform any of its supposed magical abilities. But then again, the waters in France were no myth; he had actually seen with his own eyes how they could heal.
In the end, Methos came to the conclusion that he couldn't afford not to take it seriously. Even if it weren't true, the fact still stood that there was someone out there who believed that it were – and that someone was crazy enough to do whatever it took to get what he wanted.
With a sigh, Methos clicked onto the next file. It was a list of properties. Methos noted that the building in Kraskava was among them; also, there were properties in Bahrain, Egypt and France, as well as one here in Sofia. Making a metal note to check the latter property out as soon as possible, he went on the next file.
It seemed to be a journal of some kind, a mish-mash of dates, places, and erratic thoughts. Unfortunately, it wasn't signed. He tried to make sense of it, but didn't make much headway. One sentence did stick in his mind, though. 'The last preparations have been made, all we need now is the key'. It was then that Methos thought that carrying the stone's pieces around in his pockets might not be such a good idea. It was definitely time to dig a hole and bury them.
Moving on to the last file, he grinned evilly as he realised what it was: a list of all their financial holdings, bank account after bank account, complete with pass codes and amounts. A picture of the state of Hira's home popped into his mind and, suddenly, he knew what to do. This would need a little of Amanda's expertise, though. Poking his head out of the study door, he hollered her name and went back to his seat.
"No need to shout so loud, Methos," Amanda admonished as she entered the room. "I was just across the hall, you know."
"Believe me, all will be forgiven once you take a look at this," Methos promised as he gestured at the laptop.
"Is that so?" she said, rounding the desk to take a look at the screen. Methos looked on in satisfaction as her eyes rounded in disbelief. "This is a hell of a lot of money, Methos."
"So it is. Looks like Hira is going to be a very rich woman!"
"There is nearly a hundred million British pounds here," Amanda replied. "I wouldn't advise that you give it all to her, it would be too overwhelming."
"You may have a point," Methos admitted reluctantly. "How about we give some to Amy and Joe as well? Seeing as Amy took a bullet, I'd say that she deserved some compensation, and Joe would never have to worry about his retirement again."
"Now that sounds like a plan," Amanda said as she grabbed a chair and sat down beside him. "I presume you didn't call me in here to look at all the pretty numbers. I'm going to have to set up a few Swiss bank accounts first to place the money into. Why don't you go and join the others while I let my fingers do the talking?" Without further ado, she pulled the laptop in front of her, plugged in a phone and went online.
Reluctantly, he let her get on with it as he joined the others who were in the living room.
"What's Amanda up to?" Duncan asked curiously as he entered the room.
"Oh…just a little banking!" Methos replied with a grin, throwing himself into an armchair. "Spreading the wealth, so to speak."
Duncan raised his eyebrow enquiringly. "Care to share the joke?"
With a self-satisfied smirk, Methos quickly filled them in on the Bank accounts.
"Oh my God, you shouldn't have!" gasped Amy.
"Actually, I think it's perfect," replied Duncan, grinning. "Karmic justice at it's finest!"
"Hear, hear," joined in Methos.
"I don't know about this…" said Joe, unsurely. "It's a lot of money."
"Just enjoy it, Joe," Methos advised. "Put it to good use, you could buy out your club from the watchers for a start. Things might get a little sticky in that department when this whole mess leaks out. It would be better if you cut your dependency on them financially."
Joe nodded at this. He had to admit, it did make a lot of sense.
"All that money…" Amy said wonderingly. "Wow!"
"I'm afraid that's all of my good news," Methos warned them. "I've also found out a few things that you're not going to like."
"How bad is it?" Duncan asked.
"If we're going to give any credence to the legend of the stone, very bad," Methos admitted.
"Oh dear," muttered Amy. "Of all the times to get shot."
Amanda paused at the door as she looked into the room. "What's wrong? I leave the room for a few minutes and when I come back, you all look as if someone had died. Did I miss something?"
"Those bank accounts weren't the only things I found on the laptop," Methos explained as he gestured for her to sit. "I also found out something new about the stone's supposed properties."
"Something tells me I'm not going to like this," Amanda sighed as she made herself comfortable. "Carry on, then, tell us the bad news."
Ten minutes later, the room was shrouded in a stunned silence.
"Now that I wasn't expecting," remarked Duncan, at last.
"They're crazy!" burst out Joe. "They're out of their tiny minds, I tell you. What the hell could they've been thinking!"
"I warned you that Valmont was secretly plotting world denomination," Amanda half-heartedly joked. "Though, I didn't have something on this scale in mind when I said it…"
"But they can't do anything without the rest of the stone – right?" asked Amy uncertainly.
"Exactly," remarked Methos grimly. "I think we can assume that even if we decide to lie low for a while, these guys are not going to go away. They've got too much invested in this. No matter what we do, they'll always be willing to take it that one step further."
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Joe asked.
"What I mean is that, if these guys truly believe what the legends say about the origin of the stone, there is no telling what lengths they are prepared to go to, not when they think that they can fix it all later with just one sweep of the hand. Think about it, they could launch a full-out assault, no holds barred, all the while believing that if anything goes wrong, they can magic it right once they've got what they wanted – they could be capable of killing half this city without blinking an eye just to get to us."
"Christ, he's right," Duncan said softly.
Methos decided to get down to the brass tacks. "First thing we'll do is dump the rental cars, we'll worry about the consequences later. They might have taken note of our number plates the other night when they attacked Hira's farm. They also might be keeping tabs on all the car rental outlets, so I think that it might be better idea to buy a couple of vehicles this time 'round. I'm thinking an SUV and a small minivan would be smart choices.
"Then we have to bury what we have of the crystal, I suggest we each take a piece and bury it separately, not telling each other our location - that way, if one of us is captured and tortured we can only give up our respective pieces. It also might keep us alive a little bit longer if they think they might need leverage – it worked before."
"You've really thought this through, haven't you?" Amy said dryly.
"Nothing like a sharp dose of terror to get the synapses firing," admitted Methos as he sunk back into his chair.
"Okay, then," Amanda announced, galvanising herself out of her chair. "Duncan and I will be on car disposal."
"I'll buy our new ones, then," suggested Methos. "I think I'm the only one here who is carrying a second set of identification papers anyway, it might buy us some time if they think to check for any recent car purchases. We really don't know how far their reach extends."
"But we've got all this money now," Joe protested. " How about I buy them?"
"Forget it, Joe – though you can always write off my bar tab, if you're feeling generous," Methos said with a smirk.
"Done!" said Joe promptly.
By the time Methos was ready to leave the house, Amanda and Duncan were already gone. Putting his hands into his pockets, he felt the sharp edges of the stone fragment within. Quickly, he looked around the kitchen: where could he hide them in the meantime?
Suddenly, a thought struck him. Looking under the kitchen sink, he found a large bottle of bleach and unscrewed the top. Forcing the shards through the narrow opening, he quickly screwed the top back on and was on his way. "I won't be long, watch your back," he called into the living room before he closed the front door behind him.
Taking a bus, he soon found himself back in the city centre. It didn't take long to stumble across a car dealership which had what he wanted. Telling the dealer he'd be back to collect the SUV the next morning, he drove off in his new minivan. He was driving down one of those 'trendy' streets when he noticed a little shop that specialised in new age products. A devious thought entered his mind; it wouldn't hurt to have some kind of decoy, would it?
Pulling in, he ran into the shop and looked around. By the counter, he spotted a small display case full of quartz crystals. Calling over a shop assistant, he pointed out a few pieces that were the right shape and colour and soon he was on his way with his new purchase snuggled safely in his inside pocket.
It was already a full house when he arrived back at the villa. Joe and Amy were comfortably established in front of the satellite television while Amanda and Duncan were busy cooking in the kitchen.
"What's for dinner?" he asked, trying to sneak a look into the pot.
"It's a surprise," Duncan told him, slapping his hand away.
Methos shrugged, perching himself in the kitchen counter as they buzzed around him. "Want to take a little trip later on?" he asked him as he watched Duncan lay out the table.
"What? To bury the crystals?" Duncan asked.
"No, after that," Methos replied. "I found an address for a property in Sofia while I was browsing on the laptop. I thought we might go for a look."
"I'm in," Duncan agreed.
"I am, too," Amanda chipped in. "You're probably going to need my skills anyway - unless you were planning to use that bazooka you have stashed in your boot," she added pointedly.
Oh, I forgot about that," he said sheepishly as he jumped off the counter and sat at the table. "Was it a problem?"
"We managed, it's in the garage now," Duncan told him.
"That's all right, then," Methos said breezily. "We'll take it along with us, just in case – what's for dessert?"
TBC…