Chapter Fourteen

Hunter approaching

Seeing as how the weapons from Chicago would take almost two days to arrive, Michael figured he might as well spend some of the spare time to get Duncan and Amanda off his back. Preferably without having to kill either of them, despite his firm belief that the death of Duncan MacLeod would be for the best of Immortals everywhere. In fact, if not for his vow never to Challenge another Immortal, he'd have long since hunted him down and taken his head.

Thinking about how to get them off his back quickly led to another problem. His usual habit of killing the Watcher of whatever Immortal he intended to meet would not serve him well under these circumstances. Killing the Watcher of an Immortal hunting for a killer of Watchers seemed like a bad idea at both first and second glance. He would have to leave the Watcher alive, and that he could only do if he managed to keep the Watcher from observing him.

Getting both Immortals to the meeting would mean two Watchers. That would give them the chance to cooperate, leaving one to follow their assignments while the other tracked down the Immortal they where meeting. And then he would have to kill them. No, he would have to insist on meeting only one of them, and then arrange for the Watcher to be unable to observe the meeting itself.

Crossing his arms behind his head, Michael leaned back in the chair and began plotting out how to meet an Immortal without letting on that the meeting was carefully set up to exclude any unwanted observers.

Meeting Amanda would be preferable in some ways, he knew her and knew she liked and trusted him, making it easier to deceive her, yet that very same familiarity would make it next to impossible to set up the meeting in such a way as to keep the Watchers away. Undesirable as the thought was, if he met with Duncan he could easily explain away the precautions as a mere lack of trust in the young Immortal. Older Immortal, he quickly corrected himself. Best to get back into character before the meeting.

****

Calling Duncan into the room as she hung up the phone, Amanda frowned slightly as she considered the conversation she'd just had with Michael. He'd called to let her know that he was back in L.A. and ready to meet her and describe the headhunter he'd ran from in Chicago, and had not been at all pleased to find out that it was Duncan who really wanted the meeting. Apparently Michael had heard about some of Duncan's latest exploits, and considered him at best a magnet for trouble, and possibly a headhunter, a belief that was not lessened by the fact that he was hunting the Immortal who'd been challenging Michael. Convincing him to meet with Duncan had taken some work, and had left him angry enough to hang up at one point. He'd called her right back and apologized; yet they'd both agreed it would be best if she stayed away from the meeting.

"You called?"

"Yes. That was Michael on the phone just now. He's in town and is ready to talk to you. And you owe me for this. Convincing him to meet you wasn't easy, and I really hope he won't stay angry for long."

"Why would he be angry with you for this? We're trying to stop a monster, a cheater that almost took his head."

"He's angry because he doesn't want to meet you. Seems like your reputation isn't exactly looking good to someone not carrying a sword. And can you blame him? You have taken quite a few heads lately, and to him this is looking like headhunting."

"He thinks I'm a headhunter? That's insane! I tried to stay out of the Game, and it's not like I go out hunting for the fun of it. The slayer has to be stopped, and that is the only reason I'm doing this."

"I know that, darling. But he doesn't know you the way I do, and so he got upset. No big thing, he'll get over it. It just means I'll stay away until he cools down, and you meet in a public location."

"Public? Why not on holy ground? We can't fight there, wouldn't he feel safer there?"

"I suggested it, but he prefers meeting in public, always have. He's never been the type to run to holy ground, as far as I know."

"Never? That's rather impressive, you know. Managing to stay out of the Game, without running to holy ground. I wouldn't have thought it possible, not for long, at least."

"Why do you think I want you to train him? He's managed so far, but it can't last. Not for long. Sooner or later he won't run fast enough. So when you meet him, please, be on your best behaviour, and try to get him to come to you for training? I don't want to lose another friend."

"I'll offer to train him, Amanda. And if he refuses, maybe after I've handled the slayer, we try it the way you suggested back in France? Perhaps using Methos to kill him? He may not be much into the Game, but the old man does an impressive headhunter impersonation, after all."

****

Barging into Methos' apartment Joe was not surprised to find the old man comfortably seated with a book and a can of beer in hand, the stereo loudly delivering something he guessed to be AC/DC. As usual, he briefly pondered how the oldest Immortal could, with hardly any effort, seem to be younger than MacLeod. Shaking the thought away, he stalked over to the chair.

"Mac is in trouble. We have to help him!"

"The slayer? He's found him? Or have the slayer found Duncan?"

"He's found the slayer. Kinda. One of Amanda's friends claimed to be running from a headhunter in Chicago, and Duncan assumed it might be the slayer. Only it turns out her friend is the slayer, and they don't know it! He could kill them both without them ever knowing who he is!"

"Her friend is the slayer? Strange. Amanda may not be the best judge of character around, but I'd think she'd be able to notice someone so obviously psychotic as the slayer appears to be. How did you figure it out?"

"Curiosity and inside info. I wondered why I'd never heard of a three hundred year old Immortal not playing the Game, so I asked for more information from her. Turned out it was because we'd never discovered him. Whenever he met Amanda, he made it a point to kill off her Watcher, made certain we didn't discover him."

"And you never caught on to the slayer having a preference for Amanda's Watchers? As I recall, his handiwork is rather hard to miss."

"If he'd killed them in his usual way, then yes, we would have noticed. But he didn't. He made it look like accidents, and its not like they met all that often. Hell, I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been looking through her journal knowing when they'd met, looking for reasons why her Watcher had never mentioned her meeting an unknown Immortal!"

"Accidents? You're saying that he's only torturing Watchers he catch following him, while arranging accidents for Watchers following Immortals he's meeting?" Clearly not expecting a reply, Methos frowned slightly as he put down the book he'd been reading before getting up from the chair. Still holding the beer he began pacing the room as he considered the news.

Watching as the ancient Immortal put the puzzle together, Joe made use of the vacant chair. While his prostheses were good, the panicked walk had taken rather more out of him than he wanted to admit.

"Joe, I don't like this. I think I'm starting to understand him, and I can't say I like it at all."

****

Walking into the lobby of the hotel, the buzz in the back of his head told Duncan that another Immortal, hopefully Michael, were somewhere in the vicinity. Glancing around, he couldn't immediately identify the other, so he followed the instructions Amanda had given him and walked through the lobby and into the bar.

Comfortably seated in front of a portable computer in his room above the lobby, Michael trimmed the photo he'd received from the camera he'd planted in the lobby, and set it to print.

As soon as it was done printing he called in the man he'd hired earlier, and gave him his final instructions, along with the finished printout before sending him down to the bar.

Using the time while the computer powered down to check the room, Michael then walked over to the hotels two elevators, only one of which were currently in use. He'd ensured this by slipping ten dollars to a young boy, with a promise of twenty more if he managed to hold the elevator for him. After paying the boy, Michael held the doors open while he waited.

****

"Well, that was a big waste of time!"

"Not entirely, Charles. After all, we did learn that he has been in Sunnydale. And that implies that our hypothesis regarding the relationship between him and Angelus is likely correct."

"Yeah? And it didn't strike you as funny the way Angel's ex and her friends wouldn't let us know who had seen him, or even when?"

"Sort of, but they said the one who'd seen him didn't really remember where or when, and there could be any number of reasons for someone not to want to meet Angel, especially in Sunnydale. He did kill quite a large number of people there, after all. Stands to reason that someone familiar with him would want to stay as far away as possible. No offence meant, Angel."

"None taken. And I agree. There are many reasons for a resident of Sunnydale to not want my attention. I just wish whoever it was could have remembered more than merely having seen him. When and where would have been useful, and a name would have been great."

"Yeah. The info we have so far isn't much use in tracking him down. And since the Powers that Be haven't deigned to send Cordelia a vision about him, and none of the corpses found in the last few days have been disembowelled, it seems our only hope of catching him is to continue showing his picture around, and maybe hoping that he'll decide to come after Angel so we can kick his ass."

"We should be so lucky. But if he recognized Angel from Sunnydale, he's most likely left town by now. He did after all run off after seeing him."

"That's right, Fred. And if he did run, there's not much we can do about it. I think we'll show his picture around for a couple more days, and then just remain alert in case he decides to come after me."

Driving out of Sunnydale, they paid little attention to the bus heading into Sunnydale, and none of them spotted the young teen sitting alone in the back. Somewhat late, Angel's son followed the trail of his estranged father into the town that had once unleashed the monster in him.

Author's note: Another chapter posted. Yay me. As usual, please review if you like, or even if you don't like. And to those who've requested being told when I update, I'm trying to get something sorted out, maybe within a week or two.