THE ONLY EASY DAY IS YESTERDAY
"The Journey of Jeremy Keller"
by OldScout
Part 35
The room spun around him and he could still feel the presence
of the woman near him. Lynx rolled his head and tried to clear the
sour, salty taste of blood from his throat. "Oh, god, you bitch, do you
know how that feels?!" He hissed as he gagged the blood and fluids
from his lungs and stomach.
The tip of Mandy's sword pierced the bottom of Lynx's chin as
she pushed his head up with it. "Of course I do, you animal, remember
what you did to me in my own home? And we haven't even begun to
recall the worst of it."
"Oh, dear God." Lynx finally whispered. "What had I become?"
he then watched the woman go to where she had his chains secured to a
post. She slipped a hook loose, releasing the chain, dropping him to the
floor.
Lynx knelt on his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath.
"Your letting me go?" he whispered.
"Adam was right, it is time to let go of my old ways. Your not
worth my efforts."
The big man fell forward, resting his aching head to the cold
cement. "Oh, thank you, thank you, I promise you'll never see me
again."
"Your also not worth my forgiveness." Mandy's voice sent a
chill up Lynx's spine. He turned toward her in time to see a half eaten
slice of pizza hit the floor in a splatter of red. It was the last thing he
ever saw.
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Anita's bullet ripped through Jeremy, but she was too close, it
cut through him but didn't knock him down. His swing was on target
and he took Gattlin's head as he fell next to him.
Anita tried covering all three men. "Shit!" she yelled, "why'd
you have to do that?" She swung her gun back and forth between the
men. "Drop your weapons."
Duncan approached her quickly, and Richie headed to retrieve
his sword. "Come on." Duncan said urgently "We have to get you out
of here."
"Stay back." Anita said leveling her gun on MacLeod. "You've
got a lot of explaining ..." Something caught her eye in mid sentence.
A strange fog had formed around Gattlin's body, and seemed to
be lit from underneath. "What the hell is that?" she whispered and
started to lower her weapon as she turned her attention.
Duncan caught agent Ropper by the shoulders as all hell broke
loose in the warehouse. Lightening ripped through the headless body
and Lieutenant Keller. Fire erupted everywhere and pieces of the
building began dropping around them as the lightening leaped fourth.
Duncan rushed Anita out the hole she had come in, as they left,
the interior came alive with destruction. In the middle of it all knelt
Lieutenant Keller screaming in pain as the energy ripped through him.
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The old freight elevator to MacLeod's building deposited Agent
Ropper into the man's apartment. He had tried to explain what had
happened last night, but she knew she was getting mostly half truths
and evasions. He promised more details today, but she was already
starting to believe the truth. The "Cult of Immortals" Gattlin had told
her about, wasn't a cult. It explained everything, but she wasn't sure if
she was ready to live with the answers.
As expected, the apartment wasn't empty. Duncan and the one
he had introduced as Richie met her as she entered. There was a third,
seated in a wooden chair in the far corner of the loft style apartment, it
was Lieutenant Keller. He didn't rise to great her, merely set motionless
and watched her approach the other two.
"I'm glad to see your alone, Agent Ropper." MacLeod said as he
approached. "We were afraid you may return with a team from the
Agency."
A smile crossed Ropper's face. "Mr. MacLeod, If you even
thought that was a slight possibility, I would have found an empty
apartment here this morning."
Duncan returned her smile with sly grin of his own. "Then what
now?"
"The agency want's an accounting." Anita crossed the room and
looked out a window at the rundown neighborhood. "My report will
say that the two men killed each other in sword fight. When I shot at
Keller, my shot must have ignited industrial waste that was illegally
dumped in the building. The resulting fire must have totally consumed
Keller's body."
Anita then looked at Keller, still sitting in his corner. "You
know, that if he's ever identified, it'll be my career."
"Don't worry," Duncan reassured her "Mr. Keller will be out of
the country by the end of the week."
"Why are you doing this?" Richie broke in. "You owe us
nothing. This is the truth to a mystery you've been investigating for a
long time."
"I've learned a lot of things." Anita replied. "The most
disturbing of which is that people with ancient agendas may be taking
positions of power in our government. And my experience tells me that
these people my not care about the consequences of their actions on
those of us with shorter life spans."
"Not all of us disregard the value of mortal lives." MacLeod
interjected.
"You spend your long lives with but one purpose, kill everybody
else who is like you." Anita replied "Don't tell me that somewhere
along the line life doesn't become cheap to you."
Duncan nodded. "Your right, it does become cheap. But we
can also re-learn its value."
"I really hope so." Anita returned, then headed for the elevator.
She had another appointment to keep, Joe Dawson had offered to help
her watch for other immortals in her world inside the DC beltway.
After Agent Ropper was gone, Duncan turned back to his house
guest, and handed him a packet that was laying on the kitchen counter.
"Your ship weighs anchor day after tomorrow."
Jeremy stood and accepted the packet from MacLeod. In it was
a new passport and other ID, a union card that allowed him to work on
the ship he wanted, and other assorted papers. He studied the
particulars of the ship. It was an oil tanker, headed for the Persian
Gulf, perfect.
"I don't know how to thank you." Jeremy said sincerely.
"It's a debt to an old friend." MacLeod replied. "I hope you
prove worth his support."
Slipping the envelope in side his jacket. Jeremy replied, "I hope
so too."
Riche stood next to MacLeod and the two men watched their
visitor show himself out.
"Why do you think he wants to go to the Persian Gulf?" Riche
wondered aloud.
"I have no idea." Duncan return.
to be continued............