This is the first of two chapters that will be posted today. --elle

Chapter 65

Paris

Burt's suggestions to Joe had seemed a little too gimicky… but Joe had agreed to them.

"I want control of this Joe," Burt had said. "I'm the professional. We are talking your life, Amy's life, possibly the lives of the twins. If you have to meet with some of them… this is the way it goes down."

Joe had laughed at some of it… but he'd understood. Burt had done this sort of thing most of his adult life. He knew how to make even the most cliché instructions sound as if they would work. Joe had ceased to argue. Maybe… just maybe… some of Burt's ideas would work… and Joe and his Watcher buddies could manage to find out what exactly was going on… and stop it.

"Under no circumstances," Burt had reiterated, "do I want Amy in any further danger, nor do I want anyone else served up on a platter. You got that?"

Joe had saluted meekly. He'd had lunch yesterday with Pierre and Michel. They'd met at one of their regular haunts… laughed and joked in case anyone was watching… played a bit of Boccé ball afterwards in the park… and generally appeared to be relaxing… all the while passing information amongst them. His friends had been burning up the telephone and electronic mail lines to old Watchers and to older current ones. With any luck… something would break open soon.

"We know from Amy's reports… Rawlins seems to be at the center of all this. He's vanished… but there are bound to be transactions that will tell us where he has taken the immortals." Pierre snorted as he laughed and pointed at Michel's ball.

"You don't think they're dead?" Joe replied nodding.

"Honestly, my friend, I do not know." He threw up his hands and leaned over to pick up his ball, carefully tossing it along the lawn to click against the others. "Ahh!" he said and stepped back. "Avril Mischkov is his enforcer. That man was always dangerous. I wanted to blackball him years ago when he was proposed… but I was convinced to simply abstain. Now I wish I'd voted."

"That's who Amy reports to."

"Yes… and if I were you my friend… I'd tell that protégée of yours to take a long vacation if at all possible… or perhaps develop the flu." Michel laughed.

Pierre passed them both the wine pouch and they each took a sip. "For me, my friends, I am eager to call these vermin to a council and take them to task. It is high time some of the old ways were brought back!"

"Not too many of them," Joe laughed. "I nearly died at one of those."

"Ahh… yes. I had forgotten. How far we have come when your misdeeds may prove to be the salvation of all we hold dear." Pierre's gentle laughter was joined by Michel's. Joe joined them… but he knew the laughter… while it sounded real… was false for all of them.

He raked his eyes over the surrounding crowds and shook his head. "Either I'm getting blind or there's no one on us today."

"That business in Greece earlier. I think they lost a number of players in that. They may be short-handed at the moment. We are not nearly so important as the immortals."

"Perhaps… but I intend to be careful all the same," Joe had aimed his ball down the strip and smiled as it swiftly took out the others but did not go too far. He gestured. "I don't like to lose!"

-----

Duncan lifted the curtains from the window and stared out onto the view. So far he'd seen nothing to indicate anyone had picked up on that.

He tried Ian's cell phone one more time… but still it rang… and no one answered.

"You're worried," Amanda said as she stepped from the bathroom, a wet washcloth in her hands. She wiped her face.

"I'm worried. I told them to stay there." Duncan let the curtain drop and turned with a grim smile. He was shirtless still and Amanda wanted to fling the washcloth away and run her hands over his chest and shoulders and… She turned with a shake of her head and a ragged breath as she stepped back into the bathroom.

"Why don't we just stay here? Maybe he has the cell phone off? Or on vibrate?" she turned and arched her eyebrows with a teasing grin.

"Somehow I don't think so," Duncan grinned, reaching for a shirt to pull on. He buttoned it as he watched her apply lipstick and use a comb on her short dark hair. Her black bra seemed to invite him to unhook it once again. He turned. "Later," he grinned as he let out a long breath. It was time to focus on his charges.

"What about Joe?" Amanda re-entered the room and pulled on her white sheer top… tucking it once more into her black skirt.

"I have a number for him if I need to call him. He said it's a new cell… He'd only given the number of it to Methos… and he's never called."

"I meant… couldn't Joe check on Alisaunne and Ian?"

"No!" Duncan shook his head forcefully. "If they are safe somewhere… I don't want to expose them. Joe doesn't really know about either of them… although Ian might be on their files. Damn that girl!" he suddenly snapped. "She's been hinting about getting out… I wouldn't put it her past her to have slipped out and Ian's had to go look for her. But still… he should have his phone!" He tucked his shirt into his jeans and picked up the long coat… carefully slipping his katana into its place.

Amanda pulled on her lightweight black jacket… secured her small hand-held weapons on her person and picked up her bulky coat. She slung it over her shoulder and struck a pose. "It's a little warm this afternoon for the overcoat… don't you agree?"

"Don't be funny!" he said… then grinned at her. Reaching out to her, he drew her in and teasingly kissed her. "We get through this in one piece… you and I are going to have a long and very serious conversation."

"How long?" Amanda asked breathily.

Duncan chuckled, "Oh… ten years at least."

"Only ten?"

"Let's not make it too serious," He kissed her for a long time… wishing there were time for more… finally he released her.

She bit her lips as she ran her hand along his jawline. "Gotta love a Boy Scout!"

Duncan gathered his small bag with the laptop and checked about the room. "That's it… let's go," he said and took her arm as they left.

-----

Within the Dream

Gina de Valicourt moved back and forth on a swing… her legs reaching for new heights. For the life of her… this made no sense. Oh, she'd swung before… but never on one whose ropes were intertwined with gaudy hot pink flowers. Behind her… she sensed Robert pushing her forward and then pulling her back with the rope.

She found herself laughing… and wondered why? Life had become a series of beautiful paintings and she and Robert were caught in the scenes. They were happy… but where was the reality of being together… of touching one another… of making love. Every time she sought to end the dream and reach for him… pull him to her… run her hands along his chest… and lift her mouth for his kiss… the dream ended and the nightmare began again.

Robert lay on the floor of the chateau, a pool of blood seeping into the carpet about his head.

Was it even still attached? Was he dead? Almost immediately Gina found herself racing through the familiar corridors of their home… seeking him… seeking the feel of him… but he was gone.

"Robert?" she screamed. "Robert?" Before her the dark figure aimed a gun and she saw the muzzle flash as her head snapped back from the impact of the bullet. A red darkness covered everything.

Gina swung once more… back in the dream. This time… she feared to look at Robert. Perhaps if she merely relaxed into the swing… he would remain with her. She could sense him… he was here… behind her… where she dare not look.

-----

Watcher Compound

Rawlins stared at the dreaming pair. This was his only pair of involved immortals. He refused to use the term married. They weren't human… they were some sub-species without moral fiber. They could not be married. But these two had a long and loving relationship… and their fear of losing the other… kept them pliantly within the dream-state. They were the most stable of all the pairs, or so Wilderman said.

Rawlins backed up a step and stared into the next cubicle at the elderly scientist arranging the pair they would test tonight in a scenario. They'd chosen two that Rawlins knew to be, if not bitter enemies, at least antogonistic. He eagerly awaited the results. If one beheaded the other within the dream… what would happen? Rawlins smiled. The more they knew… the more easily they'd know how their minds worked… and once they knew how their minds worked… they could begin to see what would happen when they attempted to alter the mortal mind. Was immortalitly a state of mind?

His first sponsored experiments years ago had been on the physical… and other than their remarkable healing… Rawlins' scientists had found nothing in the blood… nothing in the DNA… nothing in the physical that answered the question of immortality. Therefore, it had to be somewhere else. That's when he'd happened to hear about Wilderman's dream research. And here at last Rawlins thought he had his answers.

"Mr. Rawlins?"

Rawlins glanced up at the voice of the lab assistant.

"Dr. Wilderman is ready to begin."

"I'll be right there," he said and turned back to stare at the de Valicourt couple… head to head… linked by a series of wires… dreaming. He smiled, curious as to what would happen if he tried to place them facing one another in a gladiatorial scenario. He snorted. "Like as not… you'd drop your sword, kiss the girl, and prepare to die." Rawlins placed his hands behind him and wandered away.

Behind him… the matching but still separate lines of the couple's readout spiked.

-----

Within the Dream

Robert dared to jump onto the swing finally and wrap Gina within his arms and legs. "I love you!" he whispered…

She leaned against him and sobbed, "Robert… hold me!"

He tried… but he felt only empty air.

Once more he was on the ground standing behind the swing and pulling the rope. He held the swing far back, refusing to let it go.

"Gina!" he called, as if she were a thousand miles away, and reached to touch the frilly laces of her gown and the ribbons of her bonnet. His fingers yearned for hers. But the rope slipped through his hands and the swing moved forward.

"This isn't real!" Robert, Baron de Valicourt muttered under his breath. "This place is not real… but you are!" Gina was real… she was the only reality in this world of flat color… with no smell, and no sound. Gina was real… even if the world was not.