Chapter 69
Baltimore, MD
The three immortals checked into a low rent motel and went to work decoding the computer disc Roberta had obtained for them. Matt worried that his secretary would run into some problems with her Watcher superiors… but she'd assured him this was her choice. That given his survival or that of herself… she'd choose his survival… but that she didn't think it would come to that. He wondered, though, if he'd ever see her again.
Katya had little sympathy for the young woman. "If she is a part of this organization… then all of them need serious therapy. We and our lives are not fodder for some historian's dissertation."
Amber had chuckled. Of the three… she'd had prior knowledge of Watchers from Connor… and she recalled what he'd said of them once.
"A bunch of namby-pamby voyeurs is what they are. They stand to one side and watch and wait for us to fight… and then they make notes about it."
"Have you told many about them?"
"No… you're the first… and I tell you only because I want someone to know of them when I've gone… someone who wouldn't be a threat to them… and roar off thinking they'd been insulted and preyed upon. I want someone who knows me… and could talk with them… tell them a little more about me than just what I had for breakfast the day I died… or the wine I bought to seduce a certain duchess in 1622." He'd laughed then… with that distinctive laugh of his. He'd learned of them by accident about a hundred years before he'd died… and had promptly ignored them… up until the day he'd approached them about Sanctuary.
Amber could still recall his voice on the phone that day. "Tell no one about this place I'm goin' to. They wouldn't understand girl… they wouldna understand. But I'm weary… and I canna go on… not now… not today. I don't know how my old friend Ramirez managed for two and a half thousand years… I cannot manage another day… and I'm less than five hundred."
Rachel had meant a lot to him. Likely more than he'd ever have admitted to anyone. Her death, following on the heels of the others… Brenda, Alex, John… had crushed the life out of him. He'd seen the Watchers as his saviors… a means whereby he could rest and come to grips with his losses… his ghosts and his demons… and then return some far off day… a new man once more.
But it wasn't to be. One day… Amber wished to find Connor's young kinsman Duncan MacLeod… and ask him about Connor's final moments… and why he'd killed him. She understood the way of the game… and Connor had told her never to hold grudges or seek revenge… "That only gets you killed," he'd said. "You have to keep your temper… and focus on what you want out of the situation… heh… heh… heh… and how best to get it."
"There!" she suddenly said as something flashed over the screen. "That's the place we have to go to."
"An old school in upstate New York?" asked Katya with a laugh. "Why there?"
"I think that's where Sanctuary was. Connor was in New York when he called me before he vanished. And he was in New York when he died."
"You believe we may find some answers there?" McCormick asked.
Amber nodded. Even if there were nothing there, she wanted to see the place where Connor MacLeod had spent the last years of his life.
Matt nodded agreeably. "Then New York it is. We leave first thing in the morning."
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Amber could not sleep. Matt was snoring softly in one bed… Katya was asleep in the other. They'd figured one room… two beds. But Amber couldn't sleep. Curled in a chair by the window, wrapped in an extra blanket… she stared at the darkness.
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Boston 1784
"Lift your arm… turn it and thrust forward… rest your weight on your forward leg as you lunge," His hand traveled over her arm until her arm held the saber as he directed. He kicked one of her feet back a tad. She nearly fell. "Balance… it's all about balance." His face was next to hers… his voice in her ear. "Now shift."
"And should I be kissin' the Blarney Stone at the same time?" Kathleen Conroy laughed. She turned and kissed Conor's cheek… then executed the move as he pulled away laughing.
"I think you may have been born kissin' that stone," he laughed in that staccato laugh she'd come to know so well. "Now again… and do it right this time."
"But ya said I should always be surprisin' my opponent," Kathleen teased as she assumed the position once more.
"That's with your opponents not your teacher."
"Pity," she laughed and executed the move flawlessly once more. Connor had been a customer in her da's pub not four blocks from the Common… just another customer until the day she'd died. She'd been beaten and robbed of the receipts… When she'd awakened and returned to the bar… mortified that she'd failed her da'… Connor had been there… and the look on his face as he'd first sensed her immortality… was one she'd never forget. He'd looked at her with such sadness… as if it were the end of everything… not the beginning.
Kathleen had handled the truth of her immortality as a grand adventure. "To see the world… to see time pass… nations rise and fall. I can go anywhere. Be anything."
"Only if you keep your head," he'd told her then. And thus had begun the training. For the past six months she'd been serving drinks at her da's pub at night… as always… and during the afternoons… learning to use… of all things… a sword.
"Most of us… at least those of us who survive… are male. Likely because men have always been more aggressive and willing to fight to survive… while women usually aren't. It's important you not be helpless… even if you don't wish to kill… you must be able to. You're smaller… lighter… but that also means… you can be faster," he'd told her as the lessons had increased in difficulty and complexity.
Kathleen had also met Sunda Kastagir… Connor's African friend and immortal before he'd taken ship and left Boston. "If you are ever in Africa… look me up!" he'd called from the rail of the merchantman. Someday she just might.
"There will come a time when you have to move on… whether you wish it or not," he'd said recently. "Before someone realizes you're not aging."
"I won't age at all?"
"You will always be young and beautiful."
"Am I?"
"Are you what?"
"Beautiful?"
Connor had looked at her a long time and then finally had nodded. "Aye… beautiful. But you and I are not about that… even in fun."
"Why not?"
He'd taken her hands and sat with her a moment. "Immortals fight to be the one. We can't become too closely entangled with anyone… as we might have to fight each other someday… and kill them. As bad as it is to love a mortal, and see them grow old and die… and I've done that and willna do it again… I won't let one of us in either… not that way. I don't want to love you… and face havin' to kill you someday."
"But yar friends with Kastagir?"
""Well… there are friends… and there are friends," he'd laughed. "We enjoy a drink together occasionally… but we both know we might one day have to fight… and we face that. I have a kinsman… another student… also a MacLeod… that I spend time with occasionally… but it's the same. You have to accept that Kathleen… and not let anyone in… ever. Don't love one of us… and always… always… always… be on your guard."
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But it was a hard thing to live without love… and a harder thing to live without trust. In the last two hundred and twenty-seven years… Amber Kathleen Conroy had come to know that all too well. Gazing at the shadowy forms of her sleeping companions, she was hit again by that need she'd always had for friends and family… and a sense of community.
"Ya wanted it too, Connor… I know ya did. Ya envied Duncan because he could make immortal friends and love immortal women… and though ya pushed us both away… ya wanted it too. Is that why ya died? Because he could do what ya couldn't… He could forge friendships… that would last across the centuries… that might defy the Gathering." she lay her cheek on her upraised knees and closed her eyes… finally finding sleep.
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Paris
Duncan carefully observed the people he saw hanging about outside the Hotel. While he saw nothing that alarmed him… the Highlander was still cautious.
"What now?" Amanda shifted in the passenger seat. "Dawn will be here soon."
"Wait here." He climbed out and headed for the public telephone on the corner, swiftly dialing the hotel number and asking for room 773. When there was no answer. He hung up. Next he tried Ian's cell phone again. This time there was a muffled "Hello". Duncan paused… saying nothing… and hung up.
Climbing back in the car he swiftly drove off.
"What happened?"
"No one's at the room… and someone other than Ian finally answered his cell phone."
"That means…" Amanda's voice trailed off as her worry increased.
"They've been taken. We need to contact Joe and see what he knows."
"Is that safe?"
Duncan glanced over at her and shook his head. Nothing was safe. He'd let himself be distracted with her… needing a time with her… and now… Ian and Alisaunne were gone. He'd failed! And Duncan MacLeod did not like failing.
"Let me call Cory. We can stay with him."
"No."
"Duncan… this is silly."
Duncan MacLeod shook his head. They did need help… but Cory had been seen with them. It might not be safe. The Watchers could be watching him… waiting for them to get back in touch.
He pulled over to another pay phone and glanced at her. "Give him a try."
A few moments later she climbed back in and slammed the door… her face ashen.
"Someone else picked up the phone?" Duncan asked as he drove off… selecting a new direction.
Amanda's hooded glare said it all. "I will have no qualms about taking a few mortal heads."
"I know the feeling."
"So… Joe?"
Duncan nodded as turned on to the Boulevard St. Germain and became lost in the early morning traffic. "I'm afraid so… either that… or?" Duncan considered Ellie. If he returned to the church… would she be there again. "Let's get a room somewhere… I have an idea."
"Oooh!?" Amanda teased. "I like the sound of that."
Duncan chuckled. "I thought you might." He reached out and trailed his fingers in her short hair… and considered how to spend the day… until he could chance contacting Ellie.
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Within the dream
Alex Raven stared numbly at the bright white light over her. Around her men and women in surgical gowns and masks murmured unintelligibly. She tried to rise… but there were straps over her chest and head.
Reaching out she discovered she had no arm.
It was being passed from one figure to another and dumped into a stainless steel bowl.
"That went well," one figure laughed. "And she's already healed. What should we try next?"
Alex's eyes moved from side-to-side and a piercing scream sounded as she realized she had no arms or legs.
The light glittered off the bone saw as it was held above her.
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Watcher Compound
"She's in severe distress."
Wilderman leaned over subject number 17 shivering uncontrollably on the gurney. He glanced at the peaking readouts and at the monitor showing her writhing in restraints.
"We must have triggered a nightmare of some sort. Let's pull her out and then link her to another."
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Within the dream
Alex stared upward at the stone walls which seemed to reach forever into the heights. A small patch of blue sky shimmered strangely above. Lifting her hands before her eyes… she stared at them wonderingly… and then stomped her feet in the shallow water… as if to be certain she was whole once more.
As she felt the other she stared down at the small boy whose blonde hair hung over his eyes.
"I'm too small," the boy said. "No matter how I try… I can't get out."
Alex looked at her hands… clutching them and unclutching them. They worked. She picked the boy up and shoved him up the wall toward a larger stone that seemed to bulge outward. "See if you can grab onto that and pull yourself out."
His fingers groped at the slick stones… finally grasping the edge of the larger stone and pulled himself up to sit on it. Slowly he rose and reached upward to the lip of the well's wall. "I'm still too small." He stood on tip-toe and jumped… slipping from the slick surface and landing atop Alex so that she fell into the water.
She sat up and cradled him in her arms. "We'll find away," she said. "We'll find a way out." Alex Raven rocked back and forth in the dampness and held the unconscious boy in her arms.