Chapter 95

Mexico

From the heights above a hacienda, Jeremy, Matt, and Katya observed the increased movement and security.

"Evidently our last little outing has been reported." Matt lowered his binoculars. Impatiently he tapped one finger against them. Behind him he knew Amber and Jade were keeping watch. He glanced at Katya morosely. Matt shook his head.

Katya's jaw worked in consternation. She turned around and lay back against the rock they were hiding behind. She hissed.

Jeremy looked at her and then at Matt. "By coming for us… I take it they are now ready to fight back."

Matt nodded. Surprise had been their greatest ally. He was uncertain as to what they needed to do now.

At the sound of a helicopter… Matt motioned for them get under the sparse desert scrub. Headfirst he dived for the sand and prayed that they hadn't been seen.

Early this morning, Katya had fired an email report to the other immortals that she was in contact with. But there had been nothing in her box. They were still in the dark as to how the others were doing. "If it's like us… they may have met resistance and are either on the run as we are… or…" her voice had trailed away.

Matt had nodded in understanding. They were on their own. They could neither look to others for assistance… nor dare to hope other groups had been as successful.

"This is a big place," Jeremy murmured as he brushed sand out of his hair. The helicopter had flown by and landed at the compound.

"It was a drug lord's place about twenty years ago. Steel-enforced walls… deep bunkers. Lots of weapons."

"And you know this how?" smirked Matt.

Katya blushed. "Well… I had an occasion to visit the place once."

"Can you draw a map?"

Katya stared at the ground soberly and then picked up a stick and began drawing lines in the sand. She sighed. "I only saw some of it."

"You forget… you now have two very experienced thieves with you. You let me know what we're up against…" Jeremy smiled. "And Jade and I will figure out a plan to get us in."

"It's not getting in this time that worries me," Matt grumbled. "It's getting out."

"Then what do we? Head to the next one?" Katya said with a defeated tone.

Matt shook his head. "They're likely all on alert right now. No… we need to do this carefully… one facility at a time. These people cannot be everywhere… nor are they immortal. When they die… they stay dead."

Katya nodded. "I need some paper… the sand won't cut it." She scrambled back to their packs.

Jeremy leaned closely to Matt and whispered, "I've always disliked killing mortals… is there any other way?"

Matt looked at the thief for a long time. "I've always worked with mortal authority… law enforcement. I've always felt the same. But you saw how it was getting out of there back in California… do you suppose they would have listened to anything we had to say."

Jeremy thoughtfully looked down at Katya, Amber and Jade… especially at Jade. He'd heard enough about what Katya and Amber had been through… what men had done to them while they were unconscious… that he had to assume the same had occurred with Jade. Inside he nursed anger at such behavior. Even though Jade had no memory of anything being done to her… nor did she evidence any sort of emotional trauma… Jeremy still found anger growing in his soul. "They had no right to interfere in our lives. We have enough problems."

Matt nodded and gazed down at the three women. If they lost this battle… he could only imagine what further assaults would be perpetrated on the women… and what likely lay in store for all of them. Whoever these Watchers were… even though Amber seemed to believe that not all of them were like this… they were enemies of the immortals. "No… they didn't," Matt murmured in reply to Jeremy's statement.

An hour later, Jade and Jeremy finished asking Katya questions about her crudely drawn map and were discussing options based on what equipment they did have.

Matt continued to observe the patterns of movement at the compound. Amber crouched beside him and offered a canteen of water and a Power Bar. She looked at him intently.

"What?" Matt said as he took the canteen for a long drink of water. He grimaced at the warm metallic taste.

"We canna go down there."

Matt lowered the canteen. He sighed. Looking back at the compound below and the numbers of men moving about the compound and checking positions, he couldn't have agreed more. "What do you suggest?" Matt smiled at the young immortal.

Amber shook her head. "I don't know. I just know that we were lucky the last time. If we push this… we'll die… or worse." She rubbed her arms and shuddered. Matt had taken notice that her Irish lilt was more pronounced.

"And those of us likely being held down there?" Matt asked. "What about them?"

"If we are dead… we canna help them." Amber insisted taking back the canteen and handing him the Power Bar. "I'll go along with and support whatever ya decide… I just wanted ya to know what I was thinkin'."

She rose and crept back down the slope. Matt opened the wrapper and bit into the high-energy food. He chewed and swallowed thoughtfully. Then he turned to gaze through the binoculars once more. Never had the mantle of responsibility sat so hard on him. He'd always lived a moral life. He'd always tried to obey the laws of mortals when he could… within the scope of the Game in which he'd found himself centuries ago. He'd refused to become as many became… those who preyed upon the mortals around them. He'd also tried to challenge only immortals who were evil… or who consistently killed mortals in their quest to be "the one"! This entire episode was unlike anything he'd ever done.

He'd worked with OSS and Special Forces during World War II… attempting to end the kinds of abuses that these Watchers were propagating on immortals. He'd been witness to the camps… the horrible death camps where Nazi's had used and killed prisoners from many walks of life. He'd seen those who survived emerge in bewilderment and he'd understood how long it would take them to recover. Immortals were blessed with strong constitutions… even so… what he'd seen so far and heard so far… frightened him to his very core. These Watchers did not regard Matt or the other immortals as people… they were things. It had been the same in World War II.

"Never again," Matt whispered under his breath. To do less than to try was to turn his back on what was going on. But Amber was right. This place would be their death if they weren't very, very careful. They needed to be creative!

He glanced down at Jade and Jeremy arguing quietly. The couple seemed to feel his gaze and looked at him soberly. Even they evidently recognized the problem. What they needed, Matt thought, was the U.S. Army.

At that Matt smiled. He'd had a thought… a very dangerous thought. He needed to think this through before bringing it up.

-----

As the sun rose toward noon, Matt gathered the others in the shade of a rock ledge. The sun beat brightly down on them from a clear blue sky. Small rodents moved through the nearby stand of saguaro cactus. Once he had their undivided attention… he told them what he had in mind.

"We need help. This facility is too heavily manned and armed for us to attack."

The others nodded their agreement.

"Katya… you said a drug lord had this place at one time… right?"

Katya nodded.

"Then… I need to contact DEA and other authorities. I'm still a government agent. I still have contacts. I still have my credentials."

"Matt… aren't you risking being captured?" Jade insisted. "We have no way of knowing how widespread this group is… nor how deeply they may be inserted into the governments."

Matt nodded. "But it's the only way." His southern drawl that had been fading in conversation had returned… as if he were re-donning the Matt McCormick of the FBI persona he'd used for the last few years.

"How will you convince authorities to attack this place immediately with Mexican permission instead of waiting and watching?" Katya wanted to know.

"I'll tell them US citizens are being held there… possibly being tortured."

"And if they find no one there?"

Matt was silent. "We need to be certain that someone is being held there." He was silent… letting the full effect of his words settle on them.

Amber closed her eyes and shivered. Jade looked off into the distance, while Jeremy clasped her hand, raising it to his mouth to kiss it gently.

Katya snapped angrily, "Not me! There is no way I willingly go back into that again quietly!"

Matt remained quietly studying all of them. Finally he sighed. "I'd do it… but I have to be the one to contact authorities. Jade and Jeremy are known thieves. You and Amber are likely on a most wanted poster for the killings in St. Louis. No one would listen to any of you. I know people. I can cut through some of the red tape and get the ball rolling."

Apparently the others agreed on that part of the plan, at least. The problem lay in just which one of them would be the sacrifice.

"They'd likely kill Amber or me if one of us just walked up to the gate." Katya finally said. "And by kill… I mean heads. After all… they're likely on the alert against one of us just walking up like last time. That would bring a search party."

"Then it'll have to be me," Jeremy said with a sigh. Jade leaned into him, shaking her head.

"Let's not be hasty about this," Matt said. "I still have to get to Mexico City… and make my report. That may take all day. And then likely another day to get things moving. I don't want any of you in there unless and until I'm successful. Is that clear?"

Amber drew her knees up and lay one side of her face on them as she absently drew lines in the sand. "Oh Connor," she thought. "What should we do? What should we do?"

-----

The Coast of Ireland, September 1920

The cool salt air blowing off the ocean streamed about Kathleen Amber Conroy as she stood on the cliffs. Her light colored hair, like spun ambergris tangled in the wind, and the hem of her tailored skirt whipped about her legs.

The salt spray, which flung into the air about her, helped to hide the salt tears falling from her eyes.

Behind her she felt Connor. He approached and placed his coat about her shoulders. "You might not die of a cold…" he laughed in that way he had. "But you might be damned uncomfortable for a while."

Amber shook her head and shook his hands from her shoulders, but she grasped the coat and drew it around her.

"It's all so wrong, Connor. All this killin'!"

"Aye, lass. It is that," he said agreed sadly.

Kathleen brushed hair and tears from her face, then turned to face him. "They have only a single life… why do they waste it? Is war and violence the fate of all mankind? Is it only us who have to kill and be killed… or is it them as well?"

Connor sighed as he shook his head. "I died in battle Katie, ya know that. My clan fought against the Frasers for land and superiority and some slight that after nearly four hundred years… I canna recall."

Kathleen nodded.

"Men fight and kill because they want something or they need to defend their homes from someone who wants what they have. These troubles are the same."

Kathleen had come to Ireland, to her mortal parents' mother country, for the first time in her long life a few years ago… and had witnessed the escalating scale of violence, which had resulted in the recent riots. While death was very much a part of her life… she'd taken three heads in the last hundred and thirty years… she was horrified by the continuing wars that plagued mankind. To her, it was all such a waste. She understood protecting one's home and family against intruders… it was the intruders… the invaders she failed to understand.

"They want something, lass," Connor repeated. "All of them want something… something the others possess. It's all about power… and about having it all."

-----

Amber's head snapped up. "Power! Something we have… something they want."

"What's that?" asked Katya.

Amber smiled. "Violence against others is the result of desire for what the other has. We kill one another for the power and knowledge of the quickening."

The others nodded a bit guiltily. One of the facets of immortality that kept them… for the most part… solitary creatures… was the game. Even among this group flittered the unspoken fear that they might have to face off against one another someday.

"What do we have that they want?"

Matt leaned back. "Immortality," he whispered.

Katya laughed. "They can't become us."

Jade bit her lip. "They want us… they keep us alive… they want to know what makes us immortal."

Jeremy nodded. "We were being studied… not killed."

A lone hawk glided on the shimmering currents of rising hot air and screeched in the silence before diving to the earth… its claws extended. It rose once more… its prey struggling in those claws. The imagery was not lost on the immortals. They were the prey… they would eventually be consumed and destroyed by the Watchers once they were of no further use or study.

"We have to become the predator," said Katya. "We have to turn the tables."

"But we have to be certain," Amber added, "That we dinna precipitate a wider conflict which causes them to begin killin' our people that they already hold."

Facing a lone enemy in a battle to the death was one thing… letting mortals kill large numbers of them so that quickenings were lost… would only bring about the end of the game that much sooner. And with the end of the game… their probable deaths.

"I don't know about any of you," Matt added grimly, "but I'm not ready to die… or to face the end. I still hope to see out a few more centuries, at least. To that end…" he grinned, "the more of us there are… the longer we survive."

"And the less chance there is that we will have to face one another," added Katya with a nod. She smiled at last… a warm smile, and reached out her hands toward Matt and Jade. They took them… and Jeremy… still holding on to Jade with one hand reached for Amber's with his other. Matt laughed and held her other hand. They were truly united at last. Somehow, they would work together to find a way to stop this madness and save whoever else was held here.

Amber thought just maybe… they might survive this after all.