Chapter XV: Into the Wolf's Lair

"They have them at their headquarters... sons of bitches!"

Garfield clenched his fists to control his anger. He had arrived home and found a note with the location where he would be able to find his family... and what the Watchers wanted in exchange. Now he was back at the shelter, arguing about it.

"We can't do that." Kenny grunted.

"They are innocent people, kiddo." Kell replied stiffly.

"They mean nothing to me, Kell. So why should we get involved?"

"Why did they get involved, Kenneth?" Katana barked, scolding the man-boy he was so fond of. "For you it's too easy to say 'it's not my problem' because his wife and daughter mean nothing to you. But they came here to help us when they should have helped them, and don't forget that we're discussing this because they saved all our pretty asses."

Kenny glared at Katana. He eyed around for support. Kyra shot him with a steely look. Kell seemed calm, which usually meant he was not in that mood. The two mortals were too concerned about the hostages to even glance at him. Connor was fooling with some gloves he had found and glimpsed at the boy for a second, which was enough for Kenny to know he was alone in the matter.

"So the question remains: what do we do?" Kell finally spoke, breaking a deafening silence.

"What they want: surrender." Connor muttered, making a glove fit perfectly in his left hand.

"Are you insane, MacLeod?" Kyra questioned.

"It's tactic, Kyra." Katana grinned as he spoke. "We let the enemy think they have the advantage and when they've taken down their guard..." the sentence was unfinished, but everyone understood.

"They'll inspect us." Kell commented.

"That's when we strike." Connor stood up. "So, we agree on going?"

Connor drew out his katana and placed the tip over the table. One by one, Kyra, Katana, Kell and, after some dithering, Kenny joined theirs to his. To that image of union joined the muzzle of two 9 mm. The team was ready to go. He did not have to say that at least one of them would not make it, but it was something they all knew.

-----

The New York headquarters were a seven-floor building, which provided a magnificent view of the Hudson and the Brooklyn Bridge. Three security guards - all Watchers - guarded the entrance to it. The huskiest of them approached Garfield and Stern, who were bringing at gunpoint the pack of immortals that was causing them lots of trouble, all unloaded off a van.
The other two pushed the eternal demons against the van.

"Where are they?" Garfield, handling an automatic in each hand like an actor of a John Woo film, growled.

The guard picked up a radio transmitter and barked something. The reply was rattled. "Second floor. You don't mind if we inspect them, right?"

"Fuck them for all I care." Garfield feigned disinterest very well.

One of the guards approached Connor. The other went towards Katana. The leader focused on Kyra, who wore a scarf over a raincoat. He made her spread her legs and patted them. She then move to her waist and pushed obscenely against her as he patted her body, intent on her breasts. They were firm and steady... too firm and hard. His hands went under the scarf where he touched something cold. A medallion probably.

"Now!" Connor MacLeod suddenly shrieked.

The guard felt an elbow in his stomach and suddenly pain gushed out of his mouth along with his teeth, as the shadow of something resembling a foot landed nearby. The others underwent similar experiences. Kyra drew out her sword, clung to her between the coat and her shirt, the hilt covered by the scarf, which she now removed. The other immortals produced their own blades and headed inside, into the wolf's lair.

-----

The first floor was clear. They tiptoed through the stairs without problems and reached the second. Katana peered at a large hallway at which end there was a light shining clearly, and two armed thugs stood in guard.

"What's the plan?" Kyra questioned. "If they aim well, only one of us will reach to where they are."

"One of us has to play the bait." Connor suggested.

"I'm the fastest of us all. I will lead." Kell offered, with always a vicious tone in his voice.

"MacLeod and I will back you." Katana assured. "Kyra, you go behind us. You two go behind her and try if possible to bring them down."

"What about me?" Kenny asked shamefully. He felt useless and their faces sympathised with that.

"I... have an idea." Stern suggested.

-----

On they went. Jacob Kell moved swiftly forward and made half the way before the guards even realised. They loaded their small Walthers and began to fire. The first shot hissed past Kell's ear, passed between Connor and Katana, and grazed Kyra's left side of the brow. She staggered a bit but continued going forward as blood tripped down. The second shot hit Katana on the left leg and the general started to limp. The third shot went anywhere. The shooter had been stabbed in his stomach by the time he had pulled the trigger... and the immortals were not yet within reach.

Kenny retired his sword from the guard's body as the other thug fired at the oncoming group. Stern's plan had been perfect. He had gone carefully by the wall a few seconds before Kell struck. So while the guards were distracted by the bigger immortals, the little one got next to one and sent him to say hello to Satan.

The remaining thug hit Kell in the left knee and Connor on the same shoulder. He had a clear shot at Katana, whose sword was closely out of reach. Or so it seemed. The guard glared at how the broadsword suddenly became larger. A second later, he was gasping blood as four inches of steel entered his body.

"Quite a gimmick, general." Kell joked.

"Useful device indeed." Katana replied, making the extended blade retract to its normal size.

"Daddy!" Stella cried at the sight of her father rushing past the immortals. He hugged her and kissed his wife. The watchers had relied on him excessively, leaving only two guards to take care of them. No, they had been smart. He reloaded his gun, knowing he had to be more accurate next time if they wanted to make it through the next time, which would be very soon. Now.

-----

Katana and Connor led the way. Stern and Garfield were at their sides, slightly behind. Kyra and Kell closed the strange circle, with Kenny and the rescued hostages in the centre. They all knew the way out would be crammed with watchers eager to bring them all down. Securing the wife and daughter was their primary objective. Then, they would see how they did.

Their attention sharp, they climbed off the stairs until the entrance. Outside, they could see two pick-up trucks, over and at the sides of which there were armed men. The immortals' van was behind that stumbling block.

"Looks tough." Kell acidly commented.

"It does. Any suggestion?" Katana smirked.

"I don't know." Garfield grunted. "The tactic we intended to use was used against us. They trapped us here."

"We're dead." Selma Garfield sobbed.

"Not yet." Kenny found himself smiling, after having felt a pain in the back of his head. He regarded the other immortals, who looked on the one side concerned about who it might be, and on the other relieved by the possible help that might come in. Though the obvious question was: who was out there?

The answer came minutes later. The watchers' attention was drawn by disturbances on the left of their formation. Someone was taking them down brutally and swiftly. Whoever it was, the cornered group knew this was their best chance. They stormed out of the building aiming at the right, barely shielding their heads with their swords and still protecting the hostages, as a rattle of weapons greeted them.

Connor stepped forward and received at least a hundred shots. That gave room for the rest to hurry at the side of the watcher formation. MacLeod fell as many watchers did too, under Garfield and Stern's fire and the blades of Kyra, Katana and Kell, who attacked as they escaped a rain of bullets.

In an insane run, they reached the van and got in. The keys slipped off Kyra's hands under the fire coming from behind. She finally started the car and made the engine roar. She glanced worriedly at the others. There were two people missing.

"Where's Stern?"

"John?" Garfield called without reply. Kyra glanced at the little mirror at her door. On the ground, John Stern lay with his chest and left cheek against the floor, a small pool of blood flowing out of his inertly still body.

"He's down..." Kyra sighed sadly.

"Damn!" Garfield shrieked as he punched one of the walls of the van.

"Where's MacLeod?" she queried.

"They shot him." Kenny replied.

"We have to rescue him."

"We have to leave." Kell coarsely added. "He knew what was at stake."

"No..." Kyra bit back tears.

"Kell's right." Katana reassured her. "Leave."

Kyra closed her eyes and a tear slid down her face as he pushed the accelerator and the van drove away, being hit from many sides by the watchers' fire, leaving Connor MacLeod behind.

-----

Kane had already suffered two bullet wounds in his unarmed arm and one in his side. There were too many of these watchers, who fell too easily. But the Highlander was there. He had sensed him entering that building, he and other immortals, and he had gone after him. He could not leave now. He was down, an easy target for his blade.

But this army of pitiful mortals was hurting him. Not much, but hurting him still. If he took the Highlander's head, he might be defenceless against them and they would take his head. He had to think. He had to leave and return some other time. So he turned and started running away, covering his escape with the illusions he had learnt to produce from the sorcerer Nakano's quickening.

A giant blue dragon fell from the skies and swept past the army. The watchers quitted firing and tried to save themselves. That was enough for Kane to disappear. He knew his long-coveted quarry would not be going anywhere. And if he understood how this mortals - predictable as all of them - thought, he knew they would not take the Highlander's head. At least not for the time being.