Knowing he couldn't get obsessive over his hunt for Himiko's killer, and from a double brow beating from both Natalya and Susan, he continued to go to his job at the school. The principal still gave him a wide berth since he called him out about his daughter awhile back. He was going to have to remember to apologize to the man eventually, it wasn't really his fault his daughter was, to be a bit diplomatic, controlling. He never met the man's wife either so he could have been getting it from both direction.

Walking into the front office he passed by the front desk and gave the person there a friendly Greeting, "Hello Edna."

"Mr. McDonald," she greeted him with her usually chipper tone. "You're looking better today."

"Had a pretty uneventful weekend," he told her. Which was true, he didn't see Janet or her mother once or ran into another immortal looking to take a head. And he ran into a few the past month who were looking for the Immortal Thief despite the fact he apparently dropped off the radar. Not that he had much room to talk. Heading over to where the teacher's mail that kept the things he the usual received. Plus a sealed envelope that had his teacher's name written on it.

Edna saw him study it and told him, "Alice found that on the counter this morning. She swears up and down that it just appeared when she turned around. But you know how Alice is."

"I'm sure one of the students put it up there while her back was turned," he said. "Whoever put it up there didn't want to be seen."

"Sounds like the principal's daughter is trying her act again," Edna said while shooting a sidewise look at his office. "Wouldn't surprise me if she's trying to butter you up right before trying to bring down the hammer.

"It's not her handwriting," he explained. "Trust me, I committed that to memory as soon as I realized I became her 'nemesis" when I first got here."

Edna snorted, "Little b probably had somebody else write the note."

"You've seen too many spy movies," Owen said with a little smirk. she shooed him out of the office with a smile. Once out in the hallway and headed for his classroom he looked at that letter one more time, "Okay let's see what this is all about." Opening it up he stopped dead in his tracks when one word caught his eyes immediately.

McCallister.

Owen glanced around at the kids in the hall just to make sure nobody was paying too much attention to him. Putting on as normal a face as possible he went on to his classroom and quickly closed the door. He didn't have to worry about any of his students coming in early, although at the moment he wished the door had a lock.

Dropping the other things in his hands on his desk he studied the letter. Not only did the person know his real name they also knew about his wife's killer. This person just came out and said that if he wanted a link to her he should see the Immortal Thief. And he was also provided with description, with a picture no less, and a list of various locations that he liked to hang out. This couldn't be what it looked like, there was no way. Every cell in his brain was screaming trap at this point. Somehow she found out the name he was using at the school, maybe even through Janet.

As reluctant as she was those couple of times they met up would she do that? Then again if her mother was half of what he thought she was the information might not have been given voluntarily. Either way this was a bad idea.

Knowing Susan and Natalya would have given him hell for doing so he staked out the spots highlighted in the letter. Sure enough ever time he felt another immortal it ended up being the guy in the picture. Owen made sure by visiting each spot a couple of times a day whenever he had the time. The only time he felt another one it was him. So that part of the letter was true at least. But could this guy really lead him to her? And if this guy was the Thief he knew to leave quickly when he felt Owen given his reputation. So following him was out of the question. But like he told Janet he was good at tracking. And good part of tracking was knowing the territory.

Maps were a wonderful tool for doing this in a modern city. Marking the places he had seen the guy that corresponded with the location in the letter he didn't see a predictable pattern right away, not that he was expecting too. On a couple of occasions he did try and follow him and made sure he at least got the street name when he lost sight of him. So far he wasn't seeing a set place of where he was going or coming from. He was smart enough to come in from different locations at least. And while that didn't tell him where the Thief's home was it did give Owen something just as valuable, where he was going to try and ditch the immortal he sensed. Getting Susan involved, and he was right she gave him hell and Owen was waiting from a phone call from Natalya sooner or later, he was able to confirm a couple of those suspicions. He had him.

Talking Susan into one more test they set up and waited, it was just a matter of which direction the Thief would come in. After an hour Susan indicated she spotted him before either one had sensed him, he was coming in from his right. According to the plan as Susan knew it she would continue to follow him so they would get an idea on where he was running to. As soon as he sensed her he changed directions an headed down an alley with Susan close enough behind to keep track of him. Neither of them realized that Owen was a head of them and jumped on top of the Thief as soon as he was below him. A quick struggle and Owen was able to slip a knife between his ribs and into his heart and left it there. "See you when you wake up,' he grunted as the Thief died a few seconds later.

"You used me," Owen looked back to see Susan standing there. "You were planning this the entire time."

"I had to know for sure," was his only explanation. She grabbed him by the arm and forced him to look at her. She studied his face although at the moment her face was unreadable to him. He did brace himself in case she decided to deck him, and he couldn't blame or stop her if she did.

"What are you thinking? This is not like you."

"This jackass might be my only link to Himiko's killer..."

"Would you think she want you to go this far?"

"I've been asked that question before," he said remembering one of the last things Naoto said to him before he left japan the first time. "And right now it's about what I want."

"Then want it on your own," she told him. "I'm done with this. Get your head back on straight and we'll talk."

Owen couldn't reply because he knew she had a point. He couldn't make this up to her either, not anytime soon at any rate. He'd worry about it later after this was over, if he survived the experience. Especially when Owen realized he didn't plan things past this point. Looking around he found a door to an abandon building, into a room with some furniture still inside, it'll have to do.

He watched as the Thief came to a few moments after he pulled the knife out of his chest. Watched as he slowly realized that he was bound to a old wooden chair with some wire Owen had pulled out of the wall. Watched as he grew wide eyed as he spotted Owen across the room with his long sword in his hand. "Hey now," he said as he struggled to free himself, "let's talk about this. I haven't done anything to you."

"No you haven't," Owen agreed as he stepped forward. "Well outside of being stupid enough to do things that would announce our existence to the world. That made you a lot of enemies let me tell you. Chicago is still crawling with head hunters looking for you."

"Then how come you found me? And why ain't I dead yet?"

"Well for one you pissed off somebody enough to do this for one," He showed him the picture and watched his eyes bug out again. "This is the one advantage I had over the others looking for your head. As to why we're talking, the person who sent me this also hinted that you had some information I'm looking for."

"Sure," he readily agreed. "Whatever you want. Just don't take my head."

Owen took a deep breath and tried to calm himself in case this was another dead end. "I'm told you hang out with an immortal woman." The one thing he didn't want to see was this guy suddenly close up on him, and it looked like he was doing just that. "She might be traveling with a teenager. Has the potential to be one of us but hasn't reawaken yet." The Thief refused to look at him, although Owen thought he detected a bit if a smirk on his face momentarily.

"Never heard of them," the Thief told him.

"You get ripped off at poker a lot don't you? Because you are way to easy to read. What are you thirty, forty years old?"

"I'm seventy thank you very much," he said a little too defiantly for somebody in situation. "And I win more than I lose."

"And how about we both stop wasting each other's time," Owen said trying to go with a separate track. "You pretty much told me you know who I'm talking about. Just tell me where she is."

"She told us what she did to you, to that woman you were with," he grinned enjoying the fact he caught Owen off guard. He started to grin a grin that Owen had only seen in crooked used car salesmen in the movies, "To be honest with you I think Victoria enjoyed telling it just a little too much, you know what I mean." He notice Owen tighten his grip on the handle of his long sword and quickly backtracked his story. "I mean it was totally deplorable, made me sick how much she acted like she enjoyed it. Everybody else seemed to enjoy it but I was just appalled."

"I'm sure you were," Owen grimaced, a dark voice in the back of his head telling him to end this now. To end it and enjoy it. Pushing past that voice he started to talk and began circling him, "You ever been in love with anybody? You ever been so devoted to a person you would do any for them. I have, it's a wonderful feeling while you're in the middle of it. And twice that person had been taken from me."

"Sucks," the Thief said. "That got a lot daytime talk shows you can go on and get help for that you know."

"This is how I know you never really been in love with someone. Because you don't know what it feels like. It's literally like somebody sticking a long metal shaft into your gut." Without warning Owen drove his long sword into the Thief's side. He cried out in pain. "And then,' Owen went on oblivious to the other man's agony, "they twist it just for the hell of it." Again he highlighted the point by giving the handle a quick quarter turn before pulling it out of his gut. "Kind of like that."

"I... I...," he struggled to get out. Owen didn't have any compassion most of his friends knew him for as he grabbed him by the hair and made him look at him.

"You going to die on me?" He let him go with a shove. "Go ahead, I'll still be here when you wake back up. I tracked you for four months. I've waited to get my hands on her for two hundred years. You think I won't wait you wake back up just to do this over and over again until you tell me what I want to know."

Both of them tensed up when they felt another immortal approach, for different reason. Owen's tension turned to confusion as Susan came running into the room. "Owen he was being followed by another group!"

She drew her sword as he quickly got into position beside her as a big Middle Eastern man and somebody dressed like an Amish farmer strode into the room. The big man drew a scimitar out of his overcoat and held it out, keeping the point alternating between Him and Susan. The Thief smiled a bit, "Calvary's here."

"If this ends up being a fight," Susan said to him, "I'm making you take the big one."

"Amish, buddy," the Thief said as the big one moved in such a way that he ended up setting himself between them and the Thief, although their backs were at the only way out of the room, "you want to let me go now. Fingers are going a little numb here."

"Jin sent a message," the one the Thief called Amish said. "He said that you officially became a liability and are to be cut loose."

"What?!", the Thief exclaimed. "That guy is after Vicky! You got to let me loose so we can get that back to her."

"We already knew that," 'Amish' had said. Lowering his head and looking away he added, "Jin also said one more thing."

Apparently Susan had a feeling what was about to happen as she got him to start backing up toward the door while the Thief went, "What was it?"

The big one got a grin on his face that made a shiver go down Owen's spine as he grunted, "To not enjoy this that much." He spun and swung the scimitar and decapitated the wide eyed Thief in one motion. At that moment Owen and Susan both made for the door. Hearing and feeling the quickening in their bones they exited the building. Stowing their swords they slowed down once they hit the busy streets and blended in rather quickly going with the flow.

After going a block Owen looked around to see that they weren't being followed. Susan came to the same conclusion and they walked into an empty parking garage to make sure. "It's a group of immortals," She said. "The woman you're after is part of a group." Owen walked to the entrance and watched the crowd for signs of the two. "Owen this bigger than you can handle."

"She's used groups before," was all he said after seeing no signs of them.

"A group of mortals," Susan reminded him. "This is a group of immortals. They may follow the rules but that doesn't mean they won't gang up on you. If you killed one of them there nothing to stop another one from challenging you right after."

"Well there's one less to worry about now apparently," he told.

"Would you listen to me," she told him. "None of us knew there was a group before. That changes everything."

"No it doesn't," Owen said finally walking away from the entrance. "I also learned something else I didn't know before now."

"And what was that?"

"I finally know her name."