Four Days Later
Sanford, Gloucestershire, England
"So this is what you've been doing all year long, Jack?" asked Barbossa with as he nursed the glass of brandy in his hand, "Sitting in a cottage in the countryside, while the rest of us do all the hard work."
Mason smiled warmly as he sipped from his own glass, then said,
"Some of us aren't going to live forever, Hector. We try and enjoy the fruits of your labor while you can."
"Thinking like a pirate, I like that." Said Barbossa, just as Jenny came walking into the study, with Nemo following not too far behind.
"What are you two old men talking about now?"
"Hector was just voicing an opinion about my current status as a gentleman of leisure."
"Oh, don't mind him, John. You do what makes you happy." Said Jenny as she sat on the leather couch, resting against Barbossa's side.
"All joking aside, Jack," said Barbossa, "Doesn't it get dull sitting in this house? Don't you miss being out there?"
"Not really. Being a soldier or a spy was never what I really desired, if given a fresh start; I'd be a poet or a farmer. Are we set?"
"Certainly." Said Nemo.
One Day Earlier
"Impressive." Said Nemo, removing the long, cold, black piece of metal from the green linen pouch that housed it. He lifted it up with both hands, measuring its weight. The katana was a little less than three feet long, the handle made of silver onyx, the sheathe indistinctly carved and lined with silver.
"Aye, it is." Said Mashu as he leaned on the island at the center of Mason's kitchen.
Nemo slowly slid the sheathe off, savoring in the sound of the resulting zing. Then looked at the ancient blade. Still sharp.
"Most impessive." Mumbled Nemo, "I trust getting it wasn't easy?"
"Hatori Hanzo had to call in a dozen or so favors." Said Mashu, "Sam nearly lost his fingers. I nearly lost my face…"
"Mr. O'Shaughnessy…"
"Yeah, sorry. No, it wasn't easy."
"How is Mister Hanzo?"
"Mister Hanzo's fine and dandy. Except… Well, we, the three of us that is, we were wondering what need to we have with this sword."
"Do you know what this sword is?"
"Hanzo said it could be Kusanagi." "Exactly. This sword… is a thing of legend, born of divinity. And as such, fit to slay that that is most unholy."
"Like?"
"Someday, I might tell you." Said Nemo, gripping the handle and stretching his arm, before swinging it to cut the air. His heart fluttered as he heard a ring.
"But for now, you don't need to know. I will tell you what to do with it, however."
"I'm listening."
"Take it to Gotham City."
"The states? What for?"
"I'll give you the precise coordinates. You'll find an entrance to a defunct train station appropriated for our use. In there you'll find your old friend, Father Mackenzie."
"Father Patrick is in the states? To do what?"
Nemo looked at him with a meaningful look.
"Alright. Yeah. I don't need to know." Said Mashu with a sigh, "I assume I have to leave right now?"
"There's no hurry." Said Nemo, returning his attention to the katana, holding the handle with both hands,
"Leave tomorrow. I'll hang onto it until then, you do what you want in the meantime."
Now
"Good evening, Inspector." Said the desk sergeant, not looking up from the novel he read where he sat, "Danny's brought the evidence in minutes ago."
"Sorry, I'm here for someone."
The sergeant looked up and saw Shaun standing behind the plate glass window, he chuckled and said,
"Oho! I thought you were our inspector!"
"Yeah, I gathered that much." Said Shaun, "A friend of mine was brought in here last night."
"Name? I know who it is, we only have the one bloke brought in last night, but it's a formality."
"His name is Priest."
---------
A buzzer sounded and the lock automatically clicked open. An elderly police officer opened the door, allowing Shaun in.
"You took your time." Said Priest, laying down on his bunk and facing the wall with his eyes closed.
"Would you give us a minute?" asked Shaun.
"Just one." Said the officer, barely audibly before leaving.
"We thought about bringing in Kroenen and Mona to bust you out, but then we decided to wait the four hours until you could be released."
"Four hours?" asked Priest as he sat up, "It felt longer."
---------
"What happened?"
"I was in the pub," explained Priest as he and Shaun walked down the street, propping up his jacket collar and pulling down his hat as low as possible, "I was trying to watch MacNeil giving her big speech, only today's the big match with Germany. Well, one thing led to another, there were words exchanged, harsh word, my mother was mentioned, the other guys little sister was mentioned, and then Scotland was mentioned…. And then it was on."
"That exactly is why Mason asked you not to head into town, you know. It's not unlike we didn't have a TV at the manor."
"Well, look at you; little Shaun Collier, all grown up. Saving my life and telling me why Mason asked me to stay at the farm."
"What happened to the others?"
"They'll live. There were four of them, huge bastards from Glasgow, and nobody saw me throw the first punch, so technically it was in self defense. Anyway, just when I was sitting down to watch the rest of the speech, in came the fuzz. Oh, and the Inspector? Your spitting image. Un-friggin-canny."
There was a long silence as the two men walked.
"You know Sayid quit?"
"I noticed he hadn't been around lately."
"He's leaving for L.A.. I tried to talk to him, but he wasn't in a talking mood. I think it's something to do with that Oceanic Six business he used to be a part of."
"He was reading a newspaper the other day, that Watts girl who work's for Mason brought a stack of them to read about McNeil's drop from the race. There was something he read that he didn't like, Lucy said it was something about a man called Jeremy Bentham."
"It's starting to unravel."
"What do you mean?"
"This whole thing, but yeah, us too. You didn't really think we were here for a retreat, did you? Barbossa and Nemo are here, we'll probably see Al-Sheikh soon too. They're gearing up for the big one. We've brought this thing to the brink, all out war is imminent. I wonder what they'll have me do?"
"What about our mole?" asked Jenny.
"Miss Watts informs me that miss Kendall is growing frustrated, she assesses that she might even blow her cover."
"Are you going to pull her?"
"Possibly." Said Mason, "If we do, we'd better find someone else to take kill Bond."
"We have something to try in that case," said Nemo, "But I'd rather keep it as a measure of last resort."
"Remind me."
"The death note." Said Nemo, "We managed to acquire a piece in march."
"How much?" asked Jenny.
"Wait, what's he talk about?" asked Barbossa.
"Just a scrap, enough for one name. Or two if we use both sides." Said Nemo.
"What's the death note?" asked Barbossa.
"I'd told you before," said Jenny, "It's paper with divine qualities, you write someone's name in it, with their image in your mind, and they die of a heart attack within fifteen minutes."
"What? That's absurd."
"Said the man who dips in the fountain of youth once every five years."
"Not every marvel is like the next." Said Mason, "And you have to admit-"
"I know," said Nemo, "Which is more the reason not to use at this juncture. Look, what about Bond's bodyguard?"
"Michael Costas? I know where this is going," said Jenny, "George won't have any of it."
"We might not have any other options, Jenny."
"Ask George into arranging for us to capture his brother and he's likely to do anything beside comply. He'd know what we could do to get what we wanted out of Michael, and he won't allow it."
"Well in that case, Miss Kendall will have to be persuaded to remain undercover for the time being." Said Nemo, "Jack?"
"I'll see to it," said Mason, "Try a personal touch, see if I can persuade her to endure."
"What about Wilhelmina Jekyll?" asked Jenny, "Are you all so sure about this? I mean, of all people, Dorian Gray?"
"I assure you, mister Gray is a changed man from when you knew him."
"I find that hard to believe." Said Jenny, "I'm not questioning your judgment, Nemo. I just figured you'd send Priest after her."
"Priest is about the last person to send after Josephine, she simply out of his league. True, he dealt her a great upset in Gotham, twice. But that only means she's expecting him, and prepared to meet him. Dorian is, was, like your friend Sparrow, of the third camp. She'd grown to expect that he will never join either side. Likely, his mere appearance will throw her off her game, giving him the upper hand."
"Are you sure? She wouldn't let someone like him out of her sight, her former lover, no less."
"She does indeed have several people shadowing Mr. Gray," said Mason, "And all of them had been discovered, contacted and either paid off or coerced into reporting to her that Dorian is in Sudan, doing missionary work."
God, it took my forever to do this. I started over half a dozen times, but writer's block prevented me from doing anything of note. The idea was that this and the next chapter would be told by Barbossa, a story set in the fifties and staring Jenny, featuring Nigel Powers and a Young Bond. But alas, it was not to be. I contemplated throwing in the towel, even wrote a final chapter in which I revealed everything that would have happened if I cintinued. But for now, the story will go on.
Next Chapter
Al-Sheikh informs the minutemen of their last mission, a simply industrial sabotage gig. But will everything go without a hitch, especially with their numbers down by one?
R&R.