Arc of the Curve
Chapter Fourteen

The news showed the same three films over and over again. First was his speech, artfully presented, expertly written and performed with the sort of cool, calm, confidence that smoothed the rocky path to the most powerful house in the nation. Second was a repeat on the bombing of the Twelfth Precinct, emphasising the insultingly small casualties and boasting about the suspect they had caught incredibly fast.

He'd thought after all his earlier failures sub-contracting would finally get the job done, Kate Beckett and her team had an almost mystical amount of luck.

Third and finally was a report of what appeared to be an electrical explosion in an abandoned warehouse. He knew the signs of course, someone had taken a Quickening. Given the silence he'd gotten trying to contact his latest, most disappointing, employee he had a feeling he knew whose head had been taken. He'd spent decades planning for this. Hiding funding, altering records, hiding in plain sight. He'd even chosen to relocate to New York after the False Gathering, knowing that his fellow Immortals would avoid the place.

No. After all this time and effort he wasn't going to be undone by some lawyer and her detective daughter. Mortals with little mayfly lives, he was going to change the world and all they could be bothered with was a few little morals.

So far though nothing seemed to get this annoyance out of his way. He'd sent some of his best contract killers and they'd ended up dead. He'd tried subcontracting and that had proven to be a failure. That left two options. The first was stealth. Pull back, wait for things to calm down and try manoeuvring her into a trap later. The problem with that was he was on strict timetable and this particular stone in his shoe needed to be removed before he could move on. The other was strike now, while the iron was still hot.

He needed to find someone to take over the job. Given his recent setbacks it was either going to have to be a lone psychopath or another contract job.

It was too soon to decide, but given how much time he had it looked like he'd have to talk to some of his less than savoury contacts.

Joe blinked at the pale young woman standing at the top of the stairs. She was standing there in what could only be shock. There was no way she should have known that. 'How…?' he began to ask.

'She's a mind leach Joe. Plucks the thoughts from your head as soon as you've had them.' Methos shook his head before stepping slowly away from her and the others. He wasn't quite inching to the door, but it was close. 'Should have guessed, well how could I?'

'Mind Leach?' Richard Castle asked.

'Psychic. Telepath. Mutant. Whatever you want to call it. She knew everything about both of us the moment you walked in Joe.'

'Why not you?' Detective Beckett asked. 'Why can't she read your mind?'

'Like Joe told you, I'm an Immortal, we're on a different wavelength.' He shrugged. 'I've met a couple like her, a long time ago. None of them looked quite so… heathy. Sorry.' Methos explained before shrugging, ambling over to the couch and throwing himself into it. 'They both died before they were twenty-five.'

'What?' The writer asked, terrified for his daughter.

Methos sighed. 'You read Asimov? You remember the Mule? both of them were kinda like that, only a lot more neurotic. I guess the gift of hearing peoples thoughts came with a physical weakness . They were tortured people I felt sorry for them. The first one I met lived alone. She'd been driven out of her home by her people, her family even lead the charge. She ran before they could stone her to death as a witch. She was half crazy with loneliness, but couldn't block out peoples thoughts,no matter how far a way they were. Way she described it it was like having people whispering just on the edge of her hearing.

'I spent a few weeks with her, just long enough to watch her die. She had a stroke in her sleep and never woke up.' He said sadly.

'The other one didn't have a clue what was happening. At least not until I told them. He was just a kid locked in Bedlam for claiming he could hear voices. The poor boy was sick all the time. He couldn't even shake off a cold. Ended up dying from half a dozen different diseases that his body just couldn't fight.'

The girl had made it to the bottom of the stairs, her eyes never leaving Methos. 'Only two, in five thousand years?'

'Five thousand and change.' Methos admitted easily. 'That's how old I am. It's a little hard to get the exact date, the calendar's changed so often it could be anything close to that.' Joe wasn't sure why he was being so open with complete strangers, then it came to him.

The girl spun to face the old Watcher almost instantly 'He's just trying to distract us!' she gasped. 'Stop us asking about what he did, who he really is!'

'Damn.' Joe winced. Methos was right, he might as well be an open book to her. 'Sorry buddy.'

'Not your fault Joe. It's like when someone tells you not to think about apples. What you don't want to think about is exactly do.' he shrugged.

'Who is he Alexis, really?' Detective Beckett asked pointedly, not letting the discussion get side tracked again.

'Can I?' Methos asked. 'It's not that I'm going to lie, just kinda need some context.'

'How can you put… that in context?' the young woman asked, shocked. Joe wasn't sure either. Just how did you spin being one of the most famous mass murders in all of history.

Methos shrugged again, like it didn't matter. 'Well you have to remember it was a different time. Very different. We're talking four thousand years ago and yes I am as old as I say. The thing of it is back then there was only two ways to live; scrounging in the dirt and dust to grow what you could, or hunting and raiding to take what you needed. There was no trade, no treaties. Most of all there were no laws, no police or judges. We all made our own rules, some for good, others not. But back then morals were more likely to get in the way than help. The only choice was hunt or be hunted. So me and three other immortals teamed up. We became a raiding party and took what we needed, what we wanted. After all who was going to stop us? When the four of us rode in to your village you either gave us everything or we took it.' he admitted without a moments pause. You had to know him to hear even the tiniest regret and even then Joe wasn't sure if he was just imagining it.'

Methos stood up. 'We were very good, or should that be bad, at it. There were lots of other raiders out there, but we were the ones that made grown men tremble. That might sound cliché today, but we were the first to do do that. We became stories, eventually legends, and legends tend to live on. So thousands of years later some clerics remembered the stories that were told about us and wrote them into a book. Saying that our riding again would be a sign that the world was ending. The book was read by a lot of people and the story spread. People still know it today. 'He laughed lightly. 'Johnny Cash even wrote song about me once. That's the truth and that's who I am, or was.'

The Captain, who had been silent until now looked at him, the blood rushing from her face. 'What book?' she asked in a shaky voice.

'Well it's more like a compendium. Several books in one. The one my brothers was mentioned in was just a little part of the whole thing. I think the guy who wrote it just wanted to spice things up a little to be honest.'

'Revelations.' Alexis said softly. 'He's talking about the book of Revelations in the Bible. He was the Fourth Horseman.'

'Context, context is important.' Methos insisted. 'Now yes, I did ride a pale horse and a few people did die but like I said everything was exaggerated.'

'You… You've got to be kidding me.' The writer gasped while the detective just looked extremely skeptical.

'No. It's the truth.' Joe told them. 'What do we do now buddy?'

'Not a clue. Even for me this is a first.'

The Detective shook her head, as if trying to rearrange her thoughts. 'Let me get this straight. You're a five thousand year old immortal, who used to be the angel of death, and you saved me from another immortal who was was trying to kill me. Why? That's what I still don't understand, why?'

Methos smirked. 'That's whatI want to know. Why the hell did Antonia risk everything, risk revealing our existence to world, just to kill you?'

Alexis looked back and forth, trying desperately to think of something to do. Over the last few days she'd gotten used to knowing what was going on before anyone else. Opening her mind had made everything so much easier, only now she felt completely lost. She had thought that no matter how weird things got she had the upper hand. In the last half hour everything she'd ever believed had been turned upside down, again. Immortals, the Fourth horseman being real was almost too much and then there was the Game.

Joe couldn't hide it, Methos was right, she could read the old man like a book and the things she saw terrified her. Immortals, the Game, Ahriman. Suddenly the world was a lot stranger than it was supposed to be.

As Kate and the ancient immortal tried to come up with some sort of rational explanation she wondered if she should call on the others, see if they knew anything when she remembered something. 'Guys, how many Immortals are there?'

'Huh?' Kate asked, confused.'

'How many?'

Joe Dawson scratched his beard. 'We honestly don't know. The Watchers have a hundred or so on the books, but they're nowhere near complete.'

'Could there be another one in New York?'

'Possibly, but most avoid big cities.' Dawson admitted and she instantly knew why. They did it to avoid triggering a Gathering. Again she shuddered at the idea.

'There is one I know of.' Methos announced quietly. 'She… She doesn't like me very much. I like to keep track of where she is, so we don't run into each other.'

Dawson could only think of one person that fit that description. As she heard who they were it was all Alexis could do not to throw up. 'Why?' Her father asked

'Because, remember when I couldn't read Bracken? It's the same with him.' She pointed at the monstrous man. 'He wasn't like the others. He was like him.'

There was a deadly silence as Kate, Alexis's dad and Captain Gates looked at each other. Any number of curse words running through their heads as they realised what that could mean.

Methos, though, had another question. 'Others, what do you mean others.'

Trying not to show how absolutely terrified she was of him Alexis stood up straight. 'I'm not the only mind leach. There are others like me, lots of others. We call ourselves the Tomorrow People.' He wasn't the only one with world shattering knowledge.

At first she was glad to see him looked shocked, then she realised that wasn't a good thing. 'What… what did you call yourself?'

'Tomorrow People. Why?' Kate asked, trying to read his body language but she was having as much luck as Alexis.

The five thousand year old man looked at her, as if studying Alexis right down to her toenails. Not even glancing at his friend he asked Dawson; 'Joe, you ever heard of that before.'

'Tomorrow people? No why.'

'Think Joe! Think hard.' He snapped back. 'In all your time researching you never heard those words in connection with a group?'

Alexis could see this was important, so could Dawson, but the old blues player was drawing a blank. 'No, he hasn't.' She told him. 'Why?'

'It's old, part of a prophecy. I never believed it, I don't think anyone ever did.' Methos was on his feet, pacing back and forth. 'Damn. Damn!' he swore. 'One coincidence too many. There's only one person I can think of that could remember it and she's the very person I try to avoid.'

'You can't. She'd take your head as soon as look at you.' Dawson warned

'Then I guess I'll have to talk fast then won't I. Stay here Joe, find out who this Bracken is. I'll be back.'

'Hold on, you're not going anywhere.' Kate snapped. 'Not until I get some proper answers. If Bracken hired Toni Nelson as an assassin, knowing that she was like you, this has got to be bigger than just trying to silence me. He could have hired anyone and not risked revealing anything about this. What is he really up to? What is going on?'

'The Game.' Alexis said, her mind racing. 'If Bracken is like him and becomes President he'll be untouchable. He'll even be out of the Game.'

'Wait, Bracken. As in candidate for President of the United States William Bracken. Bookies favourite for the most powerful person in the world?' Dawson tried to get his prosthetic legs back under him. 'He can't be an Immortal. That's breaking the rules.'

'Bracken doesn't care about rules.' Kate said darkly.

'Wait, back up. What Game?' Alexis's dad asked and she almost swore. She knew from Dawson how important the Game was and how it had to be kept secret.

She quickly made a decision. 'I need to talk to Mr Dawson, in private. We need to compare notes.' She pointed at Methos. 'He needs to get hold of his… friend. Find out what she knows about Bracken. Dad, detective Beckett, you get hold of the boys and bring them up to speed. Captain, can you run interference, keep the investigation off us?'

'Yes ma'm' Methos smirked.

'You're not giving orders young lady.' Captain Gates snapped. 'I'm still in command of this investigation.'

'Captain, by the time you look at this objectively and get your head around what we're dealing with we won't have time to do anything.' Dawson explained, swinging around the chair. 'Now if this young lady really can read minds she has everything we know in one place. That means she has a better idea than any of us.'

'Except for me.'

'Except for Methos.' Alexis agreed. 'And I really don't want that in my head. Sorry.'

He smirked back. 'Don't be.'

'What I don't get is why do you you want to talk to him, privately?' Kate asked looking hard at the former Watcher.

Alexis tried to think of how to explain it. 'I know what he knows, but a lot of its secret. I need to know how much I can tell you and the others, because I can't tell you it all.'

'Why not?'

'Because, Mr Castle, you really don't need to know and it would just worry you.'

'It can't be much worse than what I'm thinking right now.' Alexis's dad shot back.

Alexis shook her head. 'It is.'

Joe followed the young lady into what he was told was Mr Castle's Office. 'So… I'm Joe Dawson.' he introduced himself, knowing how pointless it was. 'Ex-Watcher and owner of Joe's Blues Bar in Seacover

'Alexis Castle.' she offered her hand. 'Collage student and Tomorrow Person.'

With a smirk he shook it. 'So you know everything I do, about immortals and what's out there?' She nodded sharply. 'So what do we do about this?'

'We can't tell my dad, or Kate… Detective Beckett. If they find out about the Game or things like Ahriman they'll never sleep at night. I don't think I'm going to.'

Joe laughed, 'Trust me kid; this stuff, it ages you. You can't keep it bottled in.'

'That's just it, like I said there are others. I've got to tell them something, but how much depends on what you're going to tell the Watchers.'

'You're worried about the Hunters?'

'Arn't you?' She shot back. 'Assassins that kill people they think are threats to humanity. Rogue Watchers with access to all their resources and knowledge with no morals or oversight. How long after they know about us will they find out who we are? Will they decide we're a threat? How long until they come for us in the middle of the night?'

The girl was panicking. 'I promise I won't tell them. Watchers watch Immortals, Now unless you can't die you're not part of the Game.'

After looking at him for a long moment she took a breath. 'Thank you. If I tell the others about the Game, whats at stake…'

'They can't get involved.' Joe snapped.

She nodded quickly. 'Only enough to keep out of the way. We don't want to be involved. It's not our game.'

'I'm sorry, but in the end I think we're all part of the game. Not all of us know it.'

Methos hitched his coat up over his shoulders to hide the shudder of another Immortal's quickening. He recognised it almost instantly, just as he was sure so did they. The lift stopped and the doors opened, letting the handful of other passengers out in front of him.

It was a news room for one of New Yorks lesser know newspapers. Mostly local news with a few things that might have national importance. The fact it was still running was thanks to their editor and owner. Not knowing what to expect Methos headed to the Reception desk. 'Hello, My name is Adam Pearson. I need to talk with the editor, Miss Grant. She knows I'm here.'

The familiar Quickening was suddenly a lot stronger. Knowing she was right behind him he turned to face her. Before he could open his mouth the slap she gave him nearly knocked his teeth lose.

The entire news room stopped as Methos had to catch himself on the table. 'What are you doing here? How dare you…' the woman known as Catherine Grant spat angrily.

'Good to see you too.' Methos interrupted as he pulled himself up. 'Something's happening, something… Important. You're the only person in the world that might be able to help.'

'What makes you think I would do anything, anything to help you?' She asked, the hate dripping from her voice.

'Who said anything about trying to help me.' he shot back.

For a long moment she glared at him, while Methos was painfully aware of his stinging cheek and the fact that they were the centre of attention for the whole floor. 'You have five minutes. After that I want you out of this building.' Cassandra told him and Methos had a horrible certainty that the only reason she didn't take his head there and then was there were too many witnesses.

Wasn't love grand?

End Chapter Fourteen

Authors Note
Catherine Grant, AKA Cat Grant, AKA Cassandra the witch woman, is a long story for poor Methos, which I'm going into next chapter. I just want to assure readers this in't a fourth show I'm crossing over with, just a little in joke I hope some people might get. I could have Called her Elizabeth Lochley, but I thought this name was better suited.