========================================================================= Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 15:05:34 -0400 Reply-To: JJSWBT@AOL.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Wendy Tillis Subject: Isabel 05/13 Isabel By: Wendy Tillis jjsbwt@aol.com Copyright April 1996 Part Five ============= Breakfast went well. Richie had said little but Duncan and Sister Gabriel had talked enough for three. The two of them might not acknowledge that anything was going on between them, but Richie thought there was. They talked and laughed like very old, very intimate friends. Richie suspected that it was only Mac's deeply ingrained code of honor and the nun's habit that kept their emotions pushed below the surface. After breakfast, Duncan had given Sister Gabriel a ride back to the Youth Center - she'd arrived by bus. Richie followed along on his bike. Alone for a few minutes, Richie thought about the nun. He thought she was nice, but he didn't understand Duncan's fascination. Actually, she reminded Richie too much of the nuns who had tried to teach him during his stay in parochial school. One of his foster families had been Catholic and they had sent all their kids, including Richie, to the local Catholic school. Richie had hated it. The nuns were mean and seemed to delight in standing him in the corner or smacking the back of his hands with rulers. Sadists in penguin suits. Richie knew that it was silly to judge this Immortal woman by those old biddies but the memory was hard to shake. They parked and all went into the Center. Richie was impressed. He wished he'd had a place like this when he was a teenager. Even this early, there were some boys hanging around out front, waiting for the Sister to open the door. She did and they came in, quietly said hello, and went toward the small basketball court. Richie walked around, looking at the facility. Duncan and the nun were deep in conversation in the corner near the office. Richie came over just as all three of them felt another Immortal approach. Three heads turned toward the windows at the front of the Center. Richie didn't recognize the mousy little man but Duncan and Sister Gabriel seemed to. Sister Gabriel started to go out and Duncan tried to follow. She put up a hand to stop him and continued out alone. Duncan and Richie both moved to the front of the Center near the door. They stayed inside but could hear bits of the conversation through the glass. "Ray?. . . . to talk. . . not now. . . busy. . . please! . . Important. . later, when they . . . Him?" And the man waved a hand at Duncan. " None of your business . . . go . . tonight. . No! . .You promised. . " The man made a grab for Sister Gabriel's arm and she shoved him back. Duncan stepped outside, hand on his sword, Richie right behind him. Isabel was still trying to talk to Ray. "It OK, Duncan, Richie. Really. Now stop it, Ray. I'll talk to you later . It can wait a few hours, it's waited this long." "You promise?" Ray pleaded. "I promise. Now go home and don't worry about. But Ray, if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I'll have to do something drastic, I mean it." Ray looked ashamed and backed away from the three Immortals, then he turned and hurried off down the street. "Isabel?" Duncan was concerned. "It's OK , Duncan. He's just upset. I'll take care of it. He won't hurt me." "If you're sure?" "Yes. Thank you, but I can handle Ray. Really. Well, I best get to work. Nice to meet you, Richie. " They shook hands. " Come back anytime. We can always use the help - or you can come play basketball - the guys are always looking for new blood." "Thank you, Sister. I might." Richie smiled and walked away to his bike . He drove off. "Good-bye, Sister." Duncan said . "I'll see you next week - I'm still signed up to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless?" "Yes, top of the List." She paused, hesitated. " Duncan. I was going to ask. Sister Michael gets back Saturday night, so tomorrow is my last chance to play hooky. I was wondering - if you'd like to have dinner? I shouldn't but - it's been so long since I found someone just to talk to. Where I can be myself. A nun isn't supposed to want that." She hesitated again. " If you wouldn't feel comfortable, or if you have plans. . ." " No, no plans. I'd love to. Can I pick you up or should we meet somewhere?" " I better meet you. What about Antonio's at 8:00?" " Antonio's is great. I'll see you there." Duncan smiled and walked back to his car. Sister Gabriel watched him go. She knew this was stupid - nuns didn't date, for heavens sake. But she hadn't been lying. She had been alone a very long time and it *was* nice just to have someone to talk to, it didn't have to go any further. Though she had to admit, if she was going to be tempted, Duncan was definitely her type. She smiled to herself and went back into the Youth Center . =============== "Paul! You're back!" Joe put down the glass he was polishing and came out from behind the bar to shake hands with Paul Willis. Paul was one of Joe's newest Watcher's. " When did Richie get back in town?" "Last night. I was going to call you then but it got late and I was tired. Then he was up early this morning. He went to see MacLeod - no big surprise." Paul had been recruited two years ago after he happened upon a beheading. He had finished his course work and was on his first field assignment. Joe had given him Richie to Watch. Richie was considered a 'safe' assignment since he already knew about Watchers and would be unlikely to react in a lethal fashion if Paul screwed up and was discovered. " Any thing exciting happen since your last report?" "No, just more chasing around on that damn motorcycle. Gee - I wish he would buy a car. And settle down. This chasing after him, a new town every day, is hard." " Well, I think he's going to be in town for a few months this time. You can let the saddle sores heal" " The was one thing - this morning" He hesitated. "I think I spotted a new Immortal." " A new Immortal?" " No - I don't mean a newly created one - I mean a new one in town. I checked the regional list last week before we got here - just like I was taught 'Be aware of *all* Immortals in your assigned area - not just the one you are Watching' . I found MacLeod, Richie, Ray Allen, David Grey Buffalo and Mary Sampson. But this morning, MacLeod took Richie to breakfast and introduced him to a woman- and from the way they acted- I think she was Immortal. And it wasn't the Sampson woman." Joe considered this information. MacLeod had been back in town over two months. Joe had not really kept track of his activities since then. The bar had been busy, he'd been knee deep in Watcher paper work and he knew that Duncan was just settling in as he did every year when he returned from Paris. This Fall he had been spotted helping out at St. Thomas. Now that Joe thought about it, Ray Allan and Grey Buffalo had been spotted there too. Joe realized he had been slacking off too much. Duncan had stopped by the bar twice but they had only engaged in small talk. Under the rules they had worked out - painfully worked out - they stayed out of each others business. Duncan didn't ask for Watcher information on Immortals and Joe no longer asked MacLeod for favors involving Immortals. Unlike days gone by, Duncan would not have mentioned a new Immortal to Joe. " Did you get a good look at her?" "Pretty good - I couldn't get too close." " OK. Tell you what we'll do. Have you ever done a real database search using the new system?" "No, but I'd love to." " Fine, come on back into my office and I'll walk you through it. Let's see if we can put a name to the face. It will be a good exercise for you - see how much you learned in the computer classes." Joe lead the way back into his private office. The computer was on, a screen saver program running. On it, a big dinosaur roared across the screen, was beheaded and then started over again. Joe motioned for Paul to sit at the desk and then he pulled another chair up next to Paul . They could both see the screen. Paul touched the mouse and the dinosaur disappeared, to be replaced by a blue screen and the word "Password?" Joe leaned over Paul and typed a word into the computer - Paul discreetly looked the other way. The screen changed to black with a large yellow Watcher's symbol in the middle. A small prompt blinked at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. "Type 'search' " Joe instructed. Paul did so and a menu of options popped up. The data base had been Don Salzer and Methos' idea. A unified compilation of everything the Watchers knew about Immortals. It had cost Don his life - along with those of his wife, a newspaper publisher in France, Henri Vemas and two other Watchers . It had almost cost MacLeod his life too. The information was originally thought lost after Kalas dies, but a copy of the CD had been recovered from Don's bookstore. The Head Watchers had debated long and hard about destroying the information but the urge to use the system now that it existed had proved irresistible. Now, all Field Managers and above could log into the system and search the worldwide database. It made Joe nervous -hackers were everywhere - but no one had asked his opinion. " OK, Paul. What do we know about this Immortal?" " Well. She a woman. Looked in her mid-twenties. Dark hair, Light eyes. Tall. "Fine, first have it sort out the female Immortals. That's right - click on sort by gender and type female. Good." The computer whirred for a moment and announced that there were 1568 entries. Paul whistled. " Paul - try sorting out the dead ones" Joe chuckled. Paul redefined the search field to females 'living' and the machine tried again. 745 entries. " There are 745 living female Immortals??" Paul was amazed. " No, not necessarily. That is just the number of different entries. Some are duplicates. Some of those may be dead - we could sort out the 'presumed dead' from the 'living' but I don't think we need to do that now. Just go on." " What's next?" "Click on 'physical characteristics' . OK. Now - what do you want to enter?" "Well she had dark hair." Joe cut him off "Dark isn't a category - look at your choices 'Black, dark brown, medium brown, light brown, red, auburn , dark blonde, light blonde, grey, white.' What do you think?" " Black - I'd say black. And her eyes - I don't know - just light? " Skip eye color for now. Age 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 , , , you said mid- twenties?" "Right and she was tall. Let's see what categories we have. Under 5'0" , 5'0"-5'4" , 5'4"-5'8", 5'8"-6'0", over 6" tall. I'd say 5'8" - 6'0". Paul entered this data and the machine whirled again. 285 entries. "Still too many" Joe said. " Try sorting by race - was she white, Asian, black or Native American?" " White - definitely" Paul entered that in the appropriate field and again the machine sorted - 64 possibilities. "All right - here is where we do some guessing. What color do you 'think' her eyes were?" " Not blue - not that light. Grey maybe? Some sort of green? I don't know." Joe reached over and played with the keys - then he said " There! Now you can work by eliminating the ones you know don't match - have it exclude the blue eyes and the brown eyes." Paul did this and they cut the possibilities to 17. " Good - so our girl is one of those 17 possibilities! Now all we have to do is look at the pictures and we'll have her." Paul was excited. " Not so fast. She might be one of those 17 - but we made lots of assumptions in our search - black hair not dark brown, grey eyes not blue, that sort of thing. We may have already eliminated her. Plus - we don't have pictures for everyone. You know better than that." "You're right. Sorry. I just got excited. It's fun, like solving a mystery." "It's all right, we may have her. Let's see. Ask for the thumbnail pictures of those 17 - let's see what we have." The machine tried again and soon displayed 9 small pictures - the other 8 women remained faceless. "There - that's her! That one - number 8." He leaned nearer the screen. " Sister Leon. Can we pull up her file?" " Sure. Here, let me sit there." Joe moved over to his desk as Paul moved out of the way. Joe's fingers danced on the keyboard and soon a full screen picture of No. 8 - Sister Leon - appeared. The picture had been taken from about 40 feet with a telescopic lens. It was in a jungle somewhere. She had on a nun's habit but the veil and wimple were missing, her short black hair visible. The photo was dated at the bottom June 14, 1956 and marked Kenya. Joe typed a few more commands and her Watcher file appeared. Date of Birth : Unknown First death : Unknown First appearance : Antwerp 1652 Name: Dorothea Occupation: Whore Fought/beheaded Miguel Alazar 1652 Fought/beheaded Elizabeth of Ghent 1661 Disappeared : 1663 Second appearance : Tunis 1730 Name: Fatima Arujeo Occupation: Artisan Fought/beheaded: Zarim of Algiers 1730 Fought/spared: Robert Preston 1734 Disappeared : 1734 Third appearance: Mission of St. Giles, Kenya 1956 Name: Sister Leon Occupation : Nun, Order of St. Giles Fought/beheaded : Malik Matua 1956 Disappeared :1956 " That was great. Now we know who - say , she must be about MacLeod's age - do you think they knew each other back in Antwerp?" "What makes you think she is MacLeod's age?' Joe could follow Paul's reasoning but he wanted Paul to see that he was making a basic mistake. "We picked her up in 1652 - she couldn't be too much older than that or we would have spotted her - so I figure, given she looks to be twenty something - that she must have been born around 1630 - or no more than a few decades before that. MacLeod was born in 1592 - right?" "Why couldn't she have avoided us for longer? Despite what they like to teach at Headquarters - we aren't everywhere all at once. And 400 years ago it would have been easier to slip past our notice for longer. Or - she may be in the records somewhere else - as someone else." "What do you mean?" "I can't believe they didn't cover this in class. All right. Say a Watcher spots an Immortal in 1200AD. He reports him as tall, black haired, mid-thirties and named Carlos. We follow him for a few years, then lose him. Then , in 1500AD a different Watcher sees an Immortal and reports him as medium height, brown hair, forty-something named Marco. He manages to get a small sketch of the Immortal which goes in the records. Unfortunately , the first Watcher died 300 years ago so he can't check and say 'oh, that looks just like Carlos.' The Watcher's perception of the Immortal is important - especially in the old days with no photographs. A very short, older Watcher might see everyone as taller and younger than they really are. So - what I am saying is - this woman maybe 400 or she may be 1400. Without a much more detailed search , we don't know." "Are we going to try again? See if the computer can find her under another name?" "No, it's not really important. For the last 400 years , her information has been going into *this* file. What she did before, really isn't important . What we need to do is find out what she is doing here- what name she goes by now - that sort of thing. I think I'll leave you on Ryan and I'll try to get a look at her, find out who she is now. If she and MacLeod are friends it won't be hard for me to spot her. That was good work, Paul. I'll make a note of it in your file. Now, why don't you go home for a while and rest up." " Thanks, Joe. That was interesting. Thanks for taking time to show me how the system works." "That's what I'm here for, Paul." Paul left and Joe played with the database for a while longer. He tried various different physical descriptions in hopes of turning up a different name for the face they had. Someone at HQ was supposed to be cross-referencing all the pictures but that could take years. After another hour of searching, he had several names of women that *might* be also their woman but none of the files had pictures. He gave up and went out to check on the bar. Maybe tomorrow he would trail MacLeod around and see what developed. ================ End Part 5