========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 21:27:09 -0500 Reply-To: Bob Gansler Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Bob Gansler Subject: Knights Temporal, Part 4 SHAKESPEARE'S BOOKSTORE - PARIS OCTOBER 11, 1995 Just outside of the bookstore, Duncan sat on a bench reading a local newspaper. In the cool wind of the early fall morning, he munched on his bagel as he flipped through the pages. He took a quick look at his watch. It was only 6:15 am. He had another forty-five minutes before he was supposed to meet Joe. Today was to be the day of the great "Duncan MacLeod Tour of Paris", as Joe called it. Duncan had lost the bet on the last Paris St. Germain-Marseilles soccer game. They were both quite drunk at the time, drunk enough to come up with some outlandish stakes, though not so drunk that they didn't remember what the stakes were. Joe's prize was a personal tour conducted by Duncan through the streets of Paris. What would be unique about this tour was that Joe would get to ask about anyplace that they visited and discover its importance in Duncan's life. Duncan was beginning to regret making the bet. He hoped that the tour did not end up in some of the places where Duncan had some embarrassing 'encounters' with the fairer half of humanity. "Not to worry," Duncan thought. "I'll regale him with stories about the more important places. The day will be long gone before we get to any of those sites." As he paged through the newspaper, a small article on page seven caught his eye. It seems that there had been a rash of break-ins in some of the smaller churches around the area. The police were baffled by this little crime wave since, in most cases, nothing of value and sometimes nothing at all seemed to be stolen. In the cases were the police did discover objects were missing, they were of relatively small importance - a candle here, a small statue there, and a chalice there. Duncan could not remember hearing about a crime wave like this before. Still, the thought of these holy places being violated unnerved him slightly. He took another quick look at his watch. He still had plenty of time before Joe was due to show up. Duncan decided to take a brisk walk over to St. Joseph's, the church over which Darius used to preside. Stuffing the rest of the bagel in his mouth, Duncan headed for the church. As he turned the corner and St. Joseph's came into sight, he saw a group of three men casually carrying a tall ladder into the church's main entrance. At first Duncan thought that they must simply be a cleaning crew. After all, there was nothing that alarming about them coming in. It had been a while since the stained glass mirrors received a good cleaning. After Darius' death, the archdiocese had assigned some of the priests from the neighboring parishes to say mass at St. Joseph's. However, by Duncan's recollection, today was not one of those days. When Duncan was a half of a block away, he stopped for a moment. He thought he felt the slightest twinge of another Immortal's presence, but it was gone almost as soon as he felt it. Still, the notion that an Immortal was in the area only served to heighten his unnerved state. As Duncan got closer to the church, he realized that they were not the typical cleaning crew, since they all wore long leather jackets. Duncan picked up his pace in alarm. He stopped in his tracks as he reached the boundary of the church's grounds. This was Holy Ground. He cursed himself silently for not realizing it before. He searched his mind for what options he had for dealing with these mysterious men. He noticed the almost-military efficiency with which these men gathered their things together and marched into the church. They proceeded into the church with a quick pace. Duncan approached the gate as the last of them closed the wooden door behind them. If worse came to worse, he would find some way to lure them outside and confront them directly. By the time, Duncan had silently made his way into the church, the men had already set up a ladder against the wall behind the altar. One of the men was perched atop the ladder with a small hammer and chisel in hand. He was working on the thorny crown of the crucifix that looked out upon the rest of the church. One of the other men stood at the base of the ladder, one hand on either side as he supported it. The third was weaving his way through the chairs as he endeavored to make sure that their work went undisturbed. Duncan was somewhat surprised by the scene. He had expected the men to be some kind of looters. The sight of them working on the crucifix was perplexing to him. Not that Darius' church ever contained much in terms of expensive ornamentation, but there were other items in the church that would fetch more money than a large crucifix. Duncan's mind briefly slipped back to the time when a greedy city official came looking for gold at St. Joseph's. The official found only death for one of his men and would have found death himself had not Darius recovered and intervened. The man had killed Darius, and Darius implored Duncan to save his life. Fighting off the sadness, Duncan pushed these memories to the back of his mind. He wondered if he would ever stop missing Darius. Duncan thought about drawing his sword. He knew that he would be incapable of using it to harm these men. He thought momentarily that his blade might provide a measure of discouragement against whatever these men were truly up to. Then again, it might lead to a confrontation - a confrontation that might otherwise have been avoided. So he kept the katana within his coat. When the third man saw Duncan enter, he quickly rushed over to the Highlander. "Sorry, fellas, but I don't think there are any services today," Duncan said with a noticeable measure of bravado. "And somehow I don't think you're the cleaning crew." The man responded, "This is no concern of yours. Leave now." Duncan looked the man straight in the eye. "I don't see any Roman collars on you. I don't believe you're in charge here." The man on the ladder scurried down and joined his compatriots on the floor. He said, "We have what we need. We shall be leaving now." The others looked at him, "As you command, brother Henri." Duncan shook his head. "Not until I know exactly what's going on here?" Henri carried something else in his hands beside the hammer and chisel, but Duncan could not see what the small item was. "This is of no concern of yours. All that you need to know is that what we have taken, was ours to begin with. We deal in matters beyond your lifetime and beyond your comprehension." Duncan smiled, "Oh, just try me. I've had a rather long life and I have a rather large comprehension." Henri countered, "Do not force us to take action against you." Duncan smiled again. "All right, then. I'll leave as long as you do, as well. I'll get the door." Duncan sauntered over to the door. He opened it and stepped outside. With a overly dramatic wave of his hand, he ushered the men out of the church. Once they were all out, he rushed ahead of the trio and performed the same service on the iron gate that led to the street. As the last of them stepped out, Henri turned to Duncan, "You were wise not to oppose us." Duncan stepped through the gate opening and slammed the gate behind him. "I think I'd like to see what you repossessed." He made a grab for Henri, but Henri was unexpectedly quick and evaded Duncan's grasp. Henri stepped back while the other two came to his aid. "Franz, Giuseppe! Make sure that he does not follow us," Henri said as he took off running, hiding inside of his coat whatever it was that he appropriated from the church. He stopped suddenly and shouted "Franz, catch!" as he tossed the hammer. Franz caught the hammer with his left hand. He swung it menacingly. "We won't hurt you much." Duncan took up a defensive pose as Giuseppe circled behind him. Giuseppe feinted an attack a few times, as Franz did likewise. From the looks of them, it appeared that these two men had fought before. They would not give Duncan the luxury of taking them on one at a time, as most flunkies tended to do. After a few moments, Duncan decided to try the unexpected and attack the two foes simultaneously. He reached out at Giuseppe with his right hand as his left leg kicked out at Franz. However, Duncan had misjudged the distance. He managed to get a hold of Giuseppe's collar, but Franz came smashing down on Duncan's knee with a powerful blow. The distinct cracking of bone could be heard as the hammer struck. Duncan gritted his teeth in pain. As he stumbled to the ground, he continued to hold onto Giuseppe's collar. The collar eventually gave way, and Duncan came away with a bit of cloth along with a golden chain. Seeing that their opponent was in no condition to follow, the mysterious men scampered off through the streets of Paris as Duncan lay helpless on the ground. He brought the chain in front of his face and noticed the golden Templar cross that hung on the end of it. "I know I've seen this Templar cross before, but where? There was the incident with Cahill, but there was something else ..." Duncan was quite upset that he could not recall. Richie had once commented that elephants had nothing on MacLeod. Richie would probably enjoy this lapse in Duncan's memory. Duncan could picture him saying, "You're getting old, Mac." Slowly, Duncan could feel mobility returning to his knee. With a quick look at his watch, he figured that he could make it back to meet Joe in time. It would be a painful walk, though. The hammer had done a lot of damage. Joe was smiling as he sat at the bench that Duncan had previously occupied. He was twirling his cane until he saw Duncan approach. Once he sighted Duncan, he sat up and began walking towards him. "You're a little late, MacLeod," Joe said without a hint of anger. He figured Duncan would have a good reason for his tardiness. "Joe, we're going to have to postpone our tour of the city." Joe's smile was quickly replaced by a frown. "You're not trying to weasel out of the bet, Mac. My team won fair and square." Duncan's head bobbed around as he talked. "I'm not trying to renege on the bet. It's just ... well, something's has come up. I'm not exactly sure what, but it's something I have to look into." Joe had been watching Duncan for a long enough time to know that Duncan would not fabricate something like this. "Does it have something to do with another Immortal?" Joe inquired. Duncan's response was non-committal. "I'm not sure. Maybe, but I don't know how." Joe shook his head, "Well, is there anything I can do for you, within limits, of course?" Duncan was reluctant to adjust his stance . He did not want Joe to notice that his knee was still throbbing in pain. "Actually, Joe, what do the Watchers have on the Knights Templar?" "Does this have something to do with Alfred Cahill?" Joe asked in return. "It could. Any mention of Immortals with reference to them, besides Cahill?" Joe scratched his bearded face as he thought. His eyes squinted as he tried to recall something from his early days of learning about Immortals. "I remember reading an old Chronicle from the Middle Ages. There was an evil Immortal, Kadrak. He got his jollies by whacking Templars. If I remember correctly, and mind you, this was a long time ago that I read this Chronicle, we lost track of him in Cyprus around the beginning of the fourteenth century." Joe paused for a moment. "Other than that, I don't know offhand. I'll have to do some checking. I'll get back to you, OK?" Duncan frowned. "Sure. Thanks, Joe." Joe marched off with his characteristic limp. "No problem, MacLeod. But now you owe me _two_ days of guided tours through the city." Bob Gansler. EPRI HVAC&R Center rgansler@facstaff.wisc.edu http://www.engr.wisc.edu/~gansler/ "Reality - a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." - Me "We gotta teach people to love. We gotta teach children to sing. We gotta make this world a better place for everyone to live in." - The Hollies