========================================================================= Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 16:07:04 -0400 Reply-To: LC Krakowka Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: LC Krakowka Subject: Nothing Gold Can Stay 4/6 Nothing Gold Can Stay LC Krakowka hck1@cornell.edu copywrite-1996. [part 4] The blizzard was precisely what Linna Wolfram needed. The pounding snow pretty much guaranteed that Mitch would not darken her door and that time would prove to be precious. They ordered room service and began to pour through the Methos Chronicles, skipping the ones they couldn't read due to language barriers. After hours of pouring over cryptic text, she was about to give up. Then she remembered the canvass bag the boy claiming to be Adam Pierson had given her and the look on Sarah MacGreggor's face at the exchange. Those leather bound notebooks would be the key to Methos. There were sixteen of them; she picked one at random and sipped her coffee while thumbing through it. "What are those?" Paul asked. "I think they are journals of some sort." "Methos' journals?" Linna snorted a laugh. "I doubt it. What kind of five thousand year old man gives his journals to the Watchers? No...these are Adam Pierson's journals. And we weren't supposed to get them." "What do you mean? He gave them to you himself." She shook her head. "I don't know who that was, but it wasn't Adam Pierson. For one thing, he didn't have the tattoo." Paul sat down next to her and rested his chin on her shoulder, glancing at the handwriting in the book. It was bold and crisp and slanted slightly upwards on the page. "What do you think is going on?" "I don't know," Linna pointed to the word Sarie buried in one of the paragraphs. "But Sarah MacGreggor knows both Adam Pierson and Methos." "Well, let's go *talk* to her then," he smiled. Linna rolled her eyes. "Paul, she would cut you to ribbons. She's over four times your age and knows more about how to fight with a sword than you ever will. She's good. She's fast. And she's lethal." "I'm no slouch with a sword myself, you know," he responded, slightly hurt by his wife's tone. "No, of course you're not. But you don't need to fight Sarah MacGreggor to get to Methos, so don't try to. There is no sense putting your head on the line before you have to." "But her quickening would help me get his." Linna shook her head. If things worked out how she planned, he wouldn't need to pick up a sword at all. "Just trust me, okay? And here," she tossed him a book, "see if you can figure out what the connection between Methos and MacGreggor is." *** The next evening, Linna Wolfram came face to face with the real Adam Pierson; in the grocery store, of all places. She rounded the corner of the magazine aisle and crashed headlong into him, sending the produce he had stacked precariously in his arms flying in all directions. He was a gentleman and stooped to pick up her carton of cigarettes and box of Zingers before tending to the lettuce on his sleeve. They bonked heads on the way down. He muttered an apology and looked at her for the first time. Linna was transported back in time to a cafe in Paris in the eraly 80's. This very same man was sitting across the table from her, sipping a glass of wine at ten am. She was picking at an almond croissant and wondering how many more hints she would have to drop before he got the fact that she wanted him in her bed. Alan Rosen made her weak in the knees. And so did Adam Pierson. "Alan..." She stammered. "You must be mistaken," he shoved the box of pastries back into her hands. "Alan, it's me, Linna." Adam shook his head, feigning confusion. "Don't you remember? Paris? We walked along the Seine and you taught me how to swear in French. I was watching Fitzcairn, and you were still in training. God, you look so good, like you haven't aged a day." Suddenly, it began to make sense that Sarah MacGreggor had been found in a Watcher's apartment. Linna dropped the Zingers again. She grabbed his arm and yanked up his sleeve to reveal the tattoo. "God! *You're* Adam Pierson! And you're an immortal." He grabbed her by the elbow and yanked her to her feet, dragging her out the door and around the corner of the building. "You're hurting me!" She exclaimed, pulling out of his grip. "Sorry." Adam paced away a few steps and tried to bring his racing thoughts under control. "Alan..." she began. Then the pieces fell into place. "Methos! Brilliant! You watch yourself!" Adam spun around and took her by the throat, gripping hard and backing her against the wall of the building. "Nothing Linna, not one word, do you understand? If Paul Wolfram comes looking for me, I'll take his head. And then I'll come for yours." She nodded and gasped for breath, clutching at his arm. "And don't get any brilliant ideas about Sarie, either. If she winds up dead, you'll wish you were as well." Linna nodded again and nearly collapsed as he released her. "One more thing," Adam caught her by the arm. "I want the Chronicles back. Tonight." "Okay," she croaked. There were already finger shaped bruises forming on her throat. Adam looked down at the small woman. He should really just kill her. That was the only way to guarantee that she would hold to her word. But a crowd was forming and he was tired of killing to survive. The only way out of this now was to find Sarah and get the hell out of Seacouver. *** Sarah wasn't at home. She wasn't at the University, the dojo, or at Joe's. She most certainly wasn't in Adam's apartment, much to his dismay. In fact, Sarah MacGreggor and Connor MacLeod were together, in a small bar near the docks. He was finishing his third beer and she was swirling what was left of her first around in the glass. "So, let me get this straight," Connor said. "Methos is real, and he's your skinny Englishman." Sarah nodded. "And Richie gave that Watcher not only the Methos Chronicles, but his journals as well?" She nodded again. "Now what?" "Now, her husband, an immortal, will likely come for Petey's head. And if he doesn't take it, word will spread about Methos and soon everyone will be here in Seacouver, brandishing swords at my door." Connor drained his glass and laughed loudly. "I fail to see the humor in this situation, Connor." "You! You always manage to get yourself involved with men who have bounties on their head." She frowned. "I was never *involved* with you, and if you don't quit tormenting poor Petey about it, I may just have to take your head." "You don't call saving my neck from the Kurgan involved?" Sarah shrugged. "It was just a coincidence of time and place. And he insulted me." "Yes, well, I still owe you for it." Sarah smiled, "I know." "And it was worth it, just to see the look on his ugly face when you stepped into things wielding that long-sword of yours. I don't think he'd ever seen a female immortal before." "And you won in the end anyway. It just took you three hundred years to work up the nerve to fight him again." "I was biding my time," he said. She smiled again, then reached into her satchel and pulled out the ringing cell phone. "Hello? Okay Petey, calm down....okay. I'll be there....I'm with Connor, why?...Yes, I'll tell him to keep his hands to himself," she smiled. "Okay...I said I'll be there....half an hour....right." She hung up the phone. "I have to go. Linna Wolfram knows everything." Connor frowned as she stood and pulled on her coat. "Let me go with you. If she knows everything, they might try to use you as bait." Sarah laughed. "Bait?! Isn't that an honor reserved for mortals?" "Just humor me." Sarah rolled her eyes, but nodded. They were mugged on the way to the car. Three men, hired by Linna Wolfram to trail Sarah, appeared out of nowhere and drew a gun on them. "We don't have any cash," Connor said, stepping in front of Sarah protectively. "We're not after cash," the one with the gun snarled. "We want the girl." "I don't think the *lady* would be interested in going with you," Connor smiled. "Would you, Sarah?" "Not especially." The gunman snickered. "I don't think you have much of a choice." Connor let a kick fly that sent the gun spinning into the alley and followed through with a punch that broke the gunman's jaw. "There is always a choice," he said. Sarah made short work of the one who tried to grab her elbow and both immortals turned to the third, who simply ran away. Connor snickered and dusted his hands, but Sarah swore. "Those three have been following us for hours," he said. "Now do you see why I wanted to come along?" "Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to be used as bait, regardless of my physical location?" She tossed Connor her keys and climbed into the passenger seat, pulling out her cell phone again. "Where to?" "Joe's." Sarah dialed Adam's home number, but there was no answer. She tried his cell phone as well, also to no avail. That was most likely due to the fact that it was sitting on the empty driver's seat of his car. Duncan and Richie were sitting at the bar when they arrived. "Adam has been looking all over for you," Richie said. "Is he here?" Sarah scanned the crowded room. "No, he was, but he got a phone call about twenty minutes ago and left," Joe said. "What kind of phone call?" Connor asked as Sarah paced away clutching her head. "Dunno." "He seemed really agitated about it though," Richie offered. "Joe, who is Paul Wolfram's Watcher?" Sarah paced back to the bar. "Why?" "He knows about Adam," she said. "And that phone call could cost Petey his head." "Linna!" Joe growled. "I can't believe she'd do this to me!" "Is Linna Paul's Watcher?" Sarah asked. Joe shook his head. "Let me make a phone call, I'll be right back." He limped back a few minutes later and handed her a slip of paper with an address on it. "This is where Wolfram is, Linna is with him, but there's no sign of Adam yet." "Thanks Joe," Sarah threw her arms around him quickly and spun on her heel. All four men followed her to the door. "My car isn't that big," she flashed a smile. "Mac, why don't you and Richie go back to the dojo? I'll get Petey there...he'll need a fast escape." Richie started to protest, but Duncan clapped him on the shoulder. "The honor isn't always in the fight, Richie." "I'm with you, Sarah," Connor said, reaching for the doorknob. "I'm coming too." "This isn't your fight," Connor answered. "Maybe not," Joe said. "But Linna Wolfram has some books that I'd like to borrow." [end part 4] -- LC Krakowka/ hck1@cornell.edu |CIT Lab WebMistress/LTC Team ***MFW Cavalry--We're tougher than we look.*** The host is riding from Knocknarea /And over the grave of Clooth-na-Bare; Caoilte tossing his burning hair, /And Niamh calling Away, come away: Empty your heart of its mortal dream. -Yeats