Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 18:40:57 -0500 Reply-To: Mike Breen Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike Breen Subject: REVENGE AND REBIRTH III - Cast The First Stone, Part 2 BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER, 1995 Nancy sat in the dojo's small office waiting for Joe to finish up on the phone. He was speaking to someone in Japanese, and Nancy, not for the first time, wished she spoke it. When he hung up the phone he said, "Patrick wanted me to give you something. I'll be right back." He left the office and walked towards the workout room. When he returned, he had a long bundle wrapped in velvet. He handed it to her and bowed, slightly. Nancy unwrapped the velvet and saw what was quite possibly the most beautiful katana she had ever seen, aside from Patrick's, Joe's, and Connor MacLeod's. The hilt was ivory, yet was simply carved, unlike the dragon's heads of Patrick's and Connor's. She unsheathed it and immediately knew that this was a superior blade to the one she had been using. Joe said, "I know that you have taken two heads with the one you have, but it is merely a pale imitation. _That_ is four hundred years old. I forged it myself. It is now yours. "Joe, I..." "Live with it and make it part of you. It may be the only true friend you ever have." "I will." "Goodbye, Nancy. May you live to become a great warrior. May you live long." "I'll see you again, someday, Joe." Joe did not answer her. Nancy and Elaine pulled up to the Brighton/Alliston toll booth on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Nancy pulled the toll ticket out of the machine and looked at all the exit numbers. She sighed and hit the accelerator, but did not look back at the city that was rapidly receding on the edge of the horizon behind her. She only looked forward. The police came to the dojo that evening as Patrick was attempting to do the books, but not being able to concentrate. There were two of them, and Patrick wondered how come it took them so long to find him. The older one walked into the office and said, "Patrick O'Brien? I'm detective D'Gornio and this is detective Douglas." He flashed his badge. "What can I do for you, detective?" "We'd like to ask you some questions." "About..?" "You've heard of the headhunter murders?" "Uh-huh. Who hasn't?" "Do you know this man?" He showed Patrick a photo of VonHoffer. "No," Patrick said, not missing a beat. "Should I?" "His name was Kurdt VonHoffer and he was thrown out of his office window two nights ago." "Thrown? Or did he jump?" "Thrown. Of that we have no doubt. Do you know this man?" He showed Patrick a mug-shot of Stink. "Nope," Patrick said, honestly this time, getting up from the desk and heading into the main room. The two detectives followed him. "He was watching your house on several occasions rather intently. You mean to tell me that you didn't notice him?" "Detective," Patrick said, "my house was built in 1788 by an ancestor and namesake of mine, Colonel Patrick O'Brien, a veteran of the Revolutionary war. It's been in my family since that time. It's an historical site, and if I watched and noticed every person who looked at it, took pictures of it, and made sketches or paintings of it, I'd be pretty sick, don't you think." Unphased, D'Gornio said, "That kid I just showed you was killed two nights ago by the headhunter. The murders were committed by someone who knows how do use a sword." He walked over to the wall where several katanas hung. He touched the hilt of one and said, "I understand you know how to use these." "Are you accusing me of anything, detective?" "Detective, please do not touch those swords," came a voice behind Patrick, "unless you intend on shedding blood." D'Gornio turned to see a tall, lean, Japanese man, dressed in loose samurai garb. "And you are..?" D'Gornio said. "Yoshihiro Ammamoto, at your service. If Patrick-san said he did not kill those men, then he did not." "If you're going to arrest me," Patrick said, "then arrest me. Otherwise we have nothing to discuss. I won't answer any more of your questions." "Terrific," D'Gornio said. "Now we have a ninja to deal with." "Actually," Douglas said, "I think he was a samurai." "What the hell difference does it make?! This is getting more bizarre by the second." BOSTON, MASS, UNITED STATES - JANUARY, 1996 The Christmas season was quiet. VonHoffer was still keeping a low profile, which gave Patrick and Rebecca a chance to be alone and at peace. Michelle and her husband had returned to Seattle, Michelle promising to visit again. It was quite different from their parting a year ago. When Christmas came, neither Patrick nor Rebecca were in any mood to celebrate. They exchanged gifts and ate dinner, but the place at the table, which had been empty for nearly a month, seemed even emptier. Nancy had sent a Christmas card and a letter. The letter said: "Dear Patrick and Rebecca, "I'm OK. "I'm spending Christmas with Chris Balfour. We're having a grand old time together. Elaine is trying to keep her distance, being a Watcher and all, but on a few occasions we managed to get her to come out with us. I saw Connor during the ride out, and he said to wish you a merry Christmas. I'm not sure where exactly I'm going, and I don't think I'll really know 'till I get there. All I plan on really doing is heading west until something tells me to stop. If I hit the ocean before I hear that voice, then I'll keep going. Maybe I'll even end up in Japan or China! Maybe I'll even say goodbye to Nancy Peters for a few years and become someone else entirely, I'm not really sure yet. "I miss you guys alot, more than I thought I would. I'll stay in touch. "_Please_ don't loose your heads, "Nancy." The new year came, like every other. Winter had hit with a vengeance, unlike the previous year. The constant snowstorms reflected Patrick's mood. Rebecca, for a change, did nothing to prevent nor change it, for she was feeling much the same way. Another foot of snow had been dumped on the city, and Patrick was beginning to feel caged in. He sat at the couch in the living room sharpening his katana. Suddenly he felt another Immortal outside. Rebecca entered the living room from the basement and said, "Are we expecting someone?" "No," Patrick said. "I just talked to Joe and he's staying home today." He picked up his sword and went to the door. He opened it and saw a snow-covered Methos standing on the stoop. "Methos?" "Are you going to invite me in, O'Brien? Or are you going to make me a permanent fixture on your front stoop?" "Of course, come on in. Methos, Rebecca. Rebecca... Methos." "Charmed," Methos said, taking Rebecca's hand and kissing it. Then he released it, took off his coat and shook the snow out of his hair. Once he was dried off, he sat at the couch. Patrick took out three beers from the refrigerator and handed one to Rebecca, one to Methos, and kept one for himself. "What are you doing here, Methos?" Patrick said. "Ah, don't tell me, you're going to offer your token advice on VonHoffer, right?" "Actually, no." "No?" "No. I came to talk to both of you. I've been in Seacouver for the past few weeks visiting Duncan MacLeod. Two days ago, a young Immortal arrived..." SEACOUVER, UNITED STATES - JANUARY, 1996 Richie sat in the dojo office doing the books. Suddenly he felt the presence of another Immortal. MacLeod and Pierson were both upstairs, so he knew it wasn't either of them. Then he remembered the conversation Mac had with O'Brien a month ago and wondered if this were the young Immortal who had taken her first head. He remembered the time when _he_ had done the same. He knew now it was unjustified. The man had just been doing his job. But that didn't change the fact that MacLeod had sent him away, angry. It didn't matter to Richie that sending the young Immortal away after he had taken his first head was a kind of "standard operating procedure." It was the way MacLeod had sent him. But even if it _hadn't_ happened like it had, it still would have hurt. He knew what she was going through. He looked up at the dojo and saw the girl, a bag in one hand, and a confused look about her, enter the workout room. Richie entered the workout room himself and approached the girl. He said, "Can I help you?" "Are you MacLeod?" Richie smiled and said, "I _wish_ I was. He's upstairs. My name's Richie. And you are..?" "Nancy. Nancy Peters." "Hang on a sec, I'll call upstairs." Richie walked back to the office and dialed MacLeod's phone number. A few seconds later, he returned and said, "Take the elevator. He's expecting you." "This is different than what I expected," Nancy said. "What?" "The dojo. My Teacher and his Teacher recently opened one. Their's looks more Oriental." "Well... it wasn't Mac's to begin with." Nancy smiled, thanked Richie, and headed for the elevator. The elevator stopped at the second floor, and Nancy opened the gate. She was presented with one of the most beautiful apartments she'd ever seen. It wasn't colonial like the townhouse, but it was beautiful in a rustic sense. She stepped off of the elevator and was greeted by a tall man with long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. He smiled and said, "I'm Duncan MacLeod. You must be Nancy." "Yeah," she said. "Come in and sit down. Take a load off your feet." It was then that she saw the other Immortal sitting in the big easy chair. MacLeod said, "Oh. Nancy Peters, Adam Pierson. Adam, Nancy." "Charmed," Pierson said. He got out of the chair, kissed Nancy's hand, then released it and sat back down. "Coffee?" Duncan said. "Please," Nancy said. MacLeod came back with two coffees, cream, sugar, and a beer for Pierson. He sat on the couch beside Nancy and said, "I know how hard this is, for both you _and_ O'Brien. I've left Teachers and sent Students away, sometimes not under the best of circumstances, but it has to be done. O'Brien did right by sending you to me." "Actually, I don't want to impose. I just need a few weeks to regroup before I decide where to go next. I came here on my own, not because of anything Patrick told me." "Oh?" Nancy nodded and related their last conversation, about her finding her own path. "Actually a friend of mine suggested I come here." "And Patrick setting this up had nothing whatsoever to do with your arrival?" said Pierson. "Well..." Pierson smiled and said, "I thought so. It's OK, Nancy. Sometimes even the best of us need someone to look out for them. Even Patrick. Even MacLeod here. Why do you think that Ammamoto is in Boston?" "Yeah, you're... Hey," Nancy said. "How'd you know that? I never said anything about Joe." "Adam makes it his business to know these things," Duncan said. "Keeps the rest of us on his toes." "My point is, Nancy," Pierson continued, "it's not a crime to let Patrick help you or even watch out for you. You can't expect a parent to not worry about their child when she first leaves the nest. How old is Patrick?" "Just under eight and a half centuries." "And Ammamoto is still watching out for him. Ramirez watched out for him during his first four hundred years, and Ammamoto has taken that task over since Ramirez's death." Nancy briefly wondered how Pierson knew so much about Patrick, but figured that the two had met sometime in their long lives, even though she had no idea how old Pierson was. "Connor still, even though he's only eighty years older than me, feels protective of me." "I know. He went ballistic when we found out what Kalas had planned." "I returned to the Game almost four years ago after a long absence. Connor made sure I was ready. And Darius... he always watched over me. Sometimes I feel as if he still is." "Well, worry is one thing, but..." "But what?" Duncan said. "Last spring," Nancy said, "Patrick was forced to take his old Student's head." "Good ghods," Pierson said. "I didn't know _that_." "It's not something he exactly makes public. I don't even think Bernard entered it..." she stopped short, cursed her stupidity for assuming that Duncan and Pierson knew about the Watchers. But Pierson said, "We both know about the Watchers. I take it you mean Bernard Willis, the sax player. Bernard didn't enter it into the Watcher data base?" "Yeah. And Patrick's been beating himself up about it ever since. He's been overprotective of me, and nearly insisted I return after a few months." Both Duncan and Pierson were silent, waiting for Nancy to continue. She looked up and saw that they were waiting and said, "Patrick's arch-enemy, Kurdt VonHoffer is in town, and he's got this elaborate plot to take Patrick's head. _I_ was part of it, and that's why I'm here. If VonHoffer had never come, I'd never have taken that head." "VonHoffer's a vicious son of a bitch," MacLeod said. "I've thankfully never met him, but I know him by reputation." "He blames Patrick for practically all his misfortunes, and has been obsessed with killing him for centuries." "He's obviously using O'Brien's guilt over his old Student to make him worry about you," Pierson said. "Exactly," Nancy said. "And I don't _want_ him to. I _don't_ want him to make mistakes." "Nobody does," Pierson said. "I guess I'll go to Boston, then, and let him know." "You _would_?" Nancy said. "Yup." MacLeod let Nancy stay in his apartment. While she was bringing some of her things up, Duncan turned to Methos and said, "Why volunteer to go to Boston?" "It's better than hanging around here. Besides, I'll feel like a third wheel." "Nothing's gonna happen between Nancy and I. She's just a kid." "No she's not, MacLeod, and you know that. If she _was_ just a kid she'd be back home in Boston. And that's what I intend on telling O'Brien. In the mean time, what about her?" "What do you mean?" "I mean with your _own_ problems, you can't very well watch out for _two_ young Immortals. What about Amanda?" "Amanda has _her_ own problems to think about." Methos nodded and said, "And this may be just the thing to focus her. You trusted her with Michelle." "Yeah, but that was different." "Not really, MacLeod, and you know it. Ok, so Nancy's already taken a head and already has a great deal of teaching from one of the best, and maybe she's not a rebellious teenager who's going to run off with one of your enemies, but it's still the same thing." Duncan burst out laughing and said, "You're so full of shit." "Well, I try." When Nancy returned to the apartment, Duncan said, "Nancy, where were you planning on going after you left here?" "I don't really know yet. I'm gonna keep moving until something tells me to stop." "Well, I have a friend who's doing pretty much the same thing. You'll get along great with her. Her name's Amanda and..." "_The_ Amanda? The one who took Rebecca in about six hundred years ago." "_That_ Amanda," Duncan said. "Would you like to meet her?" "Absolutely!" Nancy said. BOSTON, MASS, UNITED STATES - JANUARY, 1996 "She's fine, Patrick. You don't have to worry. MacLeod and Amanda will take care of her." "Well, yeah, but Amanda's the one who's responsible for _her_," Patrick said, indicating Rebecca, "_and_ her smart mouth." Rebecca, all innocent, said, "Moi?" "Yes, you," Patrick said. "But I do know that Amanda will look out for her. Thanks, Methos." "It's not much, Kurdt, but you can move freely," McKinley said as they entered the abandoned construction headquarters in South Boston. "It was used during the construction of the Williams Tunnel, and It's scheduled for demolition in the Spring, but for now it'll do us fine. I had O'Riley wire the electricity back in, and the residents are used to people coming and going, so they'll just think that the Big Dig crew's still using it." "This'll have to do," VonHoffer said. "We really have no choice, do we? What about the files?" "As executor of your estate, I was able to retrieve your computer. O'Riley will bring them tomorrow. But that was about all I could get. You fairly well trashed the last place." "We all have our little weaknesses," VonHoffer said. The next day, VonHoffer got his computer set back up. He entered his password, and punched up the irlndr.doc file. "We have to regroup," he said to McKinley. "A lot of this has to be altered and modified. We must assume that Michelle Taylor got into the system and gave O'Brien the information, since O'Brien was confident that he had defeated my plans that night." Currently, the file read: "October 30th, O'Brien Vs Ramus. Boston Garden, 11:35. At 11:47 O'Brien took his head. Police were called in at 11:59. November 16th, MacLeod Vs Jamerson, Court Square, 7:40. At 7:42 MacLeod took Jamerson's head. Police were called in at 7:51." To that he added "November 30th, Peters Vs Stink. Kenmore Square Station, 1:30am. At 1:44am, Peters took Stink's head. Police were called in at 5:00am." He then deleted the "Nancy Peters" section from the "Future" section, and moved all the other encounters up in number. Then he turned to McKinley and said, "If we begin with the next step, O'Brien and O'Riley, they'll think that we're still following the plan, but only moved the dates up." "But of course, we're not." "No. Do you remember when we first planned this, how you suggested Ammamoto?" McKinley nodded. "What did you have in mind?" "I shoot him and you take his head. As simple as that." "We _will_ do it, but I will fight him. Only when I am nearing defeat will you kill him." "But Kurdt..." "UNDERSTAND?!" "Yes, Kurdt." VonHoffer then altered the "Future" section so that it read: 1) Patrick O'Brien: Encounter with Matthew O'Riley planned for January 17th. He will take O'Riley's head. Location: Underside of the World Trade Center pier. Again, though outside of Area A police precinct, D'Gornio and Douglas will be called in once headhunter MO is established. O'Brien will come under further suspicion. 2) Yoshihiro Ammamoto Encounter with Kurdt VonHoffer planned for February 3d. He will be shot by John McKinley, enabling VonHoffer to take his head. Case will be added to the headhunter file. As Ammamoto is O'Brien's business partner, that will be a further motive. Police will issue a warrant for O'Brien's arrest. 3) Patrick O'Brien: Final encounter with Kurdt VonHoffer planned for late February. Location, unknown, since O'Brien will have to leave the country. VonHoffer WILL take his head. <<>> (c) 1996 Mabnesswords The rest of the Irelander saga can be found at: http://www.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/~copelasa/ireland =========================================================================