From: martin@abacus.mc.duke.edu (Michele Martin) Message-Id: <9505041420.AA02472@abacus.mc.duke.edu> Subject: XOVER: The Witness part 20/26 Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 10:20:22 -0400 (EDT) scene 28 On the Streets of Toronto 2:45 am "Take the next left," Duncan said to Sam as Scully passed along directions to him via Mulder's phone. Sam nodded and carefully turned on to the next street. He hoped their destination wasn't too far away. He wasn't sure how long it would be before Captain Cohen realized they'd left the Coroner's Office and tried to track them down via the phone in Nick's car. As if on cue, that phone began to ring. Sam sighed, then picked it up. "Schanke here?" "Detective, this is Sargeant James at the desk. We just got a call for a Duncan MacLeod--some guy who claims to be his lawyer. Do you know where MacLeod went?" "Well, as a matter of fact, he's right here." He passed the phone back to Duncan. Duncan handed Mulder's phone to Connor in the rear seat. "Yes, this is Duncan MacLeod." "Okay, I'll transfer the call to you. Make it brief, though." Duncan waited, then heard a click. "Hello?" "Mac? Is that you?" "Yeah, Joe. What do you have for me?" "Not much. The only Watchers in the area that I know of all have alibis. Any luck at your end?" "Actually, I do have a description...but I think the guy's pretty much out of the picture." "What happened?" "You really don't want to know. Look, maybe you can do something else for me. Do you know of an Immortal called Hanson?" Connor shot Duncan a strange glance, wondering who he was talking to about Immortals. Duncan's return glance clearly said 'I'll explain later.' Connor shrugged, then relayed the next directions to Sam. "Real nasty guy as I recall," Joe was saying. "Don't know where he is at the moment..." "I do. He's here." "What?! Are you guys having a convention or something?" "If we are, no one bothered to tell me about it. This Hanson guy just kidnapped the same young man who that Watcher attacked...and before you ask, it's really a long story and I'll tell you about it..some of it at least...when I get back in town." "I can't wait. Do you want me to see what I can come up with on Hanson?" "Hmm. As a matter of fact, that would be great, Joe," Duncan replied, thinking that an exchange of information with Mulder would insure that the FBI agent didn't breathe a word to anyone about the Immortals. Or the Watchers. Not that he didn't trust Mulder, exactly...but it never hurt to have extra insurance. "Okay. Do you need it tonight?" from the tone in Joe's voice, Duncan could tell he hoped the answer would be 'no'. "No, that's alright. I'll call you about it tomorrow. Thanks again, Joe." "Just remember, you owe me dinner and a story when you get back in town." Duncan agreed, then hung up. "What was that about?" asked Sam. "Connections. After 400 years, one has alot of them. I'm just trying to get some useful information using mine," Duncan replied, trying to remain cryptic. He didn't really want anyone else to know about the Watchers. It was bad enough that he might have to explain it to Connor. Sam seemed about to ask him more about it, when he suddenly focused attention on the empty seat directly behind him. "What have you got for me, Al?" he asked. "Well, I've been doing that reconnaissance that you asked, and I've gotta tell you, Sam, these guys are armed to the teeth. I count about 15 of them in the house. There may be more outside, but I couldn't tell. They've also got moniters linked to cameras. Probably about 8 cameras outside and 6 or so inside. Kind of alot for the three guys they've got to monitor." "That's what I'm counting on. What else?" "Okay, with the guys in the monitor room are two guards watching the doors in and out. There's two guys outside the door where Scott is, plus six more scattered throughout the house doing various things. Their position isn't constant. Looks like they were only able to bring in a limited number of people, but they're sure making the best of it." "What about the other two? That only counts for 13" "Oh yeah. Well, there's this one short guy who's really hyper. I think he may be this George Fox guy. And the one who seems to be in charge. You can spot him by the cloud of cigarette smoke around him." "Okay, good. Thanks, Al. That helps alot. Do you think you could help me make a schematic of the place? Between you and Nick's aerial surveillance, we should be able to have a good enough picture of the place in order to plan our assault." "I'll do my best. I better go tell Paul what's going on." Sam nodded. "Oh, you better home in on Nick and see how close he's getting. Make sure you tell Paul when they're getting close so they know when to stop." "Which way now?" asked Mulder as they came to an intersection. "Keep going straight. I think he's slowing down, so we must be close," Paul replied. In the back seat, Scully relayed the next set of directions to Connor MacLeod, who'd taken over for Duncan a few minutes previously. Jenny sat silently beside her, praying yet again for her son's safety. And sending her thanks that they'd found help in rescuing him. Mulder squirmed a bit in his seat. He couldn't seem to get comfortable. Something in his coat seemed to be jabbing at him, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was. Unless it was some unusual form of pocket lint. Beside him, Paul turned suddenly to the window. Al had appeared outside the door, seemingly moving along with the car. Paul raised one eyebrow curiously. "Hello, Al?" "Al's here?" Mulder asked rather unnecessarily from the driver's seat, looking where Paul had directed his gaze. He, of course, saw nothing but Paul's answering nod. As Paul listened, Al relayed some of the same information he'd told Sam, also adding that Scott was still unharmed and that, in fact, he'd been kind of ignored for the moment. Even with his singing of what Al thought was a rather repetitive melody. "Ask him how close we are," Mulder said. Paul did. "I'm not sure since I couldn't get too far beyond the confines of the building. I'll check on Nick's progress," Al replied. Paul relayed the information to Mulder as Al disappeared. High above the cars, Nick soared through the night. After setting off in a likely direction, he'd been rewarded by picking up sound of Scott's singing. He homed in on it at a moderate pace, not wanting to outdistance the cars by too much. Now he spotted a likely looking building: an old house on an isolated plot of land near the edge of the city. A fair distance away from the nearest neighbors and surrounded by wooded regions--a good place to hide covert activities. Nick listened closely. Yes, Scott's voice was coming from a small window on the second floor. Nick hovered down beside it, and listened. Then he tapped lightly on the glass. Inside, Scott stopped his singing, hoping the sudden cessation of noise wouldn't alert the guards. Then again, nothing had happened when he'd _started_ singing...maybe they'd just think he dosed off or something. He whispered, "Detective Knight, if that's you, tap three times on the glass." There were three taps on the window above him. Scott silently cheered. *Alright! The cavalry is _here_!* Just then, Al appeared in front of him. "Okay, kid. Looks like they found you. I better make sure everyone stays back until we're ready. You better stay near the door, if you can. Tell Knight to rendezvous with the others so we can work on the plan." Scott nodded. "Detective Knight," he whispered to the window. "Al's here. He says you'd better meet with the others so you guys can plan. I'll be waiting. And thanks again for your help." There was an answering tap on the glass. Outside, Nick rose higher into the air before turning back to meet with the others. "Stop the car. Nick's stopped moving. I think we're pretty close," Paul said. At that instant, Al appeared on the road ahead, waving his arms to warn them to stop. Fortunately, Mulder had slowed down sufficiently so as not to run through Al. Not that it would've hurt anyone, but it would have been rather rude. "There's a driveway just on the other side of those trees--I can just make out the white stones bordering it from here," said Mulder. "That's the place," Al told Paul, who in turn informed the rest. Mulder turned off the car as they made ready to exit. As he undid his seatbelt, he felt something poke him in the side again. "Ouch!" "Mulder, what's wrong?" "I don't know, Scully. It's like there's something in this coat that keeps sticking me. Never mind, let's see if we can find Nick..." Nick landed just behind him, making Scully jump in startlement. She realized that she'd been too busy on the phone to come up with a really good response to Mulder's earlier question about her explanation for Nick's..ability. "Sam and the MacLeods are a few blocks back. I told them to stop the car. Just to make sure we don't alert the Immortal inside, I suggest we meet them at my car," Nick said. Everyone agreed. In a few minutes, the group was gathered around Nick's distinctive automobile. Sam pulled out a large piece of paper and a pen and, with help from Nick and Al, drew a diagram of the house. Then he began to outline his idea for the rescue. The others made some suggestions and corrections, which were incorporated into the over all idea. Sam then sent Al back to the house for one final reconnaisance to make sure they hadn't missed anything. As they waited for the hologram's return, Connor turned to Duncan. "Are you sure you want to go through with your part of the plan. It sounds a bit risky. What if I can't distract Hanson long enough and he finds you out? And what if you can't get ahold of a weapon in time?" "What do you mean...I already have a weapon. It's right..." he began to fumble in his coat. "Wait! Where is it?" "Where's what?" asked Mulder, beginning to get a suspicion about what had happened. He reached into his own coat as Duncan answered. "My katana! I had it right here in my coat." "You mean this?" Mulder replied, pulling the sword out of the folds of the coat...Duncan's coat...that he'd erroneously picked up as they were leaving the Coroner's building. Mulder had taken his off prior to the incident with Murdoc, and Duncan had removed his afterwords, when they were cleaning up. Obviously the two had gotten mixed up. There were entirely too many trench coats floating around that evening. A quick glance around the group determined that Jenny and Paul were the only two _not_ wearing them. Another little oddity in an evening full of them. "Ah, yes. That would be it," Duncan replied. He reached into the pockets of Mulder's coat that he was wearing, and pulled out four stopwatches. "I wondered what these were doing there." The two exchanged coats as the group continued waiting nervously for Al's return. He wasn't long. "Sam, you'll never believe what they're doing now!" Al said excitedly. "What is it, Al? Is Scott okay? They're not moving him or anything are they?" Sam asked nervously. "No, no. Nothing like that. You're gonna love it--someone in there just ordered a pizza!" "What? At 3:30 in the morning?" "What's going on?" asked Mulder. Sam shook his head and laughed. "They've ordered pizza. I thought you said these guys were professionals?" "Don't professionals get hungry, too?" asked Paul. "Yeah, I guess so. But it seems a little strange," replied Sam. "They probably don't expect that a pizza delivery boy is going to give them any trouble," Nick pointed out. "Well, I don't know about you, but I think this is just too good of an opportunity to pass up. I think we can work it into our plan, and it makes it a whole lot easier to get in the front door. The only question is, who gets to be the pizza delivery boy?" said Mulder. Everyone turned and looked at him. "Somehow, I just _knew_ that would be the answer." "Can you seriously see anyone else here pulling it off?" asked Scully. Mulder looked around at their group. He had to admit, he definitely was the best choice of the group. "Okay, but only if you come with me. After all, at this hour, I doubt the delivery guys work alone." "Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Scully replied with a grin. Michele Martin martin@abacus.mc.duke.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evil Guest Immortal: "I have you now, MacLeod." Duncan MacLeod: "I admit it. You're better than I am." EGI: "Then why are you smiling?" MacLeod: "Because I know something you don't know..." "..._I_ am the star of this show." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------