Catriona looked at Methos, concern on her face. He had now, it seemed, recovered completely from Cassandra's induced nightmare, but he appeared distant - as though he was placing barriers around himself so that whatever he said or did was one remove from him. He was exhausted, every breath he took was laboured and his skin was very grey. At the least he needed a good night's sleep and some more food. She was about to suggest both of these things when he heaved a sigh, pulled his hand from hers and spoke.
"Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I am very curious as to the reason why Farley and Hanrahan paid us a visit. I'm sure they didn't come all the way here just to decide they were shy and turn tail and run."
"Me too," said Joe, "any suggestions?"
"A few, mostly - if Catriona's right about the dreams - they have to do with Cassandra. It's my guess that they're working with her. She can be very persuasive after all..and she probably promised them a great deal for their co-operation. I'd stake my next meal on it in fact."
"You're not staking your next meal on anything," Catriona admonished. "You've had so few of them of late you need all you can get and I aim to make sure you do. However, let's say you're right - what motive could she have had for sending them?"
Duncan stirred and looked up. "She'd want to gloat." He said bitterly. "It wouldn't be enough for her to drive Methos mad, to mess with his head. She'd want to see what effect it had on the rest of us. She's probably one of the world's greatest control freaks."
Methos snorted. "I thought that was my role? Arch manipulator and bastard." He said, the bitter tone noticeable to all of them.
"Well maybe I'm rethinking that assessment old man." Duncan said, grinning slightly, attempting to lighten the mood. "All I know is she's never been one to hold back when it comes to gathering intelligence or using people for her own ends..I have been one of those people after all.................I just took longer to see it than you did." He added softly.
Joe stood up. "So what're we waiting for? My guess is that they came to plant listening devices. Using the two immortals was either incredibly clumsy or necessary to check they had the right location. Any way if they planted them they'll still be there. What say we go and find them?"
As one they moved outside to search the grounds around Joe's house. The first device they found in the crevice of a tree on the front lawn. The second took longer to locate but was finally found under the back porch steps. Taking them into the house, they were laid out on the kitchen table. Joe was about to smash them with his cane when Methos held up his hand to stop him.
"Maybe we can use these to find her" He mouthed silently.
"How?" Duncan wanted to know.
"By reversing the polarity of some of these electrodes I think I could manage to turn one or both of them into homing devices."
Without waiting for a further response Methos reached for the tool kit Joe kept by the back door and settled himself down to work.
Joe watched Methos. If he'd ever had any doubts that the man was tough as well as smart and resourceful he'd have discarded them now. The oldest immortal was still showing signs of extreme exhaustion despite his apparent recovery, yet here he was trying to formulate a plan to stop Cassandra in her tracks. That tenacity was what had kept him going for the last five thousand years or more. It was reassuring to see it reasserting itself now - especially given the events of the day. He shuddered at the thought of what Methos would do to Cassandra when he found her. Yet he couldn't help feeling that she'd deserve everything she got if it came to a fight.
Touching Catriona on the arm, Joe motioned for her to join him in fixing something for them to eat. Nodding she joined him at the work top. Duncan sat watching Methos as his long surgeon's fingers delicately moved over the circuitry and dismantled the transmitters before he painstakingly began to rebuild them according to his own specifications.
As he finished building his 'tracker' Methos stretched and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Joe asked, worriedly.
"To find Cassandra..what did you think I was going to do Joe..lay back and let her stomp all over me and anyone else who gets in her way? She may have right on her side in some things but her methods are not to be tolerated. I think it's time she and I had a talk and sorted a few things out."
Joe looked at Methos as though he had grown another head. "Are you crazy, you don't really think that she'll just be content to talk it over after all this time of planning her revenge..especially after what she's put you and us through of late?"
"Whether she sees fit to talk or to challenge me I think this is the time to end it once and for all." As he spoke he collected his coat and sword and headed toward the door.
Catriona spoke. "Methos..just wait a second please?"
He halted a few feet from the door and looked at her, eyebrows raised. "What? Are you going to try and talk me out of it as well?"
"I don't think I could, could I? In any case I don't think I have the right to..though I think you'll find Cassandra is long gone when you find her hideout. No I am coming with you..no arguments..I'll follow on foot if I have to ..but I have unfinished business with Cassandra of my own and I want to be there if you do catch up with her."
Duncan and Joe both moved forward. "We're coming to old man....you aren't going out there alone." Duncan said
Methos stared at them all open mouthed, his irritation barely contained. "I don't suppose you'd all take a hike if I told you to butt out of my business?" He said. "No I thought not," he continued as he was met by blank faces, "well then I suppose we'd better go..can we take your car Joe..it's more reliable than mine?"
Joe grabbed his keys and turned off the stove. Dinner would have to wait. "Well let's go then." He said. "I sure hope you know what you are doing."
"So are you going to tell us how this thing works?" Joe said as he drove, following Methos' directions.
"It's all down to the way the light indicator oscillates." Methos said. "The nearer we are to Cassandra's hideout the more the light will flicker until we get a fix and the light remains static. All we have to do is take some readings using the triangulation technique, then I should be able to pinpoint exactly where She's holed up."
"Sounds like a mathematical problem to me." Grunted Duncan. "I seem to remember something about Pythagoras' theorem?"
Methos smiled wryly. "Pythagoras! I never figured out how come he took all the credit for that one..though I suppose a slave can't take credit for having ideas."
"What do you mean?" Duncan asked.
"I mean MacLeod that I taught him the damned technique and all about triangles and their special properties.. we were using the methods in Mesopotamia long before Pythagoras was even born. Still it kept him happy to have people recognise his genius and my life was a little easier when he was happy."
Duncan digested this piece of information. "Are you telling me that....."
"I was Pythagoras' slave? Yes Mac I am. Not the first or the last time I was one..and not something I care to think on much most of the time. Though my time with Pythagoras was better than most of the periods of slavery I lived through"
Seeing Methos' face harden, Duncan dropped the subject. There was so much he didn't know about this man. So much of his life that was a mystery, so much that was intriguing, frightening, horrific and wonderful. The problem was how to reconcile them all so that they gave you the same being. And he had never been able to manage it..but then he'd only known him for two years. Two years out of five thousand. It suddenly struck him how short a time span that was to the enigmatic man before him. Even after four hundred and four years the concept of millennia of life was difficult to grasp. The magnitude of it left him breathless. He watched as the frail looking but very tough man worked out his calculations. Not for the first time he shivered at the thought of what might happen if he found himself on the wrong side of Methos, or more particularly the wrong side of Methos' sword. He found himself hoping that Catriona was right and that when they found Cassandra's hiding place Cassandra herself would be gone.
It took Methos around thirty minutes to be satisfied that he had correctly identified the centre of Cassandra's operations. It took Joe a further ten minutes to drive them to the house Methos indicated. The four of them walked toward the building. A sign on the front lawn announced that this property was available to lease. There were no curtains at the window, no plants in the borders, in short no signs of occupation at all. Joe and Catriona looked questioningly at Methos and Duncan.
"Any signs of our 'friends in the vicinity?" Joe asked
"No." Growled Methos. "Dammit!" He stuffed his hands into his pocket and stood looking at the house, a look of stark despair on his face.
Catriona walked around the house to the back and approached the door. It opened easily to her touch and she went inside. Wandering through the kitchen and into the living area she took in the signs of recent habitation. There were a few sparse pieces of utilitarian furniture, two tables, some hard backed chairs, but no home comforts. Empty pizza boxes and coffee cups were strewn around the floor. On one table was the remains of a radio receiver and a note pad with message on it. Ignoring the urge to read the message she walked to the front door and opened it.
"Come on in." She called, then she walked back into the living room and righted an upturned chair before sitting and waiting for the others to enter.
"I think this message is for you." She said handing the pad to Methos.
He took it from her and stared at the page before he let it fall from his hand. Clutching both arms across his chest he dropped his head and let out a low animal moan of pain and desperation. Duncan moved to grasp his shoulders. He felt the tremors that shook through Methos' thin frame and noted the expression of pain on his face. His whole body language reminded Duncan fiercely of the aftermath of the quickenings they had shared in Bordeaux - except that on this occasion the sobs that wracked Methos were totally silent.
Joe bent to pick up the fallen pad. After reading the note he passed it to Duncan and sat heavily in the nearest chair. Reading the note, written in what Duncan instantly recognised as Cassandra's hand, Duncan's face grew dark with anger.
'Too late beloved.' He read. 'If it's vengeance you seek you are too late. If, however, it is my judgment you require then rest assured you were judged and sentenced by me a long time ago. Unfortunately for both of us, the execution of that judgment has been delayed. Be assured though, my beloved, that this is a temporary situation. Until we meet again Cara mio. Cassandra.'
Looking again at Methos he thought he understood. Now, as before in Bordeaux, Methos was not seeking revenge against Cassandra. he had accepted her judgment of him as just and right. What had angered him earlier had been the entanglement of his friends in Cassandra's web of intrigue. He was willing to offer himself up to her notion of justice. A notion Duncan could not bear to contemplate and which he refused to consider as being justice at all. He realised he was coming to feel that Methos had more than paid for his crimes against Cassandra. Since Cassandra had engineered the recent torments suffered by Methos, he also considered that she could be said to have had her revenge on him. To try and manipulate the situation so that Methos would actively seek someone to take his head was, Duncan considered, beyond the pale. No matter what treatment Cassandra had received at Methos' hands she had never been in danger of losing her head to him. In fact Methos had gone out of his way to protect her from Kronos in Bordeaux.
Duncan felt that Cassandra's desire for personal revenge against Methos was out of all proportion to the scale of her 'problem'. It was this, he now understood, that had led him to prevent her from taking his head in Bordeaux and it was even more the reason why he would do everything in his power to prevent her from taking it now.