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The
Sumerian Codebook Affair |
Summary - The guys track down and protect a linguist while he deciphers a new THRUSH code. But this "innocent" isn't, and he's hiding a secret he'll kill to protect.
Notes - This was written for the Channel_W Summer Writing Challenge.
For the Highlander Challenged (skip this if you understand HL): Immortals are a race of humans who cannot be permanently killed unless beheaded, though they can suffer pain and injury, and even "die", although the death is temporary. They posess remarkable powers of healing due to energies called a "Quickening". When an Immortal is beheaded his or her Quickening is passed to and absorbed by the nearest Immortal, usually the one who performed the beheading. Immortals are born (nobody knows where or how) and grow up as normal humans until their first "deaths", at which time their Quickening fully manifests and heals them. From that time on they no longer age, and are subject to "The Game", a ritual combat fought with swords and ending with the beheading of the loser. New Immortals either die at the hands of a more experienced opponent or find Immortals willing to teach them to fight, and the rules for The Game, the first of which is: "There can be only one."
Loke
Act IV: "I was too busy trying not to get killed to notice."
Solo and Kuryakin lost no time locating the taxi, and were shortly canvassing the neighborhood for traces of the missing professor. They quickly discovered his trail and just as quickly lost it, but ran into a bit of luck -- two men guarding a deserted building. They drew back before either man could notice them, and made plans.
A short while later, a filthy, tattered drunk staggered down the alley towards the two guards. He swayingly confronted the pair and slurred out an offer to share the contents of the paper bag covered bottle he waved in front of them. While their attention was focused on Kuryakin the drunk, Solo neatly sleep darted one of the pair, while the Russian suddenly sobered and overpowered his partner, taking him down but leaving him conscious to answer questions.
The THRUSH agent admitted he had helped capture Peterson and had left him alone with his boss in the building he and his partner were guarding. As the two UNCLE agents reached the door, having secured the THRUSH agents, they were surprised to see several flashes of light from within the building just before the windows blew out.
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Methos picked himself up and wiped the blood from his sword, remembering too late why he had promised himself he wouldn't take any more heads. Danvers' Quickening, relatively weak as it was, had dropped him to his hands and kness and left him weak as a kitten. He knew he needed to get out before those guards came to investigate. He staggered to the doorway --
-- and straight into the young man he'dd locked in his office earlier that day. Both men took an involuntary step backwards, but, unfortunately for the Immortal, Solo recovered first.
"Care to tell me what's going on here?"
"Would you be satisfied with knowing THRUSH won't be able to create new versions of their cuneiform code?" As Methos spoke, Kuryakin joined his partner in the room and noticed the
headless corpse. His only reaction was to pull out his communicator and request a cleanup squad.
"While that's good to know, it might have been better if you hadn't killed him -- and in such an odd fashion," Solo replied. "Why the swords?"
"I'd say 'ask him', but I don't want to sound facetious," the Immortal said.
Kuryakin, meanwhile, had been examining the walls and windows. "May I ask what caused these scorch marks and blew out the windows? The epicenter appears to have been here," he indicated a spot on the floor near the body, "but there's nothing at this point to have created such an effect."
Methos cursed inwardly. How the bloody hell was he going to explain the effects of a Quickening? "I've no idea," he said, "I was too busy trying not to get killed to notice."
The Russian frowned but let it pass, and when the clean-up squad arrived, he and Solo escorted Methos/Peterson back to UNCLE HQ.
He was taken to Section IV and shown the codebooks. Working with UNCLE personnel, he was able to render a translation in less than a week. After the professor was released from custody, he disappeared within hours, without returning to either his office or apartment.
EPILOGUE
Illya Kuryakin walked into the office, a file in his hands and a frown on his face.
Solo noticed the look on his partner's face. "Experiment go wrong?" he asked.
"No," the other man answered. "This is a report on the building where we found Peterson, along with an autopsy of the body we found there. It contains several anomalous findings."
"Such as?"
"The scorch marks on the walls were caused by a massive electrical discharge, but there was nothing anywhere in the building which would have produced such an effect. The electrical power in the building had been shut off the year before. There's also no explanation for the windows blowing out as they did."
"I suppose there are also anomalies in the autopsy?"
"He didn't bleed out, despite the severity of his injury -- the wounds on his neck appear to have been cauterized. There were also several other wounds which were partially healed, though there were corresponding tears on the clothing."
"Do you want to try asking Peterson about it?"
"He never returned to either his apartment or the college, and in fact appears to have dropped off the face of the Earth. Did you notice his clothes when we brought him in?"
"Not particularly."
"I did. They bore the same sort of tears the clothing of the corpse did, though Peterson had no wounds."
Whatever comment Solo would have made to that was forever silenced by the ringing of the phone. He spoke for a few moments before hanging up and turning to his partner.
"It looks like it's going to have to remain a mystery, at least for now. Waverly wants to see us."
The End
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