Never Say Die (5/8)

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***

"You see the young-looking one?" Adam asked. "The kid
with the strawberry-blond curls?"

"Yes." Andrew managed a weak grin. So Adam was
going to play with him, stretch this out. //That's okay.
I've waited all these years to learn the truth. Let him
tell me any way he wants.//

"His name was Richie Ryan," Adam said fondly. "He
became Immortal at nineteen, and he always had a
wonderful ability to make himself look that age or
much older. Here you see him with a plump face, and
those curls. Nineteen, right? But when he wanted to, he
could lose some weight, cut the hair short, darken it.
And you'd swear he was thirty.

"When he really was in his teens, he raced motorcycles.
So you can guess about when he was born. Later, he
raced starships. Dead four hundred years, and he still
holds every speed record there is! Under several
different names, but they were all Richie."

Interested in spite of himself, Andrew asked, "Do you
know how he died?" He wondered whether Immortals
had avenged their friends.

He believed in friendship. But he felt a little queasy
when he tried to picture Adam--or the third man in the
vid--killing the one who'd taken Richiešs head.

"Yes. And I think it was what he would have wanted,"
Adam said soberly. "He went off to fight in a war--
colonists on Cydonia were rebelling against a
tyrannical government. It was a fight for freedom,
appealed to a lot of young and not so young idealists.
Richie was one of many who died--a laser gun sliced his
head off. But the good guys won."

"So he was killed by a mortal? His was one of the
Quickenings that were lost?"

"Yes," Adam acknowledged. "That was unfortunate. But
he'd often said he'd rather die for a cause than be beaten
in some meaningless swordfight."

Andrew nodded. "I think I'd feel that way, too. Did you
and your other friend fight in that war?"

Adamšs lip curled in a mirthless smile. "No. I've never
been known as an idealist. I was a gun runner,
smuggling arms to the rebels.

"Funny thing is, I probably did more than Richie to
influence the outcome. But I did it without risking my
neck, and made a tidy profit to boot.

"I *didn't* feel particularly good about myself."

Andrew nodded thoughtfully. "And...?"

"Duncan MacLeod? He'd sworn off war before Richie was
even born. But he was *there*, as a medic. Placed
himself in just as much danger as the combatants. He
wasn't close enough to receive Richie's Quickening--that
would have been too much of a coincidence. But he did
find and bury him."

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