“We should hide,” Grace whispered.
They all moved to one of the far corners and crouched down behind a stack of crates. Monroe switched off the lantern, and then they waited.
A few minutes later, the latches rattled, and then the wide doors squealed open, flooding the container with almost blinding light from the outside. Owen squinted, and it took longer than usual for his eyes to calm down.
“Get these ground-penetrating radar units off first,” someone said. “Isaiah wants us up and running by dawn.”
“Yes, sir.”
Owen heard the sound of crates being dragged, multiple footsteps, the occasional grunt. The commotion lasted for several minutes, but no one came far enough into the container to see the three of them hiding there, and before long they heard nothing at all, except for the voices and sounds of vehicles outside the container.
Owen risked a glance over the nearest crate. The bright light came from floodlights attached to mobile generators, like those he’d seen construction crews using at night. He glimpsed the edge of a large tent, and Templar agents periodically marching by.
“Looks like we’re right in the middle of their camp,” Owen said. “Do we just make a break for it?”
“Maybe we should hide in here until things calm down out there,” Grace said.
“What if they don’t calm down?” Owen asked. “What if they come back to unload the rest of this?”
“We should try to get out of here,” Monroe said. “But cautiously. Not charging out of here like Billy the Kid and the Regulators.”
“Huh?” Owen said.
Monroe shook his head. “I’ll show you in my Animus sometime.” He crept out from behind the crates. “But for now, let’s go.”
They moved toward the shipping container’s doors, staying hidden as much as they could, until they reached the opening. From there, Owen could see the camp was even bigger than he’d thought. There were three, maybe four other tents in addition to the one he’d seen, as well as numerous vehicles. There didn’t seem to be as many agents as Owen had feared, and he thought they might stand a chance of getting away.
“That way.” Monroe pointed to the right, where the ground rose up beyond the camp floodlights to a line of trees. “Make for the trees.”
“Sounds good,” Grace said. “I’m ready.”
Owen nodded. “Me too. We—”
But then he saw Isaiah emerge from a tent.
The director walked directly toward the shipping container with a contingency of a dozen agents outfitted for combat. Two other, smaller units closed in from the sides.
“I think we missed out chance,” Monroe said. “Back up, back up.”
So they retreated farther into the shipping container until they were out of sight again. Owen closed his eyes and held perfectly still. He sensed Grace doing the same next to him, and a memory landed on his shoulder with the light touch of a hand, a memory of Varius and Eliza outside Tweed’s house. It lingered for a moment, and then the memory pulled away.
“You can come out,” Isaiah said into the container, his voice echoing off its metal walls. “There’s no use delaying the inevitable, is there?”
Monroe looked at Owen and Grace, shook his head, and nodded.
Owen stood up, then Grace, then Monroe.
“Victoria contacted me hours ago,” Isaiah said. “She’s on her way here now.” He cast his gaze around the container’s interior. “Very resourceful of you. I expected you’d try to escape the Aerie, of course, but I didn’t anticipate this method.”
“There’ve been many things you didn’t anticipate,” Monroe said.
Isaiah nodded. “That is true.” He turned to the agent nearest him. “Bring them.”
Then he walked away, and the agents with him closed in. They ordered the three of them out of the container, and they complied. Then, at gunpoint, they marched them in the direction Isaiah now stalked, toward one of the tents. Owen noticed now that the camp appeared to be situated in a long valley, with a large mountain range on one side.
“Sir!”
Isaiah turned around, and one of the agents pointed north.
Owen looked, and saw a light flickering in the trees some distance away, up along the valley’s edge on the right. Grace looked, too, and then she looked at Owen, but her thoughts seemed to be churning. A moment later, the light went out.
“Now this, I did anticipate,” Isaiah said. “We knew they survived.”
“Who survived what?” Monroe asked.
“The Assassins survived the crash of the plane. We shot it down earlier today.” Isaiah pointed to where the light had been. “Target that location.”
“Yes, sir.”
Another Templar agent walked up with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. Owen had never seen one, and it didn’t seem real, more like a toy. It did look heavy, though, and took two additional agents to load it with the grenade and prepare it to fire. Then the shooter sighted through the large scope, and Owen realized this was actually happening. He didn’t know who was up there, but if it was the Assassins, there was a chance it was Griffin. Possibly Javier, too.
“Target acquired,” the shooter said. “Ready to fire.”
“Don’t!” Grace screamed, before Owen could do the same.
Isaiah held up a hand, and the shooter pulled his eye away from the scope.
“Why?” Isaiah asked.
“My brother could be up there,” she said.
“What?” Isaiah frowned. “I would never have brought children to Mongolia. I highly doubt the Assassins would.”
“And I know my brother,” Grace said. “If that Assassin came here, David wouldn’t want to be left behind. Please, if there’s even a chance he’s up there—”
“Very well,” Isaiah said. “We’ll send in a strike team.”
“No,” Grace said. “If David is up there, I think I can get him to come to us. Here.”
“I’m listening,” Isaiah said.
Owen wondered what Grace was doing, but hoped she had some kind of plan.
“You don’t know what’s up there,” Grace said. “If I can get David down here, he’ll listen to me. He can tell us what the Assassins are doing. What they know. Maybe Natalya gave them the location of the tomb.”
Isaiah looked at her for a moment, frowning, and then motioned the shooter to lower the rocket launcher. “I’ll give you an hour to get him here. After that, I send in my team.”
“Thank you,” Grace said.
“How do you propose to signal him?” Isaiah asked.
Grace looked at the ground for a few moments, and paced the few steps the agents surrounding them allowed. Then she looked up. “I need three colored lights. A red one, a green one, and an amber one.”
Isaiah paused, and then smiled. “The Tuskegee Airmen.”
Owen had no idea what that meant, but several minutes later, an agent brought out a large camera bag filled with different lenses and filters. Grace pulled out three different colored filters, and then asked for a flashlight, which she then switched on and pointed in the same direction the rocket launcher had targeted.
One by one, she placed the filters in front of the flashlight. Red, green, amber.
Then she did it again.
“I hope this works,” Monroe said.
“Actually, so do I,” Isaiah said. “Far fewer casualties than sending in a strike team.” Then he gestured to one of the agents. “Take them inside.”
The gun pressed against Owen’s back and again he marched ahead. When they reached the first tent, the agents behind him shoved him inside, and Owen entered what he assumed was the camp command center. Computers and several large monitors stood around a wide table with a digital map of the area. The agents prodded Owen, Grace, and Monroe past all that, to a separate conference table in a far corner of the tent.
“Sit,” one of them ordered.
Owen took one of the chairs at the table, and so did Grace and Monroe.
“You
think David’s going to come?” Owen asked.
Grace nodded, staring at the agents watching them.
“Are you sure?” Monroe asked.
She nodded again. “Masireh counted on his brother, and I am counting on mine.”
Owen had no idea what that meant, wasn’t going to ask for an explanation in front of the Templar agents. So they sat there silently, waiting. As the minutes went by, Owen grew more nervous, but from the outside, Grace remained calm, sitting there in her chair with her hands folded in her lap.
Then Isaiah walked in, and he crossed the room to their table. “I’ve got men positioned up on both ridges of the valley. They’ll catch him if he comes this way.”
“He will,” Grace said.
More minutes passed, and Monroe showed signs of nervousness, fidgeting and glancing around the tent. But Grace kept her face blank, her body still, and her stare hard. Owen thought he probably looked more like Monroe.
Eventually, an agent walked in. “Sir, we have him.”
Owen felt both surprise and relief, after which he wondered if David’s presence meant Javier was out there, too. With everything Owen had learned about his father, he felt the need to get his friend away from the Brotherhood.
“Excellent,” Isaiah said. “Bring David here.”
The agent nodded and left.
“I told you,” Grace said. “I knew I could count on him.”
“Yes, you did,” Isaiah said. “Let’s see about the rest of it though, shall we?”
Several moments later, two agents dragged David into the tent. He was wearing a warm coat, with a large pack on his back.
“Let me go!” he shouted.
Grace flew out of her chair toward him. “David!”
But before she could reach him, a Templar agent grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back, dumping her into her chair.
“Time for that later,” Isaiah said. “Right now, I have some questions for this young man.”
The agents brought David up to the table, and he yanked his arms free of them. “Let me go,” he said. “Grace, I—”
“I’ll do the talking,” Isaiah said. “But I should first mention that your sister said you could be relied on to tell the truth. I hope you won’t disappoint her.”
“It’s okay,” Grace said. “I did.”
David looked at her a moment, and then nodded. “What do you want to know?”
“How many Assassins are there on the ridge?” Isaiah asked.
“Two,” David said. “And Javier and Natalya, also.”
That answered Owen’s question about his friend. Now he just needed to figure out a way to get a message to Javier the way Grace had signaled her brother.
“If Natalya is with them,” Isaiah said, “do they know where the Piece of Eden is located?”
“Yes,” David said.
“Then why have they not claimed it?”
David glowered, his lips clamped tight.
“David,” Grace said, “please, just tell him.”
“Fine.” David folded his arms. “This camp is in the way.”
“What do you mean?” Isaiah asked.
“I mean, the tomb is south of here. Griffin was trying to think of a way to get past your camp without being detected.”
Isaiah leaned forward, his eyes wider than Owen had ever seen them. “Do you know where the prong is?”
David said nothing.
Isaiah’s voice dropped almost to a whisper. “You do.”
David shook his head. “Natalya is the only one who’s actually seen it. But … she said the tomb is near a big rock shaped like a turtle. Several miles from here. That’s all I know.”
Isaiah sighed. “That is enough.” He turned away from the table and strode toward the command center. “We’re not waiting until dawn! I want all teams ready with radar and excavation equipment! We’re moving south in fifteen minutes!”
Owen was a bit surprised that David had given that up so easily, when he had supposedly turned against the Templars when he left the Aerie. But after Isaiah’s orders, the action in the tent grew frenzied, agents rushing in and out, the sounds of vehicles revving up outside. Fifteen minutes later, Isaiah returned to the table, now suited up in his own paramilitary gear, with the exception of a red cross emblazoned on his chest.
He spoke to two armed agents guarding them. “Keep them here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Then he left, and within a few moments, the engines of one of the helicopters could be heard whining slowly to life, and the sound of it thumping the air rose up before fading into the distance. After that, the camp went very quiet.
“Why did you do that?” Monroe whispered to David.
“It’s better than the Assassins getting it,” Owen said. His anger at them had begun to slowly turn to hatred. They had ruined his life, his mother’s life, and taken his father’s life.
“Why do you say that?” Monroe asked.
“After what they did to my dad.”
“What did they do to your dad?”
“I got a sample of his DNA. Isaiah let me go into those memories. I saw the bank robbery.”
Monroe sat up. “And?”
“The Assassins set him up. It was a way to get into Abstergo’s bank. My dad didn’t kill the guard, and he didn’t really have a choice.”
Monroe looked at the guards. “Isaiah showed you that, did he?”
“Yes.”
Monroe pressed his hands together in front of his mouth and chin. He looked really disappointed, or perhaps just sad, and that wasn’t the reaction Owen expected or wanted.
“What?” he asked.
“I worked on DNA and simulations for years.” Monroe kept his voice low and even. “Abstergo can easily manipulate them. Isaiah can almost literally show you anything.”
Owen did not like what Monroe was suggesting, or the twist it gave his stomach. “But he didn’t. He showed me the truth.”
“Did he? Or did he just show you what you wanted to see?”
Owen’s anger flashed, and he slammed the table with his fist. “You weren’t there. This was why I came to you in the first place, but you wouldn’t help me. Remember?”
“I remember I couldn’t help you.”
“Well, Isaiah did. I’m not saying I’m ready to sign on with the Templars, but I am going to get justice for my dad with the Assassins. Somehow.”
That sad, disappointed look remained in Monroe’s eyes. “I warned you,” he said.
“I need to use the bathroom,” David said.
One of the agents scowled at him. “Hold it or go in your pants.”
“Come on,” David said. “You’ve got a porta-potty around here somewhere, right?”
The agent ignored him.
“You seriously want me to go right here?” David stood up and reached for the zipper on his pants. “You prepared to deal with cleanup?”
The agent wrinkled his nose. “Fine.” He turned to the other guard. “You want to take him?”
The second guard shook his head.
“I have no preference,” David said.
The first guard rolled his eyes. “This way.”
He led David away from the table, past the command center, and out of the tent. Owen looked at Grace, and she was looking at him. The determined expression on her face touched his mind with another memory, Eliza, preparing to strike. He felt the mind of Varius descending upon him, almost as if he were in the Animus, but without nearly that weight. Owen made eye contact with Grace again, and she nodded, almost imperceptibly. So Owen rose to his feet, and gave his mind over to Varius in the same way he would to stay synchronized.
“Sit back down,” the agent said.
“I need to stretch,” Owen said. “I’ve been trapped in a shipping crate for twenty-four hours.”
Grace also got to her feet.
“Sit down, both of you!”
When Owen attacked, the strikes and defensive moves felt automatic, as much Varius a
s him, and it seemed as though Grace was as much Eliza. Within a moment, the two of them had the guard disarmed and down on the ground, unconscious.
“Let’s go,” Owen said.
“What the hell was that?” Monroe asked.
“Bleeding Effects,” Grace said. “I’ve been feeling them a lot stronger with Owen around.”
“Me too,” Owen said.
They took the guard’s gun and left the tent, searching for David through the camp. They encountered a few more agents along the way, but dealt with them without even having to fire the Templar weapon. When they found the porta-potties, they surprised the agent guarding David, and took him down, too.
“Is that you guys?” David asked from inside, his voice echoing.
“Yes,” Grace said.
David stepped out, the spring-loaded door slamming shut behind him with a bang. “Took you long enough. It stinks in there.”
Monroe looked back and forth between all three of them. “Would someone please tell me what is going on?”
“We’ll explain on the way,” Grace said. “Right now, we need some shovels.”
“On the way where?” Monroe asked.
David pushed up his glasses, his eyebrows pressing down, as if the answer should be obvious. “The real location of the Piece of Eden.”
Natalya didn’t want to leave David behind. Javier didn’t, either, but Griffin and Yanmei decided it would draw too much attention to go catch him, and cost them time and energy to keep him from running off again. They also feared he would soon get himself caught by the Templars, putting the entire mission in jeopardy, so they insisted on pressing ahead with even greater urgency.
Natalya still hadn’t decided what she would or could do about the Piece of Eden. Griffin had seen enough of the simulation to get them close to the burial site, but not all the way. They would soon look to Natalya to reveal its specific location, but her entire purpose in coming here had been to prevent them, or anyone, from finding it.
“Are you doing okay?” Javier whispered.
Tomb of the Khan Page 25
