Tomb of the Khan

by Matthew J. Kirby

  “It’s them,” he whispered to Javier, pointing at the vehicle. “It has to be.”

  “They’re pinned down,” Javier said.

  The situation was only going to get worse, when those other agents realized their prisoners had escaped.

  “We need to distract them,” Owen said.

  “We can’t take them all out.”

  “We have to try. Use the pain grenade on that group of them over there. I’ll use this laser pistol thing to blind the others, and then you take them out with your crossbow.”

  Javier shook his head. “I hope this works.”

  “Me too. Ready?”

  Javier nodded and pulled out the grenade. Owen armed the laser pistol.

  “Try to throw that away from us and away from the van with our friends,” Owen said. “You give the word.”

  Javier readied his arm for a throw, and then he said, “Now.”

  Owen raised the pistol and aimed it as the pain grenade flew through the air and hit the cement on the far side of the garage. A quick, droning buzz could be heard, and then the four agents near the grenade dropped to the ground, rolling and screaming.

  Owen charged into the garage while pulling the trigger on the laser pistol, flashing the searing light in the other agents’ eyes while they were distracted by the grenade, and Javier raced after him, firing off rapid sleep darts from his crossbow.

  The initial assault went well. Nine or ten of the agents were down within a matter of moments, but the others had already begun to regroup, taking cover.

  “Hide!” Owen shouted, and then he and Javier dove between separate cars.

  The agents’ helmets allowed them to communicate by radio, which meant Owen couldn’t hear them and anticipate their movements, and with the new shielding, he couldn’t disable their electronics, either. But his Eagle Vision let him know that six enemies were converging on their location, weapons ready, and unlike he and Javier, the Templars used lethal means.

  Owen braced himself, and then leapt out, hurling the sleep grenade, followed by a smoke grenade to cover his retreat. He heard two or three more agents hit the ground, unconscious, but then a gunshot cracked, the sound filling the entire garage. Owen wasn’t hit, but the shock caused him to drop his crossbow pistol. He ducked away fast, throwing another smoke grenade to buy him more time, and reached the vehicles on other side of the garage.

  Javier hadn’t moved from his position, and as the smoke cleared, Owen saw there were still four agents active. They were closing in on his friend, boxing him in, and Owen fully expected reinforcements to arrive any minute.

  He didn’t know if the laser pistol had a long-enough range from where he was hiding, and besides, the Templars were facing away from him. He was out of smoke grenades, and without his crossbow pistol he had no way to help, other than to reveal himself and give the agents another target.

  He was about to call out when he heard another gunshot. One of the agents fell, and the others scattered, dragging their wounded comrade with them.

  The shot seemed to have come from another point farther down the row of cars, perhaps the van where the others were hiding.

  Javier moved now, seizing the distraction. He threw his own smoke grenade and raced through the cloud across the open garage, to the point where the shot had come from.

  “Owen!” a deep, familiar voice called.

  Owen froze. “Monroe?”

  “Can you make your way toward us?” Javier asked.

  Owen crept out from his hiding place to get a better look, but as soon as he came out in the open, he heard a gunshot. The bullet struck the car near his head and ricocheted.

  Owen ducked back. “I’m pinned down!”

  There were three agents left in the garage, and any one of them could have made that shot. His Eagle Vision showed him their locations by the drumming of their elevated heart rates, and the stirring of the air by their rapid breathing. But Owen still had no way to fire back at them, and Javier and Monroe wouldn’t have a clean shot, either. The agents had taken cover.

  “Monroe?” Owen called.

  “Here,” Monroe yelled back.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to help you kids escape. What are you and Javier doing here?”

  “Same reason.”

  “Why is Javier armed like an Assassin?” Monroe asked.

  “Because an Assassin has been training us,” Owen said.

  A moment passed.

  “I see.”

  “So do you have a plan?” Owen asked.

  “Maybe I—”

  The pounding of footsteps charged toward them from the corridor, reinforcements arriving.

  “You have to get out of here now!” Owen shouted. He was close enough to the door to use the laser pistol. “I’ll cover you. Go!”

  “No way!” Javier shouted.

  “Go!” Owen said. “Get the others out of here!”

  The first agents appeared, and Owen burned their eyes with the pistol. They fell back, and then another wave came, and Owen blinded them, too.

  “Hurry!” Owen shouted.

  He fired, and fired, and fired, pushing the agents back.

  Then he heard an engine roar, and not the sound of a normal vehicle. Something much, much more powerful, like the rumble of an avalanche. Then a black car pulled out and sped toward the garage doors.

  Owen kept up his laser fire until it seemed he’d drained the pistol’s power source to empty. As soon as it quit working, a group of agents stormed into the room. But the doors to the garage had already opened, and the black car peeled away before they could shoot it or stop it. Then the man in the suit stalked into the room, his gaze sweeping back and forth.

  “Report!”

  One of the agents near him touched his ear. “Sir, you should find cover. There’s still one, possibly two targets unaccounted for.”

  The man smoothed his blond hair back and raised his voice. “Whoever you are, come out now. We’ve realized the other Assassin is a distraction, and I’ve recalled my men here. I have another hundred agents on the way. Surrender and no harm will come to you.”

  Other Assassin? That must be Griffin, keeping the Templars occupied so Owen and Javier could find the others. Owen let out a long sigh. At least they’d gotten away.

  “Isaiah!” Monroe shouted.

  Owen whipped his head toward the sound of Monroe’s voice. What was he still doing there? Why hadn’t he escaped with the others?

  “Monroe?” the tall man said. “Could that possibly be you?”

  “I’m coming out,” Monroe said. “Unarmed.”

  Then Owen saw him, walking out from between the vehicles, his hands in the air. A mob of agents rushed him and quickly bound his arms behind his back.

  The tall man, Isaiah, approached him with a thin smile on his face. “This is unexpected.”

  “Tell your men to lower their weapons.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s a kid,” Monroe said.

  Isaiah looked around him at the cars to either side. “Lower your weapons.”

  The agents followed the order, pointing their pistols and rifles at the ground.

  “You can come out now, Owen,” Monroe called, never taking his eyes from Isaiah. “They won’t harm you.”

  Owen couldn’t see any other choice, so he did what Monroe asked, and stepped out from his hiding place.

  At his appearance, Isaiah turned toward him, his green eyes sharp and wild. “You’re Owen?”

  Owen nodded.

  “Then can I assume Javier is the one who just stole my car?”

  Owen shrugged.

  “Bring Owen to my office,” Isaiah said. “Lock Monroe in a cell. I have to check on Grace and Sean.”

  That meant Grace and Sean were still there. Owen had assumed they were in the black car. “Where do you have them locked up?” he asked.

  Isaiah’s eyebrows came together in puzzlement. “Locked up? No, Owen. Grace and Sean cho
se to stay.”

  Owen didn’t know what to make of that, or if it was a lie, but for now, he didn’t struggle as an agent bound his wrists in zip ties.

  David sat in the back of the jet-car, Natalya in the front passenger seat, Javier at the wheel. The engine rattled David’s teeth as they pulled out of the garage, and when Javier gunned it, the force whipped David’s neck and threw him backward against his seat.

  “Sorry,” Javier said. “This thing’s a beast.”

  He whipped them down a road that wound through the Aerie complex, and David could see all five buildings. There were Templar agents everywhere, but none of them dared get in the car’s way. A few agents shot at it, but apparently the jet-car was bulletproof, and most didn’t bother lifting their weapons.

  As they rounded a bend, Javier put the brakes on, shoving David hard against the front seat, smashing his glasses into his nose, and throwing Natalya against the dash.

  “Sorry,” he said again.

  “Why are we stopping?” Natalya asked.

  “For him.” Javier pointed at a man running toward the car wearing the same kind of leather jacket and hood that Javier wore. Some kind of electrical knife crackled from his wrist, but it disappeared.

  Javier opened the front door and hopped out. “You’re driving.”

  The stranger climbed into the front seat, while Javier jumped in the backseat next to David. A second later, the engine rumbled and the car jumped ahead.

  “Now this is more like it.” The stranger pushed back his cowl, revealing a shaved head, and surveyed the vehicle’s dashboard. “Where’s Owen?”

  “Templars have him,” Javier said.

  The stranger cursed. “And who is this?”

  “Natalya,” she said, leaning away from him.

  “I’m David.”

  The stranger nodded. “I’m Griffin.”

  Natalya looked back at Javier, and then at Griffin again. “Are you … ?”

  “Yes,” Javier said. “He’s an Assassin.”

  “That bother anyone bad enough they want me to let ’em out?” Griffin asked.

  David said nothing, and Natalya faced forward. If Javier hadn’t been there, he definitely would not be going with this Griffin guy. But it seemed both Javier and Owen knew the Assassin, and had been with him, perhaps this whole time.

  Griffin tapped some controls on the touch screens. One looked a bit like a radar screen, and another showed a basic GPS map, but with greater topographical detail. There were other displays that seemed to relate to the jet-car’s systems. Griffin swiped through them, and engaged something that created a kind of ambient hum above the roar of the engine.

  “What was that?” Javier asked.

  “Stealth mode, I think,” Griffin said. “For the helicopters.”

  “Helicopters?” David pushed his glasses up and looked out the window.

  “There’s three of them heading toward us,” Griffin said. “But they won’t be able to spot us. You guys picked a nice car.”

  “David’s idea,” Javier said.

  “David has a good eye,” Griffin said. “Tell me what happened before then.”

  So Javier explained how he and Owen had become separated from the Assassin, and decided to look for David and the others on their own. They’d broken in by threatening Cole, and then they’d searched the complex until they found everyone in the garage.

  “What about you?” Javier asked.

  “You guys did exactly what I hoped you’d do,” Griffin said. “So I knew I needed to clear your path. I made my presence known to the Templars, and then spent the next little while keeping them occupied.”

  Javier turned to David. “Where’s your sister?”

  “We got separated,” David said.

  “I don’t think she would’ve have come anyway,” Natalya said. “Sean didn’t come, either.”

  “Wait, they stayed by choice?” Javier asked.

  Natalya nodded.

  “I wish that surprised me,” Griffin said.

  “Why would they stay?” Javier asked.

  “You don’t know how it is there,” Natalya said. “They’re experts at getting people to do exactly what they want them to do. Controlling them.”

  She was right. Isaiah had even managed to turn David against his own sister, a little bit, and her against him. But in that last moment at the door, David would never have left her if she hadn’t told him to. He worried about her, back at the Aerie. What would Isaiah do now that some of them had escaped? How would he explain things to their dad? Did Isaiah still need them badly enough to find the Piece of Eden that he would keep them safe?

  “Monroe was there,” Javier said.

  Griffin nodded. “I wondered. That must have been him that started the fire, to do the same thing I was trying to do and distract the Templars. Isaiah probably had no idea what was going on.”

  The car sped down the mountain, and David kept glancing up at the sky. The helicopters circled overhead, but nowhere near them. Eventually, the car left the trees behind and reached level ground, and Griffin steered them onto the highway, heading south.

  “So what do we do?” Javier asked.

  “For now, we sit tight and stay low. There’s no way we could stage a raid like that a second time.”

  “So we just leave Owen there?” Javier asked.

  “And Grace?” David added.

  “For now,” Griffin said. “For now. We wait to see what Isaiah does, and then we make our move. Maybe Rothenberg will reach out.”

  “Rothenberg?” Natalya asked.

  “An Assassin informant in the Templar Order,” Javier said.

  “Meanwhile,” Griffin said, “there’s the Piece of Eden. How close is Isaiah to finding the next one?”

  “Ask Natalya,” David said. “She’s seen it.”

  Natalya went totally rigid, but David couldn’t tell if she felt angry or scared.

  Griffin glanced her way. “That true?”

  “I’ve seen it,” she said. “But I still don’t know where it is.”

  “We can rectify that,” Griffin said. “What about the third prong?”

  “Isaiah has no idea,” David said. “He’s just sending us back into different ancestors, looking for it.”

  “That might change,” Griffin said.

  “How so?” Natalya asked.

  “Isaiah has Monroe now. And Owen.”

  “Owen won’t talk,” Javier said.

  “Isaiah can be very convincing,” Natalya said.

  Javier chuckled. “You don’t know Owen.”

  “None of you know the Templars,” Griffin said.

  That brought a somber chill into the car, and no one talked for a while. They drove south on the highway, and then turned east, heading into hill country. Eventually, Griffin steered the car down a dirt road, and they followed that for a mile or so, until they came to a house that had DO NOT ENTER written all over it. The place looked as if it would collapse if you leaned on it wrong. David’s dad would have said the only thing keeping it upright was the paint, except this rundown house didn’t have any paint.

  Griffin pulled the jet-car into a barn, and then led them all to the front door. The tall weeds and grass reached David’s knees, and he could feel their tips brushing his calves through his pants.

  At the front door, the Assassin entered a code into an unexpected electronic lock. “Let’s be quick about this. We take what we need and we clear out.”

  “I told you,” Javier said. “Owen won’t—”

  “Owen may not have a choice,” Griffin said. “The Templars could use drugs to interrogate him, or even the Helix to poke around in his DNA. We have to assume this location is compromised.”

  Javier fell silent, and Griffin let them all in. David found the interior of the house matched the exterior. At one point in its distant history, this was probably a pretty nice house, and David imagined he could hear the echoes of that past life as Griffin and Javier walked through the darkness toward
a door under the stairs.

  “Watch your step,” the Assassin said.

  Javier led the way down into a basement that better matched the Aerie. Griffin had an Animus, with its computers and monitors, and a big conference table covered in files and papers, and, of course, an arsenal.

  “Sit tight for a minute,” Griffin said. “I have to make a call.”

  “Over here,” Javier said, and motioned for David and Natalya to follow him.

  He led them to a corner with some crates and a mini fridge. He pulled out several bottles of water, and the three of them sat down.

  “So this is where you’ve been for the last few weeks?” Natalya asked.

  Javier shook his head. “We only got here a couple of days ago. Before that, we were hiding out in a storage unit.”

  “You serious?” David asked.

  “Unfortunately,” Javier said. “It looked like you guys had it a lot better.”

  David had to agree with that.

  “What have you been doing?” Natalya asked.

  “Training,” Javier said. “And Owen went into the Animus.”

  “Training?” Natalya asked. Her frown seemed worried.

  “So you an Assassin, now?” David asked.

  “Not if you ask him.” Javier gestured with his water bottle toward Griffin, who sat with his back to them, talking to a bearded guy through a video chat.

  “Who’s that?” David asked.

  “Gavin,” Javier said. “I think he’s a leader in the Brotherhood or something.”

  “Is that what they call themselves?” Natalya asked. “A Brotherhood?”

  Javier nodded. “So you guys have been going into the Animus? Where?”

  “I was a World War II pilot for most of the time,” David said. “Natalya was a Mongol warrior.”

  “Owen fought the Mongols,” Javier said. “He was a Chinese Assassin.”

  “He was?” Natalya set her water bottle down on the floor. “That … that was him?”

  Something had just upset her, but she’d never told David many details about her simulation.

  “What was him?” Javier asked.

  Natalya shook her head, and her eyes got teary. “I … fought a Chinese Assassin. A young woman. I hurt her. Bad.”

  “Yeah, that was him,” Javier said. “But not really him, and besides, you couldn’t have known. You guys weren’t in a shared simulation. Not like last time.”