The Recruit

Chapter 35

Later on that evening, Master Kojiro and I fully intend to infiltrate the Kaunas Castle. The mid 14th century castle stood tall close to the Nemunas and Neris River. Little did people know, Kaunas Castle has a secret underground section that harbours entrance to secret tunnels. According to my intel, one of the 30 tunnel entrance would lead to the Dagger Brotherhood Militia's Barrack.

Posing as tourists, we toured the place to find a possible opening that we could utilize to go underground. We were following around a tourist group and their guide while we either use our feet to try to feel an opening on the floor or trying to check closed doors and restricted sections. The tour almost ended and I haven't found anything. Judging by the Master's concentrated look, he hasn't manage to find anything either.

My mind starting to race, if I was some 14th century Grand Master of this castle, where would I put the entrance?

Fuck it, the Master Assassin would probably disapprove. I'm doing the only thing only silly recruit like me would do and hope what I am about to do doesn't compromise my mission.

"Excuse me ma'am? Does an old castle like this happen to have rooms underground? I heard what we see is only the 2/3rd of the entire castle, so where is the rest?" The Master Assassin showed a hint of shock and disapproval over my method, but said nothing.

"It's a good question! Funny that you mentioned it. Rumour was that there is an underground tunnel that used to be utilized to send secret missives to aid the German Nazi during the World War II that you can find around the north side of the castle." The guide points at the room we just came out of.

"However, we had archaeologists and the military experts searched the place but alas if there was such an entrance it has never been found." With that the guide take more questions and finished the rest of the tour. We have 30 more minutes for us to explore before the castle is closed for visitation.

The Master Assassin and I quietly went to the room that the guide pointed to us. He spoke softly under his breath with no expression at all. "I can't believe you asked the guide about the secret entrance."

I sent him an apologetic look and nervous smile. I whispered just as low, "I'm sorry I didn't know what to do. I haven't passed my assassin training." I let out a nervous laugh.

"I was about to say, it was brilliant." Still with the same expression, so I didn't know if he really meant it or not.

"Oh... Thanks." I didn't see that praise coming.

"But remind me to add your training period once we get back." His eyes glint with humour. Smiling, I give him a thumbs up.

We arrive at the room and look closely. There are no locked doors or restricted area around here, so there may be some kind of mechanism in plain sight. If military experts and archaeologists have checked out the entire place, it's possible that the mechanism is hidden within the walls. I started feeling the walls for a indented or outdented surfaces.

"Do you find something... WHOA!" The Master Assassin pressed something on the wall and it drops me. I fell down and thankfully, landed on my feet this time. It was dark all around. Great! A completely black surrounding and 30 tunnels to check out. I turned on my flashlight.

Thump! Sounds like someone just dropped from the top.

"Are you here?" I half whispered and aimed my flashlight to the direction of the voice.

"Yes. Let's go." Master Kojiro said.

"You know which way to go?" I asked the Master Assassin.

"No. We'll check it out one by one. We split up."

"How do we update the other we have found the right tunnel? It's not like these tunnels have numbers and they all look the same." He gave me an ear piece. He picked up a rock and started scratching numbers on the left side of each opening.

"All good now?" He pointed at the numbers he wrote on the wall.

I cleared my throat, "It's not like I'm scared of the dark, but is splitting up the way to go?"

"I'll add one more week of training to your schedule: dark cavern edition." He said as he ran towards the first tunnel. Cazzo!

I went to tunnel 16 and started running to see where it leads. Master Kojiro is being a good sport and keeping me company through our earpiece, updating me constantly through what he found. I decided to do the same to fill the silence, so I feel less scared of the dark. I encounter a few rats and bats that scared my wits, but I keep on going. After inspecting 6 tunnels and Master Kojiro's 7, we meet back at the underground of the Kaunas Castle to share a bite. We had to eat in the dark to conserve our batteries.

As we eat in silence, we heard people talking and some lights coming our way. We moved quickly to hide in Tunnel 1.

"Look, all I am saying Darius isn't in his right mind hearing his ex-spouse got murdered by that female assassin." My ears perked hearing my target's name. I guess Darius isn't in the best mood after I killed his ex just a little over 2 weeks ago.

"But they are no longer married though, Sofia filed a divorce against him."

"Yeah, but it was a one-sided divorce request. That's why he is hurting when she is gone, because he still loves her."

"Well hell, the ancient idiot still has a heart." Well, well, it turns out these agents are just like any normal humans out there. They liked to gossip a lot.

"Hmph yeah right. Anyway, you are leaving for Vilnius now right? Take care brother."

"You as well." The two men shook they hands and the first, leaving to tunnel 8 while his friend left through number 13. 1 less tunnel we needn't to check but one thing for sure, we are checking tunnel 24.

Once we are sure the two men won't see our lights, we turned our flashlights back on. Master Kojiro got up and gave me a "Number 8 goes to the direction of Vilnius and we know number 13 will have that guy in it. Let's check number 24." I nodded and moved right behind him.

We walk quickly and lightly, careful not to make any noise. Half an hour later, we are met with a door. The other tunnels that we check before either lead us into the sewer, lower part of a train station  or an open field surrounded by natural vegetation. This looks promising indeed.

Master Kojiro grabbed something from the floor, climbed up to one of the supporting wood near the ceiling and motion for me to do the same. We turn off our flashlights and Master Kojiro throws a pebble toward the door. We wait for someone to open the door, but nothing happen.

Master Kojiro throw another one a little bit harder this time and we wait again. This time someone opened the door and peered his head out to look for the origin of the sound. Seeing no one in sight, the guard close the door back.

Again Master Kojiro throw the pebble and it dawns on me what he is trying to accomplish. He is trying to lure the guard outside of the door, so whoever behind the door wouldn't suspect anything when we take this person down. However, this supposedly is where the militia barrack located. Deep inside, it would house a gathering place for the Dagger Council for their meeting and where Darius, the 9th Council member, lives. Thus killing this guard might not help with anything. However, since there is no one size fits all to survive a mission, we might be able to make it work somehow.

The man goesout again to check what is beyond the door. This time the guard goes beyond the wall with his weapon drawn out. With a lightning speed, the 70-year old veteran assassin jump on top of the guard and kill him with one swift move. I jump down and we travel beyond the door.