Fork in the Road (Altair/Assassins Creed)

Chapter Seventeen

Hana had fallen asleep by the time Altair had arrived in the Bureau so she wasn't sure if he had arrived late in the evening, or early that morning. In any case, the Bureau was in an awkward silence when she arose to eat her orange for breakfast.

She didn't let the silence bother her, and she made sure to keep her body language nonchalant. Although she didn't normally make conversation when she had just woken up unless she was directly spoken too, Hana couldn't help but feel the need to fill the silence. But she resisted, which was probably a good thing. She didn't want to ask a question and have one of the two males give a response to anger the other, resulting in a feud.

"We will be going to the Middle District today." Altair said as soon as Malik had disappeared into the back room. "From what we already know of our Target, we need to get inside his mansion and have a look around-"

"-But what about the patrols?" She questioned, blushing when she realised that she had interrupted him. "I'm sorry." She said quickly, "I'm still half asleep."

"Well, wake up." He kept his tone light, but she knew that he had given her an order. "As soon as you've finished eating, we will be leaving."

Hana quickly finished her orange and followed Altair out into the entrance room. She watched him scale the wall with ease and soon followed him...but when she reached the top of the wall...he had gone. She frowned and looked around, was this going to be a morning test so that she would be alert and on her toes? She moved off with unsure feet, just waiting for the Master Assassin to suddenly appear and pounce on her. But when he didn't, and she had barely crossed over to the second rooftop, she realised that she didn't even know which direction she needed to go in.

Drawing out the map that Malik had given her, Hana eyed the Assassin's insignia which signified the Bureau, and turned the map around so that the main gate to the city was on her left. Map reading seemed easier than she had first thought, as soon as knew which direction she needed to go in, she made a beeline for it. She tried not to stray from the path that she had set herself, and as soon as she had scurried over the gate into the designated district, she thought back to the book and what Altair had explained the findings of the mansion to be like.

Once she had found her way there, surprised at how quickly she had (as she expected her map reading skills to be completely crap), she spotted the Master Assassin. Had that been some sort of race? He was already there, just casually crouched on the edge of the roof as if she was fucking late!

"Can you run quickly?" Altair asked suddenly, glancing towards the female as she joined him on the edge of the building.

She frowned, was that sarcasm? "I don't understand." She was tired.

"It's a simple question." Came the quick response.

"Map reading is hard." She defended herself, "I haven't been to this part of the city before so I had to keep stopping."

"That's not why I'm asking." He replied, "But that map reading exercise has done well to wake you up."

"That's why you didn't wait for me?" She asked, to which he nodded once as a response. "Okay, well, yes, I can run fast." Hana knew that her speed had always been her advantage when fighting against her brothers, who were always stronger than she. "What do I need to do?"

Altair pointed to the streets below them on the south side of the building, "Sabir Khan has upped his guard since Famir made his attempt," He began, "There are three patrols – luckily all heading in the same direction. We cannot be spotted entering the mansion by any of them, that's how he knew Famir was coming. Creating a distraction will compromise us too."

She noticed that he made no mention of Robert De Sable. "So what do we do instead?"

"I've worked out that we have a seven second time gap between the second and third patrol, so that won't work. However if we go before the back of the last guard turns the corner, we have nine seconds."

"That's still not very much time."

"That's why I'm asking if you can run quickly."

"I can run quickly," She began, "But I can't say the same about climbing."

"The guards don't tend to look up unless something draws their attention, like a loose stone or a civilian pointing you out. Luckily there are no civilians."

"What about loose stones?"

"Climb carefully." He advised, before descending the wall and standing at the end of an alleyway. He turned his head to the side slightly as the female joined him, and pointed ahead at a passing group of five guards, "This is the one." He informed her, "Now!"

They both darted for the building, Hana ensuring that she followed behind the Master Assassin. Each place he put his foot she did the same, and each place he used as a handhold she used for herself. He span on his heel as soon as he reached the top, grabbed her by the collar of her outer robes and pulled her up to safety and out of view from the streets below.

Hana panted, rubbing her sore hands together as Altair took a step towards the edge off the roof and peered cautiously over the edge. "We were lucky." He stated, turning back to face the building. "Catch your breath, quickly, we must move on."

Hana did as she was told and followed the Master Assassin across the roof and towards the edge of the building where a lattice balcony was situated.

They had found their way inside the mansion.