Assassin's Creed: Winter's Falling

Chapter 8

The next morning, everyone awoke early and got ready. Sol walked with confidence into the room; her composure holding nothing of the pain she had to have been feeling. The others were already there.

"Okay guys, listen up," Andy began the meeting once Sol was seated at the table. "We're small in numbers, badly wounded, being hunted, and have a brother captured."

"Looks dismal," Sol interrupted.

"However," he continued. "I have good news for once."

"Yeah?" She interrupted again, her voice light and cheery.

Andy glared at Sol. She simply grinned in return. He sighed and unrolled the blueprints on the table. He had learned from years of working with the others that she was probably just joking to lighten the mood, and the pain. Frankly I'm worried about her the most. Five bullet holes are not easy to spring back from.

"I was reading the building plans and it turns out the only place in the building that is not monitored by cameras and guards in the central elevator shaft," Andy explained. "However, the elevator will squash us like a bug if we're in the shaft. Riding it is out of the question since there are cameras inside. Luckily, this is not a normal elevator. It's synced with these tablets every employee has. If we can get one, we can hack it and force it to stay on the bottom floor. We can climb up using these and look for Diego."

Andy pulled out a pair of hook shaped claw like things and placed them on the table. He had had two sets of them made for another mission; only two sets. That meant two of them would have to go alone while the others diverted the attention of Abstergo security.

"Alright, so today is a rescue mission," Sol grew serious. "But what about the info? They probably took all of Diego's gear away from him."

"Likely," Andy agreed. "If we're lucky we might have time to do some digging, but our priority is to save Diego. Odds are they put him in one of the holding cells on the twentieth floor. We can't spend a lot of time there. Two of us go in; the others are on distraction duty."

"Yeah," Sol nodded. "Alright, so how do I use these hooks?"

Sol grabbed one of the hooks and stared Andy down. Don't even think of telling me not to go, her eyes said. Andy sighed. He knew he wasn't going to be able to stop her. Fine, his eyes said, but you better not hold me back.

"Put those hooks on your hidden blades. They should make climbing easier." Andy said. "And make sure to bring some rope."

"Got it," Sol attached the hook.

"Now we need to go undercover and steal a tablet to hack."

"Can we do that? We're wanted men."

"They never fully saw our faces," Andy smiled. "We can steal the uniforms of two of the SWAT guys. Their face masks should help."

"Good plan."

"Let's get moving."

Andy and Sol got into one cab while the others got into another. They were heading to another Abstergo building nearby. The cheerful and talkative cab driver, who kept asking them for how long they had been dating, dropped them off in front of the building a little while later. Andy paid the man and led Sol off the road. As they made their way towards the building, a glittering object on the ground caught Sol's eye. It was her Templar cross, half buried in the soft dirt. She dug it out and examined it. The flecks of dried blood in the corner and the fact that the metal chain was broken where not good omens. She pocketed it.