New Breed
1
To Altair, the target was nothing more than dirt that had to be cleaned up. The streets of Jerusalem were lined with people but Altair could have spotted the man from a mile off. The man was standing on a street corner as if waiting. He looked impatient. What the man was waiting for was a mystery to Altair. All he had been told that the man was a scientist. Why this meant he had to be killed was anyone's guess. Altair was just doing as he had been told. No more questions needed to be asked or answered.
On the street below, the man looked around, desperately.
"Where is that damn Templar?" he thought. He was getting more and more concerned by the minute. He felt in his pocket to make sure that the vial was still there. Suddenly there was a flash of white as an assassin jumped from a rooftop across the street. The man tried to make a noise or dodge out of the way, but nothing happened. The assassin's hidden blade pierced through the bridge of his nose, cracked his skull and skewered his brain. There was nothing.
Altair, breathing heavily, withdrew his blade, brains, blood and all, and stood up, ready to run. Before he could make a move, he saw movement at his feet. Before he could look, it had gone. He glanced left to see a figure, dressed similarly to him, pelting down the street, knocking people down as he went. Altair did not hesitate. He gave chase.
Altair looked behind him to see that people had now started to crowd round the dead body of the scientist. That didn't matter. Altair went back to looking straight ahead. He was catching up to the mysterious man. He was ploughing down the street, almost making it easy for Altair, as if he was creating an opening where people once stood. He saw the man dart up the side of a building straight ahead.
"No problem," thought Altair.
He did the same, just in time to grab the man's heel as he reached the top of the building. The man collapsed at the top and his chin whacked the flat roof. Altair leaped the last metre or so of wall and landed, feet first, on the man's back. He punched the man in the back of the head and yelled,
"Talk!"