Chapter 1- Eagle reckon 1

Date-2011/9/18

Time-9:48 PM

Damascus, Syria

The rebels were having a party; the small girl huddled up in the corner could hear the distant cheers and the occasional burst of gunfire exploding in the camp. Every time someone shouted or made a loud noise, she would start getting nervous. The chain of the tent zipped open and a head peered in, finally making out the girl's shape in the dark, he said in broken English,

'Zafar wants to see you, follow me and keep pace'

The girl stumbled over a pile of wood on the floor as she followed the man. Zafar Ul Hak was the man leading the rebels in the Syrian city of Damascus. He was a man of big appetite. He was nicknamed 'The Mole' by Interpol, a name derived from his records on child molestations. Zafar had seen the little girl earlier from head to toe and whispered something that from what little the girl knew of Arabic, sounded a lot like 'She'll do for tonight'.

The little girl found herself face to face with 11 drunken rebels.

'You there, girl, come closer to the fire and take off your clothes' Zafar said in surprisingly good English.

The little girl knew enough about women being raped and killed in the rebel camps to understand what was about to happen to her. Well if I am to die tonight, I won't let them use me as their toy, she thought resolutely.

'Didn't you hear what I said? Take off your clothes, now!' Zafar shouted as his men fell silent in anticipation.

The girl did not move, she stayed there, standing with her head high and her eyes closed. Zafar stood up and marched over to her with his knife raised, the girl braced for impact but it none came. Instead came a gunshot that echoed around the empty camp.

Something warm and sticky sprayed across her face. She opened her eyes just in time to see Zafar fall to the ground, his cold brown eyes wide with shock, blood spurting out of his forehead, clearly dead. The rebels stood up hastily to reach out for weapons. Only there were none. They had locked up the weapons in the armory some 50 yards away from them. Four more bullets whizzed over, getting four rebels neatly on their heads. Six more rebels remained now. Terrified to take a step, they drew out knives and swords rapidly from their sheaths and held it up, looking around in all directions. Perhaps they would have noticed something if they had looked up at the roofs of the ruined huts around them, but they didn't. From the top of one of the roofs, a hooded guy leaped. His wrists flicked identically in midair as something shiny slithered out of his hands. He landed neatly on the floor as he brought two rebels down along with him, blood spurting out of their necks as he stood up. Even before the remaining four could react, he had drawn out two Revolvers strapped around his thighs. With deadly accuracy, he fired four times. As four rebels fell to the floor, he turned around to look at the little girl. Marching straight up to her, he asked her in a calm and soothing voice,

'Are you Chloe Carter?'

Chloe looked at him in a puzzled expression and nodded.

He nodded too and knelt down to look at Zafar's dead body. He looked at the necklace on Zafar's neck with interest and muttered;

'Bloody Templar'

Chloe was puzzled as the necklace held the symbol of Abstergo industries, certainly not whatever a Bloody Templar was. She would have asked him what it meant if she hadn't been too dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events. Already other rebels were shouting somewhere near, obviously the gunshots had been heard.

The guy stood up and pressing his left ear he said,

'Command this is Eagle Reckon 1, I found the girl and I'm bringing her to the bird. Over '

'Eagle Reckon 1, you are cleared to perform evacuation. Over'

He was talking in a radio. He looked at Chloe and said,

'We need to go Chloe, there are a lot of things I need to tell you about, but we need to get to safety first. A chopper is waiting for us not far from here, follow me.'

Chloe looked at the guy's wrist. He was wearing a brace on his arm that had the symbol she had seen on her father's diary. She looked back at the guy and nodded and followed him through the cold, dark night that had raised more questions and doubts than settled her anxieties and conscience.