As I expected, Connor successfully tracked where the missing supplies went, leading to a wagon and a lone man guarding it. It seemed the wheel broke, and he had no way to fix it. We approached the man, Connor questioning him.
"Are you Ben Church's man?" Yeah, he ran.
"Well played." Haytham commented. I had to agree. Not his best moment. Connor chased after the man, and I chased after Connor. He tackled the poor bastard and pinned him to a tree.
"It was not wise to run."
"W-what do you want?" The man asked, nervous. He should be.
"Where is Benjamin Church?"
"I don't know! We was riding for camp just north of here. It's where we normally unload the cargo. Maybe you'll find him th-" Haytham shot him in the head. Blood splattered onto Connor's face and mine, as we stood so close.
"What the fuck!?" I shout, spitting blood from my mouth.
"You did not have to kill him!" Connor exclaimed, narrowing his eyes at Haytham.
"Let's not waste time with all this pointless banter. Go catch up with the rest of Church's men. Infiltrate that camp for theirs and see what you can discover."
"What about you?" I asked. If we were going to break into the camp, Haytham better do something.
"Never you mind, just do as I ask." He said, walking away. I stuck my tongue out at him as his back was turned.
"A please, thank you, maybe a cookie. Is that too much to ask?" I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. Connor nudged me.
"Come on. We should move."
Connor and I headed north, finding some of Church's men. We hid in the cart of hay, listening to them talk. When we arrived at their camp, Connor was quick to to take out a guard, hiding the body in the hay we left behind. Thankfully these people were fucking idiots, because all of them acted like this place was Fort Knox. They stood around, gossiping and such. It was easy to kill them.
Hiding in a bush, we waited for our moment when suddenly Haytham was dragged into the camp. How did he get caught? I huffed, expecting more from the Grandmaster. He was punched in the face, blood coming from his nose. It seemed he made them angry, because they started to beat him, kicking and punching.
"C'mon. Let's rescue the old guy." I told Connor, moving out of the bush and using my machete to cut one of the guard's heads off. Connor followed suit, using his tomahawk to cut into their throats with ease. Haytham broke loose, killing some of the guards before standing back.
"Once you've dealt with these louts, meet me in New York."
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"You mean to just leave? Now?" Connor and I exclaimed, still fighting for our lives.
"If you can't handle a couple mercenaries, then we're really no business working together."
Haytham ran off, leaving us to deal with the mercenaries alone. It wasn't like we couldn't handle it, but really, who leaves in the middle of a fight? When there were only two left, I said fuck it, and shot them in the head. Now that they were all dead, we had some room to breathe. Placing my hands on my hips, I shook my head as I followed Haytham's footprints with my eyes.
"What an asshole."
We made it to New York in the dead of night. Practically no one was around besides Connor and I. We looked around for Haytham, but I think he'd be the one to find us. I was right.
"Evening, Connor, Piper. I see you both made it here in one piece." He sassed, and I raised a brow at him, cocking my hip to the side.
"Recovered from your beating, then?" Connor snapped back. Sass is certainly in the family tree.
"Benjamin Church is holed up in an abandoned brewery on the waterfront. We should be done with this by sunrise."
"Good. I would like to have to supplies returned as soon as possible."
"Of course. I wouldn't want to keep you from your lost cause." Haytham commented, snide like.
"If it is going to be a testosterone filled battle for dominance the entire time we work together, someone is losing their ballsack." I huffed, walking away from the boys.
Connor and I followed Haytham up roofs and over alleyways. We stopped when Connor called to Haytham, curious.
"Tell me something… You could have killed me when we first met. What stayed your hand?"
"Curiosity. Any other questions?" Haytham asked, looking over the city. Connor took a few seconds to think of how to ask his question I saw he so desperately wanted to ask.
"What is it the Templars truly seek?" He questioned. Haytham turned to look at us.
"Order. Purpose. Direction. No more than that. It's your lot that means to confound with this nonsense talk of freedom. Time was, the assassins professed a more sensible goal, that of peace."
"Freedom is peace." Connor argued. I wouldn't say it out loud, but I didn't agree with that statement.
"Oh no," Haytham disagreed. "It's an invitation to chaos. Only look at this little revolution your friends have started. I have stood before the continental congress and listened to them stamp and shout. All in the name of liberty. But it's just noise." Turning to me, Haytham tipped his head up. "You've been awfully quiet. Tell me, what do you believe of all this?" He asked me, and now I feel like the spotlight was pointed at me, a huge crowd gathered to watch me make a fool of myself. Connor also directed his attention to me, so the pressure was on.
"You wanna know what I think?" I asked crossing my arms and sighing. "I think freedom and order are relative. You can have one, then the other, but the moment something goes wrong, people don't care about either of those things. Survival is the only absolute thing in this world. I should know better than anyone about that. You can free people, create order in the world, but there is no peace anywhere. Down to our core, it is nothing but primal instincts to survive, and only when you're long dead does peace come. So this centuries old fight you've got going on, order, freedom, peace, it's pointless. That's my take on all of this."
Haytham and Connor both stared at me, not really expecting such a deep, philosophical thing to come out of me at this moment in time. I was starting to feel shy about it and pulled my hood down further.
"Let's just go." I begged. I didn't mean to let all of that spill, but he asked. I don't think he got the answer he wanted, though.
