She leaned back against the headrest and waited for her breathing to slow down. 'I've just been attacked and Altair is alive.' Her whole body began shaking and she felt the now familiar nausea begin to churn her insides.

"It's alright Maria you are safe now keep your eyes closed and breathe slowly."

It was Malik's voice but her nerve racked insides wouldn't let her calm down enough to reply. She raised her head and turned it toward him, a look somewhere between disbelief and shock on her face, "Fucking hell Malik what just happened?"

"Everything will be explained to you very soon but the important thing is we were in hiding when one of our moles informed us you were receiving attention from some very bad men. We located Ahmed but the phone number he had for you was no longer in use, all he had was an email address. We wanted to warn you to be careful until we got to you but it is most likely your communications were being monitored so we had to use code and hope you would understand."

Still stunned she looked from his face to her shaking hands, "That mobile was destroyed in Masyaf, I sort of did get that you were warning me but the number you gave me got me some grumpy old Arab who didn't know the name."

The young man in the front passenger seat turned his head to her and Maria saw a long thin scar, still fresh and angry, running from his ear to his neck. "Jabal! Malik I told you he would never have the sense to remember what you told him. He should be out tending goats not the safe house."

She grinned at the young man, "Glad to see you are alive and well Kadar I think you were under a house the last time I saw you."

He chuckled, "As am I glad to see you Maria; we were beginning to worry when you never replied to the emails."

"Junk mail swallowed them up, I was lucky to see them at all."

Altair hadn't spoken since he got into the car; he threw a glance over his shoulder at Malik, "What of the men in the van?"

"They were taken care of just as we discussed."

Maria looked horrified, "What van and taken care of how?"

Altair replied but he never took his eyes from the road. "The van which had been parked across from your house at least for the past two days, we can only guess if it was there longer."

She never asked him to go into details with the taken care of part of her question she could guess. "You do know this is Britain you can't just kill people and calmly walk away."

Malik raised his eyebrows and smirked, "Are you suggesting murder is legal in Syria?" She rolled her eyes but let her head drop back onto the headrest. "They would have done terrible things to you Maria purely for helping us surely you understand we couldn't let that happen?"

Her head flopped to the side to face him, "Of course I understand but I'm stunned. Things like this don't happen in real life you know? On top of that here you are, not two months after your arm was amputated. Should you have even flown?"

Kadar again leaned back in his seat beaming with pride, "He was out of hospital and reunited with us with a week of the surgery. He had a lot of medication but he coped well. Can I just say what a brilliant idea that was you had to switch his identity; the military did check the hospital for gunshot victims."

"We can continue this discussion inside we have arrived."

Maria tried to see where it was Altair was declaring as their destination then she saw it, a three storey wreck of a building with crumbling masonry and flaking paint. "You're kidding me?"

Altair looked directly at her for the first time since they had gotten into the car "We could hardly book into the Savoy; this place is fine we will only be here for one night two at the most."

Malik leaned over and spoke directly into her ear, "The cockroaches certainly seem fond of the place."

"I would have guessed it was the cockroaches running the place." She looked at Kadar coming around the front of the car, "You slept here last night?"

"No we arrived this morning and dropped off our bags before leaving to find you."

Altair faced the three of them with growing annoyance, "We need to keep a low profile and this fits our needs."

Maria walked in front of him, "Let's just get inside before anyone else sees us."

"You are safe for now Maria you need not concern yourself tonight."

"Never mind the bloody bad guys whoever they are! I'm more worried about people driving past thinking I'm a prostitute taking three Arabs into a seedy hotel room."

Malik grinned, Kadar blushed and Altair rolled his eyes but all three followed her inside. She was led up a dingy and dark stair case to a yellow door, probably at one time in its life it had been white but those days were long gone. Altair opened it and Maria stuck a head inside. She saw the look on his face and decided not to complain considering she was alive and in a position to complain it may have seemed petty.

The green carpet was heavily stained and held together with black tape in places and the only dressing on the window was an old net curtain which hadn't seen the inside of a washing machine for a while. "At least it matches the paint work."

"This is your room, there were only 2 rooms available but we are just down the hall." She stepped inside and when her sandal stuck to the carpet she looked pleadingly at Malik. "Does low profile really have to mean vile?"

He took her by the sleeve and led her along the hall, "Our room isn't as bad as this. We can cosy in together and find something better tomorrow."

Their room, while not the Ritz at least had whole carpets and roller blinds on the window. There was a double and a single bed and a small table with a portable TV taking up most of its surface.

They talked for a while and Maria learned it had been another of Altair's bullets which had caused Abbas' neck to explode and not her throwing knife. An ambulance had arrived and he had instructed the driver to take her to Masyaf hospital, they had all found "Alternative care."

Kadar and Malik had done most of the talking with Altair sitting at the table giving his full attention to a laptop. He could barely look at her and Maria guessed he knew Malik had told her about his wife. She decided not to tell him about the baby it had been a one night stand nothing more and she was no home wrecker.

When she yawned Malik stood up from the bed he was sitting on, "You can have the small bed we can all fit on the double."

She looked at the bed he had just vacated and grimaced. Taking off her jacket she placed it over the pillow and decided she would lie on top of the blankets. Everyone except Altair got as comfortable as possible on the beds, "I really am relieved we got to you in time Maria; the idea of you being punished for helping us was not something I relished."

She smiled across the gloomy room at Malik and stretched. "Might have been nice of you to let me know sooner it hadn't been in vain but I suppose it all worked out in the end."

She lay looking at the cracked ceiling for a while wondering if now was the time to mention the story she had told to escape Syria unpunished. Malik pushing his brother's feet out of his face was enough of a clue they were still awake, "You know I really do feel bad about lying to the authorities in Syria but I was terrified of being tortured or something so I told them what they wanted to hear and got home to London instead of a Damascus prison. I know a lot of people died that day and I don't want to seem like it didn't matter to me because it did more than I would have guessed in fact."

Kadar sat bolt upright in the bed his grin bright enough to be seen in the murky light of the room. "Maria it was brilliant what you said, there is no way we wanted you to tell the truth that lie was safer for you and us. When we saw you on state T.V you looked so pale and alone. Knowing you were back in the bosom of your family made our own recovery easier. Altair checked on your progress many times a day, looking for any sign of a move being made against you."

Maria mumbled a quiet response, not trusting herself to speak because his name being mentioned to make him seem so caring had her temper spiking.

'Oh fuck quiet he needs to hear this.'

"Well if you were so fucking concerned with my safety why not just email me sooner and tell me to be on the lookout? On top of that why leave me thinking you were all dead! Those men at the hospital said you were all killed that day and considering the amount of destruction it wasn't a huge stretch to believe them."

Altair finally lifted his head out of the laptop, "Come we will go to the other room to discuss this. Malik has been having trouble sleeping and he needs to be rested if we are to get home safely."

She swung her legs off the bed and followed him along the hall glaring at the back of his head. She needed to be careful how she played this she didn't want him to know how much he had hurt her and more especially what their fling had led to; she was going to have to keep her temper in check.

Once inside the dingy room he flicked on the light switch and his face twitched. "Malik was right it was a horrible idea staying in a rundown hotel but the Templars have eyes and ears everywhere and we must do all we can to stay off their radar." He moved to the small dresser by the window and lifted the chair from there to the bottom of the bed.

She sat on the bed pulling the skirt of her dress down and under her knees hating how dirty she imagined this bed was but glad not to be standing. "Are the Templars some sort of Syrian extremist group it seems an odd choice of name for them to take considering who the Templars were originally?"

He moved the chair under him and pulled it closer to her, Maria wished she could move further up the bed but that would be ridiculous. "They are the same group of men Maria this is a long story and it will take a lot of faith for you to believe it but I promise you everything I am going to tell you is true."

He spent the next half hour or so explaining to her that the group of knights from the Crusades had discovered a higher purpose, chasing something he called Pieces of Eden in order for them to gain dominion over the entire world. They had changed their name publicly after the order was decimated in the 14th century but had carried on in their efforts in secret and grown incredibly powerful through their endeavours in banking and commerce.

"And let me guess you are the remnants of the fabled assassins fighting nobly against such corrupt and powerful enemies?" She made no attempt to keep the contempt out of her voice, the fantastic tale he spun deserved nothing less. There was no way it was true but if he actually believed it to be so then she was carrying the child of a deluded fanatic.

His expression remained soft as his eyes remained fixed on hers. "You don't have to believe me now Maria there is plenty of time for you to learn the truth in my words. For now it is enough that you are safe and that we are reunited." One hand ran along the length of her thigh while the other cupped her cheek. "I could barely breathe thinking of you being in harm's way."

His face moved closer to hers and all she could think of were his eyes. The orange glow from the street light had caught his golden flecks and given them the appearance of what? An endless desert baking in the sun...

His mouth brushed against her lips and her entire body lunged forward to strengthen the connection. Her arms enveloped his neck as their kiss deepened the only sound in the world was their heartbeats, synchronised and keeping perfect time with the other. He pushed her back onto the bed and laid beside her his hands slowly beginning to explore her body.

Her mind was racing one incoherent thought ran into another making it impossible for her to grasp at a single one, his mouth and his hands, her love, his wife, belonging and how being with him felt so right. Finally one thought gained the upper hand, his wife...

"Get off me." She pushed him aside hating how the cool air invaded the fabric of her light dress and wondering why she hadn't felt so cold before.

She shifted from the bed and avoided his gaze as he apologised for rushing things.

"I'm sorry I should have taken into account how traumatic this has been for you, I can be inconsiderate."

He stood and took hold of her shoulder gently urging him to face her, "I endangered you and then I show up here hoping that what we had was not lost."

"What we had!" She spat the words at him as though they tasted foul in her mouth, "You left me to believe you were dead Altair. Yes this is the 21st century and a one night stand is fine but my God did it not occur to you that I was suffering believing you all to be dead? Would it have killed you to spare me a moment of your time to let me know you were okay?"

"Maria you were home and dry. I wanted to contact you a thousand times, to come to you but how could I do that? You were back in your old life. What right do I have to come after you and drag you back into my unstable and dangerous world?"

She wanted to tell him that his wife was the real reason he had kept her in the dark but that was a can of worms she wasn't ready to open. Her emotions were shredded and her mind was spinning. Even on a good day this man could run rings around her for her to have any chance of getting to the truth she needed a clear head and a steady heart.

"I'm tired I want to go to sleep we can finish your fantastic fairy tale tomorrow before I go home."

She brushed past him but he caught her hand stopping her but not forcing her back. "Was it really nothing more than a fleeting encounter to you Maria?"

She kept her back to him hoping she could keep the lie from her voice but knowing her face would betray her, "Had it not been for the carnage of that day I doubt I would even have remembered your name."

She felt him release her hand and she made her way to the other room and the safety of numbers. She passed a woman leading a plump middle aged man into the room between the two they were occupying and chuckled at how right she had been about this sordid little place of business. Malik and Kadar were both still awake bickering about space and Maria genuinely had to smile. These men had probably killed many times and yet here they were wrestling for more territory on a shabby mattress.

"Play nice children or I'll make you both stand in a corner." She lay back down on her coat fighting the urge to run back outside to Altair and tell him she had been dishonest about her feelings but this was the only way to handle this situation. She would not now or ever come between a man and his wife even if it meant breaking her own heart she refused to be that woman.

Altair entered the room moments after and went back to his seat at the table. "I'll sleep here, I have much to do you two can have the bed."

Everything settled down and right on cue the prostitute in the next room began earning her money. Maria wanted to laugh at her comically exaggerated howls and moans but the men all seemed uncomfortable if the level of spontaneous coughing was anything to go by that is.

She was almost screaming now and by all accounts she was in bed with a plump middle aged sex god.

"Don't worry boys the only time you will hear such impassioned cries during sex are while listening to a prostitute or watching porn, woman never make those sounds for real." She saw Malik lift his head to her and she embellished, "I just don't want you leaving here with an inferiority complex is all." Reconsidering his expression she suggested an alternative for his look, "Or have I just shattered your own ego Mr Al Sayf? Did you once make a lady produce similar noises and now you have learned the truth of women and their wily faking ways?"

She saw the pillow come towards here but moved too late it caught her square on the face, laughing as she spoke she had one final dig at the handsome and far too self assured Arab, "Ah, I see I hit a nerve. Oh well never mind I'm sure she still had a lovely time with you."

Kadar's sudden gale of laughter earned him a swift boot to the arse and he landed on the floor beside the bed but laughed even harder. "Malik the stud..."

His laugh was contagious and soon both Maria and Malik joined him, the hilarity being interspersed with insults from one man to the other.

Maria saw Altair at the laptop but he wasn't laughing. She wondered if he was thinking about their encounter and thinking perhaps the sounds she had drawn from her had been fake, so much the better if he did think that it made her job easier.

Everyone in the room was asleep except Altair. He looked over at the woman in the single bed and felt a pang of regret. They had dragged her into a world she never knew existed and he had been foolish enough to believe she would love him enough to enter it willingly. She had proved him wrong there was no future for him and her but what he could do was to make her safe before he left. They would be staying in London far longer than they had planned but he would not leave her until he was certain there was no further threat to her even if it killed him.


I am writing a one shot for Trainspotting and have to admit this chapter was heavily influenced by the movie :)

Another short chapter but hey it's an update the ball is rolling once again, hope you enjoy!