Whiskey And Cigarettes

It was the middle of the night and Michael was sitting in his tent. It was large enough for a bed and a small desk with a chair, a lamp on the desk illuminated the tent with a warm glow, Vidic was given a similar tent to stay in. Outside could be heard the sounds of machines digging through dirt in hopes of finding the treasure Abstergo sought. At least they're digging in the wrong direction.

Michael was sitting at the desk thinking about Chloe trying to decide whether she was insane and the task that had been handed to him to 'save the girl' wasn't just an effect of the Animus messing with his head, then Vidic walked in carrying a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

"Evening doc, what can I do for you?" asked Michael.

"That digging is infuriating, I was going to have a drink but I can't think of anything more depressing than drinking alone." Said Vidic in his usual matter of fact, and always slightly angry tone.

"I can think of a few things, but come in take a seat and pour some glasses." Vidic walked up to him but didn't take a seat on the bed, for a moment Michael didn't realise what he was hinting at but then sighed and got off the only chair in the tent and sat on the bed. Even here he has to be the boss.

Once he had sat down, Vidic poured two glasses of whiskey and lit a cigarette for himself. They drank the first sip in silence and remained that way for a while. After sucking on his cigarette Vidic spoke.

"I suppose you still have some anxieties about us, while we're here why don't you get them off your chest." Again his demeanour changed like it had on the plane ride, Michael didn't know how to react to this Vidic, could be a trap.

"I don't have any anxieties, you explained yourself earlier and it's all fine now" replied Michael.

"I am speaking to you frankly, please do me the favour of not playing games and tell me what you think of all this."

Michael had to pause, he glanced at Vidic's glass of whiskey and wandered whether it was really so strong as to make the man drop his guard. He decided to test this out.

"I've been thinking, once you get this artefact, what do you plan to do with it?"

"Save the world"

"So nothing too big then." His sarcasm was lost on Vidic.

"The world is broken," Michael had to agree to this as it made sense, "If you were given the chance to fix it, not temporarily like some earlier attempts but permanently and for eternity, wouldn't you take that chance" his question was rhetorical but Michael answered anyway.

"The world is broken, I agree with you, but you can't force peace that's something people have to decide for themselves."

"How old are you Michael?" Vidic asked taking another swig of his whiskey.

"Twenty five, twenty six in a couple of months."

"I'm sixty one, when I was born my father went to fight in Korea and came back a bitter man, when I was twelve he went off to Vietnam and there he died, I could tell you I shed tears for him because that's what you're supposed to say, the truth is I was happy when he died, it meant one less bitter old man in the world. Now years later I am the bitter old man" he took another swig of his whiskey and laughed a scratchy laugh and had a bit more of his cigarette.

"People can't decide to have peace because the nature of man is to kill, the ancestor you visited in the Prohibition era for example he was a hired killer, that's how much we have been desensitised to death that we now see it as a business. With the Piece of Eden we have a key piece of a very big puzzle to help us change the nature of man, and to have an end to bitter old men." He took one last swig of his whiskey and finished the glass, then poured himself another.

Michael hadn't touched his since Vidic was making his speech.

"That's quite a speech you made." Said Michael as he took another sip of his whiskey.

"I've had years to perfect it, drink up that glass and let me pour another, that digging is going out there is going to go on all night and I still have more than half a bottle left." Michael downed the rest of the glass and Vidic poured him another, at that moment the world flashed bright orange and then the shockwave hit the tent so hard it flew away into the forest leaving Michael sitting on a bed in the middle of the forest with a drunken Warren Vidic next to him. The whole scene would have been comical were it not for the burning wreckage of what had been the digger scattered around the camp.

Warren immediately sobered up as he began yelling orders for water and a medic to go to the aid of the worker who had been on the machine when it exploded.

Michael was running with him to where the explosion had happened and saw a body charred body being pulled from the wreckage of the destroyed digger, the smell of burned flesh mixed with the whiskey shot he just took on an empty stomach caused him to puke right there. No one noticed as they were busy and Vidic was too busy giving orders.

"You go grab another hose and put that fire out before this place looks like Vietnam! Gus what the hell happened here?" Whatever Gus' answer was Michael didn't hear because he saw the man flickering in and out of existence again. He looked to where all the men were busy helping clear the wreckage and putting out fires and no one was looking his way. Making up his mind he followed the ghost of the man towards the forest, he picked up a shovel along the way from where some of the work tents were that hadn't been blown away by the explosion.

He was led to an unremarkable piece of land in the forest and saw the man yet again place the small metal chest into the ground.

Here he dug with the shovel; the man had hidden it fairly deep as it took him a good fifteen minutes to dig until he hit the chest. Going to his knees he wiped away the last of the dirt and pulled the chest up. His excitement at finding it faded very quickly when he found that it was locked with some kind of mechanism, it wasn't a keyhole as the opening was perfectly circular and wasn't deep enough for a key, it looked like a tiny bowl in the middle of the chest.

"There you are" he heard Vidic's voice coming from the forest as he slowly emerged from the trees flanked by Gus and James. The two big security guards had their guns out but hadn't pointed them yet. Run, was his first thought but where could he run to, this was an island. If he fought he would be killed. If he lied and was caught out he would most likely killed be tortured and then killed.

"I saw something, I don't know how to explain it, it was a man, a ghost of a man, it led me here and it showed me where to dig." It was the most ridiculous thing he had ever said but it was the truth and he hoped that Vidic would believe him. He was taken aback as this wasn't what he was expecting as Michael's defence.

"And this vision of this ghost, you only saw it a few minutes ago." Replied Vidic.

Come on now lie like your life depends on it. "Yes"

A long silence stretched and the security men's fingers were getting twitchy on their triggers.

"Help Michael up Gus, James take the chest away from him and put it on the plane, I think we found what we're looking for."