Chapter 7: The Infiltration

The next couple of days passed by in a flash. The three of us stayed in the hotel for the most part with the exception of leaving for food, except for Rebecca who booked a guided tour of the St. Louis Cathedral with one thought in mind. She managed to place a bug on the alter and it was linked to her laptop. It allowed any of us to hear any conversation that was going on near the alter. William had hopes that it would yield something of use, some hint that would tell us if there really was a trap door as I suspected. It was in front of that laptop that I found myself late Monday afternoon.

I had a pair of external speakers hooked up to the computer to better hear anything that came out of it. At the moment though, I was hearing nothing but a little white noise. It had been the same for the past two days, taking shifts listening for anything and mostly hearing nothing other than snippets of normal conversation. We were all starting to tire of it but had decided not to move until we heard something decisive.

I snapped back to attention as I heard loud footsteps coming from the speakers. I had been staring out of the window at the crowds of people walking the streets below, many with drinks in their hands or clutching bags from the many tourist shops around. "Any sign of the Assassin?" A voice said and I recognized it at once as the priest who had questioned me and led the service during my recon mission.

"None, I'm afraid, Lewis," came another voice. "Not that I am all that surprised. You know their kind are masters of hiding."

"What about the girl? You know the one whom I refer to," Lewis said. "The one that I caught coming down from the balcony. I know she is with them. I know she was lying to me!"

"Are you really so certain, Lewis?" The second man spoke, yet his voice sounded distant as if he had walked away from the alter. I grabbed my phone and fired off a quick text to Rebecca who had gone out to pick up dinner and William who was back in his own room. "The way you made it sounded, she was nothing more than a girl fresh out of school."

A loud bang from the speaker echoed throughout the hotel room and I could only guess that this Lewis had slammed his fist on something hard. It must have hurt his hand. "Don't be so fucking dense, Brandon!" He shouted. "You've been in the know long enough to know by now that these bastards are born into that life! For all I know…"

The hotel room door opened fast and I jumped up with my fists clenched startled, but it was only William. He looked slightly out of breath, as if he couldn't bother to wait for the elevator and took the stairs at a dead sprint. "Anything useful?" He asked, pulling up the chair next to me and sitting down.

"Mostly arguing back and forth," I said taking a sip of water. "Your name was mentioned once, and it would seem I made an impression as a liar."

I thought I may have heard a soft chuckle from William, but he laughed so infrequently that I couldn't be sure. "So, they did indeed recognize me," he said softly. "And they already suspect you. This could complicate things a bit. I had hoped that by sending you in, it would give us an element of surprise. Those bastards are smart though."

"What are we going…" I started to ask something, but William cut me off with a wave of his hand.

Lewis's voice came through the speaker louder than ever. "I want guards here every night going forward Brandon! No one who even looks at this place funny gets anywhere near here, am I clear?"

"Crystal, sir," Brandon said.

"One more thing," Lewis went on, his voice full of vitriol, "if you even so much as catch sight of William or that other bitch, bring me their corpses…" He trailed off now sounding like he was speaking more to himself than his accomplice. "My family has guarded this artifact since before the War of 1812…and I will be damned if I lose it to those fucking Assassin's now!"

"Do you think we should move it?" Brandon asked Lewis quietly.

Laughter came through the speaker just as the door to the room opened once more and Rebecca walked in carrying two large paper bags. The scent that wafted into the room smelled delicious. "No need, Brandon," Lewis said as if the very thought of it was amusing. "It has rested in the same place since the great fire here. It is too well guarded. No one has a chance of getting it."

William closed the laptop with a little more force than seemed necessary. He had a smug smile on his face, one that I had never seen from him before. "It's as good as ours," he said quietly as he stood up from the chair.

Rebecca opened one of the paper bags and started pulling out styrofoam containers of food and set them on top of the dresser. "Good news?" She asked as she opened one of the containers and checked the contents of it. It smelled delicious.

"Oh yes," William said, grabbing a container and a pair of chopsticks before returning to the chair. "We know for certain that the artifact is here and based on what Madison and you both observed inside the church, we have a very good idea on where it actually is as well. Still, it doesn't make this any less complicated."

"It's always going to be complicated, William," Rebecca responded while I grabbed a container of my own and almost started salivating at the sight of the sushi inside of it. I was starving. I sat back down and dug in, content to just listen to what Rebecca and William would have to say. "How complicated are we talking about anyway?"

I glanced back and forth from Rebecca to William and back as I shoved a piece of sushi in my mouth. "I'm going to guess that Rebecca will have to go in for the artifact," I said though my words were muffled through a mouth full of food. "Since they basically have a kill on sight order for William and I."

I didn't like the idea of Rebecca having to try to retrieve the artifact on her own, but we could see no way around it. A plan started to come together as we all sat their eating. And the more we talked and planned, the more nervous I started to feel. I knew that I was going to be in for a fight, and not the normal kind of scraps that I had gotten in more times than I cared to count growing up, but a real fight. Potentially a fight to the death. The thought that I may actually have to take a life frightened me, but William had pointed out that it was a very real possibility that it could come down to their life or mine and that I must be prepared to do whatever was necessary to survive. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared shitless about what was coming, but I also felt something else as we continued to talk and plan. I felt anxious and excited. I was ready. Ready to do my part to take the artifact. It would have to wait thought, for now.

Some of how I was feeling must have been visible on my face because Rebecca placed a hand on my shoulder and spoke directly to me. "You look ready to go right this instant," she said. "But it would be too risky to try anything tonight, just based on what you and William heard. The Templars are on the highest of alert right now. And though I don't think it'll die down anytime soon, we should at least wait for a couple of days before we move."

I knew that she was right. It wasn't just the prospect of retrieving an artifact from an ancient civilization that had me ready to go, it was something else as well. I was enjoying my time in New Orleans, I really was, but I missed my house. Though I had only stayed in it for a short period of time, it had started to feel more like a home than any place I had ever lived. I honestly missed my bed and my yard. I missed my giant shower and training in the outside sun. I was ready to be home again. I floated the idea in my head of a night out on the town with Rebecca when we got back but thought better than to voice it. I had to stay in the present. I had to keep my mind of the mission. I had to focus on not getting killed. Everything else could wait.

If I thought the time leading up to my recon attempt flew by, the complete opposite seemed to be true for the time we spent finalizing the plans to steal the artifact. Hours seemed to feel like entire days and days felt like weeks. We took turns in shifts watching the cathedral, looking for any sign of anything unusual. I had taken the early morning, Rebecca the afternoon and evening, and William kept a close watch overnight. He wasn't convinced that they wouldn't try to move the artifact and assumed that if they did it would be late into the night and he would be ready should they do it. We never seemed to see anyone standing guard outside and the bug that Rebecca had placed had mysteriously gone silent so I could only assume that it had been found and destroyed. It was bound to happen at some point.

I was towards the end of my fourth shift watching the front of the church when I finally saw something out of place. Four men in business suits walked out of the church and I adjusted my position on a tree limb a good 40 feet in the air to get a better look. Seeing people in suits was nothing unusual, but these four in particular happened to be carrying weapons. They looked like steel batons, but the tips did not look blunt at all. The points glinted in the morning sun and they looked sharp enough to run me through with very little effort. That Lewis person wasn't kidding about wanting us dead. I strained to hear what they four were talking about, but only caught snippets and certain words. I heard something about a staff and a waste of time. The words "impenetrable" floated up to me and I knew that I had just witnessed what we had been looking for.

The group stopped directly under my tree and I did my best to conceal myself in the leaves. I smelled smoke and assumed at least one of them lit up a cigarette. "This is starting to feel pointless," one of the men said. His voice was rough, and I knew that he was one of the smokers. "How do we know that the Assassin is even still in the city?"

"Oh, come on man," another younger sounding man said. "You know as well as I do that they are probably just buying time. Now hurry up and finish smoking. I'm starving."

The men continued to go back and forth for a couple of minutes before one of them smacked the tree with his baton, cursing and walked away. I never took my eyes off of them as they retreated back inside the church and only when the doors closed did I exhale. They all looked pretty tough and I had doubts in my ability to take any of them in a fight. I flexed my wrist, causing my hidden blade to extend and retract. I knew I could have easily gotten the jump on them while they were outside, but I knew that as soon as I would have dispatched one of them my life would be taken by the other three.

"Did you catch any of that?" I asked into the earpiece that let me talk to Rebecca.

"Bits and pieces," Rebecca responded to me. I was guessing that William was still sleeping after being out here all night. "Come on back to the hotel, I honestly don't think that we'll get anything more and it for sure sounds like the artifact is not going to be moved."

"Got it," I said and began my decent down the tree, hopping from limb to limb until I was finally low enough that I leapt down. Once upon a time I never would have wanted to jump down like I just did, but my training took over and I went into a roll just before my feet touched the ground. A child tugged on his mother's shirt and pointed to me, but by the time she turned to look, I had already ducked away.

I did my best to blend in with the crowds in the street as I made my way back to the hotel, just in case someone was trying to tail me. No one paid me much attention as I gently shouldered my way past people as most of them were too preoccupied with their own business or deep in conversation with others.

It only took me a few minutes to make my way back to the hotel. Rebecca was waiting for me in the lobby with a couple of soda's in her hand. William met us in the room a couple of hours later and discussion started on ways to take the staff. It was going to be a fairly straightforward plan. William and I would attempt to infiltrate the church and draw the attention of the guards, hopefully leading them outside. Rebecca would then attempt to sneak through the fight that would inevitably be happening to find the entrance to the underground, which we were all now thoroughly convinced was hidden behind the alter. The plan was to move tomorrow night, so hopefully I as well as the other two could be fully rested.

I must have been delusional if I had thought I was going to get anything resembling a restful night's sleep. I put on a movie that night and attempted to fall asleep to it, but my mind would not shut down. The bed felt stiff and uncomfortable, and no position that I put my body in felt natural. I thought that I was prepared for it, but now that it was the last night, I was questioning whether any of my training was going to pay off. I cat napped on and off, falling asleep for maybe ten to twenty minutes at a time before jerking awake. I remember checking my phone and seeing that it was after three in the morning. I must have fallen asleep sometime after that, but it was anything but restful. Horrible dreams haunted me throughout the early morning hours. I saw Rebecca laying on the ground bleeding out, William in agonizing pain, fighting to even stay alive. I felt myself getting stabbed and falling to the ground.

I awoke in a cold sweat, trembling, and Rebecca standing over me, a concerned look on her face. "You okay, girl?" she asked, sitting down on the foot of the bed.

My response was muffled as I stifled a deep yawn. "Fine," I said sleepily. "Just didn't sleep well."

"I could tell," Rebecca said, standing up and walking over to the dresser. "You talk in your sleep. Have some coffee." She grabbed the small pot off of the burner and poured us each a cup.

I threw the sheet off of me, embarrassed that Rebecca had heard my sleep talk. Hopping out of bed, I gratefully took the cup and sipped the bitter, scalding liquid. The coffee was still not good, but I had somewhat grown accustomed to it as we were all trying to avoid as much public exposure as possible.

"We're going to be fine," Rebecca said as I sat down by the window and looked outside. I guessed that she must have known what my nightmares were about based on my talking. "Sure, it's dangerous, but I'm not worried. Know why?"

"Why?" I asked through another sip of coffee.

"Because you've got my back," she said smiling and I blushed remembering a conversation we had back at my house before coming here. "Just like I've got yours."

Her words brought me comfort and I held onto them for the entire day leading up to the night. William came to the room later that morning but did not stay long at all. He was all business. Checking and double checking that everyone knew their respective assignments. He returned to his room and none of us saw him again until that night.

The day flew by and nightfall came much quicker than I anticipated. Rebecca kept me in calm spirits throughout the day. She told me about others in the Brotherhood and other fights for the Pieces of Eden and how more often than not they were successful. By the time that her and I had gotten dressed my demeanor had changed again. Adrenaline coursed through my body as I looked at myself in the mirror. A black, form fitting shirt that shaped to my body perfectly, black jeans, and my black boots. A small sling bag held my hidden blade and a steel extendable baton, not the deadly sharp ended ones that I witnessed the Templar's with, but one meant for simply knocking someone out. If I needed more than that, I would have my hidden blade, but I hoped beyond anything that I wouldn't need to use it. Rebecca was dressed very much the same, the difference being her trademark beanie. She wore it pretty much everywhere she went.

Rebecca had told me that they didn't regularly dress in all black like this but being that this was being done at night in a city, they wanted to stick to the shadows as much as possible and hopefully avoid being seen. Her phone chimed quietly, and Rebecca checked it. "William is out there already," she said. "You ready?"

I took a deep breath and put a smile on my face that was not entirely forced. I was ready. Ready to put my training to use, ready to fight for something worth fighting for, ready to do my best to help and protect Rebecca whom I had become so close to ever since I've been brought into this life. "Let's do this," I said with fierce determination in both my eyes and voice.

We received a few looks from people that were in the lobby, I assumed because of how Rebecca and I were dressed, but I ignored it and kept onward. My mind was only on what I had to do in the coming hour or so, nothing else mattered. Rebecca and I kept mostly quiet and stayed in the shadows on our walk to the church. A few people were walking up and down the streets, but it was much less than I had seen on other nights and I attributed that to the fact that it was the middle of the week.

A few people were hanging out around the huge Andrew Jackson statue a short way off of the entrance to the cathedral, but I was honestly not that worried about them. If a fight took place inside the church, it was unlikely that any voices would carry that far. If one took place outside, well that is something that I would worry about if it happened. I sensed a presence ahead of me and in the distance, and when I looked, I saw William step out of the shadows. He was dressed much the same as Rebecca and I, except his weapons were in hand already.

I walked alongside Rebecca and into the shadows of the cathedral. Without a word I opened up the small sling bag that I carried and strapped my blade to my wrist, once again hoping that I would have no need for it. I also withdrew the baton and attached it to my belt loop. I felt more comfortable with the baton as it was less deadly, but also remembered that these people would be attempting to take my life from me.

"Ready your nerves, Madison," William said. "And if it comes down to it, do not hesitate to take their lives, it will not be an easy thing if you have to do it, but remember, they will not hesitate for a single second to take yours."

I extended and retracted my blade quickly by way of response and William nodded. "I got it," I said quietly, watching as Rebecca's eyes moved rapidly scanning the exterior of the building.

"Now," he went on, speaking just loud enough for Rebecca and I to hear him, "as I was saying earlier, the way I want to go about this is as risky as possible, but I think it will work. I will go in, directly through the front. Madison, the moment you hear shit go down I want you in there as quickly as humanly possible. Rebecca, you know what to do. Scale the side and use the window. I am hoping that the Templars will be distracted enough by us for you to get in and get to the tombs unnoticed."

"Understood," Rebecca said, and I noticed something. For one of the first times since I met her, Rebecca's usual cheery attitude seemed to have vanished. She had stopped scanning the cathedral and locked her eyes on mine. "Good luck, Madison," she said giving me a tight hug. "I know you've got this."

William's eyes pierced into her own. "She'll be fine," he said. "I won't let anything happen to her. You just focus on what you need to do. Get that staff away from those fucking Templars and back into our hands."

With that said, William made his way towards the front of the church while Rebecca retreated deeper into the shadows along the side. I followed William and with a quick glance at the statue a little way off I saw that a couple of the people seemed to have left. Only a couple remained, and I thought that a good sign. Clouds had moved in, covering the moon and thus making it a little bit darker. As William pushed on the door it opened silently and I crouched down low to the ground as light from the inside spilled out. The couple of people off in the distance paid no mind to it. William walked inside and I waited in silence for my sign.

I didn't have to wait long; within moments of William entering the cathedral I heard someone shout about an Assassin. That was my que. I unclasped my baton from my belt loop and pressed the small button on the handle causing it to extend. If I had not been holding tight onto it, it was likely that the baton would have shot right out of my hand. I took a deep breath and ran in, ready for whatever was to come.

I saw six people inside. Five people who were dressed the same as the Templars I saw yesterday and William who was already fighting for his life. Baton in one hand and his blade extended on his wrist, he had three of the Templars on him and was giving them every bit that he had. I gripped my baton tightly and charged at one of the two Templars who were not currently fighting William. With a fierce yell I swung my baton as hard as I could at the head of one of the Templars. The man couldn't get his guard up in time and my weapon connected solidly. I had been in my fair share of scraps before, but this was the hardest I have ever swung at someone and the only time I had ever used a weapon on someone. The man stumbled back before collapsing to the floor with a loud yell. Blood poured from his head staining the polished floor

The second Templar who had not been fighting before my entrance turned and cursed at me. "Fucking Assassin!" he snarled as not only he ran at me, but one of the three that had been engaging William broke off to run at me.

The one who cursed at me raised his own baton and I saw just how sharp looking the end was. He wouldn't have to stab me with it to do serious damage, even a glancing blow from the tip of it would be able to gash me open fairly deeply. I saw the blow coming though, and easily managed to get my own weapon up to parry it. As the Templar's baton crashed down onto my own, I saw the second man swing at me from the side and managed to twist around, making him miss as I delivered a kick to his rib cage. It wasn't a strong kick, but it did manage to make the man look at me in shock. It would seem that they were not expecting me to be an accomplished fighter. I must admit that I was shocked myself as the first Templar swung at me once more and I sidestepped the blow and landed one of my own, not to his head, but to the side of his neck. I was suddenly aware of how naturally this felt to me. It was as if I could anticipate where I was about to be attacked from and position myself accordingly with ease.

The tide of a battle can turn in an instant though, and I knew that. I heard a strangled cry come from my left and when I looked over, I saw William pulling a now very bloody blade from one of his attackers' neck. It was probably the most shocking thing I have ever seen. The man collapsed to the ground and did not move. He was very clearly dead. Time seemed to slow down momentarily and my mind, for the first time since the fight started, was distracted. In that very moment, the moment where my mind was not on the fight, for the split second that my eyes were on the dead Templar, the two that I had been fighting pressed their advantage.

White lights popped in front of my eyes as a crushing blow landed on the back of my head and I fell to my knees gasping. It was not enough to knock me out, but it did hurt like hell. William saw me fall and immediately broke off from the one remaining Templar that was still on him and closed the distance on the one that had hit me. Without of word he grabbed the man and flung him against a wooden pew, getting him away from me.

I heard footsteps approaching me from behind and knew that it was another Templar. There were still three left after the one William had killed and the one that I knocked out. I spun around, still on my knees, blindly swinging my baton as hard as I could once more. The blow connected and I felt a small smile pull at the corner of my mouth when I realized that I had landed a direct hit clean on the man's groin. He screamed in agony and as he started to collapse, I swung my leg up in a powerful kick. The heel of my boot landed square on his mouth. Blood spurted out as I felt his teeth break under the power of my kick and just like that, I had incapacitated a second Templar. The pain in my head was starting to fade and I jumped up and rubbed the spot that I had been hit. A lump was already starting to form, but my hand came away clean, telling me that my head had not been split open. William was still fighting the last two of the Templars, and I was about to charge over and take one of them off his hands when I heard something that put all thoughts of the fight out of my head.

A loud scream echoed throughout the cathedral. It came from below and I knew the voice. It was Rebecca. She must have managed to make her way in through a window and both William and I being so focused on fighting had not even seen her. The sound of her yell filled me with dread as I looked over and saw a wooden door open in the floor behind the alter. I was right about it after all. I didn't even notice that William hand flung one of the two remaining Templars that were still standing past and to the ground. My mind was only on Rebecca and what I could do to help her.

"Go!" William shouted at me. "Leave these guys to me!"

I took one look at him and nodded before running down the isle of the cathedral and vaulting over the alter. I landed just in front of the opening in the floor and looked down into the hole. Light flickered deep down below and I thought that it looked like torch light instead of light bulbs. With one more deep breath I lowered myself onto the wooden ladder that would take me down below, not knowing what would be waiting for me.

Chapter Album:

Van Halen: Best of Volume 1

Witchy's Note:

I got through this chapter a little quicker than I thought I would. Still it took me longer than I would have liked. Things have been slightly hectic for me at work and I have had very little time to actually work on this at work. I swear it is almost like they expect me to actually do what they pay me to do instead of writing. But here we are. This tale is coming to an end. I have one more chapter planned and then an epilogue. I'll be starting on the last chapter tonight. Thank you all who are reading, and I hope that you are enjoying the exploits of Madison. One last thing: RIP Eddie Van Halen. A true legend of rock gone too soon.