*Hope everyone's okay. Back with another chapter, let's go!*

...

"Barton speaking."

"Kane White. Hook me up to Kingston. Immediately."

"It's rather late, ain't it, White? Is this important?"

"Do you think I'd be dialling this goddamn number if it wasn't?" Kane clenched his fist and placed it on his desk.

Barton didn't reply for a few moments as he typed something out on a computer.

"Give it ten seconds and you'll be on his line."

Kane patiently waited until he heard a long beeping noise on the other end.

"Master Kingston."

"Kane White speaking. I was calling in regards to the contracts you sent me last night."

Kane calmed himself down a bit before sitting down in his chair.

"Ah, White. You're talking about the less important contracts, right?" Kingston got up from his chair.

"Didn't seem less important to me."

"Oh?"

Kingston stopped speaking for a few moments as he let Kane speak.

"The warehouse you told us to explore was used by the templars. I'm mainly calling to get permission to explore it further alongside the other warehouses in the vicinity."

Kingston's face wasn't visible, but Kane could feel him rolling his eyes as he sighed. "So, the contract failed?"

"I gave the contract to our juniors, Luka Cvitković and Ashley Richardson. They handled it fine, but they were jumped by the same three templars that jumped me."

"The Begucci brothers."

Kane's eyes widened as he leaned back in his chair.

"I looked through some of our files today and discovered them. They come from a prestigious Italian family and they're directly working for the Italian head of the Templar Order, Daniella Giovanni."

"Correction, they were working for her. All three of them are dead."

"Oho, are you juniors responsible for that?"

"Somehow I feel that you know the answer to that," He paused for a moment. "Hugh and I took care of them. The juniors managed to hurt them severely, so they did most of the work."

"They sound like they fared better than most rookies. Good work, White. As for the permission, feel free to finish things up and even do extra work. It'll be good for your image." Kingston sat back down in his chair. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to head off for the night."

"Of course, master. I appreciate your help."

Kingston hung up. Kane put the phone down and noticed Hugh was standing at his door.

"Well, did it go well?" Hugh crossed his arms and took a few short steps forward.

"Surprisingly, yeah. We got full permission to explore the rest of the warehouses." Kane lit his pipe smoke and exhaled.

"Alright, good. The juniors are fine, by the way. Rae will stay with them for the night."

"You aren't gonna stay with them?"

"Why do you think I'm here? Rae wouldn't let me. She told me I had to rest, too. You know how she gets when she's worried," Hugh walked up to his brother and tapped his shoulder. "Let's just rest for the night. We can check on them in the morning."

Kane slowly nodded a few times as he took another drag of smoke from his pipe.

...

It was blank.

Once her eyes gained light after a good night's rest, all she was looking up to was the infirmary ceiling.

Ashley instinctively leaned forward and sat up in her bed. She could see Rae sitting on a chair next to her bed and Luka leaning against a wall that was across Ashley's bed. Luka had several bandages across his face as well as his arms and legs.

"Ashley! You're finally awake! Do you know how much you spooked me, baby?" Rae spoke up with excitement as she stood up from her chair.

"Lay back down, Ashley. You took a few big blows and you got stabbed in the stomach. Thankfully, the wound isn't deep. You should be okay within a few days."

Ashley tried to say something, but she stopped herself and she laid back down. She was still looking at Luka whilst laying down.

"Are you okay, lovely?"

"I'm better than yesterday. I took a bigger beating than you did, but I'll be fine." Luka gestured that he was okay with his hands.

"Don't strain yourself, Luka. We both need lots of rest."

"I'm glad you're acknowledging the damage you took. I'll be here with you the entire time." Luka winked at Ashley as she smiled happily.

The door to the infirmary suddenly opened.

Surprisingly, Ryo walked in.

Everyone was a bit shocked but welcoming.

"Ryo, good to see you, man." Luka waved shortly as Ryo took a small bow.

"Good to see you're okay, you two," He looked at Luka then Ashley. "You're probably wondering what happened last night."

Luka waved the back of his hand towards him and Ashley nodded.

"After Kane and Hugh made it to the scene, they murdered the Begucci brothers and left the scene immediately. The rest of the thugs in the warehouse have been arrested by the copy who showed up a minute later."

Luka smiled happily and exhaled slowly. "Well, that's some good news at least. We put up a great fight, too."

Luka looked over towards Ashley and she nodded firmly. "We sure did."

"You're also probably wondering why I'm here. Kane and Hugh called me up and I happened to be in a nearby town, so I was able to make it. We're going to explore the rest of the warehouses along the river. Hopefully, we come up with something good." Ryo turned towards the door and started to walk out of the room.

"Ryo!" Ryo quickly stopped after Luka called his name. "We explored the warehouse a small bit before we were discovered. There were a bunch of boat schematics on one of the tables of the warehouse. There was also some kind of journal on the table."

"Thanks, Luka. That's helpful. Right, take it easy, guys. Recover swiftly." Ryo walked out of the room without much emotion. He seemed angrier than usual.

"He's fired up now. The whole situation must have pissed him off." Ashley spoke up as she grabbed a water bottle from her bedside drawer.

"No doubt about it. He'll do some good work today." Luka looked at Ashley then looked back towards the door.

...

Ryo hastily walked into the main hall where Hugh and Kane were already waiting for him.

"We ready, boys?" Hugh asked positively.

"We'll go whenever you're ready, Ryo." Kane nodded firmly towards Ryo as he maintained eye contact with him.

Ryo inhaled and exhaled deeply and closed his eyes for a few moments. After opening them, he calmly stated. "Yeah, let's go."

The three men started climbing out of the sanctuary one by one.

Once they tasted the cold outside air, Ryo spoke up.

"What makes you think the police haven't just taken all the evidence?"

"I've been in contact with an officer I know who works at our local station. According to him, they haven't found anything worth keeping." Kane spoke up as he started walking towards the main walkways of the town square.

Ryo's eyes widened as he put on a confused expression. "Wasn't there a journal and a whole bunch of schematics, though? Surely that's important enough to grab."

"Kane and I had a conversation about that this morning," Hugh put his arms behind his head and stretched. "Our hunch is that there's a mole in the town's police force. We're thinking they were there during the arrest of all those thugs at the warehouse and they somehow hid all the evidence somewhere or picked it up, but never showed it to anyone else."

Ryo's expression and body language became uneasy. "That's a big theory." He paused for a few moments. "It's kind of scary to think there's a templar amongst the police, though. If they're amongst the local services, how much of the town are they really occupying?"

Kane looked towards Ryo for a moment as he put his hand on Ryo's shoulder. "Don't worry, brother. The templar revolution is under control in Croatia. I know it's scary, but we gotta stay focused to keep the city protected."

Ryo nodded as he ruffled his hair. After a few seconds of silence, Hugh exclaimed. "Come on, lads! Let's parkour to the warehouse! Lift those expressions! Are we in?"

"Right, let's handle this properly!" Kane shouted back with a clenched fist.

Ryo clenched his fist too as he smiled proudly and all three of them started sprinting towards a big building with Hugh leading the charge.

An intense parkour session followed as the assassins had the intention to make it to the warehouse in the shortest amount of time. It didn't take them long at all. They kept up the same pace as when Hugh and Kane were on their way to rescue the juniors. They slowly approached the warehouse and went in from the side door once more. It was daytime, so it wasn't necessary to use any artificial lights. The bright white atmosphere of the winter afternoon set a cold, faulty, almost dark mood inside of the warehouse.

Kane quickly noticed the table Luka was talking about and walked right up to it. Unfortunately, there was nothing on it. Nothing at all. It was just a sturdy wooden table.

"Son of a bitch! Someone managed to get their hands on that journal and the schematics." Kane quickly turned towards the other two men who accompanied him. "Let's search this place anyway, there might be something for us to find."

Ryo and Hugh replied simultaneously.

"Yeah!"

"Right!"

...

After a thorough search of the entire warehouse, including some of the damaged boats, the assassins concluded the situation.

"Nothing. They left absolutely jackshit in here." Hugh said in a rather ticked off tone.

"Well, they couldn't have cleared all the evidence, considering the number of people arrested last night. We must search the rest of the warehouses with haste!" Kane shouted as he waved his hand towards the exit.

"Let's go!" Hugh and Ryo replied with vigour and excitement.

...

They spent most of that afternoon searching through several warehouses.

All they wounded up with was a bunch of broken boats and no evidence at all.

"This has quickly turned into something very lame. How many warehouses do we have left?" Ryo asked with his arms crossed.

"Just one, down by the biggest sewer system."

Kane pointed towards the warehouse that wasn't too far away. They were standing on the biggest bridge in town, so they could see it from their position.

"Alright, let's get this over with."

They quickly made it to the warehouse but noticed several cars in front of it.

"Oh, shit, we got company." Ryo was the first to see the cars as he pointed them out. "There are a bunch of cars down there."

Kane noticed a sewer canal connected to the bottom of the warehouse.

"Let's take the sewers, it'll be harder to track us from there, plus we can remain undetected." Kane started walking back towards the river.

Ryo and Hugh hesitated but quickly followed.

"The shit we do for this job is sometimes too much," Ryo stated quietly enough so Kane couldn't hear him. "The fucking sewers, really?"

Hugh closed his eyes and firmly nodded, indicating that he agreed with Ryo.

...

The sewers wouldn't make the assassins filthy, but the smell was still wretched. The sewer system was known for the sheer amount of space it was built to maintain. The Croatians knew that their garbage supply was enormous, so they made the sewer system equally enormous. Eventually, the assassins made it into a vent that led directly under the warehouse. They could see the warehouse's insides through the top of the ventilation system. It was open enough so that they could hear a few people having a conversation, as well.

A very thick Russian accent could be heard coming from a very large man inside of the warehouse. He seemed to be chatting with someone over a laptop. The man on the other side of the call also had a thick and raspy Russian accent.

"I'm telling you, chief, everything is under control. The Begucci brothers were murdered, so what? Shit like this always happens and we always bounce back. They were a bunch of weaklings anyway." The large man moved his hands around severely until he finished talking.

"Radanov, you know the professionalism we must maintain with the Giovanni family. The Begucci brothers were particularly skilled for the amount of experience they had. No need to bad mouth them any further."

Radanov nodded in understanding. The man on the call kept talking.

"Do we have an update on the shipments for eastern Europe?"

"Already on it, sir, already on it. We were planning to ship them tonight, which would mean they'd arrive in Ukraine and Belarus around the same time." Radanov paused for a moment to think. "Most likely tomorrow."

"Good, I want you to proceed with those shipments as discreetly as you can. The assassins are surely on our tails by now, so we must act quickly! Make sure you can get out of the country safely by tonight."

"Trust me, boss, I'll be out of the country by morning. Have some faith!"

An assistant leaned towards the man on the laptop and spoke. "Mr Mikhailov, we should prepare you for your appointment."

"Of course, of course." Mikhailov turned towards his servant then right back to Radanov. "I'm putting my trust in you, Radanov. Make it back to me safely, alright?"

"Sure thing, boss. I'll keep in touch."

Mikhailov firmly nodded as Radanov left the video call. Radanov walked away from the laptop and started speaking to two women of equal stature who looked very similar. Siblings, perhaps?

"Well, when are we busting this joint?" Ryo whispered as quietly as possible.

"Give it a few minutes." Kane remained patient.

A few of the thugs that Radanov hired were dismissed for the day. They had other activities to tend to, so Radanov sent them off. Radanov seemed like the type of person to be really nice to his family and comrades, but he was most certainly the roughest man in the room if he is with someone he doesn't like. From his body language and his talking habits, you could recognise that easily.

Only Radanov and the two ladies remained in the room. Kane quickly inspected his surroundings to make sure they were alone and he quietly exited the ventilation system. He hid behind a few boats that concealed him perfectly. Radanov seemed to be going through some paperwork as the two ladies carried on a casual conversation. Kane quietly signalled towards Ryo that it was safe to come out since Ryo was a lot smaller than Hugh, so he was a lot more stealthy. Ryo managed to hide behind a big chunk of boxes successfully. Kane held up a hand towards Hugh, signalling him to wait a while. Hugh firmly nodded.

Kane and Ryo started slowly progressing through the room as Ryo split off from Kane to manoeuvre towards the table where Radanov kept all his paperwork. Ryo needed a distraction so he could make it to the table, so Kane looked towards him and signalled that he would jump out from his hiding spot with sign language.

Ryo firmly nodded and signed that he was ready.

Kane looked back towards Hugh and gestured to him that he should prepare to leave his hiding spot. Hugh nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

Kane deeply exhaled and walked in the middle of the room which was clearly in the vision of Radanov and the two women on the side.

Radanov's expression became furious as he stared through Kane.

"White..." Radanov lightly touched the scar on his right eye.

"Long time no see, Radanov."

"What kind of stupid stunt are you pulling, showing up by yourself?!"

"Who said I was by myself?" Kane pointed his hand towards Hugh and waved it forward.

Radanov was quite a large man, but Hugh was bigger than him. There weren't many people larger than Hugh in terms of height and muscle structure. Hugh stepped up behind his brother and revealed himself.

"You brought big brother with you, huh?" Radanov spat on the ground and shouted. "Do you think you can just walk in here without picking a fight?!"

"That's exactly what I'm here to do, Radanov." Kane quickly gazed behind Radanov as he noticed the papers were gone from the table. Ryo must have snatched them successfully. He glared back at Radanov before turning his head towards the two women in the room. "I see you've been busy."

"You fucking prick! These are the Belov twins, some of the highest skilled Russian templars."

"You seem to be pretty confident if you're sharing all that information," Hugh spoke up with his arms crossed. "Aren't you, Vlad?"

Radanov's full name was Vladimir Radanov. Radanov glared through both of the White brothers once again.

"Ohoho, you bet I am. I'm so confident that you won't be leaving here alive that I will tell you their first names as well," He pointed towards one of the twins, then the second one right afterwards. "Aleksandra and Veronika. Aleksandra is the one with the sword and Veronika is the one with the bow."

Hugh and Kane did a small bow out of respect. Aleksandra and Veronika both nodded.

"Girls! Do your job, would you?" Radanov shouted once more. "MURDER THEM!"

As soon as he uttered those words, Hugh dashed towards Radanov and cut off his escape route.

"Let's go, Vlad." Hugh threw a few very solid punches at Radanov to keep him off balance.

Kane withdrew his sabre and pointed it towards Aleksandra. He quickly raised his voice. "Ryo! Can you lend me a hand?"

Ryo suddenly leapt from out of the shadows and landed right next to Kane. He drew both of his shortswords out of their sheaths and placed himself into a very effective stance.

"Let's do this, Kane!" Ryo shouted as Veronika readied her bow.

"Right!"

Kane dashed forward as far as he could. Aleksandra did the same and they were within firing range. They exchanged a few thrusts. Kane would throw one and Aleksandra would parry it. Aleksandra would throw a returning slash and Kane would parry it. This back and forth continued for a solid 30 seconds before Kane realised this wasn't getting them anywhere. He threw a light stab at her which she easily blocked, but he immediately drew his sword back and sent it forward towards Aleksandra's chest in the blink of an eye. Aleksandra swiftly stepped backwards, dodging the sword completely. However, Kane was one step ahead of her. He predicted her backstep and stepped forward himself. Aleksandra's expression turned into a worried one as her eyes widened and her body froze for a moment. Kane was only using his shoulder for his previous combination, so he still had access to his sharp step-in. He closed the distance wonderfully, but Aleksandra slammed her foot into the ground and planted herself in place. Kane swung his sabre down from above right down the middle, but he changed the angle of his sword so it would strike diagonally and move a slight bit faster. Aleksandra managed to absorb some of the force of the sabre by leaning into it with her padded shoulder which stopped the sabre. Both of them stood still for a moment whilst Kane slightly chuckled.

"One exchange is all it takes."

Kane threw a lightning-fast jab at Aleksandra's face with his free hand. Her face was flung backwards as she lost her balance, but she managed to stay on her feet. Not for long, though. Kane retracted his sword as Aleksandra made one last desperate attempt to swing at Kane with her longsword. Kane dodged the hit and stepped behind her as he stabbed her through the back and punctured one of her lungs. He retracted his sword after a second and Aleksandra collapsed to the ground desperately trying to cover her wound as she fought for air.

"Good riddance." Kane sheathed his sword and walked away from Aleksandra. She gargled some blood and spat it out as she took her final breaths before her body loosened up. Her hand collapsed beside her weapon. Her last visual was Kane's back turned towards her. It looked huge and very rough like it was carrying the hopes and dreams of everyone he's ever encountered. This was truly someone she could never defeat.

Ryo had a lot of success with dodging the arrows that Veronika was shooting at him. As fast as they were, he could keep up. Every one of Ryo's movements displayed his speed and his ability to predict the next move from his opponent. Ryo was almost as much of a boxing addict as Luka and Hugh were, and he had a very appropriate nickname that certain boxers with immense talent only obtain.

The Genius.

A prodigy. Somebody that had all the natural skills he could ask for with very few weaknesses. A gifted assassin and a genius. That's a deadly combination. As soon as Ryo would focus, there would be nothing that could touch him. This situation wasn't any different.

As soon as Ryo got close enough to swing at Veronika, he noticed she would sidestep him every time. He started changing his pivot foot with every step, moving diagonally to trap Veronika into a tight spot. After a few seconds, her back touched a boat that was positioned behind her. Ryo's pupils shrank as he sharply stepped in. Veronika put up a solid guard that was supported by her armour, but Ryo found three vital points that weren't guarded at all. He stabbed her through all three of them in a split second. As soon as he withdrew his blades, she lowered her guard and yelped in pain. He quickly took the opportunity to swing his arm towards her face. She instinctively covered it with both her arms, but nothing came at her. No punch, no kick, no stab, no weapon. Nothing. She was sitting there, protecting herself from absolutely nothing. Until she felt the sharpest pain she had ever felt. Right in her stomach. Ryo stabbed her deeply through her body and quickly retracted the shortsword. The pain was so great and surprising, her mental strength gave out instantly and she couldn't even scream.

"You're finished."

Ryo stabbed her through both of her lungs with his two shortswords. She died before she hit the ground a moment later. Ryo loudly exhaled as he put both of his shortswords back into their sheaths.

Kane and Ryo looked over towards Radanov who couldn't hurt Hugh at all. Even if his punches were landing, Hugh was unfazed by them.

"You know the saying, Vlad?" Hugh suddenly asked as Radanov nervously shook. "The bigger man usually wins."

Radanov threw a huge right at Hugh, but Hugh caught Radanov's fist mid-punch. He squeezed Radanov's fist as hard as he could. Bone cracking and snapping could be heard all across the warehouse. Radanov yelped in pain as he fell to the floor. Hugh let go of his broken fist and kicked him in the face which planted him firmly into the ground. Hugh placed his foot on the back of Radanov's head.

"What are you shipping to eastern Europe tonight?"

"You British cunt, do you think I'd turn on master Mikhail?!"

Radanov let out a few screams as Hugh put more pressure on the back of his skull.

"Give me the details."

Radanov could only let out a furious grunt. He was loyal to the very end.

Kane walked up to Hugh and looked at Radanov's scarred eye. He could tell he wasn't going to be of much help.

"Ryo!" Kane suddenly yelled out towards Ryo. "You got the papers, right?"

"Yessir." Ryo walked up to Kane and flashed a few important envelopes towards Kane. "There's a lot more stuff in here, so we can go through it all and probably learn a lot about Mikhail."

Radanov coughed up some blood as Hugh crossed his arms and looked at Kane.

"Well?"

Kane audibly exhaled through his nose and closed his eyes. "Do it."

Hugh grinned as he lifted his foot and smashed Radanov's spine. Radanov couldn't even let out a proper yelp before Hugh crushed the back of his skull with his hammer.

"It's more satisfying that way."

Kane took out his lighter and lit a cigarette. "It sure is. Take the bodies and dump them in the river. After we've collected everything we need, we're burning this place to the ground."

...

There were tons of papers and important documents all around the warehouse. Luckily, Hugh brought a huge spring bag, so they could store everything they find.

After going through many bank records, police reports and many other important papers regarding the activity of Mikhail's thugs, Ryo spoke up.

"You guys know I'm going to Zagreb tomorrow?"

Kane and Hugh paused their rummaging through the papers.

"The capital city, huh? What're you doing there?" Hugh grinned as he looked up towards Ryo.

"There are a good number of assassins working there right now. There's a lot of rumours going around." Hugh and Kane's attention was snatched up by Ryo as he paused for a good few seconds. "There's a lot of rumours that Noah Roth will be appearing publicly in Zagreb the following month."

Kane and Hugh's expressions turned dark.

"THE Noah Roth?" Kane calmly repeated his name. Ryo quickly nodded. Kane lit another cigarette as he spoke up. "The nephew of Hans Roth, the most powerful German in the Templar Order."

"Wait, next month?" Hugh asked curiously. Ryo nodded once more. "That's when this year's election is! All of the most powerful political figures that are from a country that's considered an ally to Croatia will be there! Germany, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia..."

"Noah Roth is the German prime minister. He'll be there for sure."

"Right. That's why I was hoping to ask all four of you to come with me." Ryo said with curiosity and intensity in his voice. Hugh raised his eyebrows as Kane's eyes widened a small bit.

"You want to bring the juniors along?"

Ryo firmly nodded. "Yes. I believe they're more than prepared. We will also have a few weeks to train in Zagreb before the big contract."

Kane and Hugh looked at each other and thought about it for a moment.

"They're exceptional considering the lack of experience they have. However, we need to wait for them to fully recover." Hugh crossed his arms and calmly stated.

"I have to go tomorrow, but you four can come on your terms after a few days. They'll surely be recovered by then."

"We're right there with you, Ryo, we're just as excited. But..." Kane paused after reassuring Ryo. "We're going to need Kingston's approval."

"I have yet to personally hand Barton the fragment of Eden. Barton will be in Zagreb, too. That's when I can deliver the envelope with all the information to him. I can meet up with Barton right away and he'll fly right back to England the same day. I will sort all of that before you guys are ready to arrive." Ryo convincingly laid out a plan he thought off.

"Sounds like you got it all sorted, then," Kane proudly smiled. "Right, we're in. I'm sure the juniors will be really excited, as well."

Ryo exchanged a happy handshake and a fast hug with both of them. "Hell yeah!"

"Right, let's dump the bodies before we continue. Hugh, check Radanov's body. Ryo, check Veronika's. I'll check Aleksandra's."

Hugh and Ryo both firmly nodded as they walked over to their respective bodies. Hugh rummaged through Radanov's pockets. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Trash. Cigarettes. Tissues. A receipt from a grocery store purchase.

Nothing so far. Hugh checked the last pocket of Radanov's massive jacket and pulled out a shiny ring that looked incredibly similar to a ring we're all familiar with already. Hugh's eyes lit up as he shouted towards Ryo.

"RYO! Come here!"

Ryo quickly stopped midway through his crouch and ran up to Hugh. Kane turned his attention towards his big brother. Hugh showed the magnificent ring to Ryo.

"Is this another fragment?"

Ryo inspected the ring thoroughly and confirmed it.

"Holy shit! This is definitely another fragment of Eden!"

Kane and Hugh's eyes widened and their expressions lit up with confidence and determination.

...

*End of Chapter 6!

We're about to start a more exciting part of the story! Soon, we move on to the rest of Europe!

Hope everyone's having a good day and thank you for reading!*