Just a short notice that chapters may take longer now. My previous chapters have been far too short and this isn't acceptable, so it may take more time for me to update. Thanks!
For once, we all got to enjoy ourselves. For the first few days after the fiasco at Parliament House, I worried about my father. But thankfully, he was in stable condition. He'd be flown back to America for further treatment, but not before joining us for a drink at a nearby pub. His stump of an arm was heavily bandaged, and he had to call a taxi later that night. But he barely seemed to notice his missing hand, which was being kept alive in an Assassin facility in the hope that it could be reattached.
The next piece of news was surprising. Jones sent me an email saying that we deserved some recognition for our services in Australia and that we'd have the next three months to do as we pleased. Canberra was nice, but it had more historical value than entertainment value. So we packed up and flew to Melbourne. We spent our nights going out to pubs and restaurants, sometimes with other local Assassin happy to give us directions. Angela, for obvious reasons, chose soft drink over beer.
It was one night after seeing an AFL game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground that Angela and I walked around the tree-covered parking lot outside the stadium. The rowdy crowd had long since dispersed, and the rest of the team stayed behind to look around. A few people advised us not to stay around too long after dark, and we thanked them for warning us.
"Be careful out here, you get some real nutters after dark."
"Keep an eye out. There's usually lunatics lurking around here."
By now, we could easily understand the Australian accent, having difficulty with the way some words were pronounced, and being caught off-guard by the rowdy nature of young males at night. I mentioned to one guy after the game if he ever thought Australians liked the lifestyle a bit too much. He was a bit older, forty or fifty maybe.
"Heh, well I'd rather be having fun and die at 54 than grow old and constantly worry about things I can't prevent," he told me, walking with us a short distance.
"Sometimes I think Americans could learn from the way people do things here," I commented.
"As we could also learn from your lot," he replied, unlocking his car, "Well, I'll be off now. Have a good one."
"People here are so friendly," Angela said to me as we walked, "I could get used to this place."
"Me too," I replied, "Hey why don't we just move here?"
She stopped and turned to me. "Seriously?" she asked.
"Sure. We can get away from it all over here. Friendly people, free education. Plenty of things to do. Angela, this could be þe perfect place to raise a family," I said.
"Uh oh," Angela said, looking over my shoulder, I spun around. Three men approached us, wearing hoodies and masks.
"Who said you could walk all over this place," the middle one said.
"I don't see any sign prohibiting it," I replied, careful to argue my point without provoking them.
"I don't like your fucking tone, mate!" spat another thug.
"Well that's as nice as I'm getting tonight," I replied calmly.
"Hey, fuck off ya dumb cunt!" snarled the third thug, stepping forward threateningly, "I'm a bit fed up with you dirty immigrants dirtying up our country!"
I stood my ground, as did Angela. The men pulled out pocket knives.
"Give us all your fucking money cunt, and maybe the broad too!" the middle thug yelled.
At once, we both flicked our wrists, holding up our double blades for them to see in the moonlight. The thugs seemed unimpressed.
"It's four blades to three, fellas," I said, "You still one to start something?"
I'd barely finished when two more men jumped from the tree behind us, surrounding us.
An arrow whizzed past, hitting a nearby tree. The would-be muggers looked around until another arrow hit one of them in the leg. It went clean through, missing the bone, but left the man howling. Two of the others ran, and the last two came at us. I kicked one in the gut, sending him flying. Another one took a swipe, but I jumped back and hit the blade out of his hand. He ran, followed by his companion. We looked around for our saviors, and two more men landed from the tress on either side of us. Instead of wariness, I felt a certain trust I only felt around my fellow Assassins.
"You're Assassin's, right?" I asked. They removed there hoods, revealing dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. The only differences between the two were the thinner face of the younger one and the large scar running through the left eye of the other.
"What exactly were you thinking when you decided to walk around at night?" the older one grilled.
"We wouldn't have if we'd known that criminals here hunt in packs," I shot back.
"They usually don't," the younger man replied, "It's usually two guys, three at the most. This isn't normal behavior at all."
"That's Daniel, my brother," the older man said, "I'm Phillip."
"You're Assassin's?" Angela asked.
"Yeah, Melbourne Branch," Phillip replied.
"You have a bureau for cities?" I asked.
"Less states. Our bureaus depend on the size of each city or town, and we've got pockets of Assassins out in the wilderness," Daniel explained.
"Listen, you guys should go. We've had gang problem for a while now, and those guys could be back soon. Be careful on the streets. At night, you never know who you'll meet," Phillip advised, before they took off in the direction of the MCG.
A week later, Jones arrived from New York. He met us in a cafe near the MCG around midday, when most people were about, enjoying the end of another long week. Angela and I joined him at a table near the back of the cafe, away from the noisy crowd.
"It's good to see you again," he said as a young waitress set his coffee down on the table, "Good work in Canberra. I spoke with the Prime Minister yesterday. He wanted me to give you this."
He handed us an envelope with a short letter inside.
To Ryan and his team.
I'd like to thank you for your service at Parliament House last year. Had you not been there, so many lives could have been lost. Don't worry about the building, it's already being rebuilt. Maybe this time they'll give me a bigger office.
I'm very sorry to you, Ryan, that you had to do that to your father and I'm glad to hear he's recovering well. He's lucky to have a son like you. Youand your team are some of the bravest people I know, and I hope some day that I can thank you in person. On behalf of the Australian government and people, I thank you all for your service to our nation.
-Sincerely, John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia.
I put the letter down without saying anything. I just sighed.
"Ryan? Are you okay?" Jones asked.
"Sir, we need to tell you something," Angela spoke for me, "Ryan and I have to leave the Brotherhood."
Jones' eyebrows shot up.
"What? Why on earth would you do something like that?" he sputtered, "If there's something, anything that you think you can't talk about-"
"It's nothing like that," I assured him, "Angela's pregnant."
Jones didn't seem to register it at first. He only seemed more confused.
"Is it true?" he asked Angela, who nodded.
"The child's mine, sir," I broke in, "I don't know how it happened. We took every measure to avoid it."
"Don't blame yourself," Jones replied, "Sometimes you can't avoid this sort of thing. So what will you do now?"
"We're thinking of settling down here sir," Angela explained, "The Templars don't have much power here, so we'll be harder to find."
"Glad to hear it," he replied, "I'd hate to lose you two. You're some of the best we've ever had."
"I'm sorry too, sir," I said, "We should have been mlre careful."
"You joined to save your family. You stayed with us afterwards even when you had no reason to. You're one of the best, and I hope things go well for you both of you."
We stood up, shook hands with Jones, and before leaving, he said "When that child can support itself, check in with the Brotherhood here. You two are always welcome here."
"We appreciate it," I said, "This is goodbye, I guess."
"Only until we meet again," Jones said simply before leaving the cafe.