Darko, George, Gautier and Johnny hastily made their way to Málaga Airport, where Darko's Junker F.13 was parked. Fortunately the plane had enough space to take all of them.
Landing in Cuatro Vientos Airport in Madrid, the four of them went straight to the Peñagrande neighbourhood, where the main Assassin den in Madrid was.
Assassin bases in Madrid were all known as Assassin dens, largely due to the fact that it was the Ottoman Assassins who also called their bases dens that liberated Madrid from Templar control centuries ago.
The Peñagrande Den was a small convenience store with Spanish colonial architecture. Johnny revealed that the Den had a secret basement which few knew about, even within the Assassin Order.
When they got there, the Peñagrande Den was surrounded by policemen. The Assassins had no choice but to attack them in order to get into the building.
"Remember, stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent," Darko reminded the others as he put on his hood. "Only kill the policemen if necessary."
Rushing towards a cluster of policemen, Darko grabbed the nearest one and spun him around, before kicking him in the shin and elbowing him hard in the chest. Throwing him aside, Darko lunged at the second policeman, tackling him to the ground. Snatching his truncheon, Darko whacked him once before getting up.
Darko, who decided that he had wasted enough time, barrelled straight into the third and fourth policemen, taking them both by surprise. Before they could get up and recover, Darko continued on.
It was only around a minute after Darko entered the convenience store before the others entered as well. Johnny led them to the secret entrance into the basement, where most of the Assassins were.
As they entered, they found themselves being trained on by a good number of rifles. But upon realising who they were the rifles were lowered.
"Johnny, it's good to see you!" the leader of the bunch of Assassins said. "Only if we could've met under much more peaceful circumstances. But oh well, c'est la vie."
"Let me introduce you all to him. Meet Antonio Rovera, leader of the Peñagrande Den and Mentor of the Spanish Assassins," Johnny introduced. "Antonio, meet Darko Kerzhakov, Gautier Tashfin and George Dayton. We've come all the way to Melilla to rescue you all."
"Why did you bring good men here to die, Johnny?" Antonio asked. "Rescuing us from here is impossible. No way out of this place other than the ones blocked by policemen."
However, Johnny was not listening at all. Instead, he was searching the place, turning the place upside down. "Vaswani spoke of a secret passageway here in this very basement. After all, this place has served as the headquarters of the Assassins in Madrid for over a century, so I find the existence of this passageway likely."
"You'll definitely have to tell me that story someday," Antonio said, surprised, as he began to help Johnny to search the place. "You heard the man, start searching!"
After what seemed to be an eternity of searching, though closer to fifteen minutes than one eternity, an Assassin found a torch holder behind a bookcase, only that it was not really a torch holder, but the lever to open the secret passageway.
At the end of the passageway they found themselves in another Assassin den, though this one had been raided by the police a day ago. Fortunately, the den was empty.
"Madrid has become too dangerous for the Assassins to remain," Antonio declared. "I just hope the Assassin bases in the rest of Spain are still intact. Thank you for your assistance but the remainder of this journey we Spanish Assassins must undertake ourselves."
"Is there any way in which we could help you all?" Gautier asked.
Antonio replied, "Your work in Spanish Morocco must be continued if we want to have any chance at all in stopping the Templars. There is a Templar that you must be careful of, and that is Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Franco of the Spanish Legion. He is well-respected, even by the enemy. Native troops call him a man of Baraka, or good luck, for he managed to survive a wound that would have killed many."
"Thanks for the advice," Johnny said. "Maybe I'll treat you someday."
The journey back to Melilla became rough almost immediately once they reached Cuatro Vientos Airport, currently under heavy patrol by soldiers. It did not go well for the Assassins as they were quickly identified by the soldiers as 'rebels'.
"We'll meet up at the plane, go!" Darko told the others before running into the building.
The Assassins did not have much difficulty navigating through the airport terminal, since it was rather crowded and the soldiers did not want to injure any civilians. However, problem arose when they emerged from the terminal and onto the runway.
"Hands up!" a Sergeant commanding a squad of soldiers ordered as he raised his rifle.
In response the four Assassins raised their hands, feigning surrender. Once the soldiers were near enough, they struck.
Darko took the nearest soldier's hand and pulled it towards him, forcing the rifle from the soldier at the same time. Shoving the muzzle into the soldier's throat, Darko pushed on towards the Junker F.13.
Gautier and George's backs were pressed against one another while four soldiers circled around them. "Distract them for a moment, please," George requested softly.
Reaching into the pocket swiftly, Gautier caught the attention of the soldiers, who thought that Gautier was going to pull out a firearm. As the soldiers were distracted, George swiftly produced a blowpipe and shot a berserk dart into one of them. Without hesitation the two Assassins ran off.
Johnny was already in the airplane when Darko arrived, keeping it safe from the soldiers. Soon Gautier and George reached the plane as well.
"Shit, the runway's occupied," George told the others. "You need to clear the runway of soldiers or I won't be able to get this thing in the air."
Opening the side door, Johnny tossed a grenade at a group of soldiers. The grenade exploded but did not rain on them fragments. Instead it released lamb blood on them, making them think that they were injured.
"Blood bomb," Johnny explained. "Though much smaller now with modern technology. Gets them every time."
True enough, that particular bunch of soldiers began to scatter. Gautier added to the mayhem by firing another berserk dart from George's blowpipe.
"Wonderful," George commented. "But it's not over yet. Make sure we're not shot at in the air."
Kicking the door open, Darko bit his lip when he saw a Nieuport 80 on the runway, preparing to take off. The biplane had a synchronised machine gun for the pilot to use and a Lewis gun on the rear cockpit for the passenger to fire.
"There's a plane going after us, and it's armed!" Darko told the others.
George swore. "Take that plane down!"
Pulling out his pistol, Darko shot the biplane's left wing thrice. The three bullets formed a small hole on the wing. Almost immediately, the biplane, which had just taken off, tilted sideways and crashed. Johnny and Gautier could not suppress a chuckle when they saw the scene unfold.
Not wanting to take the risk and land in Málaga, George landed the Junker F.13 on a relatively flat strip of ground near Melilla, parking it under a cluster of trees so that it would be difficult for people to spot the plane.
"Time to get back to work," Johnny said as he got off the plane.