Chapter 3— "Set in Motion"
Lucas's Private Estate, Tuscany, Italy
Charlie and Grim were hiding in the white van not far from the entrance gates to the estate stronghold's exterior.
Meanwhile, Sam and Briggs had found a badly lit route to sneak around to and climb up the fortress walls and knock out the snipers and spotlights scanning outside the stronghold for intruders.
There were ten guards on patrol outside the entrance gates in the fields and treelines, along with two guard dogs. They were all wearing armored uniforms and helmets like the snipers they subdued from behind; they were carrying automatic rifles—suppressed M4 Customs from the looks of it—along with 1911 handguns, "pineapple" frag, sleep gas, and flashbang grenades, tranquilizer dart pistols, and combat knives.
They were likely part of one of Abstergo's American PMCs based on their weapons they were armed with, and their less-than-lethal weaponry made it clear that Lucas wasn't afraid of knocking out any potential guests he didn't like for interrogation. It was a miracle the dogs hadn't caught their scent; thankfully they had managed to keep their distance.
"Marking my six using our goggles' Electronically Enhanced Vision," said Sam. "Mark the other six, Briggs."
"Marking."
"We're going to have to execute the dogs and the guards who're patrolling with them first before we execute," said Sam.
"Waiting for them to separate," said Briggs.
Sam trained his SC-20K's underbarrel 40MM suppressed sniper rifle on the first guard and his dog that he marked using his rifle's sniper scope.
Briggs did the same with his.
"On 3…" said Sam. "1… 2…"
The first two bullets landed in the guard's skulls, then the next two hit the dogs before they could bark.
Then they cleared out the rest of the guards before they spotted that any of the others were dead.
"We're clear," said Sam. "The two guards at the entrance gates didn't see anything. Moving in to subdue them. We can't get the uniforms bloody if we want this to work."
"The limo that VIP I'm supposed to switch places with is riding in is almost on the way. You two need to hurry," said Grim.
Briggs and Sam quickly rappelled down to the bottom of the entrance gates, and crept up from the sides of the two guards in charge of checking that the incoming VIPs were on the list, and opening the gates for them. They then got behind them and choked them to sleep.
They quickly changed into their uniforms.
"Hope you've been practicing your Italian accent," said Sam as he put on his helmet and strapped his gun to his back.
"I'd rather just knock them out quickly," said Briggs as he took out the tablet and scanner the guard had been using to check the guests' passes.
"Remember, the VIP and her driver are civilians… don't kill them," said Grim. "We may be above the law…"
"…but we're not going to act like common killers as long as we're taking orders from Caldwell," said Sam. "I know."
The limousine pulled up to Briggs, while Sam stood at the gate controls for the moment.
The driver, who was wearing a tuxedo, unrolled his window. Briggs said, "Guest pass."
The driver said in a bored tone to the mistress, "Gisela?"
Briggs heard a female voice that was not like Grim's at all, say, "Can't you give it?"
The driver sighed as the mistress handed him her VIP pass from the backseat.
Briggs took the VIP pass and pretended to scan it.
"Hmmm…" He pretended to scan it again, then again.
"Sir, the VIP's pass doesn't seem to be working."
"What? Are you sure?" said the driver as he looked back at the mistress.
"We're going to need you both to get out."
"You're serious."
"Just a precaution, sir," said Briggs.
The driver said something to Gisela in the back of the limo, then gestured with his head toward her, signaling to get out.
Gisela was a rather beautiful redhead whose figure and complexion were similar, albeit not identical, to Grim's.
"What is the meaning of this?" said Gisela to Briggs as she got out while the driver stood next to him. "I'm Lucas's mistress!"
Briggs looked toward Sam, and nodded at him.
"This is likely one of Lucas's—"
Briggs then knocked out the driver with a couple hand chops to the throat while Sam grabbed the woman from behind by the neck and then covered her mouth so she couldn't scream. She didn't see him coming, and was so shocked she wasn't able to pull out her pepper spray from a strap underneath her dress before Sam managed to choke her to sleep.
Sam quickly did a facial scan of the mistress. "Grim?"
"Yep, that's her."
"Needless to say, you look similar to her; we lucked out that she's one of Lucas's mistresses."
"Don't get me started," said Grim.
"But you sound nothing alike. He'll know it's you."
"I'll have to keep quiet and wear a mask the whole time," said Grim.
"That's suicide," said Sam.
"I know what I signed up for, Sam," said Grim. "Now hurry up and hide the bodies of the guards. We're wasting precious time."
Sam sighed, and looked at Briggs, who nodded in response.
Briggs and Charlie were now wearing a guard uniform and white dinner tuxedo, respectively. Sam was wearing his own black tuxedo while Grim was wearing the mistress's red dress. They all donned their Carnevale masks save for Briggs.
"You look like a clown in that tux," said Briggs.
"You always think I'm a clown anyway," said Charlie. "The gates are unlocked," he said as he turned to Sam.
"Good. Open them," said Sam.
Charlie nodded, and used his tablet with the flash drive containing his hacking software plugged into it to open the entrance gates.
"All right," said Sam as he entered the driver's seat of the limousine. "Charlie, Briggs, are you two good to head to your objectives?"
"Affirmative," said Briggs.
"I wish I could get to 'hide in plain sight' like you two," said Charlie. "I'm sure the food and drinks at this party are incredible."
"Focus on the mission, Charlie," said Grim. "You're going to the security room to hack into their systems."
"Needless to say, if all goes to shit, you're going to want to kill the lights," said Sam. "And in that case, Briggs will have to rendezvous with us to get us our equipment back once the fight breaks out."
"Normally, I'd recommend maintaining stealth parameters," said Grim, "but the odds are slim that we'll be able to."
"You sure you'll be all right, Grim?" said Briggs.
"I'll be all right," said Grim. "I know what I'm getting into," she said before looking away.
Sam noticed Grim do this for a second before he spoke to Vic over his OPSAT modified to look like an ordinary smart watch. "Vic, will you have the van ready for us once we've got the intel we came for?"
"Yeah, Sam," said Vic. "The vehicle's piloted remotely. Couldn't risk bringing one of my boys there, but we'll get you out of there regardless."
"Good," said Sam. "Everyone head out. It's time to crash a party."
Grim hopped into the back of the limousine, and Sam drove through the gates and into the estate's exterior.
As they drove toward the massive parking lot next to Lucas's garage, Sam said to Grim, "You're afraid."
Grim said, "Who wouldn't be? This is even more dangerous than back when I was a deep cover agent—not that we're going to talk about that right now."
As she looked out the window, "Then we'll talk about something different. What in particular are you afraid of?"
Grim said nothing.
"It's not a what, is it? It's a who," said Sam. "You know something about Lucas."
"Something came up when I heard the Engineers speak in their Norse mythological coded language," said Grim. "After doing some digging through my old files relating to the Third Echelon conspiracy, I found out about Lucas."
"You could've told us before Lucas framed us for attempting to destroy Rome in a nuclear holocaust."
"I only found the file I was looking for by the time it was too late. I wish I could've found it sooner."
"Sounds like you have a hell of a lot of files on that damned conspiracy to sort through," said Sam.
Grim said nothing.
"What did you find, Grim?"
"Lucas is a monster, Sam," said Grim. "On top of that, he's probably one of the most physically challenging opponents on Earth. He's good at all sorts of combat techniques—shooting, parkour, martial arts… and he's incredibly cunning and manipulative... more so than you or me."
"But he's just a businessman," said Sam. "How's that possible? Is he ex-military or something?"
"Not exactly," said Grim.
"So, what is he then? What are you keeping from me, Grim?"
"When it comes to Lucas?" said Grim as she turned her head away from the window to look at Sam. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"I'll be the judge of that. Now tell me."
"He's something called a 'Sage'… said Grim. "Abstergo did some research on something called triple-helix DNA in something called the Phoenix Project."
"A guard mentioned something about that project back in Rome," said Sam.
"Triple-helix DNA is essentially that of a species known as the Isu… it's a species physically and mentally superior to humans that didn't manage to survive the evolutionary process due to how few in numbers they were. They created the humans as a slave race."
"You're saying the Isu are… gods?" said Sam.
"Less gods and more a precursor race. The Phoenix Project was trying to advance Abstergo's transhumanist agenda… make gods out of people by modifying their DNA. But Lucas? He didn't need to modify his DNA to make it triple-helix. He's already got massive amounts of it."
Sam started to smirk. "That's ridiculous. You're saying he's a god?"
"No, I'm saying he's a Sage…" said Grim. "Sages have the consciousness of an Isu implanted in him as well through Isu technology that's passed down from random bloodlines… as well as the massive amounts of triple-helix DNA, whereas ordinary humans' DNA got diluted over time by breeding with ordinary humans instead of Isu, so they were no longer like demigods."
Sam tried to suppress a laugh at this.
"It's kind of like having dissociative identity disorder… most of the time the Isu consciousness drives them mad until it ends up controlling them completely. Based on how the Engineers were calling him 'Odin' and his panic room 'Asgard' in Rome… I think his consciousness is that of the Aesir caste of the Isu, Odin," said Grim. "I just didn't think that the Aesir would have more Sages manifest after–"
"God, this is like something out of a bad fantasy novel…" said Sam. "You're telling me you think all of this is real."
"Tom Reed was obsessed with certain stories throughout history about this… and Abstergo's been too ever since they recovered the body of a Sage back in 2013 after he tried to kill another Abstergo employee in Montreal… That's when the Phoenix Project began its research."
"Strange…" said Sam as he rubbed his chin, "I heard about what happened in Montreal on the news. Apparently I never caught that detail."
"Well you have now," said Grim, "whether you believe me or not."
"I'll believe it when I see Lucas's superhuman combat abilities for myself," said Sam, "before I kill him."
"I wish you luck with that," said Grim.
"We've arrived," said Sam as he parked the limo.
The two of them got out and entered the estate's lush, dimly lit garden area, where massive crowds of people in masks, tuxedos, and dresses were standing around and conversing together.
"Keep your distance from the guards, Sam," said Grim. "Once we locate Lucas, we'll tail him."
"Got it," said Sam as he looked around.
Briggs had taken out several of the guards on the rooftops of the labyrinthine estate and hid the bodies; once he found a good spot overlooking the security center, which wasn't far from the guest house, he put down the duffel bags full of the others' equipment.
"I see your beacon on my GPS, Charlie. I'm nearby. Almost ready to provide sniper support, over," said Briggs over his OPSAT. Charlie walked up to the heavily armored bodyguards who were blocking the entrance to the security center.
"Roger," said Charlie, who approached the guards and said, "Hey, did either of you see this chick with black hair and a blue dress come through here?"
"This is a restricted area," said one of the guards. "No guests are allowed in, even you."
Briggs took out his sniper rifle and headed toward the side of the balcony.
"Well, are you sure you didn't see her? Or maybe she snuck past you? Then again, I doubt either of you geniuses would miss someone like her."
"Get back to the party area, sir."
Briggs trained his gun on the guards.
"Uhhh… well do you know where the guest house is?" Silence as Charlie smiled awkwardly. "Anyone want to see a card trick—"
"We won't ask again."
"…are you sure? It's pretty cool—"
Briggs fired two armor-piercing bullets through the bodyguards' helmets. They collapsed to the floor.
"Thank god…" said Charlie as he wiped his forehead, "I hated that conversation. On top of that, I didn't have any cards. You got here just in time, Briggs."
"Get inside with the bodies before someone sees you," said Briggs.
"Aw, but they're super heavy…" said Charlie. Briggs could hear him grunt as he tried to carry them, and put two fingers to the top of his nose.
"Then leave them! Just get into the security center."
"Now there's something I can do," said Charlie as he hacked open the keypad lock to the backdoor with his OPSAT and flash drive.
"If there are any guards inside…" said Charlie.
"There will be," said Briggs. "There always are."
"Then deploy the Tri-Rotor," Charlie said.
Briggs zipped open the duffel bag, and pulled out Charlie's drone.
"Deploying Tri-Rotor now," said Briggs.
Briggs remotely controlled the Tri-Rotor so it flew down toward the security center and through the open door. He piloted it past Charlie and launched several sticky shockers to knock out the guards inside.
"All clear, Charlie," said Briggs.
Charlie entered the chair of the security computer hub and started hacking into their cameras. "All right… Alarms and other security systems are deactivated… Navigating between camera feeds… Syncing my facial ID recognition app to the camera… Lucas is currently in the ballroom. Grim, Sam, you'll want to head through the foyer, take a left in the library, then a right. I'm marking him with the cameras using another app I installed and sending his location to your OPSAT in case he moves. I can't seem to figure out who his associates are though, or where they're meeting him."
"No worries," said Sam, "we'll find that out ourselves."
"Speaking of which, Charlie," said Grim, "what's with these contact lenses?"
"I was going to ask the same of this pen you gave me as well," said Sam.
"The pen is a concealed laser mic," said Charlie, "while the contact lenses contain a set of tiny lights and filters whose design I… stole… from DARPA… that let you see in all the enhanced visions you can with your trifocal goggles."
Grim shook her head and put her hand to it as Charlie said, "Use the pen and lenses in sync with each other and your OPSATs and you should be able to control whether you see in night vision, thermal, or EEV, as well as track where you're aiming the pen's infrared laser at so you can eavesdrop on any of Lucas's conversations. You can even take pictures with them too that you can upload to the SMI via your OPSATs so we can facial ID the associates."
"This tech is impressive, Charlie," said Sam.
"And stolen," said Grim.
"I figured we'd have to work with whatever we could find," said Charlie.
"So, let's do that," said Sam.
"Christ…" said Grim as they began to walk through the party and the various rooms of the estate. "I never wanted him on the team. We're one screw-up of his like that away from being tracked down by the authorities and captured or killed… and then Lucas gets his way with blowing up the world."
"And I never wanted you on the team," said Sam. "But you managed to change my mind. At least until the whole thing about Megiddo came up again. It doesn't matter though. We have work to do, and we all have to work together or we're all going to end up worse than dead."
"Hold up," said Grim.
"Yeah, I see him," said Sam. "It's Lucas."
"Can you eavesdrop on him right now?" said Charlie. "I'll listen in."
Sam aimed it at Lucas, who was conversing with an associate.
"Was my new Red Mercury design to your tastes, Mr. Richards?"
"Yes, I took a look at it; I was very impressed, Dr. Aswat. Your technicians have helped me accelerate my timetables."
"Dr. Aswat?" said Grim.
"I thought I killed Aswat in Shanghai," said Sam, "and I know I didn't miss when I aimed for the head. But that looks like him. Perhaps it was a double that I shot."
Sam and Grim followed them through the ballroom, keeping their distance from Lucas and his guards, and using the crowds for cover.
"Based on your design, I don't think Fourth Echelon or whoever Patricia Caldwell sends after me in their place will be able to disarm them once they've been shipped to their separate locations. As much as I can't stand them, I also can't help but admire them. Fourth Echelon is truly the best of the best. I don't doubt that Caldwell will send them after me, even if the entire world is searching for them right now. It doesn't matter. I have my own influences on her administration still, and Congress isn't happy with her right now. It won't take long to replace her."
"How many are you planning to manufacture, sir?"
"For now, the four others that have already been finished should be enough. The first will be for an agenda I want to discuss with the rest of the associates in the conference room."
"Where are you planning to ship them, sir?"
"If it's all right, I'd rather talk about that in the conference room as well. There's too many guests out here that I don't want overhearing us."
"Of course. You just like to throw parties on a whim, don't you, Lucas?"
"They'll all get to know my plans for my… philanthropic efforts… in time once I meet each of them in person. Whether they want to or not."
They both laughed.
Sam and Grim watched them as they trailed them through the halls of the upper floors after ascending the staircase in the hallway next to the ballroom.
"We split up here," said Lucas. "Your funds you requested are in my panic room in the back of my main bedroom. For now, I'm going to head to the outdoor deck above the pool to make a welcome speech, then I'm going to look for a good friend of mine. You know where the conference room is?"
"As easy as it is to get lost in this massive estate and stop to admire its architecture, yes," Dr. Aswat said.
"Good," said Lucas. "I'll see you there."
As Lucas and Dr. Aswat parted ways, Sam said, "Sounds like we should split up as well."
"Right," said Grim. "I'll head to search for the panic room. I'd blend in better in Lucas's bedroom given I'm posing as his mistress."
"Of course," said Sam. "I'll head to the conference room and eavesdrop on the meeting Lucas is having with his associates as well as ID them. Don't get too comfortable in the bedroom."
Grim said, "Whatever."
"Seriously though, if Lucas sees you—"
"I'll be careful, Sam," said Grim as she walked away.
Sam frowned, and continued to follow Lucas from a distance.
Charlie was saying to Briggs, "That party looks amazing. I wish I could actually go in there. You know, despite that I'd be risking my life even further. The stuff they're serving in the dining hall… man…"
Briggs said, "You're probably never going to be attending a party ever again, Charlie, let alone one like this."
"I know. I still can't believe what Lucas did to us. This sucks."
"Like Sam said, it's what we signed up for. We were disposable, and now we've been disposed of."
"I know. I'm just wondering if I should've signed up now. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, and I love working with you guys, but… this might be too much for me to handle."
"Well, there's no backing out now."
Charlie looked at the console bitterly, his hand twitching as he held the computer mouse in it.
"Charlie, if it helps, I'm not feeling great about this whole situation either," said Briggs. "But if we manage to stop this whole Red Mercury plot of Abstergo's without losing our lives? I promise we'll take you to one of your favorite restaurants."
"Thanks," said Charlie with his signature awkward smirk, "that sounds good. Hey Briggs?"
"Yeah?"
"Sam said that Megiddo used something as leverage against him during the Third Echelon Conspiracy, only it wasn't a thing… His words, not mine. Do you happen to know what?"
Briggs sighed. "So, given that there are only three types of subjects in the English language, and that it wasn't a 'thing', it was either a place or a person. Out of those two subjects, which do you think it was?"
Charlie said, "So you passed elementary school."
Rolling his eyes, Briggs said, "…really, Charlie?"
"So obviously was definitely a person then… someone that matters to Sam… Do you happen to know who?"
Briggs said, "Charlie, you have a better relationship with Sam than I do, and you're a genius… at least when it comes to tech. Yet you still can't figure it out. That or you're screwing with me."
"I'm not. Pinky swear."
"So who do you think it is? Because to me, it's pretty obvious."
Charlie said, "Can't you just tell me? I'm worried about Sam! He seems off lately, and I care about that guy. I want to help the team in any way I can."
"Sam can take care of himself," said Briggs, looking away into the crowd beneath him through his scope.
"Damn it, Briggs!" said Charlie. Focusing back on the console, Charlie said, "Sam's closing in on the conference room. It looks like he's taking an alternate route through a vent in the bathroom leading to a balcony above the room. Perfect spot to eavesdrop."
"What about Grim?"
"She's in the bedroom, searching for the way to open the panic room."
"Best you focus on the meeting for now via Sam's contacts," said Briggs.
"Agreed," said Charlie. "I want to hear that piece of shit's plans for myself."
Sam kept seeing Sarah's face, hearing her laughter when she was a kid as he crawled through the ventilation shaft.
For some reason, he couldn't help but think of a certain memory that came up.
Sam walked into the kitchen; Sarah was crying about her dead pet goldfish.
"Why did Goldie have to die, Daddy?" Sarah cried.
"Did you forget to feed her again?" said Sam.
"No…" said Sarah.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart… Goldie must've not had much time left to live…"
"But it seemed like it happened so quickly… We just got him a few weeks ago!"
"Well… a fish's lifespan is much shorter than ours."
"So will we die once we run out of time to live too… How long will we live?"
"For a long time, sweetie."
"How long?"
"Hmmm…" Sam said, "You see this thing attached to the wall, next to the fridge?"
"…yeah?"
"It's called a calendar. Calendars help you keep track of time… Every square on the calendar represents a day… Most humans tend to live for at least 70 or 80 calendars… provided they eat their fruits and veggies, get a good night's sleep, and all the things Daddy tells you to do."
"80 calendars is a long time…" said Sarah. "What about the things you do when you're gone? Like what you did to those men that one night that tried to come into my room?"
Sam remembered when he killed several thieves that were trying to rob the house; he begged her not to look, to go back to sleep, but it didn't help. He assumed he'd have to talk with her about this eventually.
"The things Daddy does… might cause Daddy to live less longer than the average human. Do me a favor, Sarah, and don't ever choose to do what Daddy did that night for a living."
"Why?"
"Sarah, those men that broke into the house last night… while they were bad men, they're like every other person… they have families, friends… and they care about them just like you and me. And it hurts people whenever you lose someone. It'd be like if I wasn't here anymore for you. Daddy…"
"You make people stop living anymore… while risking not living anymore yourself."
Sam sighed. "Yes. I'm sorry, Sarah… This must be a lot to take in."
"Why do you do what you do, Daddy?"
"Because sometimes bad men are worth stopping… because in the end, they're trying to stop more people from living than I am."
"So, the less people that stop living, the better, so their loved ones can be happy like how Daddy makes Sarah happy?"
"That's my girl," smiled Sam as he rubbed Sarah's head.
"So… you won't live to be 80 calendars?"
"It's not certain when I'll stop living, Sarah."
Sarah looked down. "What would happen if I stopped living? What happens?"
"Stopping living is called dying, Sarah," said Sam. "Dying is like… falling asleep and never waking up. You don't want to die. Just like Daddy doesn't want you to die. That's why it's important to sleep every now and then and eat a lot. That way you'll get big and strong!"
Sarah laughed as Sam picked her up. "I want ice cream."
"We'll go get some ice cream together," said Sam. "Just promise you'll save some for Daddy!"
"No!" Sarah laughed. "Daddy always eats too much…"
Sam heard his cell phone ring. "One minute, Sarah… Daddy's gotta take this phone call. He'll be right back."
"Okay, one minute! 1… 2… 3…"
Sarah kept counting as Sam took out his phone.
"Sam, do you copy?"
Sam snapped out of his trance as Charlie said, "Sam, come in, over!"
"I'm still here, Charlie," said Sam.
"I'm seeing more people heading into Lucas's conference room, including Lucas himself, but I can only see the entrance from the hallway, not inside the room… You don't have much time, you have to get in there!"
"One minute… I'm almost there…" Sam nodded, and crawled out of the vent and onto the balcony. He circled around it quietly while using the cover of darkness to scan the faces of the twelve associates sitting at the massive conference table below with his contact lenses.
He briefly saw a vision of him and Sarah eating ice cream together, then shook his head until he was focused again. After finishing the scanning process, he aimed his laser mic pen at Lucas as he entered the conference room.
"You're all here," said Lucas. "Good. My guards will ensure that we're not disturbed."
Charlie said in Sam's ear, "Shit… that's a lot of bodyguards…"
Sam counted at least two dozen of them.
"What's your progress on the Red Mercury, Mr. Richards?" said one of the associates.
"Dr. Aswat?" said Lucas.
"The new Red Mercury bomb model has already been designed as requested. I've already armed four more of them. They've all got twice the yield of a Tsar Bomba."
Sam's eyes went wide.
"Jesus Christ… Sam, I'm no nuclear physicist or expert on the history of nuclear weapons…" said Charlie, "…but isn't the Tsar Bomba the most powerful nuclear bomb ever designed? And… now they've got four of them that are twice as powerful?"
"Yes, Charlie, now quiet," whispered Sam.
"The one that was tested or the one that was merely designed?"
"The one that was designed, sir."
"Four explosions, each with a force equivalent to 200 Megatons of TNT…" Lucas rubbed his chin. "Incredible. That's way more than enough power to do the trick for our population reduction agenda, which will begin with the first detonation."
"Depopulation? I don't like the sound of that…" said Briggs.
"What about the other three?" said an associate.
"They're less about that… and more to prove a point," said Lucas. "Abstergo's grip on civilization has been slipping ever since the Second Catastrophe event of 2012, along with the New Fluoride experiment and the destruction of our Eye satellite. On top of that, citizens are growing restless due to the economy being rigged against them, especially in Third World nations. We need to convince the world that a new world order is necessary in order to thwart any terrorist attacks… and that should allow us to silence any potential nuisances, eliminate any opposition to our control."
"We'll need to evacuate citizens we want to protect from the locations we're planning to destroy," said an associate.
"And we will, whether they're willing to cooperate with us or not," said Lucas. "Obviously there's even been opposition to our plans within Abstergo itself before I managed to subvert it with your help. It doesn't matter anymore."
"The trafficking program that my associate, Mr. Volker, started on Rook Island will help us smuggle the people to the secret bases I've been setting up per your instructions," said one associate.
"Are some of these people guests at this party?" said another.
"All of the guests are some of them," said Lucas with a grin. "I'll meet with each of them in person after I offer them a trip to my private island in Micronesia under the guise of a meeting about a philanthropy project deal. If they agree to cooperate, then they'll be allowed to move about the bases as they please. If they refuse… then they'll be imprisoned there."
"I'll make it happen. The trafficking division of my PMC is on the way here."
"Good," said Lucas. "I trust you all will be able to execute this plan in your respective nations and Abstergo subsidiaries I've placed you at the top of?"
"Of course. I was there at the recent United Nations assembly, as well as the G20 Summit and the Bilderberg meeting. The politicians are gullible as ever. Lobbying the right ones will help us keep our plans a secret."
"As was I," said Lucas. "All the more reason to continue our plans. While profits are important, a global Malthusian catastrophe is on the way and they need a reason to be scared of it. They need to prioritize passing policy to fight said catastrophe instead of prioritizing profit and profit only."
"And Megiddo?" said an associate.
Lucas looked toward another associate, who began to speak. "As far as my intelligence contacts know, Fourth Echelon doesn't know where it's all going to go down at. But they're not certain of that. They're still a threat to our operations."
"What about the Brotherhood?"
"To be honest?" said the associate Lucas nodded to, "I don't think the Brotherhood is as concerned about this particular plot as they are with the one concerning the global OS that we're trying to combine with the various Pieces."
"Blume's CEO agrees, given that the Assassins along with DedSec have been giving his subsidiary a ton of shit over that…"
"We'll talk about that situation later," said Lucas. "Let's focus on the present. Has my digging site for the artifacts been built?"
"Yes, sir. It'll be incredibly hard for anyone to detect," said an associate, "but…"
"I dislike it when people beat around the bush. Spit it out," said Lucas.
"The Apple's been found there already… what point is there in keeping the site active? If anything, it's a risk to our operation; they might be able to find a lead there."
"I want it to serve as the site for the detonation broadcast antennas," said Lucas.
"Ah… Of course… You wanted me to install the satellites in place—" said one of the associates.
"…to broadcast the signal to start the bomb's countdown timer," said another.
"Exactly," said Lucas. "I'm surprised you didn't catch on with that already, but then again, Dr. Aswat was responsible for uploading the detonation frequencies to the satellites."
"There's also a 'tree' under the site as well."
"I know. I studied the patterns of the Earth's ley lines in my free time and came to the same conclusion," said Lucas. "When coupled with the array, the Tree combined with the Apple will help generate enough power to help the nukes go off. The last three must go off all at the same time for our plan to work. After the task is done, demolishing the site should be easy."
"So, where is this site again, along with the detonation locations… ?"
"Uh, Sam, we've got a problem…" said Charlie.
"Charlie," whispered Sam, "of all the times you could possibly interrupt, this is the w—"
"It's Grim."
Sam's eyes went wide.
"Sir?" said one of three of Lucas's bodyguards as they walked into the conference room.
"What is it?" said Lucas.
"Two of us found your mistress, sir."
Grim was searching Lucas's bedroom for some sort of panic room. First, she searched under his bed, sofa, and recliner chair, then took down some of the paintings on the wall, then tried to look for any loose keys on the grand piano, then looked for any keys or anything useful in the various drawers in his nightstand, dresser, desk, mini-fridge, and closet.
"Come on… it has to be here somewhere," said Grim. She used thermal vision to scan for fingerprints.
She tried to move the bookshelf with the plasma TV and various books on it.
Grim groaned as her muscles strained a bit; she couldn't get it to budge. "I always hated wearing high heels during press conferences with Caldwell…"
It had to be behind the bookshelf.
Grim looked through the various books on the bookshelf until she saw a book with a ton of fingerprints on it.
She pulled the book out; behind it was a switch.
"Bingo," said Grim as she pressed the switch, and the bookshelf moved, revealing a hidden stairway leading down to a vault.
"Entering the panic room, Charlie."
"All right," said Charlie. "Let me know what you find."
Grim headed down to the vault, where she found a dungeon containing set of hooks, restraining devices, chairs, and a wall and table covered in sex toys, including canes, whips, chains, candles and matches, cattle prods, rope, vibrators, ball gags, knives, butt plugs, and very large dildos.
Grim looked disgusted.
"Well then… Lucas sure is kinky," said Charlie with his eyes wide open.
"He's sick," said Grim.
"Yeah, the fact that he's trying to destroy the world makes that description to his character more accurate," said Charlie.
Grim heard a noise coming from somewhere in the sex dungeon.
She went over to a cage where a busty woman with her dress cut open was tied up, gagged, and blindfolded.
Grim opened the cage and took the ball gag out of the woman's mouth.
The woman caught her breath, then said, "Lucas? Is that you?"
"…no," said Grim, raising her eyebrow in confusion.
"Are you another… friend of his?" the woman giggled. "I didn't think he'd want to do a threesome…"
Ignoring her, Grim said, "Do you know if there's a panic room in here somewhere?"
"Well, I saw a door disguised as a wall, over in the corridor to the right of the other cages; the lever to open it is hidden behind some chains. He caught me trying to open it once; he punished me twice as hard for it. I always figured it led to another playroom of his. Are you one of his slaves too?"
Grim looked over at the wall covered in chains, then said, "Not exactly. Open your mouth up again."
"What? Why—mmph!" the woman said as Grim managed to get the ball gag back in her mouth again.
As Grim walked toward the wall, the woman said in a muffled way due to her gag, "Where are you going?"
"Quiet!" said Grim.
"Yes, ma'am."
Grim looked at the lever, which she noticed had a keyhole built into it. Grim took out her hairpin and used it to pick the lock. She then pushed the lever upward, then back downward again, and the hidden door opened.
She then entered the real panic room.
"Remind me to wash my hands if I manage to make it back to the Paladin. Thoroughly," said Grim as she wiped the woman's saliva off of her hands.
"She sure was drooling a lot," said Charlie. "Wonder how long Mr. Big Richard kept her in there..."
"Focus on the mission, Charlie," said Grim.
"Of- of course. Right," said Charlie. "What are we looking at?"
Grim scanned the documents on the walls and tables with her contact lenses. "Schematics for the Red Mercury bombs, along with invoices for a manufacturing facility in Hong Kong…"
"According to the conversation Sam's eavesdropping on in the conference room, they are trying to make more bombs… but they've already got four working ones," said Charlie.
"Then there's a map of some kind… Shit," said Grim.
"Those look like…"
"Targets," said Grim. "All over the world."
"We can't let Lucas mass produce those bombs," said Charlie. Looks like we're going to Hong Kong next."
Grim looked at an open safe with a slot in it.
"Looks like we found where the dud bomb deployed to Rome was stored at some point," said Charlie. "Fucking Lucas… he is definitely working with the Engineers."
Grim looked at Lucas's personal computer. "Charlie, can you patch me into his PC?"
"Of course, easy pickings," said Charlie.
Grim inserted Charlie's flash drive.
"Downloading the data… Hmmm… That's interesting," said Charlie.
"What is it?" said Grim.
"Schematics of some sort of secret complex underneath a warehouse in the factory in Hong Kong. There's an elevator that leads down to it… but the hallway leading to the elevator is covered in biometric sensors. Worse… it looks like the circuits powering the boxes are too deep underground, too thick, and too scattered across the premise for us to get at."
Hearing footsteps coming, Grim said, "We'll focus on this later, Charlie. I have to get out of here, now. Are you done gleaning the intel?"
"What? No, I've hardly begun! My software isn't that fast!"
"Well then use the five-twelve encryption algorithms instead!"
"I thought you told me specifically not to use those—"
The footsteps were growing closer.
"Someone tampered with this door's lock!" said a guard outside the panic room.
Looking over her shoulder, Grim said, "We'll work with what we have," unplugged the flash drive from the computer and did a quick shutdown, and hid it in the strap underneath her skirt.
But it was too late for her to hide.
Grim quickly put her mask back on, and turned around just as the door opened.
Two bodyguards of Lucas's were staring at her and pointing their guns at her.
One spoke. "Who are you?"
Grim didn't dare speak.
"Looks like one of Lucas's mistresses," said the second. "Gisela."
"What are you doing back here, Gisela?" said the first. "You're not supposed to be back here."
The second guard studied Grim. Grim looked into the second guard's eyes, and her eyes opened wider for a second.
His eyes were heterochromic.
The second guard frowned for a moment behind his mask. He then stopped frowning, looked at the other guard, and shrugged his shoulders. "She was probably wandering around Lucas's playroom and got lost."
The first guard chuckled to himself. "You should've asked Lucas for permission to come back here first. Speaking of which, he's been looking for you… We'll bring you to him."
The second guard nodded to Grim, as if indicating something.
Without speaking, Grim nodded back to the second guard, then to the first.
"You're a quiet one, Gisela," said the first guard. "Come with us."
The first guard grabbed Grim by the arm and escorted her out of the panic room, dungeon, and bedroom and toward the conference room.
"This is really bad…" said Charlie.
Switching comm lines, Charlie said, "Uh, Sam, we've got a problem…"
"Charlie," whispered Sam, "of all the times you could possibly interrupt, this is the w—"
"It's Grim."
Sam's eyes went wide.
"Sir?" said one of three of Lucas's bodyguards as they walked into the conference room.
"What is it?" said Lucas.
"We found your mistress, sir."
"Gisela?" Lucas grinned for a brief moment before his grin went away. "What are you waiting for! Bring her in."
Sam watched as two more bodyguards wearing masks pushed a nervous Grim in.
"Charlie?" said Sam. "I'm going to need you to contact Briggs over here as soon as possible with my gear. Also, tell Vic to get ready with the van."
"All- all right," said Charlie. "Get Grim out of there!"
"I'm working on it…" said Sam.
Lucas grinned again. "Ah, my love… I've been looking all over for you. I hope you weren't late to the party."
Grim said nothing.
Lucas frowned. "Where were you, Gisela?"
"We found her in your panic room, sir," said one guard.
"I didn't ask you!" said Lucas. "You were in my dungeon, weren't you?" He smirked. "I told you to meet me on the balcony in my office, though."
"Sir, she wasn't in your… dungeon, she was in your panic room."
Lucas frowned. "How did you manage to get in there, Gigi?"
Grim continued to stay silent.
"Is Briggs on the way, Charlie?" said Sam.
"He's moving as fast as he can without being spotted in his 4E Ops armor… he managed to sneak his way through the bushes in the gardens and he's in the estate's interior. He's pinned down, though; right now he's locked himself in a bathroom right now, though."
"Great," said Sam.
Lucas said to her, "Talk to me, Gigi…"
Then as he moved closer toward her, he grimaced. "Of course. You're not Gisela."
All the guards in the room pointed their guns at Grim.
"You can't fool me; I know what Gisela looks like, and I know that she's not you. Who are you?"
Grim said nothing.
"I said who are you!" said Lucas as he approached her.
Grim said nothing.
"Speak, damn it!" yelled Lucas as he slapped Grim hard across the face, knocking her to the floor and sending her mask sliding across the floor.
"Get up," said Lucas, who grabbed Grim by the back of the head and forced her up before she could get up by herself.
Lucas grinned, and laughed. "Anna Grimsdottir. Of course Fourth Echelon would come here after I managed to fool you back in Rome. To be honest, I didn't think Sam and Isaac would fall for my bluff then… I guess it worked out better for both of our plans, because if they didn't, then I would have had to kill them."
Anna grimaced at Lucas as he held her up to him and looked her in the eyes. "Where's your team?"
"Right behind you," said Grim.
"Charlie, tell Briggs to hurry up!" said Sam.
"I don't see him on the security cam feeds anymore; also I'm having trouble seeing through his lenses, I may have to recalibrate them!" said Charlie.
"Shit…" muttered Sam.
Lucas said to Grim, "Spies like you always tend to make jokes before their lives are over. I know that was an in-joke between your team and Sadiq's. I'll ask you again: where are they?"
"I said they're right behind you," said Grim through gritted teeth.
Lucas punched Grim in the throat. Grim collapsed to the floor, clutching her neck and struggling to breathe.
Lucas paced around her. "Once you catch your breath, you're going to tell me where they are."
Lucas picked Grim up by the back of the head again. "Come on, Grim. It's not like you care much about the others, anyway. You did what it took to survive as a deep cover agent back when Third Echelon tried to assassinate President Caldwell. You manipulated Fisher to do this, even if it caused him to despise you. Now he sees who you truly are: the ice queen of Third, and now Fourth, Echelon. You definitely can't stand Charlie Cole, and though you see Isaac as a reliable asset to the team, he's nothing more to you than that—an asset. You and I are more alike than you realize in that we see other people as what they are: tools."
"I'm nothing like you," said Grim.
"If you want to survive now, you'll give up your team members' locations."
"Go to hell," said Grim.
Lucas then began to choke Grim. "If you won't talk, then I guess that means you're useless to me."
Lucas then threw and slammed Grim into the floor.
"Charlie, we need Briggs here now!" whispered Sam.
"Sam, I got Briggs's lenses' feeds back; he's on the rooftops, he's close! Just hang on a bit longer!"
"Sorry I'm late," said Briggs. "I had to deal with another sniper; he used some kind of EMP rounds to stun me and disable my gadgets for a moment. He's dead now. I'm about to enter via the window on your left, Sam; just have to jump across the side of a roof."
"Hurry, Briggs!" said Sam.
"It doesn't matter. Fourth Echelon can't be too far from their queen. We'll find them ourselves, Grim. One of you, contact the security center and raise the alarm. This party is over. Goodbye, Grim."
"Briggs!"
"Sam, I just entered the window, but there's too many—oh shit, Sam!"
An unknown hostile then stunned Sam with some sort of EMP device. Sam fell against the balcony railing; his ears were ringing from hitting his head against it, and his contact lenses were on the fritz.
Sam grabbed his throbbing head with one hand. When his gadgets came back online and his hearing returned, Sam realized that all of the guards in the conference room were pointing their guns at Sam. Sam backed away and put his hands up.
"Sam Fisher!" Lucas laughed. "The infamous Splinter Cell. We meet again." Leaning down next to a struggling Anna, he said to her, "You were right. He really was right behind me."
Anna grunted in response to him.
"Looks like he's not the only one behind us, though. Mr. Hamza, restrain Fisher, now."
"Yes, sir."
Hamza… that voice… thought Sam.
Sam turned around. "You…"
Hisham Hamza then punched Sam in the face this time, knocking him to the balcony floor beneath the railing.
He then picked Sam up.
"Search him," said Lucas.
Sam said to Hisham, "You were how Abstergo got their hands on the Red Mercury, weren't you?"
"The CIA's always been a significant asset to Abstergo," said Hisham as he patted down Sam's tuxedo for weapons. "Looks like Briggs was too dense to figure that out."
"You bastard!" yelled Sam, as he kneed Hisham in the face while he knelt over to search Sam's pockets. "I should've left you to die in Kinshasa."
"That uncontained rage that helped you get through the darkest part of your life won't help you here, Sam," said Lucas. "I'm referring to the time Grim and Lambert tricked you into believing you lost your daughter, of course."
"Shut up, Lucas. Once I kill Hisham, you and your associates are next."
"Are you sure?" said Lucas. "You're being held at gunpoint by over two dozen guards. Turn around."
Sam grimaced, breathing heavily, and turned around as Hisham restrained him again.
"He's empty, sir," said Hisham, "save for this unusual pen."
"Sir," said a bodyguard, "I contacted the security center, but there was no response. I can't raise the alarm remotely either. Your estates' security systems have been hacked."
"That can only mean one thing," said Lucas. "Charlie Cole is in the security center. Send word to the other CIA agents I hired there to kill him."
As Hisham crushed the laser mic underneath his boot, Lucas said, "Speaking of the CIA… that's three out of four Echelon agents in our pocket already. Where's Briggs, Sam?"
"Sam, it's Charlie. I heard everything. I'm packing up my laptop and other equipment and bugging out."
"There's too many of them, Sam," said Briggs. "Our best shot is for me to shoot Hisham and abandon Grim... but even that's risking it."
"No, wait! Charlie," Sam mouthed at a barely audible volume into his subdermal. "Before you leave, do the thing."
"What?"
"I said where's Briggs, Fisher?"
"You know… the thing."
"The thing?" said Charlie. "Oh wait, of course! Doing the thing now." said Charlie.
"Count, Charlie," mouthed Sam.
"Blackout begins in five seconds," said Charlie.
Hearing this over comms, Grim's eyes opened wider again. She raised her head off the ground, and turned it toward the guard with the heterochromic eyes.
"Where is he, Fisher…" said Lucas.
"Four…"
"Fisher…"
Grim nodded toward the guard.
"Three…"
"I'm getting impatient…"
The guard nodded back to Grim.
"Two…"
"Never mind then. He's not cooperating."
Grim gestured by moving her head sideways for a moment to indicate something to the heterochromic-eyed guard.
"One…"
"Hisham, kill him–"
"Right behind you," said Sam.
Then the lights went out across the entire estate.
Sam elbowed Hisham in the face, knocking him backward. Briggs managed to shoot Hisham in the shoulder, causing him to scream. The guards turned in Fisher's direction, and started to shoot. Sam managed to duck behind a pillar on the balcony just in time, then dove and used SWAT turns to make it from pillar to pillar.
In the meantime, Briggs tossed Sam the duffel bag full of his gear, started sniping as many guards as he could. The heterochromic-eyed guard beat Lucas in the back of the head with his rifle, and chucked a set of grenades at Lucas's business associates and other guards.
"What are you doing?" yelled Lucas as the heterochromic-eyed guard took the other guard that escorted Grim to Lucas human shield and started killing the remaining associates with a machine pistol.
"Damn you, traitor!" Lucas screamed as the combined fire of Briggs and the allied guard managed to wipe out all of the associates and most of the enemy guards.
Sam managed to put on his gear, and used his Five-Seven to kill the remaining guards while holding Hisham hostage before throwing him over the balcony where he landed on the conference table, smashing it.
The mysterious allied guard turned around and aimed his machine pistol at Lucas, only for Lucas to shoot his human shield dead with an SIG-556 in one hand.
He ducked behind cover before he could be shot.
As the lights came back on, Sam looked down toward Lucas, who was holding Grim hostage as more guards entered in to cover him.
"I recognize your eyes… Elijah Miles?" Lucas laughed. "The Prodigal Son's returned to kill me, and he managed to kill most of my inner circle!"
Lucas grimaced. "You're going to pay for that. Almost as much as you'll pay for kidnapping Katja."
"Touch her again and I'll kill you," said Elijah as he took off his mask with one hand while holding his gun in the other.
Wait a minute, Sam thought, he's the guy I saw on the skybridge in Rome!
"No, you won't," said Lucas. "Time to meet with Juno again, Elijah. What was it Caesar said? Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. You won't get far, Elijah. And Fourth Echelon won't get far without their ice queen. Arrivederci."
The guards open fired at Elijah, Sam, and Briggs as they ran for cover.
Charlie said, "Guys, I've looked at the schematics of the estate… apparently they've got a backup generator in the interior, so you'll be lit up like a Christmas tree in there! You're going to have to take the rooftops out of there!"
"What about Grim?" said Briggs.
"We'll find a way to get her back," said Sam, "before Lucas does something bad to her."
Sam and Briggs headed toward the window Briggs entered through. As Briggs jumped out the window, breaking the glass, Sam looked down one last time toward the allied guard, Elijah. Sam took note of Elijah's unusually impressive combat skills as he chucked an improvised smoke grenade at the guards while firing at them and ran at them to kill them in close quarters combat.
Then Sam followed Briggs's example and hopped out through the now-broken window.
On the rooftops, Sam and Briggs were being shot at from all angles by guards at the party below. They managed to run across the darkness of the rooftops, avoiding spotlights and gunfire. Sam could hear the alarms going off; the crowds of guests were running for their lives beneath them. It was chaos down there.
Some guards were deploying aerial drones.
After jumping across a set of rooftops, Sam boosted Briggs up to a ledge unreachable by one person, and then jumped up to grab Briggs's hand. Briggs pulled Sam up before Sam was shot to death by the aerial drones closing in.
"Charlie, what's your status, over?" said Sam as they were running across a set of balconies above a garden area; they could see the massive pool in the backyard ahead of them.
"I managed to ditch the assassins coming for me at the security center, but I think they're going to reboot the security systems."
"We're coming for them. Get to the van if you can. We'll alert Vic that it's time to go." Sam turned towards Briggs and said, "Use the hook."
Briggs aimed the hook with his crossbow and fired it across the pool area so it reached and wrapped around a pipe on the roof of the guest house, which was right next to the security center.
"Nice shot," said Sam.
Briggs nodded in response to this.
After attaching the side of the hook they were on to a pillar on the balcony, they ziplined across the pool area as the guards and drones closed in on them from behind.
A furious Hisham, who was limping and clutching his shoulder, leaned against the pillar. Seeing Sam and Briggs ziplining high above the pool, Hisham looked at the hook attached to the pillar above him, grabbed his combat knife, and shot it with the Desert Eagle in his free hand, severing the line.
Briggs and Sam flew downward after the zipline was disconnected; Briggs managed to crash through one window, whereas Sam nearly smashed into the wall not far beneath another, grabbing a pipe to break his fall. Then the pipe broke, and Sam barely managed to catch a crack in the foundation of the guest house wall; he would've died from the impact against the pavement floor below him if he didn't.
He managed to climb his way back up toward the window, all while Hisham was firing his Desert Eagle toward Sam. Despite that Hisham was an impressive shot—even with one hand—the distance between them prevented him from hitting Sam.
A guard opened the window above Sam; Sam stuck his Karambit into the guard's chest and yanked him out of the window with it.
As Hisham's D50 clicked to indicate he was out of bullets, he threw it on the ground out of anger and screamed into his phone, "They're in the guest house; I repeat, they're in the guest house!"
Sam and Briggs navigated through the dark of the guest house rooms with their trifocal multi-vision goggles and gear on as guards searched for them with their own trifocal sonar goggles.
Hiding behind cover, Sam peeked out and shot the incoming guards in sync with Briggs using his SC-20K assault rifle, its underbarrel shotgun, and Briggs's SC sniper rifle. They then avoided shooting the civilian guests running for their lives through the hall intersecting with the one they were already in ahead of them.
More guards were ahead. Sam crept up behind one, slit his throat with his Karambit, and smacked the next with its handle before taking him human shield. As Briggs beat two more guards with his close quarters combat training, utilizing his own Karambit, Sam kicked open the door leading into the main hallway with his human shield in tow, and shot the remaining guards in the hallway before breaking his hostage's neck and smashing his skull against a ficus.
They then climbed a pipe leading across a gap between windows opposite each other and entered the other window into the upper floor of the security center. Sam could hear a chopper flying away above them.
"It's Lucas!" yelled Sam as he peered out the window, only for Lucas to shoot at Sam with a mounted machine gun on the side of the chopper.
As his gun overheated, Sam peeked out the window and aimed his SC-20K at the chopper.
"If you shoot the chopper, Fisher, I may die… but so will Grim."
"Damn it," said Sam as he lowered his gun.
Lucas laughed as the chopper started to take off into the distance.
"He's getting away with Grim!" yelled Briggs.
"She's tough, she'll have to hang in there until we get her back."
"Really? Because I'm not so sure she'll—"
"She will, because she has to," said Sam.
They approached the security center.
"Lucas said he hired CIA assassins to come after us," said Briggs. "I thought I could trust my people at the Company."
"We can't trust anyone but each other anymore," said Sam. "We're rogue agents."
"They were coming after Charlie. They'll be at our location soon."
"Then let's leave them a little present," said Sam. He and Briggs armed some proximity and remote mines and placed them all over the security center.
They snuck out the backdoor as the assassins approached them from not far behind.
"Briggs, blow it!"
"Roger," said Briggs as he detonated the mines.
The chain reaction set the security center ablaze. Several of the CIA hitmen screamed as they burned to death in the inferno, while others were killed instantly by the shrapnel of the explosives.
"Vic, Charlie, sitrep?"
"Sorry I missed the party, Sam," said Vic. "Looks like I'm the designated driver; Charlie's okay but he's a little shaken up… he got detected and was shot at by an assassin on his way to the van."
"He's at the van?" said Sam.
"Yup, and he's snug as a bug in a rug," said Vic.
"Where are you?" said Briggs.
"When shit went south, I had to get Charlie out of there."
"So we're trapped," said Briggs.
"Charlie, do we have options for exfil?" said Sam.
Charlie didn't respond.
"Charlie?"
"Y- you're going to have to hotwire a car in the parking lot!" Charlie stammered. "Get to the parking lot before- before the civilians all leave with them!"
"All right, we'll use the crowds for cover," said Sam. "We'll meet you back at the plane!"
As they approached the parking lot, Sam and Briggs hid in an alleyway where a dumpster was, and quickly changed back into their tuxedos and stuffed their gear back in their duffel bags.
"I forgot… we didn't plan for you to bring one," said Sam.
"Didn't want to miss the party," said Briggs.
Sam smirked as they headed into the crowd of panicking civilians, and put on their masks.
"Where are they?" yelled several guards as Sam and Briggs evaded them. Briggs and Sam jumped into a fancy silver convertible, and Sam hotwired it.
"Is this a Porsche?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Always wanted to drive one of these things."
"Looks like you'll have to settle for being a passenger, Briggs," said Sam as he gunned the engine and they drove toward the exit gates.
"Charlie, got any ideas to open the gates?"
Silence on the line.
"Charlie, listen," said Sam. "I know it's also not easy risking your life like this. But I need you on your A-game, because chances are you're going to have to do it again in the near future, all right?"
"All- all right," said Charlie.
"In the meantime, can you open the gates for us?"
"Oh, oh yeah… I forgot! I hacked into the gate locks; figured that would come in handy. Opening them now."
"Good job, Charlie," said Sam as they escaped through the gates and got the hell away from the estate.
After they did, they drove toward where the Paladin was hidden to rendezvous with Vic and Charlie.
Paladin Nine Security Safe House, Near Stockholm, Sweden
Charlie was sipping some hot cocoa in the safe house Victor's PMC had provided for them.
Briggs said to Sam, "I don't like this."
Sam said, "You don't like what?"
"Grim's gone. We're wasting precious time disguising the Paladin as a commercial airliner. Every second we wait, is a second that sick fuck has the chance to kill Grim… or worse."
"The Engineers are working with Abstergo," said Sam. "They hijacked our plane once. Regardless of that, Abstergo already knows what our plane looks like. We get anywhere near Lucas, we get shot out of the sky."
Briggs frowned. Sam said, "But you're right. We need Grim back. Before we follow up on the lead she found in Hong Kong, we have to find where she is."
Vic walked toward them and said, "Just got off the line with some clients. They're hiring my boys to go lookin' for you, Sam. I'm doing my best to send the clients on some wild goose chases, but it ain't easy. They may be trying to test me; they know about my friendship with you."
Sam frowned at this. Vic said, "In the meantime, men I know that are loyal to me understand the situation. They'll do what they can to help. Charlie and some of Paladin Nine's technicians are beefing up the Paladin's electronic counter-whats-its—"
"Electronic countermeasures," said Charlie.
"—since the last breach."
"Five-twelve encryption sure helped with that," said Charlie, looking out the window. "What's the story with that, anyway?"
Sam said, "Not a good one, Charlie."
"That's fine," said Charlie as he looked out the window and sipped his cocoa again. "I only want to hear good stories right now."
Sam looked at Charlie and said, "You're stronger than you think, Charlie. We'll get through this."
"You said we aren't going to get through this, though, Sam!" said Charlie. "If we somehow manage to stop this mission, stop the world from ending… it doesn't matter… we're going to be on the run for life! Until we're dead."
"Just do your best to take things one step at a time," said Sam. "In the meantime, your job in the field is over for the time being."
Charlie sighed, and said, "I looked through the SMI for potential locations where they might be keeping Grim while updating the plane's security. I think I found something. I think she managed to hide the flash drive I gave her from Lucas, because I was able to use it as a tracker beacon to locate her."
Briggs looked at Sam.
"Do you think it could be a trap?" Briggs said.
"I wouldn't be surprised," said Charlie in a dejected tone.
"It doesn't matter," said Sam. "It's our best lead on finding Grim. Where'd the beacon lead to?"
"The SMI showed that it's part of an uncharted island on Micronesia."
"Micronesia…" said Sam. "That has to be Lucas's private island."
"Didn't he say he was taking various associates of his to that island to be taken to secret bases all over the globe?" said Charlie.
"To prevent them from being among the people affected by the nuclear catastrophe," said Briggs. "Their depopulation agenda."
Sam looked over at Vic. "How soon will the Paladin be ready, Vic?"
Vic said to Sam, "It's ready right now."
Sam, Briggs, and Charlie looked at each other.
"Let's go get our ice queen back," said Sam.