Chapter 7— "Chaos Theory, Part I: Derivative"
Undisclosed DedSec Safe House, London, United Kingdom
Sam woke up when a bag was taken off his head.
"I never thought I'd see one of the select few who was able to beat me in a Krav Maga fight live long enough to see me again… let alone you." A man wearing a tuxedo and a digital mask with a built-in voice scrambler who was standing in front of Sam while other members of DedSec took the bags off of the heads of Grim, Briggs, and Charlie. They were all tied to chairs.
Another member of DedSec was about to take Sadiq's mask off before the man wearing the mask and tuxedo said, "No. Leave his mask on, Darcy. I've got unfinished business with that bloke, along with this one. Do me a favor and go contact Elijah and the other members of your Brotherhood. Ask him for a status update regarding what he's found out from Katja's alters."
The DedSec member, who was wearing a white hood nodded quietly and headed out of the room after leaving Sadiq's mask on.
Briggs said, "What the hell, Charlie… I thought you said you were friends with these guys!"
"I am… at least I think I am!"
Briggs rolled his eyes.
"Apologies about that," said the man with the mask. "Given your associations with President Caldwell's administration, as well as Paladin Nine, I didn't want to risk giving away the location of our safe house. We uploaded a little cookie package to your OPSATs so that way the Strategic Mission Interface won't be able to track us either. It's just an insurance policy, nothing more."
Sam said, "What do you want from us?"
"First, Sam, I want to know what you want from DedSec."
"I assumed Charlie had already given you the information on what we want."
"Right, but I want to hear it from the infamous Splinter Cell himself."
Sam sighed. "Well I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I? By the way, it's worth mentioning, but your outfit… How do I say what I'm trying to say? The curtains don't match the drapes."
"More that it makes you look like a bad video game character with mixed and matched gear, all of it common loot…" muttered Briggs.
The masked man chuckled. "You always had a- I mean, you Yanks and your humor."
Studying the masked man for a moment, Sam thought, do I know him from somewhere?
Sam said, "I need to get information out of Majid Sadiq. Information that could potentially help stop a plot involving several portable Red Mercury explosive devices in the wild."
"Right, a mutual friend told us about what happened in Italy before we uncovered the truth ourselves through some good old-fashioned hacktivism. They told us a different side of the story than the one the news is saying."
"You believe we're innocent?"
"'Innocent' is a matter of perspective, but I don't believe you're working with the Engineers and Abstergo to blow up Rome if that's what you're asking."
"Then you know how much I need to stop this from happening."
"I know. But I suspect the Red Mercury and Abstergo ain't what you're really worried about." Leaning in, the man said, "You're worried about Sarah."
"What do you know about my daughter?" Sam said angrily.
"Since we have Internet access and a ton of high-quality homebrew malware? Everything," said the man. "Big Brother knows way more about Sarah than her father does. Especially given you've always been distant from her."
Sam sighed.
"Look, Sam. I'm just trying to get a feel for how I can help. But if you want DedSec to scratch your back, you bloody better expect to scratch DedSec's."
"Right," sighed Sam. "I heard Lucas bragging about how he turned my daughter over to a human trafficker named Hoyt Volker. His operation is based in Indonesia, which lines up with a lead a friend of mine was chasing in the Moluccas."
"I assume that friend was Victor Coste… Wait… Of course! The Rook Islands…"
"The Rook Islands?" said Sam.
"That's where Hoyt's operation's based," said the masked man. "We've been exposing several of his rich clients' sick escapades on social media so the authorities have no choice but to look into them. One of them ended up telling us about the Rook Islands. If Lucas ever decides to see Sarah in person… he'll arrange to meet her there through Hoyt. We'll help you track her down. This Red Mercury business is going to be a bit nastier however."
"Thank you..." said Sam in simultaneous relief and shock.
"Now what makes you think that Engineer scumbag over there's the key to stopping the Red Mercury."
"We… obtained files from Abstergo's servers. They're written in an ancient dialect. One Sadiq knows."
"Ancient dialect… Ah… That's right. Sadiq's a Sage."
"I'm starting to think I'm the only person on Earth who didn't know about Abstergo or the Isu until recently…" said Sam as he eyed Grim.
"Well, I guess that's what you get for following their bloody orders for so long, Sam," said the masked man. "What makes you think Sadiq'll talk? Because if you ask me, I don't think he'll talk unless we find something that'll put him in a position where he has no choice but to talk."
Sadiq started to laugh under his bag.
The masked man looked at Sadiq and took the bag off of his head.
"Is something ticklin' your funny bone, Sadiq?" said the masked man. "Because I got plenty of remedies for funny bones… most of which involve breakin' 'em."
"I didn't know we had a mutual friend, Sam," said Sadiq with a grin.
"What?" said Sam.
The masked man looked at Sadiq.
"Come on Alfred, I worked for MI6 long enough to know it's you."
"Alfred… ?" Sam looked at the masked man. "I don't believe it…"
"Wanker… Well since you all know who I am, I might as well ditch this sweaty thing," said Sam's old ally from MI6 as he took his mask off to reveal his face.
"Alfred?" said Charlie. "Until now I knew you as JB."
"JB as in James Bond?" snickered Briggs.
"Gotta pay homage to the classic literature," said Alfred.
"Weird," said Briggs, "because you look less like the classic James Bond and more like Daniel Craig. And you seem more like a modern-day depiction of Roger Moore's portrayal of the character."
"I don't like who you chose to be your replacement, Sam," frowned Alfred.
"You and JB have a history, Sam?" said Charlie.
"We've been on multiple joint ops together, Charlie, while I was a SEAL. The most notable one was Operation Just Cause back in Panama… where we raided one of Noriega's banks… that and several during the Gulf War."
"Personally, my favorite was Operation Desert Storm. That's how I met Vic at least."
Sam frowned at this, which surprised Alfred.
"Shit…" said Charlie, "so before you were DedSec, JB, you worked for MI6 and… the SAS?"
"Now you know why I wear the mask, Cole," said Alfred. "You don't walk away from that life without making a lot of enemies."
Briggs went wide-eyed after hearing this, and gulped. "I think I need to apologize for my James Bond remarks."
"Damn right you do," smirked Alfred. "Now, Sadiq, my friend Sam here says you had his daughter kidnapped."
"Traditional interrogation methods won't work on me, Alfred," said Sadiq. "You know that much."
"Right. Hearing the news this morning that my friend Sam broke you out of prison made me sad. And finding out that the news was telling the truth for once made me even sadder. I assume the reason he broke you out is because you threatened to kill his daughter if he didn't. But you're not the only one who can gain leverage over a man," said Alfred. "What do you want from Sam next?"
"There's a file in MI6's headquarters. It's mine. I want Sam to get it for me. Without help from Grim."
"Why without help from her?"
"Lucas brainwashed her. Turned her into Freyja. He did this to prevent me from getting access to that file."
Alfred looked at Grim, and frowned, before he looked back at Sadiq, and his frown turned to a grin. "The plot thickens. Sounds less like you're partners with Lucas than he's got leverage over you, Sadiq. I reckon whatever that leverage is will be on that very file."
Sadiq said, "Do this for me Sam, and Sarah will live. Oh, and I may consider translating Abstergo's files for you too, of course."
Alfred frowned at Sadiq. "I'd be against it, Sam… if it weren't for the fact that there's something I want you to get out of MI6 as well. Something that I can't get myself through typical hacking methods." But then he smiled. "You said Grim was Freyja's Sage, Sadiq?"
"What about it?"
"Weirdly enough, I think I know exactly where the file you're being kept is at… A bunker beneath MI6 headquarters whose construction was funded by one of Abstergo's subsidiaries. The file is on a computer in the bunker which requires a Norse Sage's biometrics. It's the same one I want."
Sadiq's look of amusement turned to an angry stare.
"Manchurian or not, looks like Grim's coming along with Sam and I. We're going on a little adventure together," said Alfred. "Hell, I admit I'm somewhat interested in bringing Briggs along too."
"You're making a mistake, Sam," said Sadiq menacingly.
"I heard Hisham mention the same thing while I was locked up and on my way to you, Sadiq," said Sam. "It sounds like if you want the file, Grim has to be the one to open it whether you like it or not."
"Bruce?" said Alfred.
"Is Fishes and Porker done grillin' the Steak?" said Bruce.
"We're done for now, Bruce," said Alfred. "Until we need him again, hang him up to dry somewhere… somewhere extra uncomfortable if you want a bonus in your weekly salary."
"Bruce does likes his bonuses fat and juicy," smiled Bruce before his smile went away. "And Bruce doesn't likes his Steak well-done… he likes his Steak rare."
Sadiq looked at Alfred, and smirked. "This man calls you Porker? Alfred Porker?" as Bruce put a bag on Sadiq's head again and carried him away.
"We'll keep a good eye on him, Sam," said Alfred. "Marie?"
"You called, boss?" said a dark-haired woman wearing a set of jeweled earrings, a necklace and a Romani outfit.
"Untie the others."
"Have they earned your trust, Alfred?"
"Long before they got here. They're a part of the DedSec family. Treat 'em like it."
Sam eyed Marie as she untied the others. She briefly eyed him back, and smiled coyly.
She whispered to him as she untied Sam, "When you're done talking to Alfred and the others, Yahweh, come see me in my quarters. I have something I want to show you."
Sam's eyes went wide as Marie finished untying him.
Sam walked through the DedSec safe house base and into Alfred's room to hear him on a teleconference with other members of DedSec from around the world.
"Marcus, status update on the joint operation?"
"Which one, JB?"
"The one involving stopping Blume from setting up their branch of the global ctOS network in America."
"Oh yeah. Duh. My bad, I've been smoking a little too much of that good shit with the others that we got off of that last op in Singapore. We found out after Blume-bombing the teleconference they were having with their backers at Abstergo that they're trying to link the global OS with some sort of 'older technology'."
"'Older technology'?"
"Something the people at Abstergo are interested in… we're not sure yet, it was just a small part of the teleconference we were able to eavesdrop on. With that said, we managed to glean terabytes worth of data from the servers in their local office once shit hit the fan. Their encryption's tough, but for us it should be like hacking PGP."
"Good. Any word on Aiden Pearce?"
"He went off the grid after traveling to Yara," said another member. "He was following the dirty money trails of some American politicians being lobbied by Blume and Abstergo. The trails led to some offshore shell companies they set up near Esperanza. Sounds like they have interest in doing business with the Castillos."
Alfred frowned. "Marcus, you said Abstergo's interested in merging Blume's global ctOS network with some sort of technology they have hidden knowledge about?"
"Straight up, JB."
"I suspect Aiden was onto something. Darcy, did you and your Assassin blokes get any of that?"
"We did, sir," said Darcy. "Right now, Elijah Miles's branch of the Brotherhood is in Venice. They're trying to see if they can make a breakthrough regarding Katja."
"He's got bloody balls to stay in Italy after stabbing his way through Abstergo strongholds in both Rome and Tuscany."
Rome… Tuscany… Elijah and Katja? Sam thought.
"Given she's a Norse reincarnation who suffers from some sort of condition resembling dissociative identity disorder, Elijah suspects she's the key to stopping Lucas's plans, maybe even bringing down Abstergo completely. I also suspect he's fond of her. She does look a lot like his childhood girlfriend, June."
"Whereas I don't just suspect he's fond of her," said Alfred before he sighed. "I can't imagine what it was like for that curly-haired bastard's mother to have to raise him on her own…"
"I wouldn't go bringing up his childhood if I were you, sir…" said Darcy. "…especially his childhood girlfriend. You've heard the report about how he got expelled from school for beating a dozen bullies nearly half to death in one go to avenge her, right?"
"Elijah can be a very angry man at times… and he is one of the deadliest Assassins in the Brotherhood…" said Alfred. "Still, I suspect it'd be a little fun to practice some Krav Maga with him."
"And don't get me started about what happened to him the night his mother was killed… The official story is that Abstergo abducted him in his sleep."
"He bloody massacred them before they were able to KO him, didn't he?" chuckled Alfred. "Grown ass men working for Templars getting their throats slit by an angry little kid sounds like a movie I'd bloody love to watch."
Darcy nodded. "Whatever happened back during the Twelfth Hour, back in Australia… with the first phase of the Phoenix Project, it wiped out a large portion of the Templars and Instruments of the First Will. Charlotte was killed, and the rest of the Assassins that went there were either brutally wounded, traumatized, or both… even Galina. I… I don't think it was Charlotte that killed Juno. I think it was him. A fucking kid managed to kill an Isu brought back from the dead."
"That kid's a demon in human skin."
"You don't know the half of it. I suspect he's too dangerous for even the Brotherhood to be allied with."
"You sound almost as impressed as I am, Darcy," snickered Alfred.
"I'm not sure how to respond to that."
Alfred saw Sam, and said, "I'll call you back, Darcy."
Sam said, "That demon in human skin doesn't happen to have curly black hair and heterochromic eyes, does he?"
Alfred said, "You saw Elijah and lived to tell about it? Shit, I'm surprised even you're still alive, Sam."
"I'm not out of lives yet, Alfred."
"Did you have nine lives at some point? Maybe I should call you Cat Fisher."
Sam smirked before saying, "He was in Rome and Tuscany when we were. I assume that the blonde girl who was with him is Katja. You said she's a Norse reincarnation, just like Lucas?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Can she be trusted?"
"About as much as Elijah can trust her, which isn't saying much… but I trust them both way more than I'd ever trust Lucas. Lucas is a piece of shit."
Alfred tried to get a read on Sam.
"Why are you asking about Katja, Sam?"
"Can Sages manage to keep their Isu alters at bay once they start talking to them?"
"It's happened in rare instances, but it required a surplus of bloody willpower on the part of the human host in said instances," said Alfred. "In every other instance, the part of their consciousness that resembles anything remotely human is driven into madness, to the point that it ceases to exist. That's what happened to Lucas. As for Katja, it's yet to be seen," said Alfred.
"What is this about, Sam."
"N- nothing… it's about nothing," said Sam.
"You never struck me as being bad at lying, Fisher," said Alfred.
Avoiding the subject, Sam said, "What is this file you want me to get for you, Alfred?"
"It's about another bit you might've overheard. This Red Mercury business isn't Lucas's only major move he's making towards creating a new world order. You've heard of the Blume corporation?"
"I have."
"Word is they're not just setting up their central OS patents in cities worldwide for big data investment reasons… They're trying to set up a global OS network. If they succeed at doing that, Abstergo will have access to everything… every bank account, every social media profile, every security camera, every phone line, every lock in the fucking world. And with this Phoenix Project thing they're working on… soon they may have access to our minds, bodies, and fucking souls."
"I blew the whistle on this a while ago, and I was issued a burn notice by MI6 for it. My family had no choice but to cut contact with me for good. Hell, I suspect they wanted to. I could've been a better provider for the wife and kids while I had a chance in retrospect. Being accepted into DedSec offered me a chance at redemption, and a chance at fighting to preserve the world I love and the people in it. The file you're looking for is in the Monarch bunker."
"Monarch?"
"The British equivalent of Third Echelon… and Voron. Abstergo was working on setting up their own people in the global intelligence community to help facilitate this mass surveillance program, among countless other awful crimes against humanity. Blowing the whistle on MI6 and this surveillance program should buy us time."
"I see," said Sam. "I'll do it."
"I'm glad," said Alfred. "With that said… there's two other things I want you to do for me."
"What are they?"
"The first is to give us access to the Abstergo files. I might know a way to translate their dialect that's quicker than having to do it with Sadiq. I just need to contact the Brotherhood… specifically Elijah."
"I see. If you can do so and share the contents with us, that's a given."
"Good," said Alfred with a smile. "The second thing I want is more… selfish on my part."
"What is it?"
"Remember when we had a fight back in Iraq?"
"You mean the one where I ended up humiliating you in front of your own men?"
Alfred chuckled for a moment.
"I want a rematch."
Sam said, "You're kidding."
"I've been practicing my Krav Maga to the point that it hurts ever since," said Alfred. "Marie, the Romani woman that untied you and the others back there, helped me improve my technique as of recently. She's the only one I've ever met who was anywhere near as good as you. I promise it'll be a fair fight, unlike last time. One-on-one. We'll do it in the ring in the basement."
"I promise we'll do it after we finish the mission in MI6, Alfred," said Sam.
"Great," said Alfred with a smile. "And just so you know, there's no bad blood between us, Sam. You inspired me to better myself that day. I consider you a friend, not just an ally."
Sam smiled back.
"It'll be just like the old days!" Alfred said enthusiastically.
"No, it won't," said Sam with a smile. "It'll be better."
Alfred laughed, and wiped a tear from his eye. "I need to call back Darcy and the others. I had the others prepare some makeshift quarters for you, Charlie, and Briggs. We ordered fish and chips for you from a nearby takeout place; it should be here anytime soon."
"They better have extra salt and vinegar."
"Hey! You're in the UK now, Mr. American Cowboy," said Alfred with a smirk. "Extra salt and vinegar's considered the standard option here. I had to give you and your team a proper taste of our customs."
Sam smiled at Alfred before he headed out, but before he did, his smile disappeared, because he knew he wasn't going to be eating fish and chips with his team.
Sam entered Marie's quarters. She was sitting on the floor, eating some takeout.
"These fish and chips aren't half bad," said Marie. "Typically we order from a place that's right across the street. Their tartar sauce was to die for. Unfortunately, they went out of business a week ago. Probably because the local authorities suspected they were working with DedSec due to how much we eat there."
"It's a rough economy these days," said Sam.
"Want some?"
"I'm not hungry," said Sam.
Marie nodded to signal she understood. "Sit."
Sam sat next to her on her rug.
"How did you know I was Yahweh's reincarnation?" said Sam.
"You don't know already?" she said. "Yahweh's consciousness must only be in its beginning stages of manifestation. You've managed to keep him suppressed for a long time… and you're a combat veteran."
"I can't hear his voice in my head," said Sam. "Not yet. Anyway, how'd you know?"
"According to mainstream versions of Christianity and Judaism, Yahweh is an omnipotent, omnibenevolent god. But the reality of what Yahweh truly is… is much more complicated."
"Well I'm a good listener," said Sam. "What was the Isu Yahweh like?"
"The Isu Yahweh wasn't some omnipotent force or energy. He was an Isu being. And he had a wife. Her name was Asherah. They fell in love when they became part of a triad focused on uniting the Isu castes across the world due to his belief that further infighting and squandering of the Isu's resources during the war between the Isu and their human slaves would lead to their extinction. He was right. His title was the Father of Understanding, and hers was the Mother of Wisdom. The other member of the triad was who would eventually be known to Christians as the terrifying fallen angel… Lucifer. His title was the Sacred Voice."
"These titles weren't just for show, or tradition. They were part of a scientific method the Isu used to help actualize their most ambitious of projects. Yahweh put himself in charge of forming an emergency council known as the Sky Council, and in some cases the Council of One Hundred and One, in modern-day Tel Megiddo, with the other castes to help unite them. The leaders of the eleven most prominent castes, from across the Earth were known as Apostles, with Lucifer and Asherah representing their Edenic caste. Each of the eleven castes had at least one Apostle and eight Disciples backing them. They were tasked with forming triads of their own to focus on various projects, including the solutions that would help the Isu survive the Toba catastrophe."
"So… Yahweh was the Isu that controlled all the other Isu."
"Not exactly… but the other Isu and even many humans admired him for his charisma. He even showed mercy towards humans he favored due to an insight he gained that the Isu could potentially learn new ways of survival from their own slaves. They called him the All-Father."
"Wait… I thought that that was Odin's title."
"Before Odin stole the title from him, it belonged to Yahweh. The reason the seventh solution was never used to save more Isu than it did was because of Odin. His caste, the Aesir, was the most selfish due to their perceived superiority over other castes stemming from the nature of the Isu caste system. It's not much different from caste systems as humans know them, actually. The Isu did build humans in their own image after all."
"That's starting to become clear…" said Sam, "especially if the Isu were fighting amongst themselves all while catastrophe approached."
"Odin was jealous of Yahweh, to the extent that he became the 'Judas' among the Apostles, so to speak. He conspired with Juno, the Mother of Wisdom of the Capitoline Triad… the one the Greco-Roman caste and Yahweh's Apostle was responsible for. He exploited Juno's grief over her husband Aita, convinced her that stealing the seventh solution for the Aesir would help save him while the other members of her caste considered him a necessary loss to cut for the sake of continuing the experiments. I suspect he also manipulated her due to her trauma from the battles between the humans and her Isu brethren… She hated humanity for a reason, and Odin's manipulations cemented her status as an Isu supremacist. Odin also manipulated Juno into starting an uprising in Eden among humans."
"Eden… Like the Garden of Eden?" said Sam. "Do Adam and Eve come into this somehow?"
"Eden was an Isu city. Eve, one of the first Isu-human hybrids, was the one who led the human rebellion since its inception after discovering that she was immune to the tricks of the Pieces of Eden device the Isu used to control humans' minds... a common device of which was a glowing orb known as an Apple."
"Huh… I see…"
"This was a different uprising, one where Odin would poison Yahweh with a weapon that would cause his limbs to become paralyzed."
"…paralyzed? His limbs?" said Sam. "Like he was nailed to a cross?"
"History often ends up repeating itself when a Sage enters it," said Marie. "In the case of Jesus, when he was killed, he lived on in the hearts of the people as a martyr, throughout centuries. Even if the true nature of what he was became lost to history, due to the teachings of the Order of the Ancients. But in the case of Yahweh, he lived on through the Edenic version of the Yggdrasil supercomputer after the Sky Council were killed during the uprising."
"The Tree of Life… is a supercomputer?" said Sam.
"Yes," said Marie. "It was where Yahweh was planning to upload the consciousnesses of the entire Sky Council, at minimum, into the human gene pool using junk DNA coding. But Odin made it so that never happened. Consumed by jealousy, he managed to have his own caste manipulate the human rebellion to his favor as he saw the humans were winning the war against the Isu. He was too weak to move after what Odin did to him. He knew he wouldn't want to risk causing his human reincarnations to become cripples. Asherah and Lucifer managed to catch Juno fleeing Eden, which led to her punishment of being imprisoned within the hellish confines of the Eye by her own Capitoline Triad. Lucifer and Asherah found an antidote to Odin's poison that they used to revive him, but his strength was gone. He was no different than a human. He became the first truly human Isu."
"Yahweh was ultimately reborn not because he wanted to survive, but because he knew Asherah and Lucifer would grieve for him if he didn't enter the Tree of Life with them."
"So that's why I'm not as strong as Lucas, even though I might be a Sage…" said Sam. "Odin poisoned Yahweh before he could enter the Tree of Life… weakening his Sage reincarnations compared to other Sages, making his voice hard to hear."
"Asherah and Lucifer on the other hand survived the uprising. They were reincarnated as they planned for. Ultimately, Yahweh, Asherah, and Lucifer, the first Isu triad ever… lived on." Marie looked down with sadness in her eyes. "If Odin hadn't done what he had done to the rest of Yahweh's apostles, humanity might've been able to make its own paradise on earth, possessing the knowledge and strength of the Isu. With gods living among people, humanity would eventually be able to discover their wisdom, awaken the sixth. Create paradise with the gifts they were given. Yahweh genuinely believed that, to the extent that his dying words as the sun's heat burned the world to splinters around him… were that he hoped that if humanity wouldn't be able to live in paradise like he had hoped, then it at least would be able to survive."
"So the three members of Yahweh's Triad, along with several Aesir, and one Greco-Roman besides Loki… Aita… were able to be reborn… The rest of the Isu died, and were misinterpreted as a whole by humanity as gods…" Sam said, "Typically Lucifer gets blamed for the world's problems, not Odin. What's his story… why was he called 'the Sacred Voice?'"
"Asherah was responsible as the Mother of Wisdom for campaigning for peace between the humans and the Isu and providing information to the humans that were willing to cooperate. Lucifer's role as the Sacred Voice was to re-educate humans that weren't willing to using the Pieces of Eden. Create simulations that they'd experience while in a dissociative state that would serve as trials."
"You're talking about Lucifer putting them in a version of hell… He imprisoned them inside their own minds until they were deemed fit to come out?"
"Fear is only in our minds, Sam," said Marie. "Fear holds people back from allowing them to become who they're meant to be. It was less like hell as depicted in the Bible or Dante's Inferno and more like a place in their heads where they'd try to learn from their mistakes. Only after that, they'd be able to comprehend the idea of making peace with the Isu."
Sam frowned, and said, "Fear is also a motivator to keep humans away from things that could cause them harm. The Isu created humanity as a slave race… just like how Abstergo and its predecessor organizations tried to follow in their footsteps. To me it makes sense that humans would be afraid to want to team up with them."
"Well, it was the reality they had to face at the time… but… despite that Isu history recalled through various Sages' collective memories has a ton of gaps in it due to the mythological veil… and that even I suspect that Yahweh wasn't always an Isu that loved humans… what was clearer was that Odin's misinformation campaign amongst humanity stirred up the hellish images that are what make everyone so afraid of Lucifer nowadays. All in an attempt to sabotage Yahweh. Lucifer was never the jealous fallen angel that betrayed Yahweh. Rather he was a friend and ally of his. If they ever clashed in any way, it was caused by mutual passion, not jealousy or animosity. In that way he was less of a devil and more of a devil's advocate."
"So… in the event that Lucifer suspects a human isn't willing to cooperate with Yahweh's plans for survival, and he voices his suspicions to Yahweh, and Yahweh agrees with him he has Lucifer test them to see if they're still afraid of him by putting them through more of the mental hell." Sam paused after saying that, before musing, "Reminds me of the Book of Job."
"Yes. The Book of Job was ironically based on an experiment Lucifer conducted for the triad in the midst of early stages of development for this Piece of Eden-induced simulation creator that would eventually become what is known as Hell," said Marie.
"And Asherah, how come she isn't as well known about?"
"There are various reasons for that, but it mostly chalks down to misinterpretation of history, and the inability to tell history apart from myth, fact apart from fiction… along with the issue of hatred towards women that tends to plague our civilization. But Asherah still existed as a Sage from time to time. The most notable one was Mary Magdalene, Jesus's lover and carrier of his children."
"Two Sages in love…" said Sam. "I'm not sure whether I should think of that as cute or terrifying."
Marie smiled. "Part of the reason I know about both Yahweh and his story in the time of the Isu before the Toba catastrophe and Jesus and his story in the time of his life before his crucifixion is because Sages often share the memories of Sages that came before them as well as the memories of their Isu selves."
"Wait," said Sam, "then that means… I don't believe it… You're Asherah's reincarnation?"
Marie's smile grew. "Looks like I answered your question as to how I knew you were Yahweh's Sage."
Sam looked around nervously, scratched the back of his head, and said, "Um… I was going to ask you if you could help me figure out how to bring out my inner Sage… help me build up the strength to take down Lucas if I ever needed to fight him… but now that I know that Yahweh's an Isu with ordinary human strength rather than superhuman… I guess I just need to get the drop on him. I can do that… I have my guns, gadgets, and the shadows to help me with that."
"You have more strength than you think," said Marie.
Sam sighed, and said, "I need to go start planning for the mission to infiltrate MI6 headquarters with the rest of my team."
As Sam got up and headed toward the door, Marie said, "Please don't leave."
Sam froze upon hearing the pain in her voice. "I've waited for two millennia to see you again, and too many millennia before that."
"Listen," said Sam as he turned around, "your name's not Asherah, and you're not an Isu. And I'm not the Second Coming, I'm just an old fisher looking for his daughter someone took from him."
"You're afraid of what you are," she said. "I think I understand now."
Sam sighed. "People who I get too close to tend to die. The last intimate experience I had was with my old Krav Maga instructor, years after my wife and the mother of my daughter died. She ended up getting hit by a bullet that was intended for me."
"One of my best friends that I had fought with back during my early days in the military developed a massive vendetta against America. He blacked out cities, crashed the stock market, and nearly started World War Three. I stabbed him to death after a Mexican Standoff at a bathhouse in Tokyo. Watching his corpse fall from the roof nearly caused my heart leap out of my chest and fall with him."
"But now that Sarah's life is in danger… If I think about the possibility of losing her for another second, I know it's going to drive me mad… but for her sake, it's all I can do."
She said, "If the idea of being a little bit stronger to help you stand up to Lucas will keep that madness at bay… I can help you. Let me help you work on your Krav Maga."
Sam thought about it for a moment.
"Well, I did promise Alfred that I'd fight him…"
MI6 Headquarters Entrance, London, United Kingdom
Later that week, after some intensive planning and training for the big event, Alfred and Sam were standing on the block outside MI6's headquarters, hiding in plain sight.
"Darcy, have you managed to get access to the ctOS box?"
"Yes, sir," said Darcy, who was wearing her hood while standing over some guards she stabbed to death with her Hidden Blade. "I've tapped into the camera systems across the block. There were some mercs working for Abstergo guarding it due to the local global ctOS construction operations happening."
"Hope you didn't cause too much of a mess."
"You know me, sir," said Darcy as she wiped the guard's blood off her gloves, "All my kills are clean. Clean as an entry into the jugular can get, at least. They didn't see it coming."
"Elijah would be proud," said Alfred. "Charlie, you think your little five-twelve encryption is capable of a city-wide mass hack?"
"Do you need to ask?" said Charlie with an excited grin on his face over their OPSAT. "I've always dreamed of doing this!"
"Replacement Man?"
"I have a name, Alfred," said Briggs.
"And I've had more names than I can count over the years, and I know my damn chaos theory down to mental math so don't joke about me bloody counting on fingers if you want to keep yours," said Alfred. "You covering our exit route with your sniper rifle and the drones?"
"Copy that," said Briggs. "To be honest, I'm surprised Fourth Echelon doesn't have drones as cool as these."
"If you don't have the funding for healthcare, Yank, you don't have the funding for the big drones. As for DedSec, we don't need funding for drones or healthcare, because we make our own," said Alfred. "Marie, have you and the others finished planting the charges at the ventilation shafts next to the bunker entrance?"
"Roger Alfred," said Marie as she was exiting the underground parking lot with the others. "The C4 is positioned so it'll disrupt security without causing any unnecessary casualties. As for the guards, I took care of them with some tranquilizer rounds from my dart gun once I was done distracting them… My old belly dancer outfit from when I was a Romani seemed to catch their attention more than my actual conversational abilities."
"Don't let those blokes fool you, Marie. Your charms are almost as impressive as your wisdom, Marie," said Alfred.
"Thanks," said Marie. "It's good to hear your voice without the mask on Alfred."
"Don't get used to it," said Alfred who frowned while he eyed the guards nearby, "I'm itching to put my mask back on right now."
"Porker!" said Bruce over their comms.
Alfred grinned. "Of all the old devils whispering in my ear today… Bruce, you mad bastard!"
"Is Porker with Fishes?"
"Yes I am, as a matter of fact. We're about to eat up the whole bloody buffet, Bruce. I hope you're about to join us!"
"Bruce wouldn't miss a buffet for the world!" said Bruce with a grin. "Bruce is with Ground Beef Done Well in the van, bringing the favors for Porker's work anniversary party at the buffet."
Sam could hear Briggs and Charlie laughing hysterically over comms; he couldn't help but snicker a little.
"You both better call me by my actual last name once this mission's over," said Grim sourly.
"But… but Anna Ground Beef Done Well is such a great name for you!" said Charlie as he tried to contain his laughter.
"Bruce sees Porker and Fishes!"
"We see you, Bruce," said Alfred as the van approached them.
Bruce opened the doors, and Anna hopped out.
"Here's the party favors," said Bruce as he handed Sam, Alfred, and Grim their gear duffel bags. "Bruce's got the wheel for the party extraction ride. Promise you'll save Bruce some leftovers. Oh, and say hi to Brisket for me when you see him."
"Isaac Brisket…" Grim chuckled to herself.
"If this op goes well Bruce," said Alfred, "your next bonus should have you set for life."
Bruce grinned. "Bruce likes his bonuses big and juicy!"
"All right, everyone," said Alfred. "Some of the people in that building are people I used to work with. We may have a history of being violent people, and we may be working outside the law, but we still have a respect for family."
"Right," said Darcy, "While I don't believe 'stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent' applies here, 'do not compromise the Brotherhood' does… At least somewhat."
"Killing civilians goes against Fourth Echelon's mission parameters," said Sam.
"The way DedSec says it is simpler," said Alfred. "Don't be a dick to those who don't deserve it. Stick to LTL weaponry for the time being. Let's bloody rip."
Sam, Alfred, and Grim entered MI6 headquarters.
The three of them were in MI6's lobby, having their fake ID badges Charlie and some members of DedSec made for them scanned.
Their lead-lined duffle bags full of gear went through the metal detector just fine.
The security guard sitting at a desk at the checkpoint in the lobby kept glancing back and forth between them and his computer screen.
"Something wrong, friend?" said Alfred.
The security guard said, "One moment," and called someone on the phone.
"IT? I'm having some issues accessing the database. Are you having issues on your end?" The security person looked at Sam, Alfred, and Grim suspiciously.
He then looked at the computer screen again.
The lights on the security systems turned green.
"You're good to go," said the security guard.
Alfred nodded with a smile at the guard, and the three of them passed through the checkpoint, grabbing their duffle bags as they approached the elevator.
"Looks like Charlie's five-twelve encryption package worked on security," said Sam.
"I had faith in him from the start," said Alfred. "He's a good kid. Besides, we're under heavy surveillance. If Charlie's five-twelve worked on the security cameras, then they'd work on their personnel databases."
As they waited for the elevator to arrive, Sam said to Alfred, "I have a question for you, Alfred… Bear with me if it starts to devolve into questionable science."
"I'm listening."
"You said something earlier to Marie… about how her 'charm's almost as impressive as her wisdom', then she mentioned it was 'good to hear your actual voice'."
Alfred laughed as the elevator finally arrived. "You asking if I've got the devil whispering in my ear, old friend?"
Sam stuttered in disbelief, "You… you're…"
"I'm surprised you only started to figure it out just now," smiled Alfred as they entered the elevator. "So much for being the original Father of Understanding."
"How long did you know about me being Yahweh?" said Sam.
"Ever since I found out I was Lucifer, when you beat me at Krav Maga," said Alfred as the doors closed and he used his badge to gain access to the bunker floor.
As the elevator descended toward the bunker and they changed into their Splinter Cell ops suits, masks, and trifocal goggles, Sam said, "No wonder you want a rematch. What happened must've shocked you."
"Finding out the infamous Sam Fisher, the guy on our joint op that I was jealous of, was the key to my visions I'd been having, figuring out what I was, all in the middle of a fight I challenged him to?" Alfred smirked. "A little bit."
"But it did me a whole lot of good in the long run. Helped me fight off the fears in my head. Lucifer's a charismatic devil, but under his charisma, he's troubled… and he's good at getting under people's skin. Finding out that he's me, and I'm him, was terrifying. Finding his counterpart made me realize that the devil ain't all that different from him. They're not inherently good or evil… they just exist."
"I may have the devil whispering in my ear, Sam," said Alfred, "but that doesn't mean I'm a good listener. Yet, in the meantime, I can take advantage of his gifts."
Sam smiled.
As Sam and Grim finished putting on their masks and trifocal goggles, Sam asked Alfred, "Where's your mask? Does Monarch have their own unique masks for their ops suits?"
"I'm not wearing one of those ugly things again. Not when my DedSec mask is much more good-looking," said Alfred.
And as the elevator finally reached the bunker floor, Alfred put on a pig mask.
They walked into the bunker toting their weapons.
Two guards watching the elevator stood up from the table where they were playing cards. "How did you get in here? Identify yourself!"
"My name's Alfred Porter. I used to work here," Alfred said as he reached for the detonation switch to the C4 the others planted and activated it, causing a massive chain of explosions that rocked the bunker entrance.
While the two guards looked around in confusion, Sam and Grim hit them with some sticky shockers from Sam's SC-20K underbarrel launcher and Grim's crossbow.
They passed through the bunker's security gates before the backup generators came online and they were shut out.
"Talk to us, Alfred," said Marie.
"We're inside the Monarch bunker," said Alfred. "Charlie, have you pulled up the bunker schematics?"
"Yeah," said Charlie. "The computer you want is in the office of the leader of Monarch. Abstergo's mole."
"I know who he is. Kyle Davidson. He's a nasty bit of work. He's Thor's Sage. I've got unfinished business with him in both this life and my ancient one."
"Security camera footage suggests he might still be here," said Charlie. "I'm sending the location to your OPSATs now."
"Good," said Alfred. "He dies here and now."
As they crept through the darkness of the halls, some of which they created by shooting out lights, Sam, Alfred, and Grim fired sticky shockers in sync at the guards searching for them, knocking them out before they were spotted by the guards and their sonar vision goggles.
They saw an intricate maze of laser tripwires ahead of them, while more guards were approaching them from behind.
"Shit," said Sam. "Charlie, is there any chance you can hack into those?"
"Give me a second…" said Charlie.
"I ain't got a bloody second," said Alfred as he pulled out a portable EMP charge and detonated it, short-circuiting the laser grid for the time being.
"That works too, I guess…" said Charlie over comms.
Sam, Grim, and Alfred quickly ran through the laser grids before they came back online.
Now they were approaching the office areas.
"That's the one," said Alfred.
Sam plugged in his OPSAT to the door lock of Kyle's office and Charlie hacked the lock.
They entered, and Sam patched Charlie into Kyle's computer while Grim unlocked the biometric lock.
"I'm in. Searching for the files we need…" said Charlie. "Accessing their servers using this computer as a backdoor… Bingo. Downloading the files you want concerning the global ctOS network now, Alfred…"
Sam and Grim planted some proximity shocker charges outside the office to prepare for any attention the download might draw.
As more Monarch operatives arrived and started shooting up the office through the windows, Sam and Grim took cover behind some furniture while Alfred took cover behind the computer desk. As they heard the charges detonate and knock several guards out, they peeked out and started to pick off several more with sticky shockers, tranquilizer rounds, gas grenades, and some flashbangs.
"How's the download going, Charlie," said Sam.
"Almost done gleaning the files…"
"Hurry," said Sam as they were becoming surrounded by MI6 operatives.
"All right. I'm sending the files you want to DedSec, Alfred."
"Good job, Charlie," said Alfred.
"Huh, that's weird…"
"What's wrong, Charlie?" said Sam.
"I can't find the file Sadiq wants. It's the one that requires Grim's biometric signature to open."
"Can you look for it on the servers?" said Sam.
"I already did that! It's like someone removed it from the servers before we got here!"
"Damn it…" said Sam. "That's bad."
Suddenly they got a call over the intercoms.
"Alfred Porter," said a voice. "I knew you'd come."
"Who's that?" said Sam.
"Kyle," said Alfred. "What do you want?"
"A rematch," said Kyle. "This'll be one for the ages. I knew you'd come back for those files… It doesn't matter if you have most of them already. DedSec won't be able to stop what we're planning. But as for this business with Sadiq and the Red Mercury… that's a more pressing matter. Speaking of which, I assume your American friends you brought here are Sam Fisher and Anna Grimsdottir?"
"What do you want?" said Sam.
"The infamous Sam Fisher. The prodigal father. You're here. Tom Reed was a good friend of mine, and I know you killed him."
Sam could practically hear the sadistic grin on Kyle's face through his inflection as he said, "But Lucas is more than a friend… he's family. And he doesn't want you getting your hands on this file. You won't find it on any of the servers."
"Shit…" said Sam. "We need that file. Charlie, is there any way you can trace the file?"
"Working on it…" said Charlie. "Wait, hold on, I'm picking up some sort of electronic signal from a device on Kyle."
"Is it his phone?"
"I'm not sure," said Charlie, "but whatever it is, the file's on it."
"Sounds like our rematch is destined to happen," said Alfred as he cracked his knuckles.
"We've got bigger problems right now," said Grim as bullets pierced through the blinds of the office windows. "It looks like we're surrounded."
Looking around, Sam saw an air vent hatch on the ceiling above Kyle's desk.
Sam said, "We'll have to escape through the air vents. Alfred, give me a lift so I can open the hatch."
Alfred nodded and headed toward the hatch as Sam said to Grim, "Can you keep us covered with some suppressing fire, Grim?"
"Sure," said Grim as she pulled out her suppressed light machine gun and started firing at the Monarch soldiers without killing them.
After Alfred helped Sam up into the vent shafts with a boost, Sam pulled Alfred up into the air vent shafts with him. Alfred then pulled up Grim as she followed after them.
As they crouch-walked through the somewhat large air vent, they eventually reached a large ventilation shaft lined with laser tripwires.
"I think I see the circuit box that'll help disable the lasers," said Sam. "We seem to have lost them for now but touching a laser will alert them to our position, and we don't have much maneuverability in here should a fight occur. Give me a second to reach it."
Sam climbed up a vertical pipe which then turned horizontal as he reached the ceiling. He moved along the horizontal pipe by climbing with his hands, avoiding the grids of laser tripwires and memorizing their movement patterns as they appeared.
He managed to reach the other side of the vent shaft without tripping a laser. He then climbed down from the pipe and pressed his back against the wall, moving his way carefully across the ledge while timing his movements and keep.
Climbing down from the ledge with his rappel at a viable point, he could see the control panel in sight; it was on the other side of a series of pipes behind an opening in the wall he just rappelled down from which were guarded by more lasers.
Seeing that he might be able to fit through the opening, Sam descended further and started to swing back and forth. Once he built up enough momentum, he detached from his rappel's cable and leapt through the opening, then grabbed one of the pipes, and quickly climbed them like monkey bars to get to the other side. His timing of the swinging jump was perfect, as otherwise he might've gotten hit by lasers.
"Damn, you've still got it, Sam," said Alfred as Sam was nearly at the control panel before one of the monkey bar pipes he was climbing broke partially, and his grip ended up slipping.
"Sam!" yelled Alfred.
Sam fell a long way down the shaft but managed to catch himself at the last minute by doing the splits to catch himself between a narrow squeeze between two pipes.
"Sam, are you okay?" said Alfred.
"I'm all right Lucifer… just do me a favor and don't jinx me," said Sam.
"So much for still having it…"
Sam put his weight on one leg, allowing him to jump and grab a ledge above him. He then shimmied across the ledge while avoiding lasers, until he was able to pull himself onto the ledge itself, and then crept along the ledge while pressed against the wall.
He then climbed the pipes lining the walls until he was back up to the control panel.
"Lasers deactivated," said Sam as he cut through the correct circuits in the panel with his combat knife.
The lasers' infrared glow disappeared before their eyes.
Grim and Alfred nodded, then used their rappel lines in combination with their hook lines to do a quick swing across the vent shaft to the other side, where Sam had just entered another air vent.
Grim, Alfred, and Sam were crouch-walking through the air vents and seeing guards searching the corridors for them through the hatches beneath them.
"Might want to take it a bit slower," said Sam as he started to tiptoe instead after seeing that there were motion detector devices right beneath the vents.
Grim and Alfred kept sneaking through the vents behind Sam when Sam held up his hand.
"Wait," said Sam as he saw a man beneath them in an observation deck overlooking the server room, where Monarch agents were shooting the servers and destroying their hard drives to wipe evidence.
Sam used his goggles' EEV to identify the man.
"Charlie, is that Kyle Davidson?"
"Positive ID," said Charlie.
Sam used his goggles' built-in laser mic to spy on Kyle. Kyle was talking to a man on the phone.
"Anna Grimsdottir's here, Lucas. They didn't leave her with Sadiq. … Right, I know it's because Sadiq wants the file, and he's using Sam's fear of losing his daughter to blackmail him into getting it for him. … You said you used your influence in the CIA to turn her into Freyja using your MK-Ultra program. If your plan is to work, I suggest you make it happen soon. … You're telling me the kill commands for her programming were written into the Abstergo files?"
Grim's kill commands… in the Abstergo files? Sam thought. They must've been in the part of the files written in Aesir dialect. Damn it, Charlie, letting Grim look at those files was a bad idea. Who do they want Grim to kill though. Probably us first, but are there others?
Kyle laughed. "You're a devious bastard. So once the conditions for her programming to kick in are met… Of course. Sadiq and Fourth Echelon never stood a chance."
Sadiq isn't working for Abstergo willingly… he's being forced to, thought Sam. Whatever is on that file must be what they're using as leverage over Sadiq to force him to work for Lucas. What is it that Sadiq wants so badly that's in that file?
Sam was too busy spying on Kyle to realize that Alfred and Grim's clunky movement was causing some dirt to fall out of some of the vent hatches, some of which fell on a guard below them.
The guard looked up and discovered them with his sonar goggles; he then alerted the others via comms, and they all started firing at the three of them.
"Shit! Look out, Sam!" yelled Alfred as he managed to push Sam out of the way as the guard fired up at his direction through one of the vent hatches.
Sam, Grim, and Alfred desperately ran through the vent now as the Monarch commandos' gunfire filled the vent with holes.
Someone used a grenade launcher round to destroy part of the vent they were in, causing the three of them to slide and fall out of it.
Sam's landing was the worst given he was in front; his body crashed into the glass window of one of the servers before it hit the floor.
Clutching his ribs where he had collided with the glass, Sam groaned as he looked up at the observation deck above the servers.
"I'll call you back, Lucas," said Kyle before hanging up his smartphone.
Kyle spoke into the intercoms again. "Sam Fisher is no Sage, men. Kill him. Bring the other two to me. That's an order."
Sam frowned; the guards were wearing sonar goggles, so there was no way using shadows or cover for stealth would work. They were sitting ducks here in the server room.
"We may have to switch to lethal ammo if we want Sam to survive," said Grim.
"Have some faith in your Isu combat abilities, Grim," said Alfred as he cracked his knuckles.
As Sam managed to get back up, and pick up his SC-20K again, Alfred and Grim headed through the maze of servers and started to engage in less-than-lethal combat with the Monarch commandos.
All three of them used their remaining sticky shocker and tranquilizer rounds to subdue the guards. Once they were out of them, they used their fists.
Sam watched Alfred brutally beat the commandos unconscious with his fists. He plowed through a line of them waiting for him, beating them to the ground with his fists as if he was hacking through foliage in the jungle with a sickle. Hell, he made it look easy.
Even after practicing Krav Maga again with Marie, despite that Sam had beaten Alfred in a fight back in the day, he didn't stand a chance at the rematch if they lived long enough to have it.
Grim's style was more in line with street brawling than martial arts in that it lacked a proper technique, but her new superhuman strength was still impressive enough that she managed to take down as well as deal heavy damage to the bodies of all the guards in her way as well without outright killing them.
It wasn't long before it was just Sam, Grim, Alfred, and Kyle.
"That's enough, Freyja," said Kyle. "Sam and Lucifer aren't leaving this building alive. The file Loki wants is lost to him."
Grim froze. Sam eyed her suspiciously.
"I beg to differ," said Sam. "Our techie says your file is on your phone."
"You mean Charlie?" laughed Kyle. "It's not on my phone, Sam… it's in a computer chip I had implanted inside my body."
Sam and Alfred exchanged glances briefly before listening to Kyle as he continued talking. "Triple-helix DNA and Sage indoctrination aren't the only miracles the Phoenix Project has to offer. The computer chip that's embedded in my central nervous system allows me to store and read files like they're my own thoughts. Thor's DNA helps me avoid developing scar tissue from the chip's electrodes' connection with my flesh. And in turn, the chip helps me become one with Thor and his memories."
"Technological singularity. In combination with ObtainR's masterpiece, this is the incredible future Lucas has planned for those who he given his blessing to. The ones that will survive his Selection."
"Lucas only cares about himself, Kyle," said Alfred. "If those chips are anything like what he's doing with the global ctOS network, he can read your mind. And given what he did to Grim, I wouldn't be surprised if he could turn your human consciousness on or off using its software, like a bloody light switch."
"You already know his plans for implementing the technology to the population. That much is in the files you have. But it doesn't matter if you leak them to the public; the media will discredit you. Dismiss the files as crazy conspiracy theories. Public perception is easy to manipulate, and it's only going to get easier for us from here on out."
Alfred frowned. "What makes you think he isn't controlling your mind, Kyle?"
Kyle said, "Lucas and I are family."
Sam said, "What Alfred's saying has merit, Kyle. Like he said, Lucas only cares about himself. It doesn't matter if you're Thor's Sage. He left you here to die by our hands."
"He left me here to take care of some thorns in his side."
"Loki was his family, and look what he's doing to him."
"Loki was a misfit among the Aesir, as were his children. As for Sadiq, he's an Engineer," said Kyle.
"I heard he experimented on a young girl who's another Norse Sage like him. Ruined her life."
"You're talking about Katja?" Kyle laughed. "You don't know anything about her, or Odin for that matter. He didn't ruin her life… far from it. She's just going through some necessary growing pains."
"And as for you and Freyja over here…" said Sam, "I heard your call with Lucas. I think Lucas doesn't want Sadiq getting his hands on this file. But what confuses me is this: why did he need to kidnap my team member and turn her against us just to keep us from getting his hands on it when he could've just had you destroy it?"
Kyle frowned at Sam, and said something to Grim in a language Sam quickly realized was Aesir.
Grim was starting to tremble.
"Is Grim going to kill us for you?" said Sam. "Because if so, she's taking a while to start."
Kyle's frown grew angrier as Sam continued by saying, "You're a loose end, Kyle. She doesn't answer to your commands, she answers to Lucas's. I'm not one to understand politics so easily, but I think Abstergo is losing its grip on its three main superpowers. After Third Echelon's plot to assassinate President Caldwell failed and their replacement for her, her VP, was arrested, America was a lost cause."
"The Engineers, whether they were working with Abstergo or not at the time, were a good way of keeping America's hands full. They were a nice distraction while Voron plotted to steal a nuke in India, presumably to start a resource war between the nations in Asia… That plan failed thanks to my team. I assume when word got out about Voron's crimes, that didn't make the fat cats in Moscow or Beijing so happy, did it? And here you are, the leader of Third Echelon and Voron's British equal."
"You flatter yourself and your team, Fisher," said Kyle angrily.
"Lucas wanted us to take you out for him," said Sam, "and we're going to. Now tell me again how he considers you family? Do you still think he considers you an equal?"
Furious, Kyle pulled out a hammer-shaped weapon, and activated a button on it that electrified it. "You should've learned more about the definitions of equals and opposites in school. In the meantime, I'll use Mjolnir to educate you."
Kyle surprised Sam and Alfred and released a storm-like electric field from his hammer that caused their weapons and gear to malfunction.
"Shit… that thing's got bloody EMP capabilities!" said Alfred.
"It's time for our rematch, Alfred," said Kyle. "I figured I'd even the playing field. I can handle the two of you in a fight."
"We'll see about that," said Alfred as he and Sam charged at Kyle. Sam tried to land a punch at Kyle's jugular, only for Kyle to block it easily, and forcefully shove Sam away before he swung his weapon at Sam. Sam barely avoided getting hit by the weapon or its electric bolts. Alfred smashed into the back of Kyle's head with his fists, causing Kyle to fall onto one knee for a second before he swung his weapon around at Alfred. Alfred managed to dodge the swing, and get another brutal blow into Kyle's jaw. Sam landed a kick to Kyle's solar plexus seconds later, knocking the wind out of him.
However, as Alfred tried to rip Mjolnir out of Kyle's hand after sinking his fist into the man's ribcage, Kyle butted his head into Alfred's to stun him and then landed a kick to his groin, sending Alfred flying backwards. Sam dug his elbow into Kyle's side. Kyle then nearly slammed his hammer into Sam's skull, only for Sam to block it; however, Kyle managed to zap Sam with some of the electricity generated from Mjolnir.
It took Sam all the will he had not to pass out from it.
Kyle stomped on Fisher's foot, causing Fisher's stance to crumble as he continued to weaken Sam with his hammer's electricity. Kyle wrestled his hammer free of Sam's block grip and nearly dealt a crushing blow to the middle of Sam's torso with a swing of his hammer while Sam was in the middle of collapsing to the floor. However, Alfred had managed to get up and pull Kyle away, throwing him into a table in the observation deck room they were in, smashing it.
Sam was trying to get himself on his hands and knees as he saw Alfred stomp on Kyle's torso, then for Kyle to land a kick into Alfred's ankle before getting back on his feet and grabbing his hammer.
Alfred threw a blitz of brutal punches at Kyle. Kyle managed to block some of them, while also suffering several crunching blows. Kyle then managed to duck as Alfred threw a hook punch, and then grabbed him and pushed him into the wall behind him, destroying some of the wall's foundation and causing a wall clock and some paintings on it to fall nearby.
Alfred grabbed his torso in pain from after hitting the wall, then let go as he stood up and prepared to attack Kyle again.
Only for Kyle to sink his electrified hammer into Alfred's genitals.
Sam's eyes went wide in horror as the metallic clang of the hammer, the crackling of the electricity, and the painful crunching noise of the internal damage the blow did to Alfred's body relented, and Alfred fell back onto the floor curled up in pain.
Sam stumbled around as he tried desperately to get onto his feet.
"You…" groaned Alfred as Kyle stood over him.
Grabbing Alfred by his hair, Alfred said, "You…"
Kyle said, "This was a fun rematch, Alfred. Even if it was two against one."
"You…"
Kyle rolled his eyes. "Are you seriously going to say 'you should've gone for the head', Alfred?"
"You…"
Holding his hammer towards Alfred's skull with one hand, Kyle made a sickening grin as said, "When they bury you… for their sake, I hope you're wearing the pig's mask. Who came up with your shit sense of humor, you useless wanker—"
"He's right behind you," said Sam as he swiftly grabbed Kyle's head from behind and dug his Karambit into Kyle's neck. He kept digging as Kyle's piercing screams and choking noises started to fade in volume until he was able to yank out the computer chip.
Sam stood over Kyle's bleeding corpse as it fell to the floor next to his dropped weapon.
Getting up, Alfred said while he put a hand over his groin, "Well he was right about that being a fun rematch."
Sam said to Alfred, "You're hurt. He managed to hit you with his hammer."
Alfred said, "I'll live. Fortunately I've already had kids in this life, too." Looking at Kyle, Alfred said, "Looks like history turned out slightly different today than it did in the Isu era. Instead of Thor crushing the World Serpent with his hammer, Thor crushed my worldly serpent. Doesn't matter though. He still got what he deserved."
Sam couldn't help but snicker. "Did that actually happen to Lucifer? Please tell me that wasn't how the 'serpent' was punished when it was forced to leave Eden with Adam and Eve."
"Not quite, Sam," said Alfred as he looked at the ground with a hint of sadness in his eyes, "but there's a lot of overlap between mythologies due to the fact that they're all just castes of the same precursor race. Eden was where the mythologies converged."
"Of course…" said Sam, "The Sky Council. The Last Supper. Marie told me a bit about how Yahweh's 100 Disciples were from the various castes."
"If there's anyone out there with a sense of humor sicker than ours, they're likely Aesir… or those Nornir bastards the Aesir are so fond of talking about. If you've got twisted humor, you bet your arse you're gonna get twisted weavings."
"The Nornir weavers were real?" said Sam.
"They were a triad responsible for their own calculations to help them come up with simulations of possible futures and plan for them accordingly. They didn't write out our fate so much as simulate it in order to study it so that they might rewrite it again someday."
"Good to know," said Sam, "and speaking of the Aesir…"
They both turned to look at Grim, who seemed to have been frozen in place the entire time of the brawl.
"Grim? Are you still there?" said Sam.
Grim mumbled something in Isu.
"Her conditioning's starting to kick in," said Sam. "We need to get out of here now before she turns us in or tries to kill us."
"No bloody kidding," said Alfred. "You handled yourself pretty well in that fight, Sam. For Yahweh's Sage, that is."
Sam smirked at this. "I still owe you a Krav Maga rematch when we get back, Lucifer."
"One step at a time, Fisher."
Sam said to Grim, "Grim, we're leaving. Don't make us leave without you. We still have a file to open."
Grim's eye movement patterns evening along, along with her nodding her head yes, suggested that Sam's words helped her snap out of her trance for the time being.
As Sam, Grim, and Alfred ran out of the Monarch bunker, they could feel the ground shaking a bit.
"Monarch didn't do that, did they?" said Sam.
"Not Monarch," said Alfred as he opened his comm link. "JB to DedSec. We have the package. Given the floors are shaking down here, would it be safe to assume you started the city-wide mass hack?"
"Yeah," said Charlie with a toothy grin on their OPSATs. "If there's anything that would give you guys plenty of time to escape, it's this."
"The joint operation at Blume's headquarters was successful," said Darcy. "The public's not going to be happy with the various corporations, governments, and institutions conspiring to create a global Orwellian hellscape together now that we've caught them in the act."
"Good job, Darcy," said Alfred. "Marie, are you and the others evacuated from the building?"
"Affirmative," said Marie. "The streets are in chaos due to the mass hack. We had much more opportunities for cover than we needed."
"Bruce, are you on the way with our extraction?"
"Bruce is on the way to the party with the van. Bruce is always fashionably late."
"Good," said Alfred. "Briggs, I hope you're ready to cover the extraction route with the drone."
"I am," said Briggs. "Drones are powered up and airborne."
"Sounds like we're good to go," said Alfred. "Once we lose the authorities amidst the mass hack, we'll wait for things to settle down at the safe house, look over our intel, and discuss next steps. But with that said… the party's just about to begin…"
As the ground continued to shake, Sam, Grim, and Alfred got into the elevator, and exited the bunker.
As they got out of MI6 headquarters, Sam realized something was seriously wrong upon walking out onto the streets.
The mass hack wasn't the only thing going on. Looting, rioting, shootings everywhere.
"Uh… Alfred, what's going on out here, did I miss something on the news that's happening in London?"
"No. We are the bloody news, Fisher."
"It's just, the mass hack turned out a lot more violent than I expected it to be…"
"Haven't you heard, Sam?" said Alfred with a frown. "Abstergo's trying to enslave the bloody world with help from its big tech subsidiary Blume and their global ctOS network project. We found the evidence they were doing it, so we leaked it onto the net."
"In addition to that, we managed to start decrypting some of the Abstergo files written in the Greco-Roman dialect with help from the Assassins, and leaked information from that as well… evidence incriminating Abstergo in a much larger conspiracy… one that's lasted for millennia."
"You what?" said Sam. "How'd you do that?"
"Ask the Assassins… specifically Elijah," said Alfred. "Regardless, what little we were able to dig up so far? All this chaos you're seeing is the fallout of that. Paris… Berlin… Rome… Spain… Stockholm… A lot of European cities are looking pretty similar to this right about now. The public's gettin' out and about now because they're thirsty for a pint or several of the blood of the one-percent."
"What did we just do…" Sam said as he looked around at the riots happening.
"Until recently you've been taking out the terrorists that Abstergo told you to take out, terrorists working in smaller groups like the Darah Dan Doa, John Brown's Army, and the Engineers. Now that you're working on taking out Abstergo? What did you think was going to happen?"
"History is repeating itself. The Isu… The Order of the Ancients… The Templars… Abstergo… None of them give a damn about their human slaves. The Order of the Ancients' collapse and the power vacuum they left before King Alfred the Great formed the Templars based on his own vision, resulted in chaos. The Isu's collapse resulted in catastrophe, and the near extinction of humanity along with the few Isu that managed to survive the global human-Isu war."
"But this chaos is still far better than the alternative. Would you seriously rather bow down to beings like that, Sam? Ones who don't care about humans like us, who are literally about to blow up the entire world and plunge it into war, all in the name of profit and control? Their sick vision for humanity?"
Sam frowned, along with Briggs, Grim, and Charlie.
"Just because we're fighting against Abstergo doesn't mean we're the good guys, Fisher," said Alfred, "We're a necessary evil. But if we don't start breaking shit, kicking arse and taking names… no one will be free, no one will be safe, and no one will deserve to be."
"Sam," said Briggs, "the streets are a bloodbath down there. You and Grim may not have enough less-than-lethal ammunition to make it out. We're likely going to end up becoming a part of the chaos if we want to make it out of London."
Bruce pulled up to them with the van.
Rolling down the window, Bruce said, "Porker, Bruce has the van ready."
Alfred turned and said to Sam, "Are you seriously ready to join DedSec, Fisher? Embrace your destiny as Yahweh? Because if a little chaos like this scares you, then you don't stand a chance at taking on Abstergo."
Bruce looked at Fisher. "Is Sam Fishes coming with us?"
Sam grimaced at Bruce.
"Sam Fishes isn't coming with us?" said Bruce. "What about Sarah Fishes? Is she coming to the party, Porker?" said Bruce as he turned toward Alfred.
Sam gritted his teeth, and tossed his less than lethal weapons aside.
"I'm ready," said Sam.
Alfred grinned. "Time to unleash Yahweh's wrath," he said as he donned the pig mask.
"Get in Fishes, we're going to miss the buffet!" said Bruce. "It's all-you-can-eat, and Bruce is hungry. Bruce is thirsty, too… Thirsty for blood."
Sam joined Grim, Alfred, Bruce, and Marie in the van and they entered the riot-plagued streets of London.
As Sam sat in the back of the van, hearing the maelstrom of chaos outside its walls, Alfred said, "You made the right choice, Sam. Historically speaking, the right choice is never easy to make. I was worried you were a derivative."
"A derivative?"
"It has something to do with the Isu's fondness for mathematics, Sam," said Alfred. "Divination through numbers. Our sixth sense allows us to perceive time itself and other constructs in ways that help us gain insights humans couldn't even begin to comprehend. We're able to create entire simulations of possible futures so we can change the inevitable one, and we do it all based on calculations. Various constants and variables that could alter history, nodes where possible futures converge and diverge."
"Now if we possess an understanding of math and the sciences that is on a level deep enough to give us the ability to change the fate of history, even after the actual Isu are all dead… to the Isu, chaos theory is as easy as figuring out the answer to two plus two. As for the derivative part… that has less to do with this and more my perception of character."
"Change is inevitable, Fisher, whether we like what the changes are or not. And those who are resistant to change tend to end up on the wrong side of history all too often. Derivatives waste their time worrying about gradualism and trying to change at a rate comfortable to them. But serving the greater good, Sam, involves rapid change, and rapid change is painful, chaotic… Violent."
"Rate of change?" said Sam. "Right, I think I get it. Derivatives. You're not talking about chaos theory, you're talking about basic calculus."
"While I can't stand Lucas and I've dedicated my life to stopping him and his plans, I know he understands the need for change. Global climate change is an impending catastrophe, and until he launched a coup on Sofia Rikkin's faction in Abstergo and took her place as CEO back in Rome, Abstergo, its subsidiaries, and the governments they lobby were doing fuck all about it. They're derivatives."
"Still, despite that Lucas and I are equals in that we agree about the existence of the problem, we're complete opposites in terms of what we believe to be the solution. It's greedy bastards like Lucas that are hoarding and squandering resources. And yet he has the audacity to say humanity as a whole is the problem because there's too many of us and the fact that we eat, drink, piss, and shit is the essence of the problem."
"Unlike Lucas's solution, mine doesn't require killing everyone. It just involves killing derivatives. But derivatives do exist everywhere, Sam, as what makes you a derivative isn't what side of the fight you're on, but rather it's a part of your character."
Sam looked in horror at his former friend. "You're an anarchist. You want to create a society based upon survival-of-the-fittest principles. You see derivatives as chaff to separate from the wheat." Sam said to Alfred, "You listened to Lucifer's voice too much Alfred, and that voice isn't sacred, it's sick. You're no longer Alfred… you're him."
"I'm more myself than ever," said Alfred with a frown. "I've chosen to accept change… and it's helped me grow into who I'm destined to be. Are you sure you're ready to accept your destiny, Sam?"
Sam frowned. "What makes you consider someone as wheat? The people who deserve to survive?"
Alfred grinned, and said, "You're Yahweh's Sage, Sam. Yahweh knew his chaos theory better than anyone. Don't tell me you only finished the first half of basic calculus?"
Sam looked away.
Alfred said, "It's simple really. Wheat are the function in calculus that are used to turn derivatives into the functions that embrace change and reap its benefits rather than calculate its rate."
Sam grimaced as he looked Alfred in the eye.
"An antiderivative."
"Exactly. Another word for that's integral, am I right?"
"Integral…" Sam said as he suddenly started to have flashes of his time fighting during the Gulf War again.
"Time to separate the wheat from the chaff, Sam," said Alfred as he loaded an MG42 light machine gun upon hearing the noise from the riots outside the van growing louder.