Megiddo

by DJJD2184

A fan-fiction sequel to Conviction and Blacklist. With this Splinter Cell fanfic project, I wanted to not only explore a huge cliffhanger in Conviction that was never capitalized on in Blacklist (Megiddo), but also try to develop the existing characters and their relationships with each other more.

10. Three Laws, Focused on One Motion

Chapter 10— "Three Laws, Focused on One Motion"

Israeli Embassy, Syria

Camera footage of a mass shooting at the Israeli embassy in Syria.

Shot by the Engineers.

A panic room in the embassy was breached with explosives.

Inside, a member of Lucas's organization was having his associates shred documents. He destroyed his laptop computer by putting a few bullets in it.

Aiming his gun at the Engineers, his gun was knocked out of his hands and he was shot several times.

Falling to the floor, Sadiq picked him up.

"Where is the detonation site?" said Sadiq.

"I'm not telling you," said Lucas's Israeli disciple.

Sadiq stabbed him in the shoulder. The disciple screamed.

"I can make your life a living hell, you know," said Sadiq, "and if you won't answer my questions willingly, then I'll get you to answer them. So, you might as well come clean."

"Long live the All-Father," said the disciple as he bit down on a cyanide capsule.

As his mouth began to foam and his body shook, Sadiq frowned, and dropped the man.

"Search the computers in here. Salvage what you can from the hard drives," said Sadiq to his men. "You," he said as he pointed to their camera man. "It's time we compiled the footage for the ultimatum."

The White House, Washington, DC

"Citizens of the world… This is the Selection. We are the Engineers," said Sadiq. "The Americans and the Israelis refused our demands to bring their troops home. But in the eyes of the ninety-nine percent, they are no longer the only ones responsible for the desecration of the Middle East. Rather, the ones responsible are the one percent.

"The embodiment of the one are the First World nations who have pillaged the world over the years. So long as the one remain in power, everyone suffers. We are no longer just asking for the US to bring their troops home… We are asking for NATO to bring its troops home, and disband its entire organization."

"If the one fails to comply, we have five portable Red Mercury bombs, each carrying twice the yield of the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever designed by humanity until now… that we are willing to plant in positions that will weaken the power of NATO significantly… not to mention bury First World cities in the ashes of hellfire.

"You have fourteen days to comply before we plant the last four bombs and start their detonation timers. You have seven days to comply before we plant the first. Now we are in control of who lives and who dies. Bring your troops home, now. Or suffer from the ashes of hellfire. We will not negotiate. You will not stop the Selection."

President Caldwell was responding to another call from a lobbyist when her intern came to talk to her.

"Tell the people you represent in Silicon Valley that I'm not interested," said Caldwell to the lobbyist as she hung up. Turning to her intern, she asked her, "Have you prepared the report for me?"

"Yes, Madame President," said the intern as she handed Caldwell the report. "Madame President—"

"Good," said Caldwell. "This is going to save me some time so I can come up with an alibi for the press regarding the whole deal with the riots… as well as Sadiq's escape and the Engineers' new ultimatum video."

"Madame President, there's someone who wants to talk to you waiting outside your office. Him and his bodyguard," said the intern uneasily.

"What? Who?" said President Caldwell. "It's not another lobbyist, is it?"

"Not exactly," said the intern, as she whispered in the President's ear, "He says he's from Megiddo."

"Shit," said President Caldwell as she put a hand to her chin. Thinking for a moment, she said, "There's no way he's here to assassinate me… That's not like them. I want to hear what he has to say. Send him in."

The intern went out to fetch Megiddo's representative, then came back in with a blonde man wearing a gray suit and tie and his bodyguard, who was a larger man with brown hair and a beard.

President Caldwell said to the intern, "Wait outside, please."

The intern nodded, and headed outside.

President Caldwell said, "I recognize you. You're not Megiddo… you're the CEO of the PMC that absorbed Black Arrow… and Displace International. Capital Forces Global."

"Alex Clarkson," said the CEO of the Capital PMC, smiling as he offered President Caldwell his hand. When she refused to shake it, he took it back and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Madame President. With that said, I am in fact also Megiddo."

"Fair enough," said President Caldwell. "Shetland refused to play ball with Abstergo's agenda. It wasn't long after they started buying up Displace's shareholdings that he stole the five-twelve encryption algorithms from them by kidnapping Bruce Morgenholt, while simultaneously starting his partnership with the I-SDF."

"His chaos theory was good, but it had its flaws," said Alex. "Now that fascism is on the rise again, the I-SDF are too. They belong to Abstergo now, as well as all of Displace and Black Arrow's assets. Abstergo had me take the place of Shetland and the respective CEO of Black Arrow, Lucius Galliard."

"What's your point in coming here?" said President Caldwell.

"Privatization of the military-industrial complex is the future of this nation, Madame President," said Alex as he offered himself a seat in front of the President's desk and crossed his legs. "Abstergo's hoping to gain direct control of America's military forces, not just through lobbyism. They're set on using my company to do the job. Become the world's first superpower that's a corporation."

"I won't stand for it."

"Your second term is already wrapping up," said Alex, "and after this whole scandal with Fourth Echelon… chances of the country voting for a candidate like you again are slim. The country's already expressed their dissatisfaction with your administration in the recent polls."

President Caldwell looked at Alex as he said, "Megiddo's got footage of Anna Grimsdottir assisting in Majid Sadiq's escape."

"Fourth Echelon's been disavowed," said Caldwell. "My administration was responsible for their leader's capture."

"And yet now he's on the loose as well," said Alex. "He was found in the same area of the UK as well. Are you sure the riots in the UK weren't another false flag operation of some kind… much like what many citizens theorized about Rome?"

Caldwell said, "I refuse to engage in arguments about conspiracy theories concerning my administration, Mr. Clarkson."

Alex smiled. "I suppose I should be more direct with you then. This man next to me is more than just my bodyguard… he was Grim's handler."

"Handler?" said Caldwell as she raised her eyebrows. "You don't mean… ?"

"I neither know nor care how much you've been keeping tabs on Fourth Echelon, Madame President, but what I do know is that Anna Grimsdottir was brainwashed using Abstergo's modified version of the MK-Ultra program not long after she was abducted from Tuscany after the terrorist attack occurred at the party."

Caldwell looked at the man who brainwashed Grim.

"He's going to be keeping tabs on your administration in the meantime. We've got contracts with Abstergo to keep an eye on Washington in case of a potential terrorist attack that could threaten their clients."

"Terrorist attack?" said Caldwell. "Abstergo's attempting a do-over of the Third Echelon Conspiracy, only this time with Red Mercury, aren't they!"

"That's a startling accusation you just made, Caldwell…" said Alex, "…equating Abstergo with working with these terrorists, the same ones just now mentioned on the news. Do you have any evidence to back that claim up?"

Caldwell said nothing.

"In the meantime, give us Fourth Echelon, and we can protect you, Madame President. Ensure you have a safe and happy retirement after your second term is over."

"I told you, Fourth Echelon has been disavowed," said Caldwell.

"Fair enough," said Alex. "We're living in a rapidly changing world, Caldwell… If I were you, I'd start to make sure that those changes don't include you being indicted."

Caldwell sighed, and said, "Get out," as Alex left the room.

As Caldwell's intern returned, she said, "Madame President… I heard it all. With all due respect, I'd like to resign."

"You and everyone else in my administration," said Caldwell as she sighed. "Very well. I know I can't stop you. All I'll say is that I recommend you get as far away from Washington as you can, while you're able to."

"That's what I was worried about," said the intern, "…but given you had me in charge of communicating with them?"

"If you're called to the impeachment hearings, you'll know," said Caldwell. "I'm sorry for getting you wrapped up in this dirty game."

The intern nodded, and left the Oval Office as well.

Caldwell sighed, and looked around her office suspiciously before looking at the report the intern typed up for her.

Isle of Skye, United Kingdom

Charlie was sitting by himself at a campfire, holding a pan full of bacon over the fire, eyeing the sizzling bacon with an empty stare.

Briggs walked toward Charlie.

"You gonna eat that?" said Briggs to Charlie as he sat down next to him.

"It's not crispy enough yet…" said Charlie.

"It's practically burning."

Charlie sighed, and took the frying pan out of the fire.

"You can eat it," said Charlie. "I'm not hungry."

"I'm not either," said Briggs. "I can't get it out of my head… What Sam told us after he snapped."

"About you being his replacement?" said Charlie. Looking at the fire, he said, "Not that it matters. It's like Sam said… Fourth Echelon's over."

"We've still got a job to do," said Briggs.

"We lost Sam… and…" said Charlie before he frowned. "I don't even want to say her name, knowing what she did."

Poking the fire with a stick, Charlie said, "Not to mention the Paladin's been hacked. Lucas could easily crash us as soon as we take off."

"Can't you fix that?"

"I don't know anymore…" said Charlie. "Maybe Sam was right… Maybe I'm not fit for service."

"Maybe," said Briggs, "but you're the only hacker Fourth Echelon has, and you're pretty good at it."

Charlie said, "Even if I somehow figure out how to fix the Paladin… it'd be just the two of us."

"Not just the two of us," said Briggs. "We also have Grim."

"Grim's as good as dead, Briggs," said Charlie.

"Don't be so sure," said Briggs. "I managed to locate a cure for the poison she's suffering from, even found a sample of the plant needed to create the cure here in the Isle of Skye. We just need to—"

"Don't use it on her, Briggs!" said Charlie as he turned toward Briggs. Sighing, Charlie wiped his forehead, and said, "Sam was right… She's not Grim anymore, she's Freyja. We should just let her die."

Briggs said, "I think you need to see her condition for yourself."

"Are you pitying her, Briggs?" said Charlie angrily. "For Christ's sake, she killed my friend! And Alfred!"

"But it wasn't Grim who killed them, though," said Briggs, "it was Freyja… As for Grim? I think something Sam said got through to her. She's waking up."

Charlie frowned, and said, "I'll be the judge of that," as he got up from the fire.

Grim was looking even paler than before as she lay by herself in her holding cell, when Charlie and Briggs entered the holding bay.

Charlie looked at Grim, and frowned.

"You sure she's not just… you know, dying?"

"I'm not," said Briggs, "but I've got a hunch."

Grim looked at the others and sighed. "Just let me die, Briggs," she said weakly.

"If I'm speaking to Freyja… your willingness to lay down your life for Odin suggests your persona's incomplete. Your kind wanted to live beyond the end of the world, not help start it."

Grim looked down.

"If I'm speaking to Grim…" said Briggs. "Don't let Freyja win. Sam may be pissed. I know he hasn't fully trusted you since the death of Third Echelon, but I also know you and your relationship with him. Therefore I at least suspect you can get him to work with you again in time."

"He's never going to work with any of us again," said Grim, "because of me. The death of Fourth Echelon is my fault."

"It's Freyja's fault, Grim."

"No, it's mine!" Grim croaked angrily.

Charlie looked surprised at this.

She looked at the etchings she made on her cell. "Freyja managed to break down my psyche… like that of a Sage's. She knows my weakness, one I've been keeping down this whole time."

"Being in this profession isn't easy for anyone. But to survive in Reed's Third Echelon regime I had to… change… to earn his trust. Become a monster. I was one of his most trusted allies who helped wipe out Lambert's control over Third Echelon, help Reed subvert it."

"Why'd you do that?" frowned Briggs.

"Initially, to buy time, look for an answer. But as things grew more desperate… I did it to survive," said Grim. "Megiddo's pockets were deep, and I already knew about them before Reed showed up. You can't oppose them without losing so much of yourself. I started to realize that I was starting to go from an unwilling accomplice of Reed's to a willing one, that I was losing sight of why I signed up for Third Echelon in the first place… Then Lambert broke through to me… and sent me on a redemption mission."

"That's why the operation to protect Sarah from Reed was Lambert's, not mine…" said Grim. "He asked me if I was willing to betray Sam too in the end. I said I wasn't. Like the best moles in the business, I trained myself to believe my own lie."

Charlie said, "So… then Lambert did know Reed was the mole."

"Eventually… through a mistake I made," said Grim. "I didn't understand at the time why Lambert said he didn't know the identity of the mole in his files at the time. But I think I understand now… He knew Sam would hate me. He wanted to salvage what little of a working relationship I'd have left with Sam once the situation with Megiddo boiled over… I- I don't know why he chose to help me like that."

Grim sighed, and looked up at the ceiling of the cell. "If it weren't for Lambert giving me a wake-up call, I wouldn't have defected and started working as Caldwell's deep cover agent inside Third Echelon. Caldwell would've never made it out of the Oval Office alive that night… and neither would Sam."

"In addition to that, as liaison between Fourth Echelon and Caldwell's presidential regime, I have been keeping secrets from Sam about Megiddo… even before Lucas brainwashed me. We figured compartmentalization was a good idea so we didn't end up plunging the world into anarchy by having Sam and Fourth Echelon take on Abstergo. You saw a small glimpse of what that might look like back in London. Politics is a dirty game… That's…" Grim sounded like she was on the verge of crying. "That's why I shot Reed that night. Forcing him to testify would've led to the discovery of how deep the conspiracy really runs. I've covered up for Abstergo for so long, but I can't anymore."

She sighed, shivering, and bit her poison-covered tongue, coughing up blood. "I'm a traitor. To my friends… my colleagues… and my country… I always have been… Now's no different."

"I disagree," said Briggs. "Now's different."

"How?" said Grim.

"Because I think you care again."

"I'm still too weak to do anything about it."

"Then do something for us."

"What?" Grim shut her eyes, and shook her head. "No… Freyja's watching… and so is Lucas. Anything I try to do, they'll use against you. You just need to let me die."

"Charlie wants to know more about the Integral and Abstergo files. I suspect you must've memorized them given you're a genetically enhanced being now."

Grim's eyes went wide, along with Charlie's.

"Charlie's also been trying to contact President Caldwell since all contact with her ceased after Ravensthorpe. I figured you might be able to get us a potential lead while he's sorting out the Paladin's security systems. Isn't that right, Charlie?" Briggs said, looking at Charlie.

Charlie looked at Grim for a moment. Holding out a plant, he said, "Briggs found this plant in a collection he saw in DedSec's hideout. It's supposedly native to Scandinavia. It'll supposedly cure the poison from the thorns you hid inside your mouth to escape in London."

Grim said to Charlie, "Why are you doing this?"

"If you want to die so bad, then the best payback for what you did is making you have to live long enough to face your sins."

Grim couldn't help but smirk ever so slightly.

"All right. Maybe I don't deserve to ask this… no, I don't… but…"

"What?" said Charlie.

"Do you know where Sam went?"

Charlie and Briggs looked at each other.

Briggs said, "You know how Charlie said I found the plant in a collection in DedSec's hideout here?"

"Yeah?"

Briggs smirked. "Well given how we're not allowed near their hideout, I had to sneak in. I ended up overhearing Darcy venting her frustrations to a DedSec colleague of hers about having to lend Sam two favors…"

"…your first favor is that you want access to our black-market connections?" said Darcy. "Are you insane?"

"Queensbury Rules, Darcy," said Sam.

"Yeah, yeah…" said Darcy. "That stubborn old devil… Fine. You've got access to 3-D printed weapons galore… Hell, we can even pull Fourth Echelon's schematics for your gear from DARPA if you want."

"Perfect," said Sam.

"What's your other favor?"

"I want DedSec's hackers to keep me off the grid for a while. I'm trusting that they know how to do that."

"How long?" said Darcy.

"Are we negotiating?"

"If we have to."

"Long enough for me to go on a mission," said Sam.

"And where would that mission be at."

Sam frowned. "My home town."

"You want to go back to America?"

"No," said Sam. "Israel."

Nazareth, Israel

Sam had grown his beard out again.

He would hitchhike to the safe house Darcy provided him from Nazareth; the safe house coordinates put it somewhere between Nazareth and the real-life Tel Megiddo. On the way, he gave some coins to some beggars on the streets.

Trekking through the lush shrublands, he eventually came to a small clearing by a lake where there was a small cabin.

Sam walked toward the door. The security system was armed.

He rang the doorbell.

"Queensbury Rules."

A man with glasses and a disheveled beard and hair answered the door, speaking in a British accent. Looking up and down at Sam, he said, "Well you fit the bloody description… Still, I'm not convinced-"

"Shaun!" said a female voice from inside the house before he shut the door.

"Becs, what did I say about saying our names while uninvited guests are here?" said Shaun to the voice inside the house.

"It's obvious that's Sam Fisher, Shaun!"

Shaun sighed. "Fine. Come in."

The woman in the house, who was wearing a beanie hat, said, "Make yourself at home, Sam."

"Just not too much," said Shaun. "Word is you're here on a mission of some kind."

"I'm here looking for a lead on my daughter's location," said Sam. "Darcy mentioned something she picked up while spying on Lucas's conversations with his associates at their hideout in Yara. Something about the Elite Squad Initiative. A name was mentioned. 'Trifocal'. She wouldn't elaborate further. I want to know what its significance is."

"Trifocal is the Elite Squad Initiative's most dangerous operative," said Shaun. "Until recently, we thought the Initiative was working for Abstergo to help hunt down a rogue branch of Abstergo known as ObtainR… their division that worked in heavy collaboration with the Blume corporation… due to their interests in combining their branch's robotics and the flow of information with the transhumanism prevalent in the Phoenix Project. Likely to advance humanity towards the technological singularity Abstergo was so excited about."

Sam frowned and said, "I've heard of ObtainR… Didn't that corporation's CEO go mad half a decade ago?"

"Dr. Theodore Crane?" said Rebecca. "That's putting it lightly. He became obsessed with his own creation, a superintelligence known as C2… that and androids designed to look like people and operate like supersoldiers. Good thing he and I aren't related…"

"How far along did the project get?" said Sam.

"…put simply…" said Shaun while scratching his head, "…we could've been enslaved by a God-playing scientist's machines if the ESI hadn't taken them down."

"You sound like you were there to see it unfold."

"One of our people was there," said Rebecca. "Which is why we're surprised you didn't already know about the Elite Squad Initiative."

"Why?"

"They're government-military commando types… mostly US like yourself," said Rebecca. "I mean, doesn't the codename 'Trifocal' remind you of those cool-ass goggles you Splinter Cells wear around all the time?"

Sam frowned. "You think Trifocal could be a Splinter Cell?"

"Again, we did…" said Shaun, "until we eavesdropped on a conversation Lucas had with some of his associates in Yara by accessing their teleconference. Our mutual friends at DedSec happened to share it with us. Trifocal isn't just associated with the Elite Squad Initiative, they've got their own unit they're a part of, that's for certain… The ESI was always a joint operation… We were certain Trifocal was some kind of corporate spy… an anti-Splinter Cell, perhaps. But the conversation proved us wrong."

"Mind showing me?" said Sam.

"If it weren't for Darcy bloody owing Alfred and us bloody owing Darcy and Alfred's Queensbury Rules crap, then yes we bloody would," said Shaun. "But a deal's a deal."

Lucas was at a meeting of some kind with his high council of Abstergo advisors.

Sam watched the footage from the newly repaired Abstergo Headquarters in Rome.

"You're telling me this… Trifocal breached the Abstergo headquarters, obtained access to the new iteration of the Masse Kernels?" said Lucas. "When?"

"Right after the false flag attack you instructed to wipe out Fourth Echelon, sir," said one of his associates.

"Could it be that Trifocal is another Splinter Cell we didn't know about… returning to the scene of the crime?"

"We doubt it, sir… Our government contacts, not to mention surveillance on the Paladin would've picked up their identity by now."

"Perhaps Trifocal is working with the Assassins, as a mole inside the ESI?"

"They likely wouldn't be able to bypass Eagle One's security measures if they were, sir."

"Damn it!" Lucas slammed his fist against his desk. "There's no way they're working for a bunch of civilians like DedSec… No, whoever this is, they're good enough to stay off the grid of even Abstergo for years." Lucas looked around the room for a moment. "Comb through the ranks of the ESI. Do everything you can to try and get a hold of their true identity. I need to force a confrontation with this loose end as soon as possible!"

"Yes, sir," said an associate working with the Phoenix Project.

"Miss Bellucci."

"Yes, sir?" said Lucas's new secretary.

"Get the CEO of the Blume corporation on the line. I want to see the security footage they obtained of the Initiative's confrontation with Dr. Crane in Nagoya."

"Of course, sir. Also…"

"Spit it out already, tuts… I'm in a bad mood."

"…you have secret correspondence."

"Give it to me, then."

"Not electronic. Physical."

"What? Where?"

Lucas looked at the envelope his secretary handed him.

After reading the letter, his face went red.

"This isn't from another lover of yours, is it?"

"No," said Lucas furiously, "no it isn't. Please leave me alone for the time being, Miss Bellucci."

The secretary left.

"It looks like I don't need to force a confrontation. Trifocal is going to come to me," Lucas said to himself as he looked around the walls of his Abstergo office.

Sam frowned while looking at Rebecca's console.

"The rest is just details," said Rebecca.

Sam said, "Wait, zoom in on that."

"On what?"

"The letter he's holding!"

Rebecca typed into her keyboard and zoomed in on the letter. "I can't read the writing… it's super blurry…"

"Not that… The logo."

"What? Hey, a logo!" said Rebecca.

"You seriously didn't pick that up earlier, Becs?" said Shaun.

Rebecca frowned at Shaun and said to Sam, "That's… the logo of the mining company Abstergo hired to dig for sites throughout the desert in the Holy Land. They're looking for—"

"—Isu sites, I get it…" said Sam. "One of which could be the location they'll detonate the Red Mercury bombs from…" Shifting focus, Sam thought, "How does this help me find Sarah?"

"I think I got an idea, if it helps," said Shaun. "You just lost that Engineer, Majid Sadiq, am I right?"

"Yeah, what about him?" said Sam.

"You didn't stop to watch the local news, did you?" said Shaun. "The Assassin Brotherhood's old Levantine headquarters from the Third Crusades was taken over by the same mining company recently."

"What do Abstergo and the Engineers want with the Assassins?"

"What don't they want with us…" said Rebecca with a smirk.

Shaun eyed Rebecca.

"What?"

Shaun then gestured at Rebecca by pointing towards Sam with his eyes.

Sam looked at Shaun.

"I mean what don't they want with the Assassins!" said Rebecca.

"You guys are Assassins?" said Sam. "Not DedSec?"

"Guess the hidden blade's out of the bag now," shrugged Shaun. "Good job, Becs."

Rebecca said, "Sorry."

"You're not the only one whose team is in danger," said Shaun. "Abstergo's got their hands on the media; they're trying to frame the Assassin Brotherhood for recent events."

"For the Red Mercury attacks?" said Sam.

"Well, not exactly—" said Rebecca.

"Yeah, let's go with that," said Shaun.

"Right," sighed Sam. "So Abstergo's trying to make it look like your little cult was responsible for the Red Mercury attacks by having the media seemingly discover information that the old headquarters was turned into a sleeper cell for the Engineers."

Shaun said, "Let's go with that."

"No wonder I have trouble trusting people when everyone withholds information from me like this," said Sam, holding his forehead.

"We don't know if Abstergo would be smuggling the Red Mercury bombs through there…" said Shaun while rubbing his chin. "It doesn't make sense given they just broadcasted that the Engineers took over the site when they're trying to keep the Red Mercury bombs' locations a secret… but regardless, Engineer presence means you might find a lead or two on the Red Mercury there… and if you find the Red Mercury…"

"Then I find Sarah," said Sam. "Good. This old Levantine headquarters, where is it?"

"Masyaf. Up in the mountains of western Syria," said Rebecca.

"I'm going there tomorrow," said Sam.

"Um…" said Shaun.

"What?" said Sam.

"It'd kinda be better for all of us if you just go now… you know, before our superiors get back?" said Shaun.

"I thought William was okay with this," said Rebecca.

"But Elijah isn't, Becs!" said Shaun.

They sound like a bickering couple, Sam thought, and smirked. "Fine. I'll head there tonight then," Sam said. "That should be enough time for me to prep anyway, and the sooner I investigate the place, the better. And if I need to hide from Elijah, I saw a place out behind the cabin where I can do so. I want to go out there anyway, and clear my head."

As Sam saw Yahweh next to him, he squinted, and Yahweh nodded.

After Sam headed out, Rebecca whispered to Shaun, "Isn't tonight even worse for that, though?"

Sam wandered out to a cave outside near the marsh area next to the cabin with some now rotted-away skeletal remains of what looked like a semi-human being, save for that the remains were rather… large.

He saw, no… sensed, tons of drawings on the walls and floors that he swore he had sensed signs drawn on the floors pointing to earlier.

Is that… blood… said Sam.

Yahweh looked at the drawings, and then at the skeletal remains, a grave look on his face.

"Yahsherah…" said Yahweh as he looked at the remains.

"Yahsherah?" said Sam. "Another Isu?"

"Not… exactly…" said Yahweh. He sounded, even looked sad.

Sam said, "I'm going to need your strength to face the Engineers, Yahweh…" said Sam. "Do you know what these drawings are here? Like… this one that looks like a sun?"

Yahweh said, "Of course… The Isu High Council… The Twelve Apostles… and each of their Eight Disciples… forming 100 in total. There's a reason I was seen as an invisible god over time… It was because little about the High Council was ever made known to humans. They would mostly come to be known as gods humans did not celebrate as much as the other, younger Isu…"

Yahweh traced the drawings. "Incredible… She drew it so well… The original Illuminat Apostle was known as Caelus, and the Aesir Apostle was known as Borr… The Annunak Apostle was known as Anu…"

"Were you the leader?"

"No…" said Yahweh. "They were the fathers and grandfathers of the Isu that died during the Toba Catastrophe… and they were responsible for ending the War of Unification… The war that divided up and sowed resentment between the various Isu castes…"

Sam said, "I see… at least- I think I do… Caelus was the Roman god equivalent to Ouranus… Borr was the father of Odin in Norse mythology… and Anu was the divine personification of the sky in Sumerian religion…"

"Come to think of it…" Sam pondered, "In Roman mythology, Caelus was married to Terra Mater, just like how Ouranus was to Gaia, and how Anu was married to Ki… There are recurring motifs in differing mythologies like this all the time, a male sky god married to the female earth goddess… How were you involved in all of this?"

"The various castes were often brought together by our leaders marrying each other in an attempt to help unify the castes' populations."

"Like kings would with princesses from kingdoms they decimated in medieval times."

"Odin did so with Freyja, as I did with Asherah, and Anu with Ki before me… But the peace created by the Council would be short-lived. I was left in an attempt to pick up the pieces as the heavens, and humanity, warred against us, drove us to extinction. I tried to make peace with the humans, while the Capitoline Triad tried to save everyone…"

Yahweh looked to the old bones lying on the ground of the cave. "Odin stopped both from happening, sought only to save himself and his trusted few."

Sam sighed.

Yahweh looked around the cave. "Megiddo… The prophecy is growing clearer… But still cloudy…"

"What about Megiddo?" said Sam. "Does it have to do with Integral? The Israeli version of Echelon, and Voron?"

"Your goals to save the world, and save her… Sam, your goal is one and the same… Your goal is the same as hers!"

Sam sighed, and frowned. "Saving Sarah comes first. The longer I'm not in Lucas's clutches, and the longer she is… He's going to kill her!"

"Her strength to fight, her will to live…" said Yahweh. "You will need all the help you can get. You need your disciples back."

"My 'disciples'?" said Sam with a chuckle. "Briggs, Charlie, Grim, they all failed me when I needed them the most… No, it has to be me who stops the Red Mercury from being shipped to their locations, who gets Sarah back…" said Sam. "I'm following the trail, Yahweh. Whatever it takes."

Sam grabbed his bags and headed out of the cave.

Israeli Airspace

"Charlie?" said Briggs. "You think you got security fixed yet?"

"Yeah," said Charlie. "I figured it out. It was the new AI autopilot system that I installed to help the Paladin pilot itself since Kobin and the other pilots left us. That was what caused the breach in security; it was due to some glitches caused by the machine learning part of the program, so I uninstalled it completely."

"So, how are we supposed to fly this thing then?" said Briggs.

"With her," said Charlie.

"Grim?" said Briggs.

"No, her—oh, sorry, you're not in here yet," said Charlie.

Briggs walked in to find Marie on the Paladin.

"How'd a member of DedSec get in here, Charlie?" said Briggs.

"I let her in," said Charlie.

"Charlie briefed me on the situation. I want to help," said Marie. "I can tell that Sam won't last without you, at least the two of you… although your decision to keep Grim alive is upsetting."

"Grim's still on the team because we need her, and we think Sam got through to her… whether he realized it or not."

"I see…" said Marie with a frown. "You need a pilot. I want to get to Nazareth to make sure Sam survives his mission. We can help each other."

"You can fly a plane?" said Briggs.

"I'm not legally licensed due to being brought up outside the law, but yes, I can," said Marie.

"I see… It's good that you plan on reuniting with Sam, because so do we," said Briggs. "Can you share anything with us without getting into too much trouble with Darcy?"

"I can," said Marie. "Darcy struck a deal with him to get him to Nazareth, then to an old Assassin safe house near Tel Megiddo. It's likely the one Darcy sent him to as part of his deal with her."

"How fitting," said Briggs.

"As much as I love Sam and want him to survive, I know his mission is important to him…" said Marie. "But this was done at the request of Alfred… and Victor Coste."

"Wait, how do you know Vic?" said Charlie.

"Through Alfred," said Marie. "Alfred, Victor, and Sam all fought in Integral together. They share a bond. We all want Sam to bring down Lucas… We know it has to be him… But by having me do this for him… I think Victor in particular was plotting something behind all our backs."

"What makes you think that?" said Briggs.

"It has to do with a Splinter Cell-like mercenary, one named Trifocal…"

"Trifocal?" said Briggs.

"Like the goggles you guys wear?" said Charlie.

"No…" said Grim. "The Elite Force Initiative operative that brought down Dr. Crane and his army within ObtainR, nearly single-handedly. None of the other members of Elite Force knew her identity… and few ever even managed to glimpse them… Those who did said they suspected Trifocal was a woman…" Grim said, looking away for a moment and speaking quietly.

"Man or woman, this person is a ghost," said Marie, "but after Lucas made you rogue agents… the ghost started leaving a trail. Lucas forced Victor to have Paladin Nine look for Trifocal and bring them in, just like he was forced to do the same for you. According to DedSec's digging through Paladin Nine's records to the best of our abilities, he didn't look for either her or you, he covered your tracks."

"Charlie?" said Briggs. "Are you positive you've regained control of Paladin security?"

"I trust me as much as you do, guys," said Charlie, "…but I scrolled through the code all day. It was the autopilot, I'm sure of it, and I scrubbed the files Sadiq was hiding his virus aboard the plane with using five-twelve encryption. We should be good to go. If we're not, I have no idea why… and I'm confident in my programming know-how, so I shouldn't have no idea why."

"Good," said Briggs. "Patch me into Vic."

"What… ?" said Charlie. "But isn't that risking Vic's life?"

"No," said Briggs, "because I trust you've figured out Lucas's trick that helped him figure out he was working with us. At this point Lucas is likely going to use Vic as leverage now anyway. We need to warn him."

"All right," said Charlie, and called up Victor.

"Sam," said Victor. "You're pushin' it to call me right now when I'm neck deep in Lucas's shit. This had better be good to risk me blowin' my cover like this—wait… where's Sam?"

"Thanks to Marie here, we now know we're the ones who should be asking you that," said Briggs.

"What're you talkin' about, Isaac?"

"Who's Trifocal, Vic?" said Briggs.

"I don't know what you're talkin' about!"

"Paladin Nine never had a team devoted to creating its own Splinter Cell program… at least not while I was there…" said Charlie.

"Listen, we need to go offline now guys… This is a huge risk to my company as is—"

"Please tell us, Vic. For Sam, and Alfred," said Marie.

Vic sighed. "It's because of Sam that I can't let you know about who Trifocal is. Trifocal's the one I'm sendin' to find Sarah's location."

"What?" said Briggs.

"I've spent millions of dollars in company funding training Trifocal from the ground up… keeping their identity a secret… If Lucas finds out who Trifocal is, the location of the final Red Mercury detonation will be lost to us… It'll all be for nothin'. On top of that, it won't just be Sarah's life that'll be lost if that last bomb goes off… Lucas's plantin' it somewhere important to his cause, and not just for the sake of havin' leverage over Sam."

"Do you know where the last location is yet? Or the detonation site?"

"Trifocal is followin' up on the last bomb's location… as for the other four bombs and the detonation site… I'm afraid it's up to you. They were followin' up on a lead in Syria after tracking the Engineers that attacked the Israeli embassy to there. You know… the attack from their ultimatum, the one that's sparkin' war across the whole goddamned Middle East right now."

The others looked at Vic as he said, "They must've gone dark after that. You'll likely find a lead there… probably along with Sam."

"Good. You've given us enough to work with," said Briggs. "Thanks Vic. Oh, and you should know that Lucas compromised us through the Paladin. Charlie realized the source of the problem now, but…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'm fucked," said Victor as he sipped his coffee nervously while at his desk. "Thanks for letting me know. Christ, it's gonna be a miracle if we make it outta this one alive…"

As Victor ended the call, Briggs said, "Sounds like Trifocal's the key to finding Sarah, along with the Red Mercury. If their last location was in Syria, we have to go there first… We'll find Sam afterwards, but I have a feeling he won't be far behind."

The Levantine Assassin Brotherhood's Old Headquarters, Masyaf, Syria

Sarah was in a makeshift cell in the dungeons of the old Assassin castle, with her wrists and ankles bound to a chair by metal cuffs instead of ropes this time, and her eyes and mouth taped shut. Her T-shirt and khaki shorts were still soaking wet and stank of salt water from causing a distraction back on the Rook Islands to allow for her to kill Hoyt before Lucas found out she was gone. She started hearing voices coming from the halls outside, then heard the door slam open.

Then Lucas aggressively ripped off the tape from her eyes and mouth.

Sarah grunted in pain, and caught her breath.

Sadiq said to Lucas. "Are you sure you're not letting your paranoia get to you, Lucas? She looks like a scared little girl to me, not a ruthless killer."

"Shut up, Sadiq," said Lucas. He turned to Sarah. "I don't believe that bullshit that a drugged-up SoCal fuckboy killed Hoyt in an entire room full of his private mercenaries even though he's never seen combat in his life before setting foot on that island. Similarly, I don't believe that you've never seen combat in your life before either after seeing you leave Hoyt's compound in chaos like that. I also don't believe that Vaas just managed to leave his favorite lighter in the way of my rifle when I tried to break your leg. No, I don't believe any of it. Not. One. Bit!"

Lucas sighed, and caught his breath for a moment, before barking, "Speak. Who trained you to fight like that? You're a civilian! It doesn't match your profile!"

Sarah remained silent.

Lucas slugged her hard in the gut with his fist.

Sarah yelled in pain.

"No more acting!" yelled Lucas. "There's no use in it; we saw you on camera, you broke the fucking necks of a bunch of Sages, like it was nothing!"

Sarah couldn't help but smile a little on the inside at that; she had received orders to kill off Lucas's army of brainwashed, genetically-engineered Sages he was creating by experimenting on Hoyt's trafficking victims. Fortunately, only a few had managed to survive the gruesome trials they were put through. She had been briefed on what Sages were, that her dad had been one this whole time, and seen a bit into what the genetic implications of that meant for her concerning her own traits.

Breathing furiously, Lucas said, "No… I don't believe it… How did he hide your identity from me for so long?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" lied Sarah, looking up at Lucas.

Lucas looked at Sarah, and said while continuing to fume, "I was originally going to have you be strapped to the fifth Red Mercury bomb… as leverage against your father… but I guess I won't mind strapping your corpse to the bomb instead." He grinned. "Your father's overdue to turn himself in."

"I knew he wouldn't," said Sarah, looking up at Lucas defiantly. "And I don't need anyone to save me."

Lucas smirked. "How ironic… while my plans at thwarting your father fell a step back, your plans at thwarting my real one fell a step back as well… Sadiq told me that your father only knows the locations the first three bombs will be placed… but not the one for the depopulation agenda, not the one for you, and not the detonation site. And now you don't know the location your bomb will be placed at either, do you? That was your plan, wasn't it? Or should I say, Victor Coste's plan?"

"We'll find a way to stop you," said Sarah. "We always do."

"Like hell you will, Trifocal," said Lucas. "You're going to die here. And this time your father is not even going to be able to have the luxury of seeing it happen. Goodbye, Sarah Fisher."

Lucas said to Sadiq as he walked out, "Kill her anyway you like, just make sure it works."

Sadiq said, "Of course, Lucas."

"Coward! You're not gonna kill me yourself?" Sarah said to Lucas.

As Sadiq pulled out his Karambit knife, Sarah said to him, "Wait, Sadiq. Lucas has leverage over you."

"Then you understand why the world has to burn, along with you."

"What's the leverage? Whatever it is, we can get it for you!"

"Why should I believe you when your father's the one who got Lucas the leverage in the first place?" said Sadiq as he held up the knife towards Sarah's throat.

"Listen, Lucas is manipulating you into fighting each other!" said Sarah as he pressed the knife against her neck. "I was ordered by Victor Coste to find the location of the various people and loved ones that Lucas is holding hostage with the fifth Red Mercury bomb… the same one being used as leverage against some of the people being forced to work for Lucas… Probably including whoever you care about."

Sadiq yelled, "You don't even know where they are! And neither do I."

"Listen. The bombs aren't here. If Lucas isn't shipping the bombs through here, then why do you think he's here?"

"For one, to see to it that the Engineers are ready to deploy, to follow his orders through me to become nuclear suicide bombers!"

"And to cover up evidence of the involvement of his mining companies he's using for the detonation site, and his shipping company he's using to ship the bombs."

"Shipping company? So that's why we found you here in Syria after you escaped from the Rook Islands, all right under our noses…" said Sadiq. Looking around, Majid said while rubbing his chin, "Alejandro Takfir…"

"Who's that?"

"A name I heard while I was here. One that sounded significant in the context it was spoken about."

Sarah stared at Sadiq for a moment as he grimaced, and said to her, "If I make a move, I'm dead."

"Whereas I have plenty of room to maneuver now that my cover's blown," she said.

"Now's your turn to listen to me," said Sadiq. "If you win, I'm dead. I'm dead no matter what. I know that. But you make sure my son lives, and lives a good life at that… or I will make you suffer in the next life. And as a Sage, that can have more than idle implications. I'm sure you know that by now."

"What's your son's name?"

"I…" Sadiq couldn't help but laugh. "I never really got the chance to come up with his name… Jordan. That's his name. Say it to him for me when you save him from Lucas."

"A deal's a deal," said Sarah.

"No matter how painful," said Sadiq with a smirk. "Brace yourself… I'll have to make it look like I tried."

"Then make it look good," said Sarah with a grimace. "I can take it."

Sadiq sighed, and started to dig his knife into Sarah's shoulder.

Sarah screamed for several seconds before Sadiq stopped.

"All right," Sarah said, "that's enough—"

Sadiq then dug his knife into Sarah's neck slightly.

Sarah grunted.

"Had to make it look like I tried to slit your throat," said Sadiq as he then used the keys to the cuffs to open them.

"Impressive. Looks like you already picked one of the cuffs open," said Sadiq. "Victor trained you well."

Sarah sighed and said, "Right…" as she grabbed her shoulder and wiped the blood off of her neck.

"You'll have to find a gun for yourself," said Sadiq, "along with a medkit to patch up your shoulder wound. I'm sure you can do that, though."

"Of course," said Sarah. "Now, time to make it look like I knocked you out."

"Do your worst," said Sadiq. "Like you said, it has to look good. I also admit I'm somewhat intrigued to see how hard you can hit."

… … … … …

Sam was up on a part of the mountains overlooking the ancient Assassin stronghold-turned Engineers sleeper cell in the middle of a sandstorm.

The original façade had been worn down, but the Engineers had rebuilt the facility into a fortress of their own.

Sam used his goggles' EEV to zoom in on the compound. There were barbed-wired and electrified fences surrounding the facility, sniper towers with spotlights scanning the floors, and tons of guards and vehicles on patrol.

Sam was plotting his approach as he looked down when he sensed he wasn't alone up here.

He looked around through the sandstorm with his thermal vision. Another person had just climbed up the mountain, and he was wearing a Splinter Cell outfit.

Drawing his SC-20K and aiming it at him, Sam barked, "Hold it."

The person put their hands up, sensing his SC-20K's laser sight on their back.

Sam then lowered his weapon slightly, as he realized he recognized him.

"Elijah Miles… You're the Assassin."

Elijah didn't say anything in response to Sam.

"I was at your friends' safe house earlier… They mentioned you."

"Altair, wait—"

Sam quickly reacted to the voice yelling behind him and countered the attack of the person sneaking up behind him, throwing them to the floor in a spinning motion.

Sam recognized the person to be Katja Winter, the female Norse Sage.

Elijah used this advantage to attack Sam with his hidden blade himself. Sam got a close-up glimpse of his eyes, which were heterochromic.

Sam groaned, and knelt over as he tried to block Elijah's arm as he attempted to stab him; Elijah was nearly as strong as Lucas.

Elijah then kicked Sam off his feet, causing Sam to nearly slide off of the mountain; his SC-20K nearly did as well.

As Sam got up, Elijah pointed his blade at him.

"Wait, wait!" said Sam as he held his hands up. "I'm on your side, damn it!"

Elijah said to Sam, "You're that Splinter Cell. The one whose antics in London resulted in the temporary shutdown of an entire DedSec cell."

"That's the one," said Sam. "I struck a deal with them to get me here. They sent me to Shaun and Rebecca's safe house."

"Shaun and Rebecca's safe house?" said Katja.

"That's our safe house, not theirs," said Elijah. "We were just there not too long ago. Goddamnit, I'm gonna have to talk to Darcy about our relations with DedSec again… And why didn't Shaun and Rebecca tell me about you?"

"I'm assuming they must not have wanted to get into trouble with you," said Sam.

Elijah grimaced, and squinted at Sam.

"Look, I'm telling the truth," said Sam. "I'm not here to fight with you, I'm here to stop the Engineers. You can either work with me or we can go—"

"No," said Elijah. "I don't care if you're telling the truth. I've read your profile; rogue or not, your loyalty is to the US Government. As Assassins, working with you would be breaking a key tenet of our Creed."

"Which would be?"

"Never compromise the Brotherhood," said Elijah. "The United States is one of the most corrupt empires in history. Abstergo has its eyes on its military influences. Your government wants us gone. To you, we're no different than the Engineers… We're terrorists."

"You're wrong," said Sam. "I've been lied to by my government for years. Right now, my priority is saving my daughter."

Katja looked at Sam.

"Are you sure we couldn't use an extra hand, Elijah?" said Katja.

"I'm sure, Katja," said Elijah. "Toss his gun off the cliff."

"What? Wait!" said Sam.

Then, before Katja kicked Sam's SC-20K off the cliff, Yahweh appeared and told Sam, "Elijah is another Prophet, Sam… but his alliance with that other Sage is causing some confusion in my calculations. I would advise you to try and avoid antagonizing them."

"They're about to rob me of my gear," said Sam, "and it sounds like they're not keen on being friends with me to start with."

"What's he saying, Elijah?" said Katja as she looked at Yahweh.

"I… don't know," said Elijah. The two Sages looked almost as confused as Sam was now that he was seeing the other consciousness in his head manifest in the place where his actual body was.

"Hurry up, Katja," said Elijah.

"My priority is my daughter, not your Prophecy, Yahweh…" said Sam with a frown. "Your Prophecy will have to wait."

"Sam, wait!" yelled Yahweh.

But Sam had made his decision.

Before Katja kicked his SC-20K off the cliff, Sam pulled out a tear gas grenade while they were put off guard by his bizarre behavior and chucked it at Elijah and Katja.

The tear gas blinded and stunned them long enough for Sam to run at Elijah and engage him in close quarters combat.

Despite being stunned by the gas, Elijah was still very strong.

Elijah made an attempt to slice Sam in the stomach with his hidden blade, only for Sam to parry the attack and hit Elijah in the face with his fists and kick him to the ground. Elijah tripped Sam by kicking his ankle, and tried to grab Sam by the neck and slit his throat while they wrestled on the ground.

Sam butted his head into Elijah's and pushed his Hidden Blade away from his head with his newfound strength. He managed to do a roll on the ground, getting himself on top of Elijah, pinning his arms down as he kneed Elijah, slammed his head into Elijah's nose again, got up, and stomped on him with his boot.

That stunned Elijah long enough for Sam to try and fend off Katja now, but to his luck, she was experiencing some sort of dissociative episode where she was talking to herself in Arabic; he imagined she probably appeared to him similarly to how he appeared to them when he was talking to Yahweh.

Accepting that he lucked out, Sam grabbed his SC-20K and kicked their weapons off the cliff.

That's a little ironic, isn't it, Elijah, Sam thought before he thought to himself, you should've worked with me when you had the chance.

Turning on his goggles, Sam quickly did a climbing descent down the mountain and into the outer perimeter of the Masyaf base until he was out of their sight.

… … … … …

Sarah held Sadiq's Karambit in one hand, and her shoulder wound in the other, as she navigated through an old library which had been converted into a weapons research laboratory of some kind. There were guards in hazmat suits walking around, as well as some machines and computer systems installed around.

She managed to hide in a constructed modern restroom area, careful not to let the guards or the camera systems they installed spot her.

To her relief, she found a first-aid kit in the restroom, and applied the matches in it to her wound to cauterize it, then styptic ointment and disinfectant, and duct tape bandages to cover it up. There was also a bottle of potent painkiller medicine. She swallowed a proper dose of it.

Now that she had her hands free, she had to find a proper weapon.

She crept through the darkness of the tunnels running throughout the castle to a room filled with servers as well as an armory.

There, she found a fully-customized suppressed SC-3000 assault rifle, an SC-IS pistol, and a Splinter Cell commando suit, mask, backpack, and goggles.

Strange, Sarah thought as she put the suit and mask on, what's this Splinter Cell gear doing here in an Engineer sleeper cell?

As she strapped her backpack onto her back and her goggles onto her head, she said as she turned the goggles on and their lights glowed white, this gear design is unique… It doesn't look like it belongs to Fourth Echelon, Voron, Monarch, or Fang… Could it be… from the fifth branch of Integral… Megiddo? The one Victor said shut down back when Alfred saved my dad?

Sarah grabbed the SC-3000 and strapped the SC-IS and Karambit to her thigh holsters for them, and made her way through the old library-turned-modern laboratory when she heard a struggle ahead.

Intruders wearing Splinter Cell gear, one of which was a man roughly her age with black hair and heterochromic eyes, the other of which was a woman also close to her age who was blonde and blue eyed, had just slaughtered three technicians.

Sarah climbed up to a pipe in the ceiling to get a better vantage point.

Hanging upside down, she used her goggles' laser mic and EEV to spy on them from the darkness of the ceiling.

"It's locked with a password. I should've asked one of the guards what it was before letting you kill them. Rebecca, can you hack this?" said the raven-haired man into his communicator. "Damn, our comm lines are down, they must have a jammer nearby."

The blonde-haired woman said something in Arabic, speaking in an odd tone.

Then the woman did something even stranger.

"No, I have no idea what patterns you're… wait a minute…" she said in what Sarah assumed was her own voice.

Is she… talking to herself?

"Eagle Vision…" she said as she looked at the keyboard. "There are fingerprints all over the keyboard, but the E, R, F, N, and I keys, along with the 2, 3, 4, and 0 numerical keys, have the most prints on them. But especially R… What might that spell…"

The woman put her fingers to her chin before her eyes went wide.

Sarah watched her type in the password Fenrir, then the year (2034), then hit enter; the computer unlocked.

The man said to the blonde woman, "How did you… oh, of course. Right."

Wait a minute… Eagle Vision. Of course, I've heard of this… Sarah thought. It's a sixth sense ability passed down via heredity from Isu hybrids and Sages that allow their descendants to see information in the world, tell friend from foe, civilian from soldier… and also identify their targets. She was looking for the leftover fingerprints on the keys!

Incredible, Sarah thought. She must be experiencing the Bleeding Effect from one of those Animus machines that lets people experience the memories of their ancestors… You experience enough memories over a considerable amount of time, then you manage to acquire your ancestors' skills, and even some traits… That must be why she's talking to herself; she's hallucinating that someone else is there.

The woman looked at the computer console, pulled out an external hard drive and plugged it into the computer's USB port. She began typing into the keyboard.

"I'm combing through their servers now… Let's see… The Engineers are developing a weapon of some kind… based on some research of two scientists that Abstergo kidnapped a while back… Dr. P.J. Traunero and Dr. Yijie Wu…"

"Those names sound familiar…" said the man. "Yes, that's right… Shaun and Rebecca were talking about how Subject 16 implanted files inside the Animus for my father to find when he was going through Ezio Auditore's memories…"

"What about them?"

"One of the files mentioned how those two doctors were researching neurotransmitters when they discovered one that evolved in humans. That neurotransmitter is the one that reacts to Pieces of Eden… allows it to be used to control humans without triple-helix DNA."

"Oh no…" said the woman. "Look at this. They found an Apple! Worse, they managed to find a way to connect some of its capabilities to computer networks so they can use the effects of the Apple's control with the push of a button! But… the OS has to belong to Abstergo to let it happen… so they can't use the entire Internet to do that… right?"

"They don't need to," the man said, his voice grim. "The Blume corporation is installing their central OS network patents in cities all over the world. They're a subsidiary of Abstergo. This is their endgame."

"And they're going to blame these attacks on the Assassins…"

"I suspect that's a mere bonus to their plans given the scope of what they could possibly do with something like this… This is much worse than I ever could've imagined."

Lucas isn't just planning one massive attack with the Red Mercury… thought Sarah, he's planning another. Abstergo's resources really are vast enough to destroy the world twice!

"I'm trying to find out where they're going to attack…" said the woman.

"It's not a matter of where," said the man. "It's a matter of when."

"Fuck, you're right," said the woman. "Look at this map. Targets all over the world, all with dates. The most common one is December 21st, 2034… but the dates in Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem are 72 days before that… Dear God… that's three days from tomorrow!"

"Does it say where they're broadcasting from?" said the man.

"I don't see it yet," said the woman, "but it has to be on these servers somewhere. I'm downloading the files onto Rebecca's hard drive now." The woman opened another folder on the computer console. "Huh."

"What? What is it?"

"I also see files about something called Red Mercury."

"The material used to build nuclear weapons? Show me," said the man.

I need to see that! Thought Sarah. She zoomed in on the computer, and used her EEV to access it; fortunately, since it was already unlocked, she didn't need help hacking into it… but she had to rely on these two intruders to keep the computer's security systems unlocked for her to see them.

"Ah, of course… Abstergo's got multiple operations for world domination in play… We already knew about the Red Mercury one they're going to use in an attempt to depopulate the earth from eavesdropping on Lucas's meeting with his associates in Tuscany."

The man, woman, and Sarah heard a commotion coming from somewhere further inside the laboratory.

"We'll address that later. Check the security camera feeds," said the man.

"Checking," said the woman.

Sarah continued waiting for the Red Mercury details to be uploaded to her new OPSAT while watching them scroll through the various camera feeds.

Then they stopped when she saw the two of them.

Lucas Richards was with Majid Sadiq, torturing him in the cell Sarah had been in.

"Damn you, Sadiq!" yelled Lucas as he punched Sadiq across his already bruised face from where Sarah had made him look the part. "You're telling me she unlocked her cuffs as I left, beat you up, and took your Karambit… along with your keycard you needed to escape the dungeon?"

"That's correct…" said Sadiq as he spit out blood. "I did nearly slit her throat, to be fair… and I wounded her."

"NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" Lucas punched Sadiq across the face again. "Not to mention I don't believe you!" Lucas sneered at Sadiq. "I gave you new legs after what happened in London…" Lucas pointed down at his Sadiq's prosthetic legs as he pulled out a machete. "I can easily take them away!" Lucas paced around for a moment, then said while holstering the machete and unlocking Sadiq's handcuffs, "But now's not the time. You need to shut this Engineer sleeper cell down earlier than expected. Place the whole base on alert. And find Sarah Fisher, goddamnit!"

"Yes, sir…" said Sadiq.

"I'm heading to my plane now. I have business in Yara that needs to be dealt with. Once you're done sending, distributing, and transporting this cell of Engineers to their respective cells for the first operation in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, you're to head to Istanbul for the second to begin the test while your men wait for the Red Mercury bombs to be delivered to them by my courier."

Sadiq said while standing up, "The estimates of the scientists here are that roughly 90% will die at the maximum frequency."

"Good," said Lucas with a grin.

"You're completely insane, Lucas!" shouted Sadiq.

"No, I'm not," said Lucas, "because I'm holding up my end of the deal. Your son isn't with the other leverages I hold. But if you betray me… he'll be taken back to their location to die in hellfire with them. My terms are simple. Don't break them."

Panting, Sadiq yelled, "Fine!"

A soldier walked up to Sadiq and Lucas. "Sir, we captured an intruder. It's Fisher."

"You found Sarah?" said Sadiq.

"No," said the soldier, "We found Sam… Actually, more like he found us. Most of the men in this cell are dead because of him."

Sarah's eyes went wide.

Dad? She thought.

"Sam Fisher is here?" said Sadiq with a frown. "Bring him here. I'll use the Apple on him."

Lucas grimaced furiously with a hellbent anger in his eyes as he said, "As much as I'd love to watch him die… That responsibility falls to you. Don't disappoint me again, Sadiq."

Sadiq nodded, and as Lucas left the room, he spoke into a cell phone. "We're moving out now. Have my men destroy all evidence in the labs, and on the servers. Execute the scientists as well. Do it now."

Another guard said to Sadiq as several guards hauled an unconscious Sam Fisher in. "Sir, one of the technicians detected a breach in network security. It's local. She's likely in the server room."

Sadiq frowned in displeasure at this.

"Well go get her then!" he yelled. "And bring her to me as well!"

Sarah was in disbelief.

Just as Sam was woken up on the camera feeds by Sadiq, the woman got off of the computer, and unplugged Rebecca's hard drive.

"Damn it, they know we're here. That damned spy gave us away," said the man. "We need to stop them. First, we need to find a way out of here though."

"Elijah, Sadiq is Loki's Sage," said the woman. "He has to be. The password to the computer, it was 'Fenrir2034.'"

"I picked that much up as well, Katja," said the man, whose name was Elijah, apparently. "Now let's leave the room before the guards get here."

"Right," said the woman whom Sarah now knew was named Katja. "After you."

The two intruders made for the door.

But it was too late, as Sarah heard guards' footsteps on the other side.

Damn it, thought Sarah, I'm pinned down with these two intruders and my dad needs my help!

Then Sarah heard Katja start speaking in Arabic again, and as if she were an old man.

Sarah had to think fast.

Sam woke up tied to a chair, facing Sadiq again.

He had only made it so far through the interior of the compound before the massive trail of bodies he left in his wake attracted attention for once. He had managed to only search the laboratories full of odd-looking futuristic technology for a brief moment in time before a guard managed to get the drop on him and shoot him with less-than-lethal ammunition.

Sadiq was holding a Karambit blade. He looked furious.

"Sadiq…" Sam groaned.

"Congratulations," said Sadiq. "Your daughter's here. You managed to find her."

"Where is she?" said Sam.

"You really are no different than me," said Sadiq. "You don't care whether or not the world you know burns… The only person you care about is her now. And if you lost her, you'd want the world to burn."

"I'm not like you," said Sam.

"You are," said Sadiq, "and I want your daughter to see that before she dies. To see that the man who raised her, who she looked up to all her life… is a monster."

"No…" said Sam, as he lowered his head.

"Does this knife look familiar to you, Sam?" said Sadiq as he held up the Karambit and moved it back and forth. "The one you destroyed my legs with at Site F, then re-opened the wounds back in London? Does that ring any bells?"

Sadiq pressed his knife up to Sam's neck. "You took my legs from me… you took my son from me… Now I'm going to take everything from you."

"Please…" said Sam, "I'll give you whatever you want…"

"Where's Briggs and Charlie?" said Sadiq.

"I don't know…" said Sam. "I left them and Grim with DedSec… after her betrayal in Ravensthorpe. I came alone."

"All by yourself?" said Sadiq. "And how'd you do that?"

"I… I had help," said Sam. "From DedSec. The Assassins. I had no leads left. They gave me one that led me here."

"And where was their safe house at?"

"Near Tel Megiddo!" shouted Sam.

"Are there Assassins here?"

"Yes!" said Sam. "Elijah Miles and Katja Winter. I assume you know them."

Sadiq sighed, and said, "I do. But that's not good enough. Is Victor Coste still helping you?"

Sam grimaced.

"Fisher, it's his life or your daughter's."

Sam breathed heavily.

"Make. Your. Decision!" yelled Sadiq.

"Vic's been helping us all along!" screamed Sam. "It doesn't matter… You already know because you hacked into the Paladin, listened in on my conversations with him!"

Sadiq frowned. "I just proved it. You would betray your best friend for your daughter. And now you'll have neither."

Sam looked at Lucas, and a vulnerable, scared Sarah with a broken leg who was tied to another chair as Lucas held an AK-47 up to her, and emptied its clip into her.

"NO!" screamed Sam as Sarah's bloody corpse fell over in her chair.

Crying, Sam finally lost it as Sadiq said, "You failed your mission, Sam. The infamous Splinter Cell is but a hollow shell of what he was now."

Sadiq then held up the Karambit, and proceeded to cut Sam to death.

Sam screamed from the pain, and coughed up blood as Sadiq kicked the chair over.

"Judging from your wounds, I'd say you've got a few minutes before you bleed to death. And I doubt you'll be able to move much after what I just did to you. Goodbye, Sam," said Sadiq as he walked out.

Sam just lay on the floor of the dungeon interrogation cell, a bloody, convulsing, crying mess.

… … … … …

As a massive amount of guards entered the server room, the Assassin named Elijah put his hands up.

Then Sadiq entered the room as well.

Sarah stayed hidden.

"The prodigal son returns to walk in his father's footsteps. Where's your love interest?"

Elijah stayed silent; the look in his heterochromic eyes indicated he was furious.

"So, I guess that means you don't know then? Don't worry," said Sadiq, "You'll be together again soon. I know that you accessed my servers. How much do you know?"

"Everything," said Elijah.

"Everything is not enough," said Sadiq. "Tell me more."

"All right," said Elijah, "I'll tell you more."

Then Katja jumped from the brightly lit spot in the ceiling opposite of where Sarah was hiding in the ceiling down to plunge her knife into the first guard's neck. It was a miracle she didn't look Sarah's way; she must've been too concentrated on Sadiq.

She then picked up his assault rifle, and screamed as she began mowing down the rest of Sadiq's guards with it. She managed to get most of them down save for three more and Sadiq before she had to duck behind a table next to an empty bookshelf and kick it over. Elijah fought off one of the three guards and Sadiq while Katja blind-fired at the other two guards, killing one before the second, a heavily-armored guard, picked her up by the neck, butted his head against hers, and threw her to the ground. Katja stumbled to her feet, and attempted to swing the knife at the guard; the guard knocked the knife out of her hand, socked her hard in the stomach, and slammed her onto the ground on her face.

Now her face and belly were bruised; she tried to get up, only for the heavy guard to grab her by her hair and drag her screaming toward Sadiq, who had a gun pointed at Elijah's chest while the other remaining guard had him restrained.

"A shame for me to be killing one of my own, as strange as that sounds," said Sadiq.

"I'm not like Aita, and I'm certainly not like you," said Elijah.

"Perhaps you're right. After all, you can't heal as well as I can," said Sadiq as he pointed his gun at Katja's shoulder and fired it.

Katja screamed, and grabbed her bullet wound as the guard who was grabbing her started to strangle her.

Sarah started to weigh her options while hiding in the dark amidst the shootout.

"KATJA!" yelled Elijah.

Katja was starting to succumb to the brute's chokehold.

"Looks like I missed your heart, Elijah. Or did I?" said Sadiq.

"Katja, stay with me!" said Elijah.

"Perhaps you really do have empathy for your fellow human beings if you love someone, something, like her," said Sadiq.

"Katja, look at me, listen to my voice. You're going to be all right," said Elijah.

Katja kept holding onto her wound.

"It's obvious she doesn't love you back. Isn't that right, Katja?" said Sadiq.

"Damn it, Sadiq, don't kill her! Tell that guard to let her go!" said Elijah.

Sarah wondered whether she should let Sadiq kill them, and try to sneak past. She had to get to her dad somehow, and they didn't know she was here, whereas Sadiq did…

"Perhaps she's too traumatized to trust anyone anymore. Or perhaps… she's too mad to care," said Sadiq.

"Katja, you've got to escape his grip!" shouted Elijah.

"The Mad One is obsessed with her, Elijah. Why else do you think he would be obsessed with her? She's like him; not capable of love or empathy. She doesn't care about anyone but herself." Sadiq's voice rose as he said, "She's just as dangerous as the CEO of Abstergo, the one behind everything… the Isu who kidnapped and killed my son!"

"KATJA!" yelled Elijah.

Sarah could see Katja's consciousness beginning to fade and her eyes starting to droop when something strange happened.

Before Katja's consciousness faded completely, she mustered the rest of her strength to stomp hard on the foot of the brute grabbing her, then took her hand off of her shoulder wound, and grabbed the arm the brute was strangling her with, and bit off one of his fingers.

The brute screamed as she threw him over her shoulder and to the ground, then screamed herself and stomped on his skull, knocking him out cold and giving him a nasty concussion.

Sadiq looked at Katja as she clutched her wound, and began to clap sarcastically.

"Congratulations, Katja! You broke free!" he said as he aimed his gun at her again. "What now?"

Ah, fuck it, said Sarah, I'm running out of time, and aimed her SC-IS at the last of the guards still alive.

Seeing the SC-IS's laser pointing at them, Katja said, "Elijah, duck!"

Elijah wrestled free of the guard and Katja complied as Sarah shot the guard in the skull while hanging upside-down from the ceiling.

Then she tossed a tear gas and a smoke grenade at Sadiq that exploded and caused Sadiq to cover his mouth. He fired blindly at Katja and Elijah, but they had managed to take cover.

Unfortunately, Sadiq managed to as well.

Coughing up a fit, Sadiq looked up at Sarah, and summoned the breath to say, "We'll meet again, Protégé of Odin!" and ran out of cover while firing at them to suppress the two Assassins.

As Sarah landed silently, and tried to sneak out as the smoke cleared while Elijah was grabbing Katja in his arms, who was barely able to stand at this point, when he said, "Were you waiting for the right time to appear in order to try and kill that prick, or were you waiting for him to kill us off first so you could stay undetected? Given you're refusing to offer to heal my friend here, I'm assuming the latter."

Sarah said, "I've got a spare first-aid kit from the restroom area stored in my backpack," and tossed it to Elijah. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's someone I need to find. Forget that you saw me while you're at it. You'll live longer."

Elijah smirked as he caught the first-aid kit, and said, "Thank you."

Sarah nodded silently in response, and snuck through the hallways, retracing her steps through the lab back to the dungeon to find Sam.

Sam lay on the dungeon floor, thinking he was dead.

Then he woke up on the floor, still in his t-shirt and boxers from when Sadiq had tortured him, to find a Splinter Cell with ghost white lights shining from his trifocal goggles standing over him.

"Dad?" said a familiar voice he had been longing to hear.

"Sarah…" said Sam. "Sarah… I'm so sorry… I failed you…"

"Dad, snap out of it! It's me!" said the Splinter Cell as she took her mask off, revealing the face of the beautiful raven-haired girl he had tried to raise over the years, now all grown up.

Shocked, Sam said, "Sarah?"

Sam was still in too much pain to get up.

"Are you okay?" said Sarah. "What did Sadiq do to you?"

"He stabbed me… several times… made me watch as Lucas killed you right in this room…" said Sam. "How are you still alive?"

"He must've drugged you," said Sarah, "because you're not even wounded."

Looking around, she looked at a recording Sadiq put on a tablet sitting on a small table next to Sam's chair.

The recording was of Sam's "interrogation" by Sadiq; only instead of a Karambit, Sadiq was holding a glowing orb in his hand. Sadiq held the orb up and it glowed while Sam screamed as if he was being tortured.

"An Apple of Eden…" said Sarah. "So that's what happened."

"Sarah, how'd you break free?" said Sam. "And why are you wearing a Splinter Cell outfit?"

"I'll explain more in-depth later, but for now… this'll have to do, dad," said Sarah. "The Sarah you raised didn't break free of Lucas… but Trifocal did."

"Trifocal?" said Sam, getting up. "You've been a Splinter Cell all this time?"

"Uncle Vic's been training me to be one ever since I came out of hiding, after the Third Echelon Conspiracy was over."

Breathing heavily, Sam said, "Why did he do that without telling me anything?"

"He didn't need to, Dad," said Sarah. "I wanted to become one, and I knew you'd object. I'm an adult now; it was my decision to make. I just wish we could've told you the truth before all this business with Lucas happened—"

They heard a voice on the intercom speaking in Arabic.

"They're saying this place is being set to self-destruct… They're destroying evidence," said Sarah. "I'll explain more on the Paladin. We've got to go."

"The Paladin?" said Sam.

"That's Fourth Echelon's plane, right? Don't we need to regroup with the others?"

"Right… about that…" said Sam.

"Your gear's in this cabinet," said Sarah as she cut the lock to the cabinet open with her Karambit she took from Sadiq. "Hurry and get dressed."

Sam complied, and as he got dressed, he took in what Sarah said to him.

Once he got his gear on, Sarah said, "Let's go, the floor's starting to shake!"

But Sam couldn't help but stop and hug Sarah.

"I thought I had lost you," said Sam.

"I know," said Sarah. "I was worried I'd never get to see you again."

"I'm glad you did get to," said Sam. "Splinter Cell or not."

Sarah smiled, but then they were shaken to the floor for a moment by a massive bomb explosion.

As they got to their feet, Sam said, "I didn't see any bombs on-site."

"The Engineers must be having Abstergo send a drone to destroy their sleeper cell, cover their tracks," said Sarah.

"That makes sense," said Sam.

As the library/ laboratory began to explode, the reunited father and daughter raced through the halls of the old Assassin castle. The castle exit was on fire, and there were guards outside.

They ran out to the garden, where some remaining Engineers were fighting a trapped Katja and Elijah.

Sam and Sarah marked and executed the Engineers together with their SC-3000 and SC-20K, respectively, all while remaining in motion to avoid the bomb explosions approaching from behind them.

Katja and Elijah finished off the last few Engineers they were fighting with their blades, and looked toward Sarah and Sam.

"Quick, Dad, call for an extraction!" yelled Sarah.

"Sarah, the rest of the team isn't here," said Sam.

"What?"

"For various reasons, I stopped trusting in the others after London… I left them at a DedSec cell in the Isle of Skye. I came to find you on my own."

"Well, that was impractical of you," Sarah said, looking at her dad. "In that video Sadiq recorded of your interrogation, you betrayed Uncle Vic at the request of a terrorist just so he might keep me alive… Did you leave the others because of me as well?"

Sam said, "Sarah… I…"

Sarah grabbed Sam by the shoulder, and said to him, "I get that you've been worried about me all this time, Dad. But now I don't need to be saved. With Vic's training, I can look after myself… What's more important is that you use everything and everyone you can to stop Lucas's plot… because you won't be able to do this alone."

Elijah yelled, "Are you two done over there?! This place is going up in flames!"

Katja yelled, "Elijah, my wingsuit and parachute are shot from the firefight earlier!"

"So are mine!"

"How are we going to get off of here!"

The drone was circling for another pass.

"We may have to make a bit of a leap of faith here, Dad…" said Sarah.

"Off the edge of the cliff?"

"Well it's either that or we go down with this entire castle!"

"All right…" said Sam, when he heard a familiar voice on his subdermals.

"My love, come in!"

"Marie?" said Sam. "What are you doing in Syria?"

"Reuniting you with your friends," said Marie. "I'm piloting the Paladin due to an issue with Charlie's autopilot device. And I'm patching you into the SMI to communicate with the others."

"Sam?" said Briggs over Sam's OPSAT. "I know you don't want to hear from me, but—"

"Save it for later, Briggs," said Sam. "You got here just in the nick of time. What're our options for exfil?"

"The drone Abstergo sent is about to hit you again. You need to take cover. Charlie's going to hit it with a drone of our own, and after that we'll circle around ourselves to pick you up in the Paladin."

"Make every shot count," said Sam. "I've got Sarah with me!"

"You do?" said Charlie. "Right… Roger that. Deploying drone!"

As Abstergo's drone started to carpet bomb the garden, Sam, Sarah, Katja, and Elijah hid behind a pile of rubble, narrowly avoiding getting destroyed by the blasts.

The drone was about to circle for another pass when Charlie's drone appeared and fired a missile at it, forcing the Abstergo drone out of the sky.

"Their drone's down," said Charlie. "I'm using the drone to scout ahead and clear the route home of any surface-to-air defenses the Engineers might've left… Not to mention that this is a warzone, so we could easily get shot down on our way out if we don't watch it."

"Mind if we go with you?" said Elijah, gesturing with his head toward Katja.

"Why should we?" said Sam.

"Dad, bring them with us," said Sarah. "They have Red Mercury intel."

"All right," Sam sighed.

As Briggs's chopper was coming toward them, Sarah popped a flare.

"SPIE rig on the way," said Briggs as he shot down a rig for the four of them to attach to.

"Attach your belts to this!" yelled Sam as he and Sarah latched on. Elijah and Katja latched on as well before Briggs pulled them all out of the exploding former Assassin headquarters. One by one, they were yanked up into the air and onto the chopper.

Once they all had climbed aboard the chopper, they looked down below as the Masyaf castle crumbled to pieces.

"Do you really think they're going to try and frame the Assassins for their attack?" said Katja to Elijah.

"Yes," he said, "Even if we stop it, they'll find a way. We'll have to dig in, use whatever resources we've got."

Katja nodded, and looked away at the mountains from a distance as the sandstorm started to dissipate and reveal the night sky.

Looking back from the cockpit, Briggs smiled and said, "We got Sarah!" Then, appearing confused, he said, "Sam, why is Sarah wearing a Splinter Cell outfit?"

Aboard the Paladin, Israeli Airspace

Sam, Marie, and Sarah looked at Briggs, and Grim as they got back to the SMI room.

"Where's Charlie?" said Sarah.

"He was checking on Elijah and Katja… they're in the medical bay," said Marie.

"Speaking of which, who are you again?" said Sarah.

"That's Marie, Sarah," said Sam. "She's our pilot for the time being."

"Looks like I'm not in charge anymore," said Briggs. He then joked, "I was just starting to enjoy it."

Sam said, "Is Grim over there stealing secrets from the SMI or is she herself again?"

"She'd still be in the holding bay if she wasn't," said Briggs.

Sarah said, "Did I miss something? Also, Grim, you look pale."

Grim face lit up. "Sarah, you're back… and… you're Trifocal?"

Sarah nodded.

Briggs said, "Did you manage to get any intel on the Red Mercury while you were down there?"

Sam said, "No… Despite that I cleared the Engineers' ranks pretty quickly, I barely made it into their laboratories before Sadiq found me."

"Sounds like you could've used some help."

"And I got it… from Sarah," said Sam.

"Speaking of which," said Sarah, "I managed to get a little out of the servers from my OPSAT… That and a name from Sadiq after I convinced him to let me live. But my download was interrupted…"

"It's all right," said Charlie. "Your source of intel isn't the one we're looking at right now… it's theirs. The Assassins actually finished their download of intel they pulled off of the Engineers' servers in Syria via flash drive, which they handed to us."

Elijah and Katja walked into the SMI room.

"That's one impressive computer," said Katja, who had just woken up from a rest in the medical bay.

"The Strategic Mission Interface," said Grim. "It's designed to analyze various sources of intelligence worldwide and forward it to us in real time; news reports, ELINT, tapped phone lines, and so on… as well as record our mission data through the others' headsets and OPSATs."

"No one should have access to this much surveillance over the public," said Elijah with a frown.

"It's the reality we're living in," said Sam, "and I suggest you get used to it while you're on my plane, Elijah."

Elijah responded with silence and a slight nod.

"Our next step is to figure out where Lucas is shipping the Red Mercury bombs from with his freight shipping company," said Sarah. "I was investigating it while on Rook Island since Hoyt's privateers do business in cooperation with Lucas all the time, all while hoping Lucas would have me taken to the location of the fifth Red Mercury bomb, so that I'd be able to defuse it myself. If all goes well, we can either intercept the Red Mercury bombs and defuse them, or track them to their detonation spots."

"We'll have to intercept them," said Briggs. "We're spread too thin to be in 5 places at once for the major attack."

"Hence why this next mission is imperative," said Sarah.

"Sarah's right," said Grim. "We just need a lead now."

"Sadiq mentioned a man named Alejandro Takfir," said Sarah, "and implied he had something to do with the shipping company. Use his name as a keyword while skimming through their database."

"On it," said Charlie.

"That name…" said Sam. "Alejandro Takfir was bankrolling the operations of John Brown's Army, and their partner organization, run by Massoud Ibn Yussif… That was when they were trying to bomb the US with Red Mercury, as well as Cozumel for a test… He must've been the marionette Abstergo was using to puppeteer them as a false flag organization all this time!"

"The date for Lucas's 'test' bombing, the time the Red Mercury bomb for his depopulation agenda is going to be detonated at, is nearly five days away from today according to the Engineers' timer," said Briggs. "We don't have a lot of time to figure out where that's going to be at."

"Hold on…" said Sarah. "Is there a chance it's at their shipping hub? The one in Berlin?"

Elijah quietly raised a finger to his mouth and eyed Katja. Sam noticed this.

"No, they wouldn't bring the Red Mercury that much into the open at this point," said Grim. "It'd draw too much attention."

"Grim's right," said Charlie. "It's not there, it's… here."

Charlie zoomed in the SMI to a state in Africa.

"The Central African State?" said Briggs.

"That's what the intel from their servers says," said Charlie.

"That's close to the Democratic Republic of Congo…" said Sam, "where John Brown's Army met with Takfir to discuss next steps."

"Shipping information combined with movement of personnel indicates that Takfir hiding out in the CAS," said Charlie, "somewhere out in the middle of the desert."

"It makes sense," said Grim. "Takfir's the one who financed the coup that helped overthrow the CAS. He enlisted someone named Jack Carver to provide arms to both sides of the war… and was working with another fellow warlord at the time named Longinus."

"Can we nab one of them and have them lead us to Takfir?" said Briggs.

"Jack Carver's been in hiding for some time…" said Grim. "He'll take too long to find."

"Yeah… as for Longinus," said Charlie, "his, uh, records say he's hanging out in Yara at the moment, and he's left his weapons smuggling business behind… Apparently, he 'found God' and stopped wanting to help warlords with his guns a while ago," said Charlie. "I may have bought from him a few times."

Briggs rolled his eyes.

Grim started pacing.

"How do we figure out Takfir's location if we go after neither of them?" Sarah said. "We should go after Longinus."

"No," said Grim. "We should go after Sean McKay."

The others looked at Grim.

"The CEO of Abstergo's shipping subsidiary, McKay Global? Grim, are you sure you still aren't brainwashed?" said Charlie.

"He's the one responsible for this," said Grim, "and he's done business with Longinus before. He'll give Takfir up."

"How do you know he's done business with Longinus before, Grim?" said Sam.

"President Caldwell had me investigate McKay Global's presence in America after the Third Echelon Conspiracy, while I was a part of her press team," said Grim. "The dirt I managed to pull up on him allowed us to remove most of his company's presence in America at the time. He's also in league with a corrupt CIA field officer known as Willis Huntley who's been responsible for assisting with coups and various other awful missions in Third World nations."

"Willis Huntley?" said Briggs. Scratching his head, he said, "I knew him from my time at the Company… I didn't think he was dirty… Looks like Sean's got a lot of connections."

"Sounds like Sean McKay's our man then, Dad," said Sarah.

"All right," said Sam. "We'll go nab McKay then, make him talk. He'll supply us with all the intel we need to nab Takfir and the Red Mercury before it ships."

Turning to Grim, Sam said, "Do you have any idea where he might be right now?"

"I don't," said Grim, "but President Caldwell might."

"Call her," said Sam. "We're running dangerously low on time to save the world from Lucas's Selection."