Chapter 11— "Change in Momentum Over Time"

Location Unknown

Lucas was in the broadcast station, waiting for his plans for the world to begin.

"Sadiq, have you delivered the Apple to my people at the Blume Corporation?"

"Yes, Lucas," said Sadiq. "Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem will fall today."

"Excellent," said Lucas. "Provided you complete your final task for me in Beijing, your son will live."

"You want me to lead the team of mine carrying the Red Mercury bomb to Beijing?" said Sadiq. Collecting himself, Sadiq gritted his teeth and said, "I'll make it happen."

"Good boy," said Lucas with a grin. "Kollektivnaya Sila, come in over?"

"Yes, sir?"

"I trust you've found a means for the Engineers to infiltrate the Kremlin and the Great Hall of the People?"

"Yes, sir. We've been entrusted with protecting the people of Moscow and Beijing from the Engineers."

"And protect them you will," said Lucas.

"Have you sent us the fourth bomb yet?"

"It's being sent to you through McKay Global's middleman," said Lucas. "You're to send your best team to wait for them at Kyrat's airport. After that, await further instructions."

"Yes, sir."

"Is this same middleman in charge of delivering our bomb as well?" said Alex Clarkson.

"Yes, Mr. Clarkson," said Lucas. "Has Capital secured contracts for helping out with Washington's security detail?"

"Yes, sir," said Alex. "My bodyguard, the same one responsible for using MK-Ultra on Anna Grimsdottir back in Micronesia, will be the one who lets in the Engineers and keeps the White House's security bunker under control once the hostages are taken."

"Good," said Lucas. "Hisham, you're in charge of doing the same with the hostages and the bomb in Moscow as this man and Sadiq are in Washington and Beijing."

"Yes, sir," said Hisham Hamza.

"That's four bombs with a team leader accounted for," said Lucas. "I'll have you all go on your way and wish you luck on your final missions while I deal with the fifth…" Lucas said as he ended his teleconference with his other disciples.

"Serpent!" Lucas said.

A Middle Eastern woman wearing a Splinter Cell commando suit with white trifocal goggle lights appeared in front of Lucas, standing in the shadows.

"Sarah Fisher got away from you in Syria, used your Splinter Cell outfit. That wouldn't be because you need to be re-programmed, would you?"

"No, sir," said the woman. "I was merely assessing the situation."

"You're to do as I say!" said Lucas. "Megiddo invested a lot of money in turning you into a weapon, and their investments do not seem like they were worth it to me. Sarah exposed a potential weakness in the operation, and on top of that, now Fourth Echelon, the Assassin Brotherhood, and DedSec are about to discover it as well."

Walking toward the woman, he said, "Fourth Echelon is aiming to go after the Red Mercury, stop it from being shipped. Your orders are to stop them in their tracks, put them in the ground. If you fail your mission, or if your father fails his… You will be in charge of deploying the fifth bomb."

"Yes, sir," said the woman.

"Good," said Lucas.

"And Lucas?"

"What is it?"

"I do not care about my father," said the woman as she stepped out of the shadows, revealing her face.

Lucas grinned. "Then that means the programming's working. You may go."

The woman walked back into the shadows of the detonation site and prepared to leave for her mission.

While she had been standing in the light, she resembled her father, Majid Sadiq.

Aboard the Paladin, Turkish Airspace

Sam was in the SMI room with the others. Charlie was analyzing the intel they stole in Syria, saying it looked like some of the intel got redacted from the flash drive by a third party of some kind, when Sam saw Yahweh appear for a moment.

"The man with the heterochromic eyes… he's the key to unlocking the Prophecy…" said Yahweh.

"What?" said Sam. "I thought I was."

"You're the key to fulfilling it…" said Yahweh.

"Can you elaborate?"

"Sam?" said Briggs.

"Charlie, can you fetch Elijah and Katja from the holding cells for a moment?" said Sam. "I've got a hunch that he could be more useful than we currently realize."

"Sure, Sam," said Charlie.

"What's the hunch?" said Briggs.

"Hard to tell… It's cryptic…" said Sam.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Briggs.

"This is Yahweh's hunch, then," said Grim.

"Yeah," said Sam.

Grim looked away for a moment. "I have to call President Caldwell right now."

"Go ahead," said Sam as Charlie brought Elijah and Katja in.

"We're not letting you off this plane yet," said Sam.

"What do you mean? We cooperated, gave you the intel," said Elijah.

"Charlie, do you think the Assassins are capable of wiping some of the intel off of the flash drive remotely."

"Yeah… I mean it's possible… Wait, that's why it was redacted!" said Charlie. "There's no way it was the Engineers that wiped that much while we were aboard the Paladin."

Elijah said, "So there are some things about the Levantine Brotherhood that the other Assassins believed was worth compartmentalizing. You got the intel you wanted."

"Why keep potential Engineer intel out of our hands?" said Briggs.

"It does seem suspicious," said Sam.

"It doesn't matter. You can track it through us, directly to the Brotherhood. Your SMI seems perfectly capable of that. Provided you let us go, of course."

Sam sighed in frustration, and pressed two fingers against the top of his nose. "Where do you want us to drop you off, Mr. Will B. Asset?"

Elijah manipulated the SMI. "Right… there," said Elijah.

"Istanbul," said Sam. "Why Istanbul?"

"Istanbul?" Sarah said.

Sam looked at Sarah.

"Was it about the Apple of Eden computer apparatus Sadiq and Lucas mentioned in conversation, over the camera feeds?" said Sarah.

Elijah sighed. "Ah yes… right. You were in the same room as we were when we accessed the servers. You must've listened in."

Katja said, "Please, you have to let us off. The Red Mercury isn't the only weapon of mass destruction Abstergo has at play. We've been busy trying to track down their other card."

"You need to let them off, Dad," said Sarah.

"Why?"

"It sounds like they're trying to deal with an attack as urgent as ours. Based on what I heard between Sadiq and Lucas in Masyaf, I don't think they're bluffing."

Frowning, Sam said, "All right… Now we have more reason than ever to spy on you… Charlie, you're in charge of tracking these turned assets."

"Roger," said Charlie.

"We'll let you off on Istanbul if you give us the intel," said Sam.

"Deal's a deal," said Elijah.

"Ironically we're passing over Turkey as we speak," said Sam. "I'll instruct Marie to land at a spot of your choosing."

"Good," said Elijah. "We'll be back in the holding cells."

"All right," said Sam.

Charlie said, "Nice, looks like the Assassins just gave me full access to the drive. I'll start digging through this stuff."

Maybe some of their intel can help me understand this prophecy business Yahweh's been talking to me about, Sam thought as he turned to Sarah.

"Is there anything else you found out that could be of use?" said Sam to his daughter.

"Nothing that comes to mind," said Sarah. Crossing her arms, Sarah said, "You're not saying much regarding whether you think I'm a good agent or not."

"Your abilities I've seen, and your history speaks for itself," said Sam. "I just…"

"I know you're worried about me, Dad," said Sarah, "but you have to set those worries aside. You need all the help you can get with hunting down the Red Mercury now that you're rogue… and that was my mission from the get-go… I just had a setback when Lucas realized I was Trifocal… He could've led me right to the last Red Mercury bomb with the other loved ones of people he's leveraging. After that, I had to improvise."

"You were one step ahead of the rest of us this whole time," said Sam. "Still, I need to talk to Uncle Vic about keeping you a secret from me."

"You don't trust him anymore, do you?"

"He should've told me… You…" Sam looked away. "I wish you'd told me."

"We shouldn't talk to him right now," said Sarah. "Lucas is giving him enough trouble as is."

"There's another secret I want to talk to him about," said Sam.

"What?"

"Integral," said Sam.

Sarah nodded, then they looked at Grim, Charlie, and Briggs.

"What's going on?" said Sam.

"We're not getting through to Washington… Caldwell isn't answering us."

"Try again," said Sam.

"Trying," said Grim. Someone picked up; it was a large man with brown hair and a beard.

Grim's eyes went wide.

"Are you, uh… an intern of Caldwell's?" said Charlie.

"Something like that," said the man in a husky voice.

"You're no intern," said Grim as her voice shook. "I remember you… in Micronesia… Dr. Ingraham. You called yourself 'the Brain Surgeon'. You tortured me."

"Long time no see, Freyja," said the man. "Looks like you've helped us figure out that Caldwell's been communicating with you. That'll be key to her indictment process."

Sam grimaced as the man said, "You did a good job with your first function in London and Ravensthorpe… but your second function still has yet to be completed. Kill Fourth Echelon."

"Freyja's gone," said Grim angrily, her hands trembling. "It's just me now."

"I see…" said Dr. Ingraham. "You've got a stronger will than I thought, Anna. But Freyja's is still stronger. She's still in your head, Grim. And so long as she is… you're a danger to your team. Kill Fourth Echelon. That is your final function."

"Go to hell!" yelled Grim as she cut the connection. Trembling, Grim said, "You should lock me up again…"

"No, we need your help, Grim," said Briggs. "You're the only one who knows how we could get to McKay now."

"Briggs is right."

Grim looked at Sam.

"This mission doesn't happen without you," said Sam. "And I need all the help I can get. So as much of a history of distrust I have of Grim, I need her to fight. Fight against Freyja. And fight against the Engineers and Abstergo with the rest of us at the same time," said Sam.

Grim said, "All right… I'll try… but if I start to lose myself again… you put a bullet in me, promise me that."

"I promise," said Sam.

Grim said, "All right… I need to think for a second about how to find McKay."

Sarah looked at Sam. "What the hell happened to Grim while I was gone?"

"She was brainwashed by Lucas when she got captured during a mission in Tuscany," said Sam. "Was turned into a Sage like me and Uncle Alfred… Alfred's dead now by her hand."

"You're kidding… Alfred's dead…" said Sarah. She then said, "Wait, Uncle Vic might know where McKay is… And I figure he'd want to check in on me anyway since he's my handler."

"All right," said Sam. "Grim, patch us into Vic."

Grim nodded, and called Vic.

"Vic," said Sam.

"Sam," said Vic, "I… wait, is that… Sarah, why aren't you in… Oh shit…"

Sam crossed his arms.

"Right," sighed Vic. "I knew there'd be hell to pay when you found out how deadly of a field asset your daughter is."

"Now pay it," said Sam. "I want you to help us find Sean McKay."

"What?" said Vic.

"He's in charge of the shipping company that's distributing the Red Mercury," said Sam. "We want him to spill his guts."

"It won't be easy… but I do owe you hell, don't I?" said Vic. "What do you have in mind?"

"For once, Charlie's not going to be the one in charge of getting me a fake identity," said Sam. "You are. As a member of Paladin Nine again. You're going to schedule a meeting between me and Mr. McKay. Use your charms as a businessman to get him to agree. Obviously leave out the part about him meeting with me."

"Y- you don't want to talk about how pissed you are about Sarah?"

"I do," said Sam, "but I have plenty of time to talk about that… This can't wait."

"All right," said Vic. "As someone in league with Lucas, Sean might suspect somethin' is up. Frankly I'm surprised Lucas hasn't killed me yet."

"Yeah…" said Sam. "Be careful, Vic. After this, it's likely you'll have to go into hiding."

"I know," said Vic. "You'd better be close to gettin' your hands on the Red Mercury."

"If all goes well," said Sam, "and McKay gives us the location of where it's being distributed from… we'll have it by later today."

"That's good to hear," said Vic. "I've got some calls to make. If it's worth anythin' to ya Sam… I'm sorry for lyin' to ya all these years… About Integral… Back then, after what happened in that church… You were becomin' somethin' other than yourself. I was worried about you, so I took Alfred's advice, took advantage of the fact that you had a gap in your memory created due to the shock of it all. The gap that was created by Alfred with that Piece of Eden thing we found at the church to keep your other self hidden."

"If you're talking about Yahweh, I'm him now," said Sam, "and if you did it so I'd quit service for the time being, take better care of Sarah…"

"Right… I get it…" said Vic. "I'm sorry about that as well. You trusted me more than anyone, and now you know I'm a shit friend."

Sam said nothing as Vic said, "I'll make the call. I'll send you the deets once I set the meeting up."

Sam sighed, and nodded. "Good. Bye, Vic."

Sarah said to Sam, "So… is it true? You can hear Yahweh in your head, but he hasn't taken over your mind completely?"

"Yeah," said Sam, "he's staying friendly with me right now."

Sam looked at Grim, who was looking nervously at the floor.

"I suppose I'm lucky because of that."

Sarah said, "That man on the phone called Grim 'Freyja'… He used MK-Ultra on her, didn't he?"

"The fact that my own daughter knows about something this twisted…"

"Save it," said Sarah. "I've heard of, no, seen worse."

"What have you seen?"

Sarah grimaced. "Let's just say I saw some pretty messed up experiments being performed by ObtainR… After that… That's how I started to learn about Abstergo, their parent conglomerate."

"Well, you know what they say, 'the rotten apple subsidiary never falls far from the tree company,'" said Sam.

Sarah smirked. "I'm glad I'm putting a stop to those types of people. The ones who pose a threat like that to the world."

Sam looked at Sarah for a second.

"You don't want me to be a spy, do you?"

"I've been worried sick about you ever since this mission started, Sarah…" said Sam. "Now that I know you're going to be putting yourself in danger along with us… All I wanted was for you to be safe from the world I made the mistake of dragging you into."

"Well like it or not, you dragged me into it. After Third Echelon was disbanded and I was able to come out of hiding, I wanted to fight back for myself. Get answers… some sort of closure for the years I had to live in fear. And now I've almost got it," Sarah said. "You can't protect me forever, Dad. But now I'm able to protect myself. Plus, now we get to be together again… Fight alongside each other."

"I know…" said Sam. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this."

"Don't be," Sarah said with a smile. "I feel more purpose in my life than ever now that I'm doing this. Plus, it's not like there were many jobs available for an art major with a dad who's a rogue spy anyway."

Sam couldn't help but smile back for a moment, but then his smile went away as he looked back at the SMI at a picture of McKay.

Tapping his foot as they neared the point where they were going to drop Elijah and Katja off, Sam anxiously waited to hear back from Vic about the plan to nab McKay.

Private Yacht, Cozumel, Mexico

"Unfortunately, McKay's a busy man, Sam… I also suspect Lucas may have tipped him off about me."

"So how do I get to him?"

"Simple. My people tracked the cell phone he responded to my call with from to his private yacht. Looks like he's in Cozumel."

"Looks like I'm heading back there again… Great. It looks like this is it, Vic… After this, I want you to head underground."

"This isn't the last favor you're going to ask me for?"

"Hopefully it is… But then again, things don't always go according to plan."

"Yeah, well, that's the story of our lives, Fisher. Us and every other career soldier who's lived as long. Take care, Sam."

Sean McKay was lying back in a chair on the balcony of his yacht, sipping some hard lemonade from a glass watching the waves pass by and the tides coming to the nearby coast.

"Valentina, dearie?" shouted Sean. "I'm out of hard lemonade! Can you get me some more? Valentina? … Valentina! I SAID I'M OUT OF HARD LEMONADE!"

Sean sighed frustratedly and got out of his chair. "Damn Mexicans wouldn't last a second working in America—"

As he approached the open door leading back into his bedroom, he leapt back in fear as Sam walked out of the shadows of the bedroom with his Five-Seven pistol pointed at Sean's head, and closed it shut.

"Sean McKay," said Sam.

"What the hell are you doing on my yacht? Did you murder the hired help?" shouted McKay.

"They're unconscious," said Sam, "and if I were you, I would be more worried about your life than your hoarded wealth right now Sean."

Sam grabbed Sean by his fat, sweaty neck and pinned him hard against the railings overlooking the drop into the ocean. "Is that a shark I see down there?"

"You're just fucking with me!" said Sean. "What do you want? Money? I can pay you."

"Of course not," said Sam. "See that cruise ship over there across the harbor?"

Sam turned Sean forcefully so he could see the ship. "Of course I see it, you're turning me so violently I can't see anything but it, you fucking animal—"

Sam hit Sean in the face with his pistol, causing his face to bleed into the water a little.

"If there are any sharks nearby, they'll get a whiff of your blood pretty soon, Sean," said Sam. "Don't get on my nerves if you don't want to be shark bait."

"Okay, okay!" Sean said while breathing and sweating heavily. "What do you want, Mr. Fisher? What about that cruise ship? Do you want me to buy it for you?"

"I was once on a cruise ship just like it, on a deep cover mission within John Brown's Army," said Sam. "A false flag operation intended to blow up three different cities including New York with the same type of nuclear material Lucas is having you ship out right now. They planned to blow up this very harbor by planting a bomb aboard that cruise ship. It was a test," said Sam.

"The sheer amount of hypocrisy stemming from the fact that you're working with the man who bankrolled John Brown's Army, as well as Lucas, who's planning a do-over with the Red Mercury, only worldwide, all while sipping alcoholic lemonade on an expensive luxury yacht paid with American taxpayers' money in the middle of a harbor that could've been nuked by them as well? It's staggering," said Sam.

"Well, you know what they say," laughed McKay nervously, "like my lemonade, business is a cold, hard bitch! It's nothing personal, you know."

"For me it is," said Sam. "My daughter, my friends, they're involved in this now… One of them died in London because of your boss's antics."

"You mean Grim's—ahh—arrgh!" yelled Sean as Sam squeezed his neck tighter with his grip.

"Where is Alejandro Takfir's hideout?" said Sam. "Where are you shipping the Red Mercury from?"

"I… the Central African State!" said Alejandro. "The coordinates for his fortress in the CAS are in my phone! Take it!"

Sam holstered his gun, and grabbed Sean's cell phone in one hand while choking him with the other.

"Charlie, do you have the coordinates?"

"Yup… I got them…" said Charlie. "It's a fortress in the middle of a desert oasis there."

"Good," said Sam.

"Is that all you wanted?" said Sean. "You didn't have to hit me in the face like that, you know!"

"Not quite," said Sam. "What're the locations you're shipping the Red Mercury to?"

"Don't you already know the first three? That's what I'd heard!"

"I want to know the two locations other than Washington, Moscow, and Beijing… Along with the detonation site," said Sam.

"I wouldn't know the detonation site at all!" said Sean. "Lucas wouldn't have wanted me to know about that… Probably thought I would squeal… As for the other two locations he's going to bomb for his Selection agenda… He keeps changing one of them… The other's some micronation I keep forgetting the name of."

Sam wiped his forehead. "You're telling me you don't even remember the name of the country you're about to nuke?"

"Of course I do! It's… it's… it's escaping me at the moment…"

Sam sighed. "You're an idiot Sean… and a suck-up to Lucas. But you won't die by my hand."

Sean laughed. "Of course I won't! I'm bulletproof! That's because I understand business, unlike all you spy types—"

"Bulletproof… right," said Sam. "You know what happened to the last person who told me he was bulletproof?"

"What—"

Sam then shot Sean in both his knees, and Sean screamed as he fell over the railing.

"His name was Calvin Samson. He was Caldwell's vice president at the time, and a puppet of Abstergo's as well," said Sam as he looked over the balcony at Sean. "He was killed in federal prison, likely by another Abstergo puppet. Your sucking up to Lucas was going to get you killed anyway, so consider this mercy."

"FISHER!" Sean screamed before he was pulled underwater and eaten alive by sharks.

Takfir's Desert Fortress, Central African State

Two snipers working for Takfir were having a smoke break while conversing on the roof of the desert fortress, unaware one of Charlie's drones was circling above them.

"Takfir's got an entire airfield down there… With several military stealth aircraft disguised as commercial jets. Likely provided by McKay Global," said Charlie to Sam via his OPSAT. "More than enough of them to ship out Red Mercury to all five of the locations."

"That slob McKay had better not have led us on a goose chase," said Briggs as he crept through a minefield in the middle of a savannah and sniped two guards in a tower overlooking the bridge leading into the compound. He moved up toward the tower and climbed its ladder, then trained his SC sniper rifle's enhanced scope toward the bridge.

"We've picked up a ton of activity coming from the base via the SMI," said Grim as she entered the truck on an outpost on the far side of the bridge, and donned her disguise she stole from the driver, whom Sam had killed with the passengers while Sarah cleared out the guards in the outpost. "You sure this is a good idea, having me along for the ride like this, Sam?" as she picked up her prototype SC light machine gun and put it in the passenger seat.

"Someone needed to drive us across this damn bridge," said Sam. "Plus I suspect you can get what you want from Freyja as much as how she got what she wanted from you. If we get discovered, use your strength as a new Sage in combat to defend us."

"I'll try," Grim said as she looked at her submachine gun.

"As for you…" Sam said to Sarah as he entered the back of the truck, "…are you sure about this?"

"McKay's shipping company uses dual locks all the time to store stuff," said Sarah as she climbed in. "We'll need to hack both locks at the same time to open the vault storing the Red Mercury bombs. I figured this out while I was on the Rook Islands."

"Comfortable back there?" said Grim as she slid open a window to the trunk to see that Sam and Sarah got in.

"Comfortable enough," said Sam. Turning his head toward his OPSAT, he said, "Briggs, use your sniper rifle to shoot the guards on the bridge for us before they see through Grim's disguise."

"Copy that," said Briggs. "I'm in position."

"As for disabling security…" said Sam, "Charlie… Are you in position with the drone?"

"I'm navigating through their ventilation shafts now," said Charlie. "Let me know when to trigger the tri-rotor's EMP charge. You guys will have roughly 60 seconds to register your biometrics for the dual lock system before their backup generator comes online."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," said Sam. "Let us know when you've reached the power lines with the tri-rotor."

As Grim started to drive the truck across the bridge leading from the plateau to the fortress elevated above a steep drop down into the desert valley below, Briggs quickly took out the guards patrolling the bridge.

"We're almost across…" said Grim quietly over her subdermals as the men guarding the fortress entrance gates questioned her in their local dialect.

"From what I can gather off of the mics in Grim's ops suit, those guards sound like they're getting angry," said Sam. "Charlie, we're at the front gates… Now would be a good time to—"

"I've got it!" said Charlie. "Detonating tri-rotor, brace yourselves!"

Sam, Grim, and Sarah winced slightly as the resulting power outage caused the guards to look away as the ground shook and the security camera systems and lights around them shut down.

Grim pulled out her light machine gun and mowed the guards in front of her down through the windshield, and hit the gas to ram through the front gates.

After recovering from the shock of the crash, Sam and Sarah hopped out of the truck.

"I'll keep an eye on the truck!" yelled Grim. "It could come in handy later on!"

Sam nodded as he and Sarah kicked open the doors to the fortress lobby.

Using his thermal vision and Sarah's sonar vision, they did a running dual mark and execute of the first six enemies in the darkness of the lobby together with their SC-20K and SC-3000's, then the next five, while Sam managed to shoot the twelfth guard behind a desk with a computer in the leg.

Picking him up, Sam pointed to the computer, and then at Sarah, who was putting her hand on one of the dual locks, and said, "Give us access."

The scared guard nodded understandingly, and typed rapidly into the computer while Sam held him at gunpoint and pressed his own hand against one of the dual locks.

The locks lit up, and turned green.

The guard nodded at them.

"Good boy," Sam said as Sarah knocked him out with a sticky shocker from her crossbow.

They entered the inner facilities of the fortress, starting with a decontamination room in the facility as air was blown against their suits from slots in the wall. Then when they were cleared for entry, they headed into the barracks area. Soldiers in charge of guarding the compound were planting proximity mines in the hallways.

"Shit…" said Sam. "Check your corners, and watch the mines."

"I see them," said Sarah.

They manage to creep their way around the proximity mines while using their weapons to shoot out the lights and get the drop on several soldiers, until one of them shot a proximity mine ahead of them, which caused the floors to blow out from beneath them, sending Sarah and Sam down into a pit of some kind.

Coughing as he got up, Sam said, "Sarah, are you okay?"

"I'm fine… just banged my ribs against a rock a little," she said. "They're not broken, though."

"We're in an old prison area of some kind," said Sam as he looked at the prison cells full of cobwebs and skeletons.

Then Sam could hear screaming coming from nearby.

"This way," said Sam as he turned his night vision back on.

As they reached the cell that the screaming was coming from, Sam couldn't believe it.

A familiar crook with his ugly jacket and hair gel was tied to a chair, being tortured with electrodes by a soldier.

"Takfir," said another soldier to Takfir over a radio, "the intruder isn't talking."

"Then kill him," said Takfir.

Kobin… what's he doing here… said Sam.

Sam shot the soldiers torturing Kobin and entered the cell.

"What… oh Jesus fuck," said Andriy Kobin in his usual raspy voice. "You are the last person I wanted to see here."

"The feeling's mutual," said Sarah.

Kobin looked at Sarah confusedly. "Do I know you?" Then he looked at Sam, and said, "Fisher, you got a new field partner? I thought your field partner was Br-"

Sarah took off her mask.

Kobin's bloodshot eyes went wide. "Oh shit, shit, SHIT! Don't kill me!" he yelled as he tried to escape his bonds.

"What's your relation to this whole thing?" said Sam as he looked at Kobin. "You can't be working with Lucas."

"Yeah, no shit, Sam! Lucas is a psycho! Not to mention I'm tied up and being tortured by his fucking goons like this!" shouted Kobin. "It's just business… I was looking for the location of a client's loved one… They've been trafficked through McKay Global… As well as the human cargo ring that the Rook Islands are a part of."

"What do you get out of risking your life like this?" said Sam. "That's not like you."

"The client promised he'd give me dirt on a business rival of mine if I get him his loved one back… I think… I think she's being held in the same spot the Red Mercury bomb's being deployed to!"

"And you're more worried about that?" said Sam.

"Do you have intel on the Red Mercury or not?" said Sarah.

Kobin looked at Sarah. "Hold on, am I missing something? How did Sarah Fisher become a Splinter Cell?"

Sarah grimaced.

"All right, all right!" said Kobin. "Takfir, he… he said he's holed up in the fortress command center. That's where the Red Mercury's detonation location coordinates should be!"

"We're looking for the bombs themselves!" shouted Sam.

"The bombs?" said Kobin. "The three bombs the Engineers are in charge of were already shipped out… Along with the one that my client's loved one was being threatened with!"

"No…" said Sarah.

"We missed our window!" said Sam as he punched the wall.

"You may still have time to intercept the last one though…" said Kobin. "That's the one that Takfir bragged was supposed to flatten the Himalayas…"

"What?" said Sam.

"It's Lucas's fucking depopulation agenda, Sam! Irradiate the Himalayas, and you'll bury half of Asia in snow… along with their main water supplies…"

"Over two billion people will die from starvation in the long run… A third of the world's population…" said Sarah.

"You're not even getting the bigger picture…" said Kobin. "In addition to that, China, Russia, India, Pakistan? Their people dying, begging to be fed? They'll fall in line with whatever Abstergo wants… No one will challenge them after that."

"Back in Kashmir, with Voron, during the Blacklist…" said Sam. "That nuke we secured in India… This was their agenda the entire time!"

"All right, Kobin… You've bought yourself some time…" said Sam as he freed Kobin from his chair by cutting the ropes with his Karambit.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Dad?" said Sarah to Sam quietly.

"No, I'm not," said Sam to Sarah in response. "This is a gut move. Like you said, we need all the help we can get."

"You're actually getting me out of here?" said Kobin.

They heard guards coming from upstairs.

"They're onto us," said Sam. "Stay behind us, Kobin."

Sam and Sarah managed to clear out the prison area of incoming soldiers by hiding in the darkness of the ceiling after climbing some pipes in the walls and shooting down at them from the pipes.

Sarah used her weight to land on the last guard, and stomp on his skull.

"Always wanted to do that," she said as she caught her breath, and pointed her SC-3000 onward. "Let's go, you two."

"How the fuck did she become a Splinter Cell?" said Kobin.

"Long story," said Sam. "Come on, keep up."

Some heavily armored guards were walking towards them with sets of machine guns.

Sam and Sarah shot off their helmets and then picked them off with headshots.

They then opened a set of dual locks leading into a vault area containing various racks of small arms and larger weapons like old missiles and artillery apparatuses lying around.

There were turrets set up that were firing at them. Sam and Sarah quickly took cover.

Sarah tossed an EMP grenade to put the turrets out of commission. That also killed the lights in the room just as more guards entered.

Sarah and Sam managed to clear out the room quickly before their position was swarmed by the numbers.

One heavily-armored guard managed to get the drop on Sam with a flashbang. Toughing through the blinding effects, Sam used his strength to beat his helmet off, and he engaged in a fistfight with the guard, trying to wrestle his Karambit toward the guard's neck. The guard kicked Sam in the gut, but Sam managed to use his newfound strength to knock the guard backward. Sarah quickly shot through the guard's exposed head from a distance before he could pull out another grenade that would kill them both.

Sam quickly got up and ran before it detonated.

As another wave of guards came to surround Sarah, Sam fired an underbarrel frag grenade from his SC-20K at them along with a barrage of suppressed gunfire from the main rifle barrel before she was overwhelmed.

"Thanks," said Sarah.

They continued through the hallways, hearing aircraft taking off from the rooftops and reached a vault labeled "Red Mercury."

Sam and Sarah opened the dual locks.

"Kobin was right," Sarah said as she looked into the empty vault room. "The Red Mercury isn't here."

"The fifth bomb's gone too," said Sam. "This is bad."

Hearing the aircraft taking off in the distance, Sam said, "Maybe it's not too late. Maybe they're loading it onto one of the planes on the roof as we speak."

They continued to the command center, and Sam planted a breaching charge on the command center doors.

Sam, Sarah, and Kobin stood on the sides of the doors as Sam detonated the charge and they breached the room, shooting the guards in the room while avoiding shooting the C4 charges he planted in the room.

"Takfir must've left for the planes…" said Sarah. "He must not be far behind… He left behind some evidence."

Sam looked at the computer console. "Charlie, I'm accessing McKay Global's shipping databases… Can you tell me where the fourth and fifth bombs are going?"

"Let's see… One of them is going to… Lima?" said Charlie. "It looks like some ships are taking it to a secret volcanic island of Lucas's off the coast of Peru, in the South Pacific. His mining company seems to have a lot of interest in said island, as they're being deployed there, along with the Collective Force PMC."

"That must be where Lucas's keeping the hostages that he's selected to sacrifice," said Sarah. "The loved ones of his associates who didn't follow his orders."

"The fifth one is headed to Kyrati International Airport," said Charlie.

"Kyrat is a micronation high up in the Himalayas, not far from Nepal," said Grim, "and it's likely that the airport isn't their final destination."

"Kobin was right," said Sam.

"The four other bombs can wait," said Grim. "We have to get a tracker on the fifth bomb, now, or billions of people are going to die, likely including us if we're going to go deep within the Himalayan Mountains looking for it before it detonates!"

"I've got a read on the shipping labels for each of the bombs so you can identify them with your EEVs," said Charlie. "And you're not too late… I've pulled up the security camera feeds to the compound… Footage shows that they're loading the last bomb onto an airplane now… If you get onboard, you can either disarm it or plant a tracking device on it!"

"Wait!" said Sam. "Charlie, do you have a location on the detonation broadcast site for the first three bombs!"

"What?" said Charlie.

"Those are going to go off all at the same time, detonated from one location!"

"Sorry, Sam… I don't see anything about that on here!"

"Shit," said Sam. "Then I'll have to beat it out of Takfir."

Looking up at Sarah and Kobin, they ran up the stairways to the rooftops, where the aircraft were taking off en masse.

"CHARLIE!" yelled Sarah. "Which plane are we looking for!"

"Marking the correct plane on your EEV, Sarah!"

"No…" Sarah shouted as it was starting to take off.

Sarah ran for it.

"Sarah!"

"Cover me, Dad!"

Guards shot at them and planes took off all around Sarah's pathway.

Sam realized he had no choice but to cover Sarah by shooting the guards along her way.

He fired his SC-20K, along with its sniper rifle underbarrel attachment.

Sarah was losing the plane, but she could see the Red Mercury stashed in a crate in the back of the airplane, so she fired a tracking device with her SC-3000's underbarrel launcher straight at the Red Mercury device.

Looking up, Sarah said, "I got it!" before the plane took off into the distance.

As more planes started to take off, a missile carrier plane with Takfir in the cockpit hovered above the fortress.

"Your family dies here, Mr. Fisher!" said Takfir over the plane's microphone.

"SARAH!" yelled Sam.

As Takfir did a strafing run, Sarah barely managed to roll to cover out of the way of the plane's machine guns.

"Kobin!" yelled Sam. "You remember the artillery apparatus we saw in the room below us?"

"Yeah, what about them?" said Kobin.

"I'm betting they're electronic," said Sam as he planted a flash drive in his hand. "Place this into their console, and that'll slave it to my OPSAT."

"What the hell are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to bring a fucking plane down!" yelled Sam.

"Are you crazy?" said Kobin. "I'd have to shoot through the ceiling to do that! That'd bring the whole fucking fortress down on us!"

"I know!" yelled Sam. "Briggs, is there any chance you can get to the chopper in town from where you are now!"

"Not nearly in time, Sam—"

"Wait!" shouted Grim. "I can drive him there with the truck."

"Do it," said Sam. "When you get there, await further instructions."

Takfir was now doing a bombing run and started launching bombs at the fortress.

"Go, Kobin!" Sam yelled, and ran for Sarah, sliding under the wreckage of planes as several bombs exploded around him.

As Takfir tried to fire missiles at Sarah, Sarah shot an underbarrel frag grenade at the plane's right-side missile launcher. The plane's right-side missile launcher was destroyed, and sent the plane flying upward and caused it to lose control for a moment. Takfir fired a missile that barely missed Sarah with the plane's left-side missile launcher.

Instead, it hit several crates near Sam and exploded, causing Sam's ears to ring, his vision to darken, and his body to fly and roll to the floor.

When Sam's vision returned, he stumbled to his feet, and saw Sarah desperately trying to shoot Takfir out of the cockpit, to no avail as he did another strafing run. A bullet grazed the side of Sarah's leg, causing her to take a knee and leaving her immobile as Takfir returned.

Breathing heavily, Sam looked around for something, anything that would save him and his daughter.

To his surprise, the crates that had supposedly been destroyed were now open, and contained a set of RPG-7 launchers.

Sam grabbed one, and fired it at Takfir's plane's left missile launcher, preventing him from blowing his daughter to bits.

As Takfir's plane started to go up in flames, he said, "I still have the bomb payload left, Fisher! You won't be stopping Lucas's plans for much longer!"

"Fisher!" said Kobin. "I'm at the artillery device… It's got surface-to-air missiles loaded in it already. I plugged in the flash drive you gave me!"

"Sam, Grim and I are bringing the chopper your way… Awaiting further instructions!"

"Kobin," yelled Sam, "fire at Takfir's plane on my command. Briggs, bring the chopper back to the fortress and prepare for emergency liftoff."

Sarah looked at Sam.

"Sarah, get away from the plane!" yelled Sam.

Sarah ran toward Sam.

"Hail to the All-Father…" said Takfir as he prepared to drop a bomb on Sam and Sarah.

"NOW, KOBIN!"

A pause, then the first surface-to-air missile came up and ruptured the floor in front of them, sending them flying backwards.

The second and third missiles were a direct hit on Takfir's plane, sending it flying out of the sky, then toward Sam and Sarah.

"Sarah, WATCH OUT!"

Sarah and Sam ran away as the chopper crashed, and they went flying again.

… … … … …

Sam was hanging from the crumbling façade of the roof, bleeding a little from where he scraped his belly against the foundation when he went flying.

As he climbed out of the crumbling façade, Sarah was lying next to the wreckage of Takfir's plane with a dislocated left arm.

A dazed Takfir climbed out of the wreckage.

Sam desperately got up and stumbled toward Takfir, and pulled out his SC-20K, firing it until the barrel made a clicking noise and he was out of ammo. He then pulled out his Five-Seven, only for Takfir to shove an already heavily disoriented Sam to the ground.

Takfir pulled out a revolver, and said angrily, "You… won't live long enough to watch the world you love burn… but you will live long enough to watch her die…" Then he pointed the revolver at Sarah, and pulled the trigger, only for the barrel to click once.

"Takfir, STOP!"

He pulled the trigger again, only for the barrel to click while Sarah was trying to reach for her SC-IS with her good arm.

"TAKFIR!" yelled Sam.

"Not on my watch, you son of a BITCH!" yelled Kobin as he fired his own handgun he found at Alejandro Takfir. The first round hit him in the shoulder and caused him to miss shooting Sarah with an actual bullet, and the second round hit him square in the chest, causing him to sink to the floor.

Kobin sighed, and said, "Fisher… you okay?"

"Why… would you…"

"Not now, Fisher," said Kobin as he helped Sam up. "We've got to go."

"Sarah!" yelled Sam as Sarah attempted to snap her arm back in place, and succeeded.

Hearing the cracking sound, along with Sarah's scream made Sam feel sick.

"Sarah…" said Sam.

"I'm fine…" said Sarah, who was panting heavily. She then said, "Is he dead?"

Sam looked over at Takfir, who looked up at Sam and Sarah as he coughed up blood.

Sarah walked over to Takfir with Sam and Kobin as he said to them, "You… may… have stopped me… but… you can't… stop… the Selection!"

Sarah said to her dad, "Remember when we would go hunting together when I was a kid?"

"Yeah," said Sam. "You were pretty good."

"Kobin missed his heart by a few inches," said Sarah. "After you showed me how to shoot a gun, Dad… and after I finally got good at it…"

Sarah raised her SC-IS at Takfir and shot him in the heart, killing him.

"I never missed the heart again," she said.

Kobin said to Sam, "Shit… she's even more of an edge-lord than you are, Fisher."

Briggs said, "Fisher, we're circling above you with the chopper. Coming down for a landing."

"Copy that, Briggs," said Sam.

As Briggs landed, Grim helped Sam and Sarah on board.

"What's Kobin doing here?" said Grim.

"We need all the help we can get," said Sam. "He's come in handy before."

As the chopper touched off with Kobin, Sam, and Sarah onboard, Marie said to the others via OPSAT, "You all need to head back to the Paladin."

"We know, Marie," said Sam. "We need to prep for Kyrat."

Sam turned to Sarah, who was holding her arm as he said, "Was it hard?"

"What was?" said Sarah.

"Taking a life for the first time."

"It was," said Sarah. "I got used to it the more I did it."

"You're a hell of a soldier, you know that?" said Sam.

"I learned from the best," said Sarah with a smile.

They flew off into the chilly desert night.

The Paladin

Everyone was crowded around the SMI, including Sarah and Sam who had been healed as best as they could manage in the infirmary on short notice.

"Tell us about Kyrat, Grim," said Sam.

Grim said, "It's a micronation in the Himalayas that was thrown into chaos after the reign of its former dictator, Pagan Min, whose helicopter was shot down after he tried to escape from his palace. Its current leader, Amita, turned the micronation into a totalitarian drug state after the Golden Path rebellion overthrew the former regime. However, some of the Golden Path members remained loyal to the movement's other former leader, Sabal, whom Amita also allegedly killed."

"Abstergo would have no problem smuggling the nuke into there," said Briggs. "The place is a warzone."

Charlie said, "And we're about to fly right into it."

Sarah said, "If we don't, it won't just be Kyrat that goes up in a mushroom cloud."

"An ordinary father would drop you off somewhere safe, far away from here," said Sam. "But there's no turning back. We've got less than a day left before the timer for part one of the Selection is at zero."

"So let me get this straight… I'm heading with you guys into what is highly probable to become a massive nuclear holocaust?" said Kobin.

"While that would normally be a fitting punishment for what you did to my family, Kobin, no," said Sam. "I need you to act as a different asset in the meantime, gather up your black-market contacts, see if you can get us five choppers and pilots… Along with anything we'll need for part two of the Selection… In the event that we have to defuse the last four bombs ourselves."

"All right, Fisher," said Kobin, "sounds like a deal."

"We're monitoring the jet Sarah planted a tracking device on," said Charlie. "They're on route to Kyrati International Airport."

"Then are we go for Kyrat?" said Sam.

"Go for Kyrat," said Grim.

"Go for Kyrat," said Charlie.

"Go for Kyrat," said Briggs.

"Go for Kyrat," said Marie.

"Go for Kyrat," said Sarah.

"It's time to save the world from a nuclear winter," said Sam.