Magdeburg, Saxony, Germany – 2 May 1943
Jan brought the binoculars to his eyes and looked at the entrance to the compound where Hauschka was. Any minute now it would begin. Jan, Elisabeth, and two other Assassins waited on a roof on the other end of the compound, right across the heavily guarded, smaller back gate. The entire base was crawling with Schutzstaffel soldiers. There was no way a group of about a dozen Assassins could simply walk in and get the job done.
Jan took out his pocket watch.
It should've started a minute ago.
"Do you think Caspar's fine?" he asked.
"I'm sure he's fine."
"He's late."
"Don't worry. He'll get it done."
Just like Elisabeth said, a few moments later several explosions rocked the front gates of the compound. Gunfire soon erupted as Caspar and the other Assassins launched their attack, shooting from the windows of the surrounding building. With his binoculars, Jan zoomed in on the action.
The compound gates had been blown to bits, and there were dead soldiers lying around it. Other soldiers were coming and taking cover behind whatever they could find, shooting back at the Assassins in the buildings. He saw many of them get picked off by the Assassins, forcing even more and more soldiers to come to the perimeter of the front gate.
Across the road, he saw four Assassins come out of a building. They approached the ruins of the gates and began shooting from the hole, slowly advancing into the compound. The soldiers retreated, while more came to their aid. It seemed like the Assassins had the upper hand, but fighting against three battalions the best they could do was hold them off for a few minutes.
Jan turned his attention to the buildings at the back of the compound, specifically the headquarters where Hauschka probably was. More and more soldiers were headed to the front gates to fight off the Assassins, but many stayed behind at the headquarters.
"Come on…"
They hadn't been able to ascertain Hauschka's presence. She had not appeared in the last four days they'd been in Magdeburg, but there was no indication that she had left either.
At last, a door at the back of the headquarters opened. An escort of half a dozen soldiers came out, followed by a woman in a coat and hat, with another half-dozen soldiers coming up behind her. They walked towards the back gate which was itself guarded by half a dozen soldiers. Three cars had arrived, ready to bring Hauschka away.
Jan motioned to Elisabeth and one of the Assassins named Laurenz who, using a rope they had tethered to a spot on the roof, jumped down onto street level and approached the three cars just as Hauschka and her escort were coming out of the back gate. When the soldiers guarding the cars saw them, they shouted for them to stop. Elisabeth and Laurenz shot several of them dead. Before they could respond, Elisabeth and Laurenz had thrown grenades under the cars and ran back for cover. The three cars exploded, throwing many of the soldiers onto the ground as flames rose up from the husks.
Hauschka's escort began to try and get her back into the compound, but Jan and his fellow Assassin Sebastian rained a hell of bullets upon them, forcing them to take cover behind the burning cars. The four Assassins kept up their pressure, barely allowing Hauschka's men to fire back. Elisabeth and Laurenz kept moving forward towards the car. They were picking off Hauschka's soldiers one by one.
"Can you handle things up here?" Jan asked Sebastian.
He nodded, and Jan nodded back. Jan went to the side and jumped down using the rope like Elisabeth and Laurenz did. He went after them, and the three of them kept their pressure on the soldiers, slowly encroaching on them.
But it wasn't as easy as they thought it was going to be, as more soldiers came out from the back gate and began shooting. The three Assassins had to retreat to avoid the gunfire. The soldiers again attempted to get Hauschka inside, but Sebastian shot at them, killing several of the soldiers and forcing them to take cover again. The Assassins and the soldiers continued to exchange fire.
"We can't keep this up!" Elisabeth shouted over the hail of bullets.
"I know!" Jan shouted back. "We need to get Hauscha now or we'll lose her!"
Jan called out to Sebastian on the roof, shouting across the urban battlefield. Sebastian took his eyes off the sight and looked at Jan. Jan signaled to him to keep firing and cover them, to which he nodded his head. He returned to aiming and began shooting bullet after bullet, more rapid than before. The soldiers began taking cover and had fewer and fewer chances to lean out and shoot back. Jan turned to his companions.
"On three, we go out and bring hell on them. We're taking Hauschka."
They nodded.
"1…"
"2…"
"3!"
At once, all three Assassins burst out from cover. Jan and Elisabeth went to the right while Laurenz went to the left. Even while moving, they kept shooting. They went around the burning cars and came face to face with the soldiers who were still laying low under Sebastian's fire. The soldiers didn't have time to react before the Assassins had shot half of them, killing some. When they tried to fire back, Sebastian shot them dead. The soldiers were scrambling for cover, but there was no way out.
Jan and Elisabeth kept advancing. They didn't try to kill all the soldiers, but they made sure to shoot as many of them as they moved forward. The soldiers hiding behind the walls retreated deeper and tried to shoot at them from the safety of the compound, but their shots went wild as the Assassins deftly darted left and right.
Hauschka crouched behind one of the burning cars. She took out her handgun to shoot back at the Assassins, but when she did Jan shot her in the shoulder. She screamed in pain and dropped her gun, falling back onto the pavement. Jan and Laurenz went to her and pulled her to the other side of the burning cars facing the road while Elisabeth and Sebastian covered them. When they had done so, Elisabeth slowly moved back. Elisabeth and the other Assassins kept exchanging fire with the soldiers while Jan handled Hauschka.
Hauschka was grimacing with pain, clutching desperately at her bleeding shoulder. The blood was quickly soaking through her black coat, while the cream blouse she wore underneath had already turned a dark crimson. Jan choked her.
"Where's the key?"
"You may be winning here, Assassin," she said, her voice raspy. "But in the end, you will lose."
"I'd love to chat, but I don't have time for that."
Jan extended his hidden blade, and the blade went right through her neck. Her eyes went wide. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out except gurgling and blood. And then she went limp. Jan pulled out the hidden blade and searched her pockets until finding in one a strange circular object the size of his palm. It was composed of three circular layers. The outer layer was made of gold or bronze, decorated with triangles incised into the metal. The second layer was made of some sort of glass, while the inner layer was made of a dark metal. On the metal were inscribed three symbols, the same symbol Jan saw in the books in Warsaw. The inner layer had a circular hole in it.
"Did you find it?" shouted Elisabeth at Jan.
"Yes!"
"Then let's get out of here!"
Jan nodded and put the key in his pocket. When he looked up, Sebastian had just been shot, and he was falling forward. His body crashed onto the street.
"No!" screamed Elisabeth.
"Looks like Caspar was forced to retreat, we need to go too!" shouted Laurenz.
Jan, Elisabeth, and Laurenz retreated, moving towards the alley while shooting back. More and more soldiers were pouring out of the gates now that there was no distraction. Jan went to Sebastian and carried his body into the alley, before Elisabeth and Laurenz followed. They disappeared into the alleys. The soldiers gave chase, but by then the Assassins had gone into their car and sped away.