- Katie: "So where do you go, on these... expeditions of yours?"
- Myself: "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
- Katie: "Who knows, maybe I might believe you? Come on Alex, I've known you for 8 years, you can trust me!"
- Myself: "Lets just say I had a date with destiny."
- —Dialogue taken from the prologue to Destiny.
That was four years ago.
Things were a lot simpler back then, I guess, but in retrospect, everything looks simpler when you're younger. Oh, how the times have changed. But to fully understand what I've been through, what my country has been through, what WE have been through, I have to start from the beginning.
I was born in Guelph, Ontario, on March 5th 1991, to Richard Lee and May Nakanasa, meaning 'the first one'. My father was raised in Cuba, but was from China, my mother was Native American, of the Cree.
My name is Alex Lee-Nakanasa, and I am an Assassin.
Chapter 1: A Death In The Family[]
"I DON'T CARE HOW IMPORTANT DESMOND! THIS MISSION IS NOT WORTH IT!" I yelled, furious at my lack of knowledge on the latest operation.
"These men and women volunteered of their own accord." The Mentor said, calmly, almost indifferent. "This is out of your hands, Alex. You have no idea the importance of Desmond, to the Order and to me. You yourself should know this."
"Those men and women are my men and women, that are walking right into an Abstergo trap, AND YOU KNOW IT!" I yelled again, slamming the telephone down, and storming away.
My father was a secretive man. He was an marketer for a rather large tech firm, so he was always away on business trips. My mother was a real estate agent, but she also used to work for the same company my father worked for.
June 20th 2008. The day everything changed.
It was the last day of the school year, things were winding down, I, luckily had no exams. I was ready for the summer. Unfortunately, that summer I so longed for would never arrive and my life would change forever.
"Hey Alex! See you next year man!" yelled Jack from down the hall. I waved at him, as I closed my locker for the last time of my Gr.11 year. With my backpack on my back I started to head home.
My dad was at a marketing meeting in South Dakota, and even though it was in a remote place, he seemed to go there a lot. Whenever he wasn't there, he was on the outskirts of Guelph, where he worked. I never went, both parents forbid me from going to his workplace.
"Alex! You weren't going to leave without saying bye, were you?" yelled a voice from behind me, as I pushed open the door to walk out. I turned my head and saw my best friend Katie running towards me. She jumped into my arms hugging me. Her blonde hair tickled my nose.
"Well, I kinda wanted to get out of here... You know me," I said sheepishly. Most people thought we were a couple, and maybe we were. Our families were close, both of our parents knew each other since high school, and we had known each other since forever.
Katie laughed, then said, "Well, I better be seeing you later this summer, right?"
I nodded, walking through the doors, my best friend following closely behind. "I'm busy with track and swimming this summer, but I'll make time."
"You and your sports... What about your karate?" she asked.
"First of all, my dad insists I do all of these sports, its getting annoying." I sighed, reaching the sidewalk.
"Well, at least you're in good shape," she said, staring at me smiling.
I laughed, and kept walking. We walked in silence for the rest of the way home, just enjoying the freedom of finally being out of school. About five minutes later, Katie turned down her street, but not before yelling out, "Text me later!"
Living near your highschool has few perks, but the best is that getting home takes no time at all.
"Mom, I'm home!" I yelled.
"Hey bud!" she yelled back, "I'm cooking spaghetti, tonight, my dad's coming back tonight too! Remember, you have to do your daily run."
I sighed, "Ugh. I was kinda hoping you'd forget." I walked up the stairs and threw down my backpack on my bed. I quickly changed into my running clothes, and ran down the stairs.
"Be back in thirty minutes or so!" I yelled, as I ran out the door.
Running was one of the only things that calmed me. Running through the streets of the neighborhood that I grew up in, past my elementary school, past Katie's house, past Brad's house, my other best friend, past the park where I first learned to climb.
Climbing and running. My two best abilities.
Well, at least the two best the people actually know about.
As I ran I closed my eyes, and concentrated, wiping my mind of all things. When I opened them, my vision was black, except for the outline of objects, inanimate or animate. Most were grey or white, but occasionally I'd see someone who was outlined in blue.
This... Ability, that I had, I didn't know what to call it, but I had learned most of its secrets. I knew that blue meant that someone was a friend, red was someone that was potentially an enemy, and on the rare occasion, yellow, something I was tracking.
Looking up as I ran, I saw a group of teens form my school. It was the Waldorf gang. They thought they were so cool with their tattoos and just because they were all related some guy who worked for the corporate giant, Abstergo Industries. "Stupid thugs," I thought, as I ran closer and closer to them. They were outlined in red, which was perfectly normal, I was always scrapping with them in some way.
"Hey Indian!" yelled their leader, Ian, "Or should I call you Ching-Chong?" His stupid cousins and brothers all laughed. They were all huge, all brawn, no brain types, except for Ian, who was faster, but still just a stupid.
I slowed my pace to a walk and said, unfazed by the remarks aimed against my mixed ethnicity. "That depends, whatever one you can spell, you can use."
His face automatically went red. "Why you little..." he said.
"What, you gonna fight me?" I taunted, waving my hands towards me.
"I'm not." Ian said, as if suddenly getting an idea, "But they are." He pointed to his cousins Jeff and George the biggest of the bunch, and they walked forward cracking their knuckles.
"Its go time," I thought, activating my unique ability. The twins were no longer outlined in red, but now yellow, and I could anticipate their every move.
Jeff's yellow outline moved his hand in a right uppercut, and his real body began to make that move soon after. Unfortunately for him, I was faster. Much faster. I ducked, and did a simple sweep of his legs, knocking him down.
George yelled out in protest, as I saw his yellow silhouette charging towards me. I simply sidestepped, letting the 200+ pound seventeen year old, run past me, tripping over my outstretched leg.
Years of grueling training, under the brutal Sensei Takahashi, had attuned my reflexes to be near superhuman.
"Get him!" Ian yelled, pointing to some of his other cousins.
They circled around me, and this time it was my turn to make a move. I swung at the guy nearest me, with a right bolo punch, a lowercut to the chin. I instantly landed a hit, knocking him out.
"Come on!" I yelled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a yellow silhouette coming at me with a roundhouse kick. I ducked and jabbed in a quick succession to his chest, leaving him breathless.
As soon as I knocked him down, another fist went hurdling to my face, but I ducked again and swept his legs. The poor kid tried to soften his fall by using his arm, but just ended up breaking it with a loud crack.
I disposed of the rest of the thugs in a similar manner very quickly, only one punch had landed, across my jawbone. I turned to Ian and yelled, "Just you and me now!"
He looked at his watch and smiled. "That's what you think, Assassin. Better go and check on Mommy." And he turned around laughing into the night.
"Mom!" I yelled, running back home, also pondering what Ian meant by calling my Assassin.
"Mom?" I asked as I walked through the already open front door.
CRACK
I looked down to see that I stepped on glass. Something wasn't right.
"Mom? Are you okay?" I asked more frantically.
The blinds were down, lights were off, and the entrance hallway was barely visible.
I walked over to the light switch and turned it on.
Immediately, the light illuminated the hallway revealing shattered glass, empty shotgun shells and bullet casings. There was also a streak of blood leading to family room.
I ran my fingers through my hair, confused. "What's going on? There must have been some sort of robbery."
My mind was going a mile a minute, my lifesaving skills kicked in. EMS. Police. 911. I need them. I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed in the 3 numbers that we were always taught to dial in case of an emergency.
But before I could finish dialing, a resounding crash came from the family room, snapping me back to reality.
"Mom!" I yelled, running down the hallway of my destroyed house. On the white walls, were bloody handprints, streaking and smothered. Bullet holes littered the walls, and glass was broken everywhere.
I ran through the kitchen, the fridge had a huge gaping hole in it, made by a shotgun. Groceries were everywhere, eggs split all over the floor, milk spilled, but most of all a dead body.
Words cannot describe the feeling that one gets after seeing their first dead body. Immediately your first reaction is to throw up, the feeling if nausea and sickness almost overwhelmed me.
The body of a rather large and burly man in his late twenties had his eyes open in shock, although I couldn't see what killed him. Against my stomach's wishes, for it was about to empty out it's full contents, I leaned closer to examine the body, and saw a gaping hole in his neck, what looked like a knife wound.
"What happened...?" I whispered to myself.
I looked over to the living room, and saw another body, this one female. This one familiar. My mother.
"MOM!" I yelled, sprinting to the body. A broken vase lay near by, she broke it to warn me.
"Alex," she whispered. She had a bullet wound to the chest, and was losing blood quickly. Her face was pale, and bloody but other than that looked fine. Almost like a normal day. "Alex, come closer." she whispered even softer.
"Mom," I whispered back, tears welling up in my eyes. I already knew the inevitable was upon me. My mother was dying. "Mom, don't go, please."
"Alex, you need to listen." my Mom urged. "Pay attention, this is incredibly important."
I nodded, tears threating to spill over and out of my eyes.
"Contact your father. Tell them that they came, that they are onto us. Tell him that I want to you go to the Farm." she said, "Take this." She slowly lifted up her hand, but on it was a bracer, leather coated with a strange insigna on it. I unstrapped it from her arm and put it on mine.
"Be careful, I love you, Alex, I..." And she closed her eyes for the last time.
"Mom..." I cried, and tears finally spilled over, falling like rain onto her bloody chest. "Mom!" I sobbed, falling over into her chest, holding her even though she would never come back. Never again could I hug her, tell her I loved her.
Never again would I celebrate Mother's day, nor Christmas or even Hallowe'en. My mother was gone forever.
I paid attention to the smallest details, a fly buzzing around, the small breeze wafting through the house, footsteps and the cocking of a gun in the background.
"Yes, let it end." I thought, "End this agony, KILL ME!"
As if the footsteps heard my thoughts, it said, "Now you die, Assassin."
"Assassin." I thought, still not knowing what that meant.
Suddenly a bang went off, but I was not dead. I lifted my head up from the body of my dead mother, to see a tall, hooded man, fighting hand to hand combat, with a knife. A knife that seemed to come straight from his wrist.
The man quickly defeated my would-be-killer, stabbing him in the chest. I instinctively threw up, all over the floor.
The man walked over, removing his hood to show a familiar face. "Yeah, that generally happens your first time. Don't worry, Alex, you'll get used to it." my brother said.
Chapter 2:A Brother's Bond Is The Strongest[]
"See this kid?" my Dad said as he showed me a long wooden staff, carved with a multitude of assorted symbols.
I nodded.
"This is called a gun, soon, you're gunna learn how to use this thing," he said proudly, looking over his shoulder, to my brother practicing with his own Chinese staff.
"Bang!" I said laughing.
"Not that type of that gun buddy," he said, ruffling my hair. "You're only five, so you're gunna use the small one, then you're gunna use the one that your brother is using over there, then a big one like mine!"
"Why, Daddy?" I asked, confused as to why I would even need to use one in the first place.
"One day, you'll know son." he said, and walked away.
"Kenny-?" I said in surprise, for I hadn't seen my brother in a few months. "You... With the... What the hell?" I stammered.
My twenty-one year old brother had changed a lot in the last few months. He had grown his hair out, it was now held back in a small ponytail. He was wearing black jeans, but had a utility belt on with it, much like that of a police officer. He had on a black zipper hoodie, with a red inner lining and what looked like an eagle-beaked hood.
"Hey buddy, you alright?" he asked me as if it were just another family reunion.
"Mom's hurt," is all I managed to say, thinking about the body of my dead mother. No, not dead. She couldn't have been dead. This was probably all a prank or something. She can't have actually died. Could she?
Kenny calmly walked over to her and knelt down. "Thank you for your service, may you find peace in death. Rest in peace mother." He took two fingers and closed her eyes. A single tear fell from his eyes, but then my older brother firmly stood up with a tired expression on his face. It was almost like he was used to people close to him dying.
"She's not dead." I said firmly to myself, walking over to her body and shaking it, "Mom, wake up! Okay, you got me!" I said laughing, but the laugh soon died and tears spilled from my eyes once again. I felt stupid, a seventeen year old teenage boy crying his eyes out.
"Come on, I need to show you something," he said, walking away, out the door without a look back at me.
I remained at my mother's dead body, refusing to move.
"Alex, NOW!" my brother yelled, stopping and turning his head. "It's not safe here anymore, they will be back! I know you're sad about her, she was my mother too! I promise you will have your revenge, but for now you have to save YOURSELF!"
"WELL I DON'T WANT TO BE SAVED!" I yelled, turning towards my brother, tears forcing themselves out of my eyes slowly streaming down my face, "She's dead Ken, she's dead..." I broke down, finally giving way to the flood of tears that I had held back.
A pair of arms came behind my and hugged me, comforting me. "I know its hard, it's hard for me too, but the time for grieving is not now. Dad still doesn't know and its not safe here anymore. Now get up, we need to go." Kenny said, pulling me up and looking me in the eye.
I knelt back down and whispered in my mother's ear, "I'm gonna kill the bastards who did this to you Mom. Every last one of them." I got back up, and wiped my eyes.
"You ready?" he said seriously.
I wiped my eyes again and nodded, "Yeah. Let's go."
He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder, "You know, kid, we got a lot to talk about-!"
The unmistakable sound of a car door slamming and the sliding of a van door came from the front yard.
"Shit." my brother said under his breath. "They're here already. How could they have found us so quickly?"
"Who's here?" I asked, but my brother waved me off, muttering under his breath.
He turned to me, reached into his hooded jacket and pulled out a gun.
"You remember how to use it?" he asked, obviously referring to the gun rage trips that our dad took us when we were younger. For 'hunting' he said it was for.
I shook my head. "What type is it?" I asked out of curiousity.
"Doesn't matter, I'll explain everything later. Promise. First thing, make sure the safety is off. You won't be able to shoot with it off. Cock the gun back, aim, fire. Simple as that." he said, pointing to the various parts of the gun. He flicked his wrist back showing the blade I had seen earlier. "You'll get one of these later. Now we have to move."
"Check the doors!" I heard someone yell, and the cocking of a gun.
"Just-like-that." Ken said sarcastically, "We have to move, NOW." He grabbed my arm and led me out the back door slowly and crouching slightly, and pulling a similar gun out of his jacket. He cocked back as well, after checking that his clip was full.
"In the treehouse!" I whispered, referring to the treehouse that our dad built for us when we were kids. Strangely he never let us use a ladder, always insisting that we find our own way up the huge oak tree in our backyard.
"Ladies first," my brother said gesturing to me, with a smirk on his face. That's typical Kenny for you. Even in a life and death situation, he never stops being the class clown.
"Shut up." I scowled at him and ran up the tree, grabbing the nearest branch and pulling myself up. The branch was about 10 cm wide and thick, and easily held my weight as I walked to a split in tree trunk and shimmied up to the opening of the treehouse.
"They've been here, judging by this idiot's dead body," I heard a voice say from inside the main house. He had a distinctly Italian accent. "That's why we send in the grunts in first."
"Emilio, he's bigger than you..." said another voice, laughing, this time with no accent, "Come on, let's check the back." I could hear the footsteps coming over into the tree we were hiding in.
"Ken-!" I began to whisper, but he shushed me and pulled out a silencer from his belt, much like that of a police officer or soldier. He screwed it onto the barrel of the gun and aimed at the man who was just exiting our house onto our deck. He also handed me a silencer and I copied him, screwing it onto the barrel of my own gun.
"When I shoot, his partner will react almost instantaneously, so you need to take him at out the same time," he said without taking his eye off his target. He lost all sarcasm in his voice, all jokes were gone. Even when we were kids, Kenny would be Kenny until it was time to get down to business, then he was very serious.
I nodded, nervous. In a matter of two hours my life had been turned upside down, now I was about to kill someone.
"Ready...? One, two, three!" Kenny said and fired his gun, hitting the man straight in between the eyes, instantly killing him.
I let my ability wash over me and aimed at the glowing red target who had come to investigate his fallen partner, and shot.
Almost immediately he dropped dead, and Kenny quickly jumped out of the window of the treehouse landing perfectly on his feet, despite the fact that we were 15 feet up. He ran over to the bodies and checked to see if they were dead, and then gestured for me to come over.
I exited the treehouse and jumped off the tree from a slightly safer distance. "Its not going to be safe for long, we need to get out of here." Kenny mumbled as he searched the pockets of the dead bodies.
Looking closer at the dead bodies of our would-be assailants, I noticed a strange, but familiar symbol one that I had seen in history class before.
"Templars! The Knights Templars!" I yelled, but just as soon was laying on the ground with my mouth covered by my brother.
"Do you want to get killed? You need to watch what you're saying kid, or you're gunna get us both killed!" he grumbled, lifting his hand off my mouth, "Sorry I had to be so rough, but these next few moments are crucial. They're gunna be back here to finish up the clean up. We're leaving."
Kenny handed me a wad of cash and the Templar's cellphone, and pulling out the keys of his own pockets. He ran out to the side gate and checked it with his gun up, the gave me the okay signal and I ran over to the driveway.
"Seriously? You rode your bike here?" I half-laughed, talking about the black Yamaha motorcycle that my brother so dearly loved. But it was different now, on the side was a stenciled symbol that looked almost like an arrow and said under it "Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Rien n'est vrai tout est permis."
"I don't go anywhere without my baby. Come on, I brought an extra helmet. We really have to get out here man." Kenny said, putting on his own helmet, and revving the engine.
I hopped on and took one last look my house, where my mother lay dead. "I'll get them, Mom." I thought as we sped away down the street.
Chapter 3:Revelation[]
Part 1[]
"Now, coming up to the end of the Crusades, it looked as if the Holy Lands were going to be lost, and as a result of this, faith and support for the Knights Templar began to fade. As the Templars were mainly used as an elite fighting force in the Crusades, the order began to fall apart." said Mrs. Redy, as she droned on and on about the Crusades and their effect on modern society.
My phone buzzed, and I carefully pulled it out of my pocket, unlocked it and looked at the screen.
"1 New Message" it said.
I sighed and looked at Katie across the room, shooting her a dirty look. She smirked at me back, but almost immediately turned back to the front.
"And that is why, Alex, we don't text in class!" Mrs. Redy said, causing the whole class to erupt in laughter. I looked over to Katie again, who shot me a look saying, "You idiot..."
"Kenny, where are we even going?" I yelled, as we sped down the highway on my brother's favourite motorcycle. Normally, at such speeds, we wouldn't have been able to talk to each other, but Kenny had had one of his friends install a radio in the helmets.
"We'll get there when we get there, in the meantime, let's talk," he said, "I know you have a lot of questions-"
"Damn right I do," I said, under my breath.
"-but you have to understand generations of us have worked to keep this a secret, from you, and the rest of the world. One day, you were supposed to know. But not like this." he said.
"Know what?"
"Alex, there was a reason Dad was so tough on us when we were kids. Mom would've been the same if she hadn't retired from the Order." Kenny said, swerving the motorcycle to avoid a large semi.
"Kenny, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Think about it Alex! You've been trained your whole life! " Kenny said ,his voice full of what sounded like pride but mixed in with sorrow.
I remembered all the activities my Dad made me do as a kid, and still continue with now. Kung Fu. Running. Climbing.
"Have you ever wondered why you could anticipate things before they happen?" Kenny said softly.
"How-?" I stuttered.
"Because I can do the same things." Kenny said, "But you're going to be better. Better than Dad, than Mom, better than me, better than ALL of us combined. Alex you're a third degree black belt and you're only seventeen! But why? Because you, Alex Lee-Nakanasa, are an Assassin."
I thought back to my fight with Ian Waldorf, and realized something. "He called me an Assassin!" I blurted out.
"Who?" my brother asked puzzled.
"Waldorf," I said in disgust.
"Son of a bitch, he knows," Kenny swore, "Did he say anything else?"
I shook my head and just asked, "But what does that mean...?"
"It means you are one of us, whether you like it or not! For hundreds, nearly thousands of years our family has kept the peace. We protect those who are innocent, and bring justice to those who deserve it." Kenny said, exiting the highway and entering one of the backroads.
He slowed a down a bit as the roads began to turn into gravel, and the trees began to thicken as we went deeper into rolling plains and scenery gave me time to think. Contemplate on what had just transpired over the past few hours.
Kenny eventually stopped his bike near what looked like an old, worn down farm. "Follow me." he commanded, "Keep your gun ready."
I nodded, then finally spoke. "So, us... Assassins. We just go around and kill people then? Did we kill JFK? Lincoln? Thomas D'Arcy McGee? And who were the guys back at home?"
"I'm not a historian-" Kenny began, but I interrupted him with a snort and mumbled, "Sure know a lot for someone who isn't a historian..."
"-and I'm not the one who is supposed to tell you all of this. Reagan will fill you in when we get inside." Kenny finished, as we waded through the sea of grass, towards the dilapidated farmhouse.
"And that's just what you think. There's so much more to this, even I don't know. And I know everything!" He added with a laugh.
I sighed and shook my head, typical Kenny, lightening up the mood with a few jokes.
The fields seemed to go on forever, the whole expanse was at least 200 meters long and wide, and was filled with tall brown grass. On the edges of the fields there were tall oak and birch trees in the surrounding area, where Kenny had left his bike.
The whole scene made for an incredible picture, the sun was setting at the perfect distance, the sky tinted orange with the black night creeping. The light from the setting sun cast a beautiful shadow on the farmhouse, which we continued to walk in silence towards.
Crack.
I whipped my head around towards the road which we came in and saw that Kenny's bike was gone. I thought I saw a tree branch rustle, but dismissed it as lack of sleep, and was about to turn back when suddenly a red laser appeared on my jacket, targeting my chest.
"Uh, Kenny?" I whispered, "Help me!"
"Shit." I heard him say from behind me. "They think you're the enemy. Drop your gun and hold your hands up high."
I did what he told me, and I saw his own hands fly up. But he had one finger on his wrist, the one with the knife, pressing a button that had a similar, if not the same, laser targeting system. He flashed it multiple times in a sequential order, as the one on my chest flashed along with it.
Kenny finally finished, then dropped his hands, and the light disappeared from my chest.
"Sorry, we have snipers posted in the trees. Step exactly where I'm stepping, look at my footsteps and step directly into them. Don't want you blowing up on your first day," he smirked.
He began to take a strange and windy path towards the farmhouse which was actually very nearby. We were in the middle of nowhere, and night was fast approaching, wolves and bears would be prowling soon enough, so getting inside was a priority.
"Instead of walking this way, why don't we just walk there?" I asked.
"We rigged the grounds so we wouldn't all get ambushed or something like that. Walking straight there would seem like the most obvious way to get there, the enemy wouldn't even see it coming." Kenny said, without taking his eyes off the path only he could see. "Let's see if you can figure it out little brother."
"How am I-?" I began to ask but Kenny had already ran towards the farmhouse, and before I knew it, he had disappeared into the night. "Of course you left me."
I looked for Kenny's footsteps, but I couldn't seem to find them as I was only following where he walked, not his actual footsteps.
"I could ask the snipers for directions..." I mused to myself, but then realized that was probably not the smartest idea seeing as they had just tried to kill me a few moments ago. I looked up to the sky, the stars were just starting to peek out of the clouds, but the moon was shining brightly in the night sky.
I searched my pockets for something, anything, that I could use to help me. I found a pebble that I had picked up earlier on my jog. I rolled it around in my hand then threw it a meter ahead of me.
The pebble landed safely on the grass several steps ahead of me.
"Huh. Maybe this will actually work. Ha, Kenny thought he'd left me behind," I chuckled to myself.
I took a step forward, taking my eye off of the pebble when the ground erupted. The force of a landmine exploding before you for the first time can't really be expressed until after your ass has been blown a few meters from where you stood. I noticed the burned dirt searing pain into my skin. Landing on the hard-packed ground felt much better by comparison, but I was still going to feel it in the morning.
I glanced around and saw Kenny laughing. I would have said something but my ears were ringing so loudly that I could barely hear what I was yelling at him. He disappeared into the sea of grass once more.
"Dammit." I said under my breath.
I needed another way over. But how? I closed my eyes and concentrated, then re-opened them and activated my ability. But everything was black. There was no sign of anything that could help.
I turned it off and swore under my breath. "This is so STUPID. Why couldn't Kenny just tell me what to do? But how did he get through?"
"Because I can do the same things!" Kenny said, "But you're better. Better than Dad, than Mom, better than me, better than any of us will ever be!"
"I'm better. What if there's more to my ability?" I thought to myself. I concentrated and turned it on again, everything turning black once more. "Come on..." I said clenching my teeth. I concentrated hard on finding the bombs in the ground, "Show me a path!" I yelled in frustration, and I saw a flicker of yellow in my peripheral vision.
I concentrated harder visualizing what I wanted. My vision flickered and when I opened my eyes again, there were multiple outlines of yellow in the grass, all identical rectangular shapes. They were also roughly spaced out very evenly.
"Gotcha," I said, and began to maneuver my way around the landmines. I looked up to the trees and saw blue silhouettes of people in equally separated trees. It took my less than five minutes to get around all the mines planted in the ground, and make it to the farmhouse.
The outside had dark wooden planks on it, but through the gaps you could see metal, and with my ability, you could see invisible lasers that went off when unauthorized personnel entered the building. The building itself was rather tall, taller than an average pine tree. The door looked normal except for the keypad near the middle. Other than that though, it looked like an old abandoned farmhouse.
"What is this place?" I wondered aloud.
"That my friend, is the Farm. Canadian Corps of course." I heard a voice, with a British accent from above. I saw a hooded man sitting on top of the barn, crouching. Behind him was a wind vane in the shape of an eagle. He leaped off and landed on his feet.
"How did you do that?" I asked sceptively.
"Basic high altitude landing technique, you'll learn it soon rookie," he said, "I'm Tom. And no, I don't have a last name, and yes, I'm from England. Now let's get inside. I could never understand how you Canadian's stand the cold nights."
"Its June..." I said. From up close, I noticed he was wearing an almost identical jacket as my brother, except the hood had blue and red stripes running down the 'beak' of the eagle.
"Just a bit of humor mate. But seriously, we gotta get inside, if you die, it's my ass on the line," Tom said, "Kenneth told me you already developed Eagle Sense. Even I only have Eagle Vision still. Lemme see you crack this code."
He gestured to the keypad, but I had no idea what to do. So I just blindly sat there staring at the pad, wondering what Eagle Sense even was
"Eagle Sense! E-a-g-l-e space S-e-n-s-e!" he said spelling it out for me, as if I was stupid. "Do you know what that is?"
I shook my head.
"Oh you idiot," Tom said under his breath, "That thing where you close your eyes, and then you open it and everything is trippy? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about now don't you?"
I rolled my eyes, but realized he was right. I turned on my ability, what he called 'Eagle Sense', and looked at the number pad. Certain numbers stayed the same, but some were finger printed red, and I knew that those were the keys I had to press. But in what order?
"Yes, what order shall you take?" Tom said laughing.
I ignored him and punched in 1,9,0,4 but that didn't work. I tried 4,0,1,9 but that didn't work either. "Come on..." I said, as I punched in 0,9,1,4 and the number pad made a beep, and the door went click.
"Congrats, third time's the charm." Tom said, and opened the doors.
The light from inside almost blinded me, the outside being so dark. But when my eyes adjusted I saw that the inside of 'The Farm' was totally different than what the outside looked like. First of all, the wooden doors on the outside were reinforced with steel, and by the looks of it, it was pretty thick.
The inside was the designed like a small airport hangar, I had seriously misjudged it's size. The roof had a few sunroofs which were ironically letting in moonlight, but most of the blinding white light that had blinded me earlier was coming from numerous flood lights installed on the ceiling.
]The building was filled with rows of computers large desks beside them. The whole left side and right side of the room were filled with them, leaving an open walkway leading to a spiral staircase going up and down. Almost every computer was filled with a person typing furiously or talking on a bluetooth head set.
At the far end of hangar was a gigantic screen that showed a world map, the background was black with the continents outlined in green. All across the map were scattered dots, some blue, some grey and some red. The biggest blue one was in what looked like South Dakota, and there was another blue dot right were Guelph was. Another blue dot was situated in Australia, and a few others in Europe. There was one blue dot each in Africa, South America and Asia.
But the blue dots were seriously outnumbered by the red dots, which were seriously outnumbered by the grey dots.
"Those are the fallen camps, the blue ones are the remaining ones. If you look in Dubai, that's where we used to have headquarters," I heard a familiar voice say from behind me.
I turned around and saw Kenny looking up at the screen, but he wasn't the only person. Beside him was an older white man, in his early fifties, the sides of his hair was greying, but other than that he was in shape. He laid a hand on Tom's shoulder.
"You asshole!" I yelled at Kenny, "You left me out there!" I punched him in the chest, but immediately regretted it as almost a dozen red light appeared on my chest again.
The man lifted his hand, and the lights disappeared, and turned to Kenny and shot him a stern look.
Kenny just shrugged his shoulders and laughed, "I told you you could make it kid, they say the fastest way to learn is on the job."
"That's enough Kenny," the man ordered, and turned me, "You must have a lot of questions. My name's Walker Thompson, I'm the Mentor around these parts."
"Mentor?" I asked puzzled. Walker's voice sounded vaguely familiar, as if I had known him in a distant past. They began walking towards the staircase and I followed suit.
"Rueben will explain everything. Except the Purge that's Walker's job," Kenny said, looking at Walker.
"December 1st 2000. The Great Purge. We lost so many, even the women and children. Many were my friends." Walker spoke with the type of sorrow I knew only came from a great tragedy. "Right after we had lost our Order's mentor, the Templars somehow found our bases, our camps, our homes! They killed them all."
Walker closed his eyes and a single tear fell down his face.
"Walker escaped by fighting his way through the Templar strike team. You're never going to find a better marksman than this guy right here," Kenny nervously laughed. "Come on, let's leave boss alone, I'm gunna introduce you to a friend."