Assassin's Creed: Outlaw - Book One

Out Of The Animus

"Bingo!" Drake's voice. "Did you see that? Incredible!"

"What the fuck-?!" I cried out. It was like waking up from a really intense nightmare, coming out after such a long period in the animus. Also, well, zombies... or so it seemed.

"This is what we ripped from Abstergo's servers before they did a purge," Drake said. "There was some business with another splinter 'The Instruments of the First Will'. They got into one of Abstergo's facilities and nearly got away with a whole bunch of stuff. They covered the incident up pretty quickly after it happened. Anyway, it just so happens that Zeke set up a data jack on that server farm by coincidence about a month before it all got blitzed."

"They destroyed the information? Why?" I asked.

"They probably have more backups," Drake waved a hand, dismissing the issue. "There's quasi-mystical mumbo-jumbo conspiracy chatter flying about the place. This, though, this is mind-blowing."

"The zombies," I said. Somebody had to.

"Not zombies," Drake said. "Drones, animated corpses but controlled technologically. Making super soldiers out of dead ones."

"That's just creepy," I said.

"Agreed," Zeke cut in. He'd appeared at the door. "I take it we have some information."

"We have confirmation that you're not a total nutcase," Drake said. "No locations yet."

"Then, no offence," Zeke said. "Why are we sitting around."

"Yughi took a heavy blow," I answered. "It seemed to jog me out of the animus."

"His readings were hot, really hot," Drake said. "We need to give him at least half an hour."

"Half an hour it is then," Zeke said. "Then we get on with it. We need to find the tech."

"So... what?" I said. I was used to all eyes being trained on me now. This was nothing new. "I mean... What do we do when we find the zombie tech? We destroy it, right?"

"Right," Zeke said. "What else would we do with it?"

"More importantly," Drake added, "what would Abstergo do if they got to it first? They wouldn't destroy it. Would they?"

"They certainly wouldn't," Zeke said. "So, I take it we're all on the same page now."

At that point, I could have said a lot of things. Since walking around in Yughi's head for a while I had learned more than I could have guessed. I could feel the latent reflexes of the assassin, waiting for me to train them up. I could sense things with the eagle vision, a sensory power I hadn't known anything about a week ago. I had also learned things about human beings, and perspectives, and beliefs and right and wrong.

Last week I wasn't a good guy or a bad guy, I was a nothing guy. Then the bad guys had tried to kill me and the good guys had rescued me. Then it turned out the good guys weren't so good. More the less-bad guys. Then I discovered I had a long-lost older brother. Then I discovered he wasn't definitely the good guys either. In fact, I was beginning to doubt there even were any good guys.

So in this world of bad guys and worse guys, the last thing you wanted to do was make your own agenda plain. Maybe Zeke and Drake wanted to destroy some bad stuff and stick it to the Templars. Maybe they were assassins. Maybe they were lunatics. Maybe Zeke intended the best but Drake was waiting to sell him out. Maybe, and this was a possibility brother or no, it was the other way round.

I couldn't really know who to trust. I couldn't really hope to know the truth. After all, nothing was true. Anyone of these people I was surrounded by could save my life or kill me, at any time. I didn't need to be helping them along the road to their own personal decisions. Hell, who knew, maybe I would spot an opportunity for exit and take it. Then I would have to work out my own agenda. Maybe I would re-establish the Assassins Order from scratch with my own two hands. After all, everything was permitted.

Before any of that, though, I would have to walk a few more miles in the shoes of my ancestor. I needed to know more. My own genetic history was the only way to acquire the knowledge. That, at least, was something everyone could agree on.

END OF BOOK ONE