Jameel started awake, breathing hard. Sweat stood out on his brow, rolling down from it to his shoulders. He looked around. The inside of the van was dark and vacant but for himself and Skandar, who lay clasped in his arms.
Skandar... He looked down at the Sparrow, brushing the hair back from his face.
"Wake up." Lex groaned, fingers tapping against his cheek. "Yallah. Wake up." Sighing, the younger immortal dragged his eyes open. "We're here."
"Right you are, chaps, and it's been bloody boring outside waiting for you to wake up," added Shaun as he swung the doors to the back of the van open from the outside. Beyond him, they could see squat houses, a Vespa, and one of those little European cars, as well as the gates to the walled village, complete with portcullis, which was shut. Above, the velvety, blue-black sky was sprinkled with a good helping of stars.
Well, someone still locks their doors, Lex thought as he climbed down quickly from Jameel's lap and out onto the bricks that made up the road beneath his feet. Once Jameel had dropped down beside them, the three, along with Desmond, Lucy, and Rebecca, made their way to the back of the Villa Auditore, which rose up before them.
After climbing over the fence that separated them from the back of the house--Lex needing a little help when his jeans' leg was caught on one of the decorative spikes that sat atop the fence--they walked toward the back of the building. Lucy and Rebecca went to the back doors to try them, but it was no good. They were shut from the inside, or so it seemed.
The girls conversed with Shaun on their best means of entry as Jameel, Desmond, and Lex looked toward the fencing. Behind it and the wall was a steep drop, they saw when the lightest of their little trio was lifted up onto the taller men's shoulders and peered over the edge. That was when they spotted the hole in the fencing. Rather, when Desmond spotted it.
The barkeep stared at the hole with rapt attention so that the Red Owl and Sparrow wondered if he saw something they didn't.
"Maybe a ghost?" Lex suggested in a hushed tone.
"Why are you whispering?" Jameel muttered, though a slight shiver rolled up his spine at the mention of ghosts. The Eagle crawled up the wall and called to Shaun, Lucy, and Rebecca, "Hey, I'll be back!" He spread his arms and jumped from the wall in a Leap of Faith.
Grinning, Jameel and Lex jockeyed for position atop the small edge in the wall, finally managing to stand side by side for a moment, fence digging into their shoulder blades before they too fell toward the pile of hay below. The bartender groaned as the others crashed down onto him, looking at them.
"It's not Haysley, Dessy," Lex joked. The older man took a swipe at him before Lucy dropped down to meet them. Jameel raised his head and looked up at Shaun and Rebecca.
"Are you two coming to join us?"
"Who? Us? Me? Nope, no, not happening," Shaun called. "I like to keep my feet firmly on solid ground, no exceptions, unless it's in a pressurized tube miles above the ea--" His last word became a scream as he dropped toward the hay, flailing his arms and legs. Gasping as he surfaced from the stuff, he yelled up at Rebecca, "Bloody wanker, coulda killed me! Idiot! Fine! Fine! You get the bloody truck this time!" Stomping out of the hay and picking some from his sweater-vest, Shaun marched after Jameel, Lex falling in beside him as they moved after Lucy and Desmond.
As they walked, the historian looked around, inspecting the underground system of levers, pullies, and the like that the group had to navigate to get anywhere in the labyrinth of caverns.
"The crypts should be around here somewhere," Jameel murmured to himself as they went, gasping as he dropped into a small underground lake of water. "Damn you, Ezio!"
"Owl got wet," Lex laughed. The Red Owl shot him one of his blizzard glares before swimming on after the man in the white hoodie. Lex dove in after him, Shaun grousing all the while as he splashed along behind.
The group climbed higher, up a series of steps and over a wooden platform system. Lex slowed as they came to a dirt track, looking off to one side. Jameel glanced that way as well before reaching back and taking the Sparrow by the wrist, leading him onward.
Finally, they found the end of the maze, pushing open the doors. Rubble lay strewn about the floor, but the statues were intact. Lex looked around the Sanctuary, the place he had left with Desmond from the Renaissance. The last place he had seen his little brother--now rumored to be alive and kicking just like Jameel, he reminded himself--the same village he'd left his elder brother, his blind elder brother behind.
Going up the nearby stairs, Lucy opened the door to let Rebecca inside. The group began to set up their equipment as Shaun took him to one side with Jameel and sat down on a trunk full of stuff. Desmond, meanwhile, told to keep his sticky fingers away from sensitive electronics, collapsed in a folding chair.
"I want to test out a little hypothesis," said Shaun. "I'm wondering, see, if only Desmond can go back--"
"I'm not going back again!"
"Oh, come off it, knobhead!" Shaun returned his attention to the two men. "Listen now, what if I went back with Lex? Maybe we can give that a try, hmm? See how it goes?"
"You realize that you'll be gone for a while over there, right?" Lex asked. "We stayed for about a year in Masyaf."
"Well, then, let's get going." Shaun stood up and looked around. "Everybody game?"
"Dessy might have to stand upstairs," said Rebecca. Lex grinned as Desmond frowned.
"Okay." Lucy clapped her hands together. "Desmond, Becca, upstairs with me. Shaun," she said, turning to the man, every inch business like. Her face softened very slightly as she looked at him. "Be careful, all right?" The man nodded, looking toward the others. Jameel hugged Lex tight to his chest, so hard Shaun wondered if he was trying to snap his back.
Jameel lowered him down, looking at him for a full minute--Shaun checked his watch after the first few seconds and kept time--before bowing his head and pressing his lips to his brow. He squeezed his hands between his own, kissing them as well before giving him another quick embrace, releasing him and striding up the stairs quickly.
Shaun looked toward Lex. Lex shrugged and pocketed his hands.
"Well? Is there anything I'll need? Papers, pencils, pens, duct-tape?"
"We usually bring just the stuff--oh, yeah, duct-tape. Please, bring that, I'm serious. Bring that." Shaun nodded and grabbed the roll of tape, picking up a messenger back and stuffing it in. Shaun shouldered the bag and looked at him expectantly. "What else do you have in there?"
"My tablet." Lex took out the tablet and set it on the desk.
"Take a journal. Pen and paper." Shaun nodded and picked up a leather-bound journal, putting it inside with a few pens. The two men went to stand beside Baby and looked at one another. "Well, here goes nothing." Lex reached toward Baby.
"Wait!" Shaun undid his belt and cinched it together with Lex's. "There. So we don't get separated."
"It's not Sliders, man, but if it makes you feel better..." Lex shrugged and twined their fingers as he grasped onto Baby.
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