the-secret-crusade-oliver-bowden

stopped, catching his breath and gathering his thoughts as he looked
down upon it.
Altaïr had given Jabal a truncated version of his findings; he had
hidden his true feelings of disgust from the Bureau leader. He’d learned
that de Naplouse was Grand Master of the Order of the Knights
Hospitalier. Originally founded in Jerusalem – their aim to provide care
for ailing pilgrims – the Knights had a base in one of Acre’s most
deprived areas.
And there, according to what Altaïr had learned, de Naplouse was
doing anything but providing care.
In the Hospitalier district he had overheard two members of the
Order talking about how the Grand Master was turning ordinary citizens
away from the hospital, and the people were close to violence because of
it. One had said that he feared a repeat of a scandal that had taken place
at Tyre.
‘What scandal?’ his friend had asked.
The man had leaned in close to his companion to finish and Altaïr
had been forced to listen hard. ‘Garnier once called that city home,’ the
man had said, ‘but he was exiled. It’s said he was experimenting on its
citizens.’
His companion had looked a little sick. ‘What sort of experiments?’
‘I don’t know the details, but I worry … Has he begun again? Is that
why he locks himself away in the Hospitalier fortress?’
Later, Altaïr had read a scroll that he had pickpocketed from an
associate of de Naplouse. The Hospitalier had no intention of healing his
patients, he read. Supplied with subjects from Jerusalem, he was