the-secret-crusade-oliver-bowden

13
‘Garnier de Naplouse is dead,’ he had told Al Mualim, days later.
‘Excellent.’ The Master had nodded approvingly. ‘We could not have
hoped for a more agreeable outcome.’
‘And yet …’ started Altaïr.
‘What is it?’
‘The doctor insisted his work was noble,’ said Altaïr. ‘And, looking
back, of those who were supposedly his captives, many seemed grateful
to him. Not all of them, but enough to make me wonder … How did he
manage to turn enemy into friend?’
Al Mualim had chuckled. ‘Leaders will always find ways to make
others obey them. And that is what makes them leaders. When words
fail, they turn to coin. When that won’t do, they resort to baser things:
bribes, threats and other types of trickery. There are plants, Altaïr –
herbs from distant lands – that can cause a man to take leave of his
senses. So great are the pleasures they bring that men may even become
enslaved by them.’
Altaïr nodded, thinking of the glazed patients. The crazy man. ‘You
think these men were drugged, then? Poisoned?’
‘Yes, if it truly was as you describe it,’ Al Mualim said. ‘Our enemies
have accused me of the same.’
Then he had given Altaïr his next task, and Altaïr had wondered why