"The only thing I am relatively certain of in any of this," Altaïr said, his voice heavy with the quiet that only an instructor could manage, "is that something is at play which none of us can fully fathom. It seems that in part, most of us have some sort of experience with this, whatever it may be, but not in this exact fashion, and likely not with this exact means. Yet one thing, in my experience, remains true:

"All of this must be treated with caution. Costs and outcomes will remain unknown until it is too late for anything to be done about them."