Ever since he had read the adventures of Marco Polo, Hubert nurtured the secret dream of traveling overland to the valley of the Assassins, or valley of Alamut. "Overland" because that is the way Marco Polo reached this mystical place before moving on to China through Central Asia. 'Secret' because really nobody gave a damn. The valley of Alamut is where, towards the end of the 11th century, Assan-i-Sabbah, leading a small sect of Ismaili Muslims from frotresses isolated on unreachable mountain ridges in the Alborz range South of the Caspian, trained his army of Assassins. The myth has it that Hassan would drug his soldiers on Hashish before taking them for a few days to a secret garden with abundant wine and women, telling them that they were in paradise.