"So, Miss Crane. What news from the enemy?"

There were five people in the war room. At the head of the table was the man who had spoken, the venerable Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood: William Miles. On his left sat Stacey Russ, and next to her, Spencer Vermaak. Colin McCorquodale was on the Mentor's right side, and it was next to him that Rebecca Crane took a seat, having just returned from Montreal. "Where's Desmond? The stuff I found out kinda concerns him."

"How so?"

Rebecca fidgeted for a few seconds. "You sure we can't get him in here before I tell you?"

"Miss Crane," William said, giving her a disapproving glare. "Have you forgotten he's just given birth?"

"Yeah, he and Andy are gettin' some much needed shut-eye," Colin informed her, with the same casual air that infused all his speech. "Whatever it is, we can fill him in later."

Rebecca's posture slumped a little. "All right... They have his DNA."

There was silence all around for a couple of seconds before Spencer asked, "What exactly are you saying?"

She exhaled heavily. "After they kidnapped him, Abstergo took blood samples."

Stacey nodded. "Right, their doctors ran a chem profile before clearing him to be used in their Animus program."

"Well, that's not the only thing that they used his blood for."

"Ag, stop beating around the bush and tell us whatever it is already!" snapped Spencer.

"They've figured out how to see his genetic memories without him being there," Rebecca said, the words almost running together.

Now there was silence for five full seconds while everyone was processing the implications of this breakthrough.

Stacey was the first to speak again. "I think it's best we don't tell him just yet."

Rebecca was puzzled. "Huh?"

"Something like this is likely to stress him out immensely. He's already going to be dealing with Andrew, as well as recovering physically from childbirth, so he does not need any additional stressors."

William rubbed his forehead. "Hm. Yes. As much as I don't want to keep this from him, Ms. Russ is correct," he admitted.

"So we're gonna pretend like nothing's going on?" Spencer thundered. "You gotta be kidding."

"We'll pretend nothing's going on for now," William specified, then turned back to Rebecca. "Are there any immediate concerns at Entertainment? Things that need to be acted on quickly?"

"I don't think so. They've only just started looking into Edward's life."

"Whose life?"

"Ah, Edward Kenway. That's the ancestor they're researching right now."

"Kenway," Spencer repeated. "That sounds familiar. Why does that sound familiar?"

Colin, ever the know-it-all, instantly piped up. "Eddie was Haytham's father. Born 1693, died 1735. He was a sheep farmer, privateer, pirate, and Assassin, in that order. And apparently he's involved in something the Templars want their hands on. And that something is?" He turned to Rebecca.

"Well, I don't know what it's called," she held up her thumb and fingers a few inches apart, "but it's a little square glass deal about yea big with a red blob inside."

Abruptly, William's eyes became more focused and he leant forward. "A Blood Vial?!"

Rebecca seemed a tiny bit scared by the man's intensity. "Uh, it's more a cube than a vial, but, yeah, I suppose the red blob could be blood."

He pursed his lips, contemplating. "So the Order is still interested in those. We thought they'd abandoned the Observatory idea. We thought they were using the NSA et al as a modern replacement."

"Observatory?" Spencer queried.

"First Civilization facility, said to contain a mechanism allowing the user to spy on anyone anywhere, provided that a sample of the target's DNA is placed within one of the Blood Vials."

"Shit."

"Yes, 'shit' is quite apt, Mr. Vermaak. If the Observatory still exists and they find it, then clearly the first thing they'll do is use it with Desmond's DNA to find out where he is. Where we are."

There was another long silence. Each of the five Assassins was thinking the same thing: that they could not, under any circumstances, allow that to happen.

Eventually, Spencer spoke again. "How do we know this intel is trustworthy?" he asked warily. "It's been provided by an Abstergo employee. It could be bogus, could be meant to fool us into thinking they're still able to see Desmond's ancestors, thinking they're on the trail of this Observatory."

"So they're tryin' to psych us out?" Colin asked.

"I wouldn't put it past them."

"I don't think that's likely," said William, shaking his head. "The employee who dug this intel up for us has no idea why she was asked to, no idea who she's handed it over to."

"You can't know that for sure, Bill," Spencer insisted. "Could be Shaun's cover is already busted and they're just using our op to feed us misinformation. Could be their real plans are something completely different and they want us to waste our limited manpower on-"

William cut him off. "I see your point. But there's nothing concrete we should be spending manpower on yet anyway. We don't know how close they are to finding the Observatory, or where they've got their stash of Blood Vials. So we can't make any moves yet, no matter if this intel's correct or not." He fixed his steely gaze on Rebecca. "So, Miss Crane. They're looking into Desmond's ancestry without Desmond himself. Could you modify our Animus to give us this same capability?"

She flashed a brief but eager smile. "I knew you'd ask that, and I've already got a couple ideas on how we might be able to. It'll be a challenge, but I'm raring to go, Bill."

"Good. Make that your absolute top priority. And collaborate with the other cells; pool your knowledge to get this done as fast as possible. If Desmond's ancestor knew the location of the Observatory, we've got to beat Abstergo to the punch on it.

Colin raised a hand. "Maybe Johnny-boy could be persuaded to leak us some of Abstergo's code. So's we don't gotta work from scratch."

William nodded. "Yes, that would be a boon. Whatever we need to do to ease things up for Desmond. He's spent more time in the Animus than any other person alive." The last word was a purposeful nod to Clay Kaczmarek. "I'd like him to never have to go in again."

Rebecca's smile was gone, replaced now by a thoughtful expression. "Do you think his genetic memories are still intact?"

Spencer looked at her quizzically. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"His DNA changed since he got pregnant, remember?"

"Yeah, man," said Colin. "Seahorse genes, or summat like that."

"So there's a possibility the Edward Kenway part of his genome was replaced with the instructions for making a baby," Rebecca explained.

"Ag. We're really screwed if that's the case. We'd hafta mount a mission to steal some of the pre-pregnancy sample they've got. And they're sure to have a metric ton of security on it."

"All the more reason to not mention any of this to Desmond," William said, "At least not for now. Not until we have more information, some plan of action."

And so it was agreed that this news would be kept from Desmond for the time being.