Bad Ideas Make the Best Stories
(AC:B fanfic chapter 8)
„I can not believe this! I absolutely refuse to!" Lucia walked around in the small infirmary, repeating the same thing all the way, gesturing with her arms around her. In one corner of the room, there was Giordano sitting on a bed with; he had a drawn-out but peaceful expression on his face. He appeared to be mishandled really badly, going by the bruises on his cheeks and the fact that he couldn't sit straight, but he seemed to be keeping himself together emotionally which on the other hand could be contributed to the fact that he was in one room with the woman he had been missing for a very long time the opposite side, in the gloomy corner, there was an emotionally totaled Ezio, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest; he let out huge resigned sighs from time to time and absolutely refused to say a word or to act as a leader at the moment. He was the Mentor of a secret organization founded on an ancient belief-system, not a couple-therapist after all. Giordano looked at him a few times, but received not even a glance in response, so he decided to take matter into his own hands.
"Lucetta, caro" he said softly "We already heard that a couple of times, don't you think it's time to change the subject? After all, things are not that horrible as they seem now."
His attempt was to soothe the frantic woman, however, it achieved the completely opposite result. Lucia turned to the man, her face puffed up and turning red slowly.
"But of all the things, I can't believe, YOU are the most despicable, stronzo!" she screamed "You go and spend years on the other side of the world, doing God only knows what kind of dangerous mission and when you finally deign to drag your ass back home, you decide to infiltrate the palace of the Borgia's and let yourself get captured! Didn't you have enough fun abroad with that goofball of a brother of yours or are you just that desperate to die?"
"Lucia, darling, you know that's not the point. We received news that the Brotherhood is in disarray. It is only natural, that the senior and most capable members should take charge of the situation and take decisive steps... When we learned, that the spy was already transferred to the Castello, Octavio and I both agreed, that the matter needed to be handled quickly."
"It's the Castel Sant'Angelo for the Creeds sake, not a tavern, where you just barge in, ask for a beer and chat with the barman about the latest news! Even the Mentor had troubles getting out of there the last time..."
"Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't seem to worry about the abilities of Octavio when he said, he wanted to go on a mission on his own. Or did he receive preaching from you too? Are you two that close now?"
"Vaffanculo!"
"ENOUGH!" Ezio howled, losing his patience. His voice echoing long in the small, underground chamber.
"I swear to my sister's blade, if I have to listen to you two for one more minute, I'm going to bite my own veins open. Settle down, Lucia, I didn't call you here to watch you throwing a hissy fit. Get a grip! And you there, messer senior-and-oh-so-capable, had better shut your mouth before I ride a horse into it. I thought I was talking to a pair of adults, not nursing a couple of five year olds."
The assassins looked like a couple of scalded chicken after the words of their Mentor. Lucia muttered something then turned away and walked to the wall, her shoulders mildly shaking from emotion. Giordano looked up, sadness filling the big blue eyes.
"Apologies, Mentor. And to you, Lucia, you were right. I should have known better and talk Octavio out of this madness other than following him into it. I was careless."
"Whatever. I'm getting tired of hearing nothing but apologies. I'm also tired of watching my best men and disciples getting their asses whopped by the Borgia and their spies." Awkward pause followed his statement, until Giordano cleared his throat.
"I heard, the spy was hiding among our ranks and that they got in disguised as one of ours. The novice me and Bruno met also told me, that Octavio was a possible suspect, hence the reason I decided to go after him. Is that true? Is the identity of the spy revealed yet?"
Ezio took his time to answer the question, contemplating on how much he should say because, to tell the truth, he himself was still a little unclear at some points of the story.
"Well, what seems to be certain is that there are multiple impostors; they infiltrated the ranks of the assassins and were here for a short period of time. They were exposed and made to flea; one of them ran back to Cesare, the other disappeared in Roma, not even the thieves guild has managed to track him down since then. Apparently, this little rat later returned and attempted to steal from my office. He somehow got away again, and not so long ago, we had another break-in. A Borgia-guard stole a set of robes from one of the novices and disguising himself, he made it into the headquarters. This time, we finally managed to catch the guy and he's waiting to be questioned in my office right now."
"Talk about a busy day, huh boss?" Giordano remarked, smiling wryly.
"I say. It was the same guy, you met as a "novice" in town." said Lucia, turning towards the duo. Her face was still a bit red, but her voice sounded calm and collected. "He was the one, who tried to convince you, that Octavio is the traitor and then split you two up and used your brother to get into the headquarters. A little too sly for a simple guard, don't you think, caro?" Giordano felt like he just fell flat on his face.
"Okay, I admit. Things _are_ as horrible as they are looking right now." he said, recovering from the shock.
"Well, we can't just sit here, gawking at our stupidity." said Ezio, stepping up to them "We can't uncover all mysteries at once, so we're going to do it one step at a time. Giordano, hand me that letter!"
The assassin reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, crumbled piece of parchment and tossed it over to Ezio. The Mentor unfolded the letter, put it under the light and read it carefully, silently. When he finished, he simply uttered a long, thoughtful 'Hmmm' then hid the scrap of parchment in his pocket. The other two watched every movement intently, but Ezio's expressions remained unreadable. He didn't comment on what he'd just read and the assassins knew better than to pry.
"Interesting. This is case is certainly getting very intriguing." he said, mainly to himself. He then turned to his fellow assassins and stated the following "Let's not waste our time here. Our special guest is waiting for us in the other room. I want you all to be there with me, when I question him. Stay in the background though, he might be more willing to reveal things if we don't overwhelm him all at once with our presence."
"Very well. But don't go easy on him just because he might know something. For all we know, he could be the one standing behind this whole operation..."
"I highly doubt it, Lucia. No leader would be stupid enough to place himself into a situation where he could be exposed easily. Also, to me, the guy looks more like a dupe than a Templar mastermind."
"Very valiant of you, Mentor, to point out that we were deceived by a mere dupe. Yeah, that makes me feel better." Lucia said sarcastically. Giordano chuckled and quickly pulled the hood over his head to hide his amusement. However, Lucia did not seem to be hurt by the laughter, instead she flashed a smile. Ezio couldn't help but join them, a smirk appearing on his handsome features, which was followed by a dark, brooding glance. It was time to settle the scores.
Fabio sat tied to a chair in a small chamber which appeared to be an office; aside from the one chair, a table and a colorful carpet on the floor, the furniture consisted of nothing but books and bookshelves and boxes containing... books, for a change. Whoever was the owner of the place, didn't seem to feel the need to keep a strict order: the books were lying around in a chaotic fashion, stacked on top of each other, towering in the corners and next to the walls and some torn out pages lay on the floor all over the room. The only place in the chamber that didn't look completely run-down, was the table standing in the middle. Fabio only saw it for a couple of moments, when he was brought into the room; on the table, there were two maps lying atop of each other, one of them seemed to be an elaborate, hand-drawn plan of the city.
Aside from gazing around and analyzing the possible owner of the room, he didn't think much of his situation. Contrary his attitude earlier, when he was practically ready to fight the whole world, his mood took a 180 degree turn. He was apathetic and tired, so worn-out like never before; ironically, he also felt incredibly relieved. No more lies, no more having to watch his every movement or having to pick his words carefully every damned time he wanted to talk to someone. To think that he only managed to keep this game up for one day, he started to wonder, how some people are able to live their whole life doing the same thing every day. I guess, I'm just not the type. Maybe, that's why I'm just a guard. Or was. Ah, good times...
The door flung open unexpectedly, scaring the living lights out of the poor lad. Fabio was surprised he didn't hear the footsteps earlier although he had a good hearing. A tall man stepped over the threshold, the way he walked and held his head told Fabio, that he wasn't being honored by just anyone. The man stepped closer to him, taking off his hood whilst doing so, revealing the long, dark hair which he wore in a ponytail. Fabio immediately recognized the guy from the scar on the lips: it was the old man, he ran into earlier, the one who gave him such a scare at the time. And now, putting two and two together, he could also see, that he managed to run into no other man than the infamous Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Strangely enough, he felt a bit amused by the fact that he almost head-butted the leader of the most wanted secret organization in all of Italy. Well, okay, he was brutally amused.
"If you find it that entertaining, boy..." Ezio murmured, raising one eye-brow "...I can come into the room one more time."
Fabio realized, he was giggling and pulled a straight face quickly. Ezio stared at him long enough, it would have made a marble statue feel uncomfortable. After a minute or two - they seemed like centuries to the young man - Ezio looked away and walked to the other side of the room, where Fabio couldn't follow him with his gaze. He heard the rustling of paper, firm steps clattering on the wooden floor, which indicated that the man picked up some paper from the table. The young man grew impatient with every moment. If they were going to screw with him,why not just do it and be done with it? Why does everyone think, he would be more cooperative if they kept him waiting?
"Oh, I get it." Fabio said, breaking the silence "This is the part where you're trying to intimidate me, right? All that mysterious vibe, rumors about your abilities... it's all just show and eye-wash. I'm surprised guys like you, weren't..."
"...captured earlier by guys like you, right?" Ezio murmured into his ear at close quarters. Fabio almost jumped out of his pants; his white-lipped expression made the older man smile. Again, Fabio was completely unaware of how and when did the assassin creep up next to him.
"Well, now, don't look so panicky all of a sudden. Keep going. I like it when my suspects get all sassy and play the smart-ass, it makes the interrogations so much more entertaining."
"I... uh... eheh... You're not going to kill me then?" Fabio heard his own voice trembling, when he got to the last part of the sentence.
"No. Ironically, that would be a very unprofessional act on my part. You see, my job isn't just killing people; my job is to kill those people and those only, who would threaten the freedom and peace of humanity."
"Right. You're not just a murderer then. You're a lunatic."
"I can see, you're not one for philosophy. Don't worry, I'm not here, to bore you with those crappy guidelines by which we operate. Can you read?"
"Eh... Yes, I can."
"Good. Take a look at this." Ezio said, then held up a piece of parchment so that the young man could read it. It was a hand-written letter, not very long and hastily put together. Fabio looked at the message for a long time, reading it over and over again, but couldn't figure out, why it would be important to him at all. He looked at Ezio, confused and puzzled.
"This was written and sent by Cesare... well so they say, I don't see his signature here. Also, the man, who brought it - one of my men, you have met him earlier - said that they just put it into his hand, saying it was written by Cesare Borgia, then tossed him out onto the docks. He didn't see the man writing it, nor did he speak to him."
"So? Do you think it's a fake?"
"I don't know, honestly. But then again, after the events of today, I'm not even sure whether I prefer women anymore or that the grass is still green..."
"I don't like, where this is going. Also, what do you except from me here?"
"Information."
"About what? Look, I don't what you're expecting here. I'm just a regular, low-level guard. I'm a nobody, a nonentity, ground trooper number 3, a mouth breather - not someone you would entrust with political secrets. All I do is patrol the streets and obey whatever order is given to me."
"Exactly. You know, it puzzled me too, but the more I thought about it, the more it started to make sense, why they would put you up for a job like this. I'm not saying, that I'm clear on all the details of the plan, but if I were to infiltrate the secret hide-out of an even more secret organization of professional killers and spies... I wouldn't go myself. I would send someone, who is skilled enough to do the task but doesn't know too much."
"But... You did infiltrate the Castello yourself once..." It was Ezio's place to look shocked.
"You know about that?"
"Everyone in the army knows. Cesare was furious, when he learned about it. Threw a royal fit. Heads rolled afterward and now, the court is so overcome by paranoia, not even a fart can be released silently without the immediate order of the man himself. Nobody wanted apply to a post there since then..."
No wonder, even Octavio couldn't make it out of there. The place must be swarming with guards. This is important. Ezio thought, but to the outside, he seemed completely indifferent.
"Anyway..." Ezio began.
"Anyway?"
"Yes, anyway, I'm sorry."
"About what?"
"About what I'm going to do. This little note here is basically an invitation. You read it yourself, what does it say?"
"Well, whoever wrote it, wants you to take the spy, who infiltrated the Brotherhood to the ruins of Terme di Traiano and exchange him to the assassin being held captive at the Castello. What about it?"
"Here's what is going to happen: I want to save my man's life (who, if I may add, was sent by you into that place) so I'm going to accept the invitation and show up at the meeting spot."
"And do what? You don't have the man they are looking for!"
"But I have you, my slow-witted friend."
It took a few moments for the penny to drop; Fabio's eyes opened up wide, then narrowed, his glance gleaming with increasing fury.
"You. Wouldn't."
"I would. And I will."
"You will never get away with this! Nobody's going to believe you and I will tell them everything about you! I will expose all your schemes and have you hunted down by the Borgia's dogs!"
"Dogs have nothing on wolves, ragazzo. Don't worry though, I know for a fact that you - even though you're sitting at the center of it - don't even know the whereabouts of our headquarters. Whatever you may have learned, I'm sure we can cover up no problem, thanks to our able allies throughout the cities underground. So you're little attempt - ambitious it may have been - was a failure, but do try and look at the bright side. Getting handed over to your fellows as a hostage is slightly better, than getting a dip in the Tiber with a rock tied to your sandals. Right?"
Ezio beamed at the guy, patted him on the shoulder hard, then got up from next to him and left the room silently, leaving Fabio to his thoughts and raveling emotions.
/Hurrrrr, that sure took longer than planned. Next chapter can be expected in December, until then, my life is pledged to university projects. Have a good one! :)/
