YAY CHAPTER EIGHT! :D I have another chapter to post tonight too, aren't you lucky! :D OH, and chapter ten is where everything unfolds. Promise. ;D
And of course thanks to SchmEthan for his beta'ing, and reminding me that there can still be happy in this most difficult time of my life right now.
Enjoy! :D


13th of April, 2012. Scotland.

Have you ever sat and watched an ant's nest? If you haven't, do; it's frightfully engaging. Try and keep track of one ant amongst its swarming brethren, and it's not too long before you loose sight of it, is it?

Take the metaphor and apply it to the one thousand Abstergo employees who were screamed at by their superiors to haul ass down to the hub. A hundred computer workers filtered out from their bedrooms that were really no more than cubicles and were cramming themselves down a corridor. A very small and very narrow corridor. And in amongst the swarm was one worker who looked slightly battered and with a glistening bracelet around her wrist. She was bright enough to realise that the time for escape was now. She'd been marched up the corridor by guards occasionally, and she'd noticed a small side door leading off somewhere. The workers were converging past it, and she'd have to think quickly.

Rebecca Crane wasn't a fully trained Assassin – the Brotherhood hadn't needed her to be, they just needed her to be good at computers. But they gave her the basic training so that she could be quick on her toes – and now was that time as she was crushed between two gorilla-like gentlemen. She bit back the foul language that threatened to spill out, and got thinking. They were the big bruiser type – and quite ginger. Scotsmen through and through.

Hmmm.

She made herself scarce, and the group of workers surged on – and, quite suddenly, the Scotsman on the right suddenly felt a very sharp tug on his belt. Before he had time to comprehend it, he was toppling into the Scotsman on the left, who threw up his hands on an impulse.

'Watch it!' he said as he pushed the huge hulk of a man away. And the hulk of a man came to a quick conclusion.

'You grabbed my belt, you poof!'

'You what?'

'You grabbed my belt! Been eying me up, have 'ya?'

'Fuck off!'

And with that, a big fist connected with the other Scotsman's jaw with an audible crack. He staggered backwards, and with the blood of ancestors roaring within him, swung another punch, and dived on the other man when it connected. Cries rose up from the dismayed workers as the two men pulled each other to the ground, and everyone was too busy either watching the fight or trying to sidle past it to notice the door at the side open and close in the space of a second.

With all the workers outside the nest, no one knew what was going on inside, and that left Shaun all the time he needed. He'd smashed his way into the cabinet in McDonald's office, found the toolbox that the arsehole had apparently thought his office should have, and set to work after clearing the desk of its computer and other valuable contents with one slightly spiteful sweep of an arm. The said computer sparked sadly to itself on the floor as Shaun focused on his project – the deadline for which was any second now.

With his wrist facing upwards on the desk so his manacle gleamed up at him, Shaun delicately placed the object that he'd spirited away from McDonald's computer when McDonald was too drunk to notice him with a pair of pliers on the thin strip of glowing plastic. It was a computer chip – and it had the master code for every electronic device in TORCHWOOD 6.2. Except for the Animus – that and Desmond were on a whole different kind of network. Moving carefully, Shaun put the pliers in his mouth and bit down on them to keep them in place as he reached for the soldering gun that he'd left plugged in for a minutes, the lead only just reaching the edge of the table, and he froze when footsteps pounded outside the door. His heart leapt in his mouth when they grew closer, but when they started fading it was an effort to kick start himself again. He snatched the soldering gun and gently applied it to the chip.

'Please...' he murmured to himself. 'Oh God, please...'

Sometimes, prayers are answered. There was a spark, and the manacle snapped open, its glow fading. 'Yes!' Throwing the soldering gun aside and not giving a toss about where it landed, he rubbed his wrist where the skin was clammy after months of wearing that wretched thing and began to form a rough agenda in his head.

Find Rebecca. Get out. It sounded good – and Shaun threw open the door to McDonald's office and legged it down the blinding white corridor.

Fate has a really funny way of doing things. Rebecca Crane was dashing down a corridor with no idea where she was going, but Fate had simply decided that it was a corridor that led on to a corridor where the Boss's office was located. Fate had also decided that Shaun should leg it left instead of right. The reasons why were unclear, but the result was this – Shaun and Rebecca collided into each other at a hundred miles an hour as they both turned the same corner, and Fate – satisfied – left them to it.

'Rebecca!'

'Shaun! What happened – are you alright!'

'Am I alright! What about you the other day! Rebecca, I'm so sorry – '

'I'm fine – shit, your glasses! We gotta' get out of here!' She'd reached up to touch Shaun's glasses and her fingers had brushed his skin – and Shaun grabbed her hand in the hope she wouldn't notice the blush rising to his face.

They stared at each other.

'It's so good to see you,' Shaun said, without realising he'd said it until the last word reached his ears. It was true though – even though the sight of her black eye and torn lip was enough to make him want to rip the throats out of the bastards who'd done that to her, it was just so good to see her again – to touch her. His heart had really needed the kick start it was getting then.

'You too,' she said, and she smiled back at him. He found himself grinning stupidly, and he laced his fingers with hers.

'Come on,' he said, and turned away to run up the corridor, holding the hand of a girl he'd fancied for a while and out of this place to freedom. We'll find the Assassins here, Shaun thought, and we'll rescue Desmond and Lucy, and we'll contact TORCHWOOD and they'll take care of everything. We'll be just –

'Why hello there!'

Shaun's heart stopped all over again. His eyes travelled from face to face. Two huge body guards. The leering weasel face of McDonald. And in front, the quisitive little smile of Warren Vidic. Shaun's face went steely, and he gripped Rebecca's hand tighter. He was of the opinion that Rebecca wasn't scared of anything until he felt her squeeze his hand twice as harder.

Vidic's smile widened into a grin.

'So glad you could join us.'


Aw man. D: MUCH LOVE.