Chapter 4: Abstergo

It was five in the morning when my phone started chiming, pulling me out of a peaceful sleep. I reached over and tapped on the screen to silence it before sitting up and looking next to me. Rebecca's eyes fluttered open and she yawned quietly. We had continued to sleep in the same bed ever since we shared a kiss two days ago. That moment had changed things for me, for both of us actually. I no longer felt shy or unsure about my feelings for her. I felt confident and comfortable. I felt happy, happier than I could ever remember feeling before. I didn't feel like getting up, it had been such a good night's sleep and I didn't want it to end, but today was the day. It was the day that I was going to Abstergo, the day that I started my next undercover mission. For some reason, I did not feel nervous at all. I was ready for it and knew that with Rebecca at my side that I would be fine. Her and I could take on anything.

I smiled at Rebecca as I stood up. She was still laying on her side but had closed her eyes again. I knew that she was still awake though. Rebecca was like this whenever she had to wake up early. She had never been a morning person in the time that I had known her. Not that I could blame her on that, I generally hated mornings as well. This morning was different though, I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me. I was ready, all I needed was coffee.

"I can sense you staring at me," Rebecca said sleepily, and her mouth turned into a small smile, which made me smile.

"Coffee," I said simply as I leaned down and nudged her shoulder playfully.

"Mmmm," Rebecca replied and opened her eyes to look at me. "You know the way to a girl's heart." Rebecca yawned once more as she sat up, the blankets falling down from her body revealing her loose fitting band shirt that she had fallen asleep in. The sight sent a tingling feeling coursing through my body, but I shook it off. There was no time for anything this morning. Not that anything had actually happened between Rebecca and I yet. I wanted something to happen, but the timing had just not felt right yet.

I dug through my ratty looking dresser and pulled out a black formfitting polo shirt and a pair of jeans. I had been told that while Abstergo didn't have any kind of work uniform, it would still be expected of me to dress nicely. Unfortunately, most of my wardrobe was not considered "nice" in a professional environment. Luckily for me, Rebecca had anticipated this and had bought me some clothes; not only for colder weather, but for working as well.

After a quick shower, I got dressed and was ready to go. Rebecca was waiting for me in the room after I finished. She had already gotten dressed, having taken a shower last night. What she wore was much the same as what I was wearing, and I was instantly reminded of couples that I used to make fun of for matching their outfits. I could give the two of us a pass though, since it was for work. Rebecca gave me a quick kiss and walked out of the room as I followed behind her.

Shaun was sitting at the small kitchen table when Rebecca and I walked down. He looked up from his tablet, which looked to be streaming a football match and smiled at us. "How's the happy couple this morning?" He asked in a teasing voice. Shaun had been teasing both Rebecca and I about it since we came back from having coffee a couple of days ago.

"Sounds like someone's jealous," I said to Rebecca and she laughed softly as she sat down at her usual spot at the table. Though my comment was meant to be poking fun at Shaun, part of me did kind of believe that he was indeed slightly jealous. I knew that Rebecca and Shaun had known each other for a long time and were close. Rebecca had told me once that she had actually taken a bullet for Shaun. She had suspected that Shaun did have feelings for her at one point, but Rebecca never felt the same. She had also told me about her past in terms of romance, and I too was honest with her about my nonexistent romantic past. It wasn't that I never found myself attracted to anyone before Rebecca, it was just more the fact that I had not ever been interested in being in a relationship. I never trusted anyone like that before.

We were only at the table for a few minutes before Shaun headed down to the basement to check in with another team of Assassin's and to try to dig up some more information on the artifact that we were searching for. Rebecca and I headed out into the frigid morning air, both of us putting on coats and slipping knit hats down over our ears. Semi dark clouds hung high in the sky overhead, threatening to start dumping a fresh snowfall on our heads. I took Rebecca to the same coffee shop that she had taken me to a couple of days ago. This time however, there was no line coming out the door. It looked like they had just opened for the day. I walked inside with Rebecca and ordered a peppermint latte for each of us and handed the sleepy looking man at the counter some cash.

The bus stop that we needed was directly in front of the coffee shop. Two other people were waiting for the bus. Both were bundled up, but one of them did not have any kind of face shield on and I could only hope that he was not going to be the type of person to give the poor driver, who was already putting his health on the line, a hard time about wearing one.

It was a few minutes before the bus arrived, and just as I had been worried about, the maskless man did indeed harass the poor driver about it. The driver, I noticed, refused to be bothered or intimidated by the anti-mask asshole though. He simply told the man that unless he put one on that he would not be allowed on the bus. When the man refused once more, the driver simply closed the door and drove off, leaving the now fuming man standing on the icy sidewalk. I know that I probably should have felt bad about someone being left out in the freezing cold like that, but I just didn't. It was his own stupidity that caused it.

Rebecca and I took seats near the back of the bus. It was mostly empty and the people that were on it were all two or more rows apart from each other. It was a short ride to where Rebecca told me that we needed to get off and walk. I could see the building from where we got off of the bus. It was a towering building about a block away. The Abstergo logo hung about halfway up and I simply gazed at it. It was starting to set in that I was about to walk into a building that was nothing more than a cover for the organization that would love to see me killed.

Rebecca must have sensed my slight nervousness because she took my hand and squeezed it gently. "You'll be fine," she said. "Just remember that I am with you."

Her words brought me great comfort. I knew deep down that I would be fine. Rebecca had gone over with me multiple times what we would be doing, and though there was always danger in infiltrating the actual company that the Templars had, it sounded like it would be minimal danger unless we blew our cover, which I had zero plans to do.

We walked the block at a brisk pace and in what seemed like no time at all, Rebecca and I were directly in front of Abstergo, staring at the doors that led inside.

Rebecca led the way through the doors and stopped at what looked to be a checkpoint just inside the building. "New hire," she said to the man who held out a thermometer to check our temperatures.

The man nodded and scanned my forehead. My body temperature was somewhat low, but I attributed that to the extreme cold outside. He waved the two of us through and welcomed me in his gruff voice. His accent was unfamiliar to me and I guessed that he was originally from an area near Boston. As I walked past him, I noticed that he had a few weapons strapped to his waist. A steel baton, much like the one that I had at the house, hung from one side of his belt while a holstered gun was attached to his other side. The sight of the gun made me nervous. I had seen too many stories of mass shootings over my life to be comfortable around them. Not to mention the almost daily shootings near where I had grown up.

I followed Rebecca past the checkpoint into a large open entryway. Looking up, I could only be amazed at how high the ceiling was and this was only the first floor of the building. A large indoor garden was fenced in near the very center of the entryway and a massive looking glass elevator was off to the right. People were already standing around waiting for it to get to the bottom. I could only imagine what the view of the city would look like from the very top. Rebecca gently took my hand and led me to the left, through tightly packed rows of small tables and chairs and opened the door to a large, polished wooden booth. Inside was a long steel countertop with multiple coffee makers on it and one device that looked to be used for steaming milk for cappuccinos. A miniature fridge held various types of milk, everything from whole to skim, and coconut and almond milk was available. Plastic containers, all marked with the Abstergo emblem contained packs of sugar and other sweeteners.

"Welcome to work," Rebecca said smiling as she opened an overhead cabinet and pulled down a heavy looking sack of coffee beans. "You're going to be bored, that much I can promise you." She let out a soft laugh which made me smile.

She showed me how to properly grind the beans and start the coffee brewing. The machines were much more complex than what I was used to at home, but I picked up on it quickly. Rebecca may have said that I was going to be bored, but I was personally just excited to be out of a house and see people, even if they were my sworn enemy. It was strange times indeed.

A couple of minutes later, more people started pouring into the building from the frigid outside. The smell of fresh coffee was wafting through the whole of the first floor of the building, and it smelled amazing. People were instantly drawn to it and soon enough a small line was forming as people came looking for their morning caffeine fix. Rebecca showed me how to use the milk steamer and soon enough I was pouring and handing out all manner of coffee concoctions like I had been doing it my whole life.

The line dwindled down, and people were sitting at the small tables, talking amongst themselves and discussing the ongoing pandemic. I managed to catch a few words that caught my attention. An older man in a midnight blue suit had mentioned a staff and I smiled and glanced at Rebecca when I caught the words New Orleans. Yeah, that was us, I thought to myself and straightened my face. We were right here, and they had no idea.

After the morning rush died down and the tables emptied as the Templars set off to do whatever they did in this giant building, I began to see why Rebecca said that it would be boring for the most part. We saw very few people after that. And the ones we did see were normally passing by at a quick pace, talking in hushed tones, not wanting to be overheard.

Throughout the day, I drank more coffee than was probably advisable, but I simply looked at it like this: I was in a building full of people who would probably kill me or Rebecca with a smile on their face if they knew who we were; the least I could do was to mooch as much of their coffee as I could handle, plus it was pretty damn tasty as well.

The most interesting parts of the day by far, at least for me, was the bathroom breaks. Rebecca and I would take it in turns and we would be gone for sometimes a half an hour or longer. She had given me a brief layout of the building and whenever I would take one of those breaks, I would sneak up the stairs and skulk around in corners or shadowy hallways, hoping to hear something that would be of use to Rebecca and Shaun.

When the day was over, Rebecca smiled at me as we walked out of the Abstergo building. It was as uneventful as she predicted and at times I was bored as she had told me that I would be.

So, what do you think?" She asked me as my hand rested in hers as we waited for the bus to come take us to our temporary home.

I thought for a moment before responding. "I just wish that I could have found something out useful."

Rebecca smiled at me and squeezed my hand gently. "We've been at this for several months now, and neither Shaun nor I have found out anything remotely useful so far," she said as the bus door opened and we stepped on out of the cold. "Besides," Rebecca continued on as we took a seat next to each other, "I think that you'll have more luck than me. It's one of the reasons that I called you up here so urgently. I think they are starting to suspect that I might not be who I say that I am…" She thought for a moment before speaking again, "Well that and I just kinda missed you like crazy."

It was a good thing that my mask covered my cheeks, because I could feel my face turning bright red. I wasn't sure that I would ever get used to that feeling I had around Rebecca, but I never wanted it to stop. She made me feel all kinds of warm inside despite the sub zero temperatures outside.

Over the course of the following week, I continued to accompany Rebecca to Abstergo every morning. A few days into my working undercover, I was presented with a glossy Abstergo ID card for me to wear. Rebecca warned me to never keep it on my person outside of the building because she was almost positive that they had a microscopic tracking chip embedded in it. The job was proving to be just as boring as Rebecca had joked about it being. Each morning we prepped and served coffee to both high and low ranking Templars and listened in as they talked about anything and everything except what we were hoping to hear.

One night as I was lying in bed with Rebecca, her arm wrapped around me as we watched a movie together, she looked over at me and smiled. "You're going to be on your own at Abstergo the day after tomorrow, Maddie," she said turning to lay on her side and facing me.

"What?" I asked and my heart began to pump even harder than it already was. Rebecca and I had both agreed to take tomorrow off and try to do something together since we both had been so busy, but this was the last thing that I expected to hear.

She must have sensed my slight nervousness because she smiled and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead. "Yeah," she said with that small smile of hers, "I'm gonna be staying here for a few days to try to help Shaun do a little more digging into whatever this artifact is. He thinks we are getting close."

I took a deep breath to steady myself. This would be the first time that I would be truly working solo on something since I had been introduced to the Assassin Brotherhood. The closest that I had come before this was the recon missions that I had done in New Orleans, but even then, Rebecca and William had been close by. "If you think I am ready to fly solo," I said softly, "I promise to not let you down."

"Maddi," Rebecca responded softly, "you are going to be brilliant. You couldn't let me down if you tried."

The next day flew by way too quickly for my liking. It was a complete blissful blur. Not much of anything was open for obvious reasons, much the same as it was back home. Rebecca and I found a small sporting goods store that was open with very limited capacity and we walked in. She knew exactly what she was looking for and found it almost at once. Rebecca grabbed two pairs of ice skates and turned to me smiling. "I haven't done this since before I was recruited," she said.

I glanced down at the skates in her hand. "I've never done this," I said with hesitation. I didn't even know how to roller blade, much less ice skate. Growing up in the southern US, ice and snow were extremely rare.

"You'll be fine," Rebecca said, and I believed her. She had one of the most reassuring voices that I had ever known.

Rebecca paid for the skates and, as usual, waved me off when I offered her money for mine. That was just another thing that I would probably never get used to. No one had ever treated me to anything before or treated me so well for that matter. It was all still so new to me. I, of course, had paid for things for her in the past, but nothing like she had done for me. My heart started beating faster as I looked at Rebecca from the side and I felt my palms grow slightly sweaty inside of my gloves. The feelings that I was feeling was something that I had never felt before. It was both wonderful and terrifying at the same time.

Ice skating was much more fun than I ever could have imagined it would be. Rebecca glided across the frozen pond in such a graceful way that I could only equate it to a professional figure skater. I, on the other hand, fell on my ass more times than I cared to think about, but each and every time that I fell, Rebecca was right there to help me up. She held onto my hands until I managed to keep my balance on my own, and soon enough we were gliding across the ice side by side, hand in hand. I never managed to achieve the level of grace and balance that she displayed on the ice, but I thought that I did okay for it being my first time ever.

After about an hour, Rebecca looked at me and asked me if I was ready to go back to the house. I was. My ankles were actually starting to hurt me, and I was ready to get off of my feet and begin to mentally prepare myself for being at Abstergo alone tomorrow. Before we could leave the ice though, there was something that I wanted to do. I grabbed Rebecca by the hand, and she spun around to face me. Very quickly, I leaned up on the tip of my skates and kissed her gently, right there in the middle of the frozen pond. My plan was to skate back to the shore wearing the big dumb grin that I had on my face, but maybe kissing Rebecca still had an effect on me, because as I started skating as fast as I could my knees started to feel weak, and I stumbled face first onto the ice and went sliding.

Rebecca too almost fell, but for an entirely different reason. The sight of me sliding headfirst across the ice must have been too much for her to handle as she busted into uncontrollable laughter. She skated over to me and asked if I was alright, the whole time continuing to laugh alongside me. I didn't blame her for laughing, the whole thing must have looked completely ridiculous and after all, I wasn't hurt at all. As I rolled over and looked up at her standing over me, both of us still laughing uncontrollably, I vowed one thing to myself right then and there. I would never forget this day and I would cherish every single moment that I had with Rebecca.

I woke up the next morning and was somewhat surprised that I wasn't feeling at all nervous about going to Abstergo today. I had stayed up late with both Rebecca and Shaun and both had reassured me that it would very likely be nothing different than the times that I was there with Rebecca. Both of them exuded confidence that must have found its way to me, because I suddenly felt like I could do anything. The bus ride was the same that it always was, except that I was sitting alone, same with the check in as I walked into the building and into the coffee stand. I prepared the beans in the exact way that I had been shown and handed out cups of coffee to half asleep looking Templars who sat down and talked about everything except what I was listening for. I was starting to become familiar with the regular faces that I saw every single morning and began to memorize what they would want and had it ready as they walked up. It was starting to feel like just a regular job, but I never once let myself forget where I was, who these people were, who I was, or what would happen if they found out what I was.

I walked into Abstergo Thursday morning in somewhat of a rush. The weather outside was absolutely and I was running somewhat late. I had opted to take a walk in the morning sun before going in and could tell at once that it was starting to warm up. It was still freezing cold to me, but even I could tell that winter was wrapping up. The few people who were outside were not dressed nearly as warmly. I even saw a few people in short sleeved shirts.

There was a hint of tension in the air as I prepped the coffee. There were fewer people standing around talking and most of whom I saw barely said hi to one another before dashing off to do whatever they needed to get done. Very few people even stopped for coffee which led to me being even more bored than usual, if that were even possible. I pulled a small, somewhat beat up paperback book from under the counter and sat down on one of the chairs that Rebecca and I kept in the booth for times such as these. I was honestly not much of a reader at all, but Shaun had given me this book with the promise that I would love it, and so far, he was right. I had been blowing through the pages at an alarming pace whenever I had the time.

I must have completely zoned out because the next sound that I heard was someone clearing his throat in what was clearly a very annoyed way. My head snapped up and I was staring into the eyes of two men that I had never seen before. One was quite a bit older than anyone I had come across in my brief time at Abstergo and he had the look of someone that I would not want to cross even if he was having a good day, which judging by the look on his face, he was clearly not. His eyes narrowed in a very angry squint, and he had a few bumps on his face that looked to be from a very fast morning shave. His hair, which was almost completely white had been buzzed to almost nonexistence. The old man's companion looked just as mean, but in a more defeated kind of way. He didn't exactly meet my eyes, but I could tell that this, too, was a man not to be trifled with. He was a little younger, but it was hard for me to guess an age. His hair, not anywhere near as short, had that salt and pepper color. I could see the remains of laugh lines along his face but had the feeling that this was a man that had not had much to smile about lately. His beard, which I could tell had not been trimmed or shaved in a couple of days, made his look rather scruffy. Still, he had an air of familiarity about him that I just could not place.

"I'm so sorry!" I said with a nervous chuckle, looking from one man to the next. "I must have completely zoned out. It's my slow period. So, what can I get you two?"

"You must be new," the older of the two men said, sneering at me as if I were just a piece of trash that he had come across on the street. He glanced down at the ID badge that was clipped to my shirt, his eyes hovering on my chest way longer than they had any right to. "Madison, is it?"

"Yes sir," I said reaching for a couple of disposable coffee cups. "And I am new, just started a few weeks ago actually. I don't believe that I have seen you two around before."

The younger of the two men also glanced at my badge and I once again had the feeling that I had seen him somewhere before. "Pretty name," he mumbled, barely loud enough for me to hear him. His voice too was gruff, but I caught a faint hint of softness in it.

"Thanks," I said, trying my hardest to figure out if I had seen this man before and where, if I had. I nodded to the coffee machines next to me. "Coffee?" I asked.

"Two, black," the old man said, and his voice reminded me of drill instructors that I had seen bark orders in military movies before.

I nodded and dispensed the coffee into the two cups. I popped two plastic lids on the paper cups and slid them across the counter to the two men. The older of the two grabbed his cup and turned around without so much as a thank you and marched off. The younger simply nodded at me and turned away as well.

"Come!" The old man yelled at the one who was lagging behind. "We have important matters to discuss!"

I had not been undercover long, but even I knew when something was suspicious. This had to be exactly the kind of thing that both Rebecca and Shaun had been after. Whatever these two had to discuss, it was clearly not something that would ever be said in the middle of a coffee stand where it could easily be overheard. I watched the two of them board the elevator and I began counting floors that it went up. Without even bothering to stick up the "will return soon" sign, I sprinted through the booth door and headed to the stairwell. I took the stairs two at a time, knowing that the elevator was much faster than me and that the two men had a head start on me.

I made it to the tenth floor and emerged into a darkened hallway, surprised that I was not even slightly out of breath. I had taken those stairs at a dead sprint. I must have been in better shape than I thought. I slipped a small, easily concealable voice recorder out of my pocket and my natural instincts kicked in. I stuck close to the wall and followed the voices that grew louder the further down the hallway I went.

When I got to a large wooden door that had been left cracked open ever so slightly, I knelt down just outside the light that was coming out to keep my shadow hidden and pressed the record button on the recorder.

"Don't want your fucking excuses!" The old man yelled, and I once again imagined a military drill instructor. "Why the fuck am I in this frozen wasteland if you have nothing useful for me?"

"With all due respect Grandmaster, do you know how many lakes are running across these states?" The man said and I could hear a hint of defiance in his voice. "And on top of that, in case you haven't noticed, it has been below zero up here for the past week or two. It's not exactly safe to be out of some of these bigger lakes, between the ice and the snowstorms, it's a wonder that more of us haven't died yet!"

I heard a fist slam down on what I could only assume was a large wooden desk and the wall that I was hiding against rattled. "I don't give a shit how many of you die!" The old man bellowed, and I flinched at the harshness of his words. "It's not enough that the southern team lost the Staff in New Orleans? Now you're going to fuck around and lose the Apple up here?"

My heart skipped a beat at the mention of the word Apple. So far Rebecca and Shaun had not been able to completely figure out what we were looking for and here these two were, completely unaware of my presence, giving me just what we needed.

The younger of the two spoke again and his voice grew even more defiant with every word. "There has been no hint or sign of the Assassins anywhere in this city, sir," he said, and I could hear the change of inflection of the word "sir".

"Oh yeah?" The old man said, his voice growing quieter and more dangerous. "What about that lazy girl dolling out coffee? I don't remember ever seeing her before. What do we know about this new girl? Who authorized her hire?"

"I don't know sir; this was my first time seeing her as well. I assume she is some kind of temp or intern."

A fist slammed down on a table again and the wall vibrated across my back. "I don't want your damned assumptions!" The old man screamed, and I heard him start pacing around the room. "I want results! I will not tolerate losing another artifact to those fucking Assassins!"

"Of course, Grandmaster," the other man said, and I could tell that his voice was shrinking. He was clearly terrified of failing the old man. "I'll see too it myself."

"See that you do," the old man spoke once again, and his voice was as venomous as ever. "You're a fine Templar Jack, but don't think that you are indispensable just because you successfully infiltrated the Assassin's all those years ago. I will not accept anything less than full recovery of the Apple."

"Understood, Grandmaster."

"Good, I expect an update within a week," the old Grandmaster said in a deadly whisper that managed to carry clearly through the door to me. "Do not fail me, Gratton."

My heart felt like it had dropped straight past my stomach and down to my feet. I had to silently clap my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. It was simply not possible. There was no way. I felt numb. It felt like I couldn't move, but I had no choice. I knew that at some point very soon the two Templars would be coming out of the office. A flood of feelings rushed into my system as I had not realized why the younger of the two men had seemed familiar to me. It was because I had seen him before. Many times, in fact, every single time I looked at the photos of my parents back home. Tears stung my eyes as I stopped the recording on the voice recorder and forced my feet to move. I had to get out of here. I had to get back to Rebecca. She would know what to do, she always knew just what to do.

I sprinted as quickly and as quietly as I could back down the dark hallway and took the stairs two at a time once more. I didn't dare risk the elevator in case someone saw the new girl coming from what was clearly a floor how high ranking officers.

Back on the ground level, I ripped the ID badge off of my shirt and flung it towards the coffee stand. I wouldn't need it anymore. I was never planning on coming back here. Luckily the only person that seemed to be on the first floor with me was the man working security, and he seemed too bored to even notice me. Without a word, I walked towards the exit and straight past security, all the while fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill over.

Outside, despite the sun hanging high in the sky, warming the air, I felt frigid. My mind wasn't working right, and I walked straight past my bus stop by at least a block before I realized that it was behind me. I didn't say a word as I stepped up and took a seat at the very back, not moving until I had to get off.

The sound of the door creaking as I opened it echoed throughout the whole house and I was certain that Rebecca and Shaun heard it despite them probably being in the bunker underneath.

Rebecca emerged first in a solid sprint, a large knife held in front of her, ready to fight. Shaun was not far behind, and he too carried a weapon, a large baton, much like the one that I owned. "Maddi?" Rebecca said, confusion in her voice as she dropped the knife. "What are you doing here so early?"

When I looked up and met her eyes from across the room, my knees gave out on me and I collapsed, the tears that had been threatening my ever since I heard that man's name spilled over as I started sobbing. Shaun and Rebecca were by my side in an instant. Rebecca holding me and Shaun on one knee next to her.

"What happened?" He asked, and for the first time since I met him, I heard genuine concern in his voice.

"Whatever it is," Rebecca said, continuing his statement, "we can handle it."

Without saying anything, doing my best to stop crying, I slowly reached into my pocket and pulled out the small recorder and placed it in Rebecca's hand.

Witchy's Notes:

Wow, what can I even say about this one? I can't even begin to describe the struggle I had with this chapter. It may not show because by the time this is posted, the story will be over, but I had a about a 4-month bout of writer's block. I almost completely gave up on this story as I had written myself into a corner with a future chapter, and it took me ages to figure out how I was going to get out of it. I also suffered a lack of motivation in writing lately as I am in the process of making a career change and let me just say that at 34 years old, that is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Oh yeah, I also turned 34! :D I am very much looking forward to finishing this and seeing the story of Madison and Rebecca reach it's hopefully happy conclusion.