HELLO ALL! And how've we been? Exams are over until next month, I just got over an operation I had on my arm, and I'M BACK WITH UPDATES YAY! The whole of chapter thirty three is going up today in three phases - I'm not exactly pleased with this chapter, what with it being a sort of filler as I got back into the swing of things, but I hope you guys enjoy it anyway :)

2nd May, 2012. Scotland.

It was all over the news. The biggest break in of the century. Three men sneaking into the archives of the UK's most prestigious museum and basically helping themselves to exactly what they wanted – which was just one book no one had ever heard of. Why? How? And most importantly – who?

And where were they now?

Maria was one of the select few who knew the answers.

'More on the museum break in – police are yet to discover who the culprits are, or indeed, where they came from. CCTV footage shows one wearing a scarf and another a bow tie – '
The TV crackled as she turned it over, grinning.

'…One of the guards attacked by the thieves said one displayed acrobatic skills beyond anything he'd ever seen as he tried to chase them down – '

Maria was full blown laughing now.

'BREAKING NEWS – American tourist Bill Smith is suing the British Museum after the ordeal he suffered at the tampering of the X Ray machine at the museum's entrance. Bill – '

Maria switched off the TV with the remote and threw it up in the air, near cackling with laughter as she unleashed her glee. It landed on the coffee table, on top of a newspaper where a frame of poor quality from the CCTV footage had been released to the press: the Doctor, Leonardo da Vinci and Ezio Auditore were looking brazenly up at a security camera, and no one knew who the hell they were.

And, it'd quite simply, made Maria's morning.

Gasping for air, she hooked her mobile out of her pocket, tapped a few buttons, and waited, giggling softly. When the phone was answered, her giggles rose up into hysterics again.

'Kev – Kevin? No, no I'm fine! It's the Doctor! He only went and broke into the bloody British museum!'

There were a few elsewhere that weren't as pleased as Maria about the latest news coverage.

Around a desk in the Abstergo headquarters gathered a small group of agents, Darren McDonald and the agent from Texas and Shaun Hastings, who stood demurely in the corner and tried to look unimportant while staring intently at the screen. Hope – hope was unfolding right before his eyes, and he couldn't believe it.

Abstergo had pulled some strings as soon as the news of the break in broke, and Warren Vidic had all the CCTV footage he could ever wish for within a few hours. This wasn't the first time he'd watched it – in fact, this was the sixth. Six whole times of watching the Doctor, Leonardo Da Vinci and Ezio Auditore Da Firenze waltz into the twenty first century under the eye of a hundred cameras, hole themselves up in a closet and then breaking into the archives of the British Museum and helping themselves like three children given a free pass to the candy store.

All without Abstergo knowing a thing.

His fist clenched around the brandy he'd poured himself, and took a slow, deliberate sip. Shaun and McDonald both glanced his way, the pair of them harbouring a secret satisfaction before they both looked up and caught the other's eye. The looked away immediately, wondering what one had been watching the other first. Shaun wished that there was a way he could show Rebecca this, this brilliant thing, but she wasn't there. She was behind the glass, down in the rows of the computers. If he lifted his eyes from the TV screen and peered very closely, he could just make out the top of her head, bowed over her keyboard. The receptionist's note was in his pocket, tucked in a little ball so that no one would dare see it. He knew exactly what it said, off by heart, but he still liked to keep it with him.

Crane's got the codes. She's breaking into the system. Slowly, so Abstergo don't catch on.
She's thinking of you.
-R

The receptionist hadn't given Shaun her name. (Not that he expected her to, either) But he hoped he would be able to find her later through the Order to thank her for what she'd done for him.

And for Rebecca.

McDonald was in a similar mood. Watching the footage on the screen, he could just picture Maria in her flat on her day off, laughing until she cried at the antics that went on the night before. The thought made him smile, and he saw the Texan agent turn his head in McDonald's direction and give a condescending sneer. Bristling, McDonald dropped his eyes to the ground and shuffled his feet awkwardly as he rearranged his hands behind his back. Fuck him, he thought. You just wait 'till the Assassins take this place down. We'll see who's sneering then.

Vidic put his glass down again, keeping a firm grip on it as the footage on the screen moved into the Doctor, Leonardo and Ezio bursting from the archives and fleeing the guards. When Ezio performed his daring move on the stairs, he clenched the glass so hard that it splintered, making everyone in the room start. There was a moment of tense silence before Shaun ventured forward quietly, taking a cloth and wiping up the spilt drink. Vidic didn't react to him, not even when he swept the glass from the table and winced slightly as the shards cut into his skin and the brandy on them stung. It was only when Shaun stepped into his corner, awkwardly handling the glass and the cloth that he spoke.

'How did this happen?'

Silence. It wasn't really a question. It was phrased more like a threat. Everyone seated around the table shifted uncomfortably, and a few cleared their throats awkwardly, each of them eying everyone else.

'…Sir?'

All eyes fixed on the man on the end of the table at once, his hand half raised as he leant forward. Vidic glared at him from the head of the table. Pitying the poor bastard who'd spoken, Shaun poured Vidic another brandy and left it by his hand. Vidic took it without glancing at him, and pulled it towards his chest, looking down at it as he dipped his finger in and absently moved it around the ice. He sipped from it, and set it down on the table again.

'Yes?'

The man cleared his throat nervously, suddenly realising that he might have been very, very stupid. 'We've been, uh…well, uhrm…'

'SPIT IT OUT!' Vidic roared, punching the table with his fist. Everyone around the table started violently, and one man squeaked. The speaker was suddenly motivated to say the whole sentence.

'We've not been able to track Ezio through Subject Seventeen's memories as well as we should. Sir.'

Vidic considered this, and was silent as he stirred his brandy with his finger again. 'And what is that supposed to mean?' He asked, not looking up.

'Well, uh, it means we can't see what Ezio did – '

'I know that, you fool!' Vidic spat, his head snapping up. The speaker shrunk under his gaze. 'What does that mean for us? The company that's paying your wages!' He knocked a few papers that he had in front of him away, and they curled in the air to land haphazardly on the table and all around the room.

No one dared breathe.

The speaker swallowed nervously. 'That we didn't see this coming, sir.'

'Why?' Vidic demanded.

'Every time we've tried to access a memory sequence, what we get back is hazy. Sometimes we can't even access it at all. It may be that Subject Seventeen is conscious and is fighting the Animus, although brain activity suggests otherwise. The conclusion I – that is, the team and I, sir, that the Doctor may have somehow dampened Ezio's DNA in the time that he spent with him and made it harder for us to access. Sir.'

Silence.

'I see,' Vidic said, as if sighing, putting his brandy aside and rising out of his seat. He planted his knuckles either side of him, and looked down the table at the speaker. 'Do you know what I want done about it?'

'No. Sir.'

Vidic's look darkened. 'I want Subject Seventeen's dosage of sedative increased twofold. I want Scotland's electricity grid hacked into so we can get more power into the Animus. And, more than anything, I want the Doctor and that TARDIS in my power before he pulls another stunt like this.'

'Understood.'

'Company dismissed.'

Next phase up in a bit! :D