Ezio spends his morning on top of the building across the street from Abstergo, watching every person that goes in or out of the building. He's passed more than one day doing the exact same thing, perched on a rooftop until the business day ends and the employees clear out.
There's no unusual activities this morning. On the street, eagle vision shows him a steady trickle of gray dotted with the occasional red of a security guard. Altair's supposed to be in at 1:00, but so far it looks like no one inside has any idea that today is at all important.
It should have made him feel better to see that there's no increased security, but instead, as the morning wears on, Ezio gets more worried. Altair shouldn't be able to walk right in without opposition. He's never seen a plan go that well.
But, at 12:30, he sees a single dot of blue- the first one he's ever seen in this area- walk up the street and disappear into the Abstergo building. Ezio nods and forces himself to relax. He's in. Maybe he's worried over nothing. Maybe, just this once, the plan's going to go exactly the way they want it to. It's not like there's even that much risk, so maybe...
It's all down to Altair now, and Ezio has no doubt he'll be able to get into an animus. What happens after that is anyone's guess, but that's a problem for later. Honestly, Ezio expects chaos. He's just about to head down from the roof when he sees another blue dot on the ground.
"Huh." Interest suddenly picqued, Ezio crouches on the lip of the roof and stares down. From this height, there's no real hope of being able to see anything, but he knows better than to go down and risk being seen so close to the building. So he stays where he is, and waits, and is eventually rewarded with a third blue person. It's a little after 1:00 when the last of them goes in, and maybe five minutes later that one of them comes back out.
Ezio makes a snap decision. Before his target can get out of his sight, Ezio runs to the edge of the roof and leaps off it to the one next door. Free running in this century isn't fun- the buildings are too similar to one another for that. Most of the time, they look like they were built all at once from the same mold. And it isn't easy, either, because there are bigger spaces to leap, and the walls are too smooth to climb, and there are cameras everywhere. As soon as he's far enough from Abstergo, Ezio drops down to the street, where he follows his target at a distance until they turn onto an empty side street.
With no one around, Ezio quickly closes the distance between them, moving soundlessly until he's only a few feet behind. She's a woman, a little shorter than he is, hair pulled back and stuffed into a cap. Ezio grabs her by the shoulder, just hard enough to stop her without being threatening, and as she turns, he recognizes Rebecca.
In the second when they both stand and stare at each other in frozen surprise, Ezio finds part of himself wondering if maybe his eyes are starting to go. Then he decides that no, he's not that old yet (and maybe if he keeps telling himself that, he'll believe it), and anyway she's clearly gone to some trouble to disguise herself.
"Wow." Rebecca twists away from his grip, and he drops his hand to his side, letting her go. "You-" her eyes are wide, and she's got one hand in her pocket, probably fingering a weapon of some kind. "Sorry, it's just..." she stares hard at his face. "You look exactly like someone else."
She's talking about him, Ezio realizes. Technically, they've never met face to face (not counting the times when he borrowed Desmond's face). And it's not like time travel is going to be the first thing that comes to most peoples' minds. He didn't even recognize her until he saw her face, and at least he's used to seeing her in this century. She's only ever seen him in animus recordings. He smiles and sticks out a hand. "Ezio Auditore," he says. "We've met." Sort of, anyway.
Still staring at him, she takes the offered hand, then abruptly releases it and steps away. "No," she says. Her arms are crossed, and her whole body is screaming distrust. "No way. I don't believe you're him."
"I am him," Ezio says, then corrects himself. "Me." This is one of those conversations that is so strange, he doesn't even know how to have it.
"Fine," Rebecca says. "Prove it. You said we met- when was that?"
"Twice," Ezio says. "When Desmond was in his coma. Once in your van, and then once at the airport."
"Okay," Rebecca says. She uncrosses her arms but doesn't relax any further than that. "There's no way... I mean, yea, there's no one else that would know that, but-"
"You don't believe me."
"I can't," she says. "I mean- I didn't think anyone else that knew about that..."
"But it's still possible," Ezio sighs. He can understand her suspicion, and part of him can even agree with it. After all, how many assassins, how many friends, has she seen die? It doesn't make things any easier for him, though, and he's not sure what more proof he can offer.
As if on cue, his apple bursts into light. It's been dormant throughout the whole conversation, or nearly so. The energy it takes to translate English for him is barely anything, but now the familiar pattern of lines breaks out all over his body. The light is silver instead of gold, something Ezio has never been able to figure out. It's been like that since he got it, and so far nothing bad's happened, so he tries not to think about it.
"You, ah- picked up a souvenir from the temple," Rebecca says, and suddenly she's smiling. "We thought the templars had the apple."
"No," Ezio says. "I think it decided it liked me better."
"Well I'm glad it did," Rebecca says. "I've been so worried- they tracked us through the computers again. I guess it was easier since they'd already done it. And so it would have been my fault if they got their hands on it. Seriously, this is the first good news we've had in-" she makes a face. "Ten months, honestly."
"We should talk," Ezio says.
Rebecca nods. "But not here," she adds. "Do you want to just turn off the lights?"
"I would if I could," Ezio grumbles. "The apple pretty much has a life of its own. It'll go off when it wants to."
"You can't control it?" Rebecca asks.
"I could if it wasn't so stubborn-" the apple abruptly flares a little brighter, than fades out completely. Ezio looks down to check that it's completely gone, then back up at Rebecca. "See?" he sighs. "Stubborn and dramatic."