Altair is fairly sure Melanie isn't a templar. It's fairly clear that she has no idea what Abstergo is really after (which is unfortunate, because he would have appreciated knowing himself), and she's just too… cheerful for it.
Fairly sure- but not completely, because her timing is absolutely awful. He was thirty seconds away from Edward actually letting him in. Letting him in to tell him to get out, most likely, but he could have worked with that. Now- well, now he might never know, because now he's being taken upstairs to be paraded around in front of some corporate higher up. Perfect. It's exactly what he wanted from his day, and he can't even complain without raising suspicions.
Melanie makes small talk the entire way up to Olivier's office, which Altair mostly ignores. Some of the things she's saying- about how they're going to take the footage he's found and market Edward to the public- make him want say something he knows he'll regret. Instead, he finds his mind wandering. Maybe there's another way to get Edward to talk.
If not for the whole sample 17 project, this wouldn't even be an issue. He can time travel- it would be easy to meet Edward in person. But he knows he's not the only one here digging through Edward's memories. He's the only one Edward's aware of, because he's the only one with an apple. But if he physically goes back to talk to Edward, there's too high of a chance someone will notice something is going on. He just has to hope that when he gets back in the animus, Edward will still be willing to talk. Somehow, he doubts it.
He has a brief meeting with Olivier, which he gets through by nodding a lot and saying very little. Finally- finally he's allowed back downstairs, but no sooner has he stepped in the elevator than he hears a voice in his ear.
"Hey, you- new guy."
Because it's not enough that Abstergo is watching him eight hours a day. He has to have their technology on his head so they can talk to him whenever he's in the building. "What do you want?" he growls.
"Woah there, no need to be unfriendly," the voice says. "It's John from IT. We met yesterday."
Altair vaguely remembers a pair of legs sticking out from underneath a desk. "Alright. What do you want?"
"Fine," John says. "You don't want to be friendly, that's your problem. I need a favor."
"Why would I do a favor for you?" He's in a hurry to get back to the animus. Probably it won't make a difference, because whatever happens next with Edward has already happened, hundreds of years ago. It doesn't matter if he gets back in the animus five minutes from now or tomorrow. But probably isn't good enough for him right now.
"Because this is me asking nicely," John says. "Come on, it'll only take a few minutes, and I promise you'll see something interesting."
Altair almost tells him to go bother someone else, but stops just before he actually opens his mouth. There's something in his tone- smug and condescending as it may be- that hints at real knowledge. "Fine," he says. "What is 'something interesting'?"
"Follow my instructions to the letter and you'll see," John says, and none of Altair's arguments will get another word out of him. Back downstairs he grudgingly allows John to lead him, like a dog on a leash to one of the many computer terminals on the floor. Or he almost does, because the specific computer John's after is behind a set of locked doors.
"I can't get into this," Altair says. Technically he probably could. After a couple of days in the building he's already started to see a few flaws in some of the internal security. It's not something he wants to tell John, though.
"Of course not," John says. "You'd need level one security clearance for that." Altair can hear rapid keystrokes through his earpiece, and then the lock on the door flashes from red to green. "Which thanks to me, you now have."
Altair raises an eyebrow and checks to make sure the coast is clear before stepping into the room. There are three levels of security in the building, and until now he hasn't been able to access any of them. Whatever John's favor is, it's probably worth being able to get farther into the building.
"Alright," he says. This time, he makes an effort to keep his tone civil. "So what am I in here for?"
"I need you to hack a computer for me," John says.
"I don't know how to hack a computer," Altair says. "Your job is computers, right? Couldn't you do this yourself?"
"I don't want to get caught," John snaps. "That's what you're here for. And I'm uploading a program onto your communicator that will make it easy. Almost like a game."
Altair barely stops himself from growling aloud at John's condescending tone. Just get it done. And besides- when he actually opens the program, it turns out to actually be as easy as John promised. As he works through it, Altair asks, "Why come to me?"
"Because you're new," says John. "And I haven't decided I hate you as much as the others yet."
"That's a ringing endorsement," Altair mutters, and a second later he gets to the file John's after. "Alright, I got it. Why this file?"
"Would you believe me if I told you the woman who works at that desk forgot to pass that file off to a courier before leaving today?"
"No," says Altair.
"Then I won't bother lying to you," John says. "There really is a courier, though, she's waiting downstairs. Oh and by the way, I wouldn't recommend opening that file. I mean, you can, but it's not exactly fun viewing."
Altair already has the file open before John can even warn him away from it. He doesn't mind stealing files from Abstergo, but he wants to know what they are and where they're going before he does anything with them. And it turns out John was right.
He doesn't want to see this file.
It's a video report made by the field agents that went out to the temple in New York to retrieve Desmond's body. So this is how they got his DNA for the Sample 17 project. He wonders what they did with the body.
"You still there, new guy?" John asks, and Altair realizes he's been staring at the computer screen for at least five minutes. The video's been over for several minutes, but he's just sitting there, trying to absorb it all.
"Yea," he says, trying to pretend like nothing's wrong.
"I told you it wasn't nice," John says. "Do you think you can hurry it up, though? Courier's still waiting."
Except there's no way he's giving these files to some random courier just because John tells him to. No way. Not Desmond.
But he can't just stay here, either, because getting caught in an area he's not supposed to be able to access isn't a good idea. He considers just ignoring John and keeping the file to himself, but reconsiders. If he can somehow trick John into thinking he's handed it off without actually doing it, maybe he can keep the security clearance.
"Good," John says in his ear when he gets to the atrium. "She's by the coffee stand."
Altair glances over, and there's Rebecca leaning against the counter and talking to Shaun. Perfect- the one person he actually doesn't mind giving the files to. It does raise new questions, though. How much does John know? Is he an assassin?
He doesn't say any of that, though, because there's too many unfriendly ears listening in. He just transfers the file to her, and after a few lines of small talk, the kind any two strangers might exchange, turns and walks off. He really needs to find out what Rebecca and Shaun are doing at Abstergo.
But first- Edward.
-/-
I so love writing John. He's snarky, he's evil, he's completely insane... he's one of those guys that would creep me out if I met him in real life but he's such an awesome character. :)