When Desmond comes out of the animus, he looks charged, excited, exhilarated in a way that completely baffles Lucy. What could he possibly have seen in Ezio's memories that would make him react like that?
He doesn't answer when she asks, just grins like their earlier argument doesn't mean anything. He's so—urgh but he's so frustrating. As he bounces around the warehouse, acting like he's just won something, Lucy's mood gets progressively more and more sour. It's a relief when Vidic emails her that he's sent someone with the things she'll need to hack Desmond's email. It'll give her an excuse to get out of the building at least, and see someone that she doesn't have to lie to.
Lucy tells Rebecca that she's going out for supplies (Rebecca responds with a list of yogurt flavors she wants, but doesn't otherwise argue), grabs a jacket, and heads out. Vidic's instructions had been terse and to the point, as always. She's supposed to go to a coffee shop, sit down in the third table from the door, and order hot chocolate. The woman that's coming to meet her is some tech—not a Templar, that would be too dangerous for Lucy, this close to the Assassins. She's just some Abstergo employee, high ranking enough to be trusted but low enough that no one watching would be able to draw a straight line between her and Vidic.
The tech's name is Layla Hassan.
-/-
In January of 2012, Layla decides she desperately needs to take a leave of absence. She's been there for years, working shit jobs that she knows she's too good for, when what she really wants to do is work on the animus project. That would be a challenge, and she's been doing everything she can since the day she was hired, applying for every open position, and still—nothing.
So she needs to leave. She tries in January, but of course she's the most capable person working at her current position, and her boss keeps asking her to stay 'just a few more weeks,' or 'just until this project wraps up,' until finally in September she puts her foot down and says no. And her boss says well fine okay, but on your way out we need you to deliver a package.
It gets her out of the office at least, and the package she's supposed to be taking with her is going to Italy, which isn't… anywhere near where she's going, but she's never been there and so why not?
Besides, they're expensing the trip and she's always wanted to fly first class.
And of course, first class turns out to be just as dull as any other plane trip, and Layla only lasts half an hour before he decides to start poking at the package she's been sent to deliver. It's obviously something important because Abstergo's putting a lot of effort into getting it delivered, and Layla's never been able to stop herself from acting on impulse.
It turns out to be a flash drive, and when she plugs it into her computer and starts poring through the code, it doesn't take long to piece together what it's supposed to be used for. Someone's been messing with Abstergo's servers—they've worked out a sort of back door into the email system, setting it up so that emails can pass from one email address that shouldn't exist and into a second email address that shouldn't exist.
It's clever, and exactly the way Layla would have done things if she was the one to set it up—in fact, it's so similar to her style that for a little while she wonders if this is some kind of trap. Someone's hacking Abstergo, they're working in almost exactly the same way Layla does, and she's the one sent to deliver the fix? What if they're thinking about blaming her for the initial hacking, and this is all some kind of elaborate trap?
She dismisses that pretty quickly though—she's just not sure that any of the people she works with would be smart enough to notice the similarities. So she pulls the flashdrive out, deletes any traces of it from her laptop, and watches movies for the rest of the too long flight.
Then after the flight, there's a taxi ride, and then because of a language barrier issue, Layla gets out four blocks too early and walks the rest of the way, which makes her seventeen minutes late. The person she's supposed to meet—a tired, vaguely familiar blonde nursing a far too large mug of coffee (not that Layla's really one to judge)—informs her of this as soon as they meet.
"Layla Hassan," Layla says, holding out a hand.
"Lucy Stillman," the blonde says, shaking it. "You're seventeen minutes late."
"I just got off a plane," Layla says defensively. "And I'm only delivering a USB stick, it's not like the fate of the world is riding on this." After all, she thinks bitterly, she can't even get a spot on the animus project. She's not exactly going to be doing anything as exciting as saving the world anytime soon.
"You… nevermind." Lucy gives a sigh and gestures for Layla to sit. "I know you're not involved in any of this, and—trust me, you don't want to."
Layla's interest is decidedly peaked by now, and she kind of does want to know what's going on.
"So just… look, hand over the flashdrive and we're done here."
"Sure," Layla says. "Yea, I could do that. Or—" She leans over the table and lowers her voice. "I've seen what's on that USB—"
"What? Hassan, listen, you weren't supposed to look at that."
"I looked," Layla says, and smirks at Lucy's expression. "And from what I can see, you know absolutely nothing about the technical side of things. Otherwise you wouldn't need this little toy. Now, I can hand this over, and you can… what, read new messages as they come in?" She shrugs. "Sure, yea. Fine. I guess if that's all you want, you can just take it now." She reaches into her bag, pulls out the USB, and puts it in the middle of the table, between the two of them. Lucy's eyes dart down toward it, but she doesn't move to take it.
"You think you can do more than that?"
"Maybe," Layla says. "If you give me some more information, I might be able to help you out.
Lucy considers it. Then she nods, and leans forward. Layla hides a grin. "I'm working… undercover."
"For who?" Layla asks. "Abstergo? Is this like corporate espionage shit?"
"I wish."
God, Layla wants to know more about what's going on. "Okay," she says. "Then what is it?"
Lucy hesitates. "Above your pay grade," she says. "But I think we can still work something out. I have this… I don't know what he is. But he knows things he shouldn't, he's doing things he shouldn't be able to, and I need to know more about him."
"So you're planning to intercept his emails?" Layla asks. "That's a sloppy way to brute force things, and judging by what I saw here—" She taps the USB. "He has someone on his side that's going to be able to tell what you're doing."
"And you can do it in a… less brute force way?" Lucy asks.
Layla grins. "Yes," she says. Her plans can wait a little while, they hadn't exactly given her a time she had to be back at work. She can spend a little time here, because the thing is, she's just figured out why she recognizes Lucy.
Lucy Stillman works on the animus project.
"Here's mynumber," Lucy says, scrawling something on a napkin and passing it over. "Text me when you're set up somewhere, and I'll get you what you need to know."
"Just get me access to your system," Layla says. She copies Lucy, writing her own number and passing it across the table. "And I'll be able to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about this guy." She stands up, holding up her hand with Lucy's number scrawled on it. "Thanks for your digits."
And then, she's gone.
-/-
Lucy isn't quite sure how she feels about Layla Hassan. She doesn't trust her, but she doesn't trust anyone anymore, so that doesn't mean much. The thing about becoming a traitor, is that after you see how easy it is, it's hard not to assume everyone else is ready to do the same thing at the drop of a hat.
She shakes her head sharply and stands up, grabbing the flashdrive Layla had left behind. This will be a start, and after she sees how that works out, she can always change her mind about getting in touch with Layla. She'd given her the number to one of her burner phones, one Rebecca had set up for her, and she's been assured it's untraceable. It's not too late to just pitch the thing in a lake, if she decides not to trust Layla.
But she's just a techie, when it all comes down to it. She very clearly knows nothing about the Assassins or Templars, Lucy's developed a knack for being able to tell who's involved and who's not. Layla is definitely not involved. So she takes the jump drive, commits Layla's number to memory, then stops to grab a few supplies so she'll look like she was busy doing that the whole time. She heads back to the hideout.
"How was it?" Rebecca asks, when Lucy comes back in, lugging her bags of food. "Get everything we need?"
Lucy feels the bulge of the jump drive in her jacket pocket, the memory of Layla's number like a weight in her mind, and nods. "Yea," she says. "I think I did."
-/-
Shorter chapter this time around, but this seemed like a good stopping point so...
I've been thinking about bringing 2012-Layla in for a little while now, but I was worried it would end up too confusing... hopefully it's not too bad so far? :)