Numbskull

Day 4 Part 1

Honour and Loyalty

Armour and Sword

Scars

The sequence turned into the usual blue outline and faded away, dumping me into the loading area of the Animus.

"Do you understand now..."

I muttered back to the never-ending blue box, "Understand what? What is there to understand about?"

It seemed like Violet just ignored me and answered Berg's question, "I'm starting to see why you're so interested in Shay Cormac."

"Can someone just tell me what's going on?"

No reply.

I switched out of the Animus and dumped the headset on my worktable. I stood up and stretched my old creaky back. Turning around, Violet and Otso Berg were talking a meter away from me. Why me? Does this have anything to do with Shay since I'm the only person going through his memories?

At approaching them, they turned around to face me.

"Shay has seen the true face of the world. And he has chosen his path accordingly." Joining the Templars? Is that what you are talking about, because I still feel a little bummed out about that. Assassin philosophy and all. "A similar choice will soon present itself to you." This was just crazy. He seemed to be able to predict the future. If I followed my initial suspicion about joining the Templars, does that also mean he knew something about them? In all my time working with them they had never shown a single sign- or was I not observant enough?

He probably had seen the gears turning in my head and walked away as to not answer my barrage of questions. He was smart — I will give him that — but I also would not have asked those sensitive questions right in front of them. Because if they indeed knew something about the Templars and I had sort of deduced it, something terrible would probably happen. 

"I did not think you'd get this far, but you seem to be on the right track. We still can't access the servers in the basement but there's another one located at the top of the building, near Melanie's office. That's your next stop."

Picking up my communicator, I set off on the route to the CCO's office.

Melanie choose the time to contact me, "Could you stop by my office? We need to have a talk."

"I'm on my way." It seemed highly suspicious that everyone — namely Violet, Berg and Ms. Lemay — wanted to talk to me after I went through Shay swearing his loyalty to the Templars. Maybe it was due to spending too much time being wary of everyone I met in the Animus but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

The office never failed to take my breath away. The soft light streaming in through the roof panels. Glass walls looking out and down at the cityscape below. But it just seemed to be too big and lonely to do work alone here every day.

I walked over to where she was typing away on her computer. Uncomfortable with looking at her in the eye, I inspected the Newton's Cradle on her table.

"This office used to belong to a man named Olivier Garneau. He was my predecessor as Chief Creative Officer at Abstergo Entertainment." I clearly remembered the time before we changed Chief due to no reason in particular. Now that I realised she had a picture of him on her table, I actually wondered if they had something between them.

She walked over and leaned on her table to get closer to me. "Otso Berg is a representative from our parent company, Abstergo Industries. He's showing you the true history of the world, just like he showed me." He certainly did not seem like a history professor. What history professor would kill someone just because they annoyed their child? They would know how history repeats itself, the patterns that cause similar events to happen over again. Getting revenge is one of the top reasons, even an engineer like me knew that.

"Olivier Garneau was kind, intelligent, and passionate about out work. But a year ago, he caught a glimpse of this truth." Satan? Is that you? "They never found his body."

I stood there, blinking in shock. That just went downhill as fast as Severus Snape running, or apparating if you will, away from shampoo. Probably evolution trying to take place — survival of the strongest. "He just... died? Like that?"

She sighed, the sound echoing off the walls of this empty room, "This is not the way we normally bring people up to speed on these matters. But you've worked hard and are proving yourself. So, I'm granting you Level 2 security access. The servers on this floor should unlock more of Shay's memories."

"Thank you." People usually worked for years to be promoted to this kind of security access. Skk okme would even kill... Instead, I had just gained them within a week after working here for two and a half years.

Walking out towards the servers on this level, I passed detailed paintings of ships. Last year, there was this big project on this Edward Kenway guy. I wasn't let in on it but the Noob guy did lots of work. These brigs on the wall looked so real that they even enticed me for an adventure. No wonder Shay missed his Morrigan when he lost it- her.

I couldn't hold my bladder any longer so I just went straight into the toilet to do some business.

"Berg wants those servers up and running. Now!" That can wait. Do you want me to take a leak there and in the process short circuit your servers?

The spinning of circles to fix a server never gets old. I didn't watch the video file that came with fixing servers. Instead, I kept them in a folder for future information scouting purposes. I did the same to all other workstations I fixed, keeping the files and not watching or reading them.

Back at my workstation again, Crazy Berg talked to me through my earpiece. "We are nearly there. Know that you are aiding a worthy cause, even if you do not know what it is."

I tried to log in and complete more memories but it didn't work.

"Shit," Violet swore through the comms. Not again.

"Another glitch?" I really disliked Otso Berg for some reason. He just seemed a little too creepy for my liking.

After a few clicks of a mouse, Violet came at it with more information, "Same one as before, Shay's back at Notre-Dame."

"See if you can complete the memories this time."

"I'll try..." From there, I was transported into Paris once more.

"I even got a date for you. 1776." That was certainly helpful, thanks Violet.

"At this point in time, Franklin was the American ambassador to France."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Otso Berg: Professional killer and amateur historian." Crazy Berg is a killer? Not that surprising, after reviewing the audio of him killing off his daughter's 'attacker'.

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