Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“All this time you have been lying to me, hiding the truth that would have made this whole thing make sense, why?”

“You were never supp to know, it would have been better that you had never found out.”

“But I did, and now you will answer me. What are the Templars? What are the Assassins? No, just answer this, why have you pulled me into this whole mess?”

“Because I had no other option.”

-

“Good Morning Chicago! Today we start with some great news. Abstergo Entertainment has finally opened their new base of operations in our beautiful city. This new branch of the world wide renowned video game developer company will be located in what once was the Merlaut hotel.”

“To refresh our viewers minds, after Dermot “Lucky” Quinn death last year, his son, Niall Quinn, took over the family business, but he was unable to keep the company's reputation up after it got revealed by an anonymous source all the black markets deals Mr. Quinn senior had been part of, inevitably the grand hotel was put on sale. It appears that Abstergo Entertainment acquired the building shortly after and started renovations immediately.”

“It was not clear, at the time, what it would be used for, but finally it has been revealed that it will be the home of the newest research facility for their Helix console. We are proud that they have chosen our city for such an honor. More information later as we interview Abstergo's CCO, Melanie Lemay.”

“On a different note The Vigilante, Aiden Pearce, has been seen hard at work keeping our streets safe. From bank robbers to abuse cases, he has been sighted all around the city. The police Chief, though grateful for the help, would like to remind Mr. Pearce that he should be leaving the field work to the authorities, instead he is welcome to help by sharing information. We have not been able to get close enough to Mr. Pearce to know his response to this, but one thing is sure, legal or not, Chicago can sleep safe in the knowledge that someone out there is looking out for us.”

-

“The fuck is your problem man! Leave me alone!”

The vigilante kept close to his target, jumping over turned trash cans and pushing people out of his way as he chased the man down the crowded streets of Parker Square, baton ready at hand.

“Look dude, It's The Vigilante!” a young man screamed from the bus stop on the other side of the street, eyes blow wide and a smile on his face, shaking his friend and pointing at the ongoing chase.

“Go get him man!” another teenager screamed, while pulling out his phone to record what was happening. Some of the people standing around stopped for a second to look at what was going on, a few of them joining on the screams of support.

Aiden didn’t waste time looking at them, his sight was trained on the man he had been chasing for the last minutes. If only he could get close enough to bring him down. As he turned into an alley he saw his opportunity and took out his profiler. A few feet in front of him the criminal keep on running, head turning back each other step to see if he had, by any luck, managed to lose him.

Mentally counting down the seconds Aiden dropped to a crouch and hid behind a box as he activated the hack on his screen and the transformer in the path of the criminal exploded, finally taking him down. The smell of burnt plastic filled the place as he stepped out of his hiding spot; kneeling to check for vitals and letting out a sigh of relief once he found a pulse. Killing just couldn't be avoided some times, but he tried to tone it done whenever possible.

He left the alley once the police was informed. As he walked away, turning down the street on route to the Owl Motel, he could hear the sirens getting closer. He didn’t run away as he would had a year ago, these days there was close to no reason to fear the police.

As he walked his eyes scanned the crowd around him. A guy down the street with his phone out got his attention, he slowed down as he passed by him, with a tap on his profiler he took what he needed. Based on the bank account information, the guy wouldn’t notice a few bucks missing.

His steps faltered as he crossed an alley and saw a man bullied by some thugs, but decided not to involve himself. He was too tired to attempt anything.

It had been close to one year of him running around, saving people, fighting criminals, doing the same thing over and over without any real impact. For each abusive case he punished another hit was given somewhere, for each gang he brought down a new one took its place. Some days he would wake up feeling the pressure of his role as The Vigilante crushing him. Did it matter? Would anyone care if he stopped? No matter how much he fought, the city was still full of the same filth.

And yet each day he would wake up ready to try again.

A year ago, when this whole mess had started, he had a goal. He needed to avenge his niece, who had been killed as collateral damage of a bullet meant for him, take down the bastard that had destroyed the young life, then go home and take care of what was left of his family. Just his rotten luck that along the way he found himself neck deep on the depravity and violence of the City.

He took more that he was ready to handle, yet, somehow, came on top at the end. He became, without even trying, a hero for the people, forged out of the rage and pain of a lonely man set on revenge.

A grey hat hacker turned hero, what a joke.

At least something good had come out of it. With Lucky Quinn's death, the mob boss of the city and head of the black market, the many problems surrounding the city came out to the light. At last the people knew their streets were bathed in blood by those who had promised to protect them.

As he crossed the street he looked up at what once was one of the CtOS towers, an outdated piece of technology looming over the citizens of Chicago.

Blume corporation, the once world's foremost innovator of high-tech, high-performance communications and security technology, had crashed down once all the corruption behind their doors had been published. In the time it took for the news to report it everyone learned that their network was not secure, that all their information had been used to control them, to guide them as pawns on a chess board, and they were understandably mad, demanding answers that would never come.

Inevitably the corporation could not continue working, with all the questions made that they could not answer, all the demands and anger of the population, private and public contracts broken, research founds frozen and popularity dropping, ultimately it went bankrupt and closed its doors. The last hit being the release to all the mayor News channels of the video of Donovan Rushmore, back then city Mayor and Quinn's lap dog, murdering Rose Washington, and the Security company's involvement on it.

Thinking about how easy it had been to bring down Blume left a bitter taste on his mouth, it had been weeks of him fighting for his life and all it took was one video to set aflame the anger of the whole city to bring the company down. The power of people was something to fear, no wonder they had tried to control them. They almost did it. Well... with most of them.

As he nearer his destination he walked by one of the 24/7 stores, it's wall covered in graffiti, between the gang logos and political propaganda, right in the center of it all, a skull stood up from everything else.

DedSec, the not so secret society of hackers, serving their own brand of justice. They had never gotten over Aiden not allowing them to hack into the CtOS servers, and they became a torn in his side since then, sending fixers his way, trying to get information to blackmail him, even attempting to bring him to their side.

He had never really cared about them. Their ideals were not that far from his own, but their way of making those a reality is what made him stay as far away from them as humanly possible. Declaring a digital war upon Blume and the citizens of Chicago did not help them get in his good side either.

Lately they had been quiet, almost no news of them had been heard around the city. He suspected it had to do with them not having any big enemy to fight, there were only so many corrupt politicians you could bring to light before it got boring and the News stopped caring to report them.

The Owl Motel greeted him with its bright neon lights, he hurried up the stairs ignoring the few people still out. The sounds and lights of the city blocked once he closed the door of his room, giving him a brief sense of safety.

The Motel could not be considered one of the best of the city for a long shot, with its old beds with lumpy mattress and stains he did not want to guess where had come from, a cheap desk pushed away from the wall and to the middle of the room. Enough space left free so he could put up any information he had of his target at the moment on the wall, notes and pictures filling the space next to a map of the city, trash here and there he couldn’t bother to pick up and hardware parts tossed haphazardly so he could look at them later, even if he never did.

It was the less welcoming sight, and the closest thing he had to a home.

It was a miracle that the place had not closed up after the explosion Aiden had triggered on his previous room last year. Some might have called it stupid to set another hideout on the same place, but didn't someone once say that the best place to hide was in plain sight?

It had been a long day, two robbers down, one black market deal taken care of, a fixer contract gone wrong and a race against the police leaving him tired and aching from pains he would never take care of, all he wanted to do was take a shower, get on the bed and sleep for as long as possible.

Sadly the universe had it against him. His profiler rang with an incoming call.

Groaning he connected it without checking the name. “What?” pushing out the wall he walked to his desk, taking out his jacket and tossing it to the side.

“What kind of greeting is that for an old friend?” he stopped for a second before sitting down and turning on his computer, wanting to check if there was any new fixer contract, and to distract himself from this call he did not want to have.

“Jordi?” he had not heard from the fixer since... well, since Jordi had pointed a gun at his head. And to think that at one point back during the whole Blume incident they had been, if not friends, a team. Jordi, probably the best fixer in the city, would point him in the right direction to get the best contracts, as well as providing him guns, cars and explosives at the best price. For a while he had thought he could trust him, but it just proved to be a mistake when, after all had went to shit, the fixer had not even stopped for a second before deciding that it was on his best interest to betray Aiden, all of it for the right price.

Money truly makes the world go round.

“Glad to know you had not forgotten my name. So, how is The Vigilante doing these days? Fighting crime? Saving kittens from trees? Helping grandmas cross the street?” he could almost hear the smile on the voice of the Asian man, it just made him want to hang up.

“What do you want?” he did not have time for this, whatever Jordi wanted he could damn well get it himself, he did not owe him anything.

“Aww come on! you're not still angry about what happened a year ago are you?” something sounding quite similar to an industrial blender came from the other side of the call, he had a flashback of an ice cream truck, a freezer and a bloody hand poking out of it, with Jordi smiling proudly standing next to it, with a shiver he tried not to think about that sound too much, he was sure whatever was in that blender most likely did not include any actual food.

“Last time I saw you, there was a gun pointed at my head.” call him petty, but he would not let it go for a while longer. This was not what he needed today, a bad day turning worse with one stupid call.

“Yeah but like I said back then, it was not personal, and being serious Aiden, I like you, a lot, you are that weird uncle I never had.” yeah, that was definitely a smile he heard on Jordi's voice.

“Please stop trying to make small talk and just tell me why you called.” so I can tell you to fuck off and go to sleep as I had planned, he thought while pushing back the chair and standing up once again. Nothing new on his network, just his luck.

“Well the reason... let's call it favor.” that made him stop, the phone creaking by how tight he was holding it.

“Do you really think that after everything I would do anything for you?” why did he have to pick up the call, he should have let it go to voice-mail. After everything, Jordi still had the gall to call and ask him for a favor.

“Oh no, no, no. this is not a favor for me, but you. I am doing this to help you Aiden,” He almost laughed at absurdity of it “take it as me saying sorry for almost blowing your head that one time.”

“I don't buy it.” there was more to it, there is always more to it.

“You don't have to, but why I am doing this is none of your concern. Look, what should matter is that I have something for you, information that I know matters to you and your little Vigilante work, it is the kind of information many would pay a fortune to know. And here I am giving it away to you, because I like you, and I feel kind of bad for almost killing you, a little bit.”

“I should just track you down Jordi, pay you back for that.”

“Yeah you could, but you won’t. Want to know why?” he didn't really, but that would not stop Jordi from saying it anyway “Because you are not a vengeful person? I know what you did with Maurice, or what you didn't do to be more precise, you had the man responsible for your niece's death, the man who, unknowingly, was the reason you had to fight for so long and became the Vigilante, and yet you could not end it. You had him tied up and ready for you to take the shoot and you couldn’t pull the trigger. Truly the hero we all need, so full of forgiveness.”

Kicking out his shoes he fell down on the bed, the bright light of the lamp over it hurting his eyes “Just tell me why you called.”

“Fine, be that way. Something is going to happen soon, something big. But the details are not free,” of course they were not “I have a new job for you, something simple I know you can do without any problem, I would do it myself but I am kind of busy at the moment.” the sound of the industrial blender got lost behind of something that sounds a lot like a chainsaw, definitely not asking what was going on over there.

“Wasn't it supposed to be a favor?”

“Oh but it is, I just thought of making it a bit more interesting you know, for old times' sake. But this information is worth it.”

“And if it isn't”

Jordi's laugh was loud and short “Then feel free to track me down and let all your anger out on me my friend” A minute passed of silence while he thought about it, did he really want to take whatever job Jordi has? Wasn't he complaining before that his life had become boring and repetitive, maybe this is what he was missing, a bit of excitement.

“Fine, what's the job?”

-

The next day Aiden found himself at a coffee shop on Mad Mile, drinking an overpriced cup of black coffee and checking his profiler for any last minute change to the plan. He looked up at the apartment complex crossing the street. According to the data his target was on the thirteenth floor. There was no way to access from the outside aside from the main door unless he had the security codes, and he didn't. The building was relatively new, all security systems upgraded just a few months back, right after the whole Blume fiasco, so no easy access to the security feed from the outside either.

He took another sip of his coffee and looked down at the data on his profiler. A picture of a white man on a suit like many other white collar workers stared back at him, followed by a short resume of his life. Good family background, Business Mayor from a quality college, married with one child, and recently became vice president of one of the biggest News channels of the city.

The fixer contract was retrieval, his target not the man himself but information he had received once he became vice president, a series of mails stored on his personal laptop. It was never left alone for long, his only chance was to get it is while the man is at home and the laptop on the personal office on the apartment.

Tossing the empty paper cup on the trash Aiden made his way across the street, checking one last time his disguise on the mirror walls of the building. Gone were the jacket and hat that everyone in the city could recognize, instead he was wearing a plain pair of jeans and off brand shirt. With his face shaved and hair brushed back no one had been able to recognize him, while just yesterday he couldn't walk down the street without someone screaming his name and asking for a picture.

He climbed up the few steps to the front door, feeling vulnerable without his guns and explosives, the price to pay for anonymity, he only had a P-9mm hidden under his jeans, it was, without a doubt, the worst weapon he owned, but the smallest and easiest to hide. If everything goes according to plan he will not need to use it.

As he walks inside the building he does not look up, eyes fixed on his profiler and fingers tapping away at the screen. It had been one of the first things he learned when he started working as a fixer, back on his young days, act as normal as possible, do not give anyone any reason to look at you, to doubt you, to remember you, be just another face in a crowd.

Only once did he take his eyes out of his screen, looking at the receptionist and confirming she was still concentrated on her own phone. As he walked by her desk he activated the invading software from his profiler, connecting remotely to the desk computer in front of the receptionist, getting access to the security system of the building. Sometimes it made him want to laugh at how easy it was to get access to everything, he should be glad no system could compare to Blume, it made his work a walk in the park.

The finger print activated elevator opened with a single tap on his profiler, he did not hack the security cameras, a year back he would have a software installed to hide his face and make him unrecognizable, but now without CtOS and its constant monitoring of everyone in the city there was no way anyone would immediately know who he was or what he was up to just by scanning his face.

Stepping out of the elevator he walked down the aisle to the door marked as apartment 25 and keep going on without looking at it, instead he got into the emergency stairs and closed the door. Time for the fun part.

With his recently acquired access to the security cameras on his profiler he opened the feed of the apartment, sitting on the living room was the vice-president, a quick check on the other rooms confirmed that the laptop was where he had been told and that the family was not at home at this hour. Great news, the less people he has to deal with the better.

He made a call to the lobby, as it connected a secondary app started to run in the background, one of the latest modification done to his profiler.

“New Horizon apartments, Good day. How may I help you?” the receptionist voice was full of that face niceness necessary for her position.

“Morning, I am calling to ask when am I supposed to present myself to work? I got hired last week but haven't got any information. My name is Joe Smith”

“Wait a moment please” the sound of tapping came from her side “Sorry sir but we don't seem to have your name on our registry”

The processing bar was almost done, he needed to keep her talking just a bit longer “Are you sure? Can you check again?”

“I am sure Sir. Maybe you could contact the contractor? If you have been hired as you say then there might be a problem with our systems” finally a soft ping signaled the app was done processing the voice.

“Yeah, will do that, thank you”

“You're welcome sir, have a nice day” he hanged up before she was done talking and raised the phone to his lips. The voice modifier installed processed his voice and replayed his message with a more feminine tone. He cringed at the voice being slightly off from the one of the receptionist, the software still needed some work before it would be perfect, he needs to remember that for later, but it'll work for now.

“Hello?” the voice of the man inside the apartment greeted him from the other side of the call.

“Good day sir” he tried to imitate the cheerfulness of the girl, his profiler delivering the message in the voice of the receptionist “I am sorry to interrupt you at home, but we have a parcel with your name at reception and we currently are short on staff to bring it up to you, could you please come the the lobby for it, if it is not too much of a bother?”

“I don’t remember been waiting for anything, but sure I'll be there shortly”

“Thank you sir!” through the feed of the apartment he could see the man stand up and leave. Once he saw the man get in the elevator Aiden opened the stairs doors and walked to the apartment 25. He smiled down at the electronic lock on the door. So easy.

He had maybe 8 minutes before the vice president arrived at the reception, asked for a parcel that did not exist, demanded the explanation of the call, learned the girl had not done it, and, if he was smart enough, suspect a trap. He walked pass the luxurious living room, taking a left at the kitchen and opening the door to the office. Without a second to waste he sat down at the desk, turning ON the laptop and connecting his profiler through an USB port. The password secure device did not pose any challenge to him.

6 minutes to go

With a final click the laptop unlocked. He was greeted with a desktop background of the happy family, how cliché. Jordi’s client had provided a certain encryption pattern. He only needed to find anything that matched said pattern. Ignoring business plans and personal mails, he focused on the usual places where someone would keep this kind of stuff hidden. Folders named as family photos, classic music, and such, he also checked on the program files.

4 minutes left.

Finally he found a series of documents encrypted with the right pattern, copying them into his external drive he stood up ready to get the hell out of there.

Everything was going according to plan. So of course something had to go wrong in that moment.

As he took the first steep out of the apartment the elevator doors opened, two armed guards coming out of it and stopping as they noticed Aiden. The screams to “Stop right there, hands in the air don’t move” did nothing to stop him from bolting in the opposite way of the elevator. He kicked open the service stairs as the first shoot resonated on the empty hallway, there was no pain so he did not stop once before running down the stairs, pulling out his P-9mm, switching off the safety and holding it tightly at his side.

“He's going down! Hurry!”

Jumping each other step he moved fast, trying not to trip with his own feet. The security guards followed close by, their steps loud behind him. There were no more shoots, the space too small to even attempt and aim at him.

So his plan had gone down the drain, what options did he have left? He could try and get to the ground floor and outrun them, but what if they had more guards waiting for him there? Then again it wouldn’t be long before they called the police, without a car there's no way he will be able to get away alive. Maybe he could get to the second floor or as close to the bottom as possible and jump out of a window.

He didn’t really had the option to choose, as he passed the sixth floor he noticed sound coming from downstairs, risking looking over the railing he managed to see two more guards coming up.

“Fuck!”

He was surrounded, outnumbered and, to make things worse, he had no bombs to deal with them, no hack to distract, he should not have come so unarmed. He had greatly underestimated this job.

Backtracking to the previous rest on the stairs he stepped out in the sixth floor, closing the door and holding it close with his baton. It wouldn’t hold for long, barely enough for the elevator doors to start closing and 4 guns aimed his way, in one second he dropped to the floor, rolling to the side and making himself as small as possible as the shoots rained over where he had been standing, he didn’t move until the doors finally closed with a ping. I am getting old. He thought as he leaned on the wall and tried to calm down his breathing. The elevator music was as annoying as ever as he thought of how the heck was he going to get out of here, he had the data needed, but what good was it if he died here.

How many security guards could this building have? There had been 4 behind him, more than enough for the size of the building, but the high society people who lived here would pay extra for the best security available without it being intrusive, so most likely there were at least 4 more guards waiting downstairs. He glared at the gun on his hand, only 9 shoots and nowhere near strong enough to penetrate the Kevlar protected guards.

He has to outrun them, there was no option left, at least there is no way they know who he is, if he can just lost them they will never find it was The Vigilante who had been here. Decision taken he stood up and modified the destination of the elevator with his profiler, he was scrambling out as soon as the doors had opened enough for him to fit through, standing on the well-lit basement he moved between the lines of parked cars, it wouldn't be long before the guard would come rushing down, guns ready. He needed something fast, something that would be hard to follow.

He was going through the second line of cars when the stair doors where kicked open and 10 armed men ran inside, guns pointing forward. Aiden barely had enough time to hide behind a pillar before as the bullets started to rain down on him, then it was a matter of staying out of shooting range. He tried to shoot back, just to almost get his head shot off. One of the bullets managed to graze his arm, making him curse as he ran out of the pillar and jumped behind a car. He was frantically looking around, trying to find something fast enough when his profiler rang and Jordi’s name flashed on his screen. He did NOT have time for this.

“What?!” he ran behind another car, the guards slowly making their way to him. If he couldn’t find any car he would try his luck with the streets.

“Uh yeah, sorry, forgot to tell you something” he stepped out from the cover of the car just to scramble back down when more shots were given his way “security is really tight in the building so you might want to take that into account”

“A little late for that Jordi!” another shoot grazed his leg as he ran to the next car and he had to hold back his scream of pain, this day was just turning to be the worst he's had in a while.

“Oh well, good luck” the call disconnected and he had a momentary desire to toss the phone at the guards, if he survives this he is going to punch Jordi in the face.

Bless these rich folks and their taste for race cars, as he turned around the family van he was using as cover he finally found the perfect car, the hot red Scafati GT parked right in front of him was exactly what he needed. He waited until a cease of fire to run to the car, forcing the door open he climbed up as more shoots came, shattering the windshield. Not wasting time he hit the accelerated, running over a guard and hitting a parked car, if any of the shoots managed to pierce the tires there is no way he is making it out of this one alive, the parking door opened with another command from his profiler and off he went at full speed through the streets of Chicago, not once looking back.

Minutes later, when he parked on the side of the street, sound and safe back on Parker Square, he took a moment to just breathe.

He was definitely too old for this.

-

The first thing he did once he arrived at his hideout was take a shower, let all the sweat and stress from the shooting wash out of him with the warm water. After that he took care of the few wounds he had received, it was actually not that bad, he had got it worse on previous contracts so he would count himself lucky. After he dressed on a more comfortable outfit and drank a bottle of water he sat down in front of his computer, it was time to decrypt the data he had retrieved. This was not a part of the original plan.

Jordi had been clear, get in, get out and give him the data, in no part of it was said he should have to decrypt it, but his curiosity was too big, he just couldn’t give it away without having a look at it. Whatever this was, was important enough for someone to hire Jordi, and then for him to go out of his way to ask Aiden for help with it.

Decrypting the files took longer than expected, the algorithms much more complicated than he had first thought.

As he finished reading the first mail he pushed back his chair, staring blankly at the screen.

“What the hell is this?”

-

August 15th 20xx 20:16 hrs.

My friend,

I am writing this to congratulate you for your promotion, as well as to encourage you to continue acting as we have planned. One rarely finds oneself in such an opportune position as yours.

You know, as well as I do, that we cannot leave the masses to continue being feed the truth, for only with what we allow them to see they can achieve true freedom of the worries of the modern world. That is our burden, to shepherd those beneath us through life by any means necessary, to show them what to trust, what to believe. You my friend have achieved your first goal in the path of progress of society, with you in this new position of power now we can start to make a difference on the people of Chicago. We will show them what we must, we will tell them what to do, the News channel is no longer for the public, it is ours, and we will use it as we seem fit.

I must warn and request you to be careful, there is word that “They” are coming closer to us. After their messiah was gone we foolishly thought ourselves victorious, we were wrong. If something they are is resilient, there are already plans on the making to deal with them, but it is not safe yet, watch your back.

If everything goes as planned, soon, no longer than a year, the government will no longer derive its authority from the people, but from us, their protectors. You must continue to move forward.

Your next orders will come soon, stay in check, stay safe.

May the Father of Understatement guide you.

-

In hindsight greeting Jordi with a fist to the face was not his best idea, the pain of his knuckles an unkind reminder, but the satisfaction of looking at the fixer sprawled out in the floor with blood coming out of his now broken nose was totally worth it.

“Ugghhh... why the aggression?” the fixer stood up, letting out a groan of pain as he set his nose back in position, cleaning the blood from his face with his jacket sleeve.

“Small payback for not telling me about the security in the building” Aiden replied as he went to close the door. The garage had not changed much from last year, the chair where Maurice had once been tied was still there, as well some new stuff, gun magazines and various hardware pieces strewn around the place, most likely Jordi's addition to the small hideout.

“Ok fine, I'll let it slide this time” there was annoyance on his face as he looked at the now soiled sleeve of what once was his pristine white jacket before raising his hand, palm up to Aiden “Since you are well enough to punch my teeth out I guess you managed to get it done”

For a second he considered telling Jordi that he had not, but at the end he just sighed and reached into his jacket “Yeah, here” he tossed a small flash drive at Jordi's general direction.

“Hey! Well done, knew I could trust on you” a smile bloomed on his face as he catches the device in midair “Now, what do you think about it?”

“What do you mean?” He had never been good at faking innocence, been told one too many time it was obvious on his voice whenever he lied.

“Please, I know you, your curiosity wouldn’t leave you alone, it's your only shortcoming, being fair it is the reason why you get in so many problems” no way to deny that “so out with it, what do you think?”

“I don’t know” there was no correct way to react to what he had read, the first mail had been weird enough, it was like reading some sensationalist lies written by a madman in one of those secret societies clubs that spend their time trying to find hidden messages on television commercials, but the more he read the weirder it got, meeting plans, underground business contracts, documents write down with cyphers he could not understand, it just keep on getting more and more mysterious. Had he not retrieved it from the laptop of a vice president of one of the biggest News channel of Chicago he would have confused it with something DedSec would say, if they actually did something else but mess with the police.

“Hmm is that so?” Jordi sounded as uninterested on what he was being told as a man talking about the weather, walking around the room, picking up some stuff here and there to inspect.

“I don’t understand what kind of value those mails have for you” He continued as he noticed the fixer wouldn't be dignified to say anything useful “or for whomever your client is. If what is said in there is true, they have no way to relate it to anyone, there are no signatures, no logo, no mark, and they cannot prove where I took it from, by now that rich vice president must have already deleted everything from his laptop.” There was something else he had to say, but a part of him was adamant on accepting the fact he had been outsmarted, but he forced himself to keep on talking “I tried, to track back some of the mails, but whoever send them was good, better than me, I could not find anything to work with. Why does your client is after this info Jordi?”

“Hell if I know”

“Really?” Ok, he could admit that was not what he had been expecting to hear.

“I was told to retrieve the info Aiden, nothing else”

Disbelieve was obvious on his face as he stared at Jordi “As if that had stopped you before from knowing exactly what is going on at all time on the city. If I am curious, you are even worse”

Jordi seemed to be once again ignoring him, looking at the flash drive on his hand, bringing it up to eye level and turning it one side and another against the light, as if he could see what was inside it doing so “You are right” He finally spoke after some tense minutes of silence “I might be kind of curious about what this say, and judging by your face it must be priceless, but my client doesn’t really need it for anything, their main goal was not to get the info but to get you to read it”

Letting go of the flash drive Jordi shrugged and stepped on it, grinding down hard with the heel of his shoes, making sure it was completely useless.

“Whatever is in those files no one but you is supposed to have it, what you do with it is none of my business”

“So that's it”

“In my line of work I have come to learn that sometimes it is better to just shut up and do as you're told, this is one of those times. And now, your payment”

“Right, the supposed information you have that is worth all this hassle”

“Oh but it is worth all of it. You got me that” he pointed at the broken pieces of the flash drive on the floor “so I owe you, and I don’t like owing anyone”

Annoyance creeps up his back as he looked at the broken pieces of plastic on the floor “Fine, out with it then. What do you know?”

For once Jordi went directly to the point, and for once Aiden wishes he had not “Blume is coming back, and with a brand new CtOS to boot”

“Bullshit” his hands clenched at his side as he tried to keep his body in check, the need to bail out of there and just get away as far as possible too big all of a sudden “Blume went bankrupt” he forced himself to calm down, taking deep breaths as he tried to get the words out “There is no way they are coming back, not this soon”

“Nope, pretty sure is true. Got the details from a reliable source and all”

“Source you won’t share”

“Right, right, you know me well. Anyway, if I were you I would be getting ready for when they come back, it will be a problem for your little Vigilante work wont it?” If Blume was coming back and bring CtOS under their control it wouldn’t be only him with problems, everyone in the city would find themselves once again being watched every single moment of the day, all their information, all their lives recorded and stored for anyone to use. How long until another Lucky Quinn came forward? Wanting to use Blume for their own gain, abusing the power CtOS would give them.

“Now I must leave, you know how this is, got lots of jobs to complete, heads to bash, cars to steal and money to win.”

Holding him by the arm Aiden stopped him before he could leave “Before you are gone, one last question”

Pulling his arm free Jordi continued to smile in that annoying I-know-something-you-dont way “Only one”

“Who was your client?”

The grin just got bigger as Jordi turned around, walking out of the garage “Why don't you find out by yourself Vigilante?” he replied before climbing up on his car and driving away.

-

For a while he allowed himself to keep the whole mess with Jordi and the mails out of his mind, instead he concentrated on his usual work, stopping robbers, helping people in any way he could and messing around with the police without actually letting them know it had been him, for the most part it worked, until he would get back home and log in his computer, seeing the files on his desktop always worked to remind him there was something he should probably be looking into.

He tried to convince himself that there was actually no reason at all to do it, what he had read, even though interesting, had to fundaments. Why should he waste his time looking into something that sounded like a mad man’s tale? But his god damn curiosity wouldn’t leave him alone, at any moment of calm his mind would go back to those letters and try to make sense out of what he had read. Eventually he came up with such crazy theories that would have made DedSec sound like a bunch of normal law abiding citizens.

He found himself in one of that theory making moments as he sat on a stolen car right outside a Dinner, eating a burger and listening to the police radio he had intercepted on his profiler. The mails referred often enough ‘They’, to be careful, that ‘They’ were getting close, it seemed there were two factions on play here, but fighting for what? And what was that bit about the Messiah? The leader maybe? So the mail group took down the Messiah of the other group, could this be some kind of gang rivalry? But it didn't make sense, why would the vice president of a News channel be involved with gangs, maybe it had to do with the black Market. His head was starting to hurt thinking about it. He tossed the burger wrapping out the window and reclined his seat back, rubbing his forehead. The more he thought about it the more complicated it all got, he should just try once again to trace back the mails, with a little bit of work he might be able to do it.

It was not only those mails that made him lose sleep, Jordi had said Blume was coming back, and no matter how crazy it sounded he couldn’t just ignore the warning. The logical part of his mind told him there was no way for the security company to come back after such a short time, but the fact that the information had come from Jordi weighted more than any logical explanation, no matter how much he didn’t trust the man with his live Aiden knew that if Jordi said it, it must be true. Say what you want about the fixer but his web of contacts ran deeper than Lucky Quinn’s black market deals did back when he was alive.

The worst was that Jordi wouldn’t tell him who his source was, so he couldn’t verify what he had been told. None of his own sources had been able to give him any clear answers, there were some whispers here and there but nothing concrete. If CtOS was truly coming back online that would be a huge problem and he should probably start getting ready for the worst.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a call of help in the police radio, a citizen had seen a group of people forcefully pull someone inside a white van and drive away from The Wards, the concerned citizen had immediately called the police but they had lost track of the Van at the tunnels in Mad Mile. They were requesting all officers to look out for any suspicious activity around the zone.

Turning on the car he drove to the location where the kidnapping had happened. Forget all about crazy conspiracy theories, this was the kind of stuff he should be working on, helping the citizens of Chicago.

He arrived on time to see the police interrogating the witness. The street was crowded, the neighbors had come out wanting to see what was going on. Police officers were trying to calm them down, telling them to return to their homes and that everything was under control, but the citizens were already talking between them, teenagers with their phones out trying to get a good look at the crime scene.

He ignored the gasps and whispers of a few of the people who had already recognized him, making sure not to cross the police line he stood up at the front of the group of people, looking at the alley were some detectives were already looking for clues of what had happened. Some officers got anxious once they realized he was there, most likely since they couldn't ask him to leave, he was not doing anything illegal by just standing on the road.

“How awful, and it is not the first one is it?” a pair of old ladies were chatting between them just a few feet from where he was standing, he turned slightly their way to pay attention.

“The police won’t admit it but I am sure just last week I heard my brother talk about another kidnapping incident pretty similar to this one on The Loop, the cops are doing nothing to stop this?”

“I know, but what else could you expect from them?”

He stopped listening after that, moving away from the crowd. Walking around the building and avoiding the police he looked for one of the old CtOS junction boxes, if true the system was still active some of their hardware, mostly security cameras, had been turned off, he couldn't remember if he had already turned this particular camera on, so it would be easier to just connect directly. He found the box behind a trash can, the cover was off and it looked as it had been damaged by the rain, he could only hope it still worked as he connected his profiler to it. Bringing the system back even for a short time, took quite the amount of energy, but once turned on it would be his to command from now on.

He was no detective but it didn't took a genius to notice how off the crime scene was. As the cameras came back online he had a perfect view into the alley, the detectives were still taking pictures, yellow tabs marking the clues they had been able to find. What mostly called his attention were the different marks that pointed to a fight, they were unusual. A normal citizen would have screamed, they would have tried to hit their kidnappers, maybe bite or scratch them, try anything to get free, but the evidence here pointed to something different. There were foot marks on the walls, as well as scratches fit for a bladed weapon, a knife maybe, scorch marks and blood splatters in the weirdest places. It just didn't fit. Had the victim been holding a knife? What were those scorch marks? Why were there foot prints on the walls, it wasn't just one or two, it almost looked as if they had been using the wall to climb up.

Saving all the pictures on his profiler he left the place and hurried to his closest hideout, if what the old ladies had been talking about was true there should be another kidnapping report somewhere in the police records. Logging into their system was no problem, their security now a child's play without Blume backup.

The report of the first kidnapping did not help much, just like with the one today a citizen had heard ruckus on an alley behind his apartment building in The Loop, when he went to investigate he got there in time to see someone push another person into a white van and drive away. No car plate numbers or description of the criminals. The forensics pictures confirmed the connection between incidents, similar foot and scorch marks were found in the crime scene.

Things just keep on getting weirder.

The detectives had decided to retrieve the security footage of the neighboring building, identifying the van and following it around the city through the different security cameras, both public and private. Their intention had been to find either the place where they were hiding or the closest point to it, but as they followed the van into the Mad Mile tunnel system they lost track of it. They had footage of all the possible exits of the tunnels, had gone as far as checking the next 48 hours after the kidnapping, but not once had the van come out. Police officers had been sent into the tunnels to search the multiple parking lots and garages down there, but they had come back with nothing. The white van had disappeared into the air.

He downloaded everything the police had, storing it next to the new information he had retrieved from the alley on The Wards. It is too soon to say that both cases are related, no matter how similar they are. He needs more data.

Getting into the security feeds from the store next to the crime scene of the latest kidnapping took more time that he was comfortable with. At least the police would take even longer to get the permissions to request this data, so he had the advantage here.

Following the van along the darkened streets of the city was a difficult work, most cameras were now offline since they depended on the CtOS to function, only a fraction of the city security was still working, some he had brought back online, others private cameras of some high end business. It was time consuming to find a working camera, hack into their systems and retrieve the data. Sometimes he would lost the track of the van for a while if the cameras were on a private server, inaccessible from any outsider. It took most of the night for him to follow the van until it had gone back to Mad Mile, with a bad feeling he keep on following it through the feeds, until at least it went down into the tunnel systems.

More hours passed as he went through all the cameras he could find that pointed to the exit of the tunnels, but he just couldn't find any track of the van. It had just disappeared like before.

Sighing he turned off his computer, making sure first to have saved all the information he had found.

The secret door on the shipping container closed behind him as he made his way out into the city, the buildings tinted on the orange light of the afternoon. He had spent too much time holed up on his hideout going through the data, a meal at the closest dinner sounded like a great idea at the moment, after that he would have to go out and investigate more about these kidnappings.

Halfway to the dinner his profiler rang, Jordi's name flashing on the screen. He did not want to answer, he had been doing well ignoring everything related to that one job he had done for the fixer. Now he had something real to work in, not the crazy words on some mails or the unlikely news of Blume coming back, but something in the back of his head made him pick up the call.

“What is it now Jordi?”

“I got you big news” he could already see the lights of the dinner down the street, his stomach making a sound of protest since it had not been feed in hours.

“Am I going to have to take another suicidal mission for you to tell me what the big news is?”  He hurried his steps as he got closer to the small shop, thinking already of what he would order.

“No, this one is free of cost” he was climbing up the steps, hand already on the handle of the door when a sense of dread filled his whole body, knuckles white from the force he was using to hold the handle.

“Blume is back, checked and confirmed, no doubt about it”

“What?” he stepped back, turning away from the dinner, hunger forgotten as he walked to the closest alley and sat down atop some boxes. “Impossible”

“Oh but it is, I bet tomorrow it will be all over the news, and in a few days CtOS will be back online”

Part fear and part worry filled him as he sat there trying to make sense of what was going on. It was almost as if everything that had happened a year ago was coming back.

“Are you still there with me Aiden? Hey?”

“Yeah I am here” it took him a while to force the words out.

“Good, for a moment there I thought you had fainted or something! Come on man, think of the possibilities, with CtOS back your job will be 10 times easier! Full integrated control and security systems at your hand! Well of course you will need to get the access, but how hard can it be?”

“Jordi, for fuck's sake, who cares about my job. How long until we get another Lucky Quinn taking advantage of something like the CtOS? Heck! Having a big eye in the sky looking at everyone is already bad enough! How did they even manage to come back from bankruptcy?”

“Sponsors maybe? Look I understand why you're so against CtOS, but at least you will be there looking out for the people! And maybe taking some of my jobs, you know, a man needs to eat”

His mind was already swimming with all the possible scenarios, plans already forming on his mind against the worst of them. He will need more resources, maybe acquire more weapons, make his hideouts were safe, he will need to get back in contact with some of his older 'friends' as well, make a network as soon as possible.

“Is not like you have anything else to do!” His entire plan making came to a halt at Jordi's words.

“I do, there is something else going on in the city” for the first time he knew something the fixer didn't, he didn't feel excitement over that fact. It took a little over an hour to tell Jordi all he knew, leaving out some parts, his lack of trust on the Asian man had not changed, but against his own self-preservation he knew if he was to work on this as well as the whole deal with Blume it would be in his best interest to have Jordi on his side.

When he was done telling all he knew he finally felt strong enough to stand up and get out of the alley, walking past the dinner without a second glance, food will have to wait.

“Strange”

He stopped at the bus station, too tired and wore down to try and steal any car, the bus will suffice, he needs the resources he has available on his room in the Owl Motel if he wants to take care of this whole mess. “What's strange?”

“Everything” It was already late at night, the bus stop thankfully empty so he did not feel any apprehension from talking with Jordi in such an open space “That contract I got for you, Blume coming back, the kidnappings, hell even the fact that just a few days ago Abstergo opened its base of operations in the city! Doesn't it all smell funny to you?”

“You think they are related?”

Jordi was silent for a minute, when he replied his voice came out with a serious tone Aiden rarely got to hear from the fixer “Tell me Aiden, what are the probabilities of this all happening at the same time? A big corporation like Abstergo opens its new building in the city, a company known for its technological advances years ahead of anything else, just at the same time that a contract comes for you to retrieve some data from one of the biggest News channels on the city”

He sat at the back of the bus, away from a pack of drunk teenagers, looking out the window at the lights of the city, everything slowly clicking into place on his head “And then the kidnappings that seem impossible, all of this happening right before Blume miraculously comes back from bankruptcy” he finished for Jordi.

“Exactly!”

“If you're right, if there is some connection between all of it then this will be a huge problem” he could already see everything going to hell.

“Probably, what will you do about it?”

He knew exactly what to do, just like a year ago he would investigate everything, find the source and destroy it. He wouldn't allow anything to happen to the city, he was The Vigilante, and he would act like it “My job”