Chapter Text
“Another night, another murder… based on the crime scene and the information Freddie and Jacob passed on, it matches Jack’s MO. Wish I could say I was surprised, but then I’d just be lying to myself.” A brunette was perched on a roof, observing the police investigation of a young woman’s murder. This was another message to the brotherhood, like all the other poor women before her. Evie could tell because of the ring line on the victim’s finger. She let out a sigh and ran a hand over her signature braided up-do.
“Although, I don’t particularly wish to be spending my evenings investigating these murders and, of course, Jacob is always far too busy to deal with it himself. I should just let him sort it out himself, after all, Jack is predominantly his student… but if I don’t deal with it now, who’s to say it will be dealt with at all? And I can’t bring Henry into the matter since he’s still in India dealing with far more urgent matters.” The middle aged assassin sighed again for what felt like the thousandth time since finding out members of the brotherhood, particularly their Intel gatherers, were being murdered. She decided she’ll just ask Freddie about the situation in the morning, given he and the twins were friendly enough throughout the years. After all, she still had something she wanted to to do, for old time’s sake. Pulling an old worn notebook out of her pocket, Evie opened up a page that had a crudely torn off fraction of a map pinned down along with a description of what she’d need to do in order to unlock the next artefact. There weren’t many hours left of the night so she set off to find the location of the next clue to make the remainder of her search go much smoother. Once she was far enough from the scene of the murder, she figured that it would be fine to come down from the rooftops and, in a leap of faith, jumped down into a conveniently placed cart filled with hay, unaware that something or someone was watching her from a distance.
After about fifteen to twenty minutes of walking, Evie finally paused at an old manhole cover. After cross referencing the design on the cover with an image in her notebook, she reached down to hoist it up out of the ground but was stopped short by a sound. Heavy footsteps made their way towards her location and she quickly ducked into an alleyway, climbing up to a boarded up windowsill on the upper floor of the house, waiting for the group of men in the familiar green blazers to pass. She still hadn’t fully accepted the fact that the rooks she had helped climb out from under the blighters had decided to join Jack and betray her and Jacob. She usually wouldn’t have had an issue with knocking them on their rears but she was still fairly worn out from the long travel back to London from India and knew that taking on a large group while not at a hundred percent was never a good shout.
Once the men in green had passed and she was certain they hadn’t spotted her, Evie carefully scaled down the wall and started walking over to the manhole cover, slowly prying it up off the ground and setting it to the side, making as little noise as possible. Much to her misfortune, however, once the grate was no longer in her hand, a gloved hand immediately grabbed her in a headlock while another pressed a laced, damp cloth to her mouth and nose and held it there as she struggled, kicking out behind her, trying to break free. Sadly, her efforts were in vain and she soon fell slack, the only thing stopping her head from crashing to the ground being her captor’s headlock. The last thing she heard before completely losing consciousness was “you’ve gone soft, Miss Frye” which was followed up with a deep sinister chuckle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After what felt like years, the master assassin stirred from her unexpected ‘nap’, so to speak, and blinked back the bleariness, only to be met with the inside of a jute sack that still had a lingering smell of potatoes and dirt. While trying to bring a hand to her head to remove the sack, she realised her hands were tied behind her back. Inwardly cursing, it finally dawned on her that the situation she was in was definitely one she needed to get herself out of as soon as possible. Flicking her wrist, Evie attempted to cut through the ropes around her wrists, but nothing happened.
“Great… they took my blade, which means they probably took my other weapons. I need to find some way ou-“ she was abruptly cut off with the sound of a heavy iron door slamming shut followed by the sound of heavy footsteps moving down the hallway and almost immediately pretended to still be unconscious. The great plan was immediately rendered ineffective as the sound of two men talking filled the otherwise dead silent room.
“Don’t bother pretending, I know you’re awake, Miss Frye. One of your little birdies told me. Oh wait, they’re not your rooks anymore, silly me.” The voice caused Evie to tense. It was a voice she knew all too well. Jack yanked the sack off Evie’s head and was met with a furious glare that would cause even the infamous Jacob Frye to freeze. Though, Jack didn’t freeze. Oh, no, that would be far too simple a reaction. Instead he grinned and kneeled down in front of the twin of the man supposedly responsible for all his suffering.
“Why so cross? Aren’t you happy to see me again? It’s been oh so long since you’ve meddled in my affairs, I’ve decided to make you my partner in this next scheme!” After motioning for the rook who accompanied him to join him in leaving the woman with nothing but her own thoughts, Jack chuckled as he stood back up, turning toward the door to leave and finish setting the first step of his plan in motion.
“What makes you think I’d help you? I’ve seen what you’ve done to those women, I’m not stupid, Jack. Don’t forget it was Henry that taught you the very fear tactics you used.” Evie pushed against the wall as she pulled herself to her feet before dashing to the door to make her exit, only to be a couple of seconds too late as it slammed in her face, earning a barely audible expletive, which brought a hidden smirk to Jack’s face under his crude mask.
“Oh, I haven’t forgotten. It was an absolute joy using them against your little initiates. By the way, don’t bother trying to escape this hell hole, its futile. I’ve learned that all too well thanks to your dearest brother.” Jack barely glanced back in her direction as he and the rook made their exit, leaving the master assassin alone in the same dark, damp room that jack had spent countless nights in, all alone.
Once she heard the door down the hall slamming, Evie released such a foul string of profanities that would make even the drunkest Irish sailor blush. Pacing back and forth, she tried to find a way to get her arms out of their binds so she could as least move them in front of her so they wouldn’t go numb over time. Unfortunately for her, though, even with the assistance of her eagle vision, her search came up short. The closest sharp item was a butter knife on the other side of the locked door. It seemed the only viable way to get out of her binds was to dislocate her right thumb and shimmy the ropes over her hand. Then she could untie the knot on her left hand and stash the rope to use against jack next time he enters the room. And so, that is exactly what she did while biting the inside of her cheek to hold back any pained noises in case the sadistic bastard wasn’t actually gone.
After relocating her thumb, the master assassin removed a thin hair pin from her hair and started picking the lock on the door. After hearing a. Very satisfying snick, she opened the door and started moving very quietly through the halls, hiding whenever she heard footsteps approaching. Funnily enough, she couldn’t help but be disappointed at them for being unable to spot her even when the hiding places she had to make do with were abysmal. She was almost at the exit in minutes.
“Jack’s been slacking with the rooks… this is almost too easy.” She could see the doors marking the exit.
“Have I, now? Well, I’ll be sure to make note of your criticisms, Miss Frye.” While sounding like his smug self, Jack came around the corner, cutting Evie’s path short as he strode up to her, shaking his head in mock dismay.
“Now, why are you out of your room? Don’t you know you have an indefinite curfew until this is all done? How naughty of you, Miss Frye. Jacob would be very disappointed in you.” He reached out to the elder Frye in a seemingly friendly gesture, waiting for her response. He quickly retracted his ‘gentle’ gesture when she took a step back and met his gaze with a stern glare. With a disappointed sigh, he marched up to her top try and grab the collar of her jacket, only to miss when she nimbly ducked out of his grasp and slipped past him, breaking into a run for the door.
She froze and reflexively ducked as she heard a familiar gunshot. Turning slowly, she saw Jack holding her revolver in the air, smoke billowing from the barrel.
“Well, now I know that’s an effective method. Run again and I’ll put a bullet in your kneecap, miss Frye, and we both know both Jacob and your darling husband wouldn’t be too happy with that. Not to mention, it would rush my wonderful plans.” Evie could hear the smirk in his voice and it didn’t do much to quell her irritation. She glanced around for some way out of this situation without putting her life at too much risk.
“And why do you need me for it, Jack? Surely you could recruit one of your pilfered rooks to do the task.”
“Why? Well, its quite simple, Miss Frye. I need someone close to my wretched former mentor and you’ve both had such a strong lifelong connection which makes you perfect for this little game of mine.” The masked murderer grinned as he took another step closer to Evie, who took a step back to keep the distance between them. She needed to stall while her brother would surely realise her absence is not normal and come looking for her, unaware of jack’s true motives.
Glancing around, she spotted an open window, high up, and an idea popped itself into her head. If she could disarm Jack and steal her revolver back, she could incapacitate him and take off through the window, since the door was blocked off now. She can always ask Bell to replace her hidden blade or get a completely new one if needs be, so retrieving that wasn’t too high a priority. Though, the idea of having to deal with the inventor’s very blatant flirting didn’t exactly sit well with her.
‘No, focus Evie. We can sort that out later. First thing’s first, get the hell out of this shitshow.’ She shook her head and waited for jack to get close enough for her to grab his wrist and the revolver. She then twisted the revolver in his hand sharply, resulting in a loud crack followed by a pained groan from the man, and wrenched it out of his grip before swiftly kneeing him in the groin, causing him to double over in pain, kicking him in the back to fully knock him down and taking off running to the uneven stone wall, climbing her way up to the open window. Sadly for her, she didn’t make it far up the wall before a sharp sting blossomed in her thigh just above the knee pit, distracting her enough for her grip to slip and she fell off the wall into a pile of stale and mould covered sheets that were just tossed to the side.
“I tried to play nice, Miss Frye, but now I’m just pissed.” Jack stormed up to the downed Frye and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, knocking her out with a swift jab to the temple. He dragged her back to the temporary prison and threw her in, unceremoniously, taking back both the revolver and the dagger from her thigh. He ordered one of the rooks to treat her injury and allocated a second to join the first in guard duty, realising it a folly not to have guards in the first place. Shaking his head at how troublesome the supposedly reasonable Frye twin had been, he stormed off to the asylum’s office where he had left both Evie’s notebook and the remainder of her weapons, throwing the dagger in with the heap. He then took his mask and hat off, picked up Evie’s notebook and tore out a page, before writing a letter.
“He’ll recognise this paper. If he doesn’t, then he’s a bigger fool than I thought.”