To the Pit
Annie watched Connor's anger rise with Weems, then back down. She couldn't hear what was going on, but she was sure they were formulating some kind of plan. She would just have to go along for the ride.
When Connor departed, he looked around with his jaw set. Which he always did when he was ready for a fight.
Annie moved closer, and watched as he punched one of the younger guys in the temple, knocking him out.
Instantly chaos erupted. Other men came to fight Connor, and the guards above came down the stairs to watch. They were all impressed, seeing him surrounded by six men, and then taking them down without even getting hit himself.
The other guards just watched, waiting for it to get out of hand. So Annie flipped her gun and held it to her side. She could only guess that his plan was to get thrown in the pit. Though she couldn't understand why, the warden is a hard ass who can't even stand to look at the prisoners. Maybe it has something to do with that forged key.
Once Connor had beaten down about seven men; two guards went to apprehend him. One pulled out their baton and hit him in the face with it, and she watched him fall to the floor.
She moved closer, "Fancy yourself a troublemaker, eh? Sometime in the pit will cool your blood," one of the guards yells.
One man gets back up, and runs towards Connor as they dragged him away, ready to punch him. Quickly Annie lifts her gun, and hits the advancing prisoner in the forehead with the butt of it.
"You want to join him as well?" The man groans and sits up, trying to grab her gun for purchase. She slams the gun against his check, and this time he stayed down.
Another man lunges for her, but a guard grabbed his arms and threw him on the ground. Annie reacted quickly, shoving the barrel of her gun in his mouth. "I will not hesitate to shove this gun so far down your throat; it will come out your arse." She pulled away looking around, ignoring the other guards laughs.
Annie then went back to patrol once everything had dispersed. Once it was calm, she decided to learn about what was happening.
She walked to Weems, who was sitting down, unmoved. He nodded at her presence. She leaned against the base board behind him, looking around.
"What is the plan?" She asked quickly and quietly.
"Steal warden's key, kill Hickey." He says not looking at her.
She walks away swiftly, thinking of a reason to guard the pit.
…
Annie was genuinely surprised when she found out the pit had only two guards, not including the warden. But it was small and stunk of blood and vomit. So she offered herself to replace a guard, and the guard relieved was frankly thankful.
The warden put Connor in the smallest cell, and she walked by to see his face swollen up again. He was lying face down on the cold ground, and she longed to help him. But she didn't want to arouse suspicion, so she kept moving. Connor woke up later that night, right when the warden was mocking the prisoners.
Annie was leaning against the filthy wall, watching the warden as he walked to the cells, ranting.
"Look at all of you. Pathetic, dirty wretches." He looks at Connor, and spits at his feet. "You're not but swine," he then turns to the other inmates, "suckling at the teats of civilization. Thieves and scoundrels, all of you."
She notices a hand slip between the bars, and reach for the key ring on the warden's hip. She smiles to herself as he continues. "And do you acknowledge this? Do you repent and beg for forgiveness? No. You sicken me, all of you!"
The cranky man stalks off, grabbing the ale on the table with him as he goes. The other guard was sitting down on an old wooden chair, cleaning his rifle.
"Ay," she calls out to the man and walks over to him quickly. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear wot?"
"Down there, it sounds like someone is fiddling with the locks." Annie points down the hall that leads to the ill prisoners.
"To hell they ain't," he stands up, grabbing his rifle and stalks down the dark hallway, cursing.
Annie looks at Connor's cell, and gives him a quick nod, not sure how long the guard will be distracted. She hears the click of the lock, and the screech of the door. The footsteps of the returning guard come, and she signals Connor.
"Just 'notha one dyin', sreamin' for his mama."
She nods and leans back against the wall as the man starts walking around.
Connor darts in front of her, going up the stairs where the upper-class that had been arrested stay. But Annie was more worried about the roaming guard. He might know an inmate was missing.
She walks up to the man, placing a light hand on his shoulder.
He looks back, giving her a questioning look.
"It's quite boring down here, you know. And we got four more hours on the job." Her hand runs down his chest and she smiles at him. He knows what she's getting at, and smiled down at her.
"I see wot yer sayin'" he pushes her against the closest wall, his hands roaming over her hips. The guard kisses her neck and she takes the opportunity to elbow him in the temple. He lets out a surprised and painful grunt as he falls to the floor. Annie picks up the gun to knock him out completely.
Looking at the unconscious body, she felt bad. So she dragged him to Connor's vacant cell and lays him on the bed, locking the door behind her. Then she runs to catch up to Connor.
When she gets to the door, she sees who she least expected.
Charles Lee and Thomas Hickey.
That means Connor's plan have been annulled and they knew of it. She would have to play along, and hope to stop them and buy Connor time to realize what's happening.
They notice her quick approach, and turn away from each other.
"Sir, a prisoner has escaped, -the assassin I believe." She panted, acting like she was out of breath.
Charles' thick eyebrows knotted, "We know, hurry with us. We know where he's at."
"But what if he's not there? And he escapes, we can't-"
"Shut up! Before we lose him," he growls as they storm up the stairs, her following quickly behind them.
One of the guards notices them, "Is there something wrong sir?"
"Shut up you fool," Charles says indignantly at their unawareness.
Annie stands on her tip toes to look over the Templars for Connor. She sees movement in a cell, and knows there is nothing she can do now.
Charles leans against the door frame, and Thomas walks to the room with a smirk on his face.
Peering in, she can see the irritation on Connor's face, and the body of the warden on the floor.
"Not who you was expectin', am I right?" The drunkard says swinging his pistol around.
Charles crosses his arms, "What have we here?" Annie pokes from between them, offering Connor an 'I tried'. "I thought we finished off your kind."
Connor's lip curls up, "You would like that, wouldn't you. To rid the world of all who do not share your views."
Charles laughs, walking up to Connor. "Guilty as charged!" He raises his gun to Connor's face. "Your meddling in the revolution has caused us no small measure of grief. It cannot continue. Our work is too important. But what would you know, beyond all the lies Achilles feeds you and the tales you tell yourself."
"I know that the people wish to be free- and that men like Washington fight to make it so."
"Please," Charles spits. "The man is weak. He stumbles and stammers through each engagement, making it up as he goes along. His pedigree is pathetic," his voices gets louder as he steps up to Connor. "His military record even more so! I could go on and on, but we'd be here for days, so manifold are his faults, so deficient are his merits. He must be dealt with. You as well. I will abide no more flies in the ointment."
Charles backs off, and Hickey smiles. "'Ere is 'ow it's gunna work. First we bind ya and bring ya to your cell. Then, tomorrow, you go before the court, accused of plottin' to kill ole Georgie." He walks up closer, his smirk only getting wider. "Maybe we could pin the murder of the warden on you too. You did kill him, after all. And who wouldn't take the word of ole Charlie ova' here. Once that's all squared away, well then…" He made a clicking noise, imitating a noose.
She felt sick to her stomach, how bad things got. It could now lead to Connor's death.
Charles lifted his gun with a smile. She lunged, ready to knock it from his hands. But Connor beat her to it, grabbing his arm and twisting it and unsuccessfully trying to pin him on the wall. He only managed to get himself pinned. Annie moved inside the room with her gun raised, pointed at the space between Connor and Charles.
While they stared at each other with hate in their eyes, Thomas put his hand on her arm, lowering the gun.
"All those years ago… the child in the forest was you."
Annie swallowed the lump in her throat.
"I said I would find you."
Charles laughs, still pinning Connor. "And so you have. But not quite as you expected- am I right? You know- all of this might have been avoided, if you had only done what I asked. Ah, but what is done is done."
He chokes Connor until he passes out, and falls to the floor.
Charles Lee then looks at her, and starts laughing. Her mouth was open a little, her face filled with shock.
"Oh, don't tell me you pity the boy."
A large hand slides on her shoulder, "I think we awl deserve a drink, eh?" Thomas pushes her out of the cell and towards the door of the Bridewell prison.
"Put him in his cell, we'll deal with him tomorrow." Charles demands to the guards, then following them out.
Annie didn't even know where to begin.
