We arrived in Boston around midday. Settling into the Morrigan for the night took no time at all, and soon I was off on my own to meet up with the others.
"Where's that damned warehouse?" I muttered. Tommy had to have chosen the most obscure, isolated building in the entire city to store the supplies in - else I'd have found it by now.
Wandering around the docks for a couple hours wasn't fun - the smell of rotting fish and the weary glances from strangers did nothing to help me focus on hunting down the warehouse. Each building I peeked into seemed to be filled with fish or halfway-built ships or ammunitions - where on earth was the one Tommy'd chosen?
Peeking into a filthy window, I nearly passed it by in frustration when I saw a familiar form inside - Lee?
A closer look, color distorted by the dirtied glass, revealed he was slumped against a barrel. Was he really napping? No, he wasn't the type. An uneasy feeling settled over me.
It took all of five seconds to reach one of the doors to the building, slipping in with no one the wiser. I made no move to hide my footsteps as I approached where I'd seen Lee.
Looking down at the floor,my dread proved true; a trail of blood was on the ground, starting from another entrance and leading towards where I'd seen Lee.
As I got closer, I heard shuffling and heavy, labored breathing, and Lee tried to back away, only succeeding in knocking the barrel over. "Stay back, damn you!"
"Lee? Lee, it's me - Courtney." I called out. Was that a cut on his head?
After a brief silence, he squinted up at me, furiously wiping away the blood that dripped from a nasty gash in his forehead. "Courtney? Have you seen Master Kenway?"
"No." I paused, looking over the injury he'd taken. "What happened?"
"I haven't a clue - Master Kenway, Hickey, and myself walked in and we were ambushed. Someone must have gotten word - I don't know how, with the speed we acted." He explained.
How had someone known they'd be here? "Are they gone?"
"I couldn't say. But I pray they aren't, if only for Master Kenway's sake." He struggled to rise, but I gently forced him back down.
"I'll take a look around to see what I can find, and then I'll go get help. Here," I pulled a handkerchief out. "I'm no doctor, but this can at least help to slow the bleeding a bit." As soon as he'd taken the cloth from my hand, I was up, following the trail of blood back to the other entrance.
"I'll live," Lee called after me, "But move quickly, Courtney!"
It wasn't difficult to piece together a rough idea of what had happened. The trio had walked in from the other side, then been attacked. Blood was spattered on the ground and walls, and the clearest trail led back to Lee. Pacing around, carefully examining the splatters revealed another - heading back out the way they'd come. A couple bodies of men I didn't know lied lifeless outside the door, one stabbed and the other shot. The blood led me past them, though I spotted a few more as I went. Who would clean this mess up, I wondered?
The trail was difficult to follow, the person evidently having decided that whatever wound they'd taken could handle the exertion of climbing up walls and vaulting over crates. But was it Haytham I was getting closer to, or Tommy?
My question was answered when I spotted navy blue - the cape Haytham wore around his shoulders. A rip was in it, still-wet blood staining the torn edges. He couldn't be far - if he was still alive.
My heartbeat quickened as I followed the blood trail with renewed vigor, cape clutched in one of my hands. He had to be around here somewhere. He couldn't die. Not yet.
I ducked into a building, -yet another abandoned warehouse in what had to be a dead district of the damned things - looking at the drops of dark red speckling the floor as I walked. Please, please, let him be alive.
A quiet sob left me when a heap of navy blue clothing came into my view. Haytham's still form was on the floor, face twisted in pain. My hands shook a bit as I reached out to touch his arm.
"Haytham?" My voice was trembling, weak. "Oh Gods, please be okay. Where're you hurt? Is it bad?"
He grunted as I helped him sit up. "My back- my shoulder. He tried to go for the heart, but clearly he must have missed." Haytham ground out as I pressed his cape to the wound. It would have to do for now.
"Who attacked you?" I asked.
"Thomas." He said, the name sounding like poison.
I froze. Tommy? As much as I didn't want to believe it, it only made sense. There was no other way someone might have known we were leaving - not unless Pitcairn had betrayed us. But no, Pitcairn wouldn't, I thought. Tommy, though? All anyone needed to sway his hand was money, it seemed. And since his "employer" was leaving him behind, it wouldn't take much to convince him.
"Is he still here?" I asked.
"He left moments ago, God only knows why. Perhaps he thought I'd bleed out." Haytham said.
I straightened up. "I'll be back."
Haytham's hand grabbed my wrist. "Courtney, be careful."
I nodded. "Just don't die before I get back to help you to the Morrigan."
He returned the nod, and I began my search of the house for Thomas.
