The next day Jacob had woken up with an uproar in the carriage. He got dressed and went to the third carriage where he found himself in a completely empty room.
"What the ..." Evie appears with a box. "Where are my "Rooks"?"
"Obviously they left, we are not going to take them to Crawley." Laughing at what her brother had said, the assassin went to the exit door only to be stopped by her brother.
"Wow, wait. Are you two going to Crawley on Bertha?"
"Yes." she tries to get into the 2nd carriage but she is stopped by Jacob once more. Evie looks annoyed due to the repeated action.
"But this is the headquarters of the assassins! Where are we going to stay?" Evie suddenly notices that Jacob was really confused and frowns:
"Didn't Henry talked about it?" Jacob nods, with a surprised face, almost like a lost child, without knowing what to do. Evie sets the box down on the floor. "We will take Bertha and you stay at the old headquarters." Jacob was even more confused, not realizing what his sister meant by that, Evie suspects. "Understood?" Jacob is perplexed.
"But that house is tiny!"
"It is not. Besides, Ronald is over there." Evie thinks about possible reasons, rolls her eyes and sighs again. "Unless you are thinking about bringing some company."
"So what about my ..."
"Don't worry, your "Rooks" don't even live here." Evie bends over to pick up her box.
"The "rooks"?"
"Yes, the "Rooks"." Getting up already with a box in her hands, wondering.
Jacob, distressed, realizes that he almost made a mistake.
"Of course. My Rooks, obviously." Evie wonders what is going on and risks asking.
"Anything you want to say to me, Jacob?"
The assassin, seeing that there was no way to turn things around, tried to disguise.
"Ahh ... well ... ahh." Not even his typical charm could save him, being his sister after all, he had already been caught. It is then that Henry came to save Jacob.
"Where do I land this box?" He says, noticing Evie with the box still in his hand "Oh, haven't you put that one down yet?"
"No." Looking at a box, then directing it to Henry. "Why didn't you tell Jacob that we would travel in Bertha?"
"Oh, my head, it must have escaped me. We were discussing the situation in London, I taught Jacob how the control of the streets was done before you arrived, something much simpler that can be applied again as London is free from Starrick and his allies." Henry replies. In a smart move, Jacob can take a deep breath of pressure, but Evie looks at Henry with a box in his hands, then turns to Jacob, who quickly pulls himself together. "Ronald guarantees that he helps Jacob with whatever is needed too."
"Oh, how thoughtful of him." He smiles, delighted.
"As you wish." Not yet fully convinced. Evie drove to Jacob "Excuse me Jacob."
"Certainly sis ." and let it pass. Henry follows until he is stopped by Jacob. "You don't even know how grateful I am, for a moment I thought you were already screwing me over, Greenie."
"Now, Jacob, a secret is a secret and I assure you that I am excited to see the new assassins. If you want I can even suggest someone."
"Who knew that you would end up being helpful, after all." Mocked Jacob.
Henry replies, a little more reluctant to what Jacob had said.
"Don't even try too, Jacob, look, I have my limits." And walks into the 2nd carriage.
They finish the rest of the preparations for a trip and by 2:00 pm they were ready to leave.
Evie, Henry and Jacob are in front of Bertha. While saying goodbye, Evie insists on a few more warnings to make sure that everything would be fine:
"Freddy is watching you too so ..."
"Evie, calm down, you don't need to worry, everything is under control, okay?" Jacob replied smiling.
Evie looks at glorious London, then at her brother:
"Okay, I'll be back soon to London as soon as I know something is up." pointing to Jacob. She starts walking to Bertha's door when... "Oh and no..."
"Evie, enough, your brother already understood." Says Henry serenely as he grabs Evie's arm.
"Right." She enters Bertha. Henry runs a hand over her back and then leaves. Henry is the last to speak to Jacob:
"Good luck Jacob. I can't wait to meet the initiates."
"Have a nice trip to Crawley, send my regards to George." Said Jacob. Henry nods and heads inside Bertha. Inside she walks until she gets close to Evie who looks outside with her head resting on her left hand:
"Are you still tense?" Henry pulls the hem of his pants and sits on the bench in front of her.
"It is not overnight that these things are done."
"Evie your brother is as devoted to the cause as you are, he will not fail."
"Yes, it is very easy to talk, it was not your brother who almost caused the British bank to collapse."
"You know he has you to remedy your mistakes."
The train starts and the light bodies of the two rock, not resisting the small shock of the start. Evie looks out the window, outside Jacob waves his arm out.
"The fact of having to deal with all this alone will do him good, it will bring you responsibilities." When Henry had already said this Jacob, together with other people at the station, were not visible anymore:
"Explain to me what you said yesterday, this time the truth." Said Evie turning to face Henry, still resting on his left hand his elbow on the arm of the chair, his legs were crossed and his right hand was on the thigh of the right leg.
Henry, distressed, says "But I already told you about it."
"Well, Henry, as convincing as you may have been, I still don't believe it."
"Evie please, I promised your brother I wouldn't tell."
"So that means there was really something else. Go, spill it."
"Listen, I promise I'll tell you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" No, no, if this is one of his plans, I want to know today to have time to go back."
"But it isn't! I gave him permission to do so, and if I gave him permission it is because it is nothing significant or bad!" Henry said in a slightly higher tone. "If you don't trust your brother, trust me."
"Okay, but I want to know tomorrow. And don't talk to me in that tone anymore."
"Sorry, I just want to see you more relaxed." Henry gets up and sits down next to Evie. "Your brother is right, this trip is not just for work, it is also for resting." He I smiled as he held Evie's hand.
Evie looks at her and Henry's hands together, intertwined. "Okay." She smiles and kisses Henry.
On the other hand, in London, Big Ben was about ten minutes away from five o'clock.
"Here we go." Jacob goes to Henry's old store to be able to meet Ronald.
He passes through busy streets, sometimes stepping in puddles that left his boots soaked. After the said ten minutes, the giant clock causes the bells that indicate five o'clock to strike, at that same time Jacob was in front of the store ready to enter.
"At the right time." He says holding the doorknob and turning but he realizes that the said thing was not turning and that the door was locked. "Shit." He tried to turn two more times but without success. "But where is he?"
"Jacob!" the assassin turns his head to meet the voice. "The store is closed today." Says Ronald as he walks over to Jacob.
"Yeah, I already realized that."
Ronald putts a hand around Jacob's shoulder. "So shall we go? She is waiting for us."
"She?"
"Yes." replies Ronald leaving for an alley in the background. "Her name is Juliet O'Halloran and she is sixteen years old. I've known her since she was a kid. She was part of the kids' band and when she grew up she joined "The Rooks". I taught her some tactics as promised but she always wanted to become an assassin and now that the opportunity has come I cannot deny it. She has been through so much and is so committed and a good girl, she deserves it."
"What happened to her?"
"I met her on a boat that was coming to London when she was just twelve. I was amazed when I saw a girl like her alone on a boat, we were leaving Wiclow in Ireland. I saw by her clothes that she was not the daughter of a high society family. It always impressed me the way she managed to steal food." Ronald can't help it and lets out a little laugh. "Listening to other people's conversations and disappearing without anyone noticing it. I was there to murder a former owner of a mining factory in Dublin, he owned a large part of the mining industries in the area until he went bankrupt. It was Templar and the trip main objective had him meant to talk about his situation to his master."
"Was it Starrick?"
"Well, no more. When I assassined him, the first thing Juliet did was punch me in the stomach, a valiant punch, actually. After, I asked her why and lo and behold, she tells me that her three brothers worked in one of the mines that ended up exploding."
"Oh."
"Her father, it seems, was killed by mercenaries hired by the mine owner. He demanded for the bodies of his three children and that was enough for them to put a bullet in his skull."
"I think that punch was well deserved Ronald, look that in her place I would also take revenge."
"Well, maybe." He passes a hand over the back of his neck. "The most fantastic thing about her is when you looked at her, it was not only sadness that she felt, anger was also inherent to her, so much hate and anger that I knew it would be wasted if I didn't give her any opportunity, so I suggested that she join the kids's group and at the same time teach her some of our tactics, she knows how to handle weapons well and is superb in hand-to-hand combat."
"Are you trying to tell me that in that case I won't need to train her."
"Let's say you already have some of the work upfront."
"Hum." Jacob had been thinking about what Ronald had said. "Wait, didn't you say she was in Wicklow?" Ronald nods confirming. "How did her brothers and father end up in Dublin?"
"I think Juliet lost herself, but she also never told me much about it." At that moment Ronald stops. "We arrived." In the background were a group of boys and girls dressed in green. Ronald can't see Juliet but looks up and comes across the three young men on the roof top. He shouts "Juliet!" The girl responds to the scream as soon as she hears it. "Can you get down here? I have someone here that I want to introduce you to!"
The girl in a parkurist choreography, all very well executed, showing signs of her genius, goes down the house. The girl was natural, not wanting to pass on ideas of exhibitionism, once on the floor she approached Ronald and Jacob:
"Juliet, this is Jacob Frye. He and his sister defeated Starrick and ended his kingdom."
"It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Frye, we are all grateful to you." The girl looks at Jacob with a certain fascination, admired his work and hoped to become as good as her future mentor. Juliet was about six feet tall, almost the size of Jacob, had long black hair that strayed from the standard at the time, since the use of loose hair at the time was not frequent, the girl had a ribbon who held only her bangs in a small braid on her back. Her eyes were curved, she almost looked like a cat, they were water green. Her full, pink cheeks were clear signs of her young age, but the expression in her eyes and mouth showed the opacity of a difficult past. The girl was thin and tall, with some curves but, above all, with a remarkable training physique. Despite having been in London for five years, Juliet had never lost her strong Irish accent. "Starrick got what he deserved."
"Well, Jacob has a proposal for you."
Jacob was distracted for a few seconds, he noticed that at the end of the street was that boy who was singing the other day. Jacob had already seen him in some missions where he had contributed. The boy was very astute and extremely skilful despite being constantly playing, his work was notable however, there was always great enthusiasm on his part when performing tasks.
"Isn't it Jacob?" Ronald nudges him when he notices that Jacob was lost for a while:
"Yes." Composes himself. "With the defeat of Starrick we intend to re-establish the brotherhood of London with new assassins. Would you be willing to be part of it?"
Juliet, thrilled, she tilts her head slightly forward. "You don't even know how much I am grateful to you, Mr. Frey. I will do whatever is necessary to contribute to the cause of the creed."
"Great, welcome initiate." Jacob smiles at him, Ronald congratulates Juliet and Jacob looks back at the boy. There was something about him because Jacob felt he wanted to recruit him too, that's when he realized, the boy reminded him of him. He tried to recall his name, "Byron, isn't he?" Jacob remembered:
"Byron!" The boy looks. Ronald turns his attention to Jacob and Juliet is astonished at the action of his now master assassin:
Juliet, stunned, whispered, "Byron?"
"What are you doing?" He asked incredulously.
"Why, isn't his name Byron?" He asked himself, thinking he was wrong. At that moment the boy said goodbye to his cronies with a satirical bow and walks over to Jacob, Ronald and Juliet.
"Yes but ..." is interrupted.
"You called me?" Said the boy, smiling broadly from end to end.
"Yes, your name is really Byron right?"
"Daniel Byron Parkins at your service Sir Jacob Frye." says while executing a second bow, then straightens and looks to his left, with Juliet, with crossed arms frowning. He greets her just so he can piss her off even more. With a smile on his face he says. "Hello Juliet!" mocking his colleague, the two seemed not to have a friendly relationship at all.
"Byron." replied Juliet strictly, looking away from the boy, she did not want to give the impression that personal matters overlapped with other responsibilities, so she had left all of that and just greeted him.
"Good!" In this he feels Ronald's hand on his shoulder, the assassin breaks out before Jacob can speak.
"Could you just give us a second?"
"You have all the time in the world." Says Byron, opening his hands.
Ronald and Jacob leave, the two take six steps and keep their backs to Juliet and Byron.
"Is this for real? Do you want Byron to be part of the brotherhood?"
"Yes, I know him, he has audacity and agility. I want him as an initiate."
Ronald looks behind him, seeing a Juliet still very straight and Byron waving ironically. "As you wish."
"Great." Turns around. "Byron! I want you in the brotherhood, along with Juliet."
"Oi, Juliet, it looks like your dreams have come true." Winks at the girl mocking, then looks at Jacob. "It's an honour to be part of the assassins cause."
"Excellent, that's the kind of enthusiasm I want. The day after tomorrow come to the store to meet me, it is the base of the assassins right now. Ah! And bring what will be your uniform."
"Anything specific?" Asked Juliet.
"Well, you can inspire yourselves by the clothes we wear, but you must wear discreet colours and have a hood on your coat."
"For sure."
"I will try to do my best." Said Byron smiling.
"Here, have some money in case it is necessary."
Ronald points to Byron specifically. "No spending money on other things if not the clothes, understood!"
"I had no intention of using it for anything else." He smiles as he raises his hands.
"Until tomorrow then." Said Jacob. And they start to walk far from him.
Juliet goes back to the roof looking at Byron disappointed with the choice of her mentor, Byron returns to his colleagues' feet while shouting.
"Be careful with me, I'm an assassin now." and laughs along with his colleagues.
Byron was about six feet tall, had a larger physique than his colleagues. As Jacob had said, Byron was extremely committed to the missions where he participated with the "Rooks". Byron has yellowish brown eyes, almost caramel, and dark brown hair, almost black, which was around his neck with a fringe almost covering his eyes. He is two years older than Juliet, the two met when the boy joined the gang. Because of the proximity of ages, the two occasionally worked in the same group, but due to his reputation Juliet, like many others, believed that Byron could not take anything seriously and that his intentions were always meant for the sake of a good laugh.