Chapter 19

The doors of the warehouse burst open and Robert stormed out of them. He was wearing a rather frightening expression on his face. He'd been discovered, his real motive had been discovered by the one person who had been supposedly been in the Blighter's hands. He'd wanted to see her for himself to confirm what the Blighters had told him. But when he'd entered the room all he had seen was a small pool of blood on the floor and blood marks on the door frame. He'd also spotted a large hole with a tunnel behind. It had left no question in his mind of what had happened. Evie Frye had overheard what he'd said to the Blighters and then escaped. She had to be tracked down and fast. He had worked for too long for it all to go up in flames. Before he stormed out of the warehouse the Blighters had received an ear full, why they thought locking an Assassin up in a room with a very obvious escape route was a good idea? Although he could not claim to not much about Assassins he did know that they were pretty good at finding escape routes. Robert let out a breath, he had to fix this and fast.

The light had faded and night had drawn in. The station was quite apart from a handful of people. Evie and the four Rooks had spotted the train hideout in an instant. The Rooks walked towards the carriage of the train where they knew other Rooks would be, the bar. Whereas Evie had stopped, her gaze had fallen on a window of Jacob's carriage. She sighed, she should have guessed that Jacob would most likely be on the train, where else would he be when he was not following Robert around. She could see him through the window of the train although he had not seen her, he seemed to be preoccupied with something she could not see. Heading towards the train Evie took a glance down at her injured arm, it was still bleeding. She let out a pained breath, it seemed that wound was a lot deeper then she'd originally thought. It was time to confront her brother and then she'd attend to her injury. She could also do with some rest seeing as she'd not slept properly in over a week but there was no time. They had to deal with Robert and end his plan. She walked towards the carriage, she was still holding her right arm close to her chest.

Upon entering the carriage, she saw the Angus' desk was unoccupied, she must have gone for the night. At the other end of the carriage, standing by the bookshelves was Jacob. It wasn't clear what he was looking at something which Evie could not see. Whatever he was looking at was hidden behind the huge flower pot.

"Jacob?"

Jacob looked up but he did seem relieved to see her, as he'd known she'd been captured, neither did he seemed concerned that she was covered in blood from her arm. In fact, his face was void of any emotion. He was just looking at her with a rather blank expression on his face.

"Jacob, I need to talk to you. It's about Robert"

Jacob's expression didn't change, he just continued to stare at her. Evie approached her brother, she was gazing intently at him. She needed to get if to understand how serious the situation was. But as she drew level with the plant pot she discovered what Jacob had been staring at or rather who he'd been staring at. Knelt down, looking up at her, wearing an awfully smug expression was Robert. Evie glared as Robert straightened up, folding his arms. How on earth had he got there before she had?

"Well look who it is." He leered, "The fun police and by the looks of things someone else found you as bitchy as we do and finally did something about it."

"You should know exactly who did this to me." Evie countered, narrowing her eyes.

Robert spread his hands out in an innocent gesture, "I honestly have no idea."

Evie's patience was running thin, "Cut the crap Robert, tell Jacob the truth."

"But Jacob knows the truth. He knows what's going on just ask him."

Evie lost her patience, she was not going to be drawn into a conversation. Her left hidden blade extended threateningly, her eyes never left Robert's face. At this moment, Jacob stepped in between Robert and Evie but he was still wearing that blank expression. Evie could not be sure whether he was aware of what was going on.

"If he knows the truth then tell him," Evie said, "Tell Jacob how he's being controlled and how you paid the Blighters to kill me."

"He'd never believe you because that's a lie. A lie to try and turn Jacob against me."

"Robert won't hurt anyone Evie." Jacob finally spoke but it wasn't his normal voice, "Now I suggest you calm down and stop lying. I'm not going to let you hurt my friend. He has never lied to me."

Evie stared at her brother, his facial expression was changing but to what she could not quite work out yet.

"Listen to yourself Jacob. Listen to what you are saying. Robert is controlling you, he's been lying this whole time. He paid the Blighters to kill me and controlling you so he can kill you too. That promise he made all those years ago he is fulling now, he's going to kill you Jacob."

Jacob's feature was slowly twisting in what Evie could now see was anger. Perhaps she was getting through to him.

"This is not the man who you drank with and played cards with." She pressed on, "This is the man who vowed to kill us. He's deceived you and it's time we dealt with him. Come on Jacob, listen to me. I know that you are in there but whatever Robert has done to you is clouding your judgement."

Jacob's fists were trembling.

"Don't listen to her Jacob." Robert was now saying, "She's trying to turn you against me. She is the liar here not me."

Anger continued to build inside Jacob as the other two continued to plead their case. It soon turned to just noise as Jacob's anger get stronger. He was angry with one of them, angry about the lies they had told. He despised liars, especially in those he thought he could trust. A small voice in his head was pleading with him to listen to one voice, the voice who had never lied to him but that small voice was not strong enough to take control. His anger was about to boil over it was going to be directed at one person. He'd had enough now. He grabbed hold of the person's right arm and delivered a hard punch across the side of their face. Jacob watched as the person stumbled backwards from the force of his punch, collided with the bookshelf and fell to the floor where various books consequently fell from the shelf and landed on her. Jacob panted hard and glared down at his sister. But as he watched her on the ground something inside him broke. It was as though he'd put his fist through a mirror. What had he just done?

On the floor, Evie pushed herself onto her knees. Out of instinct she'd put her right hand out to break her fall and was paying for that. The flow of blood coming from her right arm had increased again, she could fell the colour draining from her face. Putting her other hand to her cheek she saw blood clinging to her glove. What had just happened? Jacob had hit her, he'd punched her. He had never ever done that before. Even during their training he'd refrained from hitting her and she had done the same. She looked up at him, considered that unreadable expression. She tried so hard to convince herself that this wasn't Jacob, this wasn't her brother as her brother would never hurt her. She was brought out of her thoughts by a tutting sound. Robert was looking rather impressed with the situation.

"How the mighty have fallen, see what happened there? Your brother just put you in your place."

Evie wasn't prepared to listen to this. She had to get away and think of her next move. She couldn't save Jacob, not like this.

"Now listen her you bitch." Robert was saying, although it was a whisper only the two of them could hear it, "Don't you ever try this stunt again because next time I will kill you and make you watch as I then kill your precious brother whilst you lie powerless to intervene. So, if you value your brother's life, get out of here and don't look back."

Robert had crouched in front of her, his dark eyes glaring at her. Evie was glaring back. She did not respond to threats, she was not scared of him. But he was right, for the moment she had to get away. Get away and make a plan. A smirk crossed her face, which seemed to confuse Robert. Her hidden blade was still extended. In a quick movement she plunged the blade into Robert. The blade burrowed deep into Robert's forearm. As Robert pulled away his face twisted in pain Evie threw herself from the room and disappeared into the night. Robert spun round, he was going to make her pay for that, he'd make her own brother kill her. But to his dismay Jacob had vanished. Robert swore loudly throwing a nearby book across the carriage. It seemed that everything was falling apart.

Henry rubbed his eyes as he leaned against the counter in his shop. He was glancing through a book for a reason he could not remember now. He was just thinking about replacing the book and heading to bed when the door opened. Upon seeing who had just entered his shop Henry dropped the book and walked over to her.

"Evie, what's happened?"

Evie was covered in blood. Her left cheek was covered in bright red blood from a wound which seemed to have recently been inflicted. Her coat was stained with blood but the source of that blood was, he soon discovered, was from her right arm which was completely stained with red blood some fresh some not. Her face was pale, colour was rapidly leaving her. It looked as though she was going to collapse at any moment, what the hell had happened to her?

"Robert's controlling Jacob." Evie said.

She stumbled past Henry and began pacing.

"What?" Henry spluttered, not entirely sure what was going on, "I know that something very odd is going on but I don't think-"

"I heard him Henry." Evie interrupted, still pacing, "I was captured by the Blighters and they took me to their hideout. Robert came to meet them. I heard what he said. Robert has been paying the Blighters to kill me and admitted that he was controlling Jacob. I escaped and tried to talk to Jacob but he did this to me." She indicated her cheek. "He's in trouble Henry, I have to save him but without knowing how he's being controlled I don't know where to start."

There was a pause and Henry's eyes fell upon the halogenic dart loaded in Evie's assassin gauntlet. Suddenly it came flying back to him, what he had just been reading in that book.

"What about the halogenic darts? In a high enough concentration, typically a liquid form they could completely control someone." He said.

"But the effects of that wear off?"

"Not if administer at regular intervals."

Evie's eyes lit up and she stopped pacing, "Robert always makes Jacob's drinks. He must be putting it in there. So, I just need to keep Jacob away from Robert long enough for the effects to wear off."

Henry took a step towards her, he knew what he was going to say next. She couldn't go after Jacob now, she needed to rest.

"Evie, you need to rest. You haven't slept in days and you need those wounds to be looked after."

Evie shook her head, "These no time. Robert is threatening to kill Jacob. I have to get to him before it's too late."

"At least let me take a look at those wounds then we'll go together."

Once again Evie shook her head but Henry knew that nature was about to intervene. He could see the colour had left her face and judging by the look of her eyes it wouldn't be long before her body pulled her from the world. Even for a Master Assassin the mixture of sleep deprivation and injuries would catch up eventually and send one into the blissful realm on unconsciousness.

"I have to save him." Evie was saying.

"And you will," Henry said, moving towards her, "But let's get you sorted first."

She looked at him and made to say something else but exhaustion finally caught up with her, Evie's eyes fluttered shut. Henry caught her as fell just as the door to the shop burst open again.