Chapter 15:

"James! You might want to get out here!" James' head swiveled towards the door. He looked back at Gauntier's lifeless corpse, and stood, retracting his hidden blade. He hurried back down the hallway and stepped into the open space that was the prison's center. When his eyes fell on the room, however, he stopped. Edward stood tense, both swords drawn, a fire in his eyes. Standing on both sides of him were armed guards, all ready to strike. James Drew his own Syrian sword, extended his hidden blade.

"You take the ones on the left and I'll take the ones on the right?" Edward asked. James gave his head a quick nod, and then the two brothers jumped into action, blocking, attacking and counter-attacking. They made quick work of the guards , taking each one down in just a few minutes, and soon they were alone in the prison's center once again, breathing heavily and looking around at the death they had just caused.

James opened his mouth, planning to say something-but he was cut off by the pounding of approaching feet.

"We had better go," Edward said.

"Agreed," James muttered. And then the two of them were running down the prison's hallways, making their way to the exit and their escape.

The night, that had been so quiet when James and Edward had arrived at Port Royal, was now alive with activity as guards swarmed around, looking for the assassins who had so easily broke into the place and killed Pierre Gauntier, one of the finest weapon smiths in the West-Indies.

Not one guard caught sight of the two shadows that flitted quickly from cover to cover, quickly making their way to the waterfront where a rowboat sat waiting in the darkness of night.

When Anne and Patrick saw James and Edward approaching the boat, they thanked god that they harbored the luck o' the Irish. At least, that was what Patrick O'leary did. Without saying a word, the two brothers climbed into the boat and James wrapped his right arm, the sleeve sticky and wet with blood, around Anne's shoulders. She watched him as Patrick rowed them away from Port Royal across the harbor. She stayed quiet until they reached Kingston on the other side, when they stood alone by the water's edge.

"Everything went well?" She asked. James shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose," he said lightly. "Had some trouble with a few guards, but we were able to persuade them to let us go."

Anne gave a soft chuckle. "I'm sure," and then she followed the others to report back to Achilles and possibly figure out their next move.

"Louis Dalton has been busy," Achilles said as the four renegade assassins stepped through the abandoned churches front door and let it close behind them.

"What do ya' mean?" Patrick asked, as if he had just been told something of extreme insignificance. Achilles gave him a look before continuing.

"Dalton and his men have attacked the bureau here; killed the one assassin in Kingston who has outright defied him."

"And who would that be?" James asked.

"His name was Antó-" Achilles was cut off by Edward's sudden hiss and the anger-filled noise he made. James looked in his direction and watched as he turned on the spot and scrubbed his hands through his hair. Anne looked pained as well. James had either missed something, or this Antó had been someone the two of them had known.

As if to confirm the latter of those two options, Edward said, "this whole situation just keeps getting worse all the time."

Achilles gave Edward a small nod of agreement. "The source who gave me this information also happened to mention that the perpetrators are still here in Kingston."

Edward spun around to face Achilles. "And where are they?" He almost snarled. Achilles was not phased by this show of aggression however.

"They are collecting Gauntier's latest-and last-batch of weapons from the warehouse on the north-west side of Kingston. I think it would be wise to say that you could easily get them if you hurried."

"Did this contact of yours say who it was that actually did the killing?"James asked.

Achilles shook his head. "All I know is that more than one man was responsible for this."

"Yeah, that isn't a surprise," Edward said. Anne nodded her head.

"You would need more than one man to take Antó down."

James inspected Anne and Edward. It was obvious that this was some kind of a loss to his brother. James sighed heavily.

"We should hurry if we are to catch whoever did this," he said. Edward nodded as hurried for the door.

"I'll come with," Patrick said. "Should be fun."

But James couldn't shake the feeling that what they were about to do might not be a good idea. And he was usually correct when it came to his gut feelings.

"Come on Anne," he said. "I have the feeling we're going to need more than three sets of hands for this."

AN: I am so sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but I needed to get something up, and I kind of have a concussion right now (the result of a big barfight-that I won) and I can't do a whole lot of writing right now. But what did you all think? Are you upset about Antó? What's going to happen to James and Co at this warehouse? And when are they going to be able to take Louis Dalton down? I don't really know yet, but I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later.

~Exangellion