Rookery ~ Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Chapter Sixty Two

"These old Navy ships were hulked out to hold prisoners until they were assigned a convict ship leaving for the colonies." Evie mumbled as we approached the hulks.

"The perfect place for Jack to hide his captives without any one finding them - abandoned prisons."

"Let's see if he is paying a visit to his captives then."

Debris in the water made the perfect bridge. However, it required a lot of jumping crates and boxes. We managed to get across just fine without falling into the water, but it was shallow anyway. Smaller boxes could have been used and they still would have worked. Every once in a while, the water would spill upwards onto a crate, causing our feet to get wet. Still, we ploughed on, until we reached a makeshift harbour, built purely for Jack's followers to walk along and keep others out. Plus, without it, there would have been no way to get onto the hulks without forcing prisoners to swim to them.

We reached the harbour part with ease, quickly cutting the part inside the alarm bell to prevent any guards alerting others. Evie then beckoned me over to a slope. From there, the ship could be seen more clearly. Our grapples worked wonders on getting up to where we wanted to be.

Evie and I perched on the railing for a short while, simply scanning around for anything important. Immediately, Evie spied an opening to the lower decks. Whoever had been in or out of it last hadn't bothered even trying to close it. We travelled down the steps, confronted by a strong, disgusting smell. Faeces, sweat, urine, vomit, damp, mould. All mixed into one hideous odour. I placed my hand over my nose, still following Evie deeper down the deck.

No one was guarding the prisoners from below either, which I found quite strange. In my opinion, it looked very easy for them to break out of their cells and then to just swim to safety. Then again, I wasn't locked up like they were.

Evie approached one cell containing two men. It was very clear that neither of them were young enough to have been Eli.

"Jacob? Eli? Is that you?" Evie asked, muffled through the fabric of her scarf which she used to block out the smell. The two men, however, were not my husband.

"Help me... Miss... Please, why am I here? No one will tell me!" The only man strong enough to stand spoke.

"It's Jack! Jack the Ripper, I say! He's the one who abducted us!" Their uniforms looked like that of Templars.

"He starves and tortures us until we write to our families, begging them to do as he dictates or we'll be slaughtered!"

"Is he here? Have you seen the Ripper recently?" When they hesitated, I stepped forward.

"I am trying to find my husband and my son. If you don't help us, I will kill you myself."

"N-not seen him for weeks, but he'll come back...and bring more poor sods to dance on the Warder's cord for him!"

The little information given by the men on the first boat was of practically no use to us, so Evie suggested that we check the second one. I would have investigated all of the ships anyway, in case Jacob and Eli where on board on of them, but I doubted Jack would keep them in such an obvious place as the hulks. No, he wanted them to spend as much time away as possible, so hiding them away was his best option.