Autumn of Terror was a virtual representation of one of Evie Frye's genetic memories, relived by a Helix initiate in 2015 through the Helix Navigator.
Description[]
Evie met with Inspector Frederick Abberline, who brought her up to speed on Whitechapel's situation and then escorted her to the first crime scene.
Dialogue[]
Evie arrived at Scotland Yard.
- Abberline: Miss Frye.
- Evie: Inspector Abberline. Why exactly have you had me escorted here?
- Abberline: My men and I have been hunting the Ripper 'round the clock for months now, and we've nothing to show for it... At least nothing I can tell the public.
- Evie: What has the 'Ripper' to do with me? My brother has had me summoned here from India—can't this wait?
- Abberline: As far as I know, you may be the last Assassin in London...
- Evie: What do you mean? Where is Jacob?
- Abberline: I wish I knew... Your brother is nowhere to be found even as an elusive shadow is committing the most hideous crimes this city has ever seen.
- Evie: And you believe this is no coincidence.
- Abberline: The killer is selective and dispassionate, and has left not a single trace of his passage. I have seen such talent for assassination and avoiding detection only once before... When I worked with the two of you. And that is why your brother summoned you, before he disappeared...
- Evie: You think Jacob is dead.
- Abberline: I dare not believe it. But if he is, you may be the only person who can stop the Ripper now. Follow me.
Abberline led Evie outside, towards his carriage.
- Abberline: I'll take you to the site where the Ripper first struck... The journalists always seem to get the word first—we get there, they've trampled the evidence, and next day's headlines are dripping with blood. The few hundred yards between Flower and Dean Street have become so dangerous that even my best constables are afraid to patrol Whitechapel at night. Let's take a carriage, shall we? I'd rather not get egg on my face again today.
- Evie: I'll drive.
Evie and Abberline mounted the carriage and continued their way towards the crime scene.
- Evie: What has become of this borough?
- Abberline: Whitechapel is a cesspool of crime, Miss Frye, where terror reigns supreme. Elsewhere, the rich get richer, but here, the poor are living on the living, fighting to survive each day... Reporters share a view of Whitechapel as a lair of savages, monsters, and werewolves who hold honest citizens in a state of terror...
- Evie: The Ripper's terror.
- Abberline: We are not far from where Mary Ann Nichols was murdered. I knew her as Polly, that's what her friends called her. But the woman who died here is not the woman I met a few times at the Frying Pan pub...
- Evie: Then who was she?
- Abberline: I was hoping you could tell me. Go see for yourself.
Evie entered the crime scene.
- Evie: This is where 'the Ripper' committed his first murder. Was Miss Nichols' body identified?
- Abberline: Her husband hadn't seen her in 11 years; he barely glanced at the poor, mutilated woman before he had the gall to 'forgive her for what she'd done to him'. The press reported widely that Miss Nichol's finger bore the mark of a ring. It was forcibly removed, and the same is true for his other victims...
Evie investigated the blood spatter around the area.
- Abberline: What did you discover?
- Evie: Give me a moment.
Evie calculated the trajectory of the thrown ring, finding it in a patch of grass.
- Evie: I found Miss Nichols' ring. An Assassin's ring... She must have tossed it away during the struggle—a desperate act to protect the Brotherhood. You think they were targeted.
- Abberline: Yes. And the newspapers are accusing the police—me—of letting 'the first city of the world lapse into primeval savagery'. I must take my leave, Miss Frye. I have other business in Whitechapel.
- Evie: Good day, Inspector. Thank you for your discretion.
Outcome[]
Evie arrived back in London and started her investigation into Jack the Ripper and her brother's disappearance.
Gallery[]
Behind the scenes[]
During the journey to Mary Ann Nichols' corpse, Abberline mentions that her friends called her Polly. This was in fact her nickname in real life, which would later inspire the same concept in a character in Andy Stanton's Mr Gum series of children's books. The way that Abberline tells Evie that Mary's nickname was Polly also mimics how Stanton tells his readers about Polly's nickname in the Mr Gum books.