"I am acutely aware that I'm not the first to have been a partner to him in this way and that the ones that have seen those depths before, they never surfaced again." "So we have one fleet and two men claiming it." "There is only one way I know of to resolve that." "You can't win." "I don't care." "They took my home." "I can't walk away from that." "Can you?" "It would've helped having the fleet." "I may be able to add to our pool of assets..." "A cache of gems could be the key to defeating British forces in Nassau." "If we cannot retrieve that cache, then the dread fleet in Havana sets sail to raze all of Nassau to the ground." "I will deny him the cache, and in doing so," "I will ensure that whatever Nassau is come Christmas, English will be not it." "The fugitive's name is Anne Bonny." "You know how dangerous she is." "I am alone, as I promised I would be." "The night you left, at the cave, you said Jack's been arrested." "What the fuck's going on?" "Spanish intelligence." "They learned of the cache." "They demanded the governor recover it and return it." "And they made clear failure to do so will result in the end of Nassau." "The governor is a reasonable man." "He is a compassionate man, but he needs that cache." "Fuck what he needs." "Jack don't want it turned over." "If he did, he'd be the one asking me to do it." "They are hurting him, Anne." "What?" "You were right." "He is defiant." "So they are trying to coerce him into cooperating, into asking you to cooperate." "He refuses, so I am asking on his behalf." "Fuck you." "I understand what you are going through." "Please understand I am here for his sake." "Surrender the cache and I will see to it that Jack goes free." "You have my word." "She is going to do it." "She agreed to make the exchange?" "She said that?" "No." "But neither can she bear the idea of Jack's torture." "She will resist awhile." "It will tear her to pieces." "But sooner than later, she will acquiesce." "How can you know this for certain?" "She knows." "She knows." "Jack Rackham?" "Who is Jack Rackham?" "At the moment, he's the most wanted man in the West Indies, owing to a cache of rare jewels in his possession, proceeds from a massive Spanish prize and, as luck would have it, our only hope of victory against Rogers's regime in Nassau." "You left here to secure a fleet of ships so that we might harass Nassau's trade and bleed away her strength." "You told me that without those ships, you could see no other way to achieve victory in this fight." "Now you have returned with nothing but him and a plan to make up the difference with money?" "Not money, bait." "I came upon a trove of information belonging to Spanish intelligence." "In it was mention of this cache of gems, cache I know to be in Jack's possession." "Spain is furious over its very existence." "They see it as an affront." "They are so furious, in fact, they are willing to burn Nassau to the ground just to prove the point." "The only way Rogers can prevent this is to find the cache and return it." "Which means if we were to find it first, we could dictate what happens next." "And what are you proposing that might be?" "Rogers's strength resides in his naval consort..." "Ships and soldiers on loan to him from the Crown." "They're well-trained and well-armed." "Against them on even terms, we wouldn't have a prayer of success, but if we can get them to meet us on uneven terms, terms that dramatically favor our efforts, things might be different." "Use the cache to lure him to committing his forces onto an undesirable battlefield." "Committing all of his forces there." "With the stakes this high, he'll have no choice but to put everything at his disposal in play." "We compel him into a single, decisive fight, one in which we have a massive advantage and one in which, with a little luck, we might deal him a catastrophic defeat, break the back of his military strength," "and open up Nassau for a direct invasion." "What battlefield is this that will allow us to defeat that kind of force?" "Here." "Here?" "Your plan is to lure the British navy here?" "I'd like to speak with the captain alone." "Now." "How many men?" "We imagine Rogers has 500 regulars at his disposal." "What about militia?" "Conscripts?" "The total force?" "Twice that, thereabouts." "And what plans for their ships?" "Without means to engage them, their heavy guns would repel any attempt to defend the beach." "Surely there can be no victory if you cannot harass their landing." "How do you propose to account for that?" "I don't know yet." "And let's say somehow you're able to eliminate some of their numbers on the beach." "We have neither the manpower nor the ammunition to fight the kind of battle you're suggesting, even with the terrain in our favor." "How do you propose to gain these things on the schedule you're suggesting?" "I don't know yet." "I'm not going out there with "I don't know yet."" "These people know their lives are about to change." "They know they'll need to fight to survive, but I will not go before them and argue to have that fight all at once and risk losing everything all at once unless I am certain that fight can be won." "Am I certain that we will prevail?" "No." "But the odds will never be better than they are right now, in this moment." "Of that, I am most certain." "To find Jack Rackham, you'll need to go to Nassau, yes?" "We assume that he's long gone by now, but Nassau is where we will pick up his trail, yes." "There are other things you will need to secure while you're there." "My husband supplied us with weapons and shot to arm ourselves and to defend this camp." "He also maintained a stockpile on Nassau in preparation for a day such as this." "As far as we know, it is still there, guarded by his agents." "Tell me where to find them and I'll retrieve it." "They will not trust you nor even acknowledge the existence of this place to anyone other than my husband, and he's too weak to leave our care." "So we will have to send the next best thing." "She will help you get what you need, but one more thing." "I know your way is to invest a captain with unquestioned authority while in battle, but this battle is ours as much as yours." "My word and your word will govern in concert or not at all." "And when I'm not present, that word shall be given by my daughter." "Sir." "Touch of the grippe is all, sir." "I'll be all right." "You're the third man to say as much to me in the last four hours." "I'll see you relieved." "Please report to Dr. Marcus immediately." "Yes, sir." "It's almost over, this unfortunate arrangement between you and I." "What?" "Contact was made with Anne Bonny." "The situation was explained to her that the sooner she returns the cache, the better it would be for you." "She was disturbed but, we believe, ultimately persuaded." "Disturbed?" "You told her I was being tortured." "If the street would hear you were being mistreated, if they were to see you emerge from this place damaged or not at all, I'd risk losing them." "I know this." "I imagine you were counting on it, the notion that all you had left me were bad options guaranteed, ultimately, to serve your ends." "This way, no one hears it but her." "I get what I need, the island survives, and no one is harmed." "I face a number of dangers ahead in stabilizing Nassau." "The one I will resist to the limits of my ability is to allow myself to be cast as its villain." "When the cache is delivered, you'll both be free to do as you please." "Do you have a wife?" "Beg pardon?" "Do you have a wife?" "I do." "How do you imagine she would feel if she were told you were suffering some awful, degrading abuse and that the only way she could end it would be to betray your trust?" "How do you think she would feel if she betrayed you, knowing she likely lost that trust forever, and then learned the whole thing was based on a ruse?" "And no one was harmed." "We're all villains in Nassau." "Don't think because you're new you're any different." "The exchange is to take place tomorrow." "Captain Rackham will be set free in exchange for the cache." "Once that happens and the cache is shipped to Havana, the entirety of the Urca de Lima's prize gold will be in Spain's possession." "Captain Rackham..." "He's in the governor's custody." "You never mentioned this." "I'm sorry, I..." "It's all right." "I've given thought to our previous conversation." "I'm not without sympathy for your situation." "I have no desire to see harm come to you." "If the governor returns all of the Urca gold, my superiors have promised not to set loose the fleet upon this place." "And my superiors are proud men, and they're angry." "Were I you..." "I might encourage Governor Rogers not just to send the gold, but to send something more." "An offering to demonstrate good faith and friendship." "Not just the stolen gold, but the man responsible for stealing it in the first place." "And tell him that we asked for his return, if you'd like." "No one will ever know." "But Nassau's safety and yours is best served if, when the gold is surrendered in Havana..." "It's accompanied by Mr. Rackham." "I swore to Anne that these terms would be honored." "Surrender the cache and Jack goes free." "I gave her my word." "I know." "They changed the rules so very late in the game." "We could resist, but we have nothing to bargain with." "Were there anything I could do, were there anything the governor could do," "I assure you, it would be done." "But either Jack is surrendered with the gold or Nassau burns." "Yes?" "A few things that require your approval." "Is everything all right?" "Yes, what is it?" "My apologies." "Nothing that can't wait." "I beg your pardon." "When the governor's men arrive at the transaction without Jack and Anne sees this, she will resist." "I would humbly ask that the governor's men refrain..." "They have been forbidden from firing first." "They've been forbidden from provoking her." "They've been forbidden from using any violence against her at all unless in dire and unavoidable self-defense." "Why?" "Because I demanded it." "Out of respect for your partnership." "I do not know which is worse..." "That she perish fighting for Jack or that she survive without him." "If it is even truly surviving, losing half of herself this way." "Is she still in there?" "Eleanor Guthrie, is she still in there with Max?" "Yeah." "The fuck's your problem?" "I thought I heard them say something about..." "Something about what?" "Nothing." "Never mind." "We should be sighting the island in just a few hours' time." "We'll approach just west of Nassau Town under cover of darkness." "Two longboats will ferry the landing party to shore." "You'll slip into town to pick up the trail to find Rackham and Bonny." "The sooner we know where to go to find the cache, the better." "You'll join our party towards the tavern, make contact with your father's agent there and arrange for the acquisition of guns and shot." "She'll not enter the tavern." "She won't enter the tavern." "She'll have an escort of your choosing." "She'll be back on the water before anyone knows she's there." "Meanwhile, Billy and I will enter the tavern and begin recruiting." "Still don't understand how you think that's going to help us." "Recruiting more men?" "Recruiting those men." "Any man still left on that island made a choice to desert the black." "Even if they do join us, what makes you think they won't just desert us all over again the moment the fight begins?" "It's about more than the men we win." "It's the message we send to those we don't." "If they won't take up arms and fight alongside us," "I want them terrified of the thought of doing it against us." "Well, then, it shouldn't be you." "If you want them to fear you, it shouldn't be you delivering the message." "You're returning from the dead." "But no ghost story I've ever heard of begins with the ghost introducing himself." "I mean, you walk in there and insist on your own fearsomeness sort of threatens to do more damage than good." "The message I understand, but I think someone else needs to deliver it." "Someone?" "Who?" "Him." "I can think of no one more effective at capturing men's minds." "And, maybe just as importantly, given the need to invest the moment with as much impact as possible..." "Who'll be able to take their eyes off the one-legged creature?" "Land on the horizon." "Shall we make our approach?" "Do it." "And make ready the launches." "I'll lead the shore party as soon as we arrive." "That fucking chair." "To gain it, it demands you win partners, call them friends, make them promises." "To keep it, it demands you break them all." "One day when all is settled here, we should burn that fucking chair." "My God, how I hated you." "There was a time in which I could not conceive of how I could ever forgive you." "And in this moment, I am you." "I think my footing in this moment is far more precarious than yours." "That is not what I hear." "What does that mean?" "Once pirates visited the inn and I heard what pirates said." "Now that soldiers visit the inn..." "You hear what soldiers say." "And what is it they're saying about me?" "They say you are inseparable." "They say he relies upon you more than any other." "They sometimes say more." "Did you know his men speak this way?" "No." "It is only gossip for now, but sooner or later, it will affect him." "Erode his support." "Complicate the role he must play here." "The governor's chair is no doubt as unforgiving as mine." "It will demand the same kind of sacrifices and present the same sorts of dangers to those closest to him." "You must know this as well." "I will not insult you by offering you warnings of the dangers therein." "But out of respect for our partnership," "I thought you should know what is being said and also how near those dangers may very well be." "Mm." "If you don't say something, I'm going to have to." "Eight of my men have fallen ill." "One of your warehouses has been converted into a sick bay." "If we had been honest with ourselves, we'd have seen it coming." "Where chapter one is "Conquest of a Foreign Land,"" "chapter two is always "Suffer the Illness to Which the Natives Are Immune."" "Those eight men won't be the last." "Many of my people will die." "Every man and woman that followed me onto this island will be susceptible to it." "Yet as I lay here, the three words" "I keep hearing in my mind over and over again are..." ""Except for her."" "You're one of them." "Whether I choose to acknowledge it or not, nature is going to keep reminding me of this fact in the coming days with every death we suffer." "You think I'm a danger to you?" "I know I can feel my connection to London diminish with every day I'm here." "I can only assume your connection to this place is growing at a similar rate and that sooner or later the instincts that led you into the prison cell I found you in will return." "You asked me once if it was true what my enemies say of me." "That I would turn on anyone, no matter how close, if it served my ambition." "It was that way once." "But I do not wish to be that way ever again." "I'm resolved to shed it." "I'm resolved to have my word mean something." "And I give you my word..." "My commitment to you is inviolable." "Not because my freedom depends on your success here." "Not because I seek to regain that which was taken from me nor vengeance upon those who took it." "Then why?" "Shh." "They're handing him over to the Spanish?" "Max made mention of an exchange between the governor's men and Anne Bonny." "I think Anne believes she's handing over her share of the Urca prize money in exchange for Jack's release." "But by the time..." "By the time Anne realizes they lied to her, it'll be too late to do anything about it." "You know this and here you are doing nothing." "What would you have me do?" "Even if I could tell anyone, how the fuck is their response not," ""Hand over Jack or Nassau burns." "This is a dilemma for us how?"" "Then help me." "Help me find out where that exchange is going to be so I can stop it." "You want to use Max's girls to inform on the governor's operation without telling Max?" "Major Andrews is part of the governor's inner circle and he's been at this inn every day for weeks." "The right girl could get enough out of him to piece the rest together." "When you took that pardon, you said you wanted a new start." "Chance of a stabler life." "Now all of a sudden, you're ready to fall in with Charles Vane, conspire against the fucking governor." "If I'm wrong about this, then no one need know you ever made the inquiry." "And we'll all sleep a little more soundly knowing our governor isn't quite the shit I'm afraid he might be." "But if I'm right, then you and I and a lot of people are being lied to about a thing no one ought to be lied to about." "And this may be our only chance to find out for sure." "Your name is Eme." "You're an agent of my father's." "You've worked with him here in secret to supply our camp." "My name is Madi." "Where is your father?" "No one has seen him..." "He's fine." "He's dying..." "With us at home." "I'm so very sorry." "He has asked a favor." "It will not come without risk." "Anything he asks." "What can I do?" "I understand this is the place cowards come to beg forgiveness from a king." "Sign your name to sleep easy." "Thinking all your sins have been absolved." "But some sins..." "Even a king can't make clean." "You..." "All of you." "Every last rotten fuck on this island has crossed a man far less forgiving than old George will ever be." "I come as his right hand." "I come on a mission of mercy, to show you a path to his forgiveness." "I come on behalf of Captain Flint." "Captain Flint is dead." "Not anymore, he's not." "Go now, quickly." "The stockpile is nearby." "My people will transport it directly to your ship." "Thank you." "Is everything all right?" "This was hers, wasn't it?" "Eleanor Guthrie's?" "It was." "Strange." "I have been here before." "I have no memory of it, but I know I have been here before." "The last time I saw Eleanor Guthrie, we were children here." "Playmates." "Now we are on opposing sides of this thing ahead of us which will get so very bloody." "What is it all for?" "What is it that is coming?" "Every name in this volume belongs to a man who first pledged his service to Captain Flint, to defend Nassau against the Crown." "Every name in this volume belongs to a man who turned his back on that pledge." "This volume..." "Now belongs to me." "Captain Flint returns to Nassau tomorrow." "Any man who meets us on the sand will be accepted back into the fold, his name redacted from this book, forgiven for his sins against his brothers." "But when we set sail," "I will keep the list of names remaining." "Now, those men will not be forgotten." "And I assure you, those men will hear from us again." "Is that it?" "Surely there must be more." "Surely, if Captain Flint were truly alive, he can do better than to send a handful of men led by half a man in the dead of night to deliver a threat as weak as this." "A threat that amounts to what?" ""Fear my name."" "Contented men have short memories and they have little reason to fear the dark." "Captain Flint's name is already half forgotten." "As for you..." "I know enough of you to know that even whole, you were unworthy of half of the attention we paid you." "And now, as a goddamn invalid, you expect that to change?" "Tomorrow you will join us..." "Or you will all be looking over your shoulders the rest of your lives." "My name is John Silver, and I've got a long fucking memory." "Run to the guard!" "What happened?" "I'm fine." "Let's go." "Steady." "Lower it." "So John smashed him in his head and then..." "Oh!" "You were there, yes?" "Where is he?" "Are you all right?" "I didn't feel it when I struck down on him." "Didn't feel it when we made our escape, but, uh..." "Oh, I feel it now." "I wasn't talking about the leg." "Give us a moment, please." "You were right." "About the toll it took, playing this part." "Losing Miranda." "The things that losing Miranda drove me to." "So I know what you're feeling in the moment." "I perceived its effects on you." "What I assumed was sorrow, loneliness." "And worst of all terror at the thing you were becoming." "There is an element of this journey into the dark that..." "I'm only now beginning to appreciate." "What's that?" "How good it feels." "You all right?" "I was not here." "Who did this?" "They say it was John Silver." "They say he speaks for Captain Flint." "Someone saw him alive?" "No one saw him." "Only his agents, including one claiming to be John Silver." "Was it him?" "No one who was here knew him well enough to identify him." "Other than Mr. Dufresne." "But though the identity was in question, the message they left behind was clear." "They claim Flint will be returning tomorrow east of the bay to take on recruits." "Well, if Flint is alive, if he arrives at that beach," "I can't have him finding 200 men waiting there for him." "I can't have him finding 10 men there." "The image of any men leaving this place to join him would unsettle the street." "I'll station men on the beach to..." "No, no, no, no." "I'll oversee it myself." "And if Flint doesn't appear?" "What does that suggest?" "That I, too, am so weak as to fear a ghost?" "No, I prefer there be no one there to meet him because no one wants to be there to meet him." "Can you help see to that?" "Yes." "Max may be able to help matters, but she won't be able to stop all of them from going down there." "No, I don't imagine she can." "But there may be a way that you can prevent the rest of them..." "Without looking like we're trying to prevent anything." "You have all become quite skilled at acquiring information, but the time has come for things to flow in the opposite direction." "Instead of coaxing information out of men's heads," "I need for this place to be able to put ideas into them." "If tomorrow 100 men appear on the beach intending to join Captain Flint's crew, it will be a problem for the governor and it will be a problem for me." "Every turn you see tonight must hear how pathetic you see Captain Flint's ploy, how absurd it seems to you that any man given the choice to prosper in peace in a new Nassau would ever even consider returning to the dangers" "and deprivations of the account." "If you have any questions as to how to proceed," "I have appointed a new madam more than capable of guiding you through it." "Good evening, girls." "It's nice to be home." "Well, let's get back to work, shall we?" "Open it up." "Who wants a good time?" "Thank you, my dear, for trusting me with a task so important to Nassau's welfare." "Trust you?" "Oh, quite right." "Perhaps we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves." "But at any event, I will see news spread properly through the night." "Good." "If I may, ma'am, you seem troubled." "I remember watching Miss Guthrie go through this experience." "And what experience is that?" "Learning to bear the weight of her authority and the awful and lonely compromises it demands." "Would you like to know the advice I gave her then?" "In such an office, anyone who tends to your needs is going to ask for more in return than they give." "But if you do not have these needs met, you will never survive the experience." "Best to make sure..." "That whomever you choose to have tend to you..." "All you owe them is a fee." "Georgia?" "40 barrels of powder, half as much in shot, and four dozen muskets." "My father's allies said this was the most they could secure without arousing attention." "Will it be enough?" "Well, it's more than we had yesterday, so it puts us ahead in some regard." "Captain?" "Ah, can't see how many men on the beach yet." "There's no navy waiting for us, at least." "That's a start." "They won't move them out of the bay until we're sighted." "Two hours, maybe three, until they're under way and on sight here." "Make our approach off the coast." "We won't have long." "Hopefully Charles will meet us at the rendezvous as scheduled." "We'll ferry any recruits on board as quickly as possible and be on our way." "What the fuck?" "Is that the governor?" "What?" "If he keeps the men off the beach with guns, he only enflames their curiosity." "This way, any man who would join us will have to wait with him and suffer his judgment." "And he holds them away with their shame." "So what do we do?" "Lord Thomas Hamilton." "I didn't know him, but I understand you did." "Miss Guthrie tells me you were part of the first effort with Lord Hamilton and Peter Ashe to introduce the pardon to Nassau." "As with most things, the men first into the breach bear the heaviest casualties." "But in the hindsight of victory, they were the ones whose sacrifice made it possible." "Without Lord Hamilton's efforts, your efforts, it's likely I wouldn't have been successful in my efforts to finally secure the pardon." "All I have done here is finish what you began." "I am now what you were then." "And without you, there would be no me." "Clever." "Thank you." "So that's what this is." "We're all reasonable men, we all want the same thing." "You offer me a pardon, I accept it, this all ends?" "Maybe." "The pardons are on the table." "No one is being hanged." "No one's even being tried." "They've all been forgiven, just as you wanted." "Just as Thomas Hamilton wanted." "So what is it that you're fighting for that I'm not already offering?" "Thomas Hamilton fought to introduce the pardons to make a point." "To seek to change England." "And he was killed for it." "His wife and I went to Charles Town to argue for the pardons, to make peace with England, and she was killed for it." "England has shown herself to me." "Gnarled and gray..." "And spiteful of anyone who would find happiness under her rule." "I'm through seeking anything from England except her departure from my island." "It was England's island first." "I don't imagine she's going to let it go easily." "I don't imagine she would." "I see." "So there we are, then." "There we are, then." "What a story you'll have to spin to your men to turn me into the kind of villain worth losing their lives over." "I've lived on the other side of those stories." "I'm sure I'll figure something out." "I'm sure you will." "Then let us be very clear about something." "I am reasonable in seeking peace." "But if you insist upon making me your villain," "I'll play the part." "So let us assume that, as of this moment, the unqualified pardon is no more." "From this moment on, any man participating in the act of high seas piracy will be presumed to be one of your men, an enemy of the state." "I will hunt him, I will catch him, and I will hang him." "And while I am aware of your feelings on the subject," "I am no backwater magistrate cowering in fear of you." "You know where to find me." "Assuming Idelle's got the location of the meet, assuming you can get to Anne first..." "What are you gonna say to her?" "What do you mean?" "If she aborts the exchange, it isn't as though you can just leave the island that way, abandoning Jack to his fate." "Of course not." "Nor can you exchange the money for Jack's release." "If they had been willing to do that, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place." "Did you learn where the exchange is taking place?" "Whoa, boy." "Jack's in there?" "We need to see the chest first." "Step aside, let us take a look." "Then we'll let him go." "Fuck that." "I want to see him." "We see the chest first." "Those are our orders." "Wait a minute." "What the fuck's going on?" "He ain't in there, is he?" "Oi!" "Hup, hup!" "Hup!" "Hup!" "Hup." "You better be right about this." "Why the fuck did you hand over the chest?" "Because had we held it, right now we'd be in a standoff with a superior force, time working against us, and no way to secure Jack's release." "This way, the governor has everything he needs and no reason to suspect anything is amiss, leaving him to proceed with his plan." "A plan you think that we can frustrate?" "Jack and the cache are to be moved aboard a secret caravan to a ship waiting somewhere off the southern coast." "If we can intercept that caravan, we can secure both the money to start our war and the partner to help us fight it." "Either we get Jack and the cache or we get nothing."