"My instinct is the same now as it was then." "I will show them what the consequences are for threatening that which I hold most dear." "Secure the rest of them." "Set a course for Nassau." " You want to withdraw?" " If we don't, it will be the end of whatever trust exists between us and the slaves on the island." "The only way to free them safely is if it is all at once... simultaneous revolts across the island." "Billy and his men are our enemies now, but these men are not." "Why do we need an escort to the fort?" "Quickly, please." "We don't have much time." "Threats have been made." "The story's been told." "Everyone in Nassau knows what Long John Silver's return means, what's expected of them when he does return." "All that remains is for him to return." "We're not apart on this island." "We cannot be apart." "Many of you have got kin at the Underhill estate." "A reminder of how our fates are bound together here." "And then that kin of yours aided in a revolt where three..." "Mr. Underhill, his wife, and nine-year-old daughter were murdered in cold blood." "What happened there is paid for here." "I pray a lesson that will not soon be forgotten." "Have you got something to say, Julius?" "Get them back in the barracks." " Nassau's fallen." " Aye." "Get them back inside!" " Come on, protect the lady!" " It's okay, it's okay!" "Stay down." " Quick, get on out of here!" " Help her up!" "Help her up!" "Get on!" "Go, go, go!" " Over here!" " Yah!" "Yah!" "Yah!" " You're hurt." " I'm fine." "Is there a list of everyone who made it inside?" " Yes, ma'am." " Bring it to me, please." "And find Max as well." "I need to speak with her right away." "Move the harbor-facing guns." "I want them pointed toward the town and ready for our first barrage." " What is going on here?" " Everything is under control, ma'am." "We'll have our counterattack underway before nightfall." "We're not moving those guns." "There will be no barrage and there will be no counterattack." "I beg your pardon?" "Firing those guns isn't likely to achieve anything other than advertising our panic and fear." "Not to mention wasting shot and powder, which will be invaluable when the time does come for its use." "With all due respect, madam, it is our duty to do everything within our power" " to retake Nassau town." " It's lost." "For the moment, Nassau town is lost." "That much is painfully clear." "It is our duty now to secure ourselves here, conserve resources, and hold out until the governor returns with whatever aid he was able to muster to combine with our force." "Then we will launch a credible assault to drive out Captain Flint and his men." "I've ensured we have stores and provision to last us weeks." "But what if the governor does not return?" "He will return." "And we will be prepared to join him in fighting our enemy when he does." "Mrs. Rogers." "Is that the list?" " Yes, ma'am, but..." " Where is Max?" " I thought I asked you to fetch her." " She's not here, ma'am." "She isn't here?" "What do you mean she isn't here?" "She was the first name I gave you to secure." "I sent two of my best men to retrieve her." "But apparently between there and here, they were unsuccessful." "Nassau works best when its men know what crews they belong to and what captains they answer to." "Without structure, disorder is only to be expected." "Now, you will begin... with men that you know and trust." "And from there, you will begin to reorganize your crews as quickly as possible." "Crews?" "With no ships?" "Well, we've all hunted small... piraguas or less." "It'll have to start there until things are settled." "But it is the only way there will be any semblance of order in the meantime." "There aren't gonna be many men out there eager to take orders anytime soon." "You were chosen... because I thought you were worthy to be the first captain's counsel of a restored Nassau." "Do I need to reconsider?" "You heard him." "What did he think?" "He was going to get a different answer from me?" "Well, if in doubt, ask someone else, I suppose." "The more they realize there is no daylight between you and I, the more they will learn to accept our shared authority." "Is it safe, then, to admit that I'm not sure he's wrong?" "It's bad out there." "Worse than I anticipated." "All life begins in violence and wailing." "It will pass." "A lot of things begin with violence and wailing." "A lot of them end up that way, too." " Though, I admire your optimism." " Captain." "What news from the beach?" "The governor's close council and several dozen soldiers have managed to secure themselves inside the fort." " Eleanor Guthrie, is she among them?" " She is." "And she sent a note." "She sent it?" "She's taken charge of them all already?" "It's an offer of an exchange." "20 of our men captured during the invasion and held in the fort... for Max." "20 men following orders would make a big difference out there." "I agree." "Unfortunately, I don't think we have Max." "Do we have Max?" "Does anyone know where she is?" "All right." "Grab some men." "Set about finding her." "She's not in the fort." "She couldn't have gotten very far." "And Billy?" "Where is Billy?" "I couldn't say." "I saw some of his men by the beach, but I assumed we were keeping our distance from them." "Keeping our distance?" "He's stolen the army that pledged its allegiance to us, not to mention the damaged he's caused with our alliance to the slave communities on this island." "There are a thousand men out there who've been awaiting my arrival." "They're now armed and angry and I haven't yet said a word to them." "If the first five are, "Billy Bones has crossed you,"" "would you care to guess what happens next?" "Go out there and put forth the word." "If Billy isn't in this room within the hour," "I promise him... he will regret it." "You heard him." "Sails!" "South-southwest!" "Heading north." "She's coming from Nassau." "A boat that small headed to open water?" " Set a course to intercept her." " Aye, sir." "Coming aboard." "Mr. Rawls!" "Governor." "Thank you." "You've no idea how grateful we are to see you." "What happened in Nassau?" "The pirates, they took it." "They killed him, Captain Berringer, right in the square." "Slit his throat on the gallows." "We just barely escaped before it was all overrun." " Gloucestershire, has she departed yet?" " Sir?" "My ship in the harbor, the one that was to depart for Philadelphia with my wife, was she still there when you left?" "I am about to make haste to Nassau." "I cannot afford to tow that sloop along." "You will take her and sail for Port Royal where you will deliver the prisoners in her hold to Governor Addison and his men." "Do you understand?" "I..." "I could send Mr. Chase, sir..." "I would like for it to be you, Lieutenant." "There are 42 pirates in the belly of that ship and I can spare no more than a handful of men to see to her." "I beg your pardon, my Lord." "I want to be a part..." "I understand you wanna be part of the fight that's coming." "I understand you want retribution for Captain Berringer." "Right now, the successful transfer of those prisoners is what I need from you." "Do you understand me?" "Yes, my Lord." "There's a fight soon to be underway in Nassau." "A fight that... we are entitled to be a part of." "A fight to answer a cowardly crime." "A fight... that's been stolen from us by you fucking people." "So... the way I see it, each one of you owes us a fight." "And Mr. Milton... is here to collect." "Excuse me." "Still reports coming in." "Gonna need more muskets!" "I think we're all properly angry about what he did on the Underhill estate." " What he did?" " Yes." "But a very wise woman recently told me that one should not allow their personal feelings to cloud the reality of the situation, which in both that case and this... is that Billy has influence that is best not ignored." "That sounds like good advice." "Was it given before or after he tried to kill the two of you?" "Here he comes." "The Boyd brothers launched a raid on one of the governor's munition stores." "We just managed to put it down." "I think we can all agree it helps none of us to have those idiots armed to the teeth." "Yeah." "Lest you think I've been avoiding you." "We've had our hands full out there, trying to manage the transition." "That's good." "Though," "I think we ought to discuss... what it's a transition to." "Certainly." "Where would you like to begin?" "What happened on that estate?" "Was the aftermath not what we feared?" "As it will be difficult to fully defend Nassau without the assistance of the slave communities of this island, as our relationship with those communities is likely severely damaged as a result of this, it will be critical... that she proceed to the estate at once" "and attempt to repair that relationship to whatever extent is possible." "Can we trust... that you will guarantee she will be received there safely?" "'Course we can." "Of course Billy would never violate the trust I place in him as a brother... as a friend, to allow harm to come to those closest to me." "For if Billy were to do something as disloyal as that, he knows I'd stop at nothing to see that offense repaid against him." " I will see to it." " I should fucking hope so." "Is everyone feeling better... now they've got that off their chests?" "I ask as I'm wondering when would be a good time for us to talk about Max." "What about her?" "You don't think there's anything going on in Nassau right now that I don't know about, do you?" "I'm aware of the prisoner exchange offered by the holdouts in the fort." "Meaning what?" "You're going to help us find her?" "Find her?" "I have her." "I am responsible... for delivering all 42 of you to the law in Port Royal." "Let me dispel that notion for you right away." "It won't be happening." "I assume there is some token number" "I must actually deliver for appearance's sake." "How many that is I..." "I honestly couldn't say." "You're the captain now that Teach is dead, yes?" "I am." "Then you choose." "Choose?" "Which of your men is going to be the first?" "Fuck you." "You choose... or it starts with your partner here." "Mr. Carver." "Come on!" "Who's next?" "We'd found her with a small escort, trying to move her up to the fort, I assume." "If you want her," "I think there are some things we ought to discuss first... about our transition." "And I think it would be for the best if it was just you and I." "I'm walking out of here with her." "To whatever extent you think you have leverage enough to extort something from me over it..." "I'd reconsider." "Five minutes." "Five minutes?" "You listen to what I have to say for five minutes, and she's yours." "Do we have a deal?" "Clock's ticking." "Have you stopped to ask yourself... why they want her so badly?" "Because when I first heard what happened in the harbor," "I knew it couldn't have been Featherstone that fucked us." "He's been with us from the start and he wouldn't have had the nerve to cross me like that." "So, I knew it had to be someone else, someone in proximity to him." "Someone bold enough to want to cross us and dangerous enough to follow through." "So, from there, the list got very short very quickly." "Max fucked us." "If it wasn't for her, we likely take Nassau whole, fleet intact, no prisoners in the fort, no fight between you and I." "Instead, here we are." "Now, one would think we could go a long way towards soothing all that chaos out there, and the anger driving it... if we could draw everyone together to see justice done to the one responsible for all of it." " All of it?" " Enough of it." "Did they not hold their trials in her tavern?" "Did she not finance the regime directly?" "You don't think I could sell that out there?" "Because Eleanor Guthrie knows I could." "That's why the first thing she asked for the moment those gates closed behind her was Max." "That's how valuable she could be to us." "And you wanna trade that away for 20 men?" "Those 20 men are your brothers." "Those men's lives mean as much to me as they do to you." "And I assure you... they mean a hell of a lot more to me than they do to Flint." "You know as well as I do the only reason he wants them free is because the only soldiers in town are mine and the prisoners in the fort are likely to still follow his..." "I'm going to stop you right there." "From the moment you began concocting this story," "I knew it was with an eye towards pushing him out." " Separating the two of us so you can..." " The two of you?" "How long ago was it that the two of us agreed that Flint threatened to be the end of us all?" "That he would find ways of driving us over and over again into that storm till there was none of us left?" "We survived him... you and I." "And now you want to follow him into what?" "A massive slave revolt?" "A war against the British Empire?" "How is this not just the next storm in a very long line of them?" "You told me once that the people he holds closest are the most at risk of being consumed by him." "And he and I have discussed it at length." "So, I thank you for your concern." "But I'm going to be just fine." "And I'm not talking about you." "I understand that you've come to care for her." "Madi." "Be very... very careful, Billy." "If anyone is at risk of being consumed by his need for this war... it's her." "Time's up." "I heard you were there." "What?" "The last time when we ran off the English, took control." "I heard you was a navy man then." "Heard you saw it all." "Yeah." "That was a good day for me." "Did a thing no one else would." "Or could." "Thought I'd earned a place by Blackbeard's side for an age." "Turns out it wasn't nearly so long as I thought it would be." "Before Blackbeard decided he could do better than me." "Is there a point you're trying to make?" "You're counseling Long John Silver to be reasonable." "To do what you want him to do instead of what he wants to do." "Just wondering how long you think he'll suffer it... before he decides he can do better than you." "Go get her now." "What the hell happened in there?" "We won." "That's all that matters." "There will be no mission to Philadelphia." "I assume that much is clear by now." "Our chances of success there were slim to begin with." "That the idea that I might stand in front of my grandfather and suggest that Nassau is still a viable concern, worthy of his investment, when... refugees are fleeing in droves... planters face a revolt of their laborers... and men with swords murder wantonly in the streets." "Christ." "I am right back where I started." "Every fight I have ever won... every death I have escaped, every sacrifice I have had bled out of me, it will all have to be repeated just to get things back to where they were a few hours ago." "There's some kind of hell it seems to me to be." "But I want you to know, at the first opportunity," "I will see you returned back home." "I gave you my word." "I intend to honor it." "This fight ahead does not belong to you, nor to your children." "I won't have you bear any more of it." "Would you consider joining me?" "To London?" "You have been living in our home for some time now." "I don't imagine there's much about my husband and I that you don't know." "With the debt he owes, he is going to be fighting this fight for the rest of his life." "And for as long as he is chained to this place, then I am as well." "I wonder, ma'am, if he might want you to leave." "Especially... when he learns of your... current state of being." "I beg your pardon, ma'am, but seeing what I see in your service..." "I fear there are things I may know about you that even the governor does not yet know." "I have grown quite fond of you, ma'am." "You are someone who is determined to be better today than you were yesterday." "And in this world, that is in short supply." "And so I find myself feeling protective of you." "And if I am feeling that way, fearing the thought of you bearing a child in this environment..." "I can only imagine how concerned your husband would be." "When my family first arrived here..." "I remember my... mother and father had a terrible argument." "She told him that this was no place for a little girl." "That it was cruel." "I stay, and our child is raised amongst all this brutality." "I go, and my husband... is left alone to face it on his own." "Amazing, this place." "Somehow leaves no options other than to hurt the ones you love." "Ma'am, there's a messenger at the gate." "They've agreed to the exchange." "That's it!" "Another one now!" "Knock his fucking teeth out." "Any man stood a chance against him is dead." "If we don't try something they ain't expecting, then we're all fucking dead." "If any of the men who stood a chance to beat him are dead, then what do you suggest?" "Any man." "Absolutely... absolutely you can not." "The ones of us they don't get down here, we're just gonna swing in Port Royal in a few days." " Get up." "Get up!" " You gotta trust me." "He asks you for a name, you don't say shit." "And you let him take me." "Another name, Captain." "Captain?" "Will you be choosing or will I?" "All right." "Her." "Nice and slow." "You like it rough, don't you?" "Make her bleed." "I think she likes you, Mr. Milton." "Well, take her!" "Yes, my love." "Get up." "Get up!" "Ooh." "On your feet." "Get up!" "Come on, Mil, what you waiting for?" "Come on, get up!" "On your feet." "Come on, my pretty." "Anne, get up." "Move!" "I would think some sort of thanks might be in order." "Billy was more than ready to throw you to the wolves out there." "And to be honest," "I was undecided about whether to go through with this deal at all." "Sure.." "I get my men back in exchange for you." "But something tells me... if I free you, you'll find a way to be a problem for me again, and soon." "Of course not." "Why would I do that?" "When you and I last saw each other... you had every reason to see me killed." "Certainly would've solved a lot of problems for you." "And yet you didn't." "Why?" "You know," "I've had a rough few days owing to you." "I'd be angrier about it, but I'm a little preoccupied being angry with other people." "I just asked you a simple question." "Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?" "It would have solved some problems." "It would have caused others that I chose not to live with." "What sort of problems would it have caused?" "That I would have had to live with it." "You said you wished to send me away." "Somewhere where I couldn't return." "Out of curiosity, how were you planning to manage that?" "When Anne was recruiting spies in Port Royal, she met a man with an estate in the wilderness, north of Spanish Florida." "A reform-minded man... who uses convicts as laborers." "Convicts he solicits from prisons in England where their treatment is far less humane." "This man, we were told, found it profitable to offer his services to wealthy families, some of the most prominent in London on occasion, with a need to make troublesome family members disappear." "Cared for, tended to, but never to be seen or heard from again." "What families?" "What families?" "Do you know what families in London made use of this?" "I have no idea." "They're ready." "Billy told me I should worry... that you will be Madi's end." "That's all he wanted in exchange for Max." "For me to sit still... while he warned me that your commitment to the greatest possible victory in this war of ours... would consume her and eventually lead to her death." "Well, that's a smart thing for him to say if his intent is to split us apart." "I suppose we should've expected nothing less." "Do I need to be concerned that you took almost two hours to tell me about it?" "We are at our least rational... when we're at our most vulnerable." "If nothing else, this is a good reminder that without a doubt she is the point at which I'm my most vulnerable." "The thought of losing her..." "I see." "If we assume... that we are on the verge of some impossible victory here, a truly significant thing... if we assume that is real and here for the taking... wouldn't you trade it all to have Thomas Hamilton back again?" "I think if he knew how close we were to the victory he gave his life to achieve... he wouldn't want me to." "I see." "Though, that wasn't really what I asked, was it?" "Assume his father was just as dark as you say, but... was unable to murder his own son, assume he found a way..." " to secret Thomas away from London..." " He didn't." "Would you trade this war to make it so?" "It is some kind of hell to be forced to choose one irreplaceable thing over another." "And while Billy's motive to separate us is painfully transparent, it took me two hours to tell you about it because try as I may to get the conversation out of my head..." "I just can't seem to do it." "The closer we get to the end of this journey, the more the contradictions will accumulate... confusing issues we once thought were clear." "I suppose the good news is that's how we'll know we're finally getting somewhere interesting." " All clear!" " Clear the fort!" "Close the gate!" "What can I do for you, ma'am?" "Why are they still in chains?" "We freed the ones that understood we came as friends here, not as enemies." "But some, it seemed, bore us ill will over some of the consequences of our victory here." "You have to know, it is important to ask to repair the alliance between Captain Flint's people and ours." "Important to me." "After you fled, the pirates sent warnings to the other estates that... any violence done to the slaves in their possession for what happened here would be answered." "The next morning, an answer was left by the gate." "A sack filled with fingers." "White fingers." "Reprisals were visited upon our loved ones upon the Edwards estate." "Reprisals of the cruelest kind intended to instill fear, break spirits, reassert control." "It did not have the intended effect." "They revolted." "One of the men there started it." "A man named Julius." "Now he's forming an army out there, organizing, building strength, an army with designs on taking and holding Nassau." "But with as much anger towards the pirates and anyone who would call himself friend to a pirate as they do towards the English." "That is why they are still in chains, out of fear that they might rise up and join Julius's army before ever submitting to yours." "We tried to prevent the reprisals the moment we learned of them," "Captain Flint and I." " They must know that." " They know." "But they also know that when it comes to these men, neither you nor Captain Flint are fully in control of them." "Then we will get control of them." "You must see by now that when you wage war on the world, the world fights back." "Your mother knew that." "Knew that the best one can do is to find a place you can protect, build a wall, and save who you can." "You'd be wise to learn from her example." "I'm sorry for what happened today." "The moment I realized what was about to happen," "I sent men to find you." "I'm just thankful we were able to get you in time." "You are sorry... for what happened today." "What happened today... was exactly what I have been warning you about from the moment you and your husband first arrived here." "Again... and again, and again." "That the decisions you made at every turn would eventually lead us to this." "Everything I have is gone... because of it." "If you wish to apologize, what happened today... does not begin to cover it." "Where would we have gone?" "What?" "A long time ago, you asked me to leave Nassau with you to avoid ruin." "If I had said yes, where would we have gone?" "I have no idea." "I was so close to saying yes." "There were good reasons to say yes and..." "I heard it in my mind, tried to speak it over and over again." "But when the moment finally came..." "I had put so much of myself into this place, in that moment, I honestly didn't know where I ended and it began." "There may be ways of severing oneself in that way... sacrificing one part to save the other." "But... in that moment..." "I honestly couldn't find something sharp enough to make the cut." "What would have been enough?" "I truly am sorry." "For all of it." "If there was a way I could make things right here," "I'd do it." "But now, given everything you have seen here in recent months... can you honestly say that you believe that Nassau will ever really be what you wanted it to be?" "Neither can I." "But there may be a way that we can take something from it... if you'll help me." "What is it?" "Sails have been spotted on the horizon." "Sails?" "Whose sails?" "The Revenge?" "Are we certain?" "She's a man-of-war and she approaches from Captain Teach's last sighted position." "If it were Teach returning, wouldn't he be flying his banner as he approached?" "Sails on the horizon!" "They are saying there are no signs of a prize ship anywhere on the water." "So, at least it is unlikely." "Captain Teach caught the governor's sloop before returning." "Teach would never have given up so quickly." "If it is his ship, then in all likelihood, the governor's ship was captured." "Ma'am?" "Perhaps you would like to wait below... in case the news is not what we hope." "She's raising a banner." "British colors." "She's flying the governor's banner!" "And those are his signs!" "It's him!" "Make a course towards the fort." "As close as we can get." "Ready the men." "We'll make our landing under cover of the fort's guns, reinforce them, and move to retake Nassau." "Ma'am?" "Shall I begin moving the guns to the beach?" "Yes." "Yes, of course." "Let me know when it's done." "Heave!" "Heave!" "Ready?" "They will all be preparing for the fight ahead of us." "Would you like to tell me what it is you are preparing to do?" "An hour, maybe less, until his guns are in range of the beach and he starts his landing." "Once he can bring his broadsides to bear in concert with the fort's power, it'll be hard to keep his men off the sand." "Do we need to consider falling back?" "No." "If we leave Nassau now, we may never get her back." "My men can defend this beach." "We'll have the numbers." "The first barrage, maybe." "But as soon as those soldiers hit the beach, nine in 10 of ours will flee." "With Nassau at stake, that's not a gamble I'm willing to take." "What choice do we have?" "Well, that's a very good question." "Should this fight above us come to pass, at best, the outcome is not certain." "But what is certain is that many will die and much will be lost." "I think we've all seen our fair share of loss and I have had enough of it." "So, I'd like to ensure that this fight does not come to pass." "How do you suggest we do that?" "I am prepared to surrender the governor's remaining forces to you... control of the fort, its guns, its magazine, the unconditional release of the remainder of your prisoners." "All of it." " You're prepared to do all of that?" " Yes." "In exchange for what?" "In exchange for the cache." "The chest with the remains of the Urca treasure." "I'm told it is hidden... buried in a secret place known only to Captain Rackham and the two of you." "I get the cache, and guaranteed safe passage off the island for everyone in this fort... and you get Nassau." "The money isn't ours to give." "We have partners who would almost certainly rather fight this out than lose their treasury." "Your partners are your problem." "There is a reason why I invited you here and not them." "As soon as the governor's ship is in range of the beach, this offer disappears." "I will not undermine his position once the shooting starts." "So, right now in this moment, what do you want to do?" "How?" "How would you see it done?" "One of you surrenders himself and remains here to ensure these terms are honored." "You send someone to retrieve the cache, and once it arrives, I take possession of it." "And my people exit the fort to a transport waiting to take us away from here." "The answer is no." "Absolutely no." "If she thought she could win this fight, why would she be offering to sell the victory to us even for a fortune?" "I have had enough of this." "And I am ready for it to end." "No." "Trust me."