"Your plan failed." "We're moving on to my plan." "Go get it." "Bring it up here right now." "Go get what?" "We had it in our hands." "This war was breathing air." "It was alive." "Do not ask me to choose between a war and a wife." "Skeleton Island, well outside the established trade route." "It's no accident that Billy chose it... a place likely to put us all out of balance." "That man, I have it on good authority, claims to have been to Skeleton Island, and can show us the way." "I find myself in need of a new partner." "If our cause is to survive, some of us must find a way to keep our wits about us on behalf of those who cannot." "I sent six of my men after him." "I instructed them to kill Captain Flint." "What are we looking at?" "Nassau." "Thereabouts." "A few days over the horizon, just waiting for us." "Can't you see it?" "After I just climbed that fucking hill, are you being serious right now?" "In a few weeks time," "I will lead a pirate fleet of unprecedented strength over that horizon into a battle of unprecedented importance." "With a little luck, that battle will end with us taking Nassau and beginning a revolution." "I cannot do it without you." "So it would benefit all involved, you not the least, if, when the battle begins, you aren't killed by the first fool lucky enough to swing a sword your way." "You wanna teach me to fight?" "I know you know how to fight." "I want to teach you how to fight and not die." "You'll have more control with that." "I know how you feel about being seen without the leg, but when the fighting truly begins, all that matters is what makes for the greatest... advantage." "The men..." "I have to manage how they see me." "I understand that's part of my job." "But for pride to be an issue between you and I... well, I..." "I think we're playing past that by now." "Don't you?" "Hmm." "Do you really imagine a few weeks of this is going to make much of a difference?" "Am I not what I am at this point?" "It's better than nothing." "Right." "You're not concerned about this?" "Concerned?" "Well, you say you'll be teaching me to fight." "But if every man fights differently, seems to me what you'll really be teaching me is how to defeat you." "I'll take my chances." "Shall we?" "Tell me you know where they are." "Laid eyes on Flint and the other just as we entered the trees." "At some distance, but we saw them." "Sent the men after them." "Carrying that chest, they won't get far." "Well, Flint doesn't need to get far." "All he needs is to bury that gold somewhere unknown and he's won." "How long did he give you?" "The governor." "He said I have till sunrise tomorrow to return the cache." "But I don't think we're going to have that long." "He gave me the time for his benefit, not mine." "He's preparing to make a move." "I know not what, but he's preparing for it." "And there's little I can do about it until I secure that chest and have it to bargain with." "Which one of them is going to prevail?" "Which one?" "Mr. Silver assures me he can retrieve the cache from Flint and resume our transaction on its original terms." "If he is incorrect..." "I will have some difficult choices to make." "You know the two of them." "Now that they're facing each other as opponents," "I'm asking what sort of outcome I should expect." "Silver has the men." "And..." "Flint is on his own out there and disadvantaged." "That said..." "Flint's been on his own and disadvantaged countless times since I've known him." "And here we are." "Suppose what I'm saying is... if I were you, I would assume the worst... and act accordingly now while you know you still can." "My Lord, the mist is heavy." "It may be our best chance to move with minimal casualties." "I'd like to see her again." "She'll never accept your offer." "You are, for now, a necessary evil here." "Do not test my patience." "Bring her up from below." "Now." "What's this?" "We tracked him this far, but the trail splits in two." "Well, it seems he may intend to divide our numbers, improve his chances." "If they say you know his mind as if it were your own, we thought you might have a better idea which way he went than we could." "How in the fuck would I know which way he decided to go?" "All Flint needs is an hour, maybe less, to conceal that chest in a way we couldn't hope to recover." "Every moment we stand here deliberating is a moment closer to his victory." "The three of you, that way." "You, the other trail now!" "He's right." "Flint likely seeks to separate them, gain an advantage." "I know." "So it's likely you've just sent one of those two groups to their death." "As long as they expose his position." "I wonder if he knows... just how much you learned from him." "Your opponent's wrist is from whence the attack is born." "It is its past tense from which it cannot separate itself." "The end of the blade, where the attack arrives, is its present tense, which also cannot be denied." "You're still watching my eyes, which is a good way of getting yourself killed." "How exactly is one supposed to watch two points in space at the same time?" "Practice." "All warfare is the same." "Two questions are of paramount importance... who was my opponent yesterday, and who is he today?" "Answer those two questions, and there is very little he can... hide from you." "What?" "Who you were." "I have no idea who you were." "Not before we found you, at any rate." "Jesus Christ, don't do that." "If you want to know where I come from, just ask." "I think I just did." "You know all there is to know." "I was born in Whitechapel, never knew my mother." "I had a wholly unremarkable youth." " Spent most of it at a home for..." " Home for boys." "I know, I know." "You, uh... you told me once or twice of your experiences there." "Except it isn't true." "Is it?" "Why would you say that?" "I remember when you first told me, it sounded like a... invention." "About one story that bled into others" "I'd heard told elsewhere to the crew." "I didn't think much of it at the time." "I suppose I assumed that if you ever became somebody worth knowing," "I'd learn the truth of it eventually." "Only... in this moment, I'm realizing that never happened." "And what is of some concern to me is that... despite how invested we each are in the future of the other... you just told me that story again." "Why is that?" "It isn't important." "All right." "Although, you know that isn't true either." "Why isn't it true?" "I'm sorry, the more I try and dismiss this, I..." "You know my story." "Thomas, Miranda, all of it." "Know the role it played in motivating me to do the things that I've done, the things I will do." "It has made me transparent to you." "Not only that, but when I told you this story, you insinuated yourself into it." "The latest in a line of ill-fated partners, situating yourself such that... were you and I ever to come to blows..." "I'd be forced to hesitate before doing you any harm." " Slow down, I..." " I'm not angry with you." "It's just... you know my story." "And for some reason, I cannot figure..." "I don't want you to know mine." "Wait a minute." "I..." "I understand your concern." "I just..." "We'll resume tomorrow." "Is that all right?" "We found him." "I don't see the chest." "Track marks go back 200 yards." "He dragged it here." "Should we fetch Mr. Hands?" "We should head back." "You sailed with Avery." "Long time ago." "20 years?" "More, even, maybe?" "More, aye." "Mm-hmm." "You do know where you're going, yes?" "No, seriously, I've got quite a lot riding on this." "One day, you'll leave the account." "Take a wife, father children." "See less and less of the sea until she becomes like a painting hanging on the wall, static and irrelevant... to your daily existence." "But she'll keep on calling you." "And when she does, you'll step into that painting and feel the swell beneath your feet." "It'll all come back as if it were like yesterday." "Is that so?" "I've watched you and yours handle the account since I and mine left it." "Accomplish things that no one I ever sailed with could dream of." "From what I've overheard, if you reach Skeleton Island, might mean the end of the governor." "Maybe keep the account alive a little while longer." "Is that so?" "That and more." "Then I'll take you to it." "Hold on to this for as long as you can, for all of us who once had it... and walked away." "You have no idea the restraint this takes." "How urgent the instinct towards violence." "How certain the conviction that it would be deserved, given what you and your partners have destroyed," "what you've taken from me." "To me, compromise seems a loathsome, unbearable act." "What compromise can there be with the man responsible for the death of my wife?" "Or with those who would follow him?" "You're luckier than you know... so much luckier than you know that in this moment I can still hear the faintest of voices in my head arguing against the alternative." "If I must compromise to avert a dark end, then so must you." "I've offered you freedom for your people." "I have offered you more than you have any right to expect." "And still, you will not say yes." "So I come to you one last time, to ensure you cannot say no." " Accept the treaty..." " I will consider no treaty of yours." "... and John Silver lives." "Refuse... and he dies... along with the rest of the men who followed him here." "And from what I understand, he is the one who matters most to you." "The one with whom you might lead a life if you can set aside your pride in this moment." "Do not make the same mistake I did." "Do the deal." "The voice you hear in your head..." "I imagine I know who it sounds like, as I know Eleanor wanted those things." "But I hear other voices." "A chorus of voices." "Multitudes." "They reach back centuries." "Men and women... and children who'd lost their lives... to men like you." "Men and women and children forced to wear your chains." "I must answer to them and this war... their war..." "Flint's war... my war... it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight," "to save John Silver's life... or his men's... or mine." "And you believe what you will, but it was neither I nor Flint... nor the Spanish raider who killed your wife." "That, you did." "Sergeant." "Take her below." " Are your men ready?" " They are, my Lord." "Then we move now." "Ready the launches." " Any sign of them?" " No." "Nor the chest, nor any trail for either." " We should move." " Move where?" "Flint's almost certainly disposed of the cache by now." "For all we know, he's headed back to the Walrus as we speak." "Leverages his sole knowledge of the chest's location to gain control of the men." "Then maybe attempts to rescue Madi, maybe not." "Maybe he's already factored her death into this." "A martyr to feed the cause." "Fuck him... for dictating this outcome to me, for swearing his friendship falsely to me, for his arrogance, his indifference." "So, what are you gonna do about it?" "You've been warned so many times... by Billy, by me, by Flint's own actions." "And despite that, despite this," "I think when we meet him again, you will look for reasons to forget it all again." "You've come all this way, traveled all this distance, and when he starts talking, you won't have learned a goddamn thing." "We've come all this way." "How far are we from where the paths split?" "Hm." "Two hundred yards, give or take." "More." "He never would have got this far ahead of your men carrying that chest." "The chest was never here." "He left it behind." "You think they'll figure it out that we dropped it down here?" "We need to get it in the ground." "Come on." "Heard some talk in the camp before we left." "They were talking about what happens when it's over... if the war ends up what everyone says it will be... about the spoils we all stand to gain from it." "But what you're talking about is bigger than that, isn't it?" "But if we succeed..." "if we are to succeed and leave this island with the alliance intact," "I'm having a hard time seeing how Mr. Silver can be a part of that now." "He'll come round." "Once she's safe, then he'll be able to see things clearly again." "I hope so." "If not, if he needs to go..." "You're too important to what comes next to have to bear a burden like that." "So, when the time comes, I'll do it." "Fuck!" "You're still leaning forward." "Let's go again." "I have no story to tell." "It all might seem as though I'm trying to conceal something from you, but... truth is... there is no story to tell." "No one's past is that unremarkable." "Not unremarkable, just... without relevance." "A long time ago, I absolved myself from the obligation of finding any." "No need to account for all my life's events in the context of a story that somehow... defines me." "Events, some of which, no one could divine any meaning from... other than that the world is a place of unending horrors." "I've come to peace with the knowledge... that there is no storyteller imposing any coherence, nor sense, nor grace upon those events." "Therefore, there's no duty on my part to search for it." "You know of me all I can bear to be known." "All that is relevant to be known." "That is to say, you know my genuine friendship... and loyalty." "Can that be enough and there still be trust between us?" "Again." "We're nearing the turn point." "Good." "That's good." "Once the range marks align, we'll have a sense what direction we're to head in to reach the island." "How far out, do you think?" "Oh... could be a few days, maybe less." "When we sailed for the Urca gold," "I remember something of this feeling." "So much to be gained." "But this is different, isn't it?" "How so?" "Well, then, even a complete and thorough success meant a qualified victory." "On some level, whether we were prepared to acknowledge it out loud or not," "I believe we both knew the fortune would likely cause as many problems as it would solve." "But now, if that man out there can fulfill his promise to us, if we can prevail over Flint and the governor... and I feel we can..." "I don't know why, but I feel it." "Am I mad?" "Tell me." "I'm asking." "I don't think you are." "I've... thought the same thing." "The result ahead of us... promises to be a victory... of a different sort." "A true victory." "Freedom... in every sense of the word." "How many men in the history of the world have ever known it?" "How remarkable a moment is this?" "How fortunate are we to be standing on the threshold of it?" "Yes?" "What is it?" "James said he saw him clutch for his chest." "Then... he just dropped." "Mm-hmm." "Mm-hmm." " Should we...?" " Mm-hmm." "His heart gave out." "So, you asked him to recount for you what he knew days ago, yes?" " Of course." " 'Course you did." "Good." "And you can get us to our destination without his assistance, yes?" "His heart gave out!" "Do not fuck with me." "Of course I can, truly." "I'm almost certain I can figure it out." "Get the fuck up and sail." "All is well?" "I thought I heard it." "Thought you heard what?" "A woman." "Or what sounded like a woman." "Wailing... just faintly from the trees." "Mr. Wallis swears he saw a mermaid swimming beneath the surface." "Mr. Jones heard the voice of his mother accusing him of infidelity to her memory." "The mind is prone to mischief, I suppose." "Mm-hmm." "Especially in a place like this... remote and... full of stories." "There are no monsters in the dark... though there are dangers." "Let's take care to tell the difference." "Lay our attention on the latter." "Fuck!" "Hey, the hold's on fire!" "What happened?" "Men in the water!" "Launches in the water!" "From the Eurydice!" "Oh, good God." "Don't wait for me!" "Go!" "They'll be upon us soon." "You'll have to put it in the ground." "Can you do it?" "I'll stall them." "Jesus!" "We need to get above." "You said our only chance of saving the ship is to flood this hold." "It's too far gone." "In a couple of minutes that fire will reach the magazine." "What choice do we have?" "Abandon ship." "Abandon ship!" " Abandon ship!" " All hands!" "It would be preferable to me if we resolved this another way." "Cache is in the ground by now." "And I'll need as many men as we can get for what comes next." "That includes you." "He'll be here in a moment." "You still think you'll persuade him to see this all your way?" "I don't think so." "But I'd prefer not to find out." "That's enough!" "Tell me where it is." " I can't do that." " Fuck you!" "Where is it?" " You're making a mistake." " Fuck you!" "Where is it?" "In the ground... where it stays until Madi is freed, and we gather it and return it to the camp, all of us." "I know you cannot see why this must be." "But it must be." "And every moment we waste is a moment we could be working to retrieve her." "That's all this has ever been, isn't it?" "A partnership only insofar as it enables you to do whatever it is that matters to you in any given moment." "And right now it matters far less to you whether she lives or dies than it happens your way, on your terms." "I think you know it's far more complicated than that." "I'm certain she does." "Hup!" "Even if you could kill me, even if that somehow helped you see her alive again, how are you going to explain it to her?" "She believes in this as much as I do." "You know this." "If it costs the war to save her, you'll have lost her anyway." "Even you cannot construct a story to make her forgive you that." "You do this, and you're gonna regret it." "No!" "Don't!" "Swim for the shore!" "Try to reach the shore!" "Get to the shore!" "Away from the ship!" "Can't you see it?" "It isn't utility that's behind his investment in me... nor necessity, nor dependency." "I understand you fear a false motive." "But this much is clear to me now..." "I have earned his respect." "And after all the tragedies that man has suffered... the loss of Thomas, the events of Charles Town..." "I have earned his trust." "I have his true friendship... and so he's going to have mine." "And as long as that is true," "I cannot imagine what is possible."