"I have committed men and resources to aid you in retrieving the Urca gold in exchange for which you assured me expelling Captain Vane from that fort." "Back from a lengthy journey, and not one of them has felt the need to have a go." "Maybe they was told to stay away from it." "To prevent them from divulging a secret." "Max's share ain't the only item the men took issue with." "You chose her." "They gave me a choice, but it was no choice." "Anne?" "Anne!" "Until I know what you're going to say to the men," "I can't let you say anything to the men." "The girl's name is Abigail Ashe." "You need to obtain her from Captain Vane." "And when you return her to her father, you're going to explain what it is you're trying to accomplish here... a Nassau that can self-govern." "It's too great of a force to defeat." "We attempt to fight the body of it." "The only way to beat it is to cut off its head." "Had I two rounds left," "I would shoot both of you and be done with all of this." "Can't avoid it any longer." "It's time you made a choice." "Enough." "You two will resolve this." "This isn't going to end the way you want it to." "This ends in this room right now." "He can't let it, and neither can I." "Sit down." "Why the fuck should I sit?" "There is a girl in your possession." "Her name is Abigail." "Give her to me and I will stand down my men." "You can have the fort." "You'd give all this up for a little money?" "She's worth more to me than money." "She's the future of this place." "Send word for your father." "He should hear this as well." "We're through the Twin Pass and well into the zone on schedule." " Captain?" " Listen." "Do you hear it?" "No women." "Yes, well... in any event, according to the whore, the True North should be here." "According to the whore, the ship is insured up, down, and sideways, so they should surrender the moment they see the black, netting the men a quick and painless score, and you an auspicious debut." "Now it's just a matter of whether or not the whore's information proves accurate." "And if there's anything you need assistance with today, please don't hesitate to ask me." " Such as?" " Well, I've heard things." "Heard the role you played on the Ranger was almost entirely a political one." "Heard Captain Vane was the sailor among you." "It's nothing to be ashamed of." "You certainly would not be the first man to learn how to captain a ship after being named captain of a ship." " I see." " Look, Jack." "I vouched for you." "We are both invested in this... experiment working out." "Sails!" "Sails!" "West, northwest!" "It's the True North!" "Right where she's supposed to be." "All right, gents!" "Let's go get her!" "Come to starboard." "Make a heading west, nor-west to intercept her." "Chop it off on the braces and strike the mainsail and foresail." "Today!" "Bit of a surprise to them, that one, wasn't it?" "Not to blame them, seeing as that you just opened a pursuit where speed will be of the essence by releasing the sails and steering us in the wrong direction." "Though I suppose there's a chance you struck the sails to make us nimbler." "Tack hard to starboard to alter our angle of approach." "Come up right behind her and steal her wind." "Sails!" "Heard you the first time!" "Second set!" "West, south-west!" "Two prizes." "Not likely." "It's pursuing ours." "Another hunter." "We have competition it would seem." "Fuck this." "Where are you going?" "I'll be back in an hour." "Anyone asks, I'm taking a shit." "Who shits for an hour?" "I do." "Captain says anyone walks away from this beach with this fight looming don't need to ever come back." "Shut the fuck up." "And what's worse, you're going to go to the one place on the island he said we're not allowed to go." "He said the whores there work too hard taking secrets from men's heads." "Mate, I'm so close, I can smell her." "So either I'm going up there and fucking Charlotte, or I'm fucking you down here imagining I'm fucking Charlotte up there." "Tell her I said hello." "Right." "Fuck." "Men cannot be kept in this state." "Sooner or later, they must fight or they must know there will be no fight." "And now he's nowhere to be found." "Much can be said about Captain, but shying away from a fight isn't one of them." "Whatever he's doing up there in that tavern," "I'm certain it's towards the end of prevailing in this fight." "At a certain point I'll cease to care what his ends are and lead these men up that hill myself." "I don't think that's going to be an option anytime soon." "What are you talking about?" "It will likely start with three ships, maybe four." "A tactical assault to retake the bay." "Once England decides she wants this place back, the resources that she will commit towards that end are inexhaustible." "Sooner or later, we'll be driven inland, forced to fight as rebels from the interior hoping to inflict enough damage and expense to compel the new governor to negotiate with what's left of us." "For years I prepared for that fight." "Now it would appear that there is another way, a way in which we can control our futures without that fight." "And as fate would have it, you are holding the key to make that possible." "The girl." "Her father is a very powerful, very influential man." "If I return her to him unharmed," "I believe that I can win him as an ally, an advocate in London to argue for a reconciliation with England where we keep our assets, maintain control, and name a governor of our own choosing." "I believe that there is an opportunity at hand, an opportunity where we control our own futures." "We just all need to agree to take it." "Peter Ashe." "Returning his daughter might gain his ear, but there is no man in the Americas with a more strident contempt for piracy than he." "No amount of appreciation is going to make him forget that." "A long time ago, he and I were friends." "Good friends." "We fought alongside each other towards this very end... a stable and prosperous Nassau." "We're talking about a man who took a struggling Carolina colony and turned it into a commercial success." "And from what I'm told by friends in London, is unparalleled in his ability to maneuver the avenues of power in Parliament." "If that man could be persuaded, as you say, if that man chose to be our advocate, that would certainly argue well for our prospects." "What I do get?" "If this, if that." "Yet it all relies on an asset you do not possess." "What do you get?" "You get what we all get... a future." "Show it to me." "Hand me my future here in this room." "What?" "It isn't just your words, is it?" "The promise of a thing hard to define and impossible to deliver... that is what you're suggesting I get in exchange for surrendering an asset worth what that girl is worth?" "If you're looking for something more immediate, then how about your own survival?" "If we cannot agree to do this together, then I walk out of here and I lead my men in cutting down what remains of yours." "This girl is so valuable to you, and you would risk her death just to punish me?" "You want her?" "You have two choices." "Try and take her and hope she survives the fight or pay me what she's worth." "And what exactly do you estimate that to be?" "One Spanish Man of War." "He can't do that even if he wanted to." "That ship belongs to his men." "Says the woman who managed to separate me from my last ship with just a few choice words." "You want to see that girl alive," "I suggest you not try and stop me." "Among the men she is surrounded by right now," "I am quite certainly the most reasonable one." "I believe my terms are clear." "You know where to find me to deliver your response." "Stop." "You can't walk away from this." "Were it anyone else in the world, you would see right through this." "But that man starts talking and you'll believe anything." "You have a choice to make." "It's long past due." "Until then, there's nothing for you and I to say." "What are you doing?" "Parsing leads from the girls." "Why?" "Should I be doing something else?" "You're telling me you haven't heard what happened?" "The crew of the Eagle was recruiting by the beach." "Anne Bonny showed up looking to join." "Quartermaster tells her if Jack Rackham's got no appetite for her on his crew, they for fucking certain don't either." "What did she do?" "She grabbed a marlingspike and plunged it in his jaw." "Took out three teeth." "Which brings me to my original question." "What the hell are you doing here?" "Why aren't there men at your door?" "You are afraid she will come here and attempt to harm me." "Everyone's heard what happened." "Jack had a choice, pay you or keep her." "He chose you." "She's gone fucking mad over it." "Idelle, how would you feel if the one man you thought would never betray you did?" "If he purchased for himself a future through that betrayal?" "If you were told by a world full of men that that betrayal confirmed for them that they were right to see you as a monster to be shunned?" "She's not mad." "She is adrift." "Alone in the most terrifying way." "What she will do next, I do not know." "But I refuse to proclaim myself to be yet another one of her enemies by acting like I have something to fear from her." "If she returns, if the girls see her, tell them to allow her a wide berth and tell me at once." "Logan's come up from the beach." "Mr. Rackham was right." "Flint forbade any of the Walrus men from coming here." "If the secret they are hiding is that important, perhaps this is something we should let alone." "He has already brought you into his confidence." "Just show him you are calm." "Let him talk and everything will be fine." "Hmm?" "I assume you're the one who fetched Eleanor?" "Why didn't you just leave me there?" "I couldn't." "Thank you." "What happens in London?" "Assume your appeal to Lord Ashe is persuasive." "Assume you bring him here, show him that everything necessary to make Nassau a viable, permanent colony is already in place and functioning." "Then he has to make the case to Parliament, yes?" "Yes." "But while he's trying to persuade them that there are reasonable men among the pirates of Nassau, men ready to govern themselves responsibly and peacefully, no one will be listening, because in the next room the ambassador to the court of King Philip of Spain" "will be shaking his fists with rage, screaming about how these same reasonable men just stole five million Spanish dollars from the king's treasury." "He'll be demanding Whitehall denounce the act or risk losing the hard-won peace between both nations." "If Lord Ashe is to have any prayer of succeeding in what you are asking of him, not only can you not retrieve the Urca gold, no one else here can retrieve it either." "They saw it with their own eyes." "In their minds, half of it is spent already." "To persuade them to let it go at this point is an impossibility." "I don't dispute that." "But I would argue it is also indisputable that these two plans, courting Lord Ashe and retrieving the Urca gold, are working against each other." "Perhaps even mutually exclude each other." " I will make it work." " How could you possibly?" "I don't know... yet." "He agreed." "He agreed?" "Abigail Ashe will be surrendered to you in exchange for which you will agree to make no further move against him or the fort." "He lives." "I'm sorry, but I'm having a difficult time believing that he agreed." "He agreed, he didn't agree." "What difference does it make?" "I am guaranteeing that the exchange you offered will be honored." "Do you understand?" "You want me to go to my men and deny them a fight that I have led them to believe is critical for the future of this place and do so based upon your word that Charles Vane will compensate them for it?" "That is exactly what I'm asking you to do." "I'll say it again." "I am guaranteeing the terms of this deal." "If you deliver on your promise, if you prevent any further attack on the fort," "I will bring the girl down from the hill and deliver her to you." "Will you fulfill your end of this bargain?" "Yes or no?" " Do you recognize it?" " No." "Not a Nassau crew." "Let's get this underway, shall we?" "Captain Jack Rackham of the Colonial Dawn." "Never heard of you." "Well, perhaps you should get out more." "Good one." "Captain Linus Harcourt of the Goliath." "Your ship is named after the greatest disappointment in the history of warfare?" "They like how it sounds." "Pleasure to meet you." "Have you ever done one of these before?" "Split a baby?" "No." "No, I haven't." "We've had a few." "One of three outcomes, in my experience." "One, crews fight it out." "Seeing our obvious advantage in strength of numbers, you're wise enough to forgo that option." "Two, captains fight it out." "Don't know about you, but this doesn't seem like a haul worth dying over to me." "Yeah, what's three?" "Reasonable men agree." "The first thing I remember is being in the hold of that ship, shackled." "Then, um, a man came in." "The Scarborough's captain." "And he just said one thing." "He said," ""Yesterday, you were a free man." "Today you are a thief condemned to die."" "I saw a garrison on Harbour Island." "200 men." "I saw an armory, some barracks." "They weren't passing through." "The navy is, this moment, fully encamped 40 miles away from where you stand." "Eventually, the man who guarded me got careless, let me get too close..." "Billy, we're all relieved beyond words that you're here, but the question on all of our minds in this moment is how did you end up in the water in the first place?" "Mr. Gates assumed, I assumed, we all assumed, the captain had a hand in your fall to silence your opposition to him." "Do you remember what happened on the bow of the Walrus that night?" "You ought to go." "It'll take me a while to straighten things out down there, but when I do, I'll be home... if you'll have me." "I'm not going anywhere." "What?" "Abigail doesn't know you." "She doesn't know Miss Guthrie." "She did know me once." "There's a good chance she might even recognize me." "I would assume your plan would work best if she were cooperative in it, if she felt safe." "There's no better way to ensure that than having me be a part of it." "Part of it?" "For how long?" "I don't know." "Aren't we all just figuring this out as we go?" "You and Peter weren't the only ones committed to seeing Nassau set aright." "You weren't the only one who paid a heavy toll towards that end." "I stood aside too long." "If you and I are to be partners... then we ought to be partners." "Very well." "Captain." "There's been a development." "I'm on my way down to the beach to inform the men." "Before you do that, there is something you need to know." "There's been a development down there, too." "Where the fuck are you going?" "You got Flint's man up there, is what I hear." "I'm looking for Max." " I'm really not supposed to..." " Get him to talk?" "Are you fucking serious?" "You going to play games with me?" "What did he say to you?" "He said the gold is still out there." "He said that Flint still plans to go get it." "Out there?" "Where the fuck is it?" "He wouldn't say." "But he's coming back later tonight." "Tonight." "They cut me loose." "But something this important needs doing, leave a fucking whore to do it." "I can go get it." "I'm just being careful." "Wait!" "Charlotte," "I can't find my belt anywhere." "You know who I am?" "I sure as shit know who you are." "Fuck's the gold?" " Please don't." " God damn it, Charlotte." "Where the fuck is the gold?" "I'm getting Max." "Don't move." "I won't say it again." "You want me to believe you won't betray your men?" "Your friends?" "All men betray when it suits them." "And right now I'd say it'd fucking suit you." "Fuck you." "You won't fucking touch me." "You know who my captain is?" "Who my brothers are?" "Who the fuck are you?" "Some skinny little cunt without a crew." "Not a fucking soul..." "What did you do?" "You fucking lunatic!" "What the fuck is wrong with you?" "First day as captain, is it?" "What makes you say that?" "Little things." "A few looks from your men." "They're curious how you'll handle this." "Your banner." "Something in the way your men reacted to..." "The banner?" "What's the matter with the banner?" "Well, it's new." "Lightly traveled." "Why?" "What do you think is wrong with it?" "It's fine." "There." "What do you think?" "Is this supposed to be a joke?" "What do you mean?" "This isn't remotely an even split." "You get almost half the total tonnage." "Yeah." "The shit half." "You get the tobacco and sugar and I get what?" "Blankets, pots and pans." "Your half of the tonnage is worth nine-tenths the value." "It's closer to four-fifths." "We agreed we would reach a reasonable settlement here." "As in an equitable result." "As in a result based on reason." "Had we come to blows over this prize, there's no doubt my men would have won it whole." "I'm offering you a meaningful share just for having got here first." "It's the most I can spare without losing my men's faith in me." "I know we have the advantage here." "I can see your numbers." "I can see you." "Did Billy say what happened?" "He was fished from the water by the Scarborough, tortured, escaped." "Did he say how he went into the water?" "Said he lost his footing." "Said he fell." "He said you tried to save him." "And how did the crew react to hearing that?" "Stunned surprise, I would say." "Before the captain gets here, there are some things" "I would like to discuss in private." "It's good to have you back again." "Captain!" "107 men have been standing on this beach awaiting your return, waiting to complete the task to which we've all bound ourselves." "Waiting." "Perhaps now that you are here, we might at long last reclaim my fort." "Farad, take this to Hassan." "I should go get the doorman." "No." "Stay there until I come out." "You can't be in there alone." "I think you know who that is." "And who his friends are, who his captain is." "I think you know what this will provoke." "I think you know how dangerous the consequences promise to be, and I think you knew that before you took up the knife." "I think I know why you did it, and I don't think it had anything to do with him or with her or with gold." "I think it had to do with something entirely different... and I understand." "So I will not let those consequences touch you." "I will stand in between you and them, and I will protect you." "So Vane stays in the fort." "A fort with no ability to threaten the bay for weeks, if not months." "And therefore no ability to stop us bringing back the Urca gold safely." "As for Vane," "I don't like leaving him up there any more than you do." "It's an awful compromise to be sure, but one well worth making given what is being offered in return and what it promises for the future of this place." "How unsurprising that you cast aside our arrangement the first moment it suited your whim." "My priority has always been and will always be the welfare of my men." "And your good word being no priority at all it would seem." "A hard choice, sir, but one that any responsible captain must make given the changing circumstances." "I'm only sorry that you cannot see past your own pride to join me." "My pride?" "I've been a captain of men at sea going on three decades, survived a war with Spain, an insurrection against a queen, a decade as an outlaw in a place where the weak and the dead are one and the same." "So the idea that you could choose to discard our arrangement, that I would demur in the face of your unassailable rhetoric, either you've overestimated yourself, sir, or you've underestimated me." "Mr. Dufresne, as quartermaster of the surviving Walrus crew, consider this notice and relay to whom you must." "Tonight I will call counsel and submit myself as captain of this combined crew." "My argument will be plain." "I intend to lead the men in retaking the fort as promised." "I intend to hold Charles Vane to account as promised." "And then I intend to sail for the Urca gold having ended your tyranny over this place for good." "Don't say a fucking word." "Just sit there and listen." "You're right about me, about what I am." "I am like you, so I know what you're feeling right now," "that I'm asking you to weaken yourself for someone else, for the island's sake, for my sake." "But you're wrong." "We control something so valuable... the whole of England wants it." "We control Nassau, and the ransom we are going to demand for her is going to be fucking enormous." "More than money." "More than land." "Legitimacy." "Legitimacy?" "England is going to give that to you?" "When they realize it is the only outcome that makes any sense, they'll have to." "And the moment they ratify our control over this place, no more fighting, no more leads, no more chasing our fucking meals." "I'm talking about making money the way London makes money... collecting it, not hunting it," "and in amounts that mean something." "Give up the girl." "Make this deal." "Do this with me and we can have a future here together." "Eleanor, when I take something from a man, his ship, his money, his life," "I don't hide behind a clerk." "I don't hide behind the law." "I don't hide behind anything." "I look him in his eye and I give him every chance to deny me." "That is legitimate." "I know what he wants you to believe, but he's wrong." "England's return isn't inevitable." "England has no more appetite for taking this place back today than it did yesterday, or last month, or last year, because they know it is inhabited by too many men like me, men who would die" "before being another man's slave again." "Side with Flint, beg them to let you keep what is already yours, show them that weakness, and you'll invite the very outcome you wish to avoid." "Side with me and we will show England that this place has never been stronger, and we'll keep our freedom for another day, another month, another year, a lifetime." "Hey." "Do you believe me?" "You're right." "It's nowhere near an even split." "My God, this is... really quite disappointing." "I say we take it." "What?" "What?" "You're not concerned how the men will receive this?" "What other choice do we have?" "Start a fight that gets our whole crew slaughtered?" "I suppose you could challenge him to fight you man to man, but I think we can both agree that's not going to end well for anyone." "At the end of the day, our men can count." "Most of them can count." "They can all see that we're simply outmatched here." "And they know that..." "well, you know..." "They know what?" "That they chose you as a captain to get access to the whore's leads." "If they're honest with themselves, they can't really expect you to be able to do anything about this." "Leads or no, if I accept these terms, they'll vote me off before we return to Nassau." "Hmm?" "You cannot imagine what I've sacrificed to gain this captaincy." "I may have lost the only person in the world I cared for to gain this captaincy." "I cannot lose it." "Not so soon." "Not like this." "You're right." "This is likely the most reasonable distribution given our relative strengths." "Then can we consider ourselves in agreement about our terms?" "With one or two small adjustments, if you wouldn't mind hearing me out." "Of course." "For what little comfort it may provide right now," "I believe you've made the right decision." "Your men will see the wisdom..." "Thank you for offering us a way forward." "Wait!" "Wait, wait, wait." "Wait!" "Wait!" "I'm sorry, friends." "I had hoped to find an outcome amenable to both crews." "But it seems that this man was unable to see any outcome that saw a single member of this prize crew to survive." "And that was an outcome that I could simply not abide." "I can only hope our new brothers will join us in the fight for their own survival." "Mr. Haines, remove their restraints, please." "Remove their restraints now!" "Every man from that prize crew." "Unless there is a man amongst this crew who can sit down with me at this table and speak reasonably, honorably, to reach a resolution more favorable... in light, of course, of the overwhelming odds now in our favor..." "Anybody?" "Come on!" "Anyone?" "You have heard I'm supporting Captain Flint against Captain Hornigold tonight, yeah?" "I've heard." "I'm not sure I understand after everything that's transpired, but I've heard." "Flint was right." "England is coming." "I've seen them." "I've seen how they see us." "We aren't criminals to them." "We aren't even men." "We're animals." "If Flint can do as he's promised, protect this place, protect us from ever having to face that day, how can we do anything but support him?" "And if he cannot?" "Are you suggesting there's an alternative?" "I didn't escape." "From the navy." "I didn't escape." "The captain of the Scarborough made me an offer." "He offered me and nine men of my choosing full pardons." "He placed them on the table right in front of my eyes." "Said I could have them if, in exchange," "I would aid him in the capture of a fugitive from justice." "One particular fugitive." "If we doubt" "Flint's ability to do as he's promised, if we doubt he's the man to save us, then you and I and eight other men have another option." "We subdue Flint and we deliver him to Harbour Island." "And then... we put this whole fucking mess behind us." "You seem unconcerned." "If I understand correctly, the stakes of the upcoming vote are significant." "What exactly are you doing?" "I'm seeming unconcerned." "I cannot think of a better way to aid Captain Hornigold's cause than to appear panicked about it." "No, that would be my job, I suppose." "What were the numbers of the last count?" "I'd say you have at least a half dozen votes over Captain Hornigold at the moment." "That isn't nearly enough." "He's a desperate man." "Even with a minority faction, he might still move on Vane, in which case the girl dies." "I need him to lose so convincingly that no sane man would follow him two yards up that beach." "A margin of 20 would help matters." "Don't stop moving until you have it." "There is one particular vote" "I'm having some trouble with." "Perhaps you could help me with it." "Whose vote is that?" "Mine." "When we returned here, you said it would be a week, maybe two, before Spanish reinforcements arrived and that gold was as good as gone." "Yes." "So what happens if we win the vote and the gold isn't delivered in a timely fashion?" "Vane reneges." "Delays to achieve better terms." "Certainly these are plausible outcomes." "How long do we wait for the situation to resolve itself?" "The gold is still a priority." "There's been no change in that." "You have my word." "That's all I needed to hear." "I should get to work." "I'll keep you apprised of the numbers." "You do that." "Mr. Silver, a moment." "How can I help?" "You're doing a nose count for the captain, yes?" "I am." "You're gonna find your tally a man short." "Why?" "Who isn't here?" "Where's the madam?" "Excuse me, but I'm going to need your help." "Hello." "Sorry, I was looking for the madam." "You found her." "Somehow, I'm not surprised." "Seems quite a bit has transpired since last we were in business together." "And I would love to hear all about it, but at the moment I'm a bit pressed for time." "So if you could do me a favor and send Mr. Logan back to camp, that would be a huge help." "Mr. Logan?" "I don't believe he's here." "Oh, he's here." "And he's not in trouble." "But that could change quickly if certain people were to learn he's here." "So please, send him down." "What the fuck happened here?" "Does it matter?" "A man dies under this roof, it is my responsibility whatever the circumstances." "You've lost a valued crew member and restitution will be made, I will see to it." "My crewmates were expressly forbidden from entering this place." "I imagine you noticed." "And I imagine you can guess it's because there's information those men are privy to that we'd just as soon not have plied out of them by your girls." "Now my armorer is dead on your floor and I'm forced to wonder if those two things aren't related." "How exactly did you plan on covering this up?" "I told you, I have every intention of seeing this made right." "Time is not our friend here." "Please, something resembling the truth." "I don't know." "Something about them falling in love, running away together." "That's as far as I had got." "He went to Providence." "I'm sorry?" "Logan was among a number of men who deserted this morning." "Unwilling to risk dying in a bloody fight to retake the fort, he and his love fled together." "I heard he has a brother in Providence." "Not surprised that's where he went." "Are you following?" " Yes." " Good." "Clean this up." "If anyone asks if I saw this up here, I don't intend to lie." "Why would you do that?" "Help me?" "The last thing I need right now is Flint in the middle of this." "If he or any of the men in his crew were to learn about it, my life would get significantly more complicated." "Any of the men?" "Aren't you one of the men on his crew?" "Clean this up, please." "Abigail." "My name is Eleanor." "You are no longer a hostage." "I'm gonna get you out of here."