"This instrument would allow a ship to calculate its precise location at sea." "Will you sell this to William Jagger in Jamaica?" "If it will make amends for what happened here today." "This is not the real chronometer." "It is a skilled facsimile." "Blackbeard wants to send me home, leaving him free to wreak havoc upon the world." "Our future depends on acquiring that map." "He deceived you." "To safeguard the island." "Both of you deceived me for much less." "Mr. Lowe has given Kate a spring in her step." "James..." "He's my husband, and this is my home." "Then leave them both." "I was something different when I came here." "A spy." "Tom Lowe had me arrested." "Tom Lowe had me tortured." "It shatters, triggering a detonation." "I must sail soon with these to enact a great endeavor, a Spanish fleet." "With luck, he should soon be well." "He's luring the treasure fleet into the open ocean." "We track down that armada, we find Blackbeard." "Are you certain, Sir?" "Mmhmm." "I am." "And the rest, please." " I can't." " Do it!" "It'll prevent the wounds from putrefying." "Oswald?" "He sends his apologies, but he asked me to express to you that he would very much appreciate your companionship." "Right." "And how is the Doctor?" "Passable." "To replace what was lost." "Thank you kindly." "It seemed the least one could do." "There are no spiders in it, no poison pins." " Thank you." " You seem to be recovering nicely." "When will you be ready to sail?" "I'm sorry?" "I need to be somewhere, Mr. Lowe." "And I can't walk on water." "Well, I presume not." "Where do you need to be?" "A certain distance north-northeast of here." "In order to do what?" "Sink a Spanish fleet." "With respect, Commodore, the Reaver is a fine ship." "And in terms of ferocity, her crew is second to none." "But she's still only one ship." "Are you suggesting it can't be done?" "This is a fine copy of the map you very kindly acquired for me." "The convoy's route from Cuba to Spain is here, in red." "The second route, in blue, that's ours." "Where the lines cross, that's point of contact, a narrowing through which the convoy must pass if it's to reach the Archipelago here." "Across this bottleneck, we distribute Lord Summerisle's floating explosives." "Is this what it seems to be?" "If it seems like gunpowder, then yes." "I never saw so much." "What could the Commodore want with it?" "Sending the entire fleet to the bottom of the ocean." "You sold Mr. Nightingale's chronometer to the Spanish..." "It's very beautiful, Captain Kentish." "Thank you, Governor Portocarrero." "And now my money." "Expressly in order to lead them here, out into the middle of nowhere, where no ship sails." "And thusly, no one shall ever know what became of them." "Although legends will surely accrue of Blackbeard's ghost, of cursed treasures, of Spanish fleets that vanish as if they never were." "You approve?" "I doff my Cap to you, Sir." "But what good is a treasure if it's at the bottom of the ocean?" "Oh, that's no difficulty." "So what is it, the thing?" "A vessel of some kind, except that it seems to travel underwater." "On purpose?" "So it would seem." "What's the point of that?" "Legends don't birth easy, though, Tom." "It is a perilous endeavor, though a merry one." "And the men need a surgeon rather than some apprentice butcher." "They deserve that, I think." "Are you with me?" "In truth..." "How could I be otherwise?" "You look very fine." "Well, a man should dress for the occasion." "You should consider yourself Commodore until my return." "Until your return?" "Milady, you doubt me?" "It's God and fate I don't trust." "God and fate are in my debt." "They'll come to heel like dogs." "They'll watch me sink an entire fleet, make a fortune, build a nation." "You are Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal." "Alas, only Edward." "I know who you are." "Marry me." "How many times have you asked?" "100,000?" "Then ask again." "Marry me." "And once again." "Marry me." "I should be honored." "When did you know me?" "I didn't, not for sure." "I had only ever seen a drawing of the man who had me tortured." " But you wondered." " I wondered." "But you knew me." "And yet you showed me great courtesy." "Not enough." "And for selfish reasons at that." "Selfish in which way?" "I wanted to make amends for my own sake, for the sake of a sleep unbroken by nightmares." "We make for strange enemies." "Stranger friends." "Oh, I don't know." "We share a great deal in common." "So what now between us?" "An eye for an eye and we'd all be blind." "There comes a moment when you have to raise a hand and say, "enough."" "We owe each other nothing, neither gratitude nor revenge." "Then the mistake was mine." "You are the man she believes you to be." "No." "I never was." "But it's something to strive for." ""In such white robes, heaven's angels used to be revealed to men"." ""And though ill spirits walk in white, we easily know by this these angels from an evil sprite"." ""Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright"." ""License my roving hands and let them go before, behind, between, above, below."" "Don't take Lowe." "Take Charles Rider." "Is that what you want?" "It's what I need." "And desire?" "If you want my hand." "Consider it yours, then." "Mr. Lowe, I trust you are healing well." "Tolerably so, yes." "What would it take to kill you, I wonder." "One day, I'm sure we'll find out." "The Commodore wishes to relieve you of your duties on this voyage." "Forgive me, but the Commodore insisted that he need a surgeon, as he was sailing into battle." "The boy is to sail with him." "Flit?" "Fletch." "Madam, I'm not ready." "But we have every confidence in you." "Have you not learned at the knee of the master?" "You miss it, don't you?" "The way it was..." "Thievery and homicide and dollies." "I do." "Tell me why I love you." "Because no man ever walked the Earth had a truer sense of himself." "What's this?" "Captain's coat." "You deserve it." "So tell me, are you coming or not?" "But one minute, they're telling you to go;" "the next, to stay." "Why?" "I don't know." "But it makes me wonder if any apparent kindness on his part comes without selfinterest." "I don't want to go." "Well, it's a direct order." "There's nothing I can do." "What are you looking for in that coat?" "I simply don't trust the Commodore." "Do you think they plan to kill me?" "Why would they do that?" "Because I know too much." "Well, that's an assertion with which I very much beg to differ." "Mr. Fletch, you're not worth damaging the edge of a sword for." "However, you are a very capable surgeon." "It's not about you." "This concerns me." "Although in what way it concerns me," "I'm afraid I can't guess." "Perhaps they plan to kill you, then." "Probably." "I joke, Mr. Fletch." "I'll be perfectly safe." "One moment, please." "Use them well." "You know how." "I really don't want to go." "Then imagine how glad you'll be to return." "I'd be grateful if you'd protect him, Sir." "He's my very dear friend." "He's a member of my crew." "I'm proud to have him." "You have my word." "I'll bring him back." "Be careful." "I shall." "Go with God, Mr. Fletch." "Prepare to trim the windward!" "Boy, check that spar!" "Ease away!" "Make sail, Mr. Rider." "Bring in those lines!" "Aye, aye, Sir." "Let go halyard, sheets, and braces." "Let go the halyard!" "Slacken braces and sheets." "Sheets and braces!" "Haul halyard." "Slacken braces and sheets!" "Sheet home the sail." "Sheet home the sail!" "You heard the Captain." "Make sail!" "The Commodore has departed the island." "So I hear." "Leaving this in my care..." "The logbook which contains the schematics for the chronometer..." "The King's prize." "A king you despise to your marrow." "No longer." "Everything I believed was wrong, Kate." "Everyone's beliefs are wrong, except the small ones." "And what are those?" "That we should love and hope to be loved." "With this in our possession, we can return to England." "Yes, to be hung as traitors." "No, this buys us a royal pardon." "You'd hold the King of England to ransom?" "I would." "Making you what, the King's man?" "Nobody's man but yours." "This takes you home to your mother and father, your sisters, daffodils in spring, frost on the grass in winter, hunting dogs at your feet." "That's what this means..." "What you've always wanted..." "A way home." "You like what you see?" "This?" "Or you?" "So you're the surgeon now." "Apparently." "If the time comes, cut well..." "And cut fast." "We have the fleet, Sir." "Good." "Tuck in behind them." "Keep lookout, all posts." "Spaniards, ho." "There's so many." "It's a handsome sight, all right." "Did we know there'd be so many?" "Well, we hoped." "In our heart of hearts, we had faith." "74 guns each, mind." "That's near on 1,000 guns between them." "They're so far off from the shipping lanes, they imagine themselves protected by their solitude." "But they're only as fast as their slowest ship, so the advantage is ours." "Keep them in sight, Mr. Rider." "Sir..." "The moment's yours." "They call us pirates." "But the only difference between them and us?" "They rob the poor under cover of law." "We rob the rich under cover of nothing but our daring." "They demand honest serving of us, knowing honest serving yields nothing but miserable wage for miserable labor." "But in this life, in our life, there is abundance, and there is satisfaction." "There is pleasure and ease." "And the only hazard we run for it is a sour look or two when they hang us." "To a merry life and short one and a rich one too." "Set all sails." "Brace about and fetch their course!" "1,000 guns..." "Bring 'em on!" "May I?" "Of course." "Please." "To what do I owe the pleasure?" "Well, I'm glad it's a pleasure for one of us." "How's your back?" " Uncomfortable." " So I'd imagine." " I've endured worse." " Really?" "I thought it seemed somewhat excessive." "If I'd endured a lash for each death on my conscience, a 40 wouldn't have begun to cover it." "Do they haunt you, the people you've killed?" "It would be too kind to myself to call it that." "So what would you call it?" "I possess a cognizance of my sins." "That's a very pious statement for such a godless man." "Not at all." "I'd like to know how the human head can reconcile two such opposing concepts." "It's elementary." "Then I beg you, enlighten me." "If there is a God, then our existence is a miracle." "And if there isn't, then the immensity of that miracle can only be amplified." "Why the strange look?" "I'm trying to infer your purpose in coming here." "It's obligatory that I should have a purpose?" "Oh, yes, indeed." "I'm simply trying to resolve your nature as a function of curiosity." "Are you more physician, do you think, or assassin?" "Well, that depends on the circumstances." "Which circumstances are these?" "She was right." "It's him." "Sir, even if it were..." "It's him." "Turn to intercept." "Set all sail handsomely, three points starboard." "Man the guns." "All men at arms." "Let's have it." "I love my husband." "I know." "Does it embarrass you to hear me say it?" "To hear a person speak of love?" "When the day arrives that such a word is considered illmannered in good company, then we really will have lost all hope." "You do believe in it, then." "In love?" "I'm familiar with the affliction, yes." "Did you ever marry?" "The truth now." "I did not..." "Although I came very close once." "But you know how it feels to want to spend the days of your life with someone that you cherish?" "I do." "Because you have to understand I love James in ways I'm not always able to express." "I can't abide the thought of him being hurt." "I don't mean physically." "He has no need to endure further anguish, since you and I are no longer..." "No, but what we did, you and I, it does have consequences." "Kate, James and I spoke today." "I don't mean those sorts of consequences." "I mean..." "Physically." "There are physical consequences." "You're..." "I am." " How long?" " Long enough." "And am I..." "I believe you are, yes." "That's... that's..." "Another public humiliation to be endured by the man I love, further evidence that he's a cuckold and his wife a wanton." "Nobody thinks that." "Everybody thinks that, and they're not wrong." "The child will be a daily reminder of our betrayal." "That's not so." "James never saw it as such." "Whatever he claims, his heart will be broken." "I believe he's a better man than you take him for and stronger." "Well, I believe he's had more than his equitable share of sacrificing himself in the name of someone else's welfare." "Then to be clear, what are you saying?" "I have to lay it out?" "Yes, you do." "Very well, then." "I'm offering you the opportunity to reconcile the two sides of your nature," "to be Doctor and killer simultaneously." "Is that clear enough, I wonder?" "Damn it to hell." "Damn it." "Three points off the convoy, out of the sun." "It's Jagger." "What are you doing here?" "Come on, Edward." "Come and get me." "Bring her about handsomely to port, Mr. Rider." "I'm sorry?" "Turn us about." "Sir, the gold." "Turn us about." "Commodore, the plan..." "Is null and void." "Port hard, Mr. Rider." "Port hard smartly." "Aye, aye, Sir." "Three points northwest, full speed." "Aye, Sir!" "Will you do it?" "I can't." "The danger's too great." " To whom?" " To you." "There's no safe way to do as you ask." "Abortifacients are poisons." "And aren't you an expert in poisons?" "To kill, yes." "And isn't the difference between a medicine and a poison simply a matter of dose?" "Using what's available to us, there is no such thing as a safe dose." "You'd suffer great pain and anguish." "My husband will suffer greater pain and greater anguish." "The difference being that he won't die from it." "You might." "And this is your final answer?" "I think he'll rejoice in the child." "I think he's a greater man than you take him for." "By convincing himself that it's his." "Would that be so terrible?" "You really are a liar to your core, aren't you?" "It comes as naturally to you as breath." "Kate..." "Reconsider." "Please." "Bring in the mainsail!" "Full speed!" "Are we attacking that?" "Oh, we'll be whizbang, boy." "Don't you worry." "We'll be top notch." "How much do I take?" "Enough to dip your finger to the first knuckle." "It's very bitter." "Take it with sugar if you have some." "Have you ever?" "No, and I'm glad for it." "But I know enough who have." "Is it safe?" "No." "Forgive me saying." "Saying what?" "In a matter such as this, you should swallow your pride and ask the physician for help..." "Mr. Lowe." "I tried that." "I'll sit with you if you like." "I've been thinking about the music room in the old house." "Do you remember?" "I loved it at the time, the life we led." "Or I believed I did." "When I think about that woman now, that girl," "I'm embarrassed that she was ever me." "This is my home." "Then we'll stay here." "You'd do that?" "Whatever it takes." "Then take this out of temptation's way, the logbook." "Give it to selima." "Commodore, we're losing the convoy." "Damn the convoy." "We'll find them again." " They're at the horizon." " Noted, rejected, dismissed." "We can return to the plan." "It's a good plan." "A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." "And it's a bad plan that admits no modification." "Are you throwing my own words back at me there, Charlie?" "I'm recollecting them for you, Sir." "That's all." "And that's your place now, is it, to recollect my words for me?" "And why is that?" "Am I losing my touch?" "Is my judgment impaired?" "Am I mad?" "The sight of Jagger has awakened something inside of you." "And what has it awakened?" "Your rage." "And your rage is clouding your judgment." "Is this mutiny, then?" "No, Sir, it's not." "Because it sounds like mutiny to me." "Are you sure?" "I am, Sir." "Then do as you're damn well bid." "No." "I beg your pardon." "Would you take my command from me, then?" "If I must." "Yet it's not mutiny." "No." "How can that be so?" "Am I not your Captain?" "We're pirates, not subjects." "You're elected by all men on this crew by majority vote and can be replaced by the same." "You're here at our choosing, Commodore, not God's, not the King's, and not yours." "Ours!" "And that is our money that you are letting get away." "If you want to settle old scores with those you hate, you settle them on your own time." "What else would you take from me, Charlie?" "What's next, after my ship, after selima?" "Commodore." "What's next?" "We can settle this back on shore." "We need to turn about and hit that treasure fleet before it's lost for good." "No." "Jagger's here for me." "Can you follow that, or is the logic too complex?" "He's here for me, and I will not turn away from him." "Maintain course." "Is this your doing?" "Did you lead him here somehow?" "No." "But I knew he'd sniff us out." "Granted, I didn't reckon on his being here so soon." "And what did you intend?" "That he'd go seeking the fleet, presuming me to be on his tail, and then drive himself to insanity, wondering how I'd wiped it from the face of the Earth." "And why would you do that?" "Because I wanted to remind him what I can do, Charlie." "Because I wanted him to know what you've forgotten." "And what's that?" "That I'm Blackbeard." "Charlie?" "What's happening?" "Would anyone here like to stand with him?" "Mr. Rider, don't move." "Hold on now." "Hold on." "I can save you." "You'll be good." "You'll be very fine." "Step back, Sir." "Step back, Sir." "I'm in earnest." "Good work, brave boy." "Come on, Charlie." "I'm sorry." "That's my boy." "Charlie." "Charlie, Charlie." "Charlie, you know I love you." "Why are you wearing that red coat?" "Because it's a reward from daddy?" "Because it's a token of love?" "Or just because it's red?" "Don't." "Good night, Judas." "Set course for the English ship." "Make ready!" "Oy, to your positions!" "Ease off!" "Almost in range, Sir!" "Sound general quarters." "Aye, Sir." "Come on, William." "Wait for the command!" "All men at arms!" "All hands, battle stations!" "Fire!" "Maintain course." "Come on then, William!" "Come on!" " Fire!" " Fire!" "Hold her steady!" "Brace!" "And, gentlemen, if you would, please." "Now." "Port hard, smartly." "Port hard!" "Hard starboard!" "Hard starboard!" "Kate!" "What is it?" "What's wrong?" "Oh, Kate." "What have you done?" "Kate, where did you get this?" "From Nelly." "Nelly?" "The trollop?" "Why?" "There's a child." "I need salt and water for a purgative and a pail." "James." "James, they're both dying." "Quickly." "How much did you take?" " Can you save her?" " Perhaps." "If the purgative clears sufficient poison from her system." "And the child?" "James... can you do it?" "I can make no promises." "That's not good enough." "Can you do it?" "It's challenge enough to save Kate." " The child..." " Has harmed no one." "Can you save them both?" "I don't know how." "If we bleed her?" "If we tap enough blood, she'll die." "She's dying now." "She is." "There must be something, some treatment." "There must be something." "50 or 60 years ago, two French physicians developed a technique known as transfusion." "They treated a 34 year old man, Antoine Mauroy." "Transfusion." "Of blood, body to body." "With what result?" "The first transfusion saved Mauroy's life." "The second killed him." "But new blood might save her?" "It might." "It might also kill her." "So without it, she'll certainly die?" "I believe so." "Then let's be quick." "Let's be quick." "Not you." "You're to be a father." "If we give her your blood and she lives only for you to perish, then we've deprived Kate of a husband and the child of a fine father." "And for all the crimes I've committed," "I will not commit that one." "We must hurry." "Thank God you're alive." "You will tell me where Blackbeard is, sooner or later, Charlie boy."