"That gentleman and his daughter, the money they took, ain't never coming back." "We're going to recreate my father's system here without my father." "A consortium with all of you sharing in the profits." "I'll do that the moment you lift the ban on Captain Vane." "Charles Vane is an animal." "You have until dark to come to your senses." "Do you have some problem with us holding onto that whore?" "It's up to us when we're done with her." "Hunting the Maria Aleyne was never about money." "It was an execution." "Good men will die for some hidden agenda, the Barlow woman's agenda." "Boston is more forgiving of one's past." "With my family's assistance, one might find a new life there." "Andromache's manned like a warship." "Sixty men, at least." "And they're fighters." "He's in a reinforced hold." "There's no way to get the guns off the boat." "Anybody we send down there is just gonna get cut to shreds." "Mr. Guthrie's orders were explicit." "No matter what, I was to make sure that you were on this ship." ""I sent a message to the Captain of the Scarborough." "I told him where he would find you."" "Good God, the Scarborough!" "How far have we drifted?" "Not far." "A few miles." "Fucking Scarborough's out there, Billy." "I can feel it." "Just waiting for a whiff of us so she can set those guns ablaze." "Lars is almost ready." "He'll have that bunker open in no time." "Four hours till sunup." "If we can't get those guns before then," "Flint will let us leave, right?" "Here you go." "The wick's fast, so don't light her until you're right up to the bunker." "Get it through the murder hole and then take cover." "The vanguard will be right behind you." "While Bryson and his men are choking on the smoke, we'll bust down the door, take him out, grab our guns and be on the way home." "Did he say anything to you?" "About what?" "Bryson slipping off with our guns is one thing, but bringing the Scarborough with him?" "How did he even know the Navy was around?" "Richard Guthrie must have been involved." "No shit." "Do you think?" "Where I get confused is that Richard Guthrie was supposed to be under guard at the Barlow woman's home." "Isn't that what he told us?" "I mean, what do we really know about her?" "She shares his love of books?" "Isn't it about time we start asking some real questions?" "Billy, not now." "Please." "He wants you to take it." "To place it in the hole above your head." "To signal to pirates." "He says if we help them, they'll bring us back to their home." "No." " He says..." " I know what he says." "He says in Nassau a slave can be free, get a job and a wage." "Maybe for him." "He's strong." "A few others." "The rest of you, don't kid yourself." "You are cargo, in Nassau or otherwise." "You would decide this for us all?" "This has nothing to do with you." "We have a chance to be free." "I don't care." "There are weapons on this ship the pirates plan to return to Nassau, weapons that are very dangerous to someone I love." "No matter what happens to me or to you, those weapons must not be returned." "Time has come for us to tell those who are aiming to make us slaves they are no longer welcome in this place." "Not any longer!" "Fuck 'em!" "Fucking bastards." "No fucking longer." "Two hours." "Two fucking hours she's been holed up in there." "Well, I for one think this is a good sign." "What?" "Clearly she's taking the decision seriously." "I'm sorry, you think it's a good sign she's taking this seriously?" "I can't even..." "Jesus." "What I believe Captain Lawrence meant to say is that as long as it takes for Miss Guthrie to emerge from behind that door and lift the ban on Captain Vane... a decision which, a few hours ago," "she said would be taken over her dead body... then Captain Hornigold over there walks away from our nascent shipping consortium, killing it in its cradle." "He withdraws his men from the street, at which point Captain Lilywhite and his mob are free to burn everything in sight with the Guthrie name on it." "All of Nassau will, most likely, descend into fiery mayhem from which we will all be lucky to escape alive." "Every moment that that door remains closed is a moment that Miss Guthrie is considering that outcome as a viable, even preferable alternative to merely swallowing her pride." "I don't know." "Perhaps you need to have a little bit more faith in people." "I'll take the good news to Captain Lilywhite." "Let him know he can stand down." "Good news, everyone!" "The cunt's knuckled under." "We're back in fucking business." "You hear that, eh?" "So what's this now?" "She don't want no one touching the whore." "What the fuck's your problem?" "Another step and I'll show you." "Mr. Hamund, permit me a moment with our friend here." "Talk some sense into her, Jack." "Before she goes and does something stupid." "Tell me this is not happening." "Tell me you weren't about to fight Mr. Hamund over that fucking whore." "Don't call her that." "It would appear that I've failed to appreciate just how deeply this situation has disturbed you." "But if you're intent on following this course of action, then I suppose we should do our farewells now because I don't think I can stomach watching the men throwing you into that tent as well and having their way with you," "which is where I fear this story ends unless you pull your shit together." "Captain says no light." "I know." ""To the honorable Justice Addington Thomas"," "Massachusetts Bay colony."" ""I petition you under the advisement of your friend" "Mr. Richard Guthrie, to bestow your favor and influence."" ""You may know Captain James Flint by reputation through stories of his past misdeeds," "but you might not know of his desire to repent." "He is a good man, a decent man, eager to renounce his transgressions at sea and seek life in a part of the world willing to accept a man humbled and penitent."" ""Were such a thing possible, would such a place exist?" "It is with this very hope that I write you today." "I've enclosed a bill of exchange for £500 to be spent at your discretion toward procuring whatever permissions necessary." "I only urge speed."" ""He is caught in a dangerous plot with wicked men who will most certainly kill him when they learn of his betrayal."" "Jesus." ""Believe me, your obliged and faithful servant," "Miranda Barlow."" "Get me another plan." "Fuck." "I need to talk to you now." "I found it in Bryson's cabin." "It's from the Barlow woman." "She wants a pardon for Flint in Boston." "She says we're gonna kill him when we learn of his betrayal." "And?" "It says betrayal." "I can see that." "What do you want me to do about it right now?" "I know about the Maria Aleyne." "What?" "I know Flint killed those people for her." "I know morley saw it and brought it to you." "And I know you did nothing." "He played games with his crewmen's lives then." "He's doing it again now and he knows he can get away with it because we're protecting him." " Because you are protecting him." " Enough." "If you want to go to the crew with this, be my guest." "But I will do everything in my power to frustrate you." "Know that." "How can you say that?" "Because we're in fucking battle right now and I will not undermine his control of what is, frankly, a shitty situation based on a letter written by a woman neither of us know a thing about." "Just promise me that when we get back to Nassau, we will deal with this." "Everything all right?" "Fine." "Billy's come up with our next move." "It's three hours till sunup." "Perhaps you'd like to share it with the rest of us." "Pastor Lambrick." "It's later than I'm comfortable taking company." "You shouldn't be here." "I live here, Pastor." "Or hadn't you noticed?" "Mr. Underhill agreed to take Mr. Guthrie in." "Mr. Guthrie spun such a tale for him." "He said he's been bribing the lords proprietor in London for years." "Said he planned to use that fact to extort preferential treatment from them when England reasserts her rule here." "He promised wealth and prosperity." "Even promised to see Underhill declared governor." "And that was it." "How nice for Mr. Guthrie." "It is nice." "He now sleeps safely on Mr. Underhill's plantation behind two dozen of the most brutal overseers in the new world." "Behind walls and guns and swords." "I need no protection." "Mrs. Barlow," "Mr. Guthrie has betrayed Captain Flint." "And you've helped him to do it." "If half of what I've heard of Captain Flint is true, he will not react to your betrayal kindly." "You do not understand any of this, pastor." "Then help me understand." "Help me, because I cannot in good conscience walk away from here believing you to be in such peril." "All right." "Good evening, cunt." "If I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it already." "What a piece of shit you are." "Nose in the air." "Spoiled cunt playing at our business." "Pains me being this close to you." "Should tell you how fucking desperate I am." "Desperate for what?" " Your help." " Beg your pardon?" "Your friend on the beach." "She fucked us and that needed answering." "But then that night, she told you to go fuck yourself." "Should have toasted her." "If she had a cock, we probably would have." "What Hamund's been doing to her..." "Ain't right." "What do you want me to do about it?" "I've tried to help." "She didn't want it." "Now my hands are tied." " I can't..." " You could kill him." "I'd do it myself, but the men saw us feuding." "I go near him, I'll have them all at my throat and no one at my back." "Now's the time." "Captain's gone." "Don't know how long for." "Wait, gone?" "Gone where?" "I don't know." "I don't much give a shit." "Left alone on a skiff this afternoon." "But if he returns, he'll be another one standing at Hamund's side." "If you're already suspected by the men, what's to say they don't suspect you no matter how Hamund were to disappear?" "What's to say that suspicion doesn't lead to questions?" "And what's to say those questions don't lead to me?" "You fucking coward." "Why?" "Because I've used my head before making this mess even worse?" "'Cause for all your shit, all your posturing, you won't lift a finger to help her." "I didn't say that." "You said my plan was too dangerous." "Your plan isn't dangerous enough." "Eight men left on your crew." "Eight men who support Hamund." "You said it yourself." "We kill him, they all become threats to both of us." " It's foolish." " Then what the fuck would you suggest?" "You want to kill Hamund, then you have to kill them all." "They disappear all at once tonight with neither of us implicated." "There's eight of them." "Their guard is up." "It's impossible." "It's not impossible." "We just need a little help." "I don't know how else to say this except no." "I suppose there's fuck, no." "Or fuck you." "I think you misunderstand." "I wasn't asking you to help me." "I was granting you the opportunity to help me." "But now, because of your tone," "I'm disinclined to be so generous." "Beg pardon?" "Now you'll beg me for it." "What the fuck are you talking about?" "All those days ago when you first proposed this arrangement of yours to Flint... remaining with his crew, holding onto the last piece of the schedule to ensure you weren't disposed of... when he asked you what's to stop him from killing you" "when all's said and done, do you remember your answer?" "No, but I'm guessing you do." "I believe you said," ""we might be friends by then."" "I'm sorry, what are you driving at?" "You've spent enough time with the man now." "Does he strike you as the type of person who would ever under any circumstance leave a loose end like you walking around?" "When I took your advice and lifted the ban on Charles Vane," "I became the center of all commerce on this island again." "Someone you don't want as an enemy." "Someone Flint doesn't want as an enemy." "The way I see it, I may be the only person in this world who can dissuade him from killing you." "I had a very different life before I came here, a life I shared with my husband." "He was a special man, a man of ideas..." "About the world, about the order of things." "Writers, artists, men of science... they'd fill our drawing room night after night to talk and argue." "Sometimes just to listen to him." "In some ways he was like you... a shepherd to his flock." "He would have loved to have met you." "Me?" "You think I can play devil's advocate." "Thomas would have played that game with you from dusk until dawn." "And everything you hold sacred, he'd leave in tatters." "Not from malice or hate, but from love." "From a desire to see the yoke of shame lifted from your shoulders." "You think I am ashamed?" "My husband and I were happy." "But in London, a happy life can often be a very dangerous thing." "Something that other people simply cannot abide." "Thomas learned that lesson all too well." "Captain Flint was Thomas's closest friend." "And after his death, he saw fit to spirit me here for my own safety." "Flint brought you here?" "You're right, I don't understand." "I just told you." "Captain Flint is my deliverer." "There's nothing more you need to understand." "Why are you here?" "I'm concerned for your safety." "It's late." "You knew I'd be alone." "It's inappropriate." "You're not here because you want to protect me, pastor." "You're here because you want to fuck me." "I'm sorry." "We dangle?" "Four men suspended over the side." "Axes, augers, charges." "It's a rapid penetration to get a charge through the hole." "Cause disruption, distraction while we move on the bunker through the hold below." "Saw Avery try it once." " And it worked?" " I said I saw it tried." "Volunteers?" "Paxton." "Bobby." "Dooly." "Logan." "Something wrong?" "Even if we do hack through, we'd be dangling there like bait on a string." "It's suicide." "We don't have time for a debate, Mr. Logan." "Now I gave you an order." "And what happens when those orders get us killed?" "You send in four more?" "Billy, tell him I'm right." "Mr. Logan..." "Fall in." "Billy, tell him I'm right." "Captain..." "Mr. Logan makes a valid point." "Unfortunately, now is not the time." "Anybody else got a point they would like to make?" "While we are in battle, the Captain's orders are the law." "That is what we signed up to." "That is what we agreed." "Now the order's been given." "Heed it!" "Captain!" "I can't believe I didn't see it before." "It was staring us right in the face." "Those cannons aren't the only thing" "Bryson has locked down there with him." "38 slaves." "You think they put that flag there as a signal to us?" "Well, it wasn't there three hours ago." "And if not us," "I couldn't tell you who they are trying to signal." "Seven, eight..." "Nine priced over £100." "That's nine strong men ready to fight Bryson from below." "Yeah, well, you're presuming those nine men will choose to take up arms and join in a fight they couldn't possibly know or care less about." "Given their current situation, my presumption is that there are no nine men on earth who wouldn't jump at the chance for a little fight." "What, you got a better idea?" "Well, how do you imagine we get them out of their chains?" "You will never see them again." "What?" "This person you'd give your life to protect, give our lives to protect..." "Whoever they are, you'll never see them again." "You must love them very much, but I do not think you have thought this through." "You don't know me." "And you don't know what you're talking about." "I know that if we reach our destination, we may never have another chance like this." "There is no way." "You and I, we are both in this hold, but we are not in the same place." "How many times must you have told yourself that you're special?" "That your master thinks you're different from the rest?" "Maybe you're right." "But I know those men above better than you." "And when they put you in these, they don't mean to let you go." "You have a chance to go home again, yet you just sit there." "Maybe you're right." "You and I are not the same." "What the fuck is going on down here?" "Sir." "It's this one." "Heave!" "Together, lads." "And..." " Heave." "What do they think they're doing?" "Come." " Heave!" " Again!" "Heave!" "Put your back in it, boys!" "Secure the hold, Mr. Hayes." "Something's wrong." "Excuse me." "Mr. Hamund?" "Who the fuck are you?" "My name is John silver." "And I have a proposition for you." "I've heard your crew has been freed to hunt again." "And I understand with Mr. Rackham out of favor, you're the man the crew now looks to." "Seems our paths were meant to meet in this moment." "Me with something to sell, and you with means to use it." "Piss off." "I was the whore's partner, the one who stole the page from Flint and then tried to sell it to you." "You're that new one." "The cook they took on." "That I am." "But perhaps not for long." "This is where I think you and I can help each other." "The night the exchange was meant to take place at the wrecks," "I lost the schedule to Captain Flint." "But I escaped with my hide intact and my anonymity." "I've remained with the crew since then, but I believe now I've tempted fate long enough." "Flint departed, I remained." "My intent... to sell the page again and leave Nassau with something to show for it." "Seeing as we theoretically already had a deal," "I thought your crew was the logical place to start." "What the fuck are you talking about?" "You just said Flint has the schedule." "He has the page the schedule is written on, but I saw that page." "I think there's a good chance I can remember most of it." "For the right price." "Are you a fucking lunatic?" "What's to stop me from killing you for getting us into this mess?" "Wait." "I am willing to give a steep discount on our original agreement." "We don't have any fucking money left, you shit." "Rackham lost it chasing you." "I fail to see how that's possible." "Mr. Hamund." "May I help you?" "You told us you lost our pearls in the wrecks." "5,000 pesos worth." "Isn't that right?" "Yes." "Because now I'm told that you gave half our pearls to the whore up front before you ever left for the wrecks." "Which would mean that half the pearls never went to the wrecks." "They was on the whore when your bitch reeled her in." "Leaving us to wonder where the fuck are they now?" "I don't know where you're getting your information from, but I can assure you, it is mistaken." "She threw that whore in the tent long before we got to her." "Yes, but the whore had no pearls." "Neither I nor miss bonny would be so stupid as to steal from you." "And even if I were, I would certainly never be so stupid as to trust a whore to act as escrow." "Someone is lying to you." "If you tell me who it was," "I might be able to help you figure out why." "I'd tell you, Jack..." "But I don't see how that much matters seeing that we found these" "in your tent just now." "Look at you now." "Where's the fucking rest of them?" "Buried." "By the wrecks." "Darling." "I'm so very disappointed in you." "I believe I'm entitled to this." "I've arranged a room for you." "I don't imagine I'll be doing much sleeping till I know this is finished, thank you very much." "Thought I'd wait it out here, if you don't mind." " Heave ho!" " Pull!" "Come on!" "That's it!" "Heave!" "All right, lads, coming over." "Coming over." "Okay, that's good." "I certainly didn't expect to find you down in the hold." "Not after you betrayed miss Guthrie on behalf of her father." "Our agreement was" "I would stay behind to protect Eleanor from you." "You think what she and I hope to achieve for Nassau is impossible." "That I'll be the death of her?" "I lost six men chasing down this ship." "Nearly faced another mutiny all over again." "If I had any sense, I'd throw you to my crew." "Take the pressure off me." "But I'm not gonna do that." "I'd rather prove you wrong." "Billy." "Stow the guns in the lower hold." " Favor the starboard." " Of course." "Right, Billy." "What?" "Afraid I got loose lips?" "Please, son, I am on your side." "You've got to believe that." "Then get some answers." "Come on!" " Heave!" " Heave ho." "That's it." "Hold on." "Lend a hand, mate." "Perfectly good stash of powder here." "You all right?" "She saw us." "The Scarborough had to have seen us." "There's still great guns in the hold." "At least three or four more." "There's no time for delay." "The guns we've unloaded already will have to suffice." "Cut us loose!" "We're getting out of here." "Come on!" "What the hell is that?" "It's the Andromache's spritsail brace." "It must have blown loose during the explosion." "That's two knots or more it'll drag us down." "Earlier..." "When you and Mr. gates were having words, you mentioned a letter." "What was in it, Billy?" "Billy!" "What was in it?" "I think you know what was in it." "Oh, shit!" "Hard to starboard." "Bring us about." "Man overboard!" "Man overboard!" "It's Billy." "He fell." " Billy!" " Billy!" "Any sign of him?" "We can't turn back." "She'll tear us to pieces." "Ambush, I presume." "Nothing out there but men with pistols and swords." "I imagine those pearls didn't just materialize out of thin air." "With whom did you scheme this?" "The cunt." "Somehow I'm not surprised." "Decent fellow, Slade, as far as I know." "Never raised a hand against the whore." "A factor I hope you considered before you decided that he and six other men who stood by our Captain in his darkest hour, men he considers his brothers, be lumped into the cost of assuaging your offense in this matter." "God damn it, Anne." "Do I not deserve a say about this?" "You had your say." "Now I'll have mine." "This way." "You know, when I first met you," "I pegged you for an easy mark." "But now, between you and Flint," "I'm not certain who I should be more afraid of." "I saw you earlier." "After you lifted the ban." "You were angry." "Not just about Max." "Those men out there, they made you admit you were wrong." "They made you feel weak." "I think you felt compelled to let everyone on this island know that in this place," "no one fucks with you and gets away with it." "Thank you for what you did for me." "I didn't do it for you." "Old Jim Carver." "Sebastian Frakes." "William "Bones" Manderly." "Huzzah!" "I hope you're pleased with yourself." "I see." "We won't be speaking of this again, I presume." "Well, before we close the lid on this and put it in the ground, one last question if you will, just to satisfy my curiosity." "When you and Miss Guthrie were plotting this little coup, when she asked you, "well, shit, Anne, what makes you think old Jack will go along with this plan of ours and not plead the truth to his men" "as he's most certainly going to feel duty-bound to do?"" "What did you say?" "I told her given the choice between them and me..." "You'd choose me." "That's very fucking touching." "And the Captain?" "The two of you come up with some idea how to deal with him when he returns and finds out about all this?" "You don't know where he's gone, do you?" "He ain't coming back."