"We're not far now." "We should be sighting the island soon." "And Hornigold?" "He's two miles astern, give or take." "Managed to keep ahead of him through the night." "It will be tight ferrying everyone ashore before he's upon us, but..." "Mr. Silver has suggested a radical solution." "I noticed that you've locked it." "Do you mind me asking who has the key?" "Neptune." "I threw it over the side a few hours ago." "If you're concerned about the men stealing from it..." "I am concerned about the men stealing from it." "There's treasure inside that box, a handful of which could provide a lifetime of prosperity." "Facing that kind of temptation, there are few men I would trust to self-deny." "But it is not the treasure that concerns me most." "Charles Vane's sacrifice is in that box." "If your man is unsuccessful in seeing to his rescue," "Charles Vane's death is inside that box." "Along with my good name." "Along with her lost love." "Along with your late quartermaster's life." "All the awful sacrifices made to assemble that box are now part of its contents, and those things... are sacred things that I trust in no man's hands." "The next time that chest is opened will be after Anne and I walk away with it," "And once the smoke is cleared... and all is done." "Captain, it's time." ""I, Charles Vane, do hereby plead guilty to the charges of treason and high seas piracy." "I understand that the sentence for my crimes is to be hanged by the neck until dead." "It is my hope that in exchange for this plea" "I might be spared the humiliation of a public trial, and that my execution be carried out... privately and mercifully."" "At noon tomorrow, you'll be transported under guard to the bay, where you'll be boarded onto the Shark and sent to London to face a Court of the Admiralty." "Agree to this plea, and the governor will endorse it." "We'll see to it that it is heard favorably and your experience in London will be short and dignified." "Refuse to sign it, and your experience will be anything but." "You came all the way down here to ask me to beg for mercy?" "What a fantasy this must have been for you." "Well, even if I did sign that, we both know how empty the victory would be, seeing as you don't give a shit about my piracy or my treason." "The only crime of mine that angers you is the one that no one else cared enough about to even call a crime." "Am I wrong?" "Is the murder of Richard Guthrie mentioned anywhere on that page?" "You fucking coward." "When Charles Vane takes something from a man, he looks him in the eye and gives him a chance to deny him." "It's all bullshit." "It was always bullshit." "You stole my father from me in the dead of night like a rank fucking cutpurse, and you did it because you weren't man enough to face me, to show yourself." "So you found the lowest, cruelest, weakest deed imaginable and acted it out upon an innocent man with whom you had no quarrel knowing that I had finally begun to build something with him, that I was finally able to see the good in him." "He was a shit." "What did you just say?" "He was a cowardly, selfish, treacherous shit who cared only for himself and for you not at all." "You know this." "All your life you knew this." "Then suddenly he walks back through your door, tells you he can give you all of the things you want, tells you I'm your enemy, and, just like that, his love is sacred and mine is a inconvenient obstacle" "to your ambitions." "The life cycle of your affections... a man you love who speaks the truth shunted aside in favor of the next who will tell you whatever you want to hear." "Goodbye, Charles." "He betrayed you, Eleanor." "When my men brought him to me first, he begged for mercy." "Then he promised to make me rich." "But when he realized neither had any effect, he promised to deliver you to me." "Promised to exchange your life for his." "That is who your father was, Eleanor." "And you know it's true." "You're not a man." "You're deformed." "Unformed." "Flesh, bone, and bile, and missing all that which takes shape through a mother's love." "You cannot comprehend what you took from me or why it was good, because there is no goodness in you." "There is no humanity in you, no capacity for compromise, nor instinct toward repair," "nor progress." "Nor forgiveness." "You are an animal." "Nassau is moving on from you, and so am I." "Open up." "What is this?" "He insisted upon seeing his senior counselors." "I see that." "Why's he doing it in his bedroom?" "Because I confined him to his bed." "Confined him?" "He was fine a few hours ago." "He collapsed after you left." "I believe his fever is worsening." "I will do what I can." "How long can we wait for Captain Hornigold's return before we can assume that he's failed to seize Captain Flint's ship?" "At which point I must strongly urge that we shift preparations from retrieving the stolen Urca treasure to preparing for a Spanish move against the island." "Gentlemen, if Captain Hornigold fails to retrieve the cache, then we will redouble our efforts and try again." "However, when he returns, it would be easier for me to prosecute those efforts if I am not dead from exhaustion." "Now, your counsel is invaluable, but until I'm able to recover my health," "I ask that all information you need to relay to me be done through Ms. Guthrie here." "I beg your pardon, my lord." "On this issue, I need no counsel, Mr. Soames, thank you." "Thank you all." "Go away." "You collapsed." "You saw him." "Yes." "I know what you took with you into that cell." "I don't care what happened." "Just tell me whether you were able to leave it behind in that cell." "There is no leaving it behind, but I'm ready to move forward." "Depth at 14 fathoms!" "Mr. De Groot, depth at 14 fathoms." "Hang the starboard and stern anchors." "Hang the starboard and the stern anchors." "He thinks we've lost our minds." "Always a possibility." "Well, he's carrying out the order, so have to hope he sees some credibility in it." "That or he doesn't know how to say no to the both of us at the same time." "You still see some credibility in the idea, don't you?" "Are you fucking kidding me?" "When I offered this suggestion," "I told you it was just a suggestion." "You said it would work." "Well, it's a certainty if we anchor and try and ferry ourselves and all our cargo ashore, our long-boats will be easy targets for Hornigold's guns." "In the absence of any better suggestions, yours was worth a try." "Depth at 12 fathoms!" "Depth at 12 fathoms!" "Captain, both anchors are hung and ready." "Awaiting your order." "Depth at 10 fathoms!" "Why isn't he reducing sail?" "Depth at eight fathoms!" "Depth at eight fathoms!" "Captain, if we miss our mark by as little as a boat length, it could be catastrophic." "He knows." "Depth at five fathoms!" "Depth at five fathoms!" "Hard to port, Mr. Williamson." "Aye, sir." "Let fall the starboard anchor." "Take courses and topgallants." "Let go starboard anchor." "Let go of starboard anchor, quickly." "Hard to starboard if you please, Mr. Williamson." "Let fall the stern anchor." "On your stern anchor, let fall!" "Surge the stern cable." "Surge the bow." "Ready for impact." "Douse the topsails!" "Open the gunports." "Take the courses and come about on a starboard tack." "Break off our pursuit, sir?" "Unless you'd like to approach into the teeth of his broadsides." "Bring us up the coast." "We'll deploy our men onto the sand, free of his great guns, and then march them in to... engage." "Jesus." "You know, my father used to tell me that when the world promises undesirable outcomes, only a fool believes he can alter the latter without first addressing the state of the former." "Now, we are living in a world where Nassau has embraced English rule, where former pirates now exchange pleasantries with soldiers in the street, and where the last man to stand up and defy England is about to be shipped back there to be hanged." "And exactly no one seems to give a shit about it." "So I'm here to remedy all that." "Before we go any further, there's something you need to know." "Circumstances have changed in town dramatically since Jack's escape and Captain Vane's capture." "The governor knows there was a spy that made the escape possible." "His people are on high alert." "The street is anxious." "Getting that kind of information again may be impossible." "There'll be time for spies again." "We're not up to that yet." "The first order of business for which I will need your help is rescuing Captain Vane." "Rescuing?" "There are a hundred redcoats between him and the front door of the fort." "Even if there was a way to get to him, he's set to be shipped out tomorrow." "There isn't nearly time to find it..." "Of course there isn't." "So we need to make sure they don't ship him out." "Not tomorrow, not ever." "We force them to try him here." "Buy ourselves days, maybe weeks, while they figure out a process and we find a plan to set him free." "How?" "How do we keep him off the ship?" "By making sure people give a shit about it." "You sent for me?" "Dr. Marcus says that the stress of receiving visitors is aggravating his condition, so I will seal off this room from today." "No one will be permitted in other than myself and the doctor." "As long as this state of affairs is necessary," "I would like you to tend to him." "Of course." "How long has he been asleep?" "He woke a few hours ago just for a moment." "Did you inform him of this plan to sequester him?" " No." " Why not?" "Because he looked at me and addressed me as Sarah." "He thought I was his wife." "He was delirious with fever." "If his condition changes, please send word." "Is that it?" "It is." "How long before their force arrives?" "A few days for Captain Hornigold to return to Nassau and report that the cache is defended by a small army." "Three days to muster soldiers and supply ships." "A week, more or less, before the governor's forces arrive on our coasts." "Then we have much preparation to do and little time to do it." "What happened to him?" "It was all a misunderstanding." "What was that?" "What was what?" "You told me that that man was taken to task by her bodyguard." "Was that not the case?" "Dobbs assaulted him." "He believes him responsible for choosing the men to be interrogated by them." "I didn't mention it to you because..." "I don't know." "I just didn't." "But it's been sorted." "Good." "Sorted how?" "I had three men hold him down while Dooley and Wayne administered a beating." "The message was received." "I'm quite certain." "Sorted." "We were successful." "The war we sought will soon be under way." "On our terms." "I was there in Nassau, and she's there." "Eleanor is there." "In a position of great influence, they say, at the right hand of the governor." "She is one of them now." "I stood in Nassau and I realized when this war begins, it will have many different meanings, but to you, this war is a civil war" "between two cities you held together for so long with unseen bonds." "You will have people on both sides of it." "You will have daughters on both sides of it." "And I want you to know..." "Only... you." "You have information about the identity of the spy within our midst." "It's Idelle." "She's the one that learned the secret route for the governor's caravan." "The one that made possible Captain Rackham's escape." "Have you told anyone of this?" "No." "Why not?" "I beg your pardon, ma'am?" "I know Eleanor engaged you those months ago to watch me." "If you took this information to her, it would likely garner you credit with her at my expense." "I know you have considered it." "I am asking why you did not do it." "Eleanor Guthrie used that chair not just to vanquish her enemies, but to create new ones." "Because some people can only understand themselves through the eyes of those who hate them." "They thrive only on sowing the seeds of their own eventual destruction." "Miss Guthrie has new clothes now." "Miss Guthrie has new friends now." "But to my eye, she looks the same." "You think I will outlast her here, so you would cast your lot with me and not her?" "Something like that." "Yes, ma'am." "Will you please make sure, when the governor's men visit the inn, they are serviced by girls you trust?" "There will be no more information seeping out of the inn." "Of course." "Will you tell her?" "Miss Guthrie." "Will you inform her of our suspicions about the source of the leak?" "Davis..." "Davis, you remember the time the captain..." "Do you know him?" "I do not." "But Featherstone says he's one of the most gifted purveyors of bullshit he's ever met." "And a man determined, above anything else in life, to be famous." "Which makes him the perfect fit for us." "...stronger and safer than ever was before." "What's he saying?" "The governor wants him to believe that Charles Vane is the cause of all their ill." "It's a lot easier to watch a man swing if you're comfortable hating him just a little bit." "His task is to start reminding everyone there's someone else out there that they're far more comfortable hating." "Who?" "What is it?" "When I sent for you, there were approximately 20 of them." "In ten minutes, it has grown two-fold." "What is he saying?" "That the law and order promised by the new regime is little more than a veneer, behind which Eleanor Guthrie has returned to settle old scores and restore her tyranny over Nassau once again." "I hear they will threaten to stand in the way of any attempt to remove Charles Vane off the island, that if he's to be tried, it must be here, in the open, where they can see it with their own eyes." "Fucking kidding me." "Vane is scheduled to be moved from the fort to the Shark in a few hours." "Chamberlain is making arrangements right now." "Is there anything you can do about this?" "To dispel what is building down there, it is going to require appeasement or it is going to require force." "Appeasement." "Hold his trial here." "To begin with, the lawyers aren't even sure that we have the authority to do that without a judge yet appointed, and even if it were legitimate, proceeding like that would last weeks." "Dredge up a dark past just when progress is so near at hand." "If the alternative is an armed clash between those men and the dozens of soldiers it would take to subdue them, a little time spent confronting the past may be the lesser evil." "I can't believe this is a coincidence... a plot to steal the cache followed so closely by something as choreographed as this." "I'll take this to the governor." "You should be careful." "I understand the governor has tasked you with being his eyes and ears while he convalesces." "In this particular instance, you would be wise to make sure, whatever happens to Captain Vane, those men have no reason to believe it happened because of you." "Whatever happens will be the governor's decision." "Of course." " Any change?" " No." "May I have a moment with him, please?" "I warned you the closer you let me get to you, the more dangerous I would be." "I've never given a damn what people think of me." "But I give a damn what you think." "I hope that when you wake, you will understand why I did what I did, you will see that it was all I could think to do to protect you... the only way I know how." "Any news?" "They say it shouldn't be long now before Mr. Scott leaves us." "We need to talk about that." "What about it?" "We're about to enter into a battle where every man must be behind us as any man with motive not to be so could sink us." "It would seem that you have made sure that he has one." "If it'd gotten out, what he did, you would likely be stranded back in Nassau." "Most of our men would be dead, and those that weren't would be back in those cages right now." "So you sent the vanguard to make sure that he understood this?" "To prevent him from getting any ideas about doing it again, yes." "If you have something to add, you should just fucking say it." "That's not why you did it." "Really?" "Would you like to tell me why I did it, then?" "Well, I wasn't there, but..." "I'd hazard the guess that you learned of what had happened, told him how fucking stupid he was, and in that moment, he gave you a look that amounted to something less than contrite." "And in that moment, you felt it." "Felt what?" "Darkness." "Hate." "Showing indifference to the authority that you sacrificed so much to acquire, disdain for refusing to acknowledge that his actions, had you not intervened, would have led to an outcome that he would have held you responsible for reversing." "Pride." "Questioning what kind of man you are if you don't seek retribution for the offense." "So what are you saying?" "You saying I went too far with him?" "Maybe you went too far." "Maybe you didn't go far enough." "Maybe you did it just right." "The point is that while you were doing it, you heard a voice telling you that disciplining him would prevent him from repeating the offense, a voice that sounded like reason, and there was reason to it," "as the most compelling lies are comprised almost entirely of the truth." "But that's what it does." "Cloaks itself in whatever it must to move you to action." "And the more you deny its presence, the more powerful it gets, and the more likely it is to consume you entirely without you ever even knowing it was there." "Now... if you and I are to lead these men together, you must learn to know its presence well so that you may use it..." "rather than it use you." "You have some experience with this, I imagine, living in fear of such a thing within you?" "Yeah, I do." "I can't tell if this was a warning or a welcome." "I need to make an offering at his burial." "Something of mine that he can take with him." "I'm sorry." "I..." "I don't know what to say." "What?" "I'm sorry." "I didn't get word until it was done." "I came immediately." "Well, what happened?" "The crew of the Shark is standing down." "The governor has scrapped his plans to move Captain Vane off the island and then scheduled an accelerated trial for the captain here in Nassau." "Shit." "When did they schedule it to begin?" "In the middle of the night." "Last night." "It's already happened." "You said there was no judge appointed here." "It was supposed to take days before they could start the process." "They appointed a judge, they impaneled a jury." "It was over before anyone knew it began." "Where is Vane now?" "Still in the fort." "But when I left the street, they were carrying the timber to assemble a gallows in the square." "They mean to hang him today." "The governor is still in need of bed rest, but Dr. Marcus will inform us when that situation changes." "Gentlemen." "When the governor arrived and the island embraced him, a bargain was struck." "Authority was ceded, in exchange for which the law returned." "Law, which constrained that authority, made outcomes more predictable." "But this outcome would seem most unpredictable." "The law was adhered to." "If the bargain changes, there is no telling what else will change as a result... what trust may be lost and what chaos may abound." "I am your friend, and I will help you weather whatever challenges may lie down whatever road you may choose, but as your friend, I am simply asking you to consider how treacherous this road may be... while there is still time to avoid it." "No one is taking this decision lightly, I assure you." "This is no attempt to circumvent the law." "Indeed, the governor felt that it was necessary in order to protect it." "It was a hard choice." "But an earnest one." "I assume you understand what is to happen, as soon as everything begins." "It'll be loud, confusing." "Men who've never experienced fear are said to know it for the first time." "But in this moment, there is quiet." "An opportunity to find some measure of peace." "I would like to help you do that." "You've done this before?" "I have." "Regretfully, I have." "Get many takers, do you?" "For the kind of peace you're offering?" "It is a different experience to what you may imagine it being." "Surely a man like you has faced death before, but never so nakedly." "And cloaked in glory or sacrifice, fully exposed in all its horror and finality." "In this moment, you have the opportunity to enter into that moment with a clear conscience." "I can help you do that." "To repent." "I have nothing to repent for with you." "Don't you?" "I understand the code you subscribe to." "I understand you believe your violence is justified in the name of a defiance of tyranny, but there are mothers who buried their sons because of you." "Wives widowed because of you." "Children awoken in their sleep to be told their father was never coming home because of you." "What kind of a man can experience no remorse from this?" "Whatever remorse I have or do not have is my own." "That I choose not to share it with you says more about you than it does about me." "Me?" "I am a shepherd sent to help you find a path to God's forgiveness." "A shepherd?" "You are the sheep." "And whatever I have to say to God," "I'll tell him myself or not at all." "When our lord governor arrived here, he promised you things." "Order." "Prosperity." "How many men are with you?" "A dozen." "I don't know how far they'll go." "Not in the face of all that out there." "That'll have to be enough." "Position your men around the crowd." "Tell them to be ready to move." "I'm gonna try to shout him down, raise Eleanor Guthrie, raise whatever I have to to try and strike a chord." "Turn as much of that crowd as I can in our favor." "Your men should take my lead." "Hopefully it'll be enough to start a frenzy, cause enough confusion to break the ranks of the soldiers." "Then in the chaos of it, we'll make a move to free Captain Vane." "Go." "Do it!" "Men who are not men at all, but beasts governed by the base instinct, incapable of anything but the most primal behaviors." "A constant threat to every decent," "God-fearing citizen among us." "As long as those men roam free, strife will endure, fear will abound, and progress will elude us." "Today marks the silencing of the most disruptive of those voices and a step towards the return of civilization in Nassau." "But we must always remember however strong the need for the removal of these traitors, these relics of a more savage age, there is no relish in this moment, but there is righteousness and comfort in the knowledge that..." "What's happening?" "Wait." "Billy, they're about to tie the noose." "I know, just... wait." "...and that God's will will be done again in Nassau." "Bastard!" "Hang him!" "Does the condemned have anything to say before the sentence is carried out?" "These men who brought me here today do not fear me." "They brought me here today because they fear you." "Because they know that my voice, a voice that refuses to be enslaved, once lived in you." "And may yet still." "They brought me here today to show you death and use it to frighten you into ignoring that voice." "But know this." "We are many." "They are few." "To fear death is a choice." "And they can't hang us all." "Get on with it, motherfucker." "Billy." "It's all right." "Proceed." "Now." "Go." "Why?" "It was the only way to start it." "He knew it was the only way." "Start what?" "Look at them." "Men, move along." "Move along." "The resistance in Nassau is now under way." "Another sacrifice for the cause." "And that chest of ours only gets heavier." "How many, do you imagine?" "Soldiers in the English force." "How many do you imagine we'll face?" "500, more or less." "Is that so?" "From what I saw, I'd say seven is a reasonable guess." "And that's assuming he doesn't call in reinforcements from Carolina, Virginia." "There's no shortage of men eager to kill pirates these days." "I walked that beach today." "The terrain inland may be to her advantage, but that beach is not." "The shore is too broad, the water too deep." "Their anchorages will get far closer to the sand than you'd like." "Even with defensive positions engineered in the bluffs, it will be an uphill struggle to offer any meaningful resistance at all to their landings." "All struggles are uphill." "That's why they're called struggles." "That's quite true." "But there is an aspect to this particular struggle" "I don't believe you've yet cracked." "I understand your tactical deployment of the Walrus." "She'll be massively outnumbered, but still a critical asset." "I also understand you intend to place your Mr. De Groot in command of her." "He'll manage." "Yes, but he wasn't your first choice." "It was supposed to be Charles, wasn't it?" "Are you suggesting a better replacement?" "Me." "England may have removed Charles Vane from our number, but there is too much of him in me for England to fully will him away." "In his absence, with everything that's at stake," "I will be our Charles Vane." "I've just come back from the beach, and I couldn't help but notice the three additional ships anchored in the bay being outfitted for this battle right along with mine." "Captain Hornigold will be sailing in consort with you, accompanied by his private militia." "Mr. Underhill has formed a special company of men from the ranks of his plantation staff, men with experience hunting and capturing slaves." "I will not go into battle alongside undisciplined conscripts." "The force I bring to bear is sufficient to combat whatever awaits us." "Jesus." "He wants the force you bring to bear." "He wants it." "I know this enemy, Commodore." "I know his mind." "He took that cache with the express purpose of compelling us to commit your force to a battlefield of his choosing." "Your force is factored into his thinking." "He has planned for it." "And I assure you, if you allow him to dictate the terms of battle, you court a disastrous outcome." "If he expects your force, then we must send that which he does not expect." "For we will have victory against this enemy." "There simply is no alternative." "Just returned from around the point." "The word is spreading throughout the Bahamas that the governor in Nassau hanged a pirate in his square." "Made an example of him, they say, to show that he is the steward of law and order in the West Indies." "He is resolved to be the Englishman who ends piracy in the New World." "The pirate he hanged in the square to underscore his point... was Charles Vane." "I have yet to inform the men, as I imagine they'll have questions" "I don't know how to answer, so I wanted to ask you first." "What do you want to do about it?"