"I opened the gates for you." "Handed you this victory." "Your men need to know my wife is not to be harmed." "Even if that order could be given, no one would heed it." "They've been let loose." "If you had suffered such loss is there anything you can imagine making it right?" "No, but I imagine getting my hands on the man responsible for it would be a start." "If we fight them together, there's a good chance we live." "Separate, and we all die." "When Flint heads south, we head north." "What's north?" "Eleanor Guthrie's grandfather." "They heard that Nassau had fallen, and so they came to join us." "The revolution you promised has begun." " Where's Madi?" " I need you to know that I did everything I could to keep her safe." "It wasn't your fault." "I wasn't able to say good-bye to her... so I don't know what she would've wanted me to say to you right now... if anything at all." "She and I... we'd become close." "So, I think I have some sense of what it might've been." "She was curious." "And strong." "Not made to be hidden away from the world." "She was able to see it before she died." "And she was fighting for something she believed in when she died." "You knew her well." "I loved her." "And I believe she loved me." "I think she would've wanted you to know that, too." "And you say welcome them in, but..." "I mean, they've never been free." "No one's at each other's throats yet here?" "Whatever their differences, everyone is here to be part of ending colonial rule in the New World." "As long as that's a possibility, no one wants to be the one to spoil the chance." "What's this?" "Discussing an attack on St. Ann's Bay as a first strike." "They've both been through there in recent months." "Trying to agree on what kind of resistance we'd likely face." "How is she?" "She's breathing." "How are you?" "In St. Ann's Bay, we can agree that there are two 10-pound guns on the beach." "And men-at-arms number at least 80." "No more than 100." "100?" "I figured twice that." "If we could set enough men up the coast- say three times that, give or take- we could seize the town within a day." "If you take St. Ann's, you'll starve Bridgetown." "She wouldn't last a month." "And Barbados has just fallen." "With Bridgetown as a staging ground, how many men could you muster to move to the mainland?" "700, maybe eight." "If we could recruit one slave in three in Barbados, that's 1,200 men we could land anywhere we chose, with ships to support their landing." "That's roughly what Morgan had in Panama." "It might just be enough for us to sack Boston." "Boston?" "Fools." "You're all fools if you think this road leads to where he says it does." "I have not proven to you my commitment to our common cause?" "What happens when our enemy realizes that all it needs to do to defeat us is to take away that common cause?" "Turn one against the other." "And when that happens- as it is all but certain to do- which of us standing here are likely to be the ones who benefit and which the ones sold back into their chains?" "Then what the fuck are you doing here?" "I saved your men's lives and yours from the fight you started but could not finish." "And now you would start another that no man can hope to finish?" "Then leave." "But what's happening here is going to happen." "This war is going to begin." "This camp is going to fight it with or without you." "They may call you a king, but only in the kingdom that is no more." "We're all free men here." "And I wish to stay that way." "As do we all." "Will you join me?" "Shh, shh, shh." "We have left the bay for the Delaware." "We will be arriving soon." "I'll be there in a moment." "She ain't been back down here... since we set sail." "You told her to fuck off." "She listened." "She told me she ain't got no apology... for what she'd done." "I know." "Part of me wanted to lash out." "Betrayed you." "Betrayed me." "Refuses to make it right." "Mm-hm." "And the other part?" "The other part... knew how easy it would've been for her to lie." "Say she was sorry when she ain't." "I don't know what the fuck to think." "You told her not to come back down here, didn't you?" "You'll have plenty of time to murder her another day." "Right now, you need to rest." "You asked to see me, my lord?" "I cannot imagine what sort of horror this is for you." "Please know, to whatever extent there could be any doubt, that the choices she made in recent days were made out of concern for you and out of love" "I spoke with Governor Raja... just before he set sail." "I wanted to be certain that our account with him was squared, that we ought to expect no return by his fleet, considering there were promises made to him that remain unfulfilled- to deliver the still missing cache and Jack Rackham." "Governor Raja assured me he had already written off the missing cache, the war effort being of paramount importance." "But Captain Rackham... he said he had never asked for Captain Rackham." "You added that part." "A convenient lie to placate Havana and improve your own prospects for survival, didn't you?" "Didn't you?" "Yes." "Eleanor turned her guns on me." "Eleanor betrayed me." "Surrendered Nassau out from under me." "None of that sounded like anything that would ever occur to her to do." "Not her." "Not after everything we'd been through." "But if it had occurred first to someone else" "No, sir." "Someone standing so close to her, who could and would manipulate her to secure their own survival." "My lord, I did no such thing." "Not now!" "Why would I believe you?" "Was there not an agreement between you that you would be released from your obligations and returned to your family" "May I speak, please?" "!" "Jesus, what is it?" "!" "Beg your pardon, but you'd asked to be notified when we were finished dressing the body." "Thank you, Mr. Rawls." "What?" "In dressing the body, my lord..." "I don't know how to say it." "Leave." "Beg pardon, ma'am?" "Leave now, please." "I'd be careful if I were you." "Mr. Rawls, get out of this room." "Mrs. Hudson!" "You don't want to hear what he's about to tell you." "Not like this." "You don't want to hear about it this way." "Hear what?" "I can't quite read this." "Trade." "The trade tax set by the general post." " The Society of Friends?" " I don't have any friends." " That's the rules." " Set by him, is it?" "The nine shillings is set in stone." "two shillings." "two shillings." "Pilot's fee departure, three shillings." "It costs more to leave than..." "Trading fee." "Not trading anything." "No matter." "Non-negotiable." "Sixpence." "And I swear to God, I'm not making this up," ""Voluntary contribution to the Society of Friends:" "two shillings." "Non-negotiable."" "This is- this is truly marvelous." "And we're the thieves." "Not very good ones, apparently." "Did he know where to find Mr. Guthrie?" "He did, though he didn't seem terribly optimistic about our chances of gaining an audience." "When he hears the news we are bringing, he will grant us an audience." "No, no." "There's no "we."" "I have as much to gain and more to lose than any of us if we fail to see Governor Rogers removed." "I believe I should be with you." "I'm sure you do." "The last thing I need to overhear when Mr. Guthrie rejects our proposal is, uh..." ""Uh, Monsieur Constable, what sort of reward might one expect for aiding in 'zhe' capture of a notorious pirate captain, such as, say, oh, Jack Rackham?" "Really?" "'Zhat' much?" "Huh." "Well, what do you know?" "'Zhere' he is."" "You'll stay here." "I'll be back." "You, let's go." "Fuck, it's cold!" "I can no longer feel my balls." "No one should live here." "You're wrong about her." "Max." "When that animal Berringer was terrorizing her, threatening to kill her unless she agreed to name her connections to the resistance... she refused." "She's not crossed anyone, to my knowledge, who hasn't first crossed her, present company included." "Jack." "I heard you." "Go see what kind of surgeon you can engage for Anne." "I'll... do this." "What?" "It's somehow only just occurred to me how ruined we'll be if I fail to win the man on the other side of that door to our cause." "No home." "No cache." "Anne on death's door." "A ship that can barely sail." "But worst of all, he'll have won." "Woodes Rogers will sit in Nassau and grow old knowing that he was measured against us and proven the better man." "So, don't fail." "I once thought like you." "That because I had reason to mistrust the pirates, that it necessarily followed that I must mistrust them." "But it is not so." "For there is also reason to see common interest with them." "I have fought alongside these men." "I have fought alongside these men." "But I did it so that I might find security." "But what they are now arguing for does not sound like security to me." "There is no lasting security to be had here." "We'll fight to change that." "Nothing is lasting." "But months, years, that is meaningful and it can be had here." "You now have the resources to have it here." "There is a treasure in the ground here." "It'd purchase whatever is needed to survive." "No one has ever been this close, this near a chance to change the world." "No one changes the world." "Not like this." "Not all at once." "The world is too strong for that." "From the moment he started speaking," "I couldn't stop thinking about her." "She died for this." "She believed in this, and if it all goes away, then it was all for nothing." "I can't let this be for nothing." "I just can't." "It has to mean... something." "When I was drowning over Miranda... you helped me find my way out." "Look at me." "I will do the same for you." "I give you my word." "But in order to do that, you have to trust my judgment for a little while while yours is reeling." "You think Julius gained momentum from what I said?" "Don't worry about it." "Everything is moving forward." "Just... trust me." "It's been going on so long." "We will get to the bottom of this." "Is it true?" "I'm sorry?" "Uh, is it true that you've come from Nassau?" "It's true, isn't it?" "You're one of them." "You're a pirate." "You are!" "I hear everyone knows everyone there, even the giants." "Will you tell me, did you know Edward Teach?" "Yeah." "And Jack Rackham?" "Did you know him, too?" "I heard a story that Jack Rackham outsmarted Captain Flint to capture a Spanish treasure galleon right out from under him." "Yeah." "Knew him, too." "And believe it or not, that story is true." "What about Charles Vane?" "Charles Vane was my closest friend in the world." "Tell me everything about him." "He was the bravest man I ever knew." "Not without fear, just unwilling to let it diminish him." "And loyal to a fault." "And in a world where honesty is so regularly and casually disregarded" "I heard he cut off a man's head and left it as a marker in the sand to anyone who would cross him." "It was a little more complicated than that." "I heard..." "Hmm?" "...he sometimes butchered his enemies for amusement, made stew of their flesh." "He was truly an animal." "Stew?" "Mm-hmm." "For what possible" "I'm- I beg your pardon, but do you believe this?" "I read it in a newspaper." "Oh." "Mm." "Mr. Guthrie will see you now." "Charles Vane was a good man." "What I told you was the truth." "Put down the newspapers and read a book." "Truth isn't nearly as interesting." "I'm sorry, what was that?" "Uh, I said the truth isn't nearly as interesting." "Sir." "I understand you believe we have business." "News of the Bahama Islands of some sort, Mr.- what is it?" "Rackham." "Captain Jack Rackham." "Is that so?" "The news I bring is of personal concern to you, Mr. Guthrie." "Would you prefer if we discussed it privately?" "Say what you came to say." "Your granddaughter Eleanor is dead." "Governor Woodes Rogers plotted with Spanish forces to help him quell a resistance movement on New Providence Island by razing it to the ground." "And Eleanor was killed as a result." "I come to offer an opportunity to see that offense answered and find great commercial opportunity in the process." "Woodes Rogers bears debts he cannot hope to repay." "Given the ruin Nassau lies in, those debts could be purchased for a mere fraction of their value, for pennies." "You could own Woodes Rogers and see him imprisoned." "Meanwhile, while Nassau smolders, her real property could be bought for a song." "I bring you the chance, sir, to own the island, shape the regime that runs it, and do it all while seeing justice visited on your granddaughter's murderer." "No." "No to which part?" "All of it." "Mr. Guthrie, if you'd allow me to explain further" "I heard what you said." "The offense to my family's name was done a long time ago by my son." "He, his daughter, and all their efforts are parties to that offense and are no longer family of mine." "That is all." "She's dead, isn't she?" "Excuse me?" "The news you bring about Eleanor." "It's that she's dead, isn't it?" "It is." "And who are you?" "Her grandmother." "Wait outside." "I'll join you shortly." "How long had she known?" "I honestly don't know." "Not long, I don't believe." "She rarely included me in her thinking." "What I knew of her was mostly observed rather than shared." "But one thing I know to be true... whatever risk she took or danger she braved... they were all made out of love for you." "She saw a life with you and the child... and she was determined to deliver you all into it." "I'd like a moment alone." "I am so very sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I am" "I beg your pardon, my lord." "What is it?" "We need more supplies." "We found him amongst prisoners in the interior." "I don't advise that we consolidate them..." "Absolutely." "I mean, the wars are our priorities." "A ringleader of the pirate militia." "He surrendered himself." "Said he would only speak with you directly." "Speak with me?" "About what?" "He said he wants to make a deal." "Follow me, please, Captain." "Those men at that table are among the wealthiest in the Pennsylvania Colony and critical suppliers to my husband's business." "They consider character to be of paramount importance in choosing their partners, and so my husband has gone to great lengths to assure them that our family's sordid beginnings are long since behind us, and you just stood in front of them" "and proposed that my husband join you in a revenge plot against the royal governor of New Providence Island." "I'm afraid I may have fumbled my case, then, ma'am, but the merits of it remain and exist well beyond revenge." "If you could help me gain your husband's ear again, this time in private, outside the presence of those other men" "My husband's commercial interests have grown 12-fold in the past three years." "By some estimates, the estate represents the ninth largest family fortune in the Americas." "Does that sound like something built by a man who would discard an opportunity as promising as this because of what the neighbors might think?" "No, it doesn't." "So, what does that tell you?" "It tells me..." "It tells me that either Joseph Guthrie is among the 10 luckiest men in the Americas or that your husband's business is not entirely managed by your husband." "I see merit to your proposal." "Though, I've yet to see your merit." "Why would I even consider taking on a pirate as a partner like this?" "First, I and my partners have intimate knowledge of Nassau's operations." "We've made it work once before and could again with your help." "And second, in all the years the Guthrie family has had a relationship with Nassau," "I imagine I'm the first pirate to find his way to your ear." "So, either I'm the single luckiest pirate in all creation or I'm of a different sort to the rest of them." "Haul away!" "What happened with Mr. Guthrie?" "Were you able to speak with him?" "Mm-hmm." "What did he say?" "He told me to go fuck myself." "Well, that does not sound good." "The business isn't his." "Well, the horses are his, the cart is his, but it appears the wife is the one holding the reins." "Eleanor's grandmother?" "And she is interested." "She invited me to return this evening to provide details of our proposal." "Prove that we can be trusted to manage Nassau in the event of Rogers' removal." "And I think you should come with me." "You do?" "Why?" "Because our plan is ludicrous by any sane measure and my suspicion is if she's going to say yes, it's going to be for emotional reasons rather than financial ones." "She would look across the table and see a woman with some experience quietly wielding power over men without them knowing it, and a woman who might remind her of herself." "It might go a long way towards winning her." "Do you know who I am?" "You're part of Long John Silver's resistance." "I am Long John Silver." "The resistance in the interior..." "I built it." "I led it." "It was mine." "I was hitting your supply lines to the estates, fomenting sabotage in Nassau Town." "Fighting your soldiers in untold skirmishes." "You killed many of my men and I got my fair share of yours." "Why would you tell me this?" "Because I want you to know that I'm withholding nothing." "That I'm telling the truth." "And I know what I'm talking about." "I don't care about the cause now." "I don't care about Nassau now." "I want one thing and one thing only." "What is that?" "They all turned on me." "Discarded what I'd done for them, the sacrifices I made, and left me for dead." "And I want them all to pay for it." "I cannot achieve it on my own." "You could... if you were so inclined and you knew how." "Are you so inclined?" "Do you know how?" "They are strong when Flint and Silver are united." "But separate the two of them, turn them one against the other, and their world collapses." "I tried once and failed." "But I didn't possess the instrument necessary to make it work." "And you possess it now?" "No." "You do." "You brought a friend." "A partner." "What sort of partner is that?" "She's operated significant commercial interests in Nassau Town, and both before and after restored colonial rule" "Does she speak?" "There is no business of Nassau's that has not been business of mine for some time." "And aside from the interference of Woodes Rogers and his men, my business has been sound." "This substantiates that." "Mr. Oliver oversees our operations." "Before I can be convinced that your proposal is credible, he'll need to be convinced that your proposal is credible." "It's interesting" "When Richard was a little boy, there was a tomcat that lived out in the woods behind the house." "And it would scratch at the windows at all hours of the night." "Richard, all of four years old, would go outside still in his nightshirt and feed it." "My husband disapproved." "He thought it a sign of weakness." "Given that kindness is a condition rare in our family," "I suppose it's unsurprising that it went misdiagnosed." "So, Richard would feed the tomcat and Joseph would flog him for disobeying, kick the tomcat for instigating." "But the next night, the tomcat would return, and on and on and on it went." "See, none of them was capable of changing." "The cat a slave to his hunger, my son to his decency... my husband to his rage." "That would seem to be the history of Nassau, too, wouldn't it?" "A cycle of violence that benefits none and consumes all." "Suppose the question is in Nassau's story, which of these roles do you play?" "I beg your pardon, ma'am." "There are entries for your wage laborers here, but I see no accounting for the others." "I have no other laborers." "Your slaves, ma'am." "I own no slaves and none work in my employ." "I see cargo operations, uh, transportation of sugar, building, all sorts of manual labor." "That is correct." "In the Bahamas." "And you pay wages for all of that?" "That doesn't seem very wise to me." "You are not from Nassau." "In Nassau, slaves have seen too many of their own find freedom amongst the crews on the account." "It costs less to pay wages than to replace defectors, or worse yet, to pay guards to watch my door as I sleep." "That isn't the only reason, though, is it?" "No, it is not." "In my life, I have been bought and sold." "And as I would be no slave again, and nor would I be a master." "So, how exactly does one rise from a slave plantation in the French West Indies to a library in Philadelphia trying to remake the world?" "What difference does it make?" "You are right." "Many men have played a role in Nassau's story, but none have been able to break the cycle of brutality and failure." "Your granddaughter came as close as anyone before or since." "But at the end of the day and despite her best intentions, there was one truth even she was unable to see." "That at some point, progress cannot begin and suffering will not end until someone has the courage to go out into the woods and drown the damned cat." "Lend us your help and we will do whatever must be done to move Nassau forward." "I am intrigued by your proposal." "But there is one question remaining that you will have to show me you can adequately answer." "What will you do when the cat fights back?" "It just arrived from Nassau." "She's alive." "Held hostage by the governor in Nassau." "Unless we bring him the cache and surrender it to him by his deadline, she dies." "She's alive." "Who else knows about this?" "No one." "I summoned only the two of you." "My daughter is everything to me, as I believe she is to you." "But that cache is critical to the success of the war we're about to begin." "And worse yet, if it were to be dug out of the ground under cover of night, it would do irreparable damage to our allies' trust in us." "So, we don't do it under the cover of night." "We make the argument." "And this isn't just sentiment." "Madi is important to the cause in her own right." "Some of the men out there will agree, and we can..." "It doesn't matter if some of them agree." "You're suggesting we just refuse?" "They'll kill her." "If we even introduce this question to the men in this camp, lines will be drawn, fighting will ensue." "This alliance is far too fragile at this stage to withstand that kind of turmoil." "We can pay the ransom or we can have our war, but we cannot have both." "A week ago, you were willing to trade this money for a fucking fort." "And now it's too important to trade for Madi's life?" "Things have changed." "Nothing has changed that justifies trading her life for your war." "No one is saying that we let her die." "No?" "Because that is certainly what it sounds like." "We will find a way to get her back." "We just cannot sacrifice the cache in order to do it." "Is this war more important than her life?" "Answer the question." "I wanna hear you say it." "Is this war more important than her life?" "Right now with what's at stake... yes, it is more important." "Oh, fuck you!" "I" "We cannot permit Woodes Rogers to divide us like this." "I will not permit it." "Madi would not permit it, and you know it." "But we're not going to permit him to kill her either." "You cannot guarantee that" " We will sail to Nassau under cover of night." "We will find her." "We will kill anyone who stands in our way." "And we will bring her home." "When you and I are of the same mind... there is nothing we have not yet been able to do." "I believe that." "I trust it." "Do you?" "I've heard you were with her." "With Eleanor." "How did she die?" "What?" "Weapons were found inside the house... a soldier who was dead before the fire consumed him." "I'm asking if she died fighting." "What is that?" "Terms." "When this is through, you'll present this to your people and advocate to accept them." "Every fugitive slave in your camp will receive their immediate emancipation." "With one condition." "Any escaped slave who seeks refuge with you after the ratification of this deal will be surrendered to the law." "And any pirate at any time who seeks refuge with you will be surrendered to the law." "Why would we ever accept that?" "Because if you don't, I will see to it that every man, woman, and child in that camp is put back into chains." "I will see each of them sold far and wide, cast out into the world alone." "And then I will burn everything that remains to the ground." "From here, your outcomes are bad or worse." "That's what defeat looks like." "Eleanor died fighting." "As will I." "Thank you." "They're saying you're heading south and I'm to stay here." "I can't get a straight answer past that." "Sit down." "She agreed." "Madam Guthrie." "Everything we want for Nassau." "Control, a stake," "Rogers' defeat and humiliation." "There's now a real path to have it done." "But there is one final test to prove our worth and to lessen the risk on her end." "What is it?" "Flint." "She wants him dead and she wants me to do it." "Jesus." "On some level, they can't be blamed." "Flint will stop at nothing till all the West Indies are ablaze." "Without him, our prospects of success in Nassau are certainly greatly improved." "And as far as he and I go, it's not as if he wouldn't do the same to me were the roles reversed." "Jack, how are you gonna do that?" "I don't know." "I'll have to find him, get through the army of maroons he calls allies, get through Long John Silver and the animal whose leash he now holds." "And somehow escape it all alive... all without you." "But even if you could do all those things..." "I mean, how could you be someone who would do that?" "The world would know that you were the one to betray every last one of our brothers." "Betray the memory of Charles Vane." "Charles Vane is dead." "I do it for us." "That's how it started." "That's how it's going to end." "We should be going." "You'll, you know..." "I will." "Look lively." "Let's get underway." "Seems confident it's to be done, doesn't he?" "To rescue her without paying the governor his ransom." "He is confident in his plan... as am I." "Maybe." "One of you is more confident than the other, I think." "What are you saying?" "You're confident in his plan, maybe because it's a good plan." "Maybe because it's the only plan." "But maybe it's just because if his plan don't succeed, you'll have to show him that you prepared for the failure." "That the world ain't gonna be what he wanted." "And that a treasure he wanted left in the ground ain't in the ground no more." "And when that happens and the extreme reaction follows, it's one of two roads ahead." "You're either gonna have to concede and let him have his way... or you're gonna have to kill him." "You know this, don't you?"