"We're going that way." "That's a ship killer." "We should have taken the pardons." "The men, I understand." "Flint had them exactly where he needed them." "But he had me there, too." " These are identical." " What are you suggesting?" "That we exchange it, find partners, and trade coin for commodities far easier to protect." "I returned to go on the account as I know it, because in this place" "I believed I could find the men necessary to do so." "And in particular one man that I thought worthy of standing alongside me at the head of a terrible fleet." "I'm all too aware what Charles Vane's capable of destroying when he sets his mind on it." "What is it you would like to have him take from you?" "Captain Flint is dead." "We're not moving." "The storm drove us east." "We are becalmed." "Son of the wealthiest man in St. Kitts, they say." "Also say he fucked his partner out of their trading company." "Stole it all." "A world where he's the civilized one and we're the savages is a world I'm never gonna fuckin' understand." "Oh." "That was nice." "Hopefully we have shown you our thanks for agreeing to conduct this transaction on our soil and that we can be most hospitable to our partners in trade." "Now shall we conclude our business?" "316 black pearls to be exchanged for 46,121 pieces of eight." "The method of our figuring this value for each item has been recorded if either party wishes to know it." "I would like to see it, please." "A literate Negress." "Is there no end to the surprises this place has to offer?" "What the fuck did he just say?" "I imagine she comes from slave stock." "Of some sort, yeah?" "I understand she can dress as a civilized woman, but to behave as one, that is impressive." "The accounts are acceptable." "We have a deal." "You seem like a lovely creature." "When the governor arrives, if you do indeed flee, there will be a place for you in my employ." "Governor?" "What governor?" "You are disposing of your treasury of ill-gotten plunder so you might leave this place before the new regime arrives." "That's what I thought this was all about in the first place." "You don't know, do you?" " Invasion?" " A fleet." "Eight ships, soldiers, 700, all led by a man claiming to have been appointed governor of this place and empowered to take it back by force if necessary." "News of this is spreading quickly." "How long until they arrive here?" "12 days, approximately." "How many batteries have been repaired on the fort walls?" "Two." "Two guns each." "The fifth and sixth guns are going up tomorrow." "Did he say how the fleet was comprised?" "How many men of war?" "He didn't say." "Well, how many guns did he say?" "He didn't say." "Well, whatever it is, six guns ain't gonna be enough to stop it." "If they were supporting a fleet in the bay." "A line in defense of the harbor mouth." "Yeah, but how many of those crews can we honestly expect to participate in that fight?" "A third?" "Half if we're lucky?" "What if it were all of them?" "All the crews." "All that matter, yes." "Burgess." "Woodall." "The Cockrams." "Have you met those people?" "They're not exactly a rally around a flag sort." "How could you possibly convince them all to join a fight like this?" "Because if they all join, there may be no fight." "A show of force." "A massive show of force." "A thousand men, a dozen ships, plus the man o' war, all organized for battle." "Organized under who?" "Flint is still nowhere to be found." "He'll return in time, and if he doesn't, I'll do it." "Look me in the face and tell me you doubt it." "If we all unite, the fight that we will present to our invaders will appear so costly and painful, they will choose to walk away from it rather than risk humiliation at our hands." "Increase their fear of defeat, and we decrease the cost of our victory." "I believe it is to be done." "Tell me you do, too, and we'll make it happen together." "I've just concluded meeting with Commodore Chamberlain and his staff." "The date has been set for our arrival in Nassau, roughly two weeks from today, and when that happens, decisions are gonna be made over a matter of hours that will determine the future of the island for decades to come." "And almost all of it is going to depend upon that." "What is this?" "The address I intend to make to the inhabitants of Nassau in which I will invite them all to accept the King's pardon and join my efforts to restore law, order, and commerce to new Providence island." "So you're just going to sail into the harbor, row yourself onto the beach, and read this?" "Captain Hornigold believes that without Captain Flint, there is no one left on that island capable of mounting an organized defense of the bay." "Do you disagree?" "An organized defense?" "Captain Flint was the only true strategist among them." "But that doesn't mean that the others won't mount a disorganized one." "Well, I'm not concerned about the odd skirmish." "All that matters is whether that works." "Commodore Chamberlain is resolved that either the pirates take to the pardon immediately or Nassau will be considered hostile territory." "He would then mount a full-scale invasion of the beach, costing me any chance I might have of a peaceful transition." "And you need my help to ensure that this address is drawn to win the most converts?" "Precisely." "How sure are you that it would be a bad thing?" "What's that?" "If the Navy took over, stormed the beach and cleared it, and why would that be such a bad thing?" "I wouldn't say "law and order" here." "Either is fine." "The phrase they find upsetting." "If the Navy takes the beach, there is no way I will recapture the trust of the men who would otherwise have surrendered." "You wouldn't need their trust if they were either dead or terrified of you." "Seems the Navy is offering to see to one or the other." "It could take months to pacify the island by force." "It would be preferable to me to spend those months building commerce instead of putting out fires." "Yes, but if the Navy were to remove anybody who was setting those fires, again, would that not be preferable?" "How exactly did you become the one asking questions here?" "And anyone who thinks it's so easy to win a war by force has never actually been responsible for fighting one." "You're not saying that you can't win." "You're saying it would take too long to win it." "With all these resources, you could outlast them." "Clearly you could outlast them." "So why are you so concerned about the time?" "There were a number of parties to whom I had to make promises in exchange for their support of this operation, schedules that had to be met." "And with many of these parties," "Whitehall, my equity investors, my creditors, the lapse of a deadline or two might be bargained away." "But there is one particular party whose Patience I do not wish to test, a party whose history with the pirates of Nassau suggests an extreme reaction would likely follow." "Spain." "What did you have to promise them?" "That I would seize fort Nassau, secure the remains of the Urca de Lima's gold stored within it, and return it to Havana." "Promptly." "Failure to do so would confirm for them that I am simply a pirate by another name, not to be trusted, and would result in a launch of a fleet of ten ships and soldiers numbering 1,500 to raze Nassau to the ground." "How long did they give you?" "Eight weeks." "Eight?" "Jesus." "As long as the fort is taken quickly and in its entirety, everything should be fine." "We're all dead men." "Smote by a storm, the product of his rage." "We are dead men." "Consigned to a place where we are no longer worthy even of the good lord's anger and must endure his indifference." "We are dead men." "Left to suffer, knowing that he no longer hears our cries, because in this place..." "He is absent." "How bad is it?" "Since we've been becalmed, our rate of drift has suggested we had a good chance of making landfall on one of these islands in approximately a week to ten days' time." "Based on our readings today and yesterday, however," "I would say that that estimate is far too optimistic." "We'll have to cut the men's rations again." "I agree." "If anything, stores are dwindling faster than we thought." "Fresh water is just about gone." "Food stores have been empty for about three days, and the haul from the eel nets isn't keeping pace." "Mr. silver and I will inform the crew." "It can't be uniform, the decreases in rations." "At a certain point, if we're all weakened beyond the point at which any of us can hoist our sails, we're all dead anyway." "Then what would you suggest?" "I would suggest that we draw up two lists." "One with the names of the men critical to sailing this ship once the wind returns, and second, the men who aren't." "You think we should feed some of the men more than others?" "No, I think we should feed some of the men and not others." "The survival of the greatest number of men on this crew rests entirely on our ability to maneuver this ship to land." "Any food that is diverted away from men necessary to that end only increases our chance that every one of us on this ship dies." "You can't divide the men like that." "Most of the men on that list will survive in a weakened state." "Most of them." "Well, why not just take the second list and push 'em over the side right now?" "Wouldn't that save us all a lot of trouble?" "Hey, hey, hey." "Those men out there hear the two of you arguing, and they might just lose whatever faith they've got left that we have any idea what we're doing in here." "I will challenge you with the men and resist this plan." "If you challenge me in any way while we exist in this state," "I will be forced to make an issue of how we entered into it in the first place." "How your failure to inform them of the danger inherent in investigating Hallendale's ship led us into the trap that began all this." "It is his responsibility to challenge you." "Not now." "Not in this state." "I'm asserting that as captain in a life-threatening situation, it is my right to have complete control over ship and men for the sake of their collective welfare until such time as we emerge from this situation." "In the meantime, I will compile two lists." "Those men entitled to full food and water rations, and those only on limited water for the time being." "We'll need to keep a close eye on him." "As dehydration sets in, we will all be subject to its effects." "Loss of reason, anger..." "Eventually hallucinations." "He isn't losing' his mind." "He's been concerned about this for some time." "About you." "He thinks I have lost my reason." "That the events of Charlestown and everything since is driving me mad." "Is it?" "You want us to combine our forces and engage a fleet of a half a dozen ships, and you want us to do it with six guns supporting us from the fort so that we can frighten the British Navy into retreat?" "We understand there are eight ships, not six." "Yes, to the rest of it." "Jesus Christ, Jack." "Uh, if I may." "It stands to reason that if we threaten to defend this place, then we need to have a plan to follow through." "If the bluff is called, then we... there is no bluff here." "If we can discourage them from engaging, so much the better." "If not, we fight to protect the island." "With who in command of the fleet?" "No one's seen Flint in weeks." "When he hears news of the invasion, he'll return." "But if he doesn't?" "No man has his skill in leading a fleet in battle." "Not even you." "What the fuck's the matter with you people?" "We haven't done enough for you?" "You turn your back on us now?" "You can see his point, though." "If no Flint, the strategy involved in coordinating this fleet will be..." "That's enough." "You, sit down." "And the rest of you, please listen closely." "I never approved of Eleanor Guthrie's harsh mothering of this place." "I believe my record on that issue is in good order." "That said, if you're going to behave like children, then I will be your daddy." "When this meeting breaks," "I will address the street, your crews, and I will persuade them that a defense of this place isn't just desirable, it is critical to their ability to call themselves men." "I'll have them in such a state that any captain in this room who speaks in opposition to this plan... opposition borne from what?" "A fear of losing." "Will not long call himself captain." "Hmm?" "I'm committed to this." "Charles is committed to this." "Captain Flint will be returning soon." "He is most committed to this." "And if that weren't enough, you will recall that Anne and I have put thousands of pieces into your pockets in contemplation of the day when your cooperation would be called upon to defend this place." "That day is today, and you will answer the call." "Flint is dead." "News was in St. Kitts." "Went down in a storm, pursued by the leading edge of this invasion force, the pirate hunter by the name of Benjamin Hornigold." "Before anyone commits to anything, just know that you'll be doing it without Flint." "But I may be able to offer an alternative." "Let us agree that if you walk downstairs without something to bring those men together, to unify them, there will be no defense of this harbor, that you will fall the moment challenged." "And you can offer me that something?" "Yes." "Me." "I'm prepared to step into Captain Flint's shoes, unify those men, prosecute a defense of the harbor, and repel the Navy from here definitively if once I've done it, you agree to join me in sailing away from here for good." "You would enter into a fight to defend something you have so little regard for just to have my partnership?" "Yes." "I know you're incapable of running from this fight, going back on your word to your friend downstairs, so I won't ask you to." "But I will offer you the best of all possible worlds... beating the English, keeping your word to Rackham, and being free of the burden of this place all at once." "Burden of this place?" "You not heard a word I've said?" "I am committed to it." "Your commitment is your burden." "Consider what this place has forced you to become since you made that commitment... a slaveholder, a man forced to beg his peers to join him in battle." "There's not a man in that parlor who would lift a finger in your defense, yet you would die in theirs." "Jack would." "Jack has." "Of course he has." "How else does a man like that survive in a place like this except cleave himself to one stronger than he?" "And for this, he offers you what?" "Loyalty?" "That is how a dog survives." "Not a man." "I do not seek your partnership because I am too weak to defend myself." "I don't seek it to protect my things or to increase profit." "Then why do you?" "You've been gone eight years, and suddenly my partnership is this valuable to you?" "Why?" "Eight years." "Nine wives." "No sons." "There is an instinct to leave behind something made in one's own image." "Nature has denied me the ability, it would seem, but not the need." "But whereas the natural way requires no consent from the other party, in this case, I'm not so lucky." "So there it is." "Yes or no?" "He's leaving." "Once this is done, assuming we're still alive, he's leaving with Teach." "I heard." "It bothers me..." "I don't know why, but it bothers me." "Why do you think that is?" "'Cause you give a shit what he thinks of you?" "You always have." " You think?" " Yeah." "You ain't alone." "Plenty of men in this place have done plenty of stupid shit just to hear Charles Vane call him a proper pirate." "Though might be you're the only one who actually made a career of it." "Heard you refused your water ration yesterday." "I wish you wouldn't do that." "Flint's only granting me the ration as a fuck you to prove that power's in his hands." "I won't give him the satisfaction." "It doesn't matter." "And I don't like how it looks, me having a full ration while they waste away, and then asking them to trust me." "It doesn't matter." "Those men, all of them, even the ones left out," "they trust you to be able to stand up to the captain when the time comes." "And you can't do that if he's got his strength and you don't." "That has been the problem all along." "That's the thing gates never understood and a thing you never understood." "You cannot decide to follow a man like that and then pick and choose when you deny him." "It's your job to deny him." "If I challenge him directly, he and I will be at such extreme odds in front of the men, it will be the end of this crew one way or another," "and I can't allow that to happen." "So, once again, he is able to conjure the reality he desires just as it was in Charlestown." "And just as it was in that storm." "There is no denying a man with that kind of power." "What are you talking about?" "You're saying Flint conjured that storm?" "He conjured us into it." "And who's more powerful?" "The one who made the storm or the one who convinced us into battle to defeat it?" "A man of his capacities, his state of mind becomes reality." "We are subject to it." "And right now his state of mind's so dark, it threatens to kill us all." "Take your rations." "I mean it." "I'm clearheaded, Billy." "I see him." "During that feud with Vane over the fort," "I sat in his cabin and I watched him turn himself inside out over the idea that anyone in Nassau would see him as the villain in that story." "Well, now he's the greatest villain in the new world." "We all see it." "We all follow him because of it." "I think it's torture for him, and I think the only way he can imagine it stopping is when there are no more of us left to witness it." "Fucking thieves!" "You both stand accused of a crime most serious." "Theft of food held in reserve in a time such as this is a betrayal of trust of the most profound sort." "The penalty for such a betrayal is, by necessity, extreme." "You were both charged with keeping watch over what little remains of our food stores." "A full day's rations are now gone, yet each of you accuses the other of the crime." "As your quartermaster, as your friend," "I'm going to implore you one last time, whichever of you is the guilty man, to confess." "Repair in some small part the trust you've breached with your brothers." "I swear, I wouldn't have done such a thing." "I don't have it in me." "Please don't fucking hang me." "Shut the fuck up." "You all seen me these last few weeks out here." "Never blubbered, never bitched." "I weathered this shit as well as any of you." "So don't fucking tell me I'd do something this fucking cowardly and then blame it on a sniveling shit like this one." "One of us is a liar, all right, but it sure as fuck isn't me." "Oh, shit." "Captain." "Thank you." "Oh, dear god, thank you for seeing the truth." "Wait." "No." "No." "Wait." "You need to say something." "Don't do this." "I ain't done nothing." "I swear it." "Forgive me." "Does everyone understand?" "Does anyone have anything to say?" "If you're not strong enough to do what needs to be done, then I'll do it for you." "What the hell is that?" "It is a balance." "Yeah, what's it here for?" "There is no point in delaying any longer." "There will be no more merchants, no more exchanges." "Sooner or later, that fleet will be upon us." "Sooner or later, it will be time for you and I to go our separate ways." "It would be wise if we are prepared and our shares are split evenly." "Tell me why." "We've been through this." "No, you told me why" "I wouldn't stay here with you." "But you ain't said why you won't come with me." "If we lose, if we have to leave this place, why are you so set on staying?" "Why the fuck could you want to live in a world that says that fat pig on the beach is a man to be respected?" "A world that wants its sons to become that?" "When I was very small," "I would sneak out of the slave quarters at night to the main house." "I would stand outside the window to the parlor." "I would stand amongst the heat and the bugs and the filth on my toes to see inside." "Inside that house was a little girl my age..." "With the most beautiful skin." "I watched her dance while her father played music and her mother sewed." "I watched her read and eat and sing and sleep," "kept safe and warm and clean by her father." "My father." "The things it took to make that room possible, they were awful things." "But inside that room was peace." "That is what home is to me." "When you and I began, you did not choose me." "Something that lives inside you beyond choice made it so, so I know you understand how this lives beyond choice for me, too." "Our roads are going to diverge." "Let it be now so we may not live in fear of it." "Yeah." "You should stay..." "To see it be divided evenly." "I trust you." "Maybe you were right." "Maybe he is dangerous to us in this state." "And maybe there is nothing we can do to stop him right now without shattering the crew." "But if he kills another innocent man in this crew to make a point, or tries to..." "I'm going to do something about it." "So I suggest you get this situation under control before that happens." "I told you, eh?" "I just don't see a way." "Gates figured it out." "The Barlow woman figured it out." "He listened to them, altered his plans when they told him to." "It's possible." "The difference is he saw them as his equal." "He respected them that way, so he was willing to listen." "You need to find a way to do the same." "Both of those people ended up dead." "When I lost Thomas," "I raged." "I was distraught." "I wept." "But with you..." "I'm ruined over you." "When I first met you, you were so..." "Unformed." "And then I spoke and bade you cast aside your shame, and Captain Flint was born into the world... the part of you that always existed yet never were you willing to allow into the light of day." "I was mistress to you when you needed love." "I was wife to you when you needed understanding." "But first and before all..." "I was mother." "I have known you like no other." "So I love you like no other." "I will guide you through it, but at its end is where you must leave me." "At its end is where you will find the peace that eludes you, and at its end lies the answer you refuse to see." "It's hard to tell how big she is." "There isn't much above the surface." "But it hasn't moved since we spotted it, so it's almost certainly dead." "Whale carcass." "That's a week's worth of water." "Food times three." "They float when they rot." "After they rot." "Make ready the launch." "It's a waste of energy." "Make ready the launch." "I'm going to see it myself." "There's too much at stake." "You gonna row out there on your own?" "I'm one of two men who've been on full rations for the last few days." "You're the other." "Let's go." "I stole it from you." "What?" "The Urca gold." "I told you we were deceived about its having been recovered by the Spanish." "Wasn't entirely true." "You were deceived." "I built the lie..." "Enlisted the scouts, arranged the sale of the information to Captain Rackham." "I conceived it all." "You know, I've had my fill of hearing you go on about this crew being too weak to keep up with you." "Some of them may be weaker than you, some of them may be less smart," "but don't you for a second believe I fit that description." "Whatever happens out here, one thing is certain." "You will account for me." "Why are you telling me all this?" "So you can decide..." "To fight me, maybe kill me, and figure out a way of hauling yourself back to that ship alone or acknowledge the fact that you and I would be a hell of a lot better off as partners than as rivals." "You conceived all of this?" "The cover story, the end game on the jetty?" "Waiting for the scouts to return?" "Yes." "What did you do with your share?" "I gave up my claim to it." "Why did you do that?" "Because I saw no way to hold it and remain a part of this crew." "And without these men, all I am is an invalid." "Oh, god." "Oh, it stinks." "Oh..." "Oh, it's long gone." "Oh, we can't eat that." "Let's head back to the ship." "We can eat those." "Fuck!" "Again?" "What happened out there?" "Progress." "How can you know for sure?" "Because I'm still alive, I suppose." "Sails on the horizon!" "It would appear, sir, that your information is less than complete." "Perhaps you should ask this one who it is." "There are masts at the mouth of the harbor." "Appear to be in a firing line." "Do you recognize any of their banners?" "What did you see?" "North... northeast." "Just cresting the horizon." "How many ships?" "Looks to be eight, maybe nine." "Three hours, give or take, till they're near." "Let's get the men aboard ship." "That formation ensures that any approach in the harbor mouth will result in significant damage to our fleet." "Apparently, Captain Teach is every bit the tactician they say he is." "What are you suggesting?" "That we withdraw?" "I'm suggesting that I see no obvious means by which we can reclaim Nassau town, not without risking the loss of significant assets of his majesty's Navy." "Then I'll go to the beach myself." "Beg pardon?" "I will have a launch ferry me to the sand alone, and I will make the pardon address." " It is out of the question." " Why?" "Because my charge is to ensure this endeavor's safety and yours and I'll not answer to a plan that reckless." "It shouldn't be you." "If you send someone else to read the pardon address, someone known to the men on that beach, it might work." "Someone have her removed." "I don't have time for this." "Hold... hold on." "What are you suggesting?" "That you go to read the address?" "No, it can't be me either." "I have too many enemies between here and that beach." "Then who?" "Him." "Half the men in that bay have sailed under him at one point or another." "They respect him as much if not more than any other man that's sailed under the black." "They'd Grant him passage under a flag of truce, and they'd listen to what he had to say." "And you don't give a shit if he dies in the process." "Why are we letting him pass?" "Shoot on that man and under the flag of truce and the half of Nassau that remember him as the foundation of this place will rebel against the other half." "Whatever's about to happen, there's no stopping it now." "In the name of the governor of New Providence Island, the Honorable Woodes Rogers," ""the time has come to bring a wayward child back into the fold,"" "an island that rejected its parent empire, but that must long for the embrace of civilization once again." "Be it proclaimed that any man on this island who will accept that embrace, who will renounce violence against the crown, who will renounce piracy, that man will be offered a full, complete, and unqualified pardon." "No matter what you've done, no matter how irredeemable you believe it to be, your king and your governor wish to offer you a clean slate, a new beginning here in Nassau." "All of you, that is, but one." "One so committed to disorder and chaos that his presence is incompatible with civilized society." "Be it known there shall be a bounty of 10,000 pounds sterling for the capture of the pirate Charles Vane," ""dead or alive."" "What the fuck's he doing?" "Captain."