"Previously on "Crossbones"..." "So what are you asking for it?" "A Hellburner or two." "Will you sell this to William Jagger in Jamaica?" "If it will make amends for what happened here today." "Captain Finnegan." "My current regime consists of rum and opium." "Opium can have injurious consequences." " And the commodore?" " He asked you to kill me." "If had to." "But I couldn't hurt you." "The English are coming." "They'll take everything." "I'll need privacy." "Don't be too long about it." "I can make it easier." " What do I give you in return?" " Intelligence." "You do it clean, and you do it quick." "She's going to die, Tom." "Either at the hands of the English or the commodore." "Please don't allow that to happen." "My headaches are growing worse and more frequent." "What do you see?" "A specter." "A woman." "So tell me, will I live long enough to finish what I've begun?" "My lady." "Shh." "What are you doing?" "I feel the time is right." "Whatever might be wrong with you, it won't be made right like this." "You can't lie to me not to me." "Least of all with your body." "You must be Mr. Juniper." "Aye." "You have something for me." "Where is it?" "You'll know when you pay me." " Have we met?" " I don't think so." "No." "How could we?" "You're Robert Juniper, Slave Trader." "Aye." "Forgive my simplicity, but how did you come across the chronometer?" "Pirates, sir." "An inn near Santa Domingo." "Is that so?" "It is, aye." "So I acquired your device for a princely sum and..." "How many men do you have surrounding us, William?" "You're William Finnegan, first mate of the Covenant, and you're wanted on countless charges of murder and piracy." "And you have family in Yorkshire" "A mother and a sister." "Yes." "Your mother's alive, but very weak." "And your sister married a good man, a cobbler." "They have four children, all girls." "Pretty little things." "And I've left word that should any harm befall me at the hands of the scum who have me in their sight, then your four nieces, their mother, and their grandmother will all be spitroasted like hogs." "So come with me, William." "You will be safe, they will be safe, and your men will be safe." "Smile, you ponderous gibbon." "Let's at least pretend to be civil, shall we?" "Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me?" "Come in." "I thought you could make more use of this than I." "Thank you, Commodore." "They're very beautiful." "Many would think them horrific." "Not those with eyes to see." "Are you aware that in the months of our acquaintance," "I've yet to hear you express firm belief or disbelief in anything?" "Well, it seems to me the problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so full of passionate certainty." "I'm in no hurry to count myself among them." "What about ghosts?" "Do I believe in them?" "Do you?" "No." "I don't believe in ghosts, nor in spirits, but still she grows more real by the day, the specter that haunts me." "My head tells me it's a mirage." "My heart tells me she's an omen." "She's not an omen, Commodore." "Destiny doesn't send us heralds." "She isn't real." "I believe that she's a function of your illness." "Commodore, I'd like you to stare into the light and blink as quickly as you can." "William Finnegan, I almost had you once." "Ran you down off the east of Cuba." "Hanged your captain." "You hang many of my fellows." "But here I am, notwithstanding." "Indeed you are." "You found it then." "Where you said it would be." "Then I'm free to leave." "Just remind me how you came by it." "As I told your creature here, we raided a ship the Petrel." "On board we found a clockmaker, name of Nightingale." "He begged for his life, told us this was a most valuable object." "Well, it is." "It's a most valuable object." "And retrieving it from you will allow me to return to England with my reputation restored." "But none of it's true." "Your ship did not attack the Petrel." "You did not recover the chronometer." "I wonder why you would say that seeing as you hold it in your hand." "This?" "Oh, no, no, no, no." "This isn't the real chronometer." "You see here, this tiny cogwheel?" "I had it engraved with my initials so tiny that the human eye would never have perceived it, not without knowing it was already there, even if someone took the time to disassemble the device." "Well, I took the time, and the mark isn't there." "What say you to that, Mr. Finnegan?" "This is not the real marine chronometer." "It is a skilled and satiric facsimile." "Now, there's only one fellow cunning enough to devise such a plan to be rid of me, to send me home in fraudulent triumph." "Blackbeard is emerging from his long sleep." "And I know he wants to send me home, leaving him free to wreak havoc upon the world." "Must I wreak havoc upon you to learn precisely what his plan might be?" "Are you planning an attack on Jamaica, Commodore?" "A "Hellburner" is a weapon of indiscriminate destruction." "What does the commodore want with such a thing?" "Slaughter for the sheer exhilaration of it." "Whatever the target is, you can rest assured innocents will die." "Gently now, Commodore." "Do you know this ailment?" "I believe I may, yes." "I knew a fellow once, a gentle fellow by the name of John Simm." "He was shot in the head, and the bullet passed through the anterior left lobe of the cerebrum, breaking up considerable portions of the brain." "Did he live?" "For a while, but he began speaking in gross obscenities, and he saw ghosts and spirits on all sides." "The poor bastard was assailed by the dead." "Did he recover?" "For a while." "And then he began experiencing convulsions of increasing severity, very much like the one I just induced you to have." "But in a lifetime of violence," "I'm sure you've suffered more than one blow to the head." "Am I dying then?" "I have to meet Begum Samsar sooner than I planned." "Why?" "Because we need an army to protect ourselves, and time is growing shorter." "We have as much time as we ever did." "No." "First Jagger came close to finding us, and I feel the wish to act." "Commodore." "Round them up and make them ready." "We sail at dawn." "You wanted to see me?" "I did." "Thank you." "The commodore has you busy, I see." "Well, he likes to work in mysterious ways his wonders to perform." "I'm not sure wonders is quite the word you're looking for." "He gave me sanctuary, Tom." "I'll do whatever he asks." "Most people on the island would say the same." "Well, the difference is, you've no love for him." "Nor him for me." "He thinks that any man that would allow this to happen in the name of servitude to a king is a jackass, and I do wonder if he might not be right." "Tom, what you did for Kate, it was nothing." "I took the coward's way." "I attacked from the rear." "Very little courage was required." "You're a thoughtful man for saying so." "There was a day I'd have done as you did." "No." "You'd have gathered brave men and women to your cause and had them march behind you." "They'd have felt proud to have stood with you." "You'd never have done as I did because you're a brave man and a good man," "and I'm not." "Whatever the case, I've come to worry that I've been too keen to accept my lot, to see my own body as a prison, because one of the benefits of prison is to liberate oneself from the burdens of being free." "The damage to your nerves can't be reversed." "No." "But you told me certain things could be done to mitigate the worst of it, give me some strength back." "You need to stop using the opium." "I can do that." "It'll be hard work." "It'll hurt." "I've never been scared of hard work and pain." "Pain I can handle." "Then we'll start tomorrow." "You are asking to purchase a welltrained army with weapons and equipment." "It's not inconceivable, but the logistics there are wages to pay, provisions to acquire, bribes to pay." "Time is not something I'm gifted with, Begum." "They can be ready in three months." "I need them in half that." "Again, it can be done, but accelerating the process will increase the cost." "Charlie?" "Let's see if her fighters are worth our money." "Shall we?" "So six weeks it is." "Let's discuss your price." "Relax" "I have you." "Let go." "That's it." "Mr. Lowe says the Chinese do it and the Romans..." "And the Greeks, apparently." "The water, it's good." "How long will it last?" "The cramps, the sweats, the craving for it?" "The worst of the pain will be over in a few days." "As to the craving, that may never leave." "I'm not sure I can stand it." "For Kate, you can stand it." "He knows." "He can endure anything except betrayal, Charlie." "If he knew, we'd be already dead." "So he does not know." "He never will." "As you say." "But you're wrong." "He knows." "You know the punishment for theft?" "Do you?" "I'm only here to retrieve what you stole from me, Nenna, so let me stand!" "Or kill me right here and deal with the mess it'll cause you." "Ohh." "You should be thanking me, not threatening me." "One word in the right ear, you would hang." "Not if I silenced your tongue." "Oh, you can't do that." "No?" "And why not?" " Well, there's my letter." " What letter?" "My letter to the commodore to be delivered to him in the event that I come to, well, an unforeseen end, I suppose." "It mentions you." "There's no letter." "You would never risk exposing yourself like that." "One way or another, I've spent my life exposing myself." "And given the letter will only be read after I've been sent to my lonely grave, well, it hardly seems to matter, does it?" "Now, here's what I don't understand." "You're rich, you're free, and the risk is so unequal to the reward." "Why take it?" "Be assured, there's purpose to it." "It is nice to have a purpose." "Mine, of course, is less inscrutable than yours." "One day I'll return to England a very rich woman." "What you're about to say, Rose, don't say it." "I beg you." "You steal from me, and then you throw yourself at my mercy?" "I did it for love, not greed." "Well, then, more fool you." "I'm not talking about the love of a man." "Who then?" "What do you want?" "Oh, love, what does anybody want?" "I want your money." "How much is it gonna take?" "Oh..." "Don't be silly now, sweetness." "All of it." "Her fighters are skilled." "They put Charlie Rider on his ass in two tics of a lamb's tail." "Unfortunately, their loyalty has to be paid for." "We cannot pay what you agreed." "We do not have it." "No, no, we don't have it." "She's not one to forgive a debt." "If you do not pay in full your obligation, she will destroy us." "She has the resources, and you know it." "Then we must pay our debt in full and promptly, which means I must acquire the funds, and in no small hurry, either." "Good, good, good, good." "My lady." "You seem troubled." "Troubled?" "Not at all." "Well..." "He's a good man." "He's a great man." "The pain he's endured, continues to endure..." "I can't add to it." "No." "I'm sorry." "This is admirable." "Where does man learn such a skill?" "The university of Edinburgh." "Part of my schooling in anatomy." "A man who can draw quickly and accurately is in some demand." "You seem very buoyant, Commodore." "Time's winged chariot, Mr. Lowe." "It focuses the mind." "Did you ever render a living subject?" "Mmhmm, on occasion." "Splendid." "Then draw me." "As you will." "I want to ask your advice about something." "I've an itch to liberate a certain item from the Spanish and wish to seek your counsel on how to do so." "I'm sorry?" "I grant you, none of my crew is a stranger to theft, but as a breed, we do have a tendency to be a bit direct about the process." "You do look a man in the eye when you're robbing him," "I'll give you that." "While you you're the kind of fellow who robs a man and is halfway home before he knows it." "What do you want, Commodore?" "I want you to help me rob someone, and I don't want him to know he's being robbed until it's too late." "It has come to my attention that the Spanish are in possession of a certain map a map that I very badly want." "It is kept in Governor Portocarrero's mansion here in Cuba just above this bay, but it won't be there long." "The owner will soon be leaving for Cadiz." "It would be powerfully to our advantage were we to take this map without this owner knowing it was ever took." "If he discovers we've compromised his secret, the fortune the map leads us to will be lost to us forever, because he'll move it, and I need that money." "So there will be no killing, no shouting, no noise." "Were we as quiet as nuns, it still won't be long till he learns his map is gone." "It won't be gone." "This is the matter in which Mr. Lowe will be assisting us." "Well, he's not assisting me." "I won't sail with him." "If this maneuver were being carried out against the English," "I wouldn't disagree." "We all know he's an Englishman, good and true." "But this concerns the Spanish, and I'd place any wager of your choosing that he bows to no man in his disdain for them." "You wouldn't be wrong." "I was raised to believe the devil vomits Spaniards." "Besides which, he'll be traveling in your custody, Charlie, in the bosom of his king's mortal enemy." "If he reveals your presence, the Spaniards will make no distinction between you and him well, except perhaps to burn him alive, as well as say you're a spy." "So distrust Mr. Lowe's intentions all you please, but don't distrust his instinct for selfpreservation, nor should you undervalue his importance to this expedition." "Although, of course, I trust you to kill him if you must." "Everything we're doing here our future depends on acquiring that map, so take your things and sail on the next tide." "Mr. Lowe, whwhat's wrong?" "I've happened upon certain plans of the commodore's." "What plans?" "I fear he plans to attack the English in Jamaica." "What will you do?" "Well, there's nothing I can do at the moment." "I have to leave." "To go where?" "To run an errand for the commodore." "I need you to do something for me while I'm gone." "Well, say the word." "The wild man, the one you glimpsed in the forest," "I need you to find him." "Why?" "He was just a maroon more beast than man, really." "Well, in truth, I suspect otherwise." "I suspect he's connected to the commodore's plans." "Do you think he's is he dangerous?" "He may be." "Yeah, then why don't why don't you do it?" "I would, but I have to go." "Uh, do it when you get back." "Why is everything so pressing all of a sudden?" "Because I took an opportunity to spur the commodore into action hoping that in his haste, he'd reveal his hand." "And is he doing so?" "That would certainly seem to be the case." "The wild man may seem fearsome, but you're brave, are you not?" "Whoopsie Daisy." "My apologies, Commodore." "Tish." "It's only a diamond." "Of course, it's of tidy value to someone." "Take it to the right place, to London or Paris, and men will risk the gallows for want of it." "When you arrived here, James," "I saw no worth in you." "I thought you a dilettante peacock, forced to live out your days of exile here amongst us dogs." "But since then, I've seen your value." "You have your flaws, but a flawed diamond is worth more than a flawless lump of coal, unless those flaws cause it to crack." "So tell me, why are your hands shaking?" "And why is your skin the color of cheese?" "I am endeavoring to decrease my opium consumption." "Because you think it's a merry idea?" "Because I believe it necessary." "I can see why." "Mr. Lowe has given Kate a spring in her step, reminding you of her value." "Consequently, you wish to become a man again." "But if you allow this private indulgence to retard your work on this device," "I'll skin you alive and eat your gizzards." "Are we clear?" "Quite transparent." "Splendid." "Now, if these are your tools..." "Make use of them, hmm?" "For God's sakes, take it away." "Keep an eye on that watchman." "If he sees us, slice him in two." "Yeah." "You're not real." "Give me the map." "No." "You're gonna kill me, anyway." "Don't expect my assistance in the matter." " Charlie." " Shut up!" "Give me the map, wanker!" "I'm sorry you're not his favorite kitten anymore," "Charlie, but that's none of my devising." "So cut my throat." "Leave me here to rot." "I've been close to worse deaths." "But do think he'll love you for it?" "In time, he will." "I don't know if I'd beat you in a fight, Charlie, but if you want to find out, go ahead and kill him." "Nenna..." "He stood at our side tonight." "You got nothing from him?" "Nothing." "What did you see?" "Why is your master putting his head above the parapet?" "Something has drawn him out some machination." "If Blackbeard is truly responsible for all this, then I tell you he is waking." "It would be prudent to trust no one." "We need information from someone who is beyond his reach." "There's nobody." "Au contraire." "So there were no reversals of fortune, no dead Spaniards?" "You weren't seen?" "A fine job then." "Don't you want to ask what it's for?" "Will you answer?" "No." "But if you wait around, you'll soon see." "I think you'll like what I've got in mind." "Then I'll wait with baited breath." "It's very beautiful, Captain Kentish." "Thank you, Governor Portocarrero." "More to the point, it works." "It's a marvel of natural philosophy." "And now my money." "How does a man acquire such a fortune so quickly?" "A man sells something." "What was it, this thing you sold?" "A clock." "Made of what, God's teeth?" "Six weeks, is it, then?" "Six weeks, you shall have your army." "Please." "Mercy." "Mercy, please." "Please." "Free me, please." "He's alive." "I saw him your love." "I could find him for you." "Will you help me?"