"There is a place not far from here where you could be feared and respected." "Eight men who support Hamund." "You said it yourself." "We kill him, they all become threats to both of us." "They disappear all at once tonight." "Between you and Flint, I'm not certain who I should be more afraid of." " Leave with me." " I've spent my life trying to build something here." "What if I forgo payment for the schedule in exchange for my share of the prize?" "When the time comes for me to reveal the last piece," "I will be right by your side." "It wasn't Singleton that stole the page." " It was him." " You're lying to them." "If no one knows, everyone wins." "I believe in this place." "If there's anyone who can do what's necessary to make it something better, it's you." "Once we have the money, Flint dies." " No argument." " Not from me." "Ca va?" "Mr. Rackham, a word." "I've been expecting you, please Sit." "Won't you tell me what you think of our little production?" "The theme is "Evenings in Paris."" "I'll give you three guesses whose idea it was." "Mr. Rackham, I just saw the bursar." "He says I'm no longer to receive my distribution of the house's profits." "Your instruction?" "Yes, I did some rough calculations to figure the amount you've been skimming from the take since we first began this arrangement." "It only seems fair to garnish your proceeds to account for it." "Mr. Rackham, I understand your new friend has helped to bring the girls into line, has them reporting their income in a most honest fashion." "That must be very nice for you." "But let us get something very straight." "I'm not one of the girls." "I will have my cut or everyone in this street will know what became of Mr. Noonan." " You would do that?" " Don't you dare doubt it." "Well, Mrs. Mapleton, that sounds like gross insubordination to me." "That, coupled with the graft you've been responsible for, leaves me with no choice but to terminate your employment here." " What?" " You're dismissed." "Thank you for your service." "Pardon me, but have you lost your mind?" "Not that I'm aware of, no." "I just told you that I am fully willing to inform every merchant in Nassau that you murdered your way into ownership of this place." "They will band together to see you hanged." "Which ones exactly?" "Which merchants will see Mr. Rackham hanged?" "Mr. Connors the wheelwright?" "Or perhaps Mr. Peterson the butcher." "Maybe Mr. Rusch the lapidary?" "They all have enjoyed steep discounts here lately." "Affordable now that the books are in good order." "I wonder, given their fondness for the new management, which one of them would much care what you think happened to Mr. Noonan?" "You forgot the only name that matters, dear." "The lady across the street." "She finds out about this..." "Oh, Madam Guthrie knows." "She's fine with it." "But by all means, go ahead, tell her again." "I can't see any harm in it." "You will regret this, sir." "I'm sure I won't." "Au revoir." "Please don't judge me, but I really enjoyed that." "You do not believe she will attempt to strike back at you?" "I wouldn't put it past her." "But at the moment I'll live with the potential for future trouble over the certainty of actual trouble she was causing." "To a profitable venture." "And a partner significantly more pleasing to the eye." "What am I supposed to do with this?" "If he's to continue on the ship, the crutch is too much of an impediment." "He shall have to wear this whether he likes it or not." "Come on, Randall." "Dr. Howell made this 'specially for you." "Help you move around better." "Perhaps you'll even be able to visit the shitter once in a while without needing my help." "Whoa, easy there." "You're responsible for him." "You figure it out." ""Oh, Mr. Silver." "How can I ever thank you?" "First you save me from ending up as a stain on the Walrus's underside." "Then you secured my position on the crew on the verge of an historic haul." "And if that weren't enough, you're still trying to find something comfortable to put at the end of my stump." "From the bottom of my heart, thank you."" "You're welcome." "Launch from the Ranger." "Captain Gates is coming over." "Crazy bastard." "What could be so fucking important that he has to row through all that shit out there?" "We make landfall in the morning." "The last part of the schedule if you don't mind." "What's that?" "My own reconnaissance." "There are a dozen bays and inlets within a day's journey from here that will make reasonable locations for the Urca to take on water." "If the course you write down leads to one of them, odds are that your information is accurate." "And if it doesn't?" "Division Bay." "The course leads to Division Bay." "Shoals on the eastern shore, but if we approach from the windward, we should be able to take up a strong opening position." "Take this to Mr. De Groot." "Tell him to adjust our course accordingly and set up our final approach for the morning." "Something else?" "Well, now that I've fulfilled my end of the bargain," "I'm just wondering where you and I stand." "Keep wondering." "I best be getting back." "Let's not tempt fate." "Talbot Rhodes." "Private stock." "I've been waiting for an occasion." "My reckoning is tomorrow we'll either be able to afford a lot more of it or..." "We'll be too dead to care." "Captain asked me to pass these to you." "A new course." "The captain accepted the last segment of the Urca route as valid?" "One thing you should not doubt." "Certainty is not a word I throw around lightly." "Now this information, I am quite certain I have it right." "That man has a strange way of handling the prospect of imminent wealth beyond reason." "Ma'am." "What are you doing here?" "Captain Hornigold asked me to sit in on Captain Lawrence's final preparations before departure." "They're just finishing upstairs." "Mm." "I'm fine." "Believe it or not, this place didn't collapse the moment you walked out the door." "You really believe my concern is for this place?" "It's a ship killer out there." "I can't even imagine what it's like further north." "You'd been opposed to hunting the Urca from the beginning." "Perhaps God's on your side of this one." "I just think of all the trouble that fucking schedule caused." "The trouble it caused Max and I." "Caused you and I." "The thought that it could all end up being for nothing..." "Perhaps the trouble was going to happen anyway." "Schedule or no." "Perhaps." "Tomorrow a thing that you conceived out of thin air becomes real." "A thing that will give this place a chance to find some small measure of peace." "That is not nothing." "Henderson?" "It wasn't Henderson." "It was something like Henderson." "Harrison?" "Harvey?" "I don't know who the fuck you're talking about." "The man that nicked that bottle was called Cregg." "Cregg!" "That's him." "Cregg." "Mr. Cregg." "Carpenter's mate." "Had a nose for sniffing out booze on a prize ship like a fucking bloodhound." "Oh, Cregg." "I remember walking in on him once, digging through a stash on a prize." "He... he found this bottle of booze behind a baseboard." "Now he's convinced that the prize captain's been hiding his best liquor." "So he pops the cork and takes this big swig in front of all of us." " And it was piss." " It was piss." "Aye, Cregg." " Oh, God." " Oh, Cregg." "I brought him over with me, you know." "We served together under Avery when we was kids." "Huh." "He was my first bunkmate." "For years he went on how he'd got this huge stash hidden away." "And I should live to survive him because one day I will be a rich man." "As you know, we lost him on the Pembroke." "So I open his locker and what do I find?" "12 pesos, a busted pocket watch, and a letter with instructions to deliver it to his sister in New York." "Lying sack of shit was Mr. Cregg." "So I bought the boys a round with the pesos, traded the pocket watch for a bit of tail, and spent two weeks that winter in New York trying to deliver that fucking letter to his sister." "Looked high and low." "Never found her." "So on the way home," "I waited till we were in open water and I could see no land in any direction, and I dropped it over the side." "Returned to the sea." "There are no legacies in this life, are there?" "No monuments." "No history." "Just the water." "It pays us and then it claims us." "Swallows us whole." "As if we'd never been here at all." "Well..." "I better be getting back." "How the fuck can you cut Mapleton loose without even telling me?" "I'm sorry." "I wasn't aware you were her attorney in this matter." "She'll run her mouth all over the fucking island about Noonan." "Who cares?" "The only people who could conceivably make trouble for us are currently elbow deep in free prostitute downstairs." "What's worse, you keep counsel with a whore about it." "Wait, what?" "You think you can trust her, you dumb shit?" "That's what this is about?" "Max?" "You fucked her, didn't you?" "Jesus H. Christ." "I can't win with you." "She's in the camp with the men and it's, "Come on, Jack, let's go kill everybody and see if we can't get her out of there." "Hope you don't mind." "Made that decision on your behalf."" "And now she's out, making us a small fortune, by the way, and you're pissed off about that, too." "Might you consider making up your fucking mind about it, please?" " Fuck you, Jack." " "Fuck you, Jack."" "Yes, I know." "Fuck me." "Listen here!" "When we crest the point ahead and spot the Urca in anchor, we'll begin our final run at her." " Take it." " The Spanish banner may earn us a few hundred yards of confusion before the captain identifies us and opens fire." "So we'll close fast on her, hammer her well with our guns, and then take the fight to her decks." "That fight will be the fight of our lives, make no mistake." "But on the other side lies paradise." "I'll see you there." "Mr. De Groot?" "A full complement, if you please." "Signal the Ranger." " Aye, captain." " Full sail, final approach." "Check our position." " This is the course." " Well, check it again." "Captain, this is the location you requested." "Your true manifest." "Your false manifest." "And, most importantly, your bribe money." "Godspeed, Captain." "Perhaps we should go over the details one more time." "The harbormaster's name is Singer." "The foreman's name is Smith." "The warehouse manager's Clay, and the customs man is Kent." "Now if you don't let me board my ship and leave this place, none of it will matter as the goods in my hold will be rotten by the time I arrive." " Goodbye." " Godspeed." "I have to hand it to you, you said you'd rebuild things here without your father, and damned if you didn't do just that." "Still one step yet to accomplish." "Removing my father entirely." "Excuse me?" "I know he's out in the Underhill estate." "If you think he isn't scheming to undo everything we've done here, you're kidding yourself." "You are truly amazing." "In a moment when stability is at hand and the world is at your feet, your first instinct is to go out in search of someone new to fight." "Captain, a moment." "God." "Can't believe you left me for that old lady." "Captain Hornigold is right." "What the fuck?" "Where did that come from?" "Jesus Christ, Ben, why are your men firing on their own ship?" "My men aren't the ones doing the firing." "We need to get you off the beach now." "Is someone shooting the guns off out here?" "What the hell is going on?" "Someone has taken over the fort." "Captain, after an inventory of our stores, the men have assented to your plan." "Provided we find a suitable place to land the Walrus, you'll have two days to send out scouts and hopefully locate the Urca." "Given their mood, I'd say we were lucky to get that long." "Do it, then." " What?" " It's Mr. De Groot." "He's put his foot down." "Once we make landfall, he wants Flint tried immediately." "Oh, Jesus." "He's bitter about the fact that we didn't listen to him regarding the cook." "He says there's no Urca out here and that justice has been delayed long enough." "That's not gonna happen, so let's discuss reality." "He said that you'd say that." "And after all your talk, you're just protecting Flint." "I'm protecting all of us." "These men are right on the edge and he wants to rile them up more by talking about a lying, thieving captain, then stand on a deserted beach and talk about an election." "Before you know it, half a dozen men will have laid claim to the captaincy." "Camps will divide." "It won't be dark yet before the fighting starts." "We're gonna see Flint pay for his crimes." "But we'll do it at home and we'll do it like civilized men." "That's how we avoid the abyss." "We knew you spent the night drinking together." "How can we take you at your word?" "You don't have to take my word." "Good enough for you?" "Mr. Gates..." "Sails!" "To the south!" "Is it the Urca?" "Captain, is it her?" "Captain, is it the Urca?" "Man-of-war!" "She's a man-of-war!" "Spanish banners!" "In less than half an hour, she'll be right on top of us." "Get orders to the Ranger." "Tell her to raise the black and fire two shots over our bow." " Mr. De Groot." " Captain?" "Rig a spring to the forward anchor, then drop her immediately." "Drop anchor?" "You mean to fight her?" "You all have your orders!" "Captain, join me." " We don't have time." " Make time." "If he engages that ship in battle, we're dead." " I know." " I know you know." "But does Mr. Gates?" "I can't let you go down this road." "As far that man-of-war knows, we're Spanish merchantmen under attack by pirate raiders." "We order the Ranger to flee, the Spaniard passes us to give chase, and before she realizes her error, we've got her trapped." "She's got 100 guns." "We do this properly, she'll never get a chance to use them." "We'll rake her stern to bow, the Ranger will rake her bow to stern." "With a little luck, we'll hammer her into submission before she can bring her broadsides to bear." "To accomplish what, exactly?" "The Urca." "She's here." "Can't you see that?" "All I can see is an empty bay, a guardacosta warship, and a captain that's lost his fucking grip on reality." "Guardacosta?" "You think that ship's here on patrol?" "That she just happened by this place at this time?" "That ship is an escort." "It's the only explanation." "The Urca has no escort." "Was that not the justification for this entire endeavor?" "They altered their plans." "Found a ship they could spare." "I'm taking the Ranger and I'm leaving." "What did you just say?" "I'm gonna weigh anchor and I'm gonna make a run for it." "If I can keep ahead of it before dark, there's just a chance we can slip away." "Without the Ranger, I have no chance against that ship." "I know." "So you're deliberately challenging my authority here?" "Deliberately violating your duty?" "My duty?" "My duty is to them, not to you." "Although I have violated it more times than I can remember in your defense." "Helped you deceive good men who put their trust in me because I was convinced they would be better off for it." "Well, not here." "Not this." "This is fucking madness." "Mr. Gates, if you walk through that door with the intent of subverting my plans," "I will have no alternative but to interpret that as an incitement of mutiny." "You think I'm inciting mutiny?" " You are inciting mutiny." " I'm managing one!" "There are men out there right now that know about Singleton, the book, the cook, all of it." "They know." "And they mean to see you hanged for it." "You told them?" "After Billy, I just..." "I didn't want to believe you could be capable of doing something like that." "But I couldn't convince myself that you weren't." "That's when I realized, this has got to end." "So what, then?" "You preside over a trial that sees me hanged?" "No." "We're going to go home and I will see you and Mrs. Barlow secreted away before anybody knows you're gone." "You're gonna go to Boston." "You're gonna take the pardon that she's offered you." "And that is the last that you and I will ever see of each other." "Please." "Please, don't do this." "I'm sorry." "Take a moment." "I'll deal with them." "This is not what I wanted." "This is not what I wanted." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I came to lend credence to your case that the Urca is still to be won." "What the fuck are you doing to him?" " Making sure there's nothing incriminating..." " Stop." "Stop." "There's no way out of this." "Take it from me, there's always a way." "Sir." " What is it?" " A small band of men were seen approaching the fort from the west this morning." "No one's been able to identify them." "Are all the home crews accounted for?" "Aye." "Every one." "They had nothing to do with this." "Could this be a first move by England to reclaim the island?" "Without a single ship involved?" "This does not have the air of a state move." "This is something else." "Captain, how easily are the great guns" " on the fort repositioned?" " What difference does that make?" "He's asking if the fort can turn her guns around and bring them to bear on the street... on us." "Let's hope whomever's up there is not mad enough to consider that." "That's less than confidence-inspiring." "I have lieutenants calling in favors from the crews of the Colonial Dawn and the Medusa." "I'll have 250 men assembled and ready to storm the fort in a matter of hours." "By first light tomorrow, I'll be back in my chair and whoever did this will be hanging by his goddamn..." " What is it?" " Quick, you all need to see this." "Go back inside." "Miss Guthrie." "I think it's time we talked." "Mr. Gates's heart has given out." "He's dead?" "Mr. Logan." "Signal Mr. Thompson on the Ranger." "Inform him he's now in command." "His orders are to sail north." "When we fire on the target, he's to tack hard to port and do the same." "Hoist the signals from the foremast below the yard." "Get 'em up and down quickly before the Spaniard sees them." "The question you need to ask yourself is "What good can I do?"" "You can call this murder." "A number of the men might even believe you, but will that be enough to stop this fight that is about to happen?" "Because if it's not, a fight we might win becomes a battle we are doomed to lose." "Because the men went into it infected with your suspicions, with your doubts." "So, Mr. Quartermaster, is that truly what's in their best interests?" "St. Augustine." "Beg pardon?" "When the warship draws close, she'll ask our last port of call." "St. Augustine's the closest." "And as she's likely a customs ship, we must identify our cargo as anything but tobacco." "Seville regulates the trade heavily." "Thank you, Mr. Dufresne." "What the fuck did you do?" "Spend enough time on an island, begin to forget there's a whole world out there." "A world where the rules are different." "I went out there, found men who don't know the rules here and who don't much care to learn them." "They helped me surprise Captain Hornigold's men, we took his fort, and not once were any of them burdened with the thought, "What if this were to upset Eleanor Guthrie?"" "Well, they're about to learn the rules, Charles." "The hard way." "You think I'm gonna let this stand?" "That Hornigold will?" "We have men lining up in droves to back us in retaking it." "I'd expect nothing less." "Just out of curiosity, how long do you think that's gonna take?" "Can you take back that fort before..." "I sink another ship in the bay?" "Three more?" "All of them?" "Who knows?" "If my men hold out long enough, we may just decide to sink the Walrus when she returns with your precious Spanish gold just out of spite." "So that's what this is." "You're annoyed at me, so you're gonna destroy everything I've built." "Never said I wanted to destroy anything." "Then what do you want?" "Hornigold controlled the fort." "The fort controls the bay." "The bay controls commerce." "That meant he was your partner." "Now, I control the fort." "So I will be your partner." "You are kidding me." "I was a tenant in this place for a long time." "Didn't work out so well." "Now I'd like a stake." "You've absolutely lost your mind." "I remember the first time I saw you." "You were about 13." "You'd snuck down to the beach despite Mr. Scott's rules forbidding it." "A girl that age looking like you did." "And you just walked up and down between the camps like you owned the place." "Fearless." "Then you saw me watching you and you didn't look away." "Didn't cower." "You just gave me this look... this little smile... that said you refused to be afraid of me." "What the fuck are you talking about?" "I know you." "Better than your father, better than Scott." "Maybe better than anyone." "You don't give a shit about money or respect." "Or the things you've built here." "I think you're just tired of fathers telling you what to do." "And so I'm offering you a life free from them." "With me in that fort, you do as you like." "As long as it doesn't cross me, you'll hear no complaints." "You know I have no choice but to say yes." "But before I do, know this, you'll sit in that fort for a while." "You'll get comfortable." "And that's the day I'm gonna push you and your men right into the fucking sea." "God, I missed that look." "Ben." "What the hell did he say?" "He wants your seat on the consortium." "To be a partner to us." "Well, I have 300 men out there more than happy to deny him." " You can't, Ben." " Oh, watch me." "I told him about the tunnels." "The tunnels that you would use to launch a surprise attack into the fort." " I told him." " Jesus!" "You told me to keep emotion from clouding judgment." "To act in everyone's best interest." "I believe that's what I'm doing." "This is not the end of this." "Captain." "Welcome back." "I hear congratulations are in order." "Steward of the fort." "Stroke of pure genius." "In some ways, Jack, it had to come to this." " Don't you think?" " Come to what?" "Me deciding if you live or die." "Captain, I don't know what you've heard..." "Hamund pulls you out of bed... marches you down to the wrecks to look for a stash of stolen pearls." "And somehow, only you and your dog make it back alive." "Quite a moment." "Jack Rackham with nothing to say." "Had I a shrewd quartermaster right now, he would tell me that can't let what you did stand." "He would say an offense like that demanded an example be made of both of you." "The bloodier the better." "But today, I'm a little less worried about perception than I used to be." "As long as I hold that fort, doesn't really matter." "So the street will know what you did." "They will know you betrayed your brothers for a woman." "That story will spread far and wide and you'll never sail beneath the black again." "You'll sit in this place and rot with the rest of the whores." "Something tells me that'll sting worse than dying." "Loyalty, Jack." "It's supposed to mean something." "It does to me, anyway." "Oh." "Love what you've done with the place." "Here she comes." "Cazadora." "Marco Fernandez, captain." "Cazadora." "Marco Fernandez, capitán." "St, Augustine." "Tobacco trade." "If I'm not mistaken, you told him to name us anything but a tobacco trader, did you not?" "I did." "He means to prove that that ship is not guardacosta." "That it's here for the same reason we are." "The Urca." "That ship lets us pass, he will have managed to both renew the men's lust for gold and their faith in his judgment." "Hello." "All hands to their stations." "Quietly, if you please." "At 300 yards, we open fire." "Time and again he gambles with our lives." "That is, when he's not taking them in cold blood." "And once more his influence grows." "And we're at his mercy with no way to challenge him." "No, sir." "It only looks that way." "Turn us around slowly, boys." "They need to think we're just drifting." "Range?" "Hundred yards, Captain." " Open." " Open." " Come right a few degrees." " Aye, Captain." "We only get one shot at this." "We miss, we die." " Clear, tack hull." " Range?" "Approaching 200 yards, Captain." "All crews, fire on my mark." "Steady." "Almost there." "Captain Flint." "As quartermaster, I hereby accuse you of tyrannical crimes against your crew." "All crews, fire!" "Belay that order!" "Your duties as a member of this crew have reached an end." "Take a seat." "Beginning with the murders of Mr. Singleton," "Billy Bones, and Mr. Gates." "What exactly do you hope to accomplish by doing this?" "In your case, Mr. Silver, justice." "Once Dufresne exposes Flint's lies in their totality, the crew are gonna want answers from you, too." "And as I explained to Mr. Dufresne, it's his word against Flint's." "Why would anyone believe him?" "I hold in my hand a letter written by Mr. Gates confessing his knowledge and complicity in the captain's myriad crimes." "We're going to lose them." "We don't have time for this." "As well as his knowledge of the captain's continued treachery up to and including his plan to steal a portion of the treasure fleet proceeds for himself." "I gave you all an order!" "Fire!" "Fire!" "Mr. Logan." "It's in Mr. Gates's hand." "Where are you going?" "Justice, thief." "This time there's no escaping it." "You're welcome." "Raise the sails." "We're going home." "Who's shooting?" "!" "Sorry." "Had to be done." "There's no running now." "The Ranger's coming about." "The Spaniards have got men in the rigging." "Fire, Mr. Dufresne." "Everything you've got." "Don't waste this moment." "All cannons, open fire!" "Open fire!" "Reload!" "Ready with this cannon!" "Fire!" "The Ranger's opened fire!" "Again!" "...Fire!" "She's coming about!" "Fire!" "Fire!" "Below!" "To your stations!" "Set sail!" "Doctor!" "Doctor!" "No-man's-land." "There was a time when stopping halfway across this bridge would have been unthinkable to you." "How things change." "I can see that." "Max, I know we haven't spoken, but I just want you to know how sorry I am..." "Don't." "You have nothing to be sorry about." "I was standing between you and your dreams for this place." "You did what you had to do." "I thought you said this place was just sand." "Sand has its virtues." "On sand, nothing is fixed." "Nothing is permanent." "And fates change so quickly." "Yesterday Captain Hornigold was immovable from that fort and Captain Vane was a beggar." "Now look at them today." "Yesterday I was a whore of little consequence, easily dismissed, easily forgotten." "Today I am a madam with an income and allies and a woman who has learned the most important of lessons." "Never let anyone stand in between you and your ambitions." "Thank you for teaching it to me." "Ma'am, they're ready." "Congratulations on the launch of your endeavor, by the way." "Today you have everything you have ever wanted." "I suppose we can only guess what tomorrow will bring." "They think it'll be a while before she sails again." "In the meantime, you and I have been charged with provoking this whole mess." "Why am I still alive?" "Why didn't you kill me?" "Get him up." "Told you I was certain about my information regarding the Urca." "Unfortunately, you and I failed to take into account the weather." "The Urca de Lima wrecked at sea last night." "Dashed by the storm."