“Well we're looking for pirate gold ... any chance that we could invoke some ancient pirate tradition and convince them not to start shooting those guns at us. Or maybe even help us?”
“They cannot be reasoned with by words,” Aya said. “The only way to negotiate with them is with bullets and blood.”
“She is right,” Alton said from behind her, leaning against the railing and staring at the oncoming boats. “I suggest you get inside. They are an unpredictable kind of people. I cannot say that there will not be bullets flying through the air any moment now.”
Purdue turned to the crew, who all looked nervously out to sea. They didn't want this fight, and he could tell from Aya's explanation that they had known it was a possibility. They hoped that they wouldn't have to get involved with this Siad, but now he was in the way. Whatever blood feud there was between the Wharf Man and Siad would need to be addressed here and now, on these waters, perhaps even on this ship.
What kind of a leader would Purdue be if he hid away and let them deal with it without him? No, he had to stand beside them. After all, he had thrown his hat in with the Wharf Man. As much as he sometimes regretted that alliance, it was an active one, and he was going to respect that. He was going to help however he could.
The speedboats were closing in, cutting across the water. Some broke away from the group, going the other direction. Their plan was obvious to even the most inexperienced of sailors. They were going to encircle the boat. There was no stopping them from ensnaring them with this formation. They couldn't exactly outrun speedboats either.
Purdue stood his ground, which prompted some surprise from the crew. “We fight them off then. I'm not ready to let them come take all of our shit. We've come too far and have far too important of items on board to just let them make off with them. I'm not going to let them touch a damn thing. Are you?”
“No!” Many in the crew yelled back.
The traditional idea of a pirate was mostly a thing of the past. The massive sailboats, the eye patches and peg legs, and the sword duels. It had all been so romanticized over the decades and decades since the golden age of piracy, but pirates themselves still remained. They had just changed, adapted to the times. Traded galleons for speedboats and flintlocks for automatic machine guns. They no longer went on voyages of pillaging that lasted months or even years. Now they just sped out for day trips and took whatever they could steal from unsuspecting boats.
“You think they know who we are?” Purdue asked.
“I hope not,” Aya said. “If they think we are just another boat, then they might just take everything and leave us. If they know we work for the Wharf Man, they will kill us. I am sure of it. And they will make it hurt.”
“Perfect,” Purdue said uneasily.
“Do not worry yourself,” Alton laughed, revealing the pistol in his belt. “My brother and I will protect you from all of the bad men.”
Purdue knew that the twins were just as much bad men as the pirates, if not more, but he would take whatever help he could get. In all his travels, he never thought he'd find himself fending off real life pirates.
“We cannot outrun them,” Purdue acknowledged.
“So let them come on board,” Alton said. “Oniel and I will take it from there.”
Oniel silently stared at the enemies who were surrounding them. One of his hands reached into the sleeve of the other, no doubt getting ready to draw a knife whenever he had to. He seemed to prefer blades to firearms. Probably because guns were too loud. Those knives of his were fittingly as quiet as their wielder.
Purdue thought back to the policeman who the twins had disposed of. How his body had gone so limp after Oniel stabbed him in the back. How they had tossed his corpse over the side like it was a bag of garbage. That man was lying on the ocean floor now. Fish and other sea critters were probably picking away at him this very moment. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but that was the kind of action those twins were capable of. Did he want to give them permission to use violence like that again?
No ... not really, but he knew that he really had no say in the matter. If the twins wanted to kill these pirates, they were going to one way or another. Better to direct their inevitable hostilities in a helpful direction than let them get to their killing whenever they felt like it.
He was just glad that they were on his side. “Fine. We'll let them up. Do whatever you have to stop them from taking anything or hurting anyone.”
Alton and Oniel both looked a bit surprised with his willingness to let them take control of the situation. Letting them run the show wouldn't be a regular affair though. This was a special case, a situation where he had no choice but to trust their killer instincts to get them all out of this alive.
The pirates were closing in. One pulled up their boat and cut its engine, bobbing gently in the currents beside them. One of the pirates on board stood high and waved his weapon at them. Jermaine looked at Purdue nervously but Purdue nodded, signaling to allow the man on board.
When the pirate climbed up, he had two of his comrades at his side. All three were carrying machine guns and they looked around the boat at the crew. Purdue hung back, looking rather conspicuous. A broke Scottish man standing behind a group of Jamaican criminals.
Alton stepped forward and spoke to the pirates in Somali. He laughed as he spoke, trying to give off an air of ease and cooperation. But while Purdue watched him, he made sure to keep his eye on Oniel who looked tense and ready to start gutting the pirates the moment he had a chance.
Aya translated for Purdue as Alton tried to negotiate with the pirates. Apparently, Alton was trying to surrender and stress that they get this over with as quickly and harmlessly as possible. The lead pirate was snickering now, and Purdue could surmise this part for himself. This was the part when the one with the superior firepower said that the one trying to negotiate was in no position to make any demands. When Aya translated, sure enough, he was right. The pirates under command of the Wharf Man's rival wanted to show their dominance over the situation.
“You do not think I recognize you,” the leader suddenly said in unsteady English, examining Alton closely. “I know your face.” He pointed at Alton's face and then at Oniel's. “I know that face that you share. That is the face that belongs to the ones who serve the Wharf Man. The twins, yes. Yes that face you both wear is the face of Alton and Oniel, is it not?”
Alton flashed a crooked smile and awkwardly tried to deny it. “I'm sorry but I think you have us mixed up with someone else. Yes we are twins but that is not my name. I am Jermaine. This is my brother, Francis.”
The lead pirate laughed. “Is that true, huh? Is it? I am Luka, and I know that I am right. I know that those are not your names, Jermaine. I know because we have been at war with the Wharf Man for some time. Every one of us knows the story of the twins.” Luka turned to the two other pirates with him. “The twins have killed many friends of ours, yes?”
The two men nodded and looked ready to raise their machine guns. They were excited by their discovery, like seeing Alton and Oniel was like meeting a pair of celebrities. No, no it there was no reverence in their eyes. There was hunger—they'd just stumbled on a meal that would fill them up for quite some time.
“You have the wrong men,” Alton said casually.
“I do?” Luka turned to Oniel. “You. Speak then. Speak.”
Oniel stood tall, and looked ready to attack Luka and his men by himself, despite having their guns ready to riddle him with bullets. He wasn't intimidated. If anything, he looked prepared for the challenge, maybe even somewhat excited about it.
“Speak!” Luka barked. “If you can speak then do it now. Prove me wrong.”
Oniel remained unfazed by his taunts. He just kept that creepy calmness intact, never batting an eye. Alton, on the other hand, was starting to look nervous.
“Everyone says Oniel does not have a tongue,” Luka said. “Open up. Open your mouth. Let us see your tongue and I will admit I was mistake
n.”
Alton cut in and continued to play dumb but he was far from a professional actor. “There has been some kind of mistake, Luka. My brother and I are fishermen. This is our crew. We are going out into the deep sea and don't want any trouble. We—”
Alton stopped and looked at Luka and his pirates. They weren't buying his story, and he could see that. They had Oniel backed into a corner, waiting for him to speak or prove he had a tongue, neither of which he could do without giving them away. There was no avoiding the truth of their identities, so there was no point keeping up the pretense anymore. Alton flashed that wide Cheshire grin of his and then pulled it back into his face, suddenly looking gravely serious.
“I have heard of you too, Luka,” Alton said, all of that jovial friendliness completely gone. “And you have killed many of our men too. Enough that the Wharf Man has put quite a price on your head, hmm?”
“There you are, Alton,” Luka said confidently and the men behind him raised their weapons. “I have been wanting to meet you. You and your brother.”
“Here we are. You found us.”
Alton took a threatening step forward. He towered over Luka and took advantage of their height difference. He had to crane his head down to be eye-to-eye with his enemy. It was clear enough that Luka was the enforcer of that pirate, Siad, just like the twins were the enforcers of the Wharf Man. They were meeting their contemporaries in their rival group, and it looked like a duel was about to break out between the lieutenants of each faction.
“You are out of your waters,” Luka said. “The Wharf Man has no control over these waves. This is our ocean, over here. I am sure you must already know that. You have no right to be here.”
“No one has complete control over any ocean,” Purdue interrupted. “So we have just as much of a right to be here as you, if you ask me.”
“I don't remember asking you,” Luka said, looking at him with a spiteful leer. “And who is this, hmm?”
“A business partner,” Alton said.
“You doing business in our waters. That makes it our business, does it not? So what business are you and this man talking about?”
Alton glanced uneasily at his brother. They were probably considering how well they could kill all three pirates without being gunned down themselves. Before they could start a fight and risk all of their lives, Purdue cut in, opting for negotiation rather than bloodshed.
“They are helping me look for something,” Purdue said. The twins looked at him like he was insane for speaking out again, obviously believing that this was none of his business and he should keep out of this feud. Purdue didn't care if they didn't appreciate it. They had already done plenty that he didn't appreciate it. Fair was fair. “A treasure, actually. One that's been missing for centuries.”
“Treasure?” Luka started laughing loudly, practically keeling over from the amount of it. “So that is it, hmm? You came here looking for buried treasure. Have you found it?”
“Not yet,” Purdue said. “But we are getting very close.”
Luka started speaking in his native language again to the two pirates at his side.
Aya once again translated for Purdue, muttering over her shoulder. “They don't seem to believe you. They say that the only treasure in these waters is what they plunder from wandering boats like us. If there was any actual buried treasure, they would have found it by now, they say.” She listened intently as Luka spoke once again. “He also thinks that we have brought them the real treasure ... the Wharf Man's men.”
Luka turned back to them. “The heads of the twins will make us very rich. Very rich. Treasure, yes. Better than treasure. And we will take whatever you have on this boat too. Payment for crossing our waters.”
Purdue didn't particularly like Alton and Oniel but they were his allies and he wasn't willing to just let them be killed by these pirates. Even more, he wouldn't let these scavengers come anywhere close to the relics he had on the boat. They wouldn't take Admiral Ogden's sword or flintlock. He would do whatever he could to prevent that.
Oniel and Alton didn't look too pleased to be threatened either. For the first time, Purdue might have been in exactly the same mindset as the twins. They all understood that they needed to get these pirates off the ship and neutralize the threat as soon as they could. They were getting close to the real prize and they needed to somehow pivot around this last minute obstacle.
Purdue already proved to Alton and Oniel that he didn't support their overly violent methods, but in this case, he might make an exception. Staring down the barrels of those pirates' machine guns helped him make up his mind about it too. These weren't people just trying to apprehend them for committing a crime like those policemen in Nassau. These were people threatening their lives, and threatening everything they had worked for. They would kill Purdue and the whole crew if circumstances called for it, and considering the crew was full of their arch-rival's employees, the circumstances probably called for it.
“You want our heads?” Alton held his arms out in a call for a challenge. “Take them then! That is, if you can.”
Before the pirates even had a chance to pull their triggers, the twins threw themselves at the two armed men, knocking them to the floor. Purdue followed their lead—something that surprised even him—and jumped on Luka. The pirate leader threw him off of him almost the moment they hit the deck. The twins seemed to fair better against their opponents, and had gotten a hold of their machine guns. The brothers broke the necks of the pirates with gruesome snaps and Luka ran to the edge of the ship, toward where his allied speedboats were zooming around in the waters. Seeing Alton and Oniel with heavy firepower, he jumped from the boat and went splashing down into the sea.
One of his boats came cutting across the water to pick him up as Purdue and his crew ran to the boats railing to try and pursue. The twins opened fire at the speedboat as Luka climbed up into it and ordered all of the other boats to open fire.
Purdue hit the deck along with everyone else, as bullets bounced all around them, shooting through the air with wild inaccuracy. All of those pirates clearly didn't have the best aim, but with the amount of bullets they were pouring out, it didn't really matter. Alton and Oniel sporadically returned fire. Aya turned to Purdue and the others from across the deck.
“Get us the hell out of here!” Aya yelled. Purdue didn't know what the point of it was. The engine on their boat couldn't exactly outrun the far faster speedboats that were encircling them like a pack of sharks. Aya clearly saw the resilience on Purdue's face and shouted at him once more. Fine! I will do it!”
Aya kept low, hopefully low enough that speedboats around them couldn't see her over the deck, and moved toward the ship's little helm room.
“They're faster than us!” Purdue called over the gunfire as she brushed past him. “We can't get away from them.”
“No, not at first!” Aya hollered back. “But we have more gas than them, no? We cannot outrun them, but we can outlast them. We can travel much farther than they can. We have gone off course. Which way to the island?!”
Purdue was hesitant. Part of him didn't want to risk luring those pirates anywhere close to Admiral Ogden's treasure. He didn't want to have to deal with them along with the uncertainty he already had about some members of his own crew.
If only these pirates weren't such ferocious enemies with the Wharf Man, maybe this wouldn't have blown into something so violent, where he and anyone on his crew could be killed at any moment. All it took was one stray bullet. Once again, the Wharf Man's presence and influence was negatively effecting this whole voyage. If it wasn't the deranged twins killing innocent people, then it was the enemies of the Jamaican crime boss trying to get retribution for grievances that had nothing to do with Purdue.
“Which way?!” Aya had control of the wheel now and her other hand on the ship's throttle. The small windows of the helm room shattered and she ducked to avoid the bullets spraying all over the place.
Purdue had to finish w
eighing his options, and fast. If they waited any longer, sitting out in the open sea at the mercy of these speedboats, the pirates would grow bold enough to jump back onto the ship and retake control of the whole situation.
“That way!” Purdue pointed west. “We need to head in that direction!”
That sealed it. He hoped she was right that those little speedboats didn't have much gas to spare. They weren't meant for long trips, so hopefully they would eventually have to fall behind. It all depended on Purdue's crew living that long. They had to keep avoiding the bullets that were raining down on them.
Aya nodded and pushed the throttle forward. Their ship's propellers kicked in and they started moving forward as Aya steered them in the right direction. There was shouting from around them, the pirates calling to one another to adapt to their prey trying to escape.
Both of the twins' AK-47's were out of ammunition, so they threw the weapons overboard. Everyone still kept their heads down as the speedboats turned on their own engines and began chasing after them. They caught up as quickly as expected, and Purdue doubted that they would be able to hold out long enough for the speedboats to run out of fuel and completely fall behind. And if they reached their destination before that happened, then they will have brought their enemies to what they most needed to protect. They would all be killed when they reached the shore, and the pirates might even find the gold that had been hidden by another group of pirates centuries beforehand.
They moved through the water for hours, keeping low. By that point, the gun fire coming from the pursuing speedboats had ceased. They couldn't be sure if the pirate gang had run out of ammunition or if they were just through wasting it until they could actually hit their targets. Just to be safe, everyone on board Purdue's ship kept themselves low. They couldn't afford to lose anyone. Alton and Oniel crawled about and both looked humiliated by having to slink around like cowards, but they could stow their pride if it meant staying alive.
Purdue kept hunched down near the helm, helping make sure they were keeping on the right path to the island. Every so often, he would look back and the speedboats would still be following. Whatever bad blood there was between these Somalian pirates and the Wharf Man, it was bad enough that they weren't giving up in their pursuit easily. However, he did notice they were starting to fall behind a bit, maybe slowing down to conserve their fuel. Hopefully that meant they were getting low, and they didn't have any more emergency reserves.
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 9 Page 31