Wielding his tree branch like a baseball bat, Purdue swung hard and made contact with the AK-47, knocking it out of Luka's hands before he had a chance to unleash his ammunition. Luka tried to get away from him, tripping over some roots as Purdue continued on him. Seeing how callously he was about to get rid of his own men, Purdue didn't want to show someone like that any mercy. He wanted to knock him around and teach him a lesson about consequences. He chose to be a pirate. He chose to threaten and attack people, all so he could pick at scraps left behind by his victims. Purdue would make sure that Luka was going to answer for all of his heinous crimes.
He hit him hard again with the branch, knocking the wind out of him, and Luka rolled away desperately.
The fight around them was slowing down, with Purdue's crew clenching a decisive victory. Their ambush had gone perfectly and the pirates were all incapacitated. Some were dead while others were just beaten into submission. Oniel collected the magazines from all of their machine guns and then threw them in various directions through the jungle. His message was clear enough; that there was no need for that kind of firepower on this island. Part of Purdue later wondered if Oniel was just trying to make sure that him and his knife remained the deadliest weapons on that slice of land.
Luka was on his knees with a scrape over his eye and a bruised lip. He was breathing heavily and looking around at his men with disappointment. Purdue held the branch over his head, ready to bring it down on the pirate leader. At the very least, he could knock him out. The blow might even bash his skull in. Purdue didn't want to kill Luka. He didn't want to kill anyone, but in this situation, there might not have been much of a choice at all. This man's only desire was to cause violence.
“Go on,” Alton said. “Believe me, they more than deserve it. Siad's pirates have been a scourge on the water for years. No one will miss them. Not even their own mothers.”
Luka glared up a him. He smacked his hands on his upper torso in a gesture of challenge. “You heard him! It is all true! Kill me then unless you don't got the stomach for it!”
Purdue wondered that himself, and his stomach seemed to churn as he did. He didn't feel right bludgeoning an unarmed man to death as part of some execution. That wasn't him. He turned to Alton who kept urging him to just do it. In that moment, he realized that the man he was about to beat to death wasn't much different than some of his own crew, the twins in particular. If he could work with them, converse with them, and even respect them sometimes, despite how vicious of people they were and the killings they committed, then he would be a hypocrite to kill Luka and spare them. No, he wouldn't kill Luka. He was just a threat that needed to be neutralized while they found the gold.
Purdue stepped away from the defeated pirate beneath him. Alton's mouth was hanging open and he looked at Purdue like he was insane, before taking a step toward Luka himself, but Purdue grabbed his arm. “No. Tie him and any of his remaining men up. I think there's been enough violence today, don't you?”
“Some days require more blood than others,” Alton hissed. Purdue couldn't entirely blame him. It sounded like a long, violent history between the two groups. Alton probably had good reason to want to smash Luka's brains in, but as long as Purdue was there, they had other things to focus on.
“Not today,” Purdue said. “Put aside all of that petty shit for now, aye? We need to find the treasure. That's what we need to be thinking about right now. Not some old blood war. The treasure takes priority right now.”
Alton glared down at Luka and didn't look at all pleased with this decision. In fact, he looked ready to rip Luka's limbs off. Finally, he conceded and seemed to relax. “Fine. He will live.”
Purdue removed his hand from restraining Alton and breathed a sigh of relief. However, the second he let go Alton threw a punch that struck Luka hard in the jaw and knocked him onto his back.
“Hey!” Purdue yelled, grabbing hold of him again. He should have known better than expecting either of the twins to show any sort of restraint. They certainly hadn't back in Nassau with that policeman.
Alton turned back to Purdue and that fake smile of his returned to his face. He pointed at Luka groaning on the ground. “What? I told you, he still lives.”
“You still didn't need to do that,” Purdue said, scratching his head.
Alton glanced back down at Luka and spat on the ground. “Yes I did.”
The crew got to tying up the pirates to some of the trees in the jungle, making sure each of them was well restrained so they didn't risk coming back after them. They could figure out what to do with them after they found the treasure.
With their enemies out of the way, the crew moved through the jungle, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The jungle was lush but not very big so it didn't take them long to cover a lot of ground. The island itself was so small, it didn't leave many possible hiding places for Admiral Ogden to have chosen. As they searched, Purdue started to feel a little worried. Perhaps the island was too remote, and tiny to be the place where the enormous stockpile of gold to be hidden. Then again, being so small and far away from society, might make it the perfect island for such a task.
“This is the place?” Alton asked.
“It is,” Purdue replied. “This is the place shown on the map.”
“It does not look like much,” Alton said, looking around.
“What were you expecting, aye? Skull Island?”
“That would have been better than this,” Alton muttered. “There is nothing here. This has all been a waste. When the Wharf Man finds out—”
Alton tripped over a slab of rock and fell hard onto his stomach. Purdue almost let out a laugh, glad to see that cocky bastard finally make a mistake. Still, he held out a hand to help him up just out of respect. Alton, looking flustered with embarrassment, smacked Purdue's hand away and stood up by himself, looking down at what had knocked him over. He looked ready to murder the earth itself for taking a shot at him.
There were two large slabs of stone crossing over one another on the ground. They stood out from the ground around them, which was almost barren of any sort of plants or other rocks. The whole section of the island looked a little strange, like it hadn't been created in the same way as everything else on the island, like it didn't really belong there. The large slabs were embedded in the ground and looked to have been there for quite some time, but not quite as long as all of the old roots and trees of the island.
The strangest thing was that those two rocks on the ground—they sort of made an X if you were looking at them from above. The whole crew huddled around the intertwined rocks and everyone seemed to be putting together the same thought. Given the Xs that Admiral Ogden used to designate the treasure's location on his flintlock and map, it wasn't an improbable thought that he would use the X as a tool when it came to hiding his treasure as well.
“X marks the spot, aye?” Purdue said aloud, voicing everyone's shared thought.
“It better,” Alton said, still looking flustered but now also looking frustrated. “You seemed certain in your ability to read the map before. So is this it or not?”
“I wasn't certain,” Purdue said defensively, remembering a very different conversation that they had back when he was trying to figure out the map. “I said that this island seemed like it was the right place as long as my theory was correct. It was just at that. A theory. I still might be wrong.”
Alton looked uncharacteristically displeased. All of that jovial fake friendliness he put on was nowhere to be found. He looked impatient, like he wasn't going to even bother with his usual boasting. He clearly wanted this to be the right place, and part of Purdue wondered what Alton would do if it wasn't.
They grabbed the shovels and started digging around the X. Strangely, the ground around the rocks didn't feel very solid. After a couple of minutes, Purdue struck the ground with the spade and suddenly felt his body quake. The earth underneath him gave way and he went sliding through the ground, tumbling down into the mud and
dirt underneath the island.
His body finally stopped when he landed hard on his stomach. He took a minute to try and get up and when he did, his hand touching something different than the earth. He touched something smooth and small ,and when he took hold of it, he held it close to his eyes. It was a coin. A very old piece of gold.
He pulled himself up, still fixated on the coin in his hand and swearing under his breath. He struggled to look away from the coin but when he did, he found himself in a large cave. He'd fallen through something of a tunnel that led to a far bigger space. It was like he had ridden a slide to some secret underground chamber.
“Purdue!”
There were shouts behind him, through the narrow tunnel that had carried him there. It was the crew, calling down from the sunlight above.
“Are you alive?!” Aya's voice shouted down.
“I'm alright!” Purdue shouted back up before focusing on what was in front of him and then back to the piece of gold. “More than alright, actually!”
He took a few steps into the new place he found and his whole body was filling with excitement, because the cavern he was looking in wasn't empty. The coin in his hand was not the only coin inside of the cave either. It was one of probably millions of others piled about.
Purdue was staring at the treasure of Admiral Ogden.
The morning of Admiral Walton Ogden's execution, the streets of London were bristling with anticipation. Everyone was looking forward to catching a glimpse of the famed pirate, and better yet, they got to see his end when justice finally caught up with him.
Admiral Ogden stood tall on the execution platform, undeterred by the noose around his neck and by the crowd of spectators who were hungrily awaiting his death. They shouted obscenities at him. Some threw rocks and fruits his way with varying levels of accuracy. Others clapped and cheered. He wasn't afraid of any of the spectacle. He didn't mind if his death got an applause since he couldn't entirely blame them. His reputation and occupation hadn't painted him in the best light to the public. To most people, he was the scourge of the seven seas. He was a rebel who plagued all manner of law and authority. He was a demon waving a black flag, killing anyone in his path. A monster whose only desire was destruction.
The stories weren't entirely wrong but they were also far from the truth. He was absolutely rebellious and could even be ruthless when the circumstances called for it, but he was not some evil sea demon making sacrifices to the devil. Walton Ogden was just a man who wanted fame and fortune. He may have wanted it too much, but who didn't want those things in life? And how few actually achieved either? He had attained both. While his life turned out shorter than expected, he took solace that he had gotten what he wanted in life.
Morrow stood on a nearby balcony watching the macabre presentation unfold. He made sure to meet eyes with Ogden, offering a wink that oozed with pomposity. This must have been the proudest moment of his miserable life. It didn't matter to Ogden because he knew full well that Morrow wouldn't win in the end. Ogden had made sure he would never, ever find the treasure.
An official read off a list of Ogden's numerous crimes and Ogden let each one pass through his thoughts, retracing them in his memory. His whole life as a pirate was unfolded before him, and forced in front of his eyes. As he thought about each event listed to him, he realized—to his own surprise—that he regretted none of them. They were crimes, yes, but each was a stepping stone on his path to success. Everything he had worked for was still there, and still safe, whether he was breathing or not.
As his crimes were recounted, he scanned the crowd of faces, past Morrow and all of the peasants throwing rocks at him, past the guards in their red uniforms, and past the children watching through the gaps of their fingers.
Finally, he found her. Victoria stood near the back of the crowd with a man Ogden recognized as her father. She had come after all and when their eyes met, she offered a warm smile. Even as the cold touch of death was starting to touch him, he could feel her smile. He wasn't going to die surrounded entirely by people that wanted him dead. There was at least one who wouldn't be celebrating his demise.
“If you have any final words, now is the time to share them. Perhaps God will hear your pleas for forgiveness.”
Admiral Ogden laughed. “I don't much care for his forgiveness, and I never plead for anything from anyone ... not even that bastard in heaven above. Everything I have done has been through sheer force of will alone. My will. Not God's. Mine. My own fortitude and determination to see my dream made reality. That is something most of you standing here, ready to see me hang, will never understand. You are content watching better people find success or find failure, while you stand there comfortable with your petty jealousies and insignificant problems. I see you for exactly what you are.”
Ogden's gaze scanned the crowd and fixed on Morrow.
“All of you. You are all just vultures, waiting for a chance to pick apart anything vulnerable. Anything that is already down and wounded. You're all cowards and you're all pathetic.”
There were boos and shouts from the crowd of spectators. Some more stones were thrown in his direction. He let them bounce off like they weren't a bother at all. The audience was turning into an angry mob, ready to storm the gallows and break his neck themselves.
Ogden raised his voice, to be heard over their heckling. “I possess more gold than any of you will ever see in your lives. More gold than any of you can even begin to fathom. However much your imagination concocts, it's more. Believe me. You vultures won't be able to pick me apart for all I'm worth. You will never find what I leave behind.”
Ogden half-expected the hangman to grow bored with his speech and pull the lever, but he didn't. He even seemed enthralled by the pirate's speech, hanging onto every word.
“Someone may find it one day, but it won't be any of you. No. It would take a special kind of person to find my treasure. Only someone worthy will be able to inherit my legacy. As for the rest of you sorry lot ... I hope you enjoy failing to find it.”
Up on the balcony, Morrow was shaking his head, obviously not impressed by Ogden's defiant words. The spectators all looked entirely flabbergasted by his speech, but behind all of them, there was Victoria who was beaming with pride. Hopefully now, at the end, she fully understood where he was coming from. If that's all he had accomplished, then at least he had done that.
Admiral Ogden turned to the hangman. “Come on then. Get on with it.”
The hangman came out of his stupor and looked to the officials for approval. He got a nod in response and then gave the lever a good pull.
The platform beneath Ogden's feet fell away and he dropped down. He was caught by the noose around his throat, but his neck didn't break. Instead, he swayed in the air, his body twitching as he slowly choked to death in front of the audience of bloodthirsty, law-abiding citizens. They got the show they wanted. They got to see the infamous pirate admiral be hanged for all of his monstrous crimes. However, many left the gruesome display feeling unsettled. Admiral Ogden's final words, his taunts about his treasure, had cut deep as any sword.
No one had been punctured by the pirates speech more deeply than Jacob Morrow. He stayed at the execution ground for hours after the rest of the audience had gone about their day. He stared up at Ogden's swaying body and among his disdain, jealousy, and resentment, there was a strange tingle of guilt; a feeling that he should be hanging up there with his old friend. But that feeling washed away after a few fleeting moments, and his bitterness returned.
Morrow had beaten Admiral Ogden yet the pirate acted like the victor, even going so far as to make a triumphant speech as he stood on the execution platform, on death's door itself. Morrow couldn't accept losing to a dead man, to someone that he thought he had defeated. He would prove Ogden wrong and he would find that treasure.
Jacob Morrow tried—for decades—to find the resting place of his old captain's gold. He scoured the known world but found nothing. He eventually died at an ol
d age, spiteful of how he had wasted so much of his life in search of something he could never find. There was nothing to show for all of his efforts in the end. He even felt regretful of the betrayal that started his spiral.
Many tried looking for the treasure, inspired by Admiral Ogden's famous proclamation and challenge he had made with a noose around his neck. However, all who tried failed miserably. None of them proved to be worthy of finding the treasure. They weren't the special person that Ogden hoped would inherit his vast wealth.
That person had yet to come.
10
SHINING MOUNTAINS
The entire cavern was filled with enormous piles of gold and other valuables. Jewelry, silverware, and all kind of trinkets were dispersed throughout the golden hills. They all stood before gleaming mountains of old currency and souvenirs from pillaged vessels. The entire collection of Admiral Walton Ogden's fleet. The trophies of their efforts to raid the high seas.
Purdue knew what it was like to have such a vast collection—and he knew how it felt to lose it.
Admiral Ogden was lucky to not live to see his prizes stolen from him, and all of his efforts gone to waste. He wasn't going to have to experience that loss like Purdue had. Even though they were being taken, Ogden's cherished possessions weren't going to go to waste. Despite being long dead, Admiral Ogden and his treasure would help Purdue bring down one of the greatest dangers to the world.
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 9 Page 33