"Did you kill Captain Kidd or capture him?"
"Sadly he was not in the harbor when we arrived. In that part of my mission I failed."
"This is incredible! Do you realize that for the past three hundred years people have been searching all over the world for Captain Kidd's treasure. There are hundreds of legends about him burying it in different places, and people have literally dedicated their lives to finding it. At some point in history his treasure simply disappeared, and everyone has always assumed he buried it! And all that time, you have had it?"
Robert nodded and smiled.
"It is typical of the man that he pretended to have buried it. Ha! Rather than admit that it was stolen from him, he 'buried it'!" Robert laughed loudly to himself.
"...Unfortunately though, Robert, that means that history does not know that you succeeded in your mission to track him down and capture the treasure."
"Which is true. After loading his treasure aboard the Sea Dancer, we sailed into a storm, and then when we came out of the storm, we were in the year 2014! If I had stayed in the year 1699, I would have returned the agreed share of the booty back to London and the King. But I never got the chance."
"...And because you failed to return, those friends of yours in London no doubt then assumed you had become a pirate just like Kidd!"
"Unfortunately, yes. That may be true."
A shadow crossed the Captain's eyes, and for a moment his thoughts wandered elsewhere.
Sally left it a few minutes before continuing.
"So, what now? Are you going to report back to the Queen in England? Tell her of your mission and that it was a success after all?"
"I think not. The world has changed. And I have changed. Furthermore, no one from England came to our aid during the trials. They have forgotten me, and that is perhaps best. The East India Company that funded my mission is no longer in existence, and the Lords and Whiggs who set my orders are all dead. There is no one alive that I can report to, no one who knows anything about my mission, and no one to whom I owe a penny. And perhaps it is best to let the past sleep. To forget what went before, and to start again. Afresh."
"Maybe you should write your life story and get Hollywood to make a film about you: Captain Rob McGregor, the world's first Secret Agent. Stand aside '007', here comes 'A4' , the agent with a license to rape, pillage and plunder!"
"That is not funny, Sally. I have never committed rape. I have pillaged and plundered a plenty, but never raped!"
Sally looked into his eyes and saw that Robert was genuinely taken aback by the remark that she had made.
Slowly, she reached out her hand, and gently touched his arm.
"I apologize, Robert, I did not mean that you had. It is just an expression that everyone uses when talking about pirates! It is what they do..."
"I am not a pirate! I am a privateer! Have you not listened to a word I have said?"
There were tears lurking on the edges of Robert's eyes, and his face had suddenly become red with emotion.
Sally's heart went out to him. She could only imagine the frustration and confusion that he must be feeling. In this world he had no identity or purpose, and there she was, belittling the only identity he had.
"Please, forgive me, Robert. I meant no offence. I have listened to you, and I will never make the mistake again."
Robert smiled.
"No, it is I who should apologize to you. I am sorry." He said, and with that he reached out his hand and laid it gently on Sally's. She turned her hand over in the sand where it lay, and closed it around his.
They sat like that for a while, looking over at the sun which was at that moment just beginning to disappear beneath the horizon. They watched it vanish together.
"So," Sally said, as the sky began to turn orange above the horizon. "Back in D.C. you made me a promise. We're here, on the beach, the sun is setting, and there is expensive wine in our glasses. Are you going to tell me what your plans for the future are now, or not?"
The Captain smiled.
"Do you really want to hear them?" he asked.
"Of course I do."
"Well, then I shall tell you. I want to offer you employment."
"You want to offer me a job?"
"Yes. I am starting my own company. And I need to hire a manager of people, and someone wise who understands the ways of this world, and who can help me learn them."
"You want to employ me?"
"I have already said so."
"What will your company do?"
"Aha...this is where it becomes interesting. When my men and I were arrested we were first incarcerated in the klink, a place no man should ever have to visit. But then, once we appointed men of the courts to represent us and fight for our cause, they were able to arrange a more suitable accommodation for us during our imprisonment." Captain Rob laughed. "In fact, I believe it could be best described as a 'holiday resort' much like yours. There was much to entertain us, and many ways by which we could pass the days learning new skills instead of just lying on the beach, which was also very pleasant."
"Lying on the beach?"
"Yes. And they called it a 'prison'! It seems that in this new world, the word 'prison' does not mean the same as it did in England in 1699, that much is for sure. Anyway, you distract me. I wanted to tell you that one day, whilst my crew and I were relaxing on the beach, and contemplating the error of our ways, full of regret for the terrible, sinful lives that we had been living...," Robert winked and smiled, "…we saw some of our fellow inmates walking out of the sea with contraptions on their back that had allowed them to breath under the water and swim with the fishes! It was incredible. All my life I have wanted to visit the world beneath the sea, and to view the world that exists beneath the waves...and now...suddenly, the world had presented me with the means by which it could be done!"
Robert bent forward, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a wallet from which he extracted a small, plastic card and handed it over to Sally.
She took it and smiled.
"A PADI card? You did a scuba-diving course and became a PADI 'Master Scuba Diver'? "
"Yes, and not only I. We all did. My entire crew."
"You all learned to scuba dive?"
"Yes. Sally, I just told you that we did...sometimes I wonder if you can hear me well?"
"Robert , honestly, ...I...never mind...Tell me about your diving course?"
"There is not much more to tell, except that we all learned how to dive. We learned everything we could about it. Everything."
"Wow!"
"And it was the best thing that I could ever have done. Prison, Sally, has reformed me. It inspired me. It has shown me the error of my ways. Never again shall I return to the bad, sinful, ways of the pirate life. Oh no..." He laughed. "Instead, I shall become a bastion of society and form a new company. We will work hard, and within a year we will be richer than any man you care to name in America. This much I can promise you!"
"How? Are you serious now, or joking again?"
"I am serious, Sally. I have never been more serious. For the past few weeks I have been speaking at great length with legal minds from this world who are conversant on issues that I am interested in, and I have become very wise about aspects of the law that will affect me and my men in our new company. And now we know the law, and have lawyers to protect our interests, we have formed our own new company. Twenty of my men and myself have banded together to form a partnership. Sally, I am proud to announce that you are looking at the new managing director of '21st Century Pirates Incorporated'."
Sally clapped her hands together and laughed.
"Wow! It's a fantastic name! Brilliant! ...But what will you do?"
"Can you remember the story I told you about Captain Kidd, and the treasure that he had amassed?"
"Yes. I was listening, Robert. You loaded it all into the Sea Dancer, you entered a storm and next thing you ended up here."
"Yes."
"But then
the Government confiscated all the treasure, and you lost everything!"
"Yes...and no, Sally. But more 'no' than 'yes'. We did not lose everything."
"What do you mean?"
"First, of all, perhaps I should tell you what the lawyers told me. According to the law passed by the Supreme Court, any item of value which is carried by a time traveler from one time to another is subject to immediate confiscation by the American Government. In other words, a time traveler cannot carry treasure with him, or he will lose it all. Which is why we lost all the treasure that was hidden aboard the Sea Dancer! We lost it because we brought it with us!"
"I know that, Robert, I was listening to the Judge with you when the sentence was passed!"
"But what would happen to treasure that we did not bring with us?"
"I don't understand... what are you getting at..."
"Have you ever been to Key West in Florida?"
"Yes..."
"So have I. Last week I was taken there by one of my new lawyer friends. We went to visit the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. It is very interesting. It would seem that Mr Fisher went fishing one day and fished a veritable fortune in treasure out of the sea. He discovered the wrecks of two Spanish Galleons, the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita. The two ships were Spanish galleons that sank during a big storm called a hurricane on September 6, 1622, near Key West in Florida. When the Galleons sank they were full of treasure. After Mel Fisher found them, he and a team of men wearing scuba-diving equipment swam down to the ships, took the treasure out of the ship's holds, and brought it back to the surface of the sea. Once they had loaded the treasure onto their own vessels and carried it back into the American ports, they were allowed to keep it...or at least, most of it!"
Sally's eyes began to sparkle like diamonds. Her hand tightened its grip on Roberts.
"You see Sally, what I find interesting is that the law says that I cannot carry treasure from the past to the future above the surface of the sea, but if I were to find treasure buried beneath the sea, then I would be allowed to keep it!" Robert paused.
"Sally, do you know how much the latest valuation is that has been given to the treasure we had aboard the Sea Dancer?"
"No...I have not heard."
"Well I have. My lawyer was able to tell me that the estimated value of our treasure on the Sea Dancer is almost one billion dollars. My lawyer explained to me what a billion is. I did not believe him. He explained it to me again. And now I do believe him. It is a lot, Sally. A lot."
"Don't dwell on it Robert. The courts gave you $3m each. That's a fortune too."
"Not enough. I have already spent it."
"On what?"
"A ship. All the pirates and I pooled our money together and have put it into our new company. We have bought stock in our own futures."
"Why? You each had three million dollars? You could retire on that!"
"Sally. It is not just the money. It is the adventure! For most of our lives, myself and the pirates under my command have been sailing the high seas searching for treasure. It's in our blood!"
"You are going back to piracy...you have bought a ship to become a pirate again?" Sally asked, alarmed.
"No. I have promised that from now on everything I do will be completely, totally legal. On that you have my word. But I will not give up the search for treasure. You see Sally, the value of the treasure on the Sea Dancer was one billion dollars. Perhaps you would be interested to know that when we stole the treasure from Captain Kidd, I was the Captain of four ships: the Sea Dancer, the Eagle, the Royal Thistle and the Albatross. So vast was the treasure that we recovered, that we split it equally between four ships... there were four ships carrying the treasure, not just one!"
Sally's face had begun to lose its color. She had begun to turn a subtle shade of white.
"Four ships Sally, each one carrying treasure with a present day value of one billion dollars. That's one billion dollars per ship!"
"What happened to the other ships, Robert? Where are they now?"
"One of the ships, the Albatross, was sunk by cannon fire from Captain Kidd's men. The other two, the Eagle and Royal Thistle were with us when we entered the storm later that night, but the storm was too great, and I watched both of them sink with my own eyes. They sank, Sally. They sank beneath the waves in a hurricane just like the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita! And do you want to know the best part, Sally. The best part of all?"
"Yes!"
"Then I will tell you, Sally. I will tell you. You see, the best part of all of this is that I know where each one of those ships are. I know their exact locations. And in two days time we will be going to visit the first of them. Your dear friend Uncle Sam can keep all the treasure from the Sea Dancer, and we will not mind. Because over the next year or two, my new company - The Twenty-First Century Pirates Incorporated- are going to pillage the sea bottom for every last gold and silver doubloon that we know is down there. And when we are done with that, when we have raised every gold coin, every gold bar, and every diamond, ruby or sapphire that is down there, all THREE BILLION dollars worth of it...then back in the safe in my wall in my room in the Blue Emerald there is a log-book that I have kept with me during all my years fighting other ships at sea. A log book in which I have recorded the location or every ship that we ever sank. Think about it Sally...this is not just about the money...it's about the adventure: diving on sunken wrecks and recovering lost treasures the world has long, long forgotten about!"
Sally shook her head and laughed, a tear rolling down her cheek from the corner of her eye. She reached across to the Captain, and put her hand gently on his cheek.
"Robert McGregor. In the past year I have never seen you more excited and happy than you are just now. I can see it in your eyes: you have the scent of treasure again, and the sea is calling you. No man will be able to stop you. No man. But before you go, there is one thing I wish to give you, for free, from the bottom of my heart."
And without a further word, she leant across to the Captain of the Sea Dancer and kissed him.
And then she kissed him again.
THE END
HOMEWORK
I hope you enjoyed the story. For those of you who are wondering if any of this is possible, or who are questioning if Time Travel is possible, now is the time for you to do some homework by yourselves.
Go to Google. Search for "Project Rainbow" or what is more commonly known as "The Philadelphia Experiment". Talk to some physicists. Read about the latest experiments that have been conducted in laboratories throughout the world. And then begin to wonder…
.
To sign up for news on NEW BOOKS from Ian C.P. Irvine please
'Join my mailing list by CLICKING HERE.'
A Personal Note from the Author
"Hi,
Thanks for reading this novel. I am really flattered that you chose one of my books to read, from all of the millions of books on Amazon. I hope you enjoyed it. I would love to hear from you if you did! You can contact me on [email protected] .
I am a new author, and some of you may not have heard of me before you purchased this book. If you did enjoy it, may I ask you personally if you would consider writing a review on Amazon, telling others what you thought? Positive reviews can really help new books and new authors succeed and could really help others to decide whether or not to purchase a book. Writing a review is easy. All you have to do is go to the Amazon book page you bought the book from and scroll down to where it says, "Customer Reviews: Write a Customer Review".
.
If you would like to be kept informed of any new books I will be publishing, may I invite you to sign up to my mailing list at CLICK HERE. Details of my other books already available on Amazon can be found below
Good luck with your next choice of book!
Kind regards,
Ian C.P. Irvine."
.
Other Books By Ian C.P. Irvine
.
/>
Please look out for others books by IAN C.P.IRVINE on Amazon and see below:-
Haunted From Within
For some, death is not the end. Thanks to modern medicine, they are given a second chance. A second chance to live, and another chance to kill.
A fast paced contemporary medical thriller, based upon a true medical mystery that scientists and doctors do not yet understand.
Readers should be warned that the novel contains strong language and scenes of sex and violence.
The Story:
When Peter Nicolson, a reporter with the Edinburgh Evening News, is almost killed by a gang leader out to make his mark, the only way to save his life is through a double kidney transplant. One of the first people in the world to be treated with the new genetic wonder drug 'SP-X4', Peter makes a remarkable recovery. Yet as he recovers, his personality begins to change, and he discovers that he can see visions of unsolved killings committed by a murderer that no one has ever caught. Peter sets out to solve the murders, to track down the killer, and find out the truth behind the visions that he sees.
As time progresses, and as Peter uncovers a trail of death that stretches across the United Kingdom and Europe, the makers of 'SP-X4' watch his actions from afar, anxious that he will uncover the incredible truth behind their new drug treatment, and conspiring to make sure he does not succeed in revealing it to the world.
'Haunted From Within' is also the story of seven separate lives: readers will follow each character as the plot develops and their lives intersect, culminating in a surprise ending that few will predict.
Please beware: this book is based on fact: a medical phenomena that few understand and most are unaware of. At first, it may seem hard to believe. This is after all, just a story, a fast-paced thriller written to entertain you . . . but it will leave you wondering and talking about the definition of 'life' itself. Enjoy!
TIME SHIP (Book Two) - A Time Travel Romantic Adventure Page 26