Chapter 10: Body Politic

"Wait! There's more!" Came the voice from above from the crow's nest in the gloam of the dawning early daylight. "With British navy flags! Three warships coming in the distance at the bow! Lord Beckett's new flagship, the HMS Amaranthine. They have just signaled us to attack as they will assist once they get here!"

"Well, ye prating pantaloons. There's no reason to fret, from either side." Having assessed the situation, Jack looked down on and addressed his awkwardly dressed crew, using the momentary silence while the Spanish were still waiting, "scallywags, lads, this will be the day you'll always remember as the one you ended up with a British war hero medal under Captain Jack Sparrow's command. It's easily possible, ye see. All ye have to do is try to look as if ye were following their orders, get the hell out of dodge and get yourself fished out by one of those in the front. Just don't forget to tell them that yer clothes got ruined by the fight. A good target right next to us, prepare to fire! Hold it till my mark! Now signal the Trinidad for permission to board," then without an explanation as to what he was doing or waiting for that very permission, he swung himself over the railing to the imposing Spanish galleon. He landed right in front of the quite young looking admiral for his position.

That was the most Gibbs could see, and that was just because he was the closest. Hardly a minute passed before Jack reappeared and only his first mate could tell by the slight pale undertone cutting across his face for a moment that the situation he came back from wasn't without serious danger. But as if nothing had happened, Jack turned on his heel and dashed down the stairs to the main deck so everybody could hear his orders, "fire!"

Unable to suppress his pent up curiosity, Gibbs ran after him and shouted in his ears, panting at his side among the roaring sound of cannon fire, "what are we doing and what were ye doing?" Then waiting for him to speak, he had to quickly dodge round Jack as a volley of a cannon ball barely missed him when the Trinidad returned fire. He just about remembered to pull Jack down with him too at the last minute and they dived belly down onto the deck at their feet. But he eased his head up a little to look into Jack's eyes and urge him to respond.

"The treasure of Llangantis," was the only thing Jack said before shoving a little map case in his hand that he took out from one of his many coat pockets. "Bring her about!" Jack left him to shout further orders at his panicking crew. Pointing at different directions, he managed to make the pirates position the ship in a way their cannons could do the most damage to their enemies.

Gibbs stared at the object serving as clue in his hand, trying to make sense of the method in his captain's madness. Sailing even closer to the enemy was suicide, especially that two of the smaller warships moved as well, ready to cover and protect the Trinidad. Shells impacted solidly all around as he opened the case that had the East India Trading company's three way emblem on it, along with Cutler Beckett's initials in the corner. Jack must've nicked it off him somewhere along the line of their last personal encounter. But it was the contents that was of most interest to him. First, a coin rolled out. A British guinea from 1703, bearing the word Vigo, commemorative of the battle by the coast of Spain where the British attacked and destroyed the 1702 Spanish treasure fleet. The money was said to have been spewed out from the gold that the British didn't manage to take. Next to it, there was a set of tied together wooden sticks, looking like the corner of some old cartographic chart, at the bottom, the name who the map once belonged to, General Ruminahui of the Inca.

Gibbs gulped, momentarily forgetting the loudly ringing cannons tearing the wooden hull up like paper. The huge sum of worked gold and other treasures took shape in front of his mental eyes, supposedly hidden deep within the Llangantis mountains. He knew the story of Atahualpa well, who Pizarro had killed despite the 750 tons of gold that his general brought as ransom. Ruminahui then buried the treasure, never to tell anyone where. Or by the existence of the map, not quite. So that was what Jack had shown to the admiral. The Spanish have always regarded the money as theirs through Pizarro, especially after the treasure fleet has allegedly found the location and brought back some of it that disastrous year. Unfortunately, with the ships sunk, the maps were lost too. Unless, the British seized it and was now in the possession of the East India. Gibbs looked up at the burning main mast and went to find Jack once more. It still didn't make sense. If Jack offered to help the Spanish get their treasure, why were they firing at each other?

A crazy and unrealistic cheer went up all along their own lines by a feverish crew influenced by Jack's enthusiasm for the impossible as one of the sloop of wars that protected the Santisima Trinidad from their cannons exploded in a great ball of fire. Great, Gibbs mused, rolling his eyes, only five more to go, if they didn't count the approaching British vessels. With a big gaping hole where their own forecastle used to be, there wasn't much worth celebrating. "Captain?" He questioned.

"I made a deal with Admiral Legazpi. He might hit anything, but me, so keep close."

"An accord worth sacrificing some of his ships for?" Gibbs watched the black hulk of the sinking Spanish ship lurch up once more before crashing down into the waves.

"Absolutely. He'd give a lot more than that to..." Jack pulled his neck in as he was abruptly silenced by the renewed fusillade of cannon balls, aided with musket fire, wreaking havoc aboard. "Fire once more and then abandon ship!" Jack gave in to sense, half choking on the acrid smoke. They were noticeably sinking after all.

They fired blindly and the sound of the explosions resonated further away than expected. Gibbs looked back while taking the rope ladder into the longboat. Their cannon balls had no effect at first sight. At sea, cannon fire can pass through a ship, not making much damage on it, nothing you couldn't patch up with a few hours of work. Unless it was below the water line and made her fill up with water. Something that was hard to achieve, since your guns were higher up and even if not, the water posed such resistance the cannon balls didn't cause much damage. Not this time though. With their HMS Brio barely floating above the waterline, the angle of their projectiles was vastly different from the usual. The cannon balls flew through the remaining sloop protecting the Trinidad and reached the water right where the famous warship touched the water. With the chaos that broke out on the world's biggest warship as a result, they were either sinking, pulverized or at least severely disabled. Gibbs knew well that size and armory was Trinidad's greatest vulnerability as well as its strength. Once damaged at the bottom, it was much less likely that the floating material their ship was mainly made of will actually keep them afloat.

"Are you sure the accord is still worth their while?" Gibbs pointed towards the Spanish frantically working their pumps to slow down the process of the Trinidad being submerged in water.

"Toss oars, let fall, pull larboard only!" Jack gave his orders, which meant they were turning towards the HMS Amaranthine, "pick up the stroke!" And were heading towards her as well. "The admiral will be waiting out, Josh. Cause where a goat can't go, a pirate can go and where a pirate will go, there's treasure."

"You promised to get the other bit of the map from Beckett," Gibbs concluded.

"We're war heroes. Cutler'll trust me and treat me as such. He won't recognize me cause he'd not expect me to get rid of my dreadlocks and assets for any cost. Besides, I'm used to impersonating any person, people of any profession. Give me your wig."

"I need it," opposed Gibbs. Jack might be confident about his chameleon skills, but the older man certainly wasn't up for hanging of any sort.

"You're not coming," Jack declared, "if he sees us, he'll put two and two together. What I need is your dear daughter."

"She was going to the other longboat," Gibbs looked around to locate her.

"They didn't make it, Sir," Sebastian, one of the men working the oars next to him supplied, "must've went down with the ship."

tbc