Chapter 14

The main room of the governor's mansion was carefully organized and decorated, giving a great aura of warmth to the place and it was only about half an hour before the main guest, captain Coleman, and the others appeared.

Although Jack and James didn't exactly belong in the room, they had been quite welcome by some, in particular by two lieutenants (whom Jack found out were called Gillette and Groves; the first one he recognized a bit) who had been friends with James and were glad to see him alive, despite the number of questions they had. And even if those questions seemed to bother James a bit, he answered them politely and told almost everyone who had asked the same version. Somehow, they reached an interesting topic that caught Jack's attention, who had been talking to anyone who had dared to have a conversation with him (which hadn't been many).

"You can't believe how happy we are that you're alive, James." Groves was discussing "The commodore is, well… It could be better, I assure you, and it'll be better not to talk about admiral Holland."

James seemed to bite his lip a bit, doubting that things were that way, but Gillette seemed to verify it with a nod and a grimace.

"It can't be said that the commodore has a lot of friends and as for the admiral, you already know him from our time as midshipmen in England, but he seems to have gotten worse with the years."

"I didn't imagine the Navy talking bad about their own." Jack interrupted, smirking a bit "What have they done to win that opinion?"

James sighed a bit, shrugging "... Admiral Holland is the fourth son of a very important lord and, as such, he has always been somewhat selfish and tended to be overly ambitious, to the point where there were several scandals about his promotions being not exactly legal."

"Except that there never was enough evidence of it." Gillette almost spit, disgusted "But, James and I coincided with him in a ship… He didn't mind stepping on anyone, as long as he could get a promotion."

Groves nodded at that, apprehensive "What's worse, for a time he worked for Beckett and evidently agreed in a lot things with him."

Jack grimaced at hearing the other's name, almost snorting "That man lurks even when he's already dead…" he shivered a bit "What does the governor think of the admiral?"

At that, James was the first to answer "For what it looks like, he trusts him and, despite his personality and all, he used to work well."

"What about the commodore, then?" Jack asked "I didn't know that being nice was a requirement."

Groves shook his head "It isn't but… He hardly ever uses his ships and only when it is supposed to be convenient." he shrugged "Although this place is rarely attacked, we have had a few small pirate ships these last few months and, despite the fleet we have, he doesn't go after them or do much justice around here. That's why he's not exactly popular in our circle. However, the governor says the commodore is trying to avoid war with other countries."

Jack seemed to nod about that and think on something "Tell me, according to all of you… Who would have enough access to insure a pirate ship to navigate freely in one of the best-guarded ports?"

"Not counting the governor and his secretary?" James asked "I guess that both the admiral and the commodore… Maybe some captains, but I doubt it."

Gillette shook his head "Captains might be able to enter in the office, but I don't know how good they would have to be to insure a ship…"

Jack ran his fingers over his chin "So maybe four persons as suspects…" Gillette and Groves seemed a bit confused, but James shook his head, as if saying that he would explain later "The admiral and commodore are perhaps the most possible suspects, but we shouldn't rule out the others."

"I thought we had decided that the governor wasn't guilty?" James raised an eyebrow.

Jack shrugged a bit "He's the least probable… It doesn't mean that it's impossible."

He winked at that, but was apparently distracted by something and tugged on James's sleeve, drawing his attention and making him raise his eyebrows.

"What is it now?" But he closed his mouth when he saw that Jack was too serious and he followed his gaze. In a corner near the gardens, there was a figure that looked a lot like Vane. James tried not to react and asked "Has he seen us?"

Jack shook his head "We're a bit far from his point of view and I don't think that he's looking for us at all."

They saw him disappear a few seconds later down a corridor and James sprinted into action in a second, deciding to follow him and telling his two friends to stay where they were. Then, he turned to Jack and gestured for him to follow, which this one did cheerfully.

After crossing several corridors, they ended up in front of what appeared to be a tea room and stayed close to the place, although not long enough for anyone to see them. Minutes later, they heard the door opening again and then they decided to approach.

"I hope you've obtained what I sent you to get, Vane." they heard the other man speak.

Neither James nor Jack recognized who was the man. Vane seemed to laugh at that.

"Not really, Liu wants some help in Singapore in return."

"You said he owed you." the other replied.

"And so he does, but according to him, giving the Philosopher's Stone is something bigger than what he owes me and since I have no idea where he has hidden the damn thing…" Vane seemed to shrug, though it was impossible to see if he had done so.

The other seemed to huff "I hate wasting my time like this, Vane. Besides, I wonder why Liu would need help in Singapore. I thought no one controlled it already."

"Not officially, but it's said that Sao Feng gave his position to someone before he died... To a certain Elizabeth Swann." Vane replied, obviously angry.

"Ah, yes… That woman." he clicked his tongue "Well, you can go and help him. But bring me that stone. We need someone here that is… more competent for Port Royal, someone who isn't Trelawny… He's a fool just like Swann was."

"Politics were never my thing, buddy." Vane replied "I bring you that and I hope to get my booty with that… Most of all, I want revenge on the new appointed privateer."

The other apparently laughed "If you're talking about Sparrow, you'll have to do your revenge outside of these waters or after this, Vane. I have no idea what the governor is thinking by forgiving him, but it is what it is." they heard him sigh "You do that business, bring me that stone and you will get what you want."

"It'll be my pleasure, partner. We'll see each other there soon."

Hearing them saying their goodbyes, Jack and James escaped to a hiding place just in time, hearing the door opening, and the two disappeared somewhere in the building.

They shared a look.

"How is it that there is always a supernatural element involved?" James looked a bit bothered "And this Liu… It seems like Elizabeth is going to have some problems."

"Lizzie has an entire crew and, apparently, I imagine that part of Singapore, since Liu has been having trouble if he's asking for help." Jack replied and before James spoke, he continued "And… We can't contact with her because we have no idea where she is now or where she'll decide to stay."

"That would mean waiting for her to contact us." James sighed, almost depressed.

"I think we have enough problems trying to figure out with who Vane was talking." Jack grimaced "I'm almost sure that the governor isn't guilty, because he was on the other side speaking with some people, but we still have three persons and I, at least, don't know who the secretary is."

"Me neither, but I doubt that meeting everyone will speed things up." James shrugged at that "I'm almost sure that we'll be entertained for quite a long time."

Unfortunately for both of them, James was right in every way because, although they were able to find out who worked as secretary to the governor, during that entire month and part of the next there were several attacks by pirate ships, mostly Spanish and French, who had thrown Port Royal into a chaos.

Although the Commodore appeared to be against taking out the warships, he couldn't avoid it for long and the governor had begun to grow impatient when he finally decided it was time for an answer.

During that time, they had hardly had the time to investigate except for a few, but the information hadn't been enough and the only thing they had discovered was that the governor was obviously innocent in that little deal with Vane.

Luckily, even though they had no new leads (not counting Vane's conversation with someone at that party and not counting the letter they had found on his ship, which they had already shown) and no more information, the governor had been very understanding with them and allowed them to continue their respective jobs: Jack on his ship as captain and James as lieutenant for the time being, which he quite disliked. Still, they both had a good job: Jack had missed the perks of doing legal business, though not all of it, and the Caribbean thrived on it, while James had missed the fighting and the camaraderie.

Of course, good things weren't born to last: Almost two months later, the Commodore and the Admiral returned in their respective ships and, in both cases, they had succeeded in finding some of the pirate ships that had attacked Port Royal... But they had been unable to bring in any of the pirates alive.

James had been almost fuming knowing that no one could be questioned on how they had discovered the weaknesses of one of the forts that had been destroyed and had shared with his friends and Jack that not bringing in the pirates had been done on purpose; the others agreed, but without proof, as Groves had stated, there was nothing they could do.

That same month, Jack had to take his ship to the Cayman Islands to collect part of some items that had arrived from India (theoretically linen and silk), as it was apparently a gift from the governor there to governor Trelawny.

Before leaving, he had confided to James that he would pass through Tortuga on the way out before heading to his destination. James had frowned a little, worried, but he had nodded anyway, for it was the only way to know if Elizabeth had written to them.

For James, the two weeks that passed in Port Royal, with the Admiral and Commodore gone and with nothing to do except his work, were mostly boring and he only grew more nervous as the days went by. When the Storm was finally seen entering the docks in the late afternoon of the second week, James went to the spot just when the ship was being secured.

Once that was done, Jack was the first to got down the plank, followed by another figure that James recognized as the girl he had met in Tortuga. He looked at Jack, wide-eyed, and this one seemed to smile a little, though it didn't reach his eyes.

"How are you, lieutenant?" he greeted and while James disliked that he was so demoted, he knew he somewhat deserved it.

"Good afternoon, captain." He was able to pronounce and looked briefly at the girl; Miriam, if he remembered well "Would you mind explaining that?"

While they had stood still, the crew had taken that time to lower the cargo that had been entrusted to them on one side for when the governor decided to appear.

"If we're talking about the girl, she insisted." Jack shrugged and the other raised an eyebrow, not really believing him much and Jack sighed "Well, I wasn't going to leave her alone without…"

James frowned but suddenly realized what he was saying and, at that moment, he looked further at the girl who he did notice had obviously been crying at some point, and was holding onto the doll that Jack had given her in one hand and in the other she was holding a locket. He opened his mouth, but closed it again.

"What happened?" he managed in the end.

That time, Jack's eyes lit up dangerously and his right hand gripped the sword for a second.

"Damn Vane happened." he spitted "We weren't the only ones that got him that night. Apparently, Lizzie and her crew won some of his booty in a game and he returned for revenge because rumors told him that she hadn't left the island. Which, obviously, she had done and since she wasn't there, he began to raze everything and killed some people before leaving. So nice, isn't he?"

"Are you-? Nice? You can't-" James tried to talk but only managed to be stunned and sighed.

"Come on, not here. Besides, I have to show you something too." he said.