Chapter 6: Turnabout
A loud knock on the ready-room door interrupted the two captains. Ruiz sprung to his feet as his chair toppled to the floor behind him. Before either man made a move, one of Ruiz' crewmen, a stodgy little man with sparse teeth, came through the door and said something urgent-sounding in Spanish.
"Excuse me, Captain Sparrow," said Ruiz. "Vasco here needs to have a quick word with his captain."
"By all means," replied Jack, with a swooping gesture toward the door.
El Cruce followed his colleague outside to the captain's deck, shutting the door behind them. Jack put his ear to the door but could not hear much. Anything he did hear was in Spanish, he realized, as he wrinkled up his face in disappointment.
Eliza, however, was in perfect position to hear everything the two men said, having snuck out of the scullery and scrunched down beside the captain's platform. This she had done on Gibbs' mark, and had recently finished administering poison to the glasses on Cotton's tray. She quickly realized that plans weren't unfolding as expected.
"Poisoned them, I think," said Vasco. "They were too drunk to suspect anything, the idiots. Free rum and they all turn into simpering dogs."
"So that was their plan," answered Ruiz, whispering angrily. "No matter. I will explain to Sparrow that a few of our men have taken ill, and that you need to sail back to the boat and fetch the ship's doctor. You take the boat back, keep just enough men there to fire the cannons with, and bring back everyone else. Then we take the Pearl, kill Sparrow and the crew. They will be purified for their deadly sins of untruthfulness and pride."
"Yes, captain."
"On my mark, Vasco. Thank you, my old friend."
Ruiz inhaled deeply, obviously needing to control his anger in order to trick Sparrow. Just as he opened the door, Jack jumped out of the way and struck a pose to make it look like he hadn't just been listening at the door. Ruiz took a powerful stance, with Vasco looking quite small in the tall captain's shadow.
"Captain Sparrow," began Ruiz. "Several of my men have taken ill. I need to send Vasco back to the El Puro to retrieve our ship's doctor…"
Before Jack Sparrow could answer, Eliza came bursting through the door. Jack's eyes widened in disbelief. What on earth was the girl doing? Eliza threw herself on her knees and sobbed into the bottom of Ruiz' jacket. She spoke in garbled Spanish all the while. Ruiz heard what Eliza was saying, and immediately flew into a rage. He picked up Jack Sparrow by the neck, in one hand, and threw him out the door, and down the steps of the deck. Jack hit his head on the ship's wheel and was immediately knocked unconscious.
"Vasco," ordered El Cruce, "take this woman and her maid with you to the El Puro. Sparrow captured them in San Miguel, and has been mistreating them both. They have asked me for sanctuary." Ruiz cupped Eliza's chin with a large, thick hand, drawing her to her feet. "And one so beautiful, she shall have her sanctuary, yes…she certainly will." Ruiz emitted a laugh so sinister that Eliza felt it in the pit of her stomach. What on earth was she doing?
"Oh, and Vasco…"
"Yes, captain?"
"Nobody touches the girl. She belongs to me now." Ruiz smiled an evil, crooked grin at Eliza as Vasco led her away, down the stairs past an unconscious Jack Sparrow.
Eliza and Annamaria sat huddled together in the dinghy that was now being paddled by Vasco, across to the El Puro.
"You told them I was your servant?" asked Annamaraia in a low, angry voice.
"I'm sorry, I needed your help and I couldn't think of any other way to make sure they'd bring you over with me!"
"Hopefully you haven't just gotten us both killed…"
"The way I see it, if we don't get out of this somehow, we could very well be dead anyway. And they were about to set an ambush…I heard them!" whispered Eliza.
When the smaller boat reached the El Puro, the remaining crewmembers helped Vasco tie in the boat, and get everyone on deck. The El Puro pirates grunted in delight to see two attractive women coming on board.
"These women are guests of El Cruce," announced Vasco. "Anyone who touches them will have to answer to him." A dull muttering erupted as Vasco turned to the two women. "Follow me. You will be staying in El Cruce's chambers under lock and key. Now, if you will excuse me, I must assemble and meet with the crew."
The women followed as closely as possible to avoid the catcalls and the wandering hands of the crewmen in their midst. When they had been locked in the captain's stateroom, Annamaria flung herself onto the bed.
"Get up! We have lots to do!" yelled Eliza.
"Yes, I imagine we do, miss, bein' all locked in here and such," snapped Annamaria.
"Annamaria," began Eliza. "I'm sorry you didn't like me telling them you are my maid. But now we're over here and we have to stop these pirates or they'll kill Jack and everyone on the Black Pearl. For once I refuse to be a good girl and stay hidden in my room!"
"So how dya 'spose we do that, then?"
"Well…do you remember how I told you the Esperanza was a Spanish galleon?"
"Yes," said Annamaria, unimpressed.
"This one is almost the same. In fact, I'd bet my boots it was the same shipwright who made both ships. I grew up on the Esperanza…I knew every nook and cranny on her, and knew how to get around undetected, to play jokes and spy and such."
Annamaria's eyes flashed. Eliza went over to the bed, told her friend to get up, and pulled off the sheets. She began ripping the sheets. "We're making a rope," she explained. The gun deck is right below us. If we can climb down there while Vasco is meeting with all the rest, we can somehow disable the guns."
The two women made a rope from the bedsheets, tied one end to the thickest part of an ornate bedpost, and flung their homemade rope out the window. Eliza looked down, verifying with a smile that one of the cannons was indeed poking out a window directly below her. She hoisted herself out the window, hanging onto the knotted sheets for dear life, and quietly climbed her way down. Annamaria looked after her out the window with fascination, for she had completely underestimated this castaway.
Eliza's feet touched the cannon, and she swung to touch the windowsill with one hand as she still held the rope with her other. Once she had braced herself safely, she let go the rope and pulled herself onto the gun deck. She looked around, saw that there were no pirates around, and motioned for Annamaria to follow her.
Once both women were safely in the gun room, they searched anxiously for a way to disable the guns. Seeing none, and realizing their time was finite, Eliza hoisted a cannonball up to the window and dropped it into the water below, where it landed with a muted plop.
Annamaria looked at Eliza as though the girl had lost her mind. "They can't shoot the Pearl if they have no cannonballs!" cried Eliza. The two women went from cannon to cannon, tossing the cannonballs into the sea. The muscles in Eliza's arms were hot with pain, but she wouldn't have stopped for the world because it meant life or death for Jack Sparrow.
The women heard activity aboard deck, but still had ten or so cannonballs to dispose of. "Eliza! They're coming back! We have to climb back up!" said Annamaria.
"But there are…some left…they can still shoot…" gasped Eliza as she heaved another cannonball out the window.
"We've got to go…now, or we'll be dead! Move it, miss!" Annamaria grabbed Eliza by the arm and dragged her back to the window where the rope was swaying just outside. Eliza heard the beginnings of footsteps on the stairs, and with one look back toward the lone stack of cannonballs still on the gun deck, grabbed her bedsheet rope and began her ascent.
The women had cleverly walked with their feet up the side of the ship while holding the rope, so were able to get back quickly into El Cruce's quarters and stow the rope just as the ten pirates on the gun deck below noticed an unexplainable lack of cannonballs. Eliza and Annamaria both sacked out on the large bed, grimy and sore and breathing very heavily.
"You know," said Annamaria, "this ship has only fifteen cannons, and ten cannonballs left. The chance that a few in ten cannonballs will hit the Pearl in the right spots…that's a big enough chance you've given our Jack. He knows a few tricks too, you know," she winked wearily.
"Oh, Annamaria…I hope so! If anything happens to him…"
"Relax," she said. "I'm sure Jack can take care of himself. He's certainly good at that."
El Cruce was admiring the craftsmanship of the Black Pearl. This was a sensational ship, and now it was going to be his. He smiled at the thought, moving his hands slowly across the captain's wheel, getting used to its feel. Things were going beautifully, he mused. He looked down at the unconscious Jack Sparrow, and kicked him in the gut just to hear the low moan that escaped. He could easily kill Sparrow right now, but decided it would be best to nail him to the mast of the El Puro before he sailed away with the Black Pearl. He had an image to maintain, after all, and abandoning a fellow pirate in this manner would certainly get people's attention.
Ruiz squinted toward the night horizon and saw the three boats on their way from his ship, carrying something much different than a ship's doctor. Taking over the Pearl would be very easy, he surmised. There were twenty hands on deck here, at most, and even if the poisoned crewmembers stopped getting sick and dying off, the reinforcements would be ready to fight. Once he secured the Pearl, he would bring her around aside the El Puro, transfer its loot to the Pearl, and then purify Sparrow on the empty ship.
Sparrow, he remembered…best the nincompoop not wake up during the fight. Ruiz definitely wanted to wait on the killing, but thought he'd make sure Sparrow was out of the way during the upcoming fight. He picked up Jack's limp body in his stumplike arms and carried him down to deck level. Cotton passed by, looking inquisitive. "Drunk," laughed Ruiz. When Cotton gave a knowing nod and walked back toward the far end of the deck, Ruiz turned and threw Jack down into the scullery, pulling the ladder up onto the deck in one strong heave and throwing it quickly overboard. "Adios," he said, tipping his hat tauntingly toward the unconscious pirate. There, thought Ruiz. That will fix the scoundrel while I finish taking over his ship.
As the three boats approached the Black Pearl, it quickly became evident to Gibbs that Ruiz had tricked Jack. Eighteen of the men from the El Puro were now sick or even dead from the poison, but instead of the ship's doctor, there were three boatloads of armed pirates, a little over twenty of them by the look of it. We're a little more evenly matched at least, thought Gibbs, unless those cannons start firing on us. He took one big swig from his flask and prepared himself for the inevitable. As Gibbs yelled to the crew of the Black Pearl to fight, Ruiz shouted commands to the arriving henchmen, and with swords drawn on both sides, the fight was on.
On the floor of the scullery, Jack's head spun and throbbed as he woke up. He didn't know quite how he'd gotten there, but he heard the unmistakable sounds of swordfighting on deck. Noticing that the ladder was nowhere in sight, he tried a few times to jump high enough to see what was going on, but to no avail. He had to get out there, to help his crew and to save the Black Pearl…but how? He looked around frantically. Suddenly, Sparrow got an idea. He went over to the long kitchen table, moved it over to the open doorway above him, and created an inclined plank by balancing the ends of the table against the rim of the door and the floor underneath. Then he ran to the fireplace, removed a poker from the fire, and ran toward the back room.
Jack didn't like to hurt the cow, but it was the only way to get her moving. Surely, having an angry cow running about the deck would create just enough confusion for Jack to regain his advantage. Jack decided to think of this as payback for all the times the cow had ever been seasick. "Move!" he yelled, as the poker sank into the cow's flesh with a sickening hiss. The cow shrieked in agony and began to chase Jack toward the front of the scullery, and continued straight up on deck.
The cow provided just enough of a distraction for several of the Black Pearl crewmembers to slay their opponents. Gibbs was bleeding from his left side and Bandy Jim had had a hand cut off. Two other crewmembers lay dead on different areas of the deck, which was smeared with blood. There were fights going on all around Jack Sparrow, and now there was a pissed-off cow running around on board, too. Jack looked about to find Ruiz, and spotted the man behind the ship's wheel, looking very pleased with himself. Jack drew his sword and marched up the stairs to El Cruce.
"Get your bloody hands off my wheel, Ruiz," he warned.
"It's my wheel now, Sparrow," sneered El Cruce. "You should have taken my generous offer when you had the chance!" Ruiz drew his own sword, and the two began to fight, hopping and dashing up, down, and around the captain's deck.
As the fight dragged on, dawn was approaching. Once the gunmen on the El Puro could see the Black Pearl in the early morning light, they realized the time was ripe to deploy what cannons they had. "Fire!" yelled the gun captain, as the pirates fired all ten remaining cannonballs toward the Black Pearl.
Eliza and Annamaria were jolted awake by the fire of the cannons. "No!" screamed Eliza. "NO!" The girl burst into tears and buried herself into Annamaria's chest. It hadn't worked. Eliza would never see Jack Sparrow again.