The Lost Ingots of Tagus
by Aldesina
Chapter 8: Flesh dealers of the Past
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Disclaimer.....As you are probably all very well aware, I do not own anything, if I did I would be rolling in it, since I am not, and I do NOT own the story I am poor, and can only write fanfiction about it. Ah sigh, oh well, on with the story
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Dragoness
"Gentlemen!" Diablo called over the commotion of men scurrying about to get their work done. They all looked up. Why the hell was she addressing them as gentlemen?
"Must be a new way to unnerve us" Smith said.
"If she can unnerve us just with that imagine what will happen when she meets that lobster back." Rubens chuckled.
"I can imagine exactly what will happen when I meet that lobster back." Diablo said, standing right behind Smith and Rubens. They both turned around with the most innocent looks on their faces.
"And for the record darling" Diablo said gentling running her finger down Smith's cheek and up Ruben's. "His coat is a lovely shade of blue, just like your faces will be if you don't shut up."
"Madam yes Madam!" They both said in mock British accents and salutes, which was quite funny considering that they were both Irish.
"Don't you go yes Madaming at that woman, the last thing she needs is an even bigger head on her shoulders." Bootstrap Bill came out of the cabin with Will and Elizabeth behind him. The whole crew on deck turned and looked at them. They hadn't seen the captain for about two days. All he did was stay in his cabin and talk to his son.
"Gents" Bootstrap said making his way over to the helm, Will and Elizabeth close behind. "This is my son and his lovely, lovely wife Elizabeth."
"So everything is ok between the two of you?" A pirate from Bootstrap's left called
"Everything is worked out just fine."
"And they ain't too pissy about their wedding being crashed an all?" another pirate asked.
Bootstrap considered this, then turned to look at his son
"You pissy about that son?"
"Er….."
"We don't mind at all." Elizabeth cut in, always being the diplomatic one. "I'm sure my father would just jump at the chance of planning a second even bigger wedding."
"And I'm sure that father here" Will added in patting Bootstrap's shoulder "would be more then happy to help furnish the second one." Bootstrap looked at his son.
"You two planning to send me the wedding bill aren't you?"
"Yes."
Bootstrap threw his hands up
"Fine, but I'm only paying 20%."
"50%" Will said
"25%"
"50%"
"35%"
"50%" Will said "It's only fair cause you ruined the first one."
"Yeah dad" Elizabeth said. "You ruined my perfect and once in a lifetime day" The crew chuckled
"But you found a father in law!" Bootstrap proclaimed.
"I don't think they're all in a huff because of the wedding day, it's the wedding night that they really miss." Diablo added in lazily raising the telescope to her eye again sighting over the water and horizons. It was just about 5 o'clock by her calculations. The crew laughed heartedly, a couple of them made their way over to clap Will on the shoulders as if commiserating and Bootstrap nodded.
"So that's why they were so grumpy!"
Will and Elizabeth turned bright red.
"Aww the poor lad must be itching to get his hands on some of that!" Rubens exclaimed slapping his knee.
"Methinks the bride is itching to get pawed too dontcha think eh eh." Marlow said elbowing Rubens. Smith whistled.
"Let's see yer give the little lady a kiss!"
"Let's say you scoundrels listen to what I have to say and quite screwing around with my son" Bootstrap shut them up. Then he winked. "Young Jr. here wants to be screwed by something other then the likes of you!" The whole crew was rolling. Will was trying not to strangle his newly found father and Elizabeth was hiding her face and ears in Will's chest refusing to look up.
"Down to business boys!" Bootstrap suddenly shouted over the hubbub. "Now you all know about the gold right?" He was met with hollers of affirmation.
"And you all know this is the big one right?" Bootstrap looked them all over.
"Now before I had found my son, we all know what was going to happen right?" He was met with more nods and hollers of agreement.
"What?" Will asked his father
"Oh, we were going to kidnap Miss Swann here and hold her for ransom and force Norrington to chase after us." Will suddenly looked very angry at his father.
"You were going to threaten Miss Swann." He accused. His father cocked his head to the side.
"I thought you called her Elizabeth."
"Does it really matter?" Diablo asked from behind the wheel "Get on with the blasted explanation already."
"Well yes, you see son we needed the extra firepower."
"You needed to get attacked?"
"No."
"Then?"
"Then let the bloody man explain Will!" Elizabeth shouted at her fiancé "Honestly sometimes you talk to much." Will cocked his head in a perfect imitation of his father just moments ago.
"Just last week you couldn't get enough of my talking" Elizabeth's eyes widened and she turned scarlet sending the entire crew into hoots and hollers again.
"Anyway" Bootstrap interjected "As you all know, we were going to kidnap my dear daughter in law here, which would have sent the Interceptor and the Dauntless into pursuit and then I would have sent dear Diablo over there" Bootstrap waved at her, and she smirked back at him "I would have sent dear Diablo here, over to negotiate good will, and the borrowing of cannons so to speak." The crew all chuckled at the word borrow "However you must all be wondering what are we going to do now that the girl is my daughter in law and her husband is my son, it's really quite simple, in fact it makes my life easier. Now it'll be much easier to explain to that stick up the ass commodore that we mean dear Miss Swann no harm. Not only that we have an added bonus that I'm sure many of you had seen at Port Royal's harbor." Bootstrap Bill paused here for effect.
"Right now gents, The Black Pearl is also pursuing us. Upon invitation of course, and she along with those lobster backs will help us obtain our goal!"
The crew cheered.
"All right you scumbags quit lollygagging around here, you know what has to be done, and if I even find one thing out of place I'll tan your hides with whips made from your own fucking pelt!" And with that Bootstrap dismissed his crew. He turned over to Diablo
"You all packed and ready?" Diablo peered at him sideways
"You really needed to ask?"
Bootstrap chuckled "They're not gonna know what hit them."
Will and Elizabeth made their way back to the captain's quarters with Bootstrap, leaving Diablo at the helm.
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"What are you going to hit them with?" Will asked his father once they got back into the cabin.
"Diablo" His father answered grinning. Bootstrap Bill walked over to one of the cupboards in his room and pulled out a well worn map of southern Europe.
"Come here Jr. I want to show you what we're looking for." Will cringed at his father's old nickname for him.
"Dad, don't call me Jr."
"Oh why not, that's you're name isn't it?" Bootstrap said. "William Einan Turner Jr." He said while jabbing his finger at Will.
"Why couldn't you just stick to calling me son." Elizabeth giggled. "I think that when we have kids we should name our first son that, then you can taunt him by calling him Jr." Will shuddered, although whether it was the due to the thought of the name or the thought of kids one could not tell. Bootstrap drew their attention over to the map that he had spread out on the table.
"Now here is a lovely little spot called Spain" Bootstrap Bill said pointing low on the map. "And the lovely little spot next to it is called Portugal. Now here" Bootstrap said pointing to a spot marked in red close to the city of Lisbon "Here is a wonderful river known as the Tagus River. Both the Spaniards and the Portuguese use this port to ship things in and out of their countries." Bootstrap chuckled. "Actually this is the one place that the Portuguese have a lock on and it drives the Spaniards crazy because it's such a useful port. However up here." Bootstrap pointed to a place several miles above the opening of the Tagus "Right here, almost parallel to the city of Santarem is a lovely little cove that nobody knows about. It's been sheltered off by rocks and torrid winds and unusually heavy fog. Here my boy, hidden behind all that danger and stone is a fortune beyond belief." Bootstrap's eyes gleamed and he looked up smiling at his son. "It's my retirement fund, and yours if you ever want to give up being a blacksmith early on." Will looked skeptically at his father.
"If no one knows about it then how do you?" Bootstrap looked his son over.
"Do you know anything about pirate stories or what?" Will blinked at him.
"I think you have me mistaken with Elizabeth." Bootstrap shook his head
"My own boy, ignorant of all the best pirate stories and whatnot" He looked up and stared at Elizabeth "Tell me that you know the tale of the Chinese duchess that was sent to marry the Portuguese king." Elizabeth blinked.
"I know that story, but it's extremely vague. Years ago the Portuguese King disguised himself and went to explore the Far East. One day when he was visiting China he happened upon a man being attacked by several bandits. He couldn't let the man fend for himself so he ended up helping him fight off the bandits. The man was pleased and invited the Portuguese King back to his home. The man happened to be a Duke of China and at that time his wife was pregnant with his daughter. In gratitude to the Portuguese King the Duke offered his unborn daughter as a bride. The Portuguese King upon seeing the Duke's other children and the beauty that all his daughters possessed agreed happily and made arrangements to have the girl travel by ship to marry him in twelve years. However the Duchess was not happy about letting her daughter go so she took the child of a villager and sent her aboard the ship instead. The ship that she sailed on sank, taking the girl and her vast dowry and wealth that was sent with her down into the ocean."
"Right and Wrong!" Bootstrap Bill cried happily.
"They did not sink to the bottom of the ocean." He winked at them "It was also not a plain village girl that they sent to meet the King. They had another Chinese lord's daughter go instead for exchange for the Duke's silence about the lower lord's wife's past." Bootstrap grinned at her. "The girl went with a dowry that could ransom ten kings so says legend. The Duke was wise enough to provide more then enough money to prove her background, and her own parents which were also rich provided her with an ample dowry as well. Not only that, she supposedly went with the signet of the Emperor of China himself, you see, if this marriage went well, it would have formed an alliance between the two nations. However," Bootstrap continued wagging his finger at the two enthralled people in front of him.
"However somebody did not want this alliance to happen. Somebody who knew the course that her ships would sail, somebody who knew the weaknesses and strengths of the army that came with her. Somebody who knew exactly how to attack the small bridal fleet of twelve Asian ships."
Elizabeth looked at him horrified.
"But who would attack a bridal fleet."
"Pirates would, but it wasn't pirates that got to her, it was the flesh dealers."
Will sneered, he knew about them, they were the worst of worst scum on the earth. They searched the lands looking for young defenseless people, stole them away from their families and sold them into slavery. He drew Elizabeth closer into his arms. She looked up him noticing the angry expression on his face. She reached up and touched his cheek gently.
He turned his head and kissed the inside of her palm smiling at her is if to reassure her of her safety. Bootstrap smiled at the two and continued with his story.
"The flesh dealers were headed by a man called Hessian, they attacked her on all sides taking down two ships with them, however the Chinese ships had the advantage of being narrow and fast. Faster then the Russian ships that the flesh dealers had anyway. As I said before, there were twelve ships in that bridal fleet. Ten of them escaped. Most unfortunately though Hessian was smart and he stole a Portuguese ship and sailed it along the same path that the ten Chinese boats disappeared at hoping to fool the bridal fleet into thinking that he was a friendly ship. It worked, two of the bridal fleet came out to greet them." Bootstrap Bill sighed and shook his head, his face sneering in disgust.
"What happened was a blood bath. Everyone was either slain or sold into slavery. He left very few alive, in the end the only people left were women that he deemed pretty enough to live. That and the bride who was a Duchess in her own right of course. He wanted to keep her, she was very, very pretty. When his crew was done killing and destroying he searched the two ships from top to bottom, stem to stern, but he didn't find any gold."
"He didn't find any gold? But?" Will asked.
"He didn't find any gold because the bridal fleet had loaded whatever people they had left onto the two boats to go and greet the Portuguese."
"Why did they do that? Where they suspicious of the ship?" Will asked.
"No, they weren't" Bootstrap said sadly, "They were all too trusting. You see the young bride was a kind and sheltered girl and she wanted to get all her people safe before going back to get her gold. Unfortunately she fell into Hessian's trap."
"How did he react?" Elizabeth asked fearfully.
"Hessian was furious. He grabbed the young bride and threatened to kill her and all the remaining maids if she didn't tell him. She responded by drawing a knife she had hidden in her bodice and stabbing herself declaring that now he didn't have anything to bargain with. When Hessian got over the shock that his leverage was dying at his feet he realized that all the maids were starting to do the same and he had his men take whatever weapons they had away from them and lock them below in the brig. However before they could grab them all one of the maids jumped overboard and escaped."
"She escaped?"
"Aye, and lived to tell me the tale."
"Who is she?" Elizabeth asked.
"Me"
Elizabeth looked over to the door and found Diablo with a bundle in her arms
"I was that maid that made it out of there. Hessian was actually very close to our hiding place. We were lucky that it was so foggy that he couldn't see the cove that was right in front of his eyes. We were lucky that we even found it. He was close enough that I could swim right back into our hiding place." Diablo looked away.
"I had never seen as much blood in my entire life as I had seen in that day. In the span of less then three hours that bastard Hessian had killed everyone, and my poor, poor lady who had the misfortune of being chosen as a substitute bride because of her looks died needlessly." Diablo looked back at them.
"I intend to retrieve her dowry, and use it to give her a proper burial as well as give it to anyone to would willingly hunt down flesh dealers. It was what my lady wanted" Diablo produced from her robes a folded pamphlet with Chinese markings on it. "My lady was an intelligent woman, she knew the dangers of the sea, she made a will before she died, and gave a copy to each of her maids. We were to carry them out if she died and didn't make it to her destination." She nodded toward Bootstrap "We have been hunting flesh traders for years now. A few years back we started to formulate just how we were going to get the gold without Hessian finding us." Will looked as his father
"I thought you were just a pirate" He said lightly. Bootstrap shrugged and took out one of his wife's handkerchiefs again "I don't' like flesh dealers, and if I see one that just happens to be in my way I might was well express my dislike."
"Unfortunately now it's not only Hessian that we have to deal with." Diablo walked over to the table, poured herself a drink and sat down. "There's also the Portuguese, you see they are sorry that the bride died, and they're supposedly sorry about the Duke loosing his child, but they are most and probably only truthfully upset at loosing all that gold."
"So right now not only do we have to fight off Hessian and his band of flesh dealers, we have to fight off the Portuguese Navy as well?" Will asked.
"And you think that we can do this with only four ships?" Elizabeth asked.
"You're mad." Will said
"No, no dear boy," Bootstrap cut in "It's quite ingenious. You see, Hessian's crew of five ships never sail together, so we decided that we would sack them one at a time until he has only one ship left and then we would go after the gold. Then not only will we have the makings of our own fleet, but we'll be better armed as well."
"But that remains the problem with the Portuguese." Will interjected.
"And how are you going to man all those extra ships?" Elizabeth asked. Diablo smiled.
"Do you really think that the crew you see here is all that we have?"
Elizabeth blinked at her.
"I don't understand."
"Smith and Rubens were in a band of Irish… er… ruffians, they never lost contact with them, in fact they are suppose to meet us in Tortuga tomorrow at dawn." Bootstrap said.
"Marlow still has many friends in all places from his days of being an assassin, they're more then willing to help him, and they are also meeting us in Tortuga."
"I myself have invited my old friends from the Black Pearl" Bootstrap said proudly
"And I am not without friends of my own." Diablo added smiling. "We'll have more then enough people sailing those ships."
"Yes but will all those people fit on these ships to get to those ships?" Will asked.
"Look at this ship my boy!" Bootstrap shouted. "We can take a crew three times this big and still sail faster then that goddamn British Interceptor."
"And out race the Black Pearl." Diablo added. Will frowned
"Something about your plan doesn't make any sense." Will said.
"What might that be?" Bootstrap Bill asked
"When you're going off to sack Hessian's ships, why not take all five of them? And why would the lady give her last will and testament to her maids and not her bodyguards?"
"Ahhh…" Bootstrap beamed with pride, "I knew Milady raised a smart one." He turned toward Diablo, "He's no plank of wood now is he?"
Diablo raised an eyebrow at him
"Well first of all we were her bodyguards. We were hand selected by my lady's mother to protect her daughter and then trained by my lady's father who was well versed in the art of fighting"
Bootstrap nodded grinning
"I'm sure that Diablo here more then proved that to you back at Port Royal"
Will grimaced, and Diablo turned back to Bootstrap Bill
"So do you want to explain the embarrassing reason why we can't sack that ship, or do I get the honors?"
Bootstrap's smile faltered and he rolled his eyes.
"We can't find the bloody ship." Will and Elizabeth just looked at him
"You can't find it?" Will asked
"Yep."
"Why not?" Elizabeth asked
"We don't know." Bootstrap said.
"Then how do you know those other four ships are Hessian's?" Elizabeth asked.
"They carry his banner, and have his love for bloodshed." Diablo said. "They are also piloted by his four former lieutenants so to speak."
"How do you know that?"
"I've met them."
"If you met them how come they didn't recognize you?" Will asked. Diablo rolled her eyes
"Please, they've only seen me once or twice, and besides I'm fifteen years older then when they last laid eyes on me. I think that would make recognizing me just a tad bit difficult."
"I guess." Will said. "What are you going to do about the last ship then."
"Well, whenever and or if ever we see them, we're gonna have to confront them aren't we?"
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The Black Pearl
"Captain!" Anamaria shouted over the howl of the wind "Captain! Are you daft, why are we going at such a speed? We've outrun the Interceptor ages ago"
"I know luv!" Jack said waltzing down from the helm with more of a swagger then usual.
"I know." He said tapping his forefinger on her bosom and grinning at her.
"Then why such speeds Captain?"
"Because, we have an appointment to make." And he swaggered past her
"You're not really chasing after that masquerade ship are you?" Anamaria demanded
"They swarmed us last time, and they actually have a ship faster then the Pearl" Jack cringed at that. "You said so yourself."
Jack turned back to her
"Yes luv, I know that, but when Captain Jack Sparrow is invited to a party, he never misses an appointment savvy?" Jack began to hum happily singing something about really bad eggs. Anamaria just shook her head at him.
Gibbs came up from below deck walking over to Anamaria.
"So?" Anamaria looked at him
"So what?"
"So did you find out why the hell we're sailing like Diablo's after us?" Gibbs asked
"Diablo is not after us, he's waiting for us." Jack called
"What?" Gibbs asked "We're going to meet a demon?
"No, Diablo."
"He means that weird creepy pirate that was standing next to the masked freak king." Anamaria translated for Gibbs.
"Oh" Gibbs nodded, "Wait, why we be doing that?"
"Come now Gibbs, where's the sense of brotherly love?" Jack asked grinning ear to ear
"What brotherly love, I've never laid eyes on the bastard my entire life."
"Not Diablo, oh no no" Jack's smile grew even wider
"William Turner Sr."
He was met by two blank stares
"Now Capt I know you were friends with the man but he's good and dead, you knows that."
"That's what you think." Jack said.
"You mean you didn't just say that to throw off that blasted commodore?" Anamaria asked "He's really alive?"
"Oh yes luv" Jack smiled and walked into his cabin beckoning them to follow him with his forefinger. They followed looking at each other confusedly.
Once they were both inside the cabin Jack locked the door behind him and grinned at his two confused crew members.
"You see" Jack started waving his finger first at Anamaria and then over to Gibbs. "There is a little known fact about me and dear ole Bootstrap Bill. Savvy? " He smiled at them flashing his gold teeth and walked over to a chair, propped his feet up on the table, folded his hands in his lap and nodded at them as if that explained everything.
"No, not fucking Sazzy" Anamaria snapped
"Savvy luv, it's Savvy."
"No it's not, that doesn't explain a goddamn thing."
"Oh but it is perfectly savvy and it does just a perfectly good explanation"
Anamaria was about to throttle Jack. She turned around as she felt her shoulder be patted by Gibbs.
"Don't worry, he usually knows what he's doing."
Anamaria gritted her teeth. "Where the hell are we headed anyway?"
"Tortuga!" Jack proclaimed and Anamaria slumped
"We were just at Tortuga."
"I know luv" Jack winked
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