The Lost Ingots of Tagus
by Aldesina
Chapter 10 A Meeting of Old Friends
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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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Tortuga
Bootstrap Bill sat in the back of a The Lover's Isle, a quaint little bar that was situated smack dab in the middle of Tortuga. It hosted all different kinds of drinks, everything from the cheapest lousiest ales to the finest hard liquors, and of course, there was rum.
"Rum All around Betsy me girl!" Bootstrap yelled over the flurry of activity that was flying about. Diablo was sitting next to him, arms crossed over her chest, eyes closed. They had passed a couple of young hot shots on the way over. They, in good old pirate fashion had decided to let their balls do the thinking. Their leader was young, handsome, cocky and composed entirely of testosterone. He seemed to find Diablo in male form, offense. That was too bad, she would have found him interesting had she not been here on business. He walked by Bootstrap and shoved her, and she in turn ensured him eternal youth by making sure his body stopped aging, permanently.
"This place is louder then the last one that I went to" Will muttered beside her, nursing his drink in his hands.
"You've been to Tortuga?" Elizabeth asked accusingly. Apparently Will had not given her full details of how he had come to rescue her.
"Jack said we needed a crew" Will said sheepishly.
"Stop fighting," Diablo muttered just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "We have company."
Bootstrap, Diablo, Will, Elizabeth, Marlow, Rubens and Smith had come on shore as a group. Marlow, Rubens and Smith always appeared with Bootstrap. Will looked enough like Bootstrap to raise an eyebrow or two, but his appearance also made his station obvious. Elizabeth with a bandana around her hair and dressed up in full pirate gear also deterred many on lookers and questions that they might have had. It also helped that Diablo walked right beside her.
"Marlow" A snaky looking man with dark eyes and dirty blonde hair walked up and smiled "It's been a while my brother." Marlow broke out into a grin. He and the new fellow had both been employed by the government and then unceremoniously dismissed when caught.
"BC" Marlow stepped up and clasped the man on the shoulders, hugging him and thumping him heartily on the back. He turned back to the table where the lot of them sat and pointed at each of them in introduction.
"You know Bootstrap" Bootstrap smirked and tipped his cup at BC.
"That there is his son; young Will, and his bonnie lass Elizabeth" Both Will and Elizabeth nodded in unison
"How do you do?" they said simultaneously, good manners shining through and through.
"These two scoundrels are…."
"Smith and Rubens" BC finished for him "Yes we met last time. In fact I was trying to recruit their gang and I lost out to that chap sitting in between the Turner men."
"Well then I take it that you know Diablo" Marlow said grinning.
"Good to see you again darling" Diablo purred, she didn't even bother disguising her voice.
"It's always a pleasure to greet a lady who has killed more people then me"
"In self defense though."
"Horseshit and devil's balls." BC snorted
"Both things that you would know about, wouldn't you?"
BC laughed. Their second encounter had involved both, so to speak.
"So would you demona, so would you."
Diablo smiled.
A scraggly looking man came up to Smith and inclined his head.
"They're on the outskirts, about a mile away, and they can all be ready to sail at noon tomorrow." He reported. He had a heavy Irish accent and red hair to match the voice. Smith looked over at Rubens and then at Bootstrap.
"Capt, this is Russel, the man we told you about."
Bootstrap inclined his head, and Russel nodded back.
"Mind if we take off?"
"Not a problem" Bootstrap said. "You know the meeting point"
Both Rubens and Smith nodded and followed the scraggly man out. BC and Marlow watched them leave
"He's the other crew?"
"Him and his other compatriots, Smith and Rubens are providing two, you and I are providing another two, Diablo is bringing support, and Bootstrap is bringing both support and a full crew." Marlow said.
"And don't forget Jack, We've got him bringing one as well."
BC nodded. "Good, the more people we have, the more of them we can kill." BC had a long running grudge against the flesh dealers, although no one but Marlow could say why. And no one was willing to ask.
"Speak of the Devil." Will looked up and saw Jack Sparrow swaggering his way over to their table with the biggest grin on his face, an angry Anamaria behind him, and a cautious looking Gibbs following her. Bootstrap grinned. Elizabeth waved, Marlow, BC and Diablo just glowered.
Before Jack could even get a word in Anamaria pushed her way forward.
"You pushed us to hell and fucking dale to meet these people."
"Now, now, Anamaria luv, you're drawing attention to us."
"Want me to get rid of it?" Diablo asked fingering a dagger that had somehow made its way mysteriously into her hand.
"Diablo….." Bootstrap began
"Now that we're pretty much all here how about we get down to discussing?" Jack cut in. Anamaria glared, but sat down. Jack pulled up a chair and sat it next to Bootstrap who began to fidget with his handkerchief and Gibbs leaned in the corner next to Elizabeth.
"Fist of all I want to know what's that little known fact about you and Bootstrap here?" Anamaria demanded.
"Oh darling, it's simply that me and ole Bootstrap here have known each other since childhood."
Anamaria twitched.
"Good to see you alive and well old man" Gibbs said to Will's father. Smoothly cutting in before Anamaria could say anything more. Bootstrap nodded and gave a slight grin, "I'm actually more relieved to see ole Jack alive and kicking." Bootstrap turned to Jack and began rather uneasily, "Now you know that…….."
"Let's just say we'll let bygones be bygones and you can return those bygones by leading us to that by long gone treasure." Jack leaned into Bootstrap looking at him straight in the eye. "Besides, if it weren't for you Barbossa wouldn't have had so much pleasure to deal with for all those years. Savvy?" Bootstrap visibly relaxed and smirked.
"Shall we get on with the plan?"
"Well first things first mate." Jack said rubbing his hands together.
"And what might that be?" inquired Will.
"Are you going to finish that rum?" Jack asked eyeing Bootstrap's mug rather lustily.
"Betsy! Let's have another round!" Bootstrap yelled.
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Three hours and many mugs of rum later
Jack blinked at Bootstrap, turned his attention over to Diablo who favored him with a slow and pompous grin that made him, no, no, her, look too much like a love child of Norrington and Barbossa for Jack to be comfortable.
"Are you bloody mad?" Jack finally managed to spit out.
"Quite" was her reply.
"You think that a bloody letter, and a girl and a bunch of gold is going to get bloody old stick up his ass Norrington to come chasing after us? You're practically turning him into a pirate. He wouldn't fall for it if he was permanently drunk!"
"I could arrange that." Diablo cut in with a wave of her hand.
"Diablo can be very persuasive"
"And the story you cooked up," Jack began, it's absolutely ludicrous, even I wouldn't fall for such a tale."
"You don't have to believe it," Diablo cut in "Norrington doesn't even have to believe it, he just has to believe in the gold and come fight."
"He'd never"
"He's already followed us thus far" Bootstrap began "He'll keep coming, we just have to dangle the right kind of bait"
"Diablo?" Anamaria asked skeptically
"Miss Swann and Jr. here." Bootstrap said. "Diablo is just there to make sure that he can keep up, not to mention garner some sympathy with the crew."
"Garner sympathy with the crew?" Will asked. Gibbs eye's widened
"You can't possibly do that, it's a downright horrible thing to do to a man, even if he is a naval bastard."
Jack blinked, he was the only one that had ever experienced it. And the effects of it always induced pure gut wrenching, mind numbing anger. He looked Diablo straight in the eye. She met it.
"If it does come down to that, do you think you can pull it off?"
Will and Elizabeth looked at each other confusedly. The atmosphere of the table had gone suddenly very quiet and dead serious.
"Yes"
Jack looked at her, his face hardening
"Remind me never to take you aboard as a crew member." There was no laughter with this comment.
"She's perfectly loyal Jack" Bootstrap said softly.
"Aye, but that woman's got her own plans"
"And what woman doesn't?" Diablo cut in "Don't talk about me as if I'm not here Jack, I have done nothing that would make you suspicious of me in any nature." Jack looked at Diablo and seemed to take a second to just shake things off.
"Nope" He said, back to his cheerful self again, "No you certainly haven't"
"So it's agreed then?" Diablo asked.
"Yes, count us in." Jack said. Inwardly he was plotting the next chance he got to get Bootstrap alone and give him a good tongue lashing about Diablo. He wondered if she truly was the love child of his two greatest adversaries. Jack shuddered and downed his rum in one gulp, if this plan didn't kill them all, they would all be set for life.
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Aboard the Interceptor
Commodore Norrington stood at the helm with Gillette. He could see the tiny island from here; Gongolan. And he could also see the other island on the other side of it; Tortuga. Unlike Gongolan, Tortuga was brightly lit and festive. Gongolan had no lights on it at all, and it didn't look like it had a harbor for the ship to dock at either.
"Gillette, tell the crew to drop anchor as soon as we make it into that cove. We should be provided cover there from prying eyes and given the ability to defend ourselves should the need arise." He looked back in the direction that they had come from and raised his telescope to his eye. It was faint, and it was dark, but he could see a slight outline of The Dauntless behind them. "Make sure the Captain of the Dauntless gets those orders."
"Sir." Gillette saluted smartly and went to complete his tasks. He passed Groves on the way and the two of them shared a look. Their commanding officer was in one of his moods again. Groves shook his head and Gillette rolled his eyes. Though James protected his men with everything that he possessed he sometimes needed to slow down and relax, not to mention eat, or sleep, or act human for that matter.
"Sir, do you think that Diablo character will make contact with us tonight?" Grooves asked as he approached Norrington.
"Doubtful, he'll probably make contact during the day tomorrow, sometime around sunrise I'd imagine."
"Sunrise sir?"
"Everyone in Tortuga are probably so drunk at that hour that no one would notice if someone just rowed out." Groves blinked. How does a man who never gets drunk think with the mind of an alcoholic?
"Shall we stay up and wait for him then sir? I have the slightest feeling that he'll be coming with other people."
"Indeed." Norrington replied. "He'll probably show up with Sparrow."
"Sparrow sir?"
"Yes, Sparrow, just for the simple reason that we are acquainted with him. I'm assuming that he's to act as the neutral party."
"You can't be serious sir! Sparrow is clearly on their side, what if they surround us at night and fire upon us?"
"Doubtful,"
"But sir,"
"Stop fretting Eric."
"Permission to speak freely sir?"
"Denied, kindly go see to your other duties." Groves set his jaw and frowned but saluted smartly and obeyed.
"Sir."
James sighed, he understood Groves's concerns, he had them as well, but something about that letter, he didn't know what it was, and something about this situation. It went against all military training, common sense even, but, James sighed again. He couldn't even explain it to himself. He would have to wait and see, and as sad as it sounds, hope for the best.
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Author's Note; Ahhh another chapter is done. Short, yes, but we finally get to see some different people interacting. And character interaction is always a lovely part of the story. New chapter coming before the end of March and that's a promise. Until then Happy Reading!
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