Still don't own TSL. Nope.

Zack took two steps inside the building and couldn't help but grin as he took in all the goings-on. To his left was a table of some of his crew busily drinking up their profits on mugs of ale and rum. To his right, and he ducked just in time to dodge a chair flying in from that direction, was a rather drunken brawl. Vicious battle cries came from somewhere in the cloud of swinging fists but Zack ignored them. He had better things to do at the moment and nearly all of them involved sitting himself in front of the bar wench and staring at her as he drank.

"Maddie, my pretty Maddie," Zack said as he sat down across from her, "how have you been?" She had her back to him as she was filling a handful of mugs from a large barrel but she jumped and turned around.

"Zack Sparrow!" she said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. "I was wondering when you'd drag yourself back to this place. She slid a mug to him and smirked as it sloshed over on his hands. He shook them off and tipped the mug to her before taking a sip.

"I knew you'd miss me, love." He gave her his brightest smile that was utterly not returned.

"If you mean miss as in I shot at you but missed, you're right. If you meant it any other way, no."

"So you did miss me after all," Zack said as he took a drink. Maddie sighed at him and turned back around to finish filling the mugs. "So what's the news, Maddie?"

She spun back around once she was finished and slid them further down the bar. "Just how long have you been gone, Zack Sparrow?"

"We've been at sea for nearly a month."

"Ah, well, you've missed quite a bit then." She continued, rattling on about all sorts of incredibly boring things while Zack slowly drank his grog. Zack nodded at the appropriate places while he thought of things many times more interesting. "And there's a rumor that your brother is back in the Caribbean again."

"What?" Zack spat out a mouthful of grog.

"There's a rumor..."

"When did you hear this?" Zack interrupted.

"A couple of English sailors were in here, oh, a few days ago, three or four maybe, and they were rather drunk and talking too loudly for me to not hear."

"What else did they say about him, Maddie?" Zack looked at her earnestly. She nearly told him that she didn't know anything else but the look on her face compelled her.

"The sailors said that they had heard he was sailing on the Reprisal."

"So he's..."

"Yes, Zack Sparrow."

"That's very interesting Maddie. Very interesting." Zack intently studied the inside of his mug for the next few minutes.

A few drinks later Zack bid Maddie a very fond adieu and left the tavern. He returned to the Queen Carey's Revenge and retired to his quarters after having the local deckhands restock his ship. He had a few things to think about and there was no better time than while the rest of his crew were out enjoying themselves.

By the time his boys began stumbling back to the ship for the night he was ready to move on. As much as he loved seedy little ports like Nassau, there were bigger and better places along the major shipping lanes. Not to mention more treasure for the taking. Truth be told, Zack had been cursing the storm for driving him this far north but the information from Maddie made it more than worth his while. They left port the next morning with the tide and set sail south with strong winds at their back.

They were a few hours out of Nassau when a cry came down from the crow's nest. "Ship on the horizon, Captain Sparrow!" All attention on the deck immediately shifted to a dark smudge many miles away.

"Very good. Make for the ship, boys. We might have an early target in our hands." A wave of cheers rippled through the deckhands as they slowly approached the ship. "Load and man cannons!" Zack yelled out as he made his way to the wheel. The closer they got to the ship the more apparent it became that it wasn't moving.

"There's a reef, sir!" Came a call from the crow's nest. Zack nodded and slowly steered the boat closer, taking care to stay far enough away so as to avoid hitting part of whatever reef the other ship had run aground on. As they dropped anchor the only movement that could be seen on deck was the light fluttering of a torn flag.

The boat had obviously seen better days and it almost brought a tear to Zack's eye. Huge holes had been blasted out of the side of the vessel, obviously scars from a fierce battle. The sails had been ripped to pieces, either from more cannon fire or from the recent storm and the foremast had fallen to the deck.. "Poor girl," Zack said as he put both hands on the railing and gazed across at her.

"She looks deserted, Captain," a small voice to his left whispered.

"Aye, she does." Zack took his spyglass and ran it across the deck one final time. "Still though, swords drawn as we gain the deck." An ambush, however unlikely, was still possible. "Lower the boats!"

Three small rowboats were dropped into the water and were quickly filled with pirates ready to plunder. Captain Zack took a spot in the last boat and couldn't keep from tightly gripping the butt of the pistol in his belt. It was too quiet for his liking and it was making him nervous.

He was the last to climb aboard the boat, the Wraith, according to the white lettering on her forecastle, and he let his eyes roam across the deck. His expert eyes told him that the damage to the sails was definitely from the storm and not cannon fire. "Poor girl," he said again as he stepped around piles of fallen rigging.

What sort of fool's errand was this ship on to continue in what had to have been the heart of the storm? he wondered. Any smart captain would have taken his sails in and tried to ride it out instead of sailing through it. Zack grinned as he thought this, quickly deciding that he'd rather be a lucky captain than a smart captain any day. Then again they'd only been caught on the outskirts of the storm while this boat had obviously seen much worse.

"She seems empty, Captain," one of his crew called from somewhere on the ship.

"Let's see what they've left for us, boys!" He said and the crew dispersed to begin searching for treasure. He made his way to the captain's quarters while the majority of his boys went belowdecks. Aside from everything being slightly damp the room looked as if everything was perfectly normal; no signs of a hasty exit, no signs of a struggle, nothing. "Very interesting," Zack said as he started rifling though the stacks of papers on the worn desk.

"There's barrel upon barrel of gunpowder in the aft hold, Captain. Not that much else. Smyth says he came across a few chests in the forward hold." Zack jumped slightly and turned toward the door to see Hopkins, his first mate, standing with a hand on each side of the door frame. "What happened here, Captain? No pirate worth his salt would leave treasure behind."

"I don't know yet, Hopkins. I don't know." Zack gathered the papers together and stuffed them in his coat. Something about this boat suddenly unnerved him and he decided that he'd give them a closer look once they were back on board their own ship and had put some miles between this one. "Get everything aboard our ship and let's be done with this." Hopkins nodded and left, barking orders as he made his way back to the holds.

An hour later they were back underway and Zack set all the papers on his own desk and shifted them around. A letter of marque caught his interest. He'd figured the Wraith for a pirate vessel but the letter confirmed it as a privateer. "And what's this?" Zack said as he pulled a stained piece of parchment from the stack. "A map?" Zack leaned back in his chair and kicked his boots up onto the desk and studied the map.

His Spanish wasn't the best, really only good enough to either order the crew of a galleon to surrender or order another round for his men, but he knew who to call upon. "Hopkins!" He bellowed from the desk and waited.

"Yes, Captain?" A towheaded face peaked around the door and looked expectantly at him.

"I need you to read something for me."

"Alright, Captain." He walked up and took the page from Zack. "Is that...blood?" Hopkins pointed to dark smudges that covered nearly one quarter of the page and what could be nothing other than a fingerprint just left of center.

"Aye, I believe it is." Zack saw Hopkins' eyes waver slightly. "Don't see the blood, lad, just see the writing below the map. What does it say?"

"It says, um...It's directions to a treasure, sir. Calypso's treasure. Who's Calypso, Captain Sparrow?"

"Some old sea dogs claim she's the goddess of the oceans or boats or whatever they can think of."

"So she's not real?"

"That depends on who you ask, Hopkins. I can tell you one thing that is real about her. Any idea what that is?"

"No sir. What?"

"That sailors have made offerings of gold and other shiny things to gods for about as long as boats have sailed the seas. So, if we happen to follow this map..." he trailed off, wanting Hopkins to finish the thought on his own.

"...we'll find a huge stash of treasure, right Captain?"

"Exactly."

"So when do we start looking for it?"

"As soon as you translate the rest of the map, Hopkins," Zack said and Hopkins leaned down beside him and started his translation.

This would have been up sooner but my computer decided to completely die and take everything with it as it crashed and burned. And don't worry, I know it's not the most exciting thing right now but trust me, it's coming. Cody'll show up next time, I promise.

I think the only note I need to make here is about the difference between pirates and privateers. A pirate would attack anyone and everyone and keep all the spoils while a privateer worked for a particular nation (Britain, for example) and only raided ships sailing under a certain flag (Spain, for example). They split the spoils with the government that employed them.

Oh, and a 'letter of marque' was the document granting the right to privateer. A privateer's license if you will!