I found it surprising how utterly delightful Captain Teague could be. Charming and laid back, he poured himself another drink and began to play a tune on a well worn guitar. "So, Miss. Kingsley. What is an upstanding English Lady doing in South Africa neck deep in trouble?" The captain leaned back in his chair, put his feet up and took a large gulp of his whiskey. "That's a good question. My father owned a trading company for many years and it was his dream to expand his routes to Singapore. But he passed away before he could do that. A year later, his friend and business partner, Lord Ascot took me on as his apprentice when I told him my idea to expand his routes to China instead. This is my third year as his apprentice and I was on my way back to London when all of this started. I don't know why they want to bother me, I never hurt or bothered anyone." Captain Teague looked at me for a moment and shocked me. "You may not like what I'm about to say, but I'll say it anyway. Don't take any of this personally, Miss. It's just good business." Good business? How could the Captain say that? To ruin someone's' life was not good business at all. Just cruel torment. "How do you figure that? Someone attacks you and you haven't done anything to them to deserve it, how can you not take it personally?" Captain Teague just smiled at me. "You have to remember, these are pirates. It's all about the profit. He kidnaps you and he's likely to get a pretty penny for you. That's just good business." The Captain then went on to play a lovely tune on his guitar, but it gave me time to think about what he said. Perhaps it was the whiskey or maybe not, but as I thought back to Underland I remembered the Knave and the Bloody Big Head wanting my severed head in the moat. But their banishment had been enough of a punishment for me. Did I take it personally at that time? Perhaps not as much as I should have.

But I have even more to lose now than I did back then. All my father's hopes and dreams and my own life put in jeopardy. No, this was not just about money. This Durnhelm was threatening my ability to live my life as I choose. And that makes it very personal for me. "Tell me Captain Teague, what does one do about a pirate interested in good business?" He just shrugged at me. "Make him a better deal or find a way to deal with him out right. But don't worry about anything. Black will take care of things in short order." "You seem to have a lot of faith in Wally, Captain Teague. Do you really think, sweet and gentle old Wally could hurt a fly, let alone a group of pirates? Especially with just one other man and a whole ship of enemy pirates after him?" The captain just looked up at me and we both laughed.

Once I lost sight of the bar maid, I started looking for a way out. With both of my men dead, I had no back up at all. That left me with only one other option, which was to get the hell out of the way. On my way to the back door, I caught the sight of my bar maid being dragged out the back door by a rather large and red headed fellow. By the time I got through the back door, both the bar maid and the stranger were nowhere in sight. Double Damn it! That had to be the first mate that I was looking for. So then that maid did know who I was looking for and I had lost her. Time to find Thomas and what's left of my crew. Hopefully Thomas is at least still alive. While looking for Tom, I had time to think about this woman I was chasing. How was she able to avoid all efforts to grab her for so long? Even if Lambert had told her about my plans, her ship and crew were dismantled and the navy was nowhere near the area. She had nowhere to go and no one to help her, or so I thought. But clearly someone was helping her. The question was who and why? Oh, how I wanted Lambert dead so badly at that moment. If he had just played along and done as told, none of this would have happened.

Fortunately, I had one other option left to me. "Jon! Get up here!" I had one other informant to rely on, but first I had to find him. Jon could do that for me and, hopefully, not get shot in the process. Jon walked onto the deck and stood waiting for orders. " I want you to find Brockton and tell him that I want all the information I sent him for."

"Aye, Captain."

Once Jon came back, I knew all my plans were dead in the water. "So let me get this straight. Brockton hasn't seen the lady since she left the ship? WITHOUT the First Mate? And doesn't know who if anyone would be helping her? What the HELL am I even paying these people for? They can't even come up with basic information!" Roaring at the top of my lungs did me no favors but at that point I did not care. My spies had no idea what was going on, my prize couldn't be found and all my hard work so for, was for nothing.

So what were my options now? To continue sending my men out to find a phantom woman and lose half of them in the process, perhaps she or Lambert would show themselves or push come to shove, if nothing else, I could always put a reward out for her or for information about her. But of course that could also lead to trouble, as others would undoubtedly want to know why I wanted her so badly, I had no idea what she looked like and her supporters may catch wind of it, which would only drive her further underground. Finding her might be easier that way but for now, sitting back and waiting was the only option. Most unfortunate.

Well, there was good news and bad news. The good news, I shot somebody. The bad news, not the body we know is causin' the trouble. At this point though, the good news outweighed the bad news in my opinion. But Alice was still in danger and now the question was what to do about it. For now, nothing, except wait for Latham to get back from dealing with the bar maid. But the longer we waited to get away the better their chances were of catching us. I made my decision by then. One way or another, Alice was going back to England tonight. If those bastards wanted her, they were gonna have to work even harder to get her. Finally Latham returned with some good news for a change. "Alright, Captain. I got to the bar maid and you were right. He was trying to get information out of her. She's gone now. Shall we check out the crew now?" "Well Latham, the good news is, one, I got to shoot some people. And that made me feel better. But also I followed fat mouth over to his ship and managed to over hear some interesting information." Latham finally looked pleased. "Oh, really?" "Yeah, so we're gonna go check on the crew now. And while I go in and deal with the crew and Brockton, I want you and the Captains' men to hang back. When I bring Brockton out, I want you to go in and make sure the crew is alright and assess the damage. If I'm not outside when you get done, I'll meet you back at the Ship. And don't let nobody see you!" Latham sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Do you think Brockton is a spy too? For pity's sake, how many more spies do we have to deal with?" "I don't know that he is a spy. But I heard big mouth screamin' his name at the top of his lungs and I want to know why." There was another Inn at the other side of town that Latham and I made our way to, guessing that's the only place the crew could go. On our way there I told Latham about what I had overheard from fat mouth. As if we didn't have enough to be angry about, now we had another spy to worry about. "If he is a spy, I'm going to get another stick of dynamite, light it and shove it down his throat." "That's if the bullet I have with his name on it don't find him first." We had a good laugh as we came to the Inn and saw a member of my crew leaving the washroom and making his way back to the Inn. It was Brockton. Just the fool I wanted to see.

It shouldn't have been so easy to get to Brockton, but considering how our luck had been so far it was only fair that it should even out. It also did my mood a lot of good to walk in and see everyone look like they had seen a ghost. "Captain Wallace! How the hell did you get here? We saw you get shot by the pirates!" Yeah, Brockton, I bet you wish I was dead to. "I was shot. Right off my ship and into the water. Is everyone here and accounted for?" "No, the Lady, the First Mate and Lambert aren't here and nobody has seen them since before the attack." Good. Everybody was right where I wanted them. Alive, well and dumb to the situation. "Alright. You all stay here and stay safe till I get back. Brockton, you come with me so we can look for the missing crew members. Come on."