Chapter 6: Smash and Grab
The next morning dawned bright and cool. The morning of a heist had a different atmosphere than a usual morning. The crew ran instead of walked through their morning chores. Everyone had a slight spring in their step. But then, they were expecting to get paid today.
Garcia and Mandy shut themselves up in the engine room all morning, making sure that everything was working perfectly. Eddie oiled down all the guns. Jaime sat at the helm, eyes darting from the navigation instruments to the empty sky before him. It was like the whole crew was holding its breath, and the anticipation was tangible.
As noon approached, the mail runner was sighted. It was smaller than the Mazu's Glory. Hermione felt rather sorry for it.
Jack strode out of her cabin, looking every inch the Pirate Captain. She was dressed like Captain Hook from Peter Pan except her jacket was blue, not red.
She stood in the control room behind Jamie's chair. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were already in there, chatting with Jamie.
"Sound the bell, raise the flag," she ordered. Jamie pressed a green button three times. A gong sounded three times. The sound echoed across the air to the other ship. He flicked a switch and the skeleton flag ascended the mast. A moment passed and an answering four gongs sounded from the mail runner.
Jack smirked. "They want to outrun us?" she laughed. "Fat chance. Catch them."
Jamie smirked too. He hit the intercom. "Garcia? Two more notches."
The ship lurched as it accelerated. Within minutes, they'd caught up to the mail runner. Red beams of light shot from the mail runner's sides. Most came nowhere near the Mazu's Glory but one grazed the starboard hull.
"My ship!" Jack cried. She hit the intercom. "Eddie, take out their engines."
As the Hogwarts students pressed against the windows, three beams of red light shot from the Mazu's Glory. All three hit the stern of the mail runner, where a gentle blue light had been glowing. The light cut out and smoke began to rise from the engine.
Jack hit the intercom again. "Grapples," she said. Hooks shot out of the front guns and either wrapped around the mail runner's deck railings or just pierced her hull. Hermione heard a cheer over the intercom.
The crew, except for Doc Philips, surged onto the deck and across to the other ship. The three students crowded at the windows of the control room. Hermione might not approve, but she was still curious to watch a pirate attack.
It was strangely anti-climactic. The crew of the mail runner were caught off guard and were easily overpowered. There were a few punches thrown, but the mail runner's crew quickly stopped fighting when the guns were waved around.
Jack walked over to the captain of the mail runner. "Good afternoon," she said smiling. "We heard that you are transporting Graymall's payroll. We'll be taking it off your hands."
"We don't have the payroll. You must have been told wrong," the other captain stammered.
Jack sighed. "Now, captain. My source was very confident. So either you're lying or he was and I don't like being lied to. But he's not here, and you are." Jack tapped the barrel of her pistol against his chest. "Now, what are you going to do about that?"
The other captain shook his head in jerky nervous movements. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."
"You don't?" Jack sauntered over to where his crew were lined against the wall. Her crew stood with pistols trained on them. Some of the mail runner crew looked terrified, others angry, others just nervous. She stopped in front of one boy. He can't have been older than fifteen. Huge blue eyes stared at her from under a mess of blond hair. He probably joined the mail runner crew thinking he'd have an adventure.
"Well, I've noticed that nothing sparks neural activity quite like a deadline," Jack said. "But I'll be nice. Who's your least favourite?"
"What?"
"Who don't you like among your crew?" Jack said slowly. "That one person who won't listen to orders or who just gets on your nerves, who is it?"
The other captain was silent. He knew where this was going.
"See, I'm going to count to three," Jack went on. "If you don't remember where the money is, I'll throw your least favourite overboard. And it's a long way down." Jack and the captain stared at each other.
"One."
The mail runner captain blinked.
"Two."
He bit his lip.
"Three."
His Adam's apple bobbed but he was silent.
"Barbosa," Jack nodded at the blue eyed boy. Barbosa was in front of him in two steps. He grabbed the boy by the front of the shirt and the belt and lifted him up. Barbosa turned to the railing of the ship.
"No! No!" the other captain cried. Jack raised a hand. Barbosa stopped.
The mail runner captain looked green. "The payroll is in the safe, below decks. But I don't have the combination. We were supposed to dock at Helos and someone from the Graymall factory would come out and take the money."
"That's ok." Jack turned to her ship and looked right at Harry Ron and Hermione pressed against the control room window. She gestured for them to come over.
"What?" Hermione gasped. "She wants to go there?"
"Looks like," Jamie said. "You'd better go. Cap'n don't like to be kept waiting, especially during a raid."
The students across the gangplank to the mail runner.
"Time to start earning your keep." Jack said to them. She turned back to the other captain. "Take us to the safe. And tricks and pretty boy there goes overboard."
The other captain led Jack and the students below decks to the storage room. There was a safe box with a heavy turning handle on it.
"Can you open it?" Jack asked.
Hermione glanced at the safe uncertainly. "Um, I don't think–"
"Yes or no, Girlie. We're on a deadline and we got no time for your morality." Jack stared at her.
Hermione pulled out her wand. "Alohomora." The lock spun and the door swung open easily revealing a dozen small brown bags.
"Grab 'em and let's go," Jack ordered. Hermione didn't want to. This was theft. But there was something in the way that Jack said it that made it impossible not to obey. Or maybe it was that Jack's pistol was still out.
The group of five emerged onto the deck. The crew of the Mazu's Glory crossed back to their own ship and blasted away.
"Won't they chase us?" Harry asked.
Garcia shook his head. "Naw, Eddie took out their engine. By the time they fix it, we'll be long gone." Garcia went back to counting the gold. The whole crew except for the Captain was gathered around, watching him count. Even Ron was staring at the gold like a kid at Christmas.
Hermione wandered away. She didn't want to watch them count their ill gotten gains, especially since she'd helped them get it. She headed back to her shared cabin but stopped in front of Jack's door. It was slightly open. Hermione peered inside.
Jack was on her knees, facing away from Hermione. As Hermione looked, she could see that Jack knelt before a small statue of a woman. A candle burned on either side of it. It was a shrine of some kind.
Hermione leaned closer to the door. She could hear Jack whispering.
"I did what I had to do. I wouldn't have thrown him over. I just needed him to think I would," Jack drew a ragged breath. "I wouldn't have thrown him. I did what I had to do."