Ch. 20 The Slow Knife

"What did you do?!" Adam slammed the door shut as he entered his apartment. The long walk helped him to sober up, as did the water that had been thrown on him from a nearby window. In anger, he kicked the wall of the room, making a small hole. The musketeer calmed down for a brief moment and removed his weapons from his belt, setting them on the desk by the window. "I need a shower. Relax myself."

Ten minutes later, Adam walked out, clothes back on his body, his brown hair glistening with water. He walked to check over his weapons and noticed something. There was a small data chip sitting by his sword and pistols. Luckily, he had a console in his room to check what was on it. Flint popped up the second the data was decrypted.

"Well, nephew." Adam scowled at the visage before him. "I hope your little meeting went well. Although, I'm guessing it went better for me." Flint held back a laugh. "I'll bet you warned them that I wouldn't stop at Skull Island; you're right. I won't be satisfied until the whole Spiral bows to me. When I've found what I need, I'll strike. I won't tell you what it is, but I will let you in on a secret. I didn't get to Skull Island with sheer brute force. A friend of mine gave me a copy of your patrol schedule." Adam's eyes widened and he began to study his uncle's face, hoping to detect any sign of untruth. He saw none. "That's right, Merciless Adam Silver. You, once again, have a traitor in your midst. This traitor will pick you all off slowly. I want to watch your precious family crumble. You see, it's the slow knife, the knife that waits, that cuts deepest." Flint did a mock bow. "Good luck." As the message finished, Adam had already begun pacing around the room.

Another traitor. Who can I trust? What am I going to do with them when I find out who it is? Adam abandoned this line of thought when he heard a knock at his door. He opened it up, hoping Lenora had come back. "Lenora?!" Instead, he saw a familiar face in the doorway. "Cole?"

"Can I come in?" Adam ushered the witchdoctor in. Cole looked around the room, examining every surface's details. "This is a nice apartment. Wish I could afford one."

"Didn't I give you a whole bag of El Dorado gold?"

"Ship repairs and supplies took up most of the costs." Cole sat down in the empty chair by the desk. "I ran into Lenora on my way over here; she seemed upset." Adam pulled up a chair and joined him at the table.

"I was drunk and stupid. I said things I never should have said."

"Well," Cole chuckled, "Nothing a cold glass of water can't fix." The dark robed pirate got up and took two glasses from the nearby cupboard, pouring the liquid into each one. He handed one to Adam and took a sip from his own. "I heard about Will, Autumn, and Ryan. I'm sorry."

"Me too." Adam took a sip and set down the glass. "As sad as it is, though, I've got bigger problems." The musketeer turned on the video Flint had given him. Cole viewed the video intently. When it was over, Cole stood up and paced around the room. "I've got a traitor to track down and I have no leads to follow."

"If you ask me, it couldn't be someone close to you. You're crew cares too much about you and Skull Island to turn traitor." Cole picked up Adam's sword and began to study it. "Then again, whoever betrayed you would have to know Flint in some way." Adam was intrigued. "They'd also know everything about Skull Island. Otherwise, they'd be walking blind trying to take it." The witchdoctor slid his gloved right hand across the length of the blade. "This is a nice sword. Where'd you get it?"

"It was my father's sword. He made it when he went to El Dorado and left it there for me to find."

"That's right. I almost forgot that Avery was your father. His wife's name was Alexis, correct?" Adam nodded in acknowledgement. "That was your mother. It's a shame that Flint had to kill her."

"That's why I'm not going to give up. He's caused too much death to keep on living." Adam clenched his fists then came to a realization. I never told anyone that Flint killed my mother. Blaze is the only other person who knows. "Wait- I never told anyone that Flint killed my mother."

"So I noticed." A devious grin spread across Cole's face. The witchdoctor removed his glove, revealing a metallic hand; a clockwork hand.

"You're the traitor!" Adam stood up, but dizziness overtook his body. He fell to the ground, the room spinning around him. "What… what did you do to me?" Cole stood over the pirate leader.

"There was a neurotoxin in the glass of water you drank. Your body is trying to fight it off, but it won't matter in the end." Adam turned back to the desk and tried to pull himself up to reach his pistols. Cole saw this and stabbed the sword into Adam's right leg. Adam screamed out in pain, blood already oozing from the wound. "You know what? It really is a nice sword." Cole studied the blade one more time. "Such a shame to see such fine craftsmanship go to waste." Cole wrapped his metallic hand around the blade and applied pressure, shattering the blade while it remained in Adam's leg.

"Why?" Adam couldn't get up with copious amounts of metal in his leg. "Why would you do this?"

"I've known Flint for a long time. Hell, I helped him find his powers. The ability to control dark energy was too great an offer to pass up." Adam tried to move his body, but realized he was completely immobile. "I'm lucky that I'm a witchdoctor, otherwise you'd remember the past few hours." Cole pulled a knife off of his belt. "Like Flint said, 'it's the slow knife that cuts deepest.'"

"Brave, Bonnie, what are you doing here?" Lenora had finally arrived back at Adam's apartment to find the other two pirates arriving as well.

"Adam left Sagittarius on the table." The sniper held up the control chip for the personality matrix. "Figured we shouldn't let him fall into the wrong hands." Bonnie stretched her body, hands behind her head.

"I wanted to talk to Adam. I think we still need some time to get back to full strength. I was going to suggest we wait a week before we try to strike back against Flint." Lenora opened the door to the stairway and they began their climb. "I almost lost Jordan; I don't want to live another second without her."

"I think that's a good idea," Lenora smiled, "I don't know if we'll get a week, but I know we'll have a bit of time before we go back into the fray." The swashbuckler's words comforted Bonnie. The three pirates reached the floor of Adam's apartment. As they approached the door, they were stopped by the sound of glass smashing. Lenora took a small step forward and felt a difference in the floor. It was wet. She looked down and saw blood flowing from under the doorsill. She frantically tried to unlock the door with the key Adam had given her, but the key broke off in the hole. Brave and Bonnie saw how scared she was and, together, they rushed the door, busting it open with brute force. "Adam!" Lenora rushed over to Adam's mutilated body. His right arm had been severed half way to his upper arm, his left leg was missing to the knee, and his right eye had a dagger embedded in it. Lenora noticed his sword, shattered in pieces next to him. Blood was rushing out of his wounds. Bonnie hurriedly took off her scarf and wrapped it around the musketeer's leg stump.

"Brave, hand me your belt." The fox's Scottish accent snapped Brave out of his trance. The pirate removed his leather belt and handed it to the fellow sniper. She wrapped the belt around Adam's arm, using it as a tourniquet. "Go out and get help!" Brave ran out the door. "You're goin' to be fine, captain." Lenora lifted his head into her lap, crying above his face.

"Who," Lenora wept, "Who did this to you?" A cough from Adam's lips startled her and Bonnie. The musketeer's left eye shot open, pupil dilating. He turned his head to face the broken window, pointing with his remaining arm. One word escaped his lips before he passed out from blood loss.

"Traitor."