Chapter 12: Times of Confusion
Jack stormed in the room once he’d just received news that their lead had escaped. “If I get a hold of that little…” He said looking around the room for possible clues. “You sure he escaped through the front door?” He asked.
“Positive.” Ivan answered, leaning on the door. “Gone without a tra…” He said before remembering the piece of paper the scout had left behind. “Well, technically he left before I could ask him anything, but…”
He took out the paper from his coat. “He did manage to leave this behind.”
“Lemme see that!” Jack said swiping the paper away from Ivan’s hand. “Yep, it’s definitely a trap.” He said, throwing the paper on the ground where he presumed it belonged.
Ivan reluctantly bent over and retrieved the note. “You do realize that this is our only real lead to Reynard.” He said, hoping that Jack would follow through.
“What about Nathaniel? What about the Jacket? What about everything we’ve done so far? We don’t even know if Reynard’s on Del Fuego in the first place!” He said, trudging out of the interrogation room and soon after exiting the naval house into the grand cave system. “What about some support? What about more leads? What about…” He said but was cut off when his eyes met an old man tending to the area where Ivan had found the scout.
“Let me handle this…” He said, walking aggressively towards the old man.
The old man barely had enough time to see Jack walking up to deal with him, let alone react quick enough. Before he could even respond however, he was met with a response of Jack practically tackling him. “Listen!” He said, keeping the man in a hold to prevent him from escaping. “If you know anything about Marcus Reynard and whoever may be associated with him, speak now!”
The terrified man barely had enough energy to let out a response. “I- I don’t know anything about him! Honest!”
“I know your tricks pirate, you and the others were spying on us recently, now tell me where we can find him!” Jack said, still holding the man.
“I- I don’t know a- anything. Lord Beckett said there’d be no harassing in these mines!” The old man said miserably.
Jack heard these words but still held on and kept asking questions. After about a minute or so, he began to get strange looks from all around, and decided it was best to instead question him back in the interrogation room. “Come with me.” He said, only to notice Ivan sprinting up to meet him.
“Jack, what on earth were you just doing?” He asked.
“I’m bringing this madman in for interrogation; he must have every bit of information extracted immediately.” He said, being overfilled with madness.
“Jack, no. You don’t just take random people and expect them to have the answers to your questions.” Ivan said, walking over to the old man. “I’m sorry for the incident, this won’t happen again.” He said, letting the old man go.
“I… think I need to go lay down.” Jack said, stumbling in both speech and walk.
“Sleep? Now why would you need sleep?” Ivan asked.
“Well, remember last night at that inn?” Jack said, beginning to tell something Ivan could tell would be juicy. “Well it just so happens that the person in the room next to mine was terribly drunk, and started singing songs about… seagulls or something.”
“So?” Ivan asked curiously.
“Well, to put it shortly, I didn’t really sleep much last night.” Jack said, scratching his head.
“Oh great, now what, am I going to do, drag you along everywhere I go?” Ivan said, pacing around in frustration. “You do realize that we don’t have enough time to operate on such a slow pace, and…”
“My my, you two look even more tired than when I last saw you.” Said a familiar voice from behind.
“Nathaniel?” Jack and Ivan said simultaneously.
“I see you two have finally figured out my name after all this time.” Nathaniel said smugly. “Now then, I received some news that you two captured someone who was working for Reynard, is there any truth to this?” He asked looking at the Jack first and then Ivan hoping he may have an answer waiting.
“Well… yes.” Ivan said. “But, he’s the tricky fellow, and… he got away.”
“Did you get a name?”
“…Stealthy.” Jack answered, half asleep. “Just… Stealthy.”
“Interesting,” Nathaniel pondered. “Did you get any other piece of information that may be of use?” He asked hopefully.
“In fact,” Ivan said, retrieving the note from his coat. “We… I received this note instead of a conversation.” He said, handing Nathaniel the crumpled up note.
“Ah, this is definitely the work of Reynard.” Nathaniel said cheerfully. “In fact, this signature is almost perfect…” He said, putting the note inside of his own pocket. “We should report this immediately, at the navy outpost.”
“You hear that Jack? We’re finally going back to the outpost.” Ivan said eager to begin the walk back.
“Do they have candy there?” Jack asked.
“Yes Jack, lots of it.” Ivan asked, trying not to stay too far behind Nathaniel.
“Fine…”
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Howard walked through the strangely quiet streets of Del Fuego. His new tri-barreled pistols weighing his belt down. Now all that was important was finishing the mission he was given. Vague, cryptic, and maybe even impossible, he was very well one of the only people for the job. Sinking Reynard’s ship.
’Yeah, this is most likely impossible’ Howard thought as he walked all the way to the tavern at the top of the hill. Opening the door lead him into an environment vastly different from the one he was just in. The lively, partying feel inside the tavern was a dramatic change from the quiet empty streets outside. Howard walked deeper into the tavern until he reached a couple of guards standing next to a door.
“Reynard…” He said. Apparently, that was enough to make the guards shrug him off into the room. As he opened the door he felt a cold chill in front of him as he entered the room.
“Who’s there?” said a voice from the opposite side of the room. A man with his face half covered by shadows sat on a fine chair next to a table that certainly didn’t have enough light to properly operate on.
“’tis only me, the shipwright.” Howard said, trying to get on the man’s good side. “I couldn’t help but notice the poor state your ship is in, and for a small fine, I could change that.” He said, hoping his cover wouldn’t be blown.
“I know you’re looking for Reynard.” The man said. “Tell me, what do you plan on doing when you actually find him?” He asked, smiling with content.
“Find him? I thought Reynard came to you.” Howard said. “He’s supposed to be this mastermind of elusion, and that theory’s been reinforced time and time again.” Howard said, bringing his fist down on his other hand. “The only real question to ask me is am I checking up to see if he still exists.”
“I see.” The man said leaning back onto his chair. “Well because of your… family history Mr. Hood. I think it’s best if you stay out of this, instead of trying your hands at more pirate related business.”
“Family history?” Howard asked. “What do you mean by that?”
“Your brother.” The man said calmly. “I’m surprised you don’t remember what happened to his reputation.”
“I…” Howard said but couldn’t continue because of the intense pull on his heart. “How do you…” He said but wasn’t able to finish. He knew what the man was talking about. But how did he know? He wouldn’t be able to know unless. “You… you’re part of the order, aren’t you?”
“That’s a conversation for another time.” The man said. “Now run along and go hunt someone else for a change.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The familiar outpost neared closer to the group. It looked just like any other normal building on Tortuga, save for the fact that it had a sign: Royal Navy Shipment Outpost. Even in the afternoon environment it felt strangely quiet, but then again, when was the navy ever really that busy making sure there work was going along smoothly?
“Ah, here we are.” Nathaniel said, walking closer towards the run down navy outpost. “I’m sure you know proper protocol.” He said, looking around. “Now, where’s your tired friend?”
“I’m right here.” Jack said, struggling to keep up. “Ready for anything…”
“Yes, well.” Ivan said, opening a pathway leading to the door of the outpost. “I believe we’ll report this note once we’re in.” He said, motioning for Jack to follow. “As you can see, my friend isn’t in the state to… report in.” He said, watching closely as Jack nearly dozed off.
“Yeah, we need to tell that… Howell guy.” Jack said, returning to his method of doing as much talking as possible. “As soon as…”
Ivan sighed and walked over towards Jack in frustration. “Now are you coming with us?” He asked.
“Yes, just give me a second.” Jack said.
After about an entire second of waiting, Jack, true to his word, headed towards the door. Ivan followed directly behind, but for a strange reason Nathaniel didn’t move at all. At first Ivan wondered if he may have something to do, but if he’d come this far with them, he obviously didn’t have anything pressing at the moment.
“Hey, Nathaniel, are you coming or not?” Ivan asked.
Nathaniel swallowed deeply and took a deep breath. “I’m afraid the officer in control of the shipment house has some strange dislike towards anyone affiliated with the EITC.” He said, backing off. “I’m terribly sorry, but I don’t believe I can accompany you any further.” He said with a tip of his hat. And with that, he left just as quickly as an eager recruit forgets to use his bayonet.
“Glad that’s over.” Jack said, turning his attention back towards looking alert in preparation for meeting with another officer. “I don’t know why, but that guy doesn’t seem right.”
“What do you mean?” Ivan asked. “He seems perfectly fine to me. He’s just a bit afraid of… naval officers.” He said, emphasizing “officers”.
Jack rolled his eyes and pushed the door open to the shipment house. Once in, they were led to believe by sight that the entire front entry room was completely deserted.
“Strange.” Jack said. “Last time there were at least five people waiting in here.”
“Yes, well the good part is that we don’t need to wait to have an audience with…” Ivan said before he opened the door to a sight that only in the deepest parts of his mind he’d feared. There was very good reason why the front room was empty, for the main room was empty too. Or so they thought.
“There’s nobody here.” Jack stated as they walked in circles around the main table.
“But… where could they have gone?” Ivan asked.
“I don’t have a clue.” Jack said, shrugging. “Maybe the left some message or a note behind to announce their departure.”
Ivan and Jack then began to look in the desks and cabinets to see if there were any papers of importance lying around. The desks, empty. The drawers, empty. Cabinets, empty except for a couple pens and bottle of ink. Absolutely no signs of life were visible throughout the building.
“The place is… empty.” Ivan said as he turned around just in time to see the butt of a rifle come into contact with his face.
A man stepped over Ivan's body, he was wearing a rough tricorne hat.
"Well done Ivan. I can see we are going to have fun." Stealthy grinned.
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