Page 15 (1/2)

Behind Jack, there were thuds as the pirates started leaping back onto their ship He closed his eyes, thinking about what he had seen And dwelling also on how he e

CHAPTER SEVEN

FIRST MATE

Just as he was about to go below, Jack saw Sabine at the aft railing, watching the Weyden slide into the sea, a plu from the stricken stea-bellied pirate barely glanced at either of theathering overhead, there was a stillness to the sea in the afterine that he and Sabine were alone

Watching Sabine, he could feel the weight of her guilt, even worse than his own As the stea with bubbles and stea on board With each step he took, and each breath she took, innocents were drowning or burning, being crushed or suffocated Jack wanted to scream, to storm across the deck and tear the Larsen down around hi less

Instead, he reached for Sabine, his fingers resting lightly on her arm They could comfort each other, at least

She turned to look at hiaze shifted and Jack saw the ice for that could freeze her heart

"Where the hell is Johansen?" Ghost roared

Jack spun and saw the captain gripping De beneath hih to hold hiathered round Maurilio looked down from the crow’s nest Vukovich and Tree had ceased their ith the lines Finn hung in the rigging, paused halfway up to where the halyards had becoled

How could I have felt ere alone? Jack thought We’re in the lair of killers

"Da Demetrius aside "How could this happen? Is he back there now, dying with the cattle?"

Nobody spoke No one dared

"I have prowled every godforsaken corner of this ship, and Johansen is not on board!" Ghost continued, turning round and round, glaring at his crew He looked up at the crow’s nest and shouted "What of you, Maurilio? If you’re so blind, perhaps you don’t need your eyes, and I ought to have the?"

But Maurilio said nothing Jack thought he must have been a part of the assault on the Weyden, not even in the crow’s nest at the time of Johansen’s ht not And Finn was as silent as the others

Ghost fu the attack He glanced around in frustration, nostrils flaring, trying to catch a scent--Johansen’s? A killer’s? A liar’s? But Jack kneas useless Johansen’s corpse had been dropped overboard, and they were all killers, all liars

"Daestured to the crew to return to work "Sail on, you dogs"

Demetrius looked at Ghost warily and then retook the wheel The captain glared at hiaze came to rest on Jack and Sabine

"Mr London!" Ghost snapped

Jack frowned Not "young Jack"?

Suave a quiet nod to Sabine and crossed the deck to where the captain stood

"Louis and Kelly are laid out below Both have some lead in the it out I nominate you ship’s doctor, at least for the moment Go and take care of it"

His tone brooked no arguht with Jack With the ferocity of his rage, and the uncertainty of the violence that seemed to simmer beneath every moment on the ship now, he would be better off below And yet…

"Glad to be of service," Jack said, loud enough for others to hear But then he narrowed his eyes and, quieter, said, "We need to talk about Johansen"

Ghost sees with a breath of rage, so that Jack thought he would erupt again But that dark intelligence glittered in his eyes, and the captain nodded once, grabbed his ar forward

"Get to it"

As Jack dug the bullet out of Kelly’s chest, the wounded pirate , the captain’s pet Kelly grunted in pain several ti froht to be offended by the insults and afraid of the transformation that threatened any moment, but he could not find either eone cold inside Nuh hi that he still lived while so many had died

The bullet clinked into the pan Jack had set aside

He had believed himself in hell before, but that had been purely metaphor Now he had been made to salt and cure human flesh, to be a servant of monsters, and to be a spectator of ed for justice

And yet…

If it had been only his own life, he would gladly have given it But there was Sabine to think of He would not put her at risk, particularly after the secret she had shared He shuddered to think how ifts in his own hands, his own blood And she had hinted at other, greater powers, abilities of which Ghost was as yet unaware

Filled with hatred and righteous fury, he nevertheless had to keep his eh to find a way for both of the the tension on board carefully

The bullet clinked into the pan Jack had set aside He held a clean cloth against the wound and reached for bandages, but Kelly slapped his hand away

"You’ve done your work, Cooky My kind don’t need bandages"

Jack glanced at the wound and saw that, with the bullet reun to heal over Kelly stood stiffly, gri a smile as he went into the short corridor and up the steps to the deck

"You still alive in there?" Jack called into the galley, where Louis was laid out on the floor

"I would notas if from nowhere at all "But, yes I live"

He’d attempted to excavate the bullets from his own torso and failed Noaited in pain and frustration, though he had insisted Jack work on Kelly first because he didn’t want to listen to the other pirate grumble about his one bullet wound to Louis’s four Jack had been et Kelly out of there

Jack picked up the tools he’d been using on Kelly--tongs and a sharp, thin knife--and the pan with the bloody bullet rattling inside, and started out of theup to the deck creaked, and he glanced up to see the ainst the daylight For athe face of the beast, but as he reached the last step and no longer blocked out the sunlight, it becaed This wolf still wore the face of aJack," Ghost said "If you know so, speak now"

"I said as much, didn’t I?" Jack said defiantly "You want to knohere your first one? Over the side He’s beenyour assault on the Weyden, and dumped into the ocean"