(no subject)

[pirate_jack]

From here.

"Steady on, lad," Jack mutters, supporting Wellard as the two of them cross first the shore and then the floating pier to the Black Pearl.

They stop there, as Jack looks up the sea-ladder with a frown.

"Can you climb?"

Comments

[gramarye1971]

'Pirate or otherwise, I do credit you with more sense than to keep the bloodstained weapon with you afterward,' Merriman says, dry as dust. 'Just as I credit you both with enough sense to assure myself that this is not a conspiracy to kill or otherwise incapacitate Mister Norrington. I daresay you would have been rather more successful if that were indeed the case.'

("If the Captain was dead, he couldn't implicate anyone, and there was no matter if I was caught, sir."

'And what happened, I think, proves your true intentions.')

'In essence,' he continues, 'I have my reasons for being suspicious of a situation that leaves both participants unable to recollect the details leading up to that situation. And without the ability to do so, attempting to reconstruct some sort of blow-by-blow account will only be speculation, no matter how incriminating the evidence appears.'

[pirate_jack]

"Both participants." Merriman gets a sharp look, at this. "Norrington's awake, then?"

A beat, and Jack adds casually,

"As for the evidence... the lad's closest mate happens to also be the man what's the head of Security here, savvy?"

[gramarye1971]

Merriman shakes his head. 'I intend to find out his exact status when I eventually return to the bar. But unless you consider Mister Norrington's tolerance for alcohol to be such that he can be expected to provide clear and sober testimony upon questioning, it would only be wise to regard both of them as unreliable witnesses.'

The mention of Archie Kennedy eases some of the lines of grim tension in Merriman's face.

'Ah, yes,' he says. 'Mister Kennedy. Well, that may help to ensure that this incident is not taken purely at face-value...and also that it can be dealt with quietly, without involving more people than absolutely necessary. Which I think you will agree will be best for all parties involved.'

[pirate_jack]

Black eyes widen, and the flicker of surprise that passes over his expression is very clear-- and then Jack grins brightly at Merriman.

"Happens as I do, mate."

[gramarye1971]

'Very well.' He does not smile, but the easing of tension is a near-enough approximation to one in return. 'Shall I see about speaking to Mister Kennedy myself, then, before rumour happens to overtake fact?'

He'd end up speaking to Archie anyway, but it will not hurt to let Jack know of his intentions beforehand.

[pirate_jack]

"You're a diamond." Jack's grin now is cheerfully unrepentant, and he spreads his hands in acquiescence, swaying slightly as he does. "Bit easier for you to go traipsing over than me anyway at the moment, aye?"

He lowers his voice, confiding,

"Not to mention that there's all sorts that'd see you as someone what's a sight more trustworthy than a scallywag like meself."

Archie Kennedy may not necessarily be one of them, actually, but that's beside the point.

[gramarye1971]

'You'll forgive me if I do not happen to argue with that.' Merriman inclines his head slightly, but any trace of amusement in his voice fades with his next words. 'Though that rather brings me to the other point I was going to make -- in connection with Mister Norrington's part in this whole fiasco.'

He glances over at the closed cabin door, almost as if to assure himself that neither Mary nor Wellard will emerge any time soon.

'Explaining this...well, first of all, a word of warning that may have some bearing on what will follow.' He crosses the few steps to reach the edge of the ship, and rests his clasped hands upon the rail. 'There is a patron in this place who should be avoided at all costs, and I cannot stress this warning strongly enough. He has the appearance of a youngish man, blue-eyed and red-haired, with a penchant for dressing entirely in black. There is a quite noticeable scar on the left side of his face -- the legacy of a hunting accident, I would call it.'

(If Jack is looking closely enough, he might see a flicker of something akin to satisfaction cross the Commodore's face at that last sentence.)

'Both Mister Wellard and Miss Lennox will know him by the name of Aphelise, but one name is as good as another to him. And he is Bound here, barred from returning to the world from which he came -- which happens to be a world you yourself know very well.'

He looks over at Jack, his profile sharp and hawkish. 'I had a hand in barring him from it. That is how I know how dangerous he can be.'

[pirate_jack]

"Now that's very interesting."

Jack's glittering glance is curious, and somehow keenly assessing.

"Thought from what the lad said a while back that it was a witch what you had some dealings with."

[gramarye1971]

'She has been dealt with,' Merriman replies, crisp and certain. 'Stripped of the power which made her a witch -- for she was a mortal woman once, and now is mortal once again. But she was a colleague of his, when she was still capable of wielding the power of the Dark that he has at his disposal.'

He lets out a breath, as if to vent his own frustrations. 'I ought to admit that connecting this Aphelise to the incident before us here veers into the realm of speculation and borders on the fantastical. But it may well have direct relation to the sequence of events that brought the Pearl to Milliways, and if the same kind of power is at work here then you have more than the right to know of it.'

[pirate_jack]

"Don't think I like the sound of that at all, mate."

It's very nearly a growl.

"I don't recall making any bargains with that sort." A thoughtful pause. "'Course, I've made a lot of bargains."

[gramarye1971]

'For once, it seems, this bargain was not yours.'

(on a course that is set, though not of your devising)

Merriman leans against the rail a little as he continues. 'It may interest you to hear that the British East India Company's days of autonomy and independent sovereignty are numbered. Within a relatively short space of time, the Company and all its lands -- and profits -- will come under the control of the British Crown. The Company's shareholders and the East India lobby in Parliament will not be able to prevent this. And for reasons that would require far too much time to explain, this must happen.' He meets Jack's gaze as he says this, further underscoring his words. 'The Company must fall under Crown control. But as you can imagine, there are those who have a vested interest in securing any form of leverage available to prevent what might be seen as the inevitable.'

A beat of silence, broken only by the (overly) soft lapping of the water against the hull.

'Lord Cutler Beckett, for one.'

[pirate_jack]

"Don't tell me you expected me to be mourning the Company's loss of power, Commodore," Jack drawls, pointedly. "Not that I've a particular fondness for anything what's looking to take away another's freedom, but in East India's case--"

He waves a hand in the air, and the deep purple stone of the ring on his index finger gleams oddly in the light as he continues.

"-- suppose it's the natural result of dealing with their own devils, aye? So to speak." Sardonic humor coats his words.

"As for Beckett, he'd deal with a shark and come out even, most of the time."

Jack grins, wickedly.

"Most of the time. Still, he's cold as a dead fish, that one."

[gramarye1971]

Merriman raises an eyebrow at that. 'Indeed. And not exactly the most imaginative of men, one would think. Certainly not a man who would put any sort of stock in the fantastical tales told by rum-soaked, flea-bitten sailors about the Flying Dutchman and her crew of the damned...and her captain, who might well be considered a devil in his own right.'

He runs a hand along the wood of the rail before looking over at Jack again.

'So why, praytell, would he be so interested in acquiring the compass you carry on your person?'

[pirate_jack]

"Ah. That."

Jack turns away, one hand briefly going to cover the brand on his arm as he does.

There's a silence, while Jack looks out over the lake.

"Just how much do you know about Cutler Beckett?"

[gramarye1971]

'My personal contact with the man has been mercifully brief,' Merriman replies, his mouth twisting as if contemplating an unpleasant taste. 'Most of what I do know has been collected over the course of letters and conversations with others -- in essence, Company gossip, which is about as accurate as any other kind. But I know enough to regard him as a man with the potential to do great harm, given the right set of circumstances.'

He'd seen the mark left by the Company's brand. He'd nearly delivered Jack Sparrow to the gallows himself, once. And if anything, what he has learned recently has only increased his determination to see history run its proper course and watch the British East India Company reap the consequences of its imperial hubris.

'Why do you ask?'

[pirate_jack]

He shrugs, still staring over the water.

"Told you once there was no end to the man's ambition. Might be as you didn't really believe me, mate."

It's wearily said, and not a little grim.

"Knows more than you think he does, that one. Listens all the time. He's not the sort to care if it's a fancy story or not -- not if he can find a way to use it, aye?"

Slowly, he turns back to look at Merriman.

"If he's got Jones's heart, he's got more than you know. And as for me compass... well." Jack grins, a little. "More than one thing of value what could be found with it, savvy? Anything you want -- as long as you want it most."

[gramarye1971]

'Ambition is what a man makes of it,' Merriman says, shaking his head a little. 'The difficulty truly arises when ambition is not tempered with, shall we say, a working moral compass.'

He lets out a breath, not quite a sigh. 'But what concerns me most is not the possibility that Beckett has control of the heart. That, I am almost regarding as a given fact, based on what you have told me and what I have been able to piece together from other sources. What concerns me most is the possibility that someone else has control -- or rather, leverage -- over Beckett.'

[pirate_jack]

Black eyes are glittering with something unpleasant now.

"Someone what might be the sort that you'd take a professional interest in, aye?"

[gramarye1971]

His narrowed eyes, and the precise tilt of his head, turn his expression into something almost predatory.

'Old battles, Captain Sparrow.'

It is said with a soft steely edge, like the echo of a sword being drawn.

'Very old battles indeed.'

[pirate_jack]

"Ah."

There's an odd quietness to the single word, and more than a little tension around Jack Sparrow now.

"And young Wellard's caught up in the thick of it."

[gramarye1971]

'Not for the first time, unfortunately.' The steely edge is still present in his voice, though its sharpness is dulled by a touch of weariness. 'It does not generally bode well for mortals who end up in the thick of it, as you put it.'

He is not only speaking of Henry Wellard, in this.

[pirate_jack]

Jack throws him a sharp grin.

"Depends on the mortal, mate."

[gramarye1971]

That prompts a definitely raised eyebrow.

'If you say so, Captain Sparrow. But nevertheless, you have the reasons for my concern in this matter.'

[pirate_jack]

"One thing I'm wondering."

Jack brushes his hand over the compass that dangles still on its cord, looking pointedly at Merriman.

"I know what it is that's had Beckett interested in hunting me, savvy? And what's got Norrington involved in it all."

A beat.

"What's the reason for dragging the lad into it?"

[gramarye1971]

Merriman's brow furrows in thought -- and then a flash of real alarm flickers across his face.

'...who else knows about the astrolabe?'