Lions of the Sea

51

The sky darkened rapidly as the clouds swarmed toward mainland. The Trinidad approached the pirate ship with her lamps off in the early nightfall, keeping a safe distance. The Phantom didn't seem able to move forward in the storm and rocked in a sea that grew heavy.

A midshipman ran from the larboard side to the bridge and whispered something to Lorenzo's lieutenant, who hurried to his captain. The three friends were standing there despite the rain.

"Wrecks in the water, sir," the lieutenant whispered.

Castillano frowned. Could it be that the dogs hadn't had time to finish repairing the holes in the hull? At the pace he'd seen them work?

"We're boarding them on the boats," Lorenzo said, and signaled his lieutenant to carry on his command. "Where are you going?" he asked, seeing Castillano and Alonso head for the steps down the bridge.

"To board them," Castillano replied. "Or do you expect me to miss the moment of catching those sons of bitches?"

Lorenzo nodded, smiling, and kept whispering orders to his men.

Castillano and Alonso boarded the first boat and led the other two toward the Phantom. The noise of the storm silenced the splashing of the oars, and they approached the pirate ship without hearing any alarm. They were near the starboard side when they heard the loud voices from the weather deck. Castillano stopped his men, paying attention. The voices came from the larboard side.

"No! Jean! Throw a rope! I don't want to lose him too!"

"Swim, man! Come! You can do it!"

"Oh, God, Maxó! I can't see him!"

"Go back below, pearl! It's dangerous here!"

Castillano and Alonso made a sign to their men, who threw hooks with ropes to the starboard gunwale. They sent two thirds of the soldiers to climb up that way and rowed their boat to a half-patched hole near the stern. Castillano tried the boards. Alonso had two men help him, and they pushed and pulled until they broke one of the boards.

"That's enough," Alonso said.

Castillano was the first to step on the boat gunwale, climb to the hole and roll through, pistol in hand. Alonso and the others followed him. They all crawled into the ship, jumping to their feet. Castillano made them spread all over the stern and stepped up, raising his pistol.

Marina held two guns, and when she saw him, she pointed one at him, setting her jaw. She was among the hammocks of the wounded men, two armed pirates with her. Castillano thought those were more hammocks than the night before, but he didn't have time to count them.

"I warned you, Velazquez," he said, walking toward her.

Marina shook her head, her face suggesting he'd betrayed her or something. Alonso signaled the soldiers to spread out and search the Phantom. Those who had climbed to the weather deck came down the waist hatch, pushing Morris, Maxó and De Neill, soaking wet and disarmed. Castillano recognized them and turned to Marina again.

"Surrender, Velazquez. You have no choice." Where were all the other pirates? Why hadn't they found any kind of resistance?

A dog with his head and chest covered in bloody dressings staggered down from his hammock. The soldiers tried to stop him, but Marina and the other two surrounded him, covering him until he reached the first cannon on the larboard side. There was a big bulk there, between the guns, covered with a spare sail.

The Spaniards readied their guns when the wounded pirate grabbed a lantern hanging from a pillar. Alonso's sign stopped them. The pirate yanked the spare sail away from the bulk, showing several barrels of gunpowder. He sat on them with the lantern open.