939. Chapter 939

After Captain Kate and the Buried Treasure

Chapter Two

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Shiver me timbers, matey. I don't own Castle. Rating: M. Time: See above

Previously on Castle….After Kate accepted Castle's dinner invitation after their first case, they eloped three days later and….Oh! Sorry. Wrong alternate universe.

They sailed at dawn on the morning tide. Once the Revenge was clear of Tortuga, Grey gave Kate the latitude and longitude of the island. "The Spaniards call the island Santa Isabella. Ye can tell yer navigator lassie that she'll not need to be too fine with her sextant and charts. If she can get us within fifty miles of the island, we'll see the smoke."

"What smoke?" Kate demanded.

"T'is a volcano. That kind of smoke." Grey said airily.

"How do you know the whole island hasn't blown up since you were there?"

"If it had, everyone would have heard of it, Captain. No worries. It's been smokin' for years and never blown up yet."

Espo spoke up. "I know of this Santa Isabella, Captain. My people have sailed by it many, many times. We fear it, but as he says, it does no more than smoke. For as long as my people can remember, it smokes, but that is all."

Kate looked around at the expectant crew. "I suppose we'll have to take a chance. It's not like we never take them." She turned to Alexis. "Set us a course for Santa Isabella, Lieutenant Castle."

"Aye, aye, Captain."

They sailed through the blue Caribbean Sea without seeing another ship until they were quite close their destination. As the sun rose, Kate stood on the quarterdeck with Rick and Alexis. Suddenly she inhaled deeply. Then again. "What's that smell?"

Both Rick and Alexis, as well as Esposito at the ship's wheel, inhaled deeply as well.

"It stinks, whatever it is." Rick said.

Grey laughed. "T'is a smell I know quite well. T'is the smell of slavery. Hundreds of naked folks crammed into a ship's hold with no place to relieve themselves, sweating in a sweltering below decks. There's a slaver out there and not that far away."

In less than a quarter of an hour, a fast, three masted ship appeared on the horizon. Upon sighting the Revenge, she clapped on more sails and was soon gone.

Grey spat. "A slaver won't want to get too close to a well armed ship. A more powerful ship might want to relieve them of their valuable cargo. Yon ship will have a few cannons to frighten off local Indians and such, but she'll have to run, not fight."

Alexis had grabbed her charts and was pouring over them. "Kate, if my calculations are correct, that ship was coming from Santa Isabella. There may be slavers there ahead of us."

Queen L'Anie, whom Kate had saved from slavery came on deck and looked at the slaver's sail, now almost over the horizon.

"L'Anie, I'd like to chase her down and take her, but she looks to be faster than the Revenge." Kate said softly.

"I know. We cannot stop all of the evil in the world at once. But…." L'Anie's eyes stayed on the spot where the slaver had slipped over the horizon for a long while.

Since they had spotted the slaver, Captain Kate decided to lay off of Santa Isabella at night and send longboats ashore to scout the place. Naturally, she led the landing party which meant that Rick went with her while Alexis remained in temporary command of the Revenge. Ryan and two score of heavily armed pirates landed in a small cove and moved slowly through the jungle to where Grey had said the treasure was buried. Although he could not see, Grey insisted he'd recognize the treasure site if someone described it to him. Because of the thick jungle the sun was rising before they reached their goal.

"Well, look who's come to join me." A voice came from out of the jungle. "My old friend, Asa Grey. And do you have new friends now?"

Grey looked at a spot in the jungle. "Long John Slaughter? Is that you, you black hearted rogue? He who left me blind and crippled in the jungle all those years ago?"

A man stepped out of the jungle and walked towards them. He was tall and brawny and his clothes were in rags, and his hair and beard matted with filth. On his feet were crudely made shoes, probably home-made. However, the cutlass at his waist and the musket in his hands were clean and well cared for. "As if you'd have waited for me, holding my hand and singing hymns, if our positions had been reversed. And who are your friends?"

"Captain Kate Beckett, of the Revenge. "Kate said. "These are my men."

Slaughter looked her over. "I can see why they follow you. Quite a view."

She ignored the comment. "And what are you doing here?"

"Why, captain, I'm looking for buried treasure, just like you. I tried for years to get here, but I needed a ship and men I could trust. I managed several ships, but never a single lad I could trust. So, finding myself close by, I stole a native canoe and came here, hoping to get enough gold to get by. And what did I find here? Slavers. Damned slavers. And where did the build their damned slave pens? Right over where we buried our treasure. I'd no hope of getting near it until you came by."

"And why should I take you along?" Kate asked with a cold smile.

"Because you mean to fight the slavers and you'll need all the fighters you can get. As Grey here can tell you, I'm good in a fight. I have a cutlass and this is no musket I have, but a rifle. I can kill a man at two hundred yards. Can and have. And will again."

Kate nodded. "Then you'll get the same share as my own seamen."

"Better than nothing." Slaughter said, shaking his head. "And to think my future rides on following the orders of a woman."

"This woman has a heavily armed ship and a fighting crew. What do you have?"

Slaughter just laughed. He proceeded to tell Kate what he'd learned in the week he'd been on Santa Isabella. "This is a waystation for slavers. There have been three ships here in the last week, offloading maybe a thousand slaves all told. There are maybe a hundred or more slavers here, well armed, but sloppy. They have a gun battery dug in on the point overlooking the harbor. I reckon that they have eight twenty-four pounders in the battery. You have to come straight past the battery or you'll hit a reef. Oh, and there's a Spanish Guarda Costa sloop of twelve guns that's come here twice, loaded up slaves and sailed away."

"So, the Spanish are being paid off in slaves to leave these slavers alone." Kate said.

"I crept close enough to hear them slavers talk once." Slaughter said. "I heard English and Dutch, maybe French and some tongues I know not. All bad men, I'm bound."

"Can I get close enough to take a look?" Kate asked.

"There's a nice steep hill, covered with jungle that overlooks the camp. I can take you there."

Once there, Kate crept up with her telescope and carefully looked over the slaver's camp. As she watched and made mental notes, a plan began to form in her mind.

Once back on the Revenge, Kate took her out to sea so that no incoming slaver ship would see her and warn the slavers that a heavily armed ship was in the area.

The next night, Kate led her crewmen through the jungle towards the battery that protected the slavers from attacking ships. The guns all faced out to sea, but there was a stout wooden fence some ten feet high between the jungle and the battery. With Rick and Ryan, Kate crept towards the gate in the fence, a small barrel of gunpowder in her hands. Rick and Ryan carried sand bags. Kate put the barrel against the gate and the two men put the heavy sandbags on top of it, to direct the blast towards the gate.

Suddenly a voice called out from above. "Who's down there?"

Kate quickly replied with a slurred voice, "It's me. Is Jack there?"

"Jolly Meg, is that you?"

As the slaver leaned over the parapet, Ryan shot him, then lit the fuse. They all ran. The blast blew open the Gate and Kate led her men into the battery. Kate was the first one through the shattered gate. The gunners had, naturally enough, headed for their cannons when woken by the explosion. The pirates slammed into them from behind. A huge gunner loomed up in front of Kate and swung a rammer at her. She ducked, but the rammer caught her on the shoulder and knocked her down. The gunner raised this rammer over his head, but a bayonet was slammed into his stomach and he fell away. Rick pulled her to her feet. "Are you okay?"

She smiled at him. "I will be as long as you have my back."

"Always." He said as they ran towards the cannons.

Kate only remembered fragments of the attack. A pirate screaming as he slashed at a slaver, who opened the pirate's belly as his own throat was slashed. Gunners trying to swing a heavy cannon around suddenly over run before the gun could be fired. A man looking dumbly at a wrist with no hand on it, spurting blood.

In minutes it was over. The slavers were either dead or had leapt from the battery into the jungle and ran away.