Aboard the Jackdaw: Under Edward Kenway And The Black Flag

15: Snakes in the Grass

The night that Edward and Joel surrendered themselves taken to the Port Royal prison, a British brig began to prepare to make sail at the navy's dock. After some spying and eavesdropping, Anna discovered that this brig was about to set sail for Havanna. This ship would without a doubt be delivering Joel to his homeland so that he could be prosecuted under his native jurisdiction.

The pirates did not anticipate Joel to be transported so soon: if he was taken away, not only would he be hung, but Kenway would have no one to be his back up. The Jackdaw crew devised some action to stall the launching of this brig.

Late in the foggy night, Anna and Adawalé snuck on the prisoner transport brig readying for Havanna. They tampered with the rigging, mast, rudder chain, and anything else that they could to delay their schedule.

While Anna was sabatoging the enemy ship, she noticed a note on the captain's desk with some familiar numbers.

8126,4339
Her heart dropped from her chest.

That's the number from the coordinates on the treasure maps..

How did they know this number?

This could have something to do with why the British were leaving for Havanna so fast. Also, Havanna was a Spanish island; could this explain why the Spanish were trying to trail Edward?

But how did the British know these numbers? There was no way that enemy troops could have sneaked into Edward's cabin and stolen the maps. They were all still untouched, and Anna locked the cabin behind her every time she left it. Even Adawalé didn't have the key to acess the maps.

There seemed to be only one explanation.

There is a British spy aboard the Jackdaw.

As Anna stormed out of the enemy captain's cabin, she noticed a fat bottle of gin. Part of her nerves vanished at the sight of the alcohol, and with a chuckle, she picked it up and read the ironic label.

It was the same brand that Captain James Fonte always drank in the afternoons. The British never had a variety of tastes.

She took a swing of the sweet burning liquid, nimbly ran out of the cabin, and jumped off of the ship to the dock. Adawalé led her into the shadows.

A few hours later, the sun bloomed against the Eastern sky and the tide rushed in. While the crew twirled their thumbs, Anna decided to go to the library in Kingston to research this mysterious number found in the enemy brig and the maps. With any luck, she could find out what the number ment.

She reluctantly slipped on an uncomfortable skirt on her legs along with a long-sleeved top to cover her slave tattoos.

She blended into the crowed under the scorching Caribbean sun. The long sleeved, stuffy shirt clung to Anna's arms. She wated to rip the sleeves off of her arms, but no one could know that she was a slave. Anna decided that if she lived to retire from pirate life that she would get the infernal inking removed from her arms.

She found her way through the busy streets to the library, and quickly looked for books about legendary treasure in the Carribean.

She stayed at the library all day at a table in the corner, painstakingly combing through a stack of books taller than a small child.

Anna sighed and opened one thin, burgandy book called Mysteries of the Caribbean, and began to read it.
She scanned the book's table of contents, flipped to a certain chapter, and froze.

Her trembling fingers ran over the lines of the book as she read:

"This place of legend is associated with the numbers 8126,4339, for this sequence corresponds to the ages of the elderly discoverer's wife and his three children.
Legend says that the founder placed many riddles across the West Indies in hopes that one day, his clues would eventually lead his children to the secret location of his discovery: the ultimate prize of the world."