Pirates of the Caribbean: How Many Miles to Babylon?

Retribution

Retribution

Hours after the child of Bootstrap had appeared on the Pearl waving a pistol, Barbossa was pacing slowly about the day room, reviewing his plans. He had not allowed Turner's sudden arrival to unsettle him; he had used his wits to turn it all to his advantage. And now he meant to ensure that there was nothing too rash in his strategy. He wanted no problems of the sort that Bootstrap's departure had created. Barbossa had learned to govern his quick temper since that day, and he recognised that present events were nearing a crisis that required careful thought.

When he recalled Turner's son trying to negotiate with him, his mouth widened into a broad smile. During the actual conversation, of course, he had managed to maintain a serious expression until the accord was reached.

Turner, as simple-minded as his father, had insisted that Elizabeth go free, and the crew not be harmed. Fair enough. That was the point where Barbossa had cut their talk short; after hearing Turner's vague demands, he knew exactly how he intended to deal with each one of them---Sparrow, Turner, and Elizabeth Whoever-she-was.

"Agreed," he had said, showing his teeth in a triumphant grin. Agreed, Master Turner, he thought. I've got every blasted one of ye just where I want ye.

All of the prisoners remained bound with ropes as they stood on deck, and Turner joined them.

"Sound the ship!" Barbossa had ordered the carpenter, one Mr Crackett, "an' see to the brig first."

Once the brig was repaired, Barbossa had thrown the lot of them into it: Sparrow, the remaining crew, Turner, and the girl. No doubt they believed that the Pearl would set a course for Isla de Muerta, but he had another destination in mind.

Turner would have to be kept in health until the ritual was completed and proved to be successful. However, neither the girl nor Sparrow served any purpose at all and Barbossa reckoned it was time to take revenge on them both. Turner's bargain was worthless, because Sparrow, as "captain", was not part of the crew. As for Elizabeth, well, there were many ways to set a prisoner free.

The Pearl was bound for Rumrunner's Island, the sandy atoll where they had marooned Sparrow before. The idea of returning to the same place appealed to Barbossa: it carried a sense of fitness, of correcting a misstep, and of ending the curse with the same events that began it. And this time, Sparrow would have a companion, because Elizabeth would be "set free", just as the foolish Turner boy had asked, but in a place where she was certain to perish.

Yet . . . something was making him uneasy. After ten years of supernatural suffering, Barbossa found himself wary of uncanny signs. The eerie coincidence of young Turner's emergence from the ocean bothered him. One Turner going into the sea and another coming out of it gave him a peculiar feeling, as if Bootstrap had, in a sense, returned; and that would bode ill for the mutineers. He steadfastly rejected the idea; this was no time to lose his nerve over imagined omens.

He walked about the cabin, listening to the low-pitched hum that came from the medallion, carried safely in his coat pocket. He took it out to gaze at it once more, and noticed something caught in its chain.

It was the drowned girl's hairpin. He untangled it, and was about to drop the pin back into his pocket, when he stopped, startled by a sudden realisation. On his last visit to these waters, he had marooned Sparrow; but something else had happened on that day. He tightened his mouth for a moment at the thought of it: he was sailing to the very place, indeed the very waters, where Nina had thrown herself overboard.

He pictured the island and the seas. "Nina," he said under his breath, as a foolish wish popped into his head: that he could go back in time and stop her. Ah, he thought with relief, that explains the dream I had about savin' her. Still, he felt an odd sense of loss; that possibility was closed to him now.