Chapter 78: Book 1: Chapter 27 (Part 4 of 5)

“I thought we weren’t going to play silly buggers, Governor” I answered reproachfully. “Yes, you can probably get off this island by yourselves eventually, but that will take time. I’ll speed this up for all of us. I know how your Ruler class works. To increase your influence, you need the Mayors of Michigan to bend the knee to you. And there is only one way of using your class to put that question to them, and exert pressure on them to accept, remotely. From your Framework recognised seat of power. The state capital, Lansing.”

There was a look of resignation on Richard Reynolds face, but his wife seemed almost amused.

“You can turn me down, if you wish,” I told him casually. “But how many more towns and cities will you lose the opportunity to gather under your banner by the time you get there under your own steam. We both know you’ve already lost Grand Rapids.”

There was a look of surprise on the faces on the other side of the table.

“Yes, I know about Grand Rapids,” I continued. “It’s in the hands of a two-bit hoodlum by the name of Luca Gattosi now.

“Let me ask you, do you think the Governors of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio all had the same misfortune of not being in or near their capitals? Not to mention our northern neighbour Ontario. If you take the deal, you can be in Saginaw tonight and marching south to Flint by morning. You could be in Lansing in two days rather than two weeks, and the roads are only going to get more dangerous with every day that you wait.”

“Hmmm, Captain Carter, you make a compelling argument,” Governor Reynolds conceded.

Then Anastasia piped up. “Plus, as your daughter pointed out we are pirates. We’re less likely to do piratey shit to those who have a proven track record of working with us. We’ve come to you, we could have gone to one of the other Governor’s. Not all the islands in the Great Lakes belong to Michigan.”

Regina Reynolds laughed out loud at that. Raven seemed like she was sucking on a lemon.

“Indeed,” Shana added. “When resources begin to become scarce, having a cordial relationship with those who could secure what you need, no questions asked, is the kind of relationship that would be helpful.”

Raven’s face scrunched even tighter if that was possible. “They speak the truth,” she unwillingly gasped, at last.

The Governor smiled at both of my girls, his lecherous side coming to the fore. “Excellent points on both counts ladies. You are a lucky man, Captain Carter, to have such dazzling and accomplished women working under you.”

Regina snorted at this, but her husband and daughter seemed oblivious to her derision. Much in the same way that Victor had been of Shana’s obvious dislike of him.

“You said there were two things you wanted, Captain Carter?” Regina questioned me while her husband ogled.

“Ah yes, I almost forgot. I would like authorisation to enter and transfer prisoners from the state’s correctional facilities,” I responded.

This left the opposing side of the table in stunned silence.

“Why?” Raven asked, suspicion heavy in her voice.

“As I’m sure your legal experts over there have figured out, the prisons have some added protection to prevent the prisoners escaping and running rampant in these early days. That won’t last. To be perfectly honest I’ve already had a run-in with Luca Gattosi in Grand Rapids, and we did not see eye to eye.

“Luca has a similar class to your father’s, one called Criminal Kingpin.” There was a flash of recognition in the gorgeous Angelblood Justicar’s emerald eyes. “You’re aware of it and what it can do, good. It shan’t be long before he has the strength to overcome the protections on the facilities near him and incorporate their residents into his growing army. For my own reasons I wish to deny him that opportunity and emptying the correctional facilities of potential recruits seems like the best way.”

“And what do I get in return?” Governor Reynolds pressed.

“Apart from denying a potential rival a significant number of soldiers?” I argued back.

“There is nothing to stop me from doing what you are proposing myself, now is there, Captain Carter,” he countered.

“Only if I sail you off this island,” I replied in kind.

“Come now, Captain Carter. You can’t expect me to believe you will turn down my agreeing to your first request if I reject your second. You want me to hand over those islands too badly,” he smiled smugly.

I made a show of mulling over his demand, though I had expected he wouldn’t want to grant me the permissions for nothing.

“Fine, slaves,” I said, after a moment.

I’d stunned them all for a second time.

Raven recovered the quickest. “Please, let me smite this degenerate bastard, Father.”

I raised my hand with my index finger pointed upwards to forestall the Governor’s response. “To be more specific I am offering to return any of your acknowledged citizens, who happen to have the misfortune of being collared and then come into my possession, for a small finder’s fee of ten gold per slave. I can’t give them to you for nothing, my hands are tied on that before you ask. Then you can free them as you see fit and bask in the adulation as their saviour.”

This had been one of the various options of what I could do with slaves that I had discussed with Quixbix and Jackson. We had found a little wriggle room with regards to selling them to be freed by another for a discounted price, but only if it was part of a negotiated Framework Contract.

However, l would still need to get reasonable recompense as part of the deal or continue to risk the Notoriety loss. Permission to enter and empty the prisons alone wouldn’t cut it, even after I had specified this deal would only apply to acknowledged citizens of the Michigan State faction and not any slave I secured.

You are reading story Corsairs & Cataclysms at novel35.com

Currently, that was only the people on Mackinac Island. The scale would increase once the Governor got to Lansing and put the question to the Mayors of Michigan. But you can bet that some of them would resist or had already severed their ties like Grand Rapids. Even so, the Framework would comprehend the potential scale and demand something significant in return.  

Therefore, I added before any of them spoke. “This will cost you a little extra, though. I can make a lot more if I sell them on the markets. I would need you to give me all the state-owned islands in Michigan, not just the Beaver Island archipelago” I finished.

“We will not bargain with slaving scum, like you,” Raven cried forcefully.

“If you are willing to swear a Bond not to enslave our citizenry in the first place, you have a deal, Captain Carter,” Regina spoke loudly, overriding her daughter’s zeal.

“Mother! You can’t be serious,” Raven cried in shock.

“I am, Raven. The world has changed dramatically and every day we waste lollygagging, trapped on this island, is another that the people of this state suffer without the guidance and support we can provide them. He is telling the truth, is he not?” she asked her daughter pointedly.

“He is, but he is also a despicable pirate who engages in slavery. We can’t lower ourselves to his level. We should kill him and take his ship,” Raven argued stridently.

“My, my, advocating the murder of a guest and stealing what is rightfully theirs,” I tutted. “That doesn’t sound very judicial, does it. Besides, even if you managed to kill me you wouldn’t be able to use my ship, it doesn’t work that way,” I commented wryly.

This was true, they wouldn’t be able to use the ship. Even if they figured out that a dungeon powered the Marena’s Mercy, and how to take control, this would make them just like me and I was a despicable slaver after all. Raven was the only one here who was likely strong enough to win the Control Collar anyway and she had made her feelings on enslaving others crystal clear.

“Silence scum! I don’t care if you are telling the truth,” Raven screeched.

The Governor stood then and took his enraged daughter’s face in his hands firmly. “My darling girl, you need to get a hold of yourself. We are Reynolds and we always maintain our composure, no matter the circumstances. And we do not strike down folk we have invited into our home. The optics would be dreadful.”

“Yes, Daddy. I’m sorry, Daddy. It’s just, he is corruption personified,” Raven wept, a few tears running down her freckled cheeks.

“I understand, baby-girl. But we’ve talked about this, sometimes the hero must deal with the devil for the greater good. This is one of those times,” Governor Reynolds crooned to his daughter and then brought her in for a rib-crushing hug.

It would be the classic Hallmark moment if it weren’t equally creepy and hypocritical. Although no one ever accused Tricky Dicky Two of being an evil man, he was a liar and a cheat through and through. What’s more, everyone knew it, everyone except his truth-scenting daughter, apparently.

Everybody has a blind spot, I suppose.

Regina ignored her husband and daughter, her focus solely on me. “Will you agree to the Bond?”

I nodded. “I can go one better,” I said and snapped my fingers.

A Framework Contract similar to the Canon materialised in my fingers. We had pre-prepared the document with all the details and Quixbix assured me he had made the necessary slight adjustments that cropped up during our discussion.

I slipped the contract across the table and Regina picked it up immediately and scanned through it. After a minute she requested a few minor changes to the language used. She didn’t need to return the contract to me for that, it turned out the ‘Pact’ in her species information referred to a Path of Power she had taken in character creation. The Path of the Pact-maker.

By the time Regina was happy with the contents, her husband had extricated himself from his clinging and emotionally overwrought daughter. Raven seemed to have regained some of her composure but continued to glare daggers at me.

“Sign it,” Regina insisted of her husband once he was seated.

 “Are you sure about this Regina? If I give up too much land, I will grow weaker,” Governor Reynolds prevaricated.

The gleam in his eyes was a lust for territory and power. He was loathe to give up any of what he had already amassed.

“Parker!” Regina called out to the lawyers. “Assure my husband he won’t be losing anything.”

“Of course,” the shorter of the two attendants, who had whispered in the Governor’s ear earlier, answered. “I have run the numbers, sir. The islands in question do not have enough square mileage to drop the grade of your Ruler class, and they are uninhabited and likely overrun with spawned monsters.”

The Governor grunted at that but remained sceptical. I suspected it was the mere principle of giving up what was his that caused his dithering.

“For God’s sake, Richard,” Regina huffed. “You will get as much back and more in Saginaw tonight.”

Then she tapped the table impatiently. Resignedly, Richard Reynolds, pressed his thumb to the bottom of the contract and the deal was struck.

I clapped my hands together and checked my watch. It was almost eleven in the morning. “Excellent, a good deal for all involved. Can you be ready to leave by two p.m.? It will take roughly six hours to get to Saginaw from here and I would like to drop you off before it gets dark.”

“Yes,” Regina answered and rose from her chair and walked around the table to our side. “Parker, make the arrangements.”

You can find story with these keywords: Corsairs & Cataclysms, Read Corsairs & Cataclysms, Corsairs & Cataclysms novel, Corsairs & Cataclysms book, Corsairs & Cataclysms story, Corsairs & Cataclysms full, Corsairs & Cataclysms Latest Chapter