Chapter 21
The Blue Emerald Bay Resort
Main Restaurant
Puerto Rico
7:20 a.m.
Sally-Anne Davis knelt beside Dr. Paul Mitchell, following his instructions and doing exactly as he said, passing him his surgical instruments as necessary, and helping to put pressure on a vein as directed until it had been sewn back together. Dr Mitchell worked fast. The guard had lost a lot of blood, and would need a blood transfusion and antibiotics as soon as possible if he were to survive. However, he managed to stem the loss of blood, and stitch him up as best he could, given the lack of facilities and poor operating conditions.
Sally was not scared by the sight of blood. Her uncle had been a vet, and for a while she had even considered becoming one herself. But after spending some time with her family on holiday in a hotel in Jamaica when she was fifteen years old, she had fallen in love with the hotel industry. From then on, she knew that one day she would own her own hotel. That was still her dream.
"Well," Dr Mitchell said, looking up at Sally. "That's all we can do for now. We need to get him to a hospital. And soon. Somehow we have to persuade these bastards to let us get help."
"Leave that to me," Sally replied, standing up. "You've done your part. And I think that there are a few other people who have been wounded and need your help."
Sally turned and walked back out of the door, from the relatively peaceful seclusion of the private room to the chaos of the main restaurant.
"How is he?" a tall man asked, approaching Sally the moment she entered the room. Sally looked at him. He was the man who had been standing with the bandit leader earlier on. He was obviously one of the bandits, but he was not like the others. He was not dirty. On the contrary he was quite clean. His clothes were smart, although rather comical, he carried a large tri-cornered hat tucked under his arm, and from where she stood, it seemed as if he did not smell. The man smiled at her, his voice warm and authoritative, but not threatening. His blue eyes twinkled in the restaurant lights, long, light brown hair tied in a pony tail, his face rugged and tanned. An old scar ran upwards across his right cheek bone, and Sally felt a strange but compelling urge to reach out and touch it.
In spite of the stressful circumstances around her, she recognised the instant attraction that she felt to him. He was a handsome man, there was no denying it.
"He will live, for now, but only if we get him to a hospital as soon as possible. I need to speak to your leader, the man with the silver beard? Please take me to him."
"I am sorry, that will not be possible for now. I have sent him elsewhere."
"You sent him..." Sally repeated, the dynamic of the situation dawning on her. "So you are the leader of these bandits?"
"Bandits is a bad word. I would prefer to call ourselves privateers."
"Privateers? What, as in 'mercenaries' or as in 'pirates'? What the hell type of bandits are you?"
"Pirates is perhaps acceptable, although personally, I still prefer 'privateer.'"
Sally shook her head in disbelief.
"To be quite honest, for now, I don't care what you call yourselves. What I care about it is that this is my hotel, these are my guests, and I'm responsible for them. Including the guard that one of your men has tried to kill."
"He fired his musket first. My men acted only in self-defense. I am sorry that your guard has been injured."
"So, can I send my guard to hospital or not?"
"What is a hospital? And where is it? And how can it save his life. The man will surely die. His wound is..."
"Stop this game. Please...it's gone far enough. We need to get this man to hospital and soon!"
"And I repeat. What is a hospital? And where is it?"
Sally took a deep breath, counting to ten, and exhaling slowly. For now, she would play the game, but only so that she could save a life.
"A hospital is a large building full of doctors and nurses, where specialist care can be administered to those in need. The doctors there are experts in saving lives. They can treat almost any ailment, and make you well again."
The man's eyes lit up.
"There is much that is strange about this place...much that I have never seen before, so I am inclined to believe in what you say. I apologize again for your guard being wounded, and I will agree to the sending of him to this hospital. However, there will be conditions."
"Which are?"
"Firstly, that you order your guards to desist from further resistance. There shall be no more fighting. We mean you no harm, and I would prefer it if no more harm would come to your courtiers and guards or to my men. Secondly, that you ask a man of medicine to come here to attend to some men on my ship. They are poorly, stricken down by I know not what, and they too are in need of this hospital."
Sally hesitated. She was reluctant to order her security to surrender. The man saw it and read her mind.
"There are many of us, and few of your guards. Only twenty I am told. We are much more, and we are desperate. We have much to lose and will fight hard for what we have come to take. We seek only food and water. My men are thirsty and hungry, and your men will die needlessly if they oppose us. We mean you no harm. Please ask them to surrender, and I promise that no further harm shall come to them. I give you my word."
The man in front of her held out his hand, his face serious, but not threatening.
Sally knew the man was right. The bandits had taken so many hostages that it would need professional, expert help to resolve the situation. The hotel security team were not trained in such matters. They would likely only make matters worse.
"I agree," she said.
The man pushed his hand further forward and nodded at it, indicating that she should shake it.
Tentatively she put her hand in his. His grip was warm and firm, and as she shook it, in spite of herself, she felt a small tingle of electricity pass up and down her spine.
"Good. The deal is sealed. The only question now is of how we can convey your man to this hospital, and how you can pass the order to your men to surrender."
"I am worried," the Captain continued, "?that unless you recall your guards sooner rather than later, there could be more deaths. So I propose that you first recall your guards, and then we shall seek a way to move your man to this hospital that you mention."
"Okay. I agree. Please come with me."
The bandit leader waved his hand graciously in front of her, indicating that she should lead the way. She nodded, and turned and walked towards the entrance to the hall.
They walked out through the magical doors that swept open before them, and he followed her, admiring the to-and-fro of her hips, and the tightly clinging clothes that she wore, which both showed her comely figure and retained her modesty.
Almost as if she could feel his eyes boring into her, she turned, catching his gaze, and for a moment Captain Rob felt himself blush.
"A blushing pirate?" Sally teased him.
"I was caught, and I am guilty. But I shall not apologize for admiring beauty," the bandit leader replied.
"In here," Sally mentioned, stepping aside to led the bandit leader walk in front. He overtook her, and walked up to the door and straight into it, banging his face against the glass panel.
"Sorry," Sally laughed. "This one is not automatic. You have to push it...," and she lent in front of him and pushed the door open.
They passed through the doorway, walked down the corridor on the other side, and then emerged into a grandiose hallway, with a sweeping marble staircase disappearing upwards on either side of a large, cream colored marble table, behind which two women stood.
"This is the hotel reception. I will send out a message to all the guards on their pagers."
The bandit leader nodded and smiled then said, "Please do. Although, in truth, I know not of which you speak."
As soon as the women behind the desk saw Sally, they rushed up to her excitedly across the reception area. One was crying, and the
other was obviously visibly shaken.
"Miss Davis! Thank God you are okay? Have you heard...did you see..." and then they both noticed Captain Rob.
Sally embraced the women one by one, and whispered something into each of their ears.
Then she turned to the bandit and ushered him to follow her.
She walked to a door in the hallway to the right of the reception desk, took a key out of her pocket and opened the door to a large, impressive room.
"This is my office," she said. "Please come in and sit down."
Walking behind her desk, she opened one of the drawers and pulled out a large black block which she held in one hand, while she tapped on it with the fingers of the other.
A moment later she turned to the bandit leader and said, "There that part is done. I have sent a message instructing the remaining guards to surrender to your men in the main restaurant hall in the next few minutes. I trust you will keep your word. And if you would care to look out of that window, you can already see two of the guards walking away from their posts and towards the restaurant."
The bandit leader stood up and walked towards the window as suggested.
As soon as his back was turned, Sally reached under the desk and pressed a black button: five miles away in the local police station a loud alarm began to ring.
"And now," Sally said. "You shall keep your bargain, and I will call for a doctor for my guard."
"You will call for one? From so far away? You must have a very loud voice. But you have my permission to try!" the bandit replied, and then laughed to himself.
Sally picked up the phone on her desk, pressed the three digit short-code, and waited for the voice at the other end.
"Hello, yes...this is Sally Davis, the General Manager at the Blue Emerald ..." she said, but before she could continue the bandit leader darted across the room from the window and grabbed the handset out of her hand and dropped it onto the top of Sally's desk.
He lent forward and said to her quietly..."I do not know by what devilry it is that you are speaking to someone, but I accept that you are...there is so much strangeness in this world of yours, that I fear that nothing will surprise me now?but I caution you woman, say NOTHING of the hostages or our presence here. Say ONLY that there has been an accident. A man is injured and that they should send the hospital to help him!"
"I understand," she whispered back. "But it is the other way around. We must send him to the hospital. But they should first send the ambulance to pick him up."
"Ambulance? Is he to walk? I don't understand..."
"Trust me. Please. And let me make the call?"
The bandit leader stood back, and nodded.
He could hear a voice talking to Miss Sally from within the little box that she held in her hand. Sally answered.
"Sorry, I dropped the phone...it got all tangled up. As I was about to say, there has been a bad accident at the Blue Emerald. One of our guards was accidentally stabbed. Dr Mitchell has stabilized him, but he will need emergency medication and a blood transfusion. Can you send an air ambulance to pick him up from the beach?"
Five minutes later, Sally, the bandit leader, Dr Mitchell and two of the bandits, -or privateers-, as the bandit leader kept insisting she should call them, carried the wounded guard down to the beach, to await the air ambulance.
As they emerged through the tree-line onto the beach, Sally and the doctor stopped in their tracks and stared at the bay: two hundred yards offshore, a large sailing ship was anchored, its sails furled, and its boats being rowed towards the shore.
"She is beautiful is she not?" the bandit leader said. "That is our ship, the Sea Dancer..., the fastest..."
"....pirate ship on the high seas?" Sally-Anne Davis completed the sentence for him.
She turned and stared at the bandit leader.
"Aha, at last you begin to understand, Miss Sally. Pirate ship? Perhaps, but as I have mentioned before, I would prefer the term 'privateer.' There is a big difference after all."
"...So..., if that is your ship," Sally replied, a strange realization dawning on her. "Then, if you are the leader of these men,...then you must be the Captain?"
"...And never was a truer word said, Miss Sally. That is I. Their Captain. Apologies for not introducing myself sooner..."
"And your name, Mr Captain? What is your name?"
"I am Captain Rob McGregor, master of the Sea Dancer,...and leader of the most feared band of buccaneers in the Caribbean," at which point he smiled, winked, and swept his tri-cornered hat from his head and across his chest as he performed a mock-bow in front of her.
Sally found the introduction both charming and confusing. Did this man sincerely believe he was a Captain of a band of pirates, or was he mocking himself in some way?
Sally looked from the Captain to the ship and back to the Captain, and was just about to open her mouth to say something else, when the air ambulance swept out from over the tree tops, deafening them all.