The Admiral

James Morgan

We arrived at the salt farm under the cover of night. Extracting salt from water like this isn’t exactly thrilling work, most of the work is done my time.

Elwin takes out a pad of paper and starts to quickly scribble different areas of the site that may prove useful later.

I look around through the scope of my rifle. There weren’t many people in sight, just a few guys sitting around talking and drinking around a fire, probably to stop any locals from coming around and helping themselves.

There’s an area inside the crater where the water comes up from beneath the earth, it’s sectioned off into rectangular pools, and as the water in the pools evaporates the salt crystalizes before being swept into piles. It’s much easier than farming crops. No seeds, no watering, no pests. Just free salty water crystalizing into gold, gold that’s bought Wyatt Grayson the ship he built to take on the Pirate Hunters Fleet.

“It’s practically a gold mine,” I say quietly and look over at Giddeon who looks around through a scope.

Giddeon looks at me, “Can you see any movement in that building?”

I look into the wooden structure but see nothing inside, “There are no lights on in there. It’s most likely where they pack the salt for shipping.”

I use the scope to look around and turn my attention to the beach to the east, it’s only about 900 meters away from the crater with a dirt road for transporting cargo. I look over to the horizon and make out a ship anchored on the horizon. There’s no moon in the sky which is good for us to stay hidden but makes it difficult to see much of anything.

I lower my rifle, “I can’t be too sure boys, but I think that’s The Dragon.”

I feel all of them look my way before following my eyeline to the ocean.

“The ramming vessel that sunk your ship?” Collins asks quietly and I nod.

Giddeon looks my way, “We should go check it out. If we can get a visual on Wyatt maybe you can shoot him.”

“It’s too dark for that, I’d risk missing and giving away our position.”

Giddeon nods, “You’re right. Elwin, get closer to the beach and draw a quick map of the area, and anything of interest, Morgan you follow him at a distance and watch his back. We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes, if you’re not back by then we’re leaving without you.”

Elwin nods, “Alright.”

“Give me what you’ve got so far,” Giddeon takes the sketches Elwin hands him.

Elwin stuffs his blank papers and pencil into his satchel and goes to head toward the beach. I give him a moment’s head start before following after him.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but ever since we made it ashore, I’ve had the feeling we were being watched. At some point, I thought maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me, but now as I follow Elwin to the cliffs that overlook the beach, I feel it stronger than ever.

As I look around behind me, I see a shape on the ground that wasn’t there when I walked past. One might mistake it for a rock, but regardless I point my rifle at the mass.

“I’m shooting on the count of five,” I say quietly.

“There’s no need for that Master Morgan,” says a woman’s voice and the mass gets to its feet and takes the shape of a woman. She raises her hands in the air, “Arden sent me to watch your back.”

I lower my rifle, “And Giddeon sent me to watch over Elwin, excuse me.”

The woman nods, and I hurry off after Elwin. I didn’t pay her any mind, I assumed she was a Shadow. There aren’t many in the fleet, but they’re not to be underestimated, they’re trained ghosts. Unlucky for her my eyes are sharper than most.

I watch Elwin lower himself to the ground and move closer to the edge of the cliff. I lay down on the ground and looked around. With no cover at least this way, we don’t stick out from the horizon.

Elwin seems to take his time, I’m not sure what he’s seeing over there, but he takes out his binoculars and looks down at the beach before drawing what he sees. I was told Elwin was an artist before joining the Fleet so it makes sense, he’s out here sketching visual aids for officers to reference.

I watch Elwin pack his items into his satchel and move away from the cliffs before standing up and walking toward me.

We make our way to where we left Giddeon and the others only to find the shadow woman waiting for us.

“Ufuoma?” Elwin goes over to her, “What are you doing here? Where are the others?”

Ufuoma points over her shoulder into the crater, and we follow her finger to see a tiny light flickering inside the wooden structure. I look through my scope to see movement, but other than that I can’t make out anything.

“They went in there and haven’t come back.”

We watched and waited for a good ten minutes but saw and heard nothing.

I look at Ufuoma, “Are you sure they went in there?” She nods. “Fuck. Go back to the ship, tell them we might have a situation.”

“What will you do?”

“If they’ve been captured and an opportunity presents itself we’ll intervene, until then we’ll wait and watch.”

Ufuoma nods.

“Here, take these,” Elwin takes off his satchel and hands it to Ufuoma, “The Admiral must see them.”

Ufuoma takes the satchel and puts it on, “Alright, stay safe.” She looks at me, “Especially you Morgan, if anything happens to you Arden will most likely hang me.”

I chuckled, but Ufuoma doesn’t seem to think it funny. Arden wouldn’t really hang this woman if I die, right? She’s a member of the Fleet.