The King - Dewey Lambdin

"You agreed it would place your troops closer to the action, I might remind you, Sir Hugo," Twigg said, frowning. The vilely hot weather had not improved anyone's tempers, but it was almost too hot and humid to argue. "As for the Frogs, I care less if all the buggers succumb. No real loss, is it, though I would wish for one or two to survive to bear the tale back to Paris. The effect would have been welcome."

"And do you feel that same impartiality to my men, sir?" Sir Hugo snapped.

"Sir Hugo," Twigg drawled. "Colonel Willoughby. Unlike my utter lack of sympathy for piratical Frenchmen, I feel most strongly and deeply for the plight of the men of the 19th Native Infantry. And I assure you, I shall be most happy to extricate them from this hellish stew at the earliest opportunity. That moment has almost arrived, sir, but you must bear the deplorable conditions here for only a few more months. Soon, I promise you."

"It had best be soon, sir," Sir Hugo replied evenly, controlling his own temper with remarkable restraint, as Lewrie could attest. "We arrived in mid-February with a grenadier company, eight line companies, one and a half light companies, and the full artillery detachment. And now, with Captain Chiswick and his half-company returned to me, I may only field eight. Eight, sir! Allow me to protest most vigorously that if this battalion is not removed to a more healthful climate, I won't have a platoon of men available to you by autumn! I demand of you, if you have any estimate of when we may depart this reeking cesspit, pray inform us of it."

"I quite understand, Sir Hugo," Twigg replied, on the edge of an explosion of his own temper, no matter how much the weather might dampen his fuses. 'Two months. Three months at the most, weather permitting, and you shall be out of here, at sea and in action."

That created a stir of interest among the army officers seated behind Sir Hugo, and among the naval officers as well.

"You see, sirs," Twigg continued calmly, getting a smug look on his face. "I know where this fellow Guillaume Choundas is. And where he shall be in a few months' time." Twigg looked about the damp and gloomy room, a wood and thatch imposture of a proper building, letting the stirring and chattering of their excitement swell and recede like a breaking wave of adulation before continuing.

"Shaken as the French survivors were, it was fairly simple to play upon their fears, catch them out when they were at their weakest," Twigg explained. "Have we a good chart of the South China Seas, Captain Ayscough? Could it be hung where all could see it? Good."

"Here, gentlemen. In the Spratly Islands." Twigg chuckled.

"Pretty far lost and gone from anywhere," Ayscough commented.

"But located so nicely for piracy, sirs," Twigg informed them. "Flat, tiny, and worth nothing to anyone. As our sailing master may attest?"

Brainard stood to address the assembly, flushing a bit at being before so many people. "There's water enough, wild goats and pigs to eat. Sea-birds and their eggs. Nobody lives there, though, not permanent. Too small to farm. Too low to make 'em safe durin' taifun season, 'cept for the highest hills inland. Good anchorage, I'll admit. Chinese pirates sometimes shelter there, same for other pirate bands like the Sea Dyaks. Have to bring in salt-meats and such if you plan on stayin' there a long time."

Brainard shrugged and reddened, trying to think of what else he might impart, but Twigg waved him off, which Brainard accepted with a whoosh of relieved breath.

"The Spratlys are two-hundred-fifty miles southeast of the Annamese shores, three hundred miles northwest of Borneo, right in the middle of the mouth of the South China Sea," Twigg related. "A ship, or ships, working out of here could control the shipping trade in time of war, especially if one were to be allied with native pirates who could patrol in their praos for likely pickings. Too far west for the Spanish in the Philippines to worry about. Too far north and west for the Dutch or Portuguese to deal with. Too far north and east of even this poor trading settlement of Bencoolen for England to look in on. I'm told a man named Francis Light may develop trading stations on the Malay peninsula soon, so that situation may change, but properly fortified and garrisoned, this little group of islands would be a hard nut to crack, even in time of war when a fleet might be available. This is where Choundas shall be. This is where he is based during the summer months. Where the pirates meet him. Where captured ships are looted, and their crews taken."

"And did we discover with whom Choundas and Sicard were in league, Mister Twigg?" Lieutenant Choate asked. "Would some of our prisoners be there still that we might rescue?"

"As to the last part of your question, I'm afraid the answer is no, Mister Choate," Twigg replied, frowning while rubbing the bridge of his nose as though in pain. "There is little chance that any Englishmen survived capture for very long. Especially if it was the native pirates who did it. Should they have, they'd have been taken east to Sulu Island and sold in the great slave markets there. And it would take a fleet to sail in there and free those unfortunates. As to the first part, we now know that the French are allied with the blood-thirstiest of the lot. The Lanun Rovers, from the Illana Lagoon on Mindanao."

"Oh, stap me!" Brainard hissed with alarm. "More likely, our people are skulls adorning their bloody praos by now!"

"Goddamn French!" Ayscough spat. 'Trust them to take hands with those devils. Not just as allies, but friends!"

"Well, not for very much longer, sir," Twigg said, chuckling dryly. "I propose we strike the Spratlys sometime after mid-June. When Choundas and his piratical crew will be there. When the Lanun Rovers will spend the summer with him. We may catch them all in one fell swoop!"

"And just where is your pirate now, sir?" Sir Hugo asked.

"He left Canton in late November, Sir Hugo. As I told you, I suspect he waited downriver at Macao for at least a week or so, to see if we would pursue him. When we didn't, he most likely stopped in at the Spratlys, then sailed for the French possessions in the Indian Ocean. We have information that his first stop would be lie de France, to have a refit in the yards there. Those same yards service the Royal French Navy, I might remind you. His usual course of action, his modus operandi, if you will allow me"-Twigg sniffed loftily, but gave them all a brief smile to remind them that he was human, after all-"would be to sail on for Pondichery, where he would load a cargo of Indian goods destined for Canton in the fall. A cargo that he would land at the Spratlys, since the goods would prove a liability to a privateering cruise. He does not load opium, only run-of-the-mill wares that will not spoil during storage ashore. The opium comes from our ships."

"And he didn't sell any out of Macao, as I recall, sir," Captain Ayscough stuck in.

"Indeed not, sir," Twigg agreed. "Part of his innocent pose is to deplore the opium trade. And a man so high-minded as to forgo the profits of opium could never, ever be suspected of anything so vile as piracy, now could he, hmm?" Which set them all into ironic laughter. "Then, he and Captain Sicard of La Malouine would meet in Pondichery."

"To put the bulk of their combined crews into Poisson D'Or, so he'd be as well-manned as any royal frigate, sir?" Percival asked with a hopeful expression.

"Exactly so, Mister Percival." Twigg beamed at him like a fond daddy. "Exactly as you surmised. Right, then! Here's Choundas, waiting in Pondichery for Sicard and La Malouine to arrive by at least the first of April, but she won't this year, nor next year, either, ha ha! By mid-April, he'll have smelled a rat. What's worse for him, Sicard was to bring the profits from both ships to him. He lost no money by having his cargo confiscated by the Viceroy in Canton. Their arrangement with that particularly corrupt mandarin made sure he'd get full value from it, and give him freedom of action to boot. But suddenly, he's starved of operating funds. There's nothing to purchase a cargo with in Pondichery. No money to buy arms and powder for his piratical allies. And, more importantly, no ship such as Sicard's to serve as his cartel for all the loot he expects to take this year of our Lord 1785. We've limited his options to an early raiding summer. Here!"

"It strikes me, though, Mister Twigg," Lewrie spoke up, "that even the most valuable goods such as silver and opium take up a fair amount of cargo space. Surely, La Malouine could not carry all of it. If only a quarter of the booty ends up in Canton, there must be some other ship, or ships, involved with Choundas yet. If he has, as you say, a full, believable cargo stashed in the Spratlys for his appearance in Canton in the fall, where does the rest of it go?"

"A great deal of it would end up in the market at Sulu, sir," Twigg countered. "Brasswares, copper, Indian cotton goods, all of it would be just as valuable among the pirate bands as it would in Canton. No, it'll be Choundas on his own this year, I'll wager. Driven by desperation to take more risks than before."

"If he's any brains at all, he'll know the game's over, sir," Lieutenant Choate insisted. 'Time to lay low for a season. Or sail home for France and let someone else take over for him for a while."

"Ah, but he can't do that, Mister Choate," Twigg insisted.

"If he leaves the Indian Ocean, he loses everything he's built up out here. No rendezvous with the pirates in the Spratlys, say. Then what pirate would ever trust another Frenchman to keep his word? He'd not only be discarding his present alliances, he'd be ruining a chance for anyone who follows. The French Ministry of Marine who dreamed up his dirty business would never stand for that, oh no! Why, they'd break Choundas to common seaman if he simply sailed away. And, I don't think our lad is the sort to cave in so quickly. He's an ambitious little Breton peasant, a jumped-up fisherman who has no desire to end his days netting sardines in a filthy little smack. Pride goeth before a fall, and our boy has an ocean of pride. No, he might be late for the rendezvous. He may come empty-handed, but he'll be in the Spratlys by June."

"So we should get Telesto back to Calcutta as soon as possible," Captain Ayscough surmised. "After a year in Asian waters, and all that time idle in Whampoa Reach, we have to careen and bream her bottom. The weed on her quick-work looks like the Forest of Dean. Land our cargo, unload the artillery first, then refloat her and outfit her for battle."

"And be back here toward the end of May, to pick up Sir Hugo's battalion and escort the Lady Charlotte transport to the Spratlys," Twigg said bouyantly. "Sail into harbor, land troops and guns, and blow Choundas, his ship and any pirates clean off the face of God's seas!"

There was a lot of cheering that ringing speech. Cheers for a chance for action after festering at Bencoolen in sodden heat and agues, for final retribution against the hated French who had outmaneuvered them during the winter, for a chance that this whole affair would end and Telesto's flexible term of commission could end snug in some English harbor by early 1786. They would be two years away from friends and family by then, two years gone from their homes, and did not relish the prospect of a third.

Lewrie was not enthused, though. Troubling questions had their way with his imaginings. While he was most junior naval officer there, he knew he had to speak them aloud, before the conference ended. Later would look like croakum, and Twigg would not change his mind once they had settled on the plan, unless forced to, and afterthoughts would not be force enough.