Despite being watched attentively, Nick got good news when he managed to find a way to postpone the activation of the Holy Order's narcotics and discovered even more than two ways of artificial activation. The bad news was – because he was watched tightly, it became increasingly difficult to continue his experiments.
Several pirates even got suspicious of Nick, because now that he was being monitored, there were no more casualties.
It seemed like a closed loop, therefore Nick simply decided to break it.
One day king White was sitting in galley with him and munched on snacks Nick had prepared. For over three hours they were discussing fauna and flora of the Nestri continent and at the same time Nick was practicing Nestri dialect, when the shouts for help resounded on the deck. King instantly dashed out only to see another victim lying there, his head bloodied all over. Apparently the pirate had ran head first into the central mast several times until finally dropped dead.
While another investigation took place, all the suspicions from Nick were lifted since there was no way he could've done anything in front of the watchful eye of the king. In fact, it was really hard for him to pull this off and it involved a lot of luck.
A day earlier, while he was bringing rations to the captives, he managed to drop a small sack in one of the cabins on the way. In the sack there were few cookies and a small flagon of alcohol. The alcohol contained the strong drug and cookies were the activator. Thankfully the pirate who found those was stupid enough to consume all of it and after he started feeling dizzy, he went outside on the deck and that was when hallucinations started. There was no way to control what hallucinations person would have or how strong they would be, also, Nick could've never guaranteed that the pirate would finish all the cookies and alcohol before coming out and there would be no evidence left. It was a big gamble, but in the end lady Luck didn't let him down.
Later that evening captain came into the galley, almost dropped himself on the floor from exhaustion.
"King White, do you want me to prepare something that would replenish your energy more quickly?" Nick asked.
"I'm not tired, I'm angry!" Captain hit the nearby cupboard and it disintegrated into sawdust, "There is someone on this ship killing off my boys one by one! And the worst part is – I can't find them!"
"Hey, you! Bring a new cupboard in here!" Nick called out to a nearby pirate and then turned to the captain, "King White, until now I had a deep respect for your strength as well as your wisdom, but I start to get a feeling I might have been wrong. Maybe you are only a very strong person and not a wise king after all." Nick shook his head.
Captain glared at him with red eyes and said, "You have one minute. Choose your next words wisely or you will have to swim for the rest of your short life."
"Sigh ..." Nick shook his head again, "There are no invisible enemies in the world, only those that you don't want to see. Maybe I was too harsh in my words, but, king White, please think. Every captive and I are being closely watched and there was no way they could have harmed your crew. The gods of the sea also wouldn't play like this, they would've sank this little boat and end of the story. There is only one place where you can look for the enemy, it's just too obvious and you don't want to believe it or maybe you are too close to this."
"I know it!" Captain answered while grinding his teeth, "But I've been through the thick and thin with these lads! There is no way anyone would go against me! None of the other kings give them life that I provide."
"That is why I'm saying you are too close to this." Nick finally smiled while looking straight into the captain's furious eyes, "Who told you that the perpetrator is going against you and your crew?"
"You mean …" Captain suddenly stood up almost hitting his head on the ceiling.
"Exactly, someone is using this to settle his personal grudge or grudges. My theory is that most of these deaths are just a smokescreen for the real target or targets who are already dead. No one would investigate an old grudge if one or two victims was a part of mass murder of a larger scale. It's so obvious it's almost laughable." Nick continued to earn his next Oscar award after he had few years of break in his acting carrier.
"But even if I know it, how can I find the guilty person?" Captain finally calmed down.
"Why would you?" Nick laughed, "Isn't just one of your people simply settling their own personal grudge? There is no actual threat to you or your crew. You only have to persuade him to stop the killings and there would be no more casualties."
"How?" Captain looked at the young, carefree cook.
"Easy! Just kill one of your own people if you don't like somebody or imprison another one you can trust till the end of voyage. Then tell the rest you finally caught the murderer. No one would question you – you are the king after all." Nick smirked. It was really easy for him to offer this solution since he already controlled the killings.
And what was even more important – during the last experiment he managed to find the perfect activator! There was no more need for any tests, he just had to wait for the perfect opportunity to poison all of these bastards in one go! Even if one or two Qi masters along the captain could stay alive, they would be weakened anyway and, even if the two hundred captives were weak and helpless, with enough adrenaline pumping they would just stomp these Qi masters to death.
Captain White didn't let Nick down. On the next day he publicly threw over board already executed pirate whom he personally caught red handed with a poison in his stash. The whole crew had a huge sigh of relief as the recent events were greatly wrecking their nerves. The captain ordered to serve an extra meal today for everyone to celebrate the conclusion of the investigation and the situation was mostly resolved.
Nick praised the captain's quick and wise act, at the same time cursing his frugality and not giving out some alcohol. If not for that, they would've sailed back home already the next day. The alcohol and the stew or soup were the perfect ways to disguise the narcotics and their activator.
Now all that was left for Nick was to wait for the appropriate moment. Unfortunately his luck streak came to an end. Up until now the weather was quite nice and, despite it becoming hotter and more humid as they sailed towards the south, it was still pleasant, at least for Nick. But for the captives in the cargo hold it has been a hell for twenty odd days already and it was just about to get worse.
The "Queen Elizabeth" was caught in a tropical storm. While it was the biggest ship in the world, it was still a wooden medieval vessel and huge waves were throwing it around like a leaf.
To Nick's big surprise pirates managed to show their experience as real sailors. There was no panic or chaos, everyone followed orders while the usually bored captain took the command and skillfully maneuvered the ship's huge body.
Since it was impossible to cook in these conditions, Nick went out on the deck to take a look, but immediately regretted it. If he remained inside he would've at least kept some kind of illusion of being safe while staying in the galley.
While it had to be daytime, it was almost as dark as during the night and the huge incoming waves from time to time made it feel even darker. Concentrating his vision, Nick could distinguish several twisters in the distance, but when he looked at the captain with fear in his eyes, all he saw was a huge and excited old man at the helm. The latter shouted out commands and laughed when another larger wave washed over him, clearly showing he felt like home.
Nick realized that the other pirates were not worried as well – they orderly completed their assignments and many even didn't bother to wake up and come out to check what was going on. Then he noticed how every piece of equipment on the ship has been neatly secured and tied at the proper places and when he went back inside, there was the same situation – nothing was rolling or flying around, except for the poor captives, of course. Apparently the pirate crew was already preparing for the storm for at least a couple of hours.
Nick had no choice but to wait until the storm was over and it took over two days for the weather to calm down. But even if it calmed down, the warm and sometimes even hot rain still poured while the mood of the crew and captives worsened. Now it was hot, wet and very unpleasant without any place to hide. The only upside was that with the storm gone people could finally have a decent meal and Nick even managed to persuade captain to allow a bowl of thin soup for each captive.
This situation continued for several more days, until the whole ship was startled from a loud shout: "Land Ho!".
All the pirates gathered on the deck and even captain himself scaled the central mast to take a better look. Nick didn't climb up, but tried to see in the direction everyone was looking. There were some clouds in the distance, be he couldn't see any mountains or even a regular shore. Then he noticed few small dots – sea birds! If there were birds, they were definitely close to the land and a trained Qi master from the main mast could probably already see it.
The nightmare voyage continued for whole thirty five days.
These were happy and terrible news at the same time. Happy, because they'll finally be able to step on a solid ground, but terrible, because Nick had ran out of time to eliminate all pirates in one go. There was no clear way to suddenly disappear with his friends and the exhausted two hundred odd captives would never be able to defeat fifty pirates in high spirits who now felt as if they were almost home.
From the long talks with the captain, Nick already knew that their base was somewhere on the island archipelago north of the Nestri continent. From there it would take approximately two more days to sail to the continent and a bit more to reach the closest port city. The only question was how far the "Queen Elizabeth" was from their base and how long it would take for them to get there.
Their base itself was a home to around two thousand pirates and could even be considered a small town. They replenished their supplies here, rested, traded and distributed their loot. It was a convenient spot to operate from because in a direct line they needed only twelve to fifteen days to reach the Mainland continent, albeit it would be the south east of the Sand kingdom. It was like king Alexander Maxwell suspected, the Nestri empire, which governed the whole Nestri continent, and the Sand kingdom were allies and pirates were used to weaken the Sun kingdom's economic force as well as military if the occasion allowed. The three pirate king's, White, Red and Black, were not directly financed by the Nestri empire – they were more kind of vassals who payed their yearly tribute and provided the empire with fresh slaves and wares.
The pirate base itself was called the "Paradise city" and the three pirate kings ruled over it. The most decisions were always made by simple majority of the votes and it has been like that for centuries. There have always been three pirate kings with their own crews and usually they were more or less equal in power. The title was not hereditary, but in case of a king's demise or retirement, the new king was chosen by trial of strength as the contestants fought to the death until one victor remained. This always guaranteed, that no matter who the pirate kings were, their words would be always backed up by a real physical strength and not by amount of followers or sneaky tricks they could play.
The strict subordination was one of the main strengths in the pirate crews and it allowed them to act as independent war or merchant fleets. They didn't always rob other ships or raid and burn down the coastal towns and villages. Sometimes they provided escort or cargo transportation services as well.
The current affair was also suspicious since the costs and the huge risks involved would unlikely pay off even when they successfully hijacked the biggest merchant ship in the world with full cargo of silk. Pirates should be able to earn as much or even more when raiding towns or assaulting smaller ships with way less effort and casualties, but when Nick asked king White what was this all about, the latter mysteriously grinned and said to wait.