scourgeofpiracy | (no subject)

(no subject)

He's been expecting the other shoe to drop since the 'one day's head start' stretched into weeks, then months, and Captain Jack Sparrow remained at large.

So, Commodore Norrington is both unsurprised and resigned to be called in to an interview with one Cutler Beckett, highly-placed in the East India Company.

It could be unrelated, of course. But it doesn't seem likely somehow.

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Becket is, of course, unsmiling.

"Good day, Commodore."

The decanter of brandy and the glasses are in their usual place by the sideboard; one of glasses lies used on a table on the other side of the room.

Beckett is standing behind his desk.

"Mister Beckett", he returns, as politely as their respective standing demands.

He doesn't sit, only partly because the other man isn't and he hasn't been invited to.

"I trust this meeting will be pleasantly short," Beckett says. Drawls. "You've been a little slow, Commodore." Said as though synonymous with derelict in your duty. "I'd ask your reasons if I weren't quite sure they didn't matter."

Norrington's manner chills further at that, while still in the bounds of required courtesy.

"You would be referring to Captain Sparrow?"

The choice of title is deliberate.

Chilled manners yield smiles from Cutler Beckett.

"I would. Very good. You're an intelligent man, Commodore, a worldly man -- you have heard the phrase 'return with your shield, or on it'?"

"Of course. Am I to take that as an order?"

"It would certainly be prudent." Beckett sits, now, elbows on the desk, hands clasped. "Bring back the pirate and his effects, Commodore, and you will be justly rewarded."

Beckett is still smiling.

"Failure is, of course, an option. But I wouldn't want to investigate its implications. If you take my meaning."

He does. Only too well. He still doesn't sit, raising an eyebrow at Beckett.

"'And his effects'? Not the pirate alone, to face justice?"

"The pirate and his effects, Commodore." Beckett isn't smiling any more. "All of them."

And then, dry as dust:

"Any further questions?"

"No, I'd say you've made yourself quite clear." His tone matches Beckett's. "Very well. The pirate and his effects, as soon as may be."

"Let us hope, Commodore -- " Beckett is already reaching across his desk for a letter in progress, Norrington half-forgotten. " -- that 'as soon as may be' is very soon indeed."

"Good sailing to you."

He knows dismissal when it's aimed at him, and he's already turning for the door.

"Good day, Mister Beckett."

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