Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom

“If she’ll agree to it, yes, I do.”
Chamba looked at Jack intently for a long moment, and when he
spoke again, he’d dropped back into his customary speech pattern.
“Why only her, Cap’n? Why she be the onliest one? Ever think we
could take more? Free a passel of slaves, ’stead of just one?”
Jack sighed. “I wish I could, but I can’t. Until the law is changed,
and the filthy practice is declared illegal, rescuing slaves usually
means they just end up getting recaptured and owned by someone
else.” They’d reached the dock where the Wicked Wench was
moored. Jack stopped at the end of it, so they could conclude their
conversation in private.
Chamba nodded sadly. “I understand. But that bring me back to
the first question, Cap’n. Why Ayisha?”
Jack hesitated for a long moment. Finally he said, “I want to help
her escape so I can take her home, Chamba.”
Chamba took a deep breath, eyeing his captain. It was plain that
he realized that Jack was holding something major back. “Ain’t no
chance you mean her harm, right, Cap’n?”
“I mean her no harm,” Jack said, with perfect truth, though an
image flashed into his mind of Cutler Beckett, and the greed that had
flared in the EITC director’s normally cool eyes when he’d talked about
a hundred years of selling “black gold.”
The young crewman waited, obviously hoping for a more
complete explanation, but Jack volunteered nothing more. “Cap’n, you
want I should go by there tomorrow? Talk to her again?”
“Give her one day to think it over,” Jack said. “You can go back on
Wednesday. Just do what you were doing today…tell her that escape
is possible, that you’re living proof, and that she can be the next
escapee.”
“And what then, Cap’n?”
“Unless I miss my guess, she’ll soon ask you how she can gain
her freedom. And that’s when you’ll bring me back with you, so I may
talk to her. I’ll explain my terms, and we’ll talk about how she can get
away.”
“Aye, Cap’n.”
For the next few days, Jack, conscious of possibly having to slip