He lingered a moment longer, his gaze wandering out to sea and the veiled darkness where Ragged Island lay. Then, with a sigh, he returned to the chair, sat down, and picked up the black folders.
First came the printout of the decrypted portion of Macallan's journal. As St. John had said, it described in terse terms the architect's capture and forced labor, designing a hiding place for Ockham's loot that would allow only the pirate to retrieve the gold. Macallan's contempt for the pirate captain, his dislike of the barbarous crew, his dismay at the rough and dissolute conditions, came through clearly in every line.
The journal was brief, and he soon laid it aside, curious now about its second half and wondering how soon Wopner would have it cracked. Before Hatch left his cabin, the programmer had complained bitterly about having to do double duty as the computer technician. 'Goddamn network setup, a job for plumbers, not programmers. But the Captain won't be happy until he whittles the crew down to just himself and Streeter. Security concerns, my left nut. Nobody's gonna steal the treasure. But you watch. By tomorrow, once the physical plant is in place, all the surveyors and assistant engineers will be gone. History.'
'Makes sense,' Hatch had replied. 'Why keep unnecessary staff around? Besides, I'd rather treat a bad case of necrifying madura foot than sit in a cabin like this, staring at a jumble of letters.'
Hatch remembered how Wopner's lip had curled in scorn. 'Shows how much you know. A jumble of letters to you, maybe.
Listen: On the other side of that jumble is the person who encrypted it, looking back, giving you the finger. It's the ultimate contest. You get his algorithm, you get his crown jewels. Maybe it's access to a credit card database. Or the firing sequences for a nuclear attack. Or the key to how a treasure is buried. There's no rush like cracking a code. Cryptanalysis is the only game worthy of a truly intelligent being. Which makes me feel mighty lonely in present company, believe you me.'
Hatch sighed, returning his attention to the black folders. The second contained the brief biography of Ockham, given him by St. John. Leaning back once again to let the moonlight catch the pages, he began to read.
Chapter 13
EXTRACT FOLLOWS
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EDWARD OCKHAM SUMMARY BIOGRAPHY
T. T. Ferrell, Thalassa—Shreveport
Edward Ockham was born in 1662 in Cornwall, En- gland, the son of minor landed nobility. He was educated at Harrow and went on to spend two years at Balliol College, Oxford, before being sent down by the college dons for unspecified infractions.
His family desired him to pursue a naval career, and in 1682 Ockham received his commission and shipped as a lieutenant with the Mediterranean fleet under Admiral Poynton. Rising quickly and distinguishing himself in several actions against the Spanish, he left the navy to become captain of a privateer, having been granted a letter of marque from the British Admiralty.
After a number of choice prizes, Ockham apparently decided that he no longer wished to share his spoils with the crown. Early in 1685 he took up slaving, running ships from Africa's Guinea Coast to Guadeloupe in the Windward Islands. After almost two years of profitable voyages, Ockham was trapped within a blockaded harbor by two ships of the line. As a diversion, Ockham set his ship afire and got away in a small cutter. Before escaping, however, he put all the slaves on deck to the sword. The rest of the four hundred slaves, shackled together in the hold, perished in the blaze. Documentary evidence attributes the nickname of 'Red Ned' Ockham to this deed.
Five of Ockham's crew were captured and returned to London, where they were hung at Execution Dock in Wapping. Ockham, however, escaped to the infamous pirate haven of Port Royal in the Caribbean, where he joined the 'Brethren of the Coast' in 1687.
Over the next ten years, Ockham became known as the most ruthless, venal, and ambitious pirate operating in the waters
During his reign as pirate captain, Ockham won his victories with a rare blend of psychology, tactics, and ruthlessness. When attacking the heavily fortified Spanish city of Portobello, for example, he forced the nuns from a nearby abbey to place the siege engines and ladders themselves, reasoning that the strong Catholicism of the Spaniards would constrain them from firing. His weapon of choice became the musketoon, a short-barreled weapon that fired a lethal spray of lead pellets. Frequently, under pretense of a parley, he would gather the town fathers of a besieged city or the commanding officers of an opposing ship before him. Then—raising the weapons in both hands—he would destroy the group with a double blast.
As his thirst for prizes grew stronger, Ockham's brazenness grew proportionately. In 1691 he tried an overland siege of Panama City, which ultimately failed. While retreating across the Chagres River, he saw a galleon in the nearby bay, heading for the open sea and Spain. When he learned that the ship was carrying three million pieces of eight, Ockham reputedly swore never to let another galleon escape his grasp.
In the years that followed, Ockham turned his attention ever more strongly toward Spanish gold, the towns that hoarded it, and the ships that carried it. So adept did he become at anticipating the shipments of gold that some scholars believe he was able to crack the ciphers of Spanish captains and envoys
As Ockham became more powerful and more feared, his sadistic tendencies seemed to gain ascendancy. Reports of barbarous cruelty became legion. Frequently, after overwhelming a ship, he would cut off the ears of the officers, sprinkle them with salt and vinegar, and force the victims to consume them. Rather than keep his men in check when despoiling a town, he would instead whip them into a lustful fury and then let them loose upon the helpless populace, reveling in the acts of violence and abandon that resulted. When victims could not provide him with the ransom he demanded, he would order them to be roasted slowly on wooden spits, or disemboweled with heated boathooks.
Ockham's single greatest accomplishment came in 1695, when his small armada of ships successfully captured, plundered, and sank the Spanish
