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The Blue Emerald Bay Resort
Puerto Rico
The Blue Emerald Bay Resort catered for three hundred guests, offering them the amenities and services of the most exclusive five star resort in Puerto Rico. There were six restaurants, ten bars, fifteen pools, a nightclub, an entertainment theatre, spa, beach house, sports complex, a water sports center and a golf club.
Only the rich could afford to come to the Blue Emerald , and only the rich did.
It was 6.30 a.m. Guests were beginning to turn up at the doors to the main restaurant hall for breakfast.
James Silver welcomed them all into the hall. In spite of the orders from Captain Rob, he had begun to realise just how rich the inhabitants of this palace were, and as he instructed them to join the others and sit on the floor in the middle of the great banqueting hall, he had offered them the opportunity to relieve themselves of their jewelry and amulets, and any coins they may be carrying. The bag that had been circulated around their captives was slowly beginning to fill up. It was already surprisingly heavy.
James Silver was an enterprising man, and he was sure the other pirates would appreciate the decision he had made to take advantage of the situation as it presented itself.
At 6.35 a.m. Richard Tyler walked through the door to the hall, marshaling in four palace guards that they had just captured. One had been wounded, and was bleeding profusely from a chest wound. Blood was everywhere.
Silver instructed one of the pirates to take him to another room they had found at the back of the hall. Richard Tyler reported that when they had stumbled upon the palace guards outside the banqueting hall, one had threatened them with his musket. In response, one of the riggers in his party had thrown his dirk, landing it deep in the guard's chest. A few shots had been exchanged, and then the palace guards had surrendered. Surprisingly they had not put up much resistance.
Tyler had explained quickly what they had seen and done.
Silver had fought in many battles, and he knew that although they were in command at that moment, it was only through the earlier element of surprise that they had achieved this.
Now the palace was waking up, there were potentially hundreds of people beyond the confines of this hall who would soon start to realise what was happening and organize themselves against them.
Until they had transported the food back to the ship, Silver did not want to leave: because of their lack of food and water, he and his men were desperate - things could only really improve by holding on to what they had found.
He now also regretted having not enough knowledge about the size and scope of the palace. Silver knew nothing of its defenses, or how many guards the palace had. Begrudgingly he recognised and affirmed the strategy that Richard Tyler had adopted, and he sent him and two of his men back out to complete their circumnavigation of the palace and ascertain its true size.
He then sent a further five men out to round up any other residents they found in the palace and accompany them back to the banqueting hall for imprisonment.
Hopefully, if they were able to capture a sufficient number of hostages, their own security may be assured until they were able to transport all the food and water back to the ship, enabling the Sea Dancer to leave with the provisions they so urgently needed.
With the decision made, the nature of their mission changed from 'search and find food' to 'catch and imprison as many hostages as possible'.
Silver looked at the hall. The banqueting hall was soon going to get very full indeed.
Just then one of the pirates behind James Silver sneezed.