The man with the mustache is named Hank. He is a well-known information dealer on the island. He knows many captains who travel to and from Nassau, and thus has accumulated a lot of information sources. Many pirates have bought clues from him before.
When Billy was still on the Sea Lion, he followed Orff to look for the latter. He also met Hank at that time. The two drank together a few times later, and the relationship should be considered good. Yes, that's why Billy asked him to buy information before going to sea this time.
Although Hank looks a little ugly, but he can do business on the island for such a long time naturally has his unique features.
He will use the value of the prey, the level of detail of the information, and the credibility of the source of information to give a score to each clue, and finally estimate the value of the clue together.
Like the news about the perfume ship, the value of the prey and the credibility of the intelligence source are both highly rated. Only the level of detail of the information is slightly lower, but it can already be called a very high-quality clue.
Therefore, Hank's asking price is also very high, asking for two Spanish gold coins, and Billy finally spends ten Spanish gold coins to buy out the transaction for insurance purposes. Grams can no longer be sold to other pirates.
After that, Hank also reciprocated, and presented the news of the tobacco ship Duffy on the same route, which also made Billy completely relieved and full of confidence in the maiden voyage of the Jackdaw.
But what happened afterwards was completely beyond his expectations. If the businesswoman Karina hadn't boarded the ship halfway and provided the important news about the spice ship, what awaited the Jackdaw would be the cruel reality of returning empty-handed.
Although Billy is not as cunning as Orff, he is not a fool either. He was already suspicious when the perfume ship disappeared. If the first clue fails, immediately negate the second clue, so it doesn't make sense for him to buy a spare clue.
But then the direction of the development of things just confirmed his worries. Two consecutive clues failed at the same time, and Billy also realized that he was cheated, but what he didn't understand was that he and Hank got along pretty well these years Well, the Jackdaw doesn't have any conflict of interest with the latter, so why did the information dealer suddenly put him in this position.
The three of them came to the Mermaid House today to find out about this matter.
Hank recognized the person outside the door immediately. Recently, Zhang Heng is probably the most famous person on the entire island. When the Jackdaw first appeared outside the harbor of Nassau, Hank also ran there. The pier saw the excitement. He was doing the work of an intelligence dealer, and expanding his network of contacts was naturally an important part of it, so he was no stranger to the Jackdaw and its new captain.
The intelligence dealer struggled to get up from the ground, and he didn't care to wipe off the stains on his clothes. He smiled wryly at the man in black in front of him, "I made it very clear when I sold the clues, and there is no guarantee that every All clues are absolutely effective, even the most credible clues will have various accidents, such as the target suddenly changing the route halfway, accidentally bumping into other pirates, weather factors, etc. If you don’t believe me, you can ask your helmsman, I emphasized the risks to him at the time... "
Hank took a breath and continued, "Of course, I am also deeply sorry for what happened to you, but fortunately you have nothing to lose in the end, why not, let's take a step back each, and I will refund you the money I collected before. How about turning this matter over?"
Zhang Heng on the opposite side was noncommittal, and at this time Annie and Billy also came out from the back door of the tavern, and the three of them surrounded Hank in the corner.
Seeing that the situation was not going well, the intelligence dealer quickly added, "Well, and, before you go to sea next time, I can give you a few more valuable clues for free, this time I can guarantee that there will be no more accidents. "
Hank leaned his back against the cold stone wall, trying to keep calm. In the past, some people would come back to trouble him because of inaccurate clues, but he dealt with them wittily. The intelligence dealers on the island Not too many, and they compete with each other in normal times, but they are still very united at critical times. A colleague was killed before, and after finding out who the murderer was, no one sold clues to the pirate ship, and finally forced the pirate ship Had to change captain.
The intelligence dealer looked at Billy. The latter was an old man on the island. It was impossible that he hadn't heard of that incident. As a competent helmsman, he should now remind his captain of the possible bad consequences of doing so.
However, Billy didn't respond, just looked at him coldly.
Then Hank saw the red-haired female pirate on the other side pull out the dagger from her waist and smiled at him.
The next moment, the intelligence dealer only felt a chill in his chest, lowered his head, and was horrified to find that his flax fir had been cut open, and the tip of the dagger had pierced his skin, less than two centimeters away from his heart. The red-haired girl on the opposite side pressed her palm lightly, and he will explain here tonight.
Hank really panicked this time. He didn't expect that this group of people would play their cards completely against the rules. The intelligence dealer's voice was already crying, and he said tremblingly, "You... How much compensation do you want? At least give Let me count."
"We don't need any compensation," Zhang Heng finally said, "but you need to answer us a few questions truthfully."
"What do you want to know?" Hank was a little surprised when he heard this.
...
A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Heng and the others came out from the alley. Annie put the dagger back into her waist and frowned, "Malcolm, do any of you know this guy? Why did he come to trouble us?"
"Malcolm is the number two figure in the Black Merchants Alliance. This guy's family has a lot of power in the New World," said Billy, who was most familiar with the situation on the island, and explained to the red-haired girl, "Don't Because the family behind him ignored this person's personal ability. Malcolm came to Nassau about four years ago. When he first came to the island, he had nothing but a transport ship. His family was far away. New York can provide him with convenience at the port customs, but it can't help him in Nassau. He almost started from scratch, and now he maintains a good cooperative relationship with more than a dozen pirate ships. Last year, Black Prince Sam also I started working with him, so he is definitely one of the most worthy of attention in the Black Business Alliance."