Malone's betrayal strikes the businesswoman head-on, the former of whom she trusted the most in Nassau, and arguably the only one she trusted when she first arrived on the island.

Unexpectedly, he was bribed early, although according to Malone, he only sent Malcolm three times in total, but the thought of having a pair of eyes around her staring at her all the time, Karina felt sick to her stomach.

Perhaps the only thing to be thankful for is that most of the information that Malone has is in trade, and businesswomen are alone in things like meetings with black gladiators, and Malone has mentioned several times that she wants to go with her in the name of safety, but she refuses.

She hadn't suspected Malone's intentions at the time, but she had simply thought that she might offend Laeri by bringing her guards, otherwise Malcolm might have known that someone had broken into his study.

Karina tried to restrain her emotions and asked a few more questions, after which she handed Malone over to the four sailors of the Jackdaw, who were to test the truth of what Malone had said, and afterwards sent the latter directly to the ship back to England, where Malone had mentioned that he had a sister in Kent, so it was the best ending for him.

Even if he wanted to come back, it would be a year later, and by then Karina and Malcolm would have already decided the winner.

When it was all over, the businesswoman felt a deep exhaustion and threw her short musket on the side of the road, and to this day she did not understand what her father meant when he was in prison and told her not to trust anyone on the island.

The relationship between Malone and her has long been more than friends, more like family and mentors, and the loss of Malone is far more than the loss of an experienced captain who is familiar with the customs of various ports.

If Wilton's blatant threats on the beach had terrified her for the first time, now Malone's betrayal had made her experience a different kind of cruelty.

There was even a moment in her heart that she wanted to give up, she was not sure what was waiting for her in front of her on this road, and what price she would have to pay to win this war with the Black Merchant Alliance.

The businesswoman's footsteps stopped in front of the carriage, and she looked around a little blankly, not knowing where she should go at this moment, until the coachman coughed softly, "Miss Karina." ”

"I'm sorry, I'm going to Captain Zhang Heng's residence."

Karina made a decision, pulled the car door and sat down, she didn't look back behind her, what happened in the past let it stay in the past forever, since her father was in prison, she had no way back to get to this point, and in this case, she had to keep going.

Half an hour later, the carriage stopped, and the businesswoman's expression was restored.

Zhang Heng was learning Dutch with Vincent in the living room, looked up and saw Karina standing outside the door, and nodded to the young ship doctor, "That's all for today." ”

The latter put away the books when he heard this, and Anne ran out to find Harry in the afternoon, so when Vincent left, only Zhang Heng and Karina were left in the room.

Zhang Heng lifted the teapot on the table and poured a cup of tea for the businesswoman, maybe because of the Orientals, he still likes tea more than coffee.

"How's things going on over there?"

"The inner ghost has been found, it's Marlon." Karina paused, not showing much expression on her face, as if she was saying something unrelated, "The problem is not serious, it is basically solved, and it will not affect what we are doing, but now that the Breeze has no captain, there is another transport ship that needs a captain after it is repaired." ”

"Do you have a choice?"

"Captain of the Breeze I intend to have the original first mate take over, and in order to avoid a recurrence of this incident, I will test him regularly, as for the other ship...... It was a bit of a hassle, because I was going to recruit sailors on the spot in Nassau, so I had to find someone who could subdue them, and at the same time this person could not be a pirate, and it would be better if he was familiar with the customs of the colony's ports. ”

"It's not an easy requirement."

"I know that good captains are scarce everywhere, and almost all the good captains in this place are pirates, but I won't treat him badly in terms of salary, and I can pay twice the salary of an average captain."

Zhang Heng thought for a moment, "There are some captains of merchant ships who have lost their ships and goods after being robbed, and they have no choice but to come to Nassau to pan for gold, some of them should be able to meet your requirements, but many pirate ships that lack captains are also staring at them, so let's go, I'll talk to Billy tomorrow to see if he has a suitable person to recommend." ”

Karina nodded, "I thought about what you said before, we compete with the Black Merchant Alliance, only the support of small and medium-sized pirates is not enough, I plan to contact those big landlords on the island, try to see if I can help them transport the harvested crops for free in exchange for their support, in addition, the things collected from the second-hand goods trading office are too fragmentary, and no one will buy them if they are pulled directly to the colony, and they will only be treated as garbage, but it is a pity to throw them away like this, after all, strictly speaking, they are also valuable." ”

"What do you want to do?"

"I'm going to open a grocery store in the colony and here, and dispose of all these bits and pieces there, not to make money, but to make up for the loss, so that we don't have to keep putting money on it." The businesswoman explained.

Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.

"How?"

"I thought that Marlon's affair would hit you hard, but looking at the way you look now, my worries seem to be unnecessary."

"I was really angry and disappointed at first, but I thought about a lot of things along the way here, and I wasn't so angry anymore, and there were a lot of things I didn't do well in this matter, and I was used to asking him for help unilaterally, but I didn't pay attention to the difficulties he was experiencing, he owed a sum of money in the casino, and he borrowed from a lot of people, but he didn't bother me, and he preferred to accept Malcolm's solicitation, and he probably didn't think I could help at that time." Karina laughed to herself.

However, the businesswoman didn't dwell on this problem anymore, she looked at Zhang Heng's eyes on the other side, and said seriously, "I want to defeat Malcolm, not simply let the second-hand goods trading office survive on the island, but want to completely destroy him, drive him out of Nassau, and replace him as the most powerful black markete merchant on the island, no matter what the price is, no matter what danger awaits me ahead, I don't care, I won't stop if I can't do this." ”