Maxence called out. “The world would be a better place without secret police and corrupt officials. The world should run like a ship, with everyone doing their jobs and everyone getting part of the money for each trip.”
Pirate Flag Guy screwed up his face with thinking. “We don’t get part of the money for the trip. We just get our pay. Dead Eyes promised us each twenty dollars.”
“Twenty dollars?”
“He said that was all he could pay.”
Max turned back to Sault. “Damn, Quentin. My dead corpse is probably worth a hundred million so Jules can show people I’m really dead and bury me beside my parents, and you were only going to give these men twenty bucks?”
The shouts turned angrier and echoed off the hot metal of the wheelhouse structure, heated by the Mediterranean sun.
Maxence asked, letting his voice grow angry on behalf of the men surrounding him, “You weren’t going to share the millions of dollars with these men?”
Whatever Quentin Sault said was lost in the enraged shouts.
Maxence continued, “Of course, it should depend on how much Quentin gets, overall. If he gets fifty million, then you should each get several hundred thousand dollars. If he getsfive hundredmillion, you should get much more, perhaps a million apiece. That’s only right, getting a share of the spoils.”
“A share?” Pirate Flag Guy asked. “You mean we should make more if he does?”
Maxence turned to him, allowing surprise to register on his face. “You don’t share part of the profits? Sault and these two aren’t giving you,each one of you,part of the ransom money, instead of just a small fee?”
“No.” The guy’s eyebrows were still lowered, though his expression was one of confusion, not anger. “Should we get a share?”
“They will ask for millions, and they were going to give you twenty bucks.That’s not fair,”Max emphasized.
Pirate Flag Guy checked in with the guy beside him, who was also frowning and glaring at Sault. “That’s not fair.”
“It’s not fair,”Max told him again. “That’s how other ships work, especially ships with secrets. If you’re doing dangerous work,thingslike kidnapping kings or priests,you shouldn’t get paid just a sailor’s salary. You don’t just get a couple of extra bucks from a guy who wants your whole ship to commit an international crime. You should have beensharingprofitsthe whole time.”
The crowd rumbled as the pirates looked around, realized that everybody else was also angry at not getting paid enough, and then allowed themselves to realize that they had been taken advantage of.
And they had.
“Quentin Sault wasn’t going to give you part of it?” Max yelled. “Dead Eyes was just going to pay your captain, who was going to keep all your money?”
Roars from the crowd.
Rossi and the other man were shoved to their knees.
Sault was forced to the ground, where he lay snarling up at Max.
Some of them ran off.
Scuffling and shouting emanated from the high-rise concrete building they stood next to.
Some of the men started kicking Sault.
They would kill him if Max allowed it to continue.“Stop!”
Maxence waded into the scrum around Quentin, pulling men away from him.
Sault lay bloodied on the ground, glaring up at Max. He pushed himself up to sitting and leaned against the wall of the wheelhouse, saying, “You’re weak, Maxence. You will never be half the prince your brother would have been. You will be like your uncle, allowing people to be immoral and lazy instead of working hard to survive. That’s what makes peopletough.”
Max was disappointed in Sault. For all his military bravado, Max had thought he would have been more stoic when defeated.
He didn’t blink as he glared at Sault. “My uncle was a good man and a good sovereign. Under him, Monacoflourished.We joined the UN and became a global leader instead of just a casino and a beach. Our GDP quintupled. Ourcitizensthrived, not just the billionaires who wanted permanent residency to dodge the income taxes of their home countries. Absolutely, I will be a sovereign like my uncle was, not like Pierre would’ve been.”
“People will take advantage of Monaco. Citizens who won’t work and just lay around and drink all day will bleed you dry. You have to make them work, and they should fear what will happen to them if they don’t.”
