Even the most basic facts of the Brillante’s voyage seemed odd. Every commercial captain knew that the best defense against pirates was speed; a ship moving slowly, or worse, not moving at all, presented much too easy a target. But Gonzaga, the Brillante’s master, had left the vessel to drift in a dangerous area, with no ability to quickly flee if a threat appeared. Similarly, elementary antipiracy procedures—protocols with which a mariner of Gonzaga’s experience would be intimately familiar—called for taking every precaution before letting unfamiliar visitors onto a vessel. Yet the pirates
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