Pirate of the Caribbean

WWhen Capt. Max Hardberger’s plane touched down at the nearly deserted Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, his old friend (and Haitian fixer) Ronald was waiting for him outside. Ronald was all smiles, in spite of the fact that Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Haiti was in the midst of a very violent coup d’état. Some parts of the country remained under Aristide’s control. Other parts were controlled by a variety of armed gangs, right-wing paramilitaries, rebels, and, according to reports Hardberger had heard, criminals freed from jails and penitentiaries by police Theeing for their lives. A rough-looking taxi driver standing next to Ronald opened the rear door of his cab.

“Please,” he said, motioning toward the back seat.

Hardberger’s immediate objective was simple—quickly get to a little, hole-in-the-wall port called Miragoane, some 50 miles west. Once there, he had to do some fast reconnoitering. Exactly how and precisely where was the 400-foot ship Maya Express tied up? Were her engines operable? Were there guards on board? And how about the crew—were they on board as well? And were they perhaps disgruntled? Unpaid? Unfed? Could they be turned into allies?

None of these questions were of particular importance to Hardberger’s employer, of course. The big-time Boston investment firm that