Free The Sea Wolves by Christopher Golden

nodded.
    â€œKilling is expedient. Sometimes it’s necessary. I have never taken a life purely for amusement’s sake, but murder is a tool.”
    â€œHow can you be so cold-blooded?” Jack asked, his voice rising.
    Ghost bristled and glanced around. Apparently it was one thing for Jack to challenge his philosophy privately, but quite another to do so within the crew’s earshot. The two Scandinavian sailors were close by, one at the wheel and the other in the crow’s nest. They seemed always to be near when Ghost walked the deck. The captain spoke softly, keeping their conversation private—perhaps so that the crew would not overhear his opinions challenged—but the presence of the bearded, blond twins did not seem to trouble him, reinforcing Jack’s suspicion that they spoke no English.
    â€œYour precious humanity is an illusion, boy,” Ghost growled. “Human nature is animal nature. The rest is nothing but putting on airs, feigning a tenderness that is little more than a mask. You would kill if circumstances forced your hand. You would steal if your belly gnawed at you long enough.”
    Jack glanced away, but too late to prevent Ghost from seeing the flicker of recognition in his eyes.
    The captain laughed softly, almost a snarl. “Ah, well, that’s just delicious. You’re a thief yourself.”
    â€œNot by choice—”
    Ghost gripped his arm, forced Jack to meet his gaze again. “It’s all choice, Jack. Embrace the wildness inside you, or attempt to deny it.”
    â€œI have seen something of the wild,” Jack said. “More than you can know. I’ve fought for my life against a thing more monster than beast, and its blood stains my hands. I found the wild thing inside myself and embraced it. Mastered it.”
    Ghost regarded him anew, cocking his head to one side before nodding slowly.
    â€œI knew I saw something in you,” the captain said. He tapped the pipe out on the railing, and the ash was carried away on the wind. “But you say you’ve ‘mastered’ it? Impossible. You may have caged it, but that doesn’t make you its master. There’s only one way to make peace with your animal nature, and that’s to surrender to it.”
    Jack’s earlier observation that Ghost was Lucifer now seemed so apt that he almost spoke it aloud. Lucifer’s curse was that he thought more than the other angels and did not understand the way in which heaven had defined morality. He’d had differing views and refused to bow to the beliefs of others.
    â€œHave you read Aristotle, Captain?” Jack asked.
    â€œWould it surprise you to learn that I have?”
    â€œIt would not,” Jack replied. And now he realized for sure that this was why Ghost had kept him alive. Not as crew. Not as cook. The captain lorded over the demons of his hell ship, but they were minions, far beneath him in every way.
    He had kept Jack because he desired such conversation; he wanted someone to challenge his philosophy that humans were savage by nature. Jack wondered who, precisely, the captain was attempting to persuade—his prisoner or himself.
    â€œGo on,” Ghost urged.
    â€œThe great philosopher wrote that ‘at his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.’”
    Ghost smiled, a cruel glint in his eyes. He prodded Jack with a finger.
    â€œSo you admit that you’re an animal,” the captain said.
    â€œYou mistake my meaning—”
    â€œI understand your meaning perfectly ,” Ghost interrupted. “You insist on confining your nature with concepts of justice and civility.”
    â€œBoth of which are necessary for the survival of the species.”
    Ghost snorted. “What of Darwin’s concept of ‘survival of the fittest’?”
    Jack knew then that the conversation could never end. It was a circle of dueling