I used to hate taking hostages. It felt so cruel and in the very early days, I thought I could relate to them at the time, being forced into service and all. I had no idea how different it was until I started being behind bars myself on occasion.

     “Hostages are profit,” The captain used to say and when they were from air patrol, it was always, “This is what they signed up for,” and then the crew would laugh.

 After a few years, I found keeping captives very enjoyable.…

       There’s no better feeling than when you see a good ship, take it by force, and then come to find a whole cargo deck of wine from Bourgogne and champagne from Champagne. Well, there are better feelings but at the time, there was no better word for fun and profit. Dominique translated for the Captain and I sat by to make sure that she wasn’t twisting Captain’s words (it’s happened before apparently. I’ve never witnessed it though.) Either way, we made a night out of it.  The only one,…