Title - Written By The Victors
Chapter title - The Curator
Author - OblivionsGarden
Genre - Romance/Adventure/Friendship/Drama
Disclaimer - I do not own the Uncharted Series in anyway shape or form. I only own the plot points surrounding my oc's, not recognized from the games. For this chapter I own, Penny and Stanley Kingsley.
Chapter Word Count - 2944 words.
Summary - She didn't plan for helping them get the cross turning into a full scale adventure. She didn't plan on diving head first into that lifestyle without a parachute. She didn't plan on getting shot at by that damn Adler. She didn't plan on falling for a man nearly twice her age. She didn't plan for any of it and yet there she was, covered in blood and dirt having the time of her life.
A/n - Of course in this story, Sully doesn't know the people who run the auction and Sam does not go to Nate already knowing where the cross is. Just a few minor details I changed, there may be a few more things changed in the future but nothing major. xx
(I couldn't not write something for Sam, he's too good of a character to just ignore.)
Please leave a review, I'd greatly appreciate it. Hope you enjoy, xx (:
London was the last place Sam Drake expected to be after tracking down his brother and yet there he was, sat in the corner of a grimy looking cafe on the corner of an unknown street watching the rain pour down outside. His brother, Nathan, was sat across from him, starting down at his boots as he lifted his foot experimentally, listening to the sound of the rubber sole coming unstuck from the floor. The two shared a grimace at the noise as the third and final part of their little rendezvous joined them, tray of coffee in hand. Nathan took a napkin to wipe the lip of his mug before taking a sip and his brother mirrored the action before finally asking the question hovering about his mind.
"Remind me again why we're here."
"I already told you kid, I know someone who know's where the Dismas Cross is." Victor Sullivan took a mouthful of his coffee, almost spitting it straight back into the cup.
"No, I mean here.. In this dive."
"Inconspicuous."
"Sully, it's a rat dropping away from closure." Nate shook his head, pushing his cup to the centre of the table. "Who is this contact of yours anyway, she couldn't give us a location over the phone?"
"She can be a little paranoid sometimes. Her rule of thumb is 'nothing important is saved to a computer or spoken over the phone.'"
"She sounds like a nut, how d'you know her?"
"I've worked with her a few times. She takes smaller jobs here and there, nothing too risky. Mainly, she's a researcher for other collectors but her official occupation, if you like, is curator."
"Why would a curator know about our cross?" Sam frowned. "And even if this woman does know why would she just tell us. I thought you said she collected this kinda stuff."
"She owes me one." Sully's smirk was barely visible beneath his mustache.
"You wanna elaborate on that?"
Sully didn't answer. Instead he stood from the table, pulled a cigar from his jacket and turned to leave.
"And you're sure she knows where the cross is, Sully?" Nathan glanced back towards the office of the woman they were meeting with as he spoke to Sully over the phone. Sam was pacing around the floor, doing his best not to point out historical inaccuracies to the other visitors.
"I'm certain." Sully huffed. "Would you just trust me?"
"I'd trust you more if you told me why you didn't come with us."
"I'm busy."
"Doing what?"
"None of your goddamn business, kid. Just be nice, get the location and I'll see you in the morning." Sully hung up but not before Nate head the distinctly feminine voice calling his name.
"Thanks for those visuals, Sully." Nate muttured, shoving his cell phone back into his pocket.
He watched Sam wondering around for a while until the man he had spoken to at the reception desk emerged from the office with a plastic smile.
"Miss Kingsley is waiting for you inside, Mr Drake."
"Thanks." Nate shook his hand and gave him a strong pat on the arm before turning to call over his shoulder. "Sam, c'mon."
Miss Kingsley's office was modest in size, the walls painted a pale cream and lined with shelves of books and documents. A large desk was sat in the centre of the room, cluttered with papers, a laptop, various little artifacts and a handful of spearmint chews. The woman herself, was forcing something into a drawer as the brothers entered and she gestured for them to take a seat without turning to look at them.
"Nathan and Samuel Drake, right?" She asked, grunting as she finally managed to force the drawer shut. "You're here to view my private collection?"
"Yeah and we, uh... Have a few questions too." Nate nodded, noting that her accent wasn't nearly as posh as the man from reception but not quite as rough as Cutter's.
"Alright, let's get going then." She gestured to another door, tucked into the far corner of her office. "Oh and which of you is which?"
"I'm Nathan. Call me Nate." Nathan shook her hand with a smile which she returned.
"So you must be Samuel." She reached out to take Sam's hand.
"Call me Sam."
Miss Kingsley nodded and turned away from the two, punching in a code for the door before letting the brothers follow her in. This room was much larger than the office, glass cases lining the walls in place of bookshelves with a few artifacts standing on their own podiums in the centre. The brothers split off, each looking at various articles. Swords, pieces of jewelry, maps to forgotten places... Each item with one common theme. Piracy.
"How long have you been collecting this stuff?" Nate asked.
"A few years." Miss Kingsley smiled at the boys' obvious appreciation. "It started when I was a child. My grandfather read me Treasure Island and I decided then and there that when I grew up I was going to be a pirate." She laughed a little at her own naivety. "Of course, that's not feesable in this day and age. My grandfather owns the museum and so I settled for learning about real pirates and collecting the things they left behind."
She let the boys continue to wonder, settling herself against a wall until they were ready to ask their questions. That moment came sooner than expected with a small noise of excitement from Sam.
"Whoa... Nate, c'mere and check this out."
"Holy sh- Where did you get this?"
Miss Kingsley moved to see what had caused the reaction, heart skipping when she saw her most recently collected treasure.
"Egypt." She smiled. "You know how rare they are, I assume."
"Sort of." Sam shrugged. "Enlighten us."
"The cross of Saint Dismas." She began, slotting a key into the side of the glass case to receive the artifact. "When they were made there were quite a few. Now, there are only three known crosses left." She handed the cross to Sam who was waiting with his hand outstretched. "One was found in Panama, apparently."
Sam and Nate exchanged a look but said nothing as Sam turned the cross over in his hands. The wood was broken and the cross itself was empty. He shook his head at Nate.
"One was broken in Egypt, that's the one you're holding. And the third... Well, who knows where that one is?" She laughed, taking back her cross and returning it to it's case. "Rumor has it that an intact cross holds a map."
"A map to..."
"I don't know. But the end goal, is something to do with Henry Avery."
There was a beat of silence as the boys exchanged glances. They looked back at the curator, much too young for the job title but clearly holding enough historical knowledge to manage.
"Ok, Miss Kingsley, we-"
"Penny."
"Penny... We have a friend who says that you know where that third cross is." Sam frowned as she noticeably stiffened but tried to brush it off.
"You're friend is wrong." She shrugged. "If I knew where it was I'd have it, wouldn't I?"
"Are you sure you-"
"I'm positive, Mr Drake." Penny glanced at her watch with pursed lips. "Now, I have to go for my lunch before another meeting this afternoon. So, if you would..."
She nodded towards the door and the brothers, without another word left her office and the building.
It had been a long time since Victor Sullivan had visited the Kingsley family's museum. Stanley Kingsley had become a sort of friend to him in his youth and so when Sully started to collect certain artifacts, occasionally he'd donate or sell smaller items to Stanley.
It was on one of those trips to London that Sully first met Penelope Kingsley, Stanley's grand-daughter. She was merely fifteen at the time but with the strict upbringing she had, there was no option for her to be anything but an incredibly intelligent young woman.
She began her working life as a tour guide for schools, showing children that history can be fun. From there she became a general tour guide, supervisor, assistant curator to her father and now she had become the head curator herself. Even Sully had to admit, she was pretty impressive for someone who spent most of her life behind a desk.
He didn't work with Penny until she was eighteen and called him in regards to finding an 18th century shipwreck. Penny didn't know Sully's exact occupation but she knew if she wanted permits to visit the wreck, Sully was the man who could get them. A few small jobs here and there, collecting things for her own collection, quickly cemented Sully as a close and trusted friend. Penny never took Sully's friendship for granted, especially when he willingly helped her track down her Dismas Cross in Egypt which didn't have any permits or legality whatsoever.
When Sam and Nate had returned to the hotel that evening, they were convinced that Penny was hiding something and Sully should be the one to find out. Unless he was willing to let them break into her office, to which his answer had been a firm no.
As Sully arrived on the floor of Penny's office he was surprised to see her standing in the doorway of it, talking to none other than Rafe Adler. He made sure he was well hidden behind a display case but close enough to hear what she was saying with that falsely polite smile.
"Mr Adler, I have a very hectic schedule this week." Her smile was starting to slip and even from a distance, Sully could see the exhaustion in her eyes.
"It won't take me long. Just a quick look and it'll all be done with. I won't bother you again... I can compensate you for you time if that's the prob-"
"No, Mr Adler." She said, a little firmer this time. Before Rafe could speak again, she held up a hand and closed her eyes, a sigh escaping her. "Since subtlety isn't working here, let me put it this way... You are an arrogant man-child with a severe self-superiority complex that will never see my collection. Goodbye, Mr Adler."
Rafe opened his mouth to speak, fury written all over his face but there were visitors around. He couldn't do a thing and both he and Penny knew it. Instead he turned heel and stormed off in a huff as Sully moved out from behind the display.
"You always have made a point of pissing off the wrong people, kid."
"Bad habit." Penny offered a tired smile as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the older mans waist. "Besides, I got it from you." She stepped back from the embrace and gestured into her office. "Drink?"
"Of course."
Sully stepped inside and took a seat by her desk, noting how messy and disorganized it was compared to her usual meticulous order. Watching as she pulled out a glass bottle from a cupboard in the corner of the room, he saw the unkempt look to her hair, the bags beneath her chocolate eyes and beginnings of a frown on her lips and brow.
"What eating you?" He asked, accepting the drink from her as she took her seat opposite.
"Dad decided he wanted to revamp the Egyptian section of the museum and open up a number of new exhibits. Being that I'm the lead curator now, securing these exhibits is my job and on top of that I've got Rafe Adler on my doorstep everyday and if he isn't there then he's on the phone, in my e-mails... The man's a nightmare." She sighed, sinking down into her leather chair. "Maybe I'll run off and take a holiday. For a week or two... Maybe a year."
"What's Adler want with you anyway?"
"You know him?"
"He used to work with some friends of mine."
"Hm... He seems to think I have an intact Dismas Cross." She blew air through her nose as she bit the side of her cheek. "Funny... Lots of people are asking me about that damn thing lately."
"Actually honey, that's why I'm here." Sully confessed.
"And here was me thinking you just wanted to visit a friend." Penny smirked, placing her half empty glass on the table. "Why are you interested?"
"Henry Avery's treasure from the Gunsway heist."
"Still plundering then?"
Penny shook her head, her Irish-red hair fanning around her jawline. She paced across the floor for a few moments, lost in thought, before she finally turned back to the grey haired man quietly watching her.
"That's what the map leads to then?" She asked and Sully nodded. "Are you with those men that came here yesterday? The, uh... Drakes?" Upon his silence she chuckled to herself. "You bloody treasure hunters-"
"You're talking about yourself there, kid."
"Maybe... But I don't know where the cross is Sully."
"You know I don't believe that for a second."
"I know."
She said no more, instead picking up her drink and draining the contents. She wiggled the mouse of her computer, beginning to sift through one of the many manila folders before her. Sully saw himself out, trying desperately to think of a way to get that information. He didn't want to betray his friend by letting the boys break in but he knew Penny better than most and he knew just how stubborn she could be. The last thing he was expecting was for the young woman to come running after him in the adjacent car park, her low heels click-clacking against the ground.
"Should you be running in a pencil skirt?" Sully chuckled, removing his freshly lit cigar from his lips and blowing the smoke to the side.
"Where are you staying?" She asked, glancing around the area with a frown.
"Some cheap hotel not far from here... Why, what's happened in the past two minutes since I left?"
"Someone, I'm assuming Adler, tried to hack my computer."
"But you don't save important stuff on there. Right?"
"Right... But he's persistent, I'll give him that. And if anyone is going to get the cross and go after Avery's treasure, I'd rather it be you."
"I'm flattered, kid."
"Text me your address. I'll come by tonight after I finish up here."
"For a minute I was thinking I'd have to bribe you."
"Please, Victor... You don't have anything to bribe me with. I want for nothing remember."
It was nearing eleven o'clock when Penny finally knocked on the door of Sully's hotel room. When he answered he saw she looked even more exhausted than she had that afternoon. He didn't ask if she wanted a drink, he could tell she needed it. She smiled somewhat sheepishly at the brothers who were already sat around a small table. She mumbled a thank you as Sully placed a glass of brownish liquid in front of her.
"I've been tracking the third cross for about a year." She began, deciding that there was no use in beating around the bush or trying to make small talk. "It's been getting passed between collectors, or rather stolen from them to be given to another for ages. But the most recent owner, a wealthy Italian woman with some very questionable connections, has passed away. Her son is selling a few of her things, things he thinks are useless. Namely, the cross."
"So, we steal it from their house?" Nate asked as Penny gulped down half of her drink.
"No, it's not there." She grimaced as the liquid burned it's way down her chest. "They sold some things and have given a few to an auction at the Rossi estate."
"So, we steal it from there, then."
"No." Penny shook her head at Nate with a soft, tired smile. "The Rossi Estate Auction happens every year. My grandfather has been once or twice to get things for the museum. It's full of crooks and rich kids. And it's always packed with security. It's not going to be just a quick, in and out job."
"You already have a plan, don't you." Sam smirked at the young woman, appreciating her research.
"Sort of. I can get us in, but from there... I've got nothing."
"Get us in?" Sully asked. "Not a chance, kid. This one is too dangerous."
"Victor, give me some credit. You know I can handle myself."
"Yeah, on small job without assholes who have guns."
"I don't train with every spare minute I get to run screaming when someone pulls a gun." She retorted. "And besides, it's my family name that's going to get us into that auction. So you either take me with you or you're screwed."
"You sure know how to drive a hard bargain." Sam chuckled, standing to pour everyone another drink. "I say she's in."
"Alright." Sully groaned. "But if at any point we think you're in too deep, I'm bringing you home. Lord knows your Grandfather will kill me if anything happens to you."
"Lord knows my dad is gonna kill me when I tell him I'm taking time off work in the middle of his revamp."
For the rest of the evening, Penny told them of how she planned to get everyone inside the estate. With a few tweaks from Sam and Nate they had their entrance done. The four of them sat with their drinks and their many refills until the early hours when finally, Sully took Penny home with a promise to pick her up in a few days to travel to Italy.