Sorry about the long wait you guys. For some reason I thought I'd posted this a while ago. Shit happens.
CHAPTER 2: JOHN LACKLAND
Sully was standing on the hotel balcony, trying his best to ignore the growing domestic dispute as he continued to take puffs of his cigar. It was probably a bit early to be smoking- sunrise had just barely left, taking with it the orange glow of the city below. It'd be peaceful, except it wasn't. He didn't have to turn to know the look on Elena's face. Between the jet-lag and not getting any sleep from worry, she was not happy. But now that she saw Nate alive and breathing, all the pent-up worry was being released like water from a dam.
Nate could see the composed anger in her crossed arms as he finished the story. He tried his best to stay composed himself, to not let on how much that bullet had felt like a cannonball, but the truth was those painkillers had worn off before they could fully set in. He felt even more tired than he was before he slept.
Luckily Nate had pity points, so she couldn't get too mad at him. And he really did look pathetic.
As he finished the story, it took all of his self-control not to fidget under her stare. "I know. I should have told you, but I-"
"I'm not mad about you going."
His thoughts slammed to a halt. "You- you're not?"
"No. I'm mad that you didn't tell me. Because you thought I'd say no."
Maybe not. "No, I-"
"Are you forgetting the last time you ended up with a gutshot, Nathan? You almost died. But at least I knew. I wasn't getting a call from Sully at 2 in the morning telling me that you'd done something colossally stupid-"
"Elena, this is exactly why I didn't tell you-"
"Oh, cause you wanted to leave me in suspense when you didn't come back?"
Nate gaped, searching for words. "In my defense, I didn't think we'd have any competition."
"Bullshit, Nate. If this guy's willing to pay you to come out here I'm sure there are others looking for the same thing," she dragged the chair out from under the table so she could sit across from him. She took a breath as she tried to compose herself.
"I thought you were done with this," she whispered. She'd hoped he had finally settled down. She let herself believe that the last cursed treasure was actually the last.
He lowered his voice to match hers. "It was just a simple job."
"And when will you be off to the next one?"
Sully sighed, hanging his head in defeat as he tapped the ash off his cigar and placed it on the balcony railing. He'd been hoping to stay out of this, but for Christ's sake, Elena would rip Nate apart faster than a bullet if he didn't intervene. Who knew he'd go from treasure hunter to relationship counselor in .3 seconds?
"Well- now that you're here, what's the plan?"
Elena let her gaze linger on Nate for a second or two longer- he didn't meet her eyes though, instead glad for the distraction that Sully gave.
"Finish the job. Find the map."
"What'd you say your client's name was?"
"Wheeler. Uh," Nate wracked his brain for a first name, He'd never actually met his employer in person, "Michael Wheeler."
"Well he doesn't know yet that we're going after it ourselves, right?" Elena asked.
"We? No, there's no we- Sully-" Nate gestured towards Elena with a you-tell-her expression.
"Elena, you're not coming with us-"
"Thank you-"
"-because we're not going."
"Yes. Wait, what?"
"Either all of us go or none of us do. And there's no way in hell that I'm letting you go out like that."
"What- this?" Nate gestured towards the wrappings that were concealed by his shirt. "Sully, I've been shot before-"
"You don't develop an immunity to gunshots!" Sully said.
"Wait- that's not what I'm saying," Nate shifted, gritting his teeth, "C'mon, Elena-"
She laughed, but it was humorless. "You really think I'm gonna take your side on this one?"
"You saw those guys, Nathan. Whoever hired them, they're rich enough to afford an army. I think we're a little outnumbered."
Nate looked between Sully and Elena. "I can't believe this. You guys are already giving up. This Wheeler guy is paying good money, and that was just for the map. Who knows how much the actual treasure is worth?"
"Not worth this!" Elena exclaimed, gesturing towards Nate, "You don't know when to give up."
"Okay, I'll admit we're not off to a good start-" Nate raised his voice to be heard as Elena threw her hands up in apparent defeat, "-but let's at least go back to check it out. I'll take it easy on this one."
Elena crossed her arms, fully prepared to stand her ground. Even if she said no, Nate would go anyway, probably try to MacGyver his way out of the hotel room. The least she could do was make sure he had backup. Maybe keep him from spider-monkeying around. Although Sully was reluctant too, she glanced towards him and he reluctantly nodded.
"Fine. But I'm going with you."
The main door was still blown wide open from yesterday's ambush- one was cockeyed at a near impossible angle, teetering on collapse. Luckily the small army from yesterday seemed to have left the area. Nate still had no idea what they'd been doing there, if they were looking for the same thing, and if so who their employer was. Either way, it was best to avoid making noise, so they quietly stepped through the door. Sully led them to one of the rooms that he and Nate had been about to enter yesterday before they were interrupted. After a thorough scan to make sure they were alone, Sully and Elena immediately set to work opening drawers and checking the bookcases for any clue as to what treasure the map would lead them to.
"Hey, I'm gonna check out upstairs."
"Be careful," Elena coughed out, waving a hand in front of her face as a plume of dust rose after she closed a book.
"Aren't I always?"
She arched an eyebrow at him and he sheepishly ducked out of the room, taking the spiral stairs two at a time.
There wasn't much upstairs, just a few bedrooms and what looked like an old workspace. There were a few books scattered around with once-elegant titles, now barely legible from age and decay. He flipped through a few of them, pulling out every stray leaf of paper in the hopes that it was a map. Nothing. He walked to the balcony, intending to go to the west wing of the floor, when something caught his eye.
The balcony overlooked the first floor, with a small circular window directly across that lent some view of the skyline outside. From this vantage point, Nate could make out the irregular patterns in the tiles on the first floor, lines and curves and edges starting and ending with seemingly no order-
"Nate, we're not finding anything down here," Elena called up at him. She did a double take when she noticed him intently staring at the floor. The lines were too random to be any map that he'd recognize. Maybe if he could rearrange it. . .
"The floor. The floor is the map," he raced back down the stairs, ignoring the razor wire shooting down his side.
He'd literally been standing on it.
"Can you stand over there?" Nate pointed to the doorway to the dining area, which had a markedly uniform tile. Sully, hearing the commotion, walked out of the room he'd been searching to join her.
Every few feet or so there was a deep gash in the floor, too deep to be grouting. Nate circled around it, following the line to its end.
"I think they rotate," he grabbed an edge to turn it, almost surprised when it gave way. He turned it until the lines were matched up with the ones around it, then did the same for the others. There were 12 in all, but the map was too big for him to be able to see it on the ground floor. He gestured for the others to follow him upstairs.
"That's the- uh," Sully snapped, trying to place a name to the squiggles and lines, "the Fens. England."
"Well that really narrows it down. Just a few hundred thousand square acres to cover," Elena said.
"Wait, but what happened in the Fens that-"
"There was a rumor that King John of England lost the Crown Jewels on the causeway. That area right there," Nate pointed down to a corner of the map, a bay with rivers leading into it. There was a cluster of five dots along where the shoreline would be. A symbol of some sort- he wouldn't chalk it up to coincidence.
"During a campaign against some rebel barons, he sent some of his carts through the shortcut, but the area was only safe during low tide. Almost everyone died, and the Crown Jewels had to be replaced."
Sully raised his eyebrows, seeming impressed as he slowly nodded.
"You think Wheeler is after the Crown Jewels?" Elena asked as she took a picture of the map below.
Nate shrugged. "Worth a shot."
"I guess we're going to England."
The smog hit him before he even had a chance to breathe. They'd landed in Nottingham, a few cities away from a town in the Wash. From there, Sully rented a car to drive the last few hours.
"Hm. Well," Nate braced himself against the railing as he peered out at the water.
"Yeah, great plan Nate. Even if they had been here, what're we gonna do? Go snorkeling?"
"They'd be under a mile of sand by now," Nate nodded.
"Hell, there's no telling they'd still even be in the bay," Sully said.
"This can't be it," Nate said, gesturing at nothing. The waves below crashed and fell in response. He didn't really know what he was expecting. Even his salvage team couldn't begin to tackle a dig like this. Maybe he should just give the map to Wheeler-
"Wait. Elena, do you still have a picture of that map?"
"Uh, yeah," she fished out her phone and handed it to Nate. He found the picture and zoomed in on the symbol, holding the phone out in front of him as he compared it to the landscape. He had to be missing something. . .
"What's that?" Sully pointed at something farther inland, what looked like little more than a cluster of white rocks from the distance. Ruins. There were 5 distinct towers clustered in a semicircle, just like the symbol.
"That-" Nate said, handing Elena back her phone, "is out next stop."
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