Chapter 2: In/Out

It was about 4 p.m in Panama City when Nora's plane landed, after a seven hour flight from San Francisco. The bright and aggressive sun was what caught her attention first, and she wondered how she was going to survive the impressive heat of the Carribean. But her mind quickly focused on the thing she was there for in the first place: Anne Bonny and her treasure.

She had figured out the riddle by reading an old book about piracy that referred to Panama, the narrowest country of the Americas, as "the thread that keeps South and Central America together". Just as she found the answer, she booked a flight for Panama and left a "I'm sorry please don't hate me" note for her sister. Not that it was gonna be enough for her to be forgiven anyway, but at least it was something.

So there she was, melting in the Panamanian spring heat, bargaining in a perfect and fluent Spanish with a man who wanted to charge her extra for her rental car, and more impatient than ever before. She just couldn't wait any longer to find out more about the chest and was hoping to finally find it as soon as she could, to brag about it to Sully, Nathan and her family.

A couple of hours later, the young brown haired woman arrived in the small town of Isla Blanca, a historical port famous for being a pirate haven during the golden age of piracy, and Anne Bonny & Mary Read's favorite stop in the south of the Carribean sea. She was looking for an old fort where the two women allegedly planned most of their heists and robberies, and which was ever since used as a sort of museum about piracy in Panama.

Museum meant security. And security meant that she couldn't just take what she needed from the fort and leave without a scratch. Of course not. She had to break into the museum at night, inspect all of the artifacts and letters kept in there, and steal the ones that might be useful to her. Of course it had to be complicated.

As she walked into the museum legally to locate where what she needed was, she spotted a few cameras she'd have to hack in order to go in and out as unnoticed as possible. Fortunately, there was no alarm in the building. She also spotted the places that guards were positioned at, thinking that theses places were holding precious artifacts that were going to be watched over at nighttime. After a while she entered a room dedicated to Anne Bonny and figured it was her goal for the night. In the center of the room was some kind of golden trophy, covered in rubies and gems, with words in Latin written on it. She couldn't translate it all on the spot so she took a picture, thinking she could do that back at her hotel. But as she leaned as close to the artifact as she could, she spotted a nearly unseeable separation between the bottom of the trophy and the body of it. She figured it was probably one of the trophies Bonny talked about in her letters, and that it was hiding something. So Nora decided that she was going to steal that trophy tonight.

When the night fell on Isla Blanca, the museum/fort closed its doors to visitors. Nora was in position in a very dark enclosed alley behind the fort, and just waited for one of the basement windows that was there to be clear. The basement was added to the construction later on and was where the objects were stored and inspected. There were only a few windows to it, just enough for the historians to work without the natural light damaging anything. Nora would quickly get in through one of them as she saw that security down there was very minimal, as just one guard was watching the place.

The second the light disappeared from the window, Nora opened it quickly and got in without any issue, thanks to what her uncle had taught her about breaking into places. Nora was actually an excellent thief, and was rarely spotted when she illegally entered buildings. She made sure to be hidden behind a shelf in case the guard had heard her, and took out her laptop to start hacking the security cameras that were situated only upstairs. Nora frowned when she noticed that most of cameras were already hacked and that she didn't have anything more to do about them.

"The fuck…" She breathed out in surprise. If there's one thing she expected to happen, it certainly wasn't that. She decided to just go with it and not ask anymore questions. That was a great thing for her, so she wouldn't complain. But she was still a little worried. Why were the cameras already out? Was someone in there already?

The light brown skinned girl headed upstairs to the main galleries after she quickly went through everything in the basement. There was nothing valuable to her there, and she didn't want to waste her time, so she went straight to the second floor and Anne Bonny's room.

The trophy was still there, in the middle of the room, on its pedestal. One of the lights of the room was still on, shining on the trophy, emphasizing the size and beauty of the gems and the gold. Nora thought it was a terrible move from the direction of the museum, as it would make it a target of choice for eventual thieves. She laughed quietly and proceeded to open the glass carefully. Just as she was about to do so, Nora felt some kind of presence creeping behind her, quickly followed by a voice.

"You shouldn't be out there that late, sweetheart."

The second the words hit her ear, Nora turned around to face the man who dared calling her "sweetheart". She was surprised to see a middle-aged white man, maybe in his forties, his brown hair slicked back, four flying birds tattooed on his neck. He was dressed as a guard. Key word here being "dressed as". She understood immediately that he wasn't one when she heard his thick American and his slight Boston accent. A light smirk appeared on her lips and she raised one of her eyebrows as she stared straight into the man's hazel eyes.

"You shouldn't be here either. It's quite easy to see that you're not a guard, even after all the effort you put in looking like one. I hope the real guard you stole the uniform from won't remember you or you're in big trouble."

The man raised an eyebrow as well, surprised and slightly amused by the girl's nerves. She was good. But she wanted the same thing he did, so he wasn't going to play nice with her. He let out a light laugh and grabbed the girl's wrists, putting handcuffs on them. He then tried to push her away from the trophy, but she didn't let him act without putting up a fight. She lifted her knee defensively and threw her fists in front of her face, a threatening look on her face.

"Trophy's mine, pendejo. Handcuffed or not I'm the one leaving the building with it. You can have anything else, but this," she pointed the trophy behind her, her menacing gaze still locked onto the man's face "you touch it and I swear I'm going to be way less friendly."

He smirked, looking up and down at the girl. She was fairly small compared to him, maybe 1m65, and didn't look very strong. He could knock her out really quick, and she probably wouldn't be able to even touch him. But he quite liked her temper and was curious, so he'd let her try.

"Excuse me, I think you're in the way." He tried to grab her arms and she took this opportunity to wrap the handcuffs around the back of his neck, bringing his head down to her knee and hitting his nose with it. The man was in shock and let out a scream when his nose hit her knee. It was broken, they both knew it. He was knocked out for a few seconds, and Nora didn't waste time breaking the glass and running away with the trophy, tucking it in the bag she brought. She ran as fast as she could, but was still careful to avoid the guards. She eventually hid in the bathroom, cursing silently. What the hell did just happen? She thought, replaying the events in her mind. She was about to check the perimeter to see if she had a window to escape, when she heard steps in the corridor.

"Shit, shit, shit." She muttered, trying to remain as hidden as possible. After a while, the steps just went away and she heard the person whispering some curse words. She decided to take this chance to go and managed to walk out of the building unnoticed, the trophy in a bag and her hands still cuffed.

The morning after, Nora woke up with an intense pain in her wrists due to the handcuffs still being on her. She grunted and opened her eyes, seeing the desk covered by papers and the trophy standing on them. She had spent the entire night trying to figure out how to open or decode the trophy, but her efforts remained unsuccessful. She had started to think that maybe there was nothing to it and that it was just another dead end. So she went to bed to put the tiring and eventful night behind her, hoping to find something the day after.

She got out of bed and smoked a cigarette or two, trying to figure out how she was going to take her handcuffs off. She was running out of options and the last one she had was her least favorite: finding the man who put the cuffs on her in the first place, and negotiate with him so he'd set her free. After all, he was trying to get the trophy too so maybe he knew what to do with it. Maybe she could offer him to work with her on the trophy if he let her wrists free. Of course their collaboration wouldn't be meant to last.

With this idea in mind and the determination to have full use of her arms and hands and to find the treasure, Nora walked out of her hotel room, wearing the same clothes as the night before, considering the cuffs made it nearly impossible for her to undress, and started to look for the stranger.

As she went around town asking about the man, she heard the news of a break-in at the museum and of a missing artifact. She was sitting at the terrace of a small café, listening to the people sitting next to her talk about the robbery. She chuckled lightly when she heard them talk about a "sophisticated robbery", when it really was an improvised job. Nothing had happened according to plan except for her entrance in the place. She hadn't noticed the man sitting in the seat facing hers, smirking in expectation of their conversation. When she turned to put her cup down on the table, she almost jumped at the sight of the man she'd been looking for all morning.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you there, sweetheart." He said with the same smirk on his face and a slightly arrogant tone in his voice.

"How did you know I was here? And please stop calling me that. I don't know you, you don't know me, so just stop it." She said, visibly annoyed by the man's arrogance.

"I didn't know. I just came here for a coffee and saw you so I thought I'd say hi. Plus I think you have something I need. And I have something you might want." He said, wiggling a set of keys in front of Nora's face, pointing her handcuffs with his chin. "You give me access to the trophy, I free you out of the cuffs. Must've been weird walking around wearing these all morning. And also wearing the all-black outfit. I bet the combination earned you a few looks from people around here."

"Yeah, I guess people are not used to see this kind of shit around here. Weird." She answered sarcastically, before looking at the man with a more serious face. "In other news, I was about to offer the same thing. I actually spent my entire morning looking for you."

"Oh. I made that much of an impression? I have to say I'm a little surprised, usually girls like to talk to me a little more before chasing me."

"Yeah I just can't get enough of you. God you're annoying. I kinda regret breaking your nose last night cause I can't do it again now."

"About that, it really hurts, you know?" The man said, pouting.

"I'll give you some painkillers. Now if we could just get on with the freeing me and decoding the damn trophy part, that'd be good." Nora said, standing up, leaving the money for her coffee and trying to hide her wrists from the people surrounding them.

"After you, sweetheart."

"Goddamnit, I already told you to stop with this damn name. Or you can kiss the trophy goodbye." She started walking, the man closely following her.

"And you can kiss your wrists goodbye."

"Shit. Touché."

"Yeah. My name's Sam by the way"

"Nora."

The pair spent the afternoon locked in Nora's room, trying to discover what the trophy was hiding. They argued about it most of the time, having different ideas and theories as to what to do with it. They smoked a lot too, mainly to get the stress and frustration of failing off their backs.

"I'm telling you filling it up with water is just going to damage it, for fuck's sake!" Nora almost yelled at Sam, who sighed heavily, annoyed.

"And I'm telling you filling it up with water is the key to it!" He answered, surprisingly calm compared to her.

"Goddamnit, would you just listen to me?"

"Not when you say this kind of shit. We tried everything you suggested, and nothing worked. How about we go with my idea for once, huh?"

"It's a terrible idea and you know it. This thing is in gold and it's over 300 years old, we can't just put water in it without knowing the consequences and hope for the best, that's not how it works!"

"How can we know if we don't at least try?"

Nora was about to say something when Sam's phone started to ring. They both looked at each other in despair, before Sam stood up from his chair and picked up his cell. He smiled lightly when he saw the caller ID and put the object to his ear, while Nora looked outside the window and lit up a cigarette.

"Hey Victor. How you doing?" The name caught Nora's attention. She turned around to look at Sam, an eyebrow raised. "Yeah sorry I didn't warn you but something came up. Remember the girl I told you about yesterday night? Yeah, the one from the museum. Well, I found her and she let me have access to the trophy. We're in her hotel room right now, she doesn't want it to leave the place." He turned to look at her and chuckled, probably at something the man on the other side said. He took his time to scan her body, his eyes roaming up and down. "Not I didn't sleep with her, but she doesn't look too bad so why not?" Nora frowned and mouthed a 'fuck you', accompanied by a middle finger. The gesture made Sam laugh. "It's just a joke sweetheart, relax. Huh? Not, I was just talking to her. She's a bit tense so...yeah. Stop whining. I mean I know it's not Cuba but...you know what, when all of this is over we're going back there, and I'll buy you a brand new pack of cigars. And some of those ugly shirts you love so much." Nora frowned again, realizing who he was probably talking to. She put down her cigarette and started pacing around, wondering how she could've missed this. "Alright. See you later." He turned to look at his temporary partner and was surprised to see her constantly running her hand in her hair, muttering curse words over and over. "You okay?"

"What did you say your name was again?" She asked quickly.

"Huh...Sam. Sam Drake. Why?"

"Drake?" Her head shot up when she heard Sam's last name. "Like Nathan Drake?"

"Yeah, he's my brother. You know him?"

"We worked on a few things together, he was here for my first job, actually. He's almost family. Shit, how could I miss this?" She stopped and let herself fall on the bed, her head in her hands.

"Okay...what's going on here?"

"Your partner, what's his name?"

"Víctor Sullivan. But I don't know what that has to do with the trophy or...anything else. You know him too?"

"Ah, shit...yeah. We work together sometimes and, uh...he's my uncle."