A/N: I hope you enjoy another blip into the kid's personalities! Next chapter, more action and fondling St. Dismas! :D Also I figured out how the few final chapters are going to pan out after making up my mind. Let's just say Alex isn't going to be too pleased when she finds out the truth.
When we reached Madagascar I put on a Journey's shirt instead of the flannel as it was warmer there. When we reached the hotel to drop off our things I took that as an opportunity to make a quick phone call. I grabbed my bag and fished out headphones so Sam could hear me talk to the kids. "Here." I handed it to him, "Put that in your ear." I told him before dialing Addeline's number.
"So you guys patched things up? How was Scotland?" Adeline asked,
"No treasure and for the most part. We're in Madagascar now." I told her,
"Technology has definitely come a long way." Sam looked to me,
"You have fifteen years' worth of catching up." Adeline laughed, "It's nice to know your alive, Sam." She told him,
"Thanks Adeline. I just wanna say thank you for taking care of Alex and helping her with Avery and Sam." Sam thanked her,
"Your welcome. Just don't break her heart again, okay?" Adeline asked him,
"I promise." He looked down at me and smiled,
"So what the hell are you doing in Madagascar? And are you going to tell the kids that Sam is alive?" Adeline asked,
"Nate thinks that Avery was recruiting people and this was the place he led him to. And no. That is not a phone conversation, unless I have no choice." I told her, "I just wanted him to listen in. Are they still up?" I asked her,
"They didn't want to go to bed without talking to you. Also, I saw Elena today and she was asking how the trip was influencing your novel." Adeline spoke, "She said she would text you or something. Anyway, I'll call the kids and put it on speaker." Adeline told me. I bit my lip as I didn't tell Nate what I would be telling the kids the same lie and that could seem suspicious.
"Hey kids! How was your day?" I asked them,
"Jonah asked me to do duet with him to that song I showed you." Avery told me
"Closer, right?" I asked her,
"Yeah! He's going to bring his guitar with him over Aunt Adeline's tomorrow so we can start practicing. I just hope Toby, Sam or Justine doesn't interrupt us." She sighed,
"And your Aunt is okay with this?" I asked her as I looked to Sam,
"Yeah. She thought it would be okay since you started dating at my age." She spoke,
"That's true." I sighed, "Sam, how was your day?" I asked him,
"It was alright. Are you okay down there? One of the guys in my class said it's monsoon season down there and the weather is getting bad." Sam Jr. Spoke
"I'm fine, Sam. Work has been postponed and I'm safe in my hotel room. The only good thing about the weather as I get to work on my novel and do some reading." I lied to them.
"Good but are you sure I can't make up some lie?" He asked,
"Yes. I know your Uncle has been on amazing adventures but the reality is that I write books and like you said 'dig up trash'." I told him, "But one man's trash is another man's treasure." I added,
"I know." He sighed, "Do you think I could ask Grandpa some questions for a school project I'm doing? When we are finished learning about the sixteen hundreds we have to talk about a topic we didn't cover and I chose to talk about pirates." Sam Jr told me,
"You can and I can help you too. Your grandfather taught me everything I know." I told him and I looked up to Sam who looked excited,
"Will you be home in time to help?" He asked,
"I'm sure of it. Talk to your grandfather first and then I'll fill in any missing pieces. I'll make sure you get an A." I told him
"You're the best mom!" He exclaimed,
"So you won't be coming home anytime soon?" Avery asked,
"I don't think so. I'm going to try my best to help get this job done. I miss you two so much." I told them,
"We miss you too." They both said,
"Now both of you get some rest. It's a school night. I love you both." I told them,
"Love you too!" They both said. It was silent for a few more minutes before Adeline spoke,
"So what do you think about your kids?" Adeline asked,
"I can't believe our son is doing a project on pirates." Sam told her, "And our daughter is going learn a song with the guy she likes... Please tell me you're going to watch them." Sam spoke,
"I'll be in the next room cooking, Sam." She reassured him, "Alex, do you want me to take pictures of the two?" Adeline asked,
"Addy, you know how creepy that sounds?" I asked her,
"I know but I figured you would want to see the two together." She told me,
"If it scares off the kid, I'm for it." Sam spoke,
"Creepy pictures it is! Since you're not around I have to embarrass her a little anyway." Adeline spoke as I laughed,
"Just one picture, and maybe a video that I can hear her sing but that's it." I told her as Sam wrapped his arms around me,
"You have my word. I'll let you two go. Enjoy Madagascar." She said before I hung up and took the headphones. I looked up at Sam as he had a smug look on his face.
"So Avery likes singing?" Sam asked me,
"You sure hear her. She has a beautiful voice." I shook my head, "And Sam is so smart. He always loves going out with his Grandfather and hearing his stories." I rested my head on his chest before feeling my phone buzz. I pulled away and looked at my phone to see Elena texted me,
'I hope everything is okay on the Malaysia job as it's monsoon season. I told Adeline I would take the kids out to dinner sometime.' I chewed my bottom lip while figuring out what to text back.
'I'm doing okay. Work was postponed and I'm just sitting and working on my novel in the hotel room. And thank you! I'm sure they would love to see you. I'll text you later about the book when I'm finished with the outline for the first few chapters. ' I slipped my phone back in my pocket before heading towards the door. Sam grabbed my hand so I would look at him,
"Yes?" I asked him,
"I'm sorry for not bein-"
"It's okay. I did my best trying to be both parents and if I knew you were alive then I would probably get myself in jail trying to bust you out." I hugged him as I laughed, "They're good kids and for one thing I do know they will adore you. It may be a bit awkward at first but they will see how amazing you are." I reassured him before there was a knock on our door. "Let's go find that treasure." I smirked before heading outside to follow Sullivan and Nate to a guy with a 4x4. Nate had insisted on getting one with a winch and that was the one we ended up with ( I made a bet with him that we would use the winch). While Sullivan was bargaining, I bought a reliable disposable camera that seemed waterproof as I didn't want to risk using my phone. I sat in the back next to Sam while Sully's GPS lead us to where we needed to go. We ended up stopping as Sullivan lost service and I had as well. I got out of the jeep to stretch my legs as Sullivan tried to find a signal.
"What're the satellites saying, Victor?" Sam asked as he flipped the coin,
"Right now, not a goddam thing. I lost the signal." Sullivan spoke as he held up his phone,
"Hey, y'know what never loses its signal?" Nate held up a piece of folded paper, "Paper." He spoke before laying it out on the hood of the jeep. "All right, this route right here should take us straight to the volcano. Might get a little bumpy though." Nate spoke as he pointed to the map.
"Let's get this show on the road." Sam spoke as we all got back into the jeep. We were heading to the watchtower that was right on the volcano.
When we came out to the second tower I got out with Nate and Sam to look at it.
"It's in pretty good shape for something several hundred years old." Sam spoke,
"Yeah. They're definitely ruins from Avery's era." Nate spoke. Sam helped me climb up into the tower. I studied the symbol in the middle of the floor.
"That's Christopher Condent's sigil. Captain of the Fiery Dragon. He operated out of Madagascar around Avery's time." I pointed out, "Maybe he was recruiting pirate captains to be his lookouts?" I furrowed my brows before looking up at Nate and Sam, "That doesn't make any sense." I shook my head,
"No it doesn't." Nate agreed,
"Well, maybe each captain was responsible for a tower…along with providing the men for it?" Sam asked,
"You have a point." I pointed to Sam before I exited the tower to watch what Nate was doing. He went over to the tree and looked at it before going down to the jeep. I smiled before looking down at Sully,
"Looks like you owe me money!" I called as Sam and I were waiting at the top of the hill.
"For somebody who doesn't like to gamble you sure like to take bets!" Sullivan laughed,
"What can I say, I like to prove you guys wrong." I shrugged as the jeep came up over the hill. I hopped back in the jeep before we continued our way. We came to a beautiful view and I stood up in the jeep,
"Feast your eyes lady and gentlemen." Sam spoke before he stood up next to me and wrapped his arm around me,
"Wow." Nate spoke,
"Spectacular." Sully followed,
"Breathtaking." I took in the view.
"Just imagine…you've come here, a well-to-do pirate, far away from your oppressive government…" Sam spoke as he sat back down. I followed as Sullivan started to speak,
"Poor, oppressed pirates. All they wanted to do was murder and pillage in peace." Sullivan laughed,
"No, no. They wanted to live as free men." Sam told him,
"Well…if you're gonna pick a place to run away from society, you would do a lot worse than here." Nate added. We continued driving before Sullivan told us to stop after an explosion.
"What do we got?" Sam asked as Nate pulled out binoculars,
"Military guys poking around." Nate answered,
"Let me guess, Nadine's guys?" I asked,
"Yep." Nate answered me
"Son of a bitch." Sam cursed,
"Looks like they found an old colony outpost." Nate spoke as he handed Sullivan the binoculars,
"But the wrong one, right?" Sully asked
"That's the good news." Nate spoke,
"That means there's bad news?" Sully asked
"The only route to the volcano is straight through them." Nate told us
"Well shit, we do have the drop on them." Sullivan stated the benefit of this situation.
"What's the play here, Nathan?" Sam asked
"Just follow my lead." Nate looked back at Sam. Sam sat back and grabbed my hand as Nate found a good place to park the jeep. Sullivan, Sam and I followed him into the tall grass. I took out one or two of the guys in the tall grass as they were heavy. Nate and Sam took out most of the men before one of them noticed us and we had to shoot the rest of them to continue. I grabbed one of their guns as Nate threw a grenade at a wooden door.
"Look. Another sigil…" Nate pointed out,
"Huh. Adam Baldridge. He ran King's Bay for a while. He was a trader, slaver…general scoundrel." Sam spoke
"Look at you." Nate spoke,
"Yeah…prison…lot of books." He spoke,
"Looks like Sam is the new pirate expert, Alex." Nate teased me,
"Sam is like the third best pirate expert in my heart." I smirked as I was teasing,
"How am I third?" He asked me
"Well my father is the first and I'm the second." I looked over to him,
"You shouldn't even count." He laughed,
"I know myself better than anyone else." I shrugged as I turned around to start walking out to feel Sam's arms wrap around me,
"I think I know you pretty well." He huskily whispered before kissing my neck,
"Can't you guys wait until you get back to your room?" Nate asked,
"Sorry." I smiled sheepishly to the youngest Drake before turning around to Sam, "You can show me later." I whispered before leaving the room. Sullivan drove the jeep to us before moving back into the passenger's side so we could cross the bridge. Nate started to drive on it before it collapsed halfway,
"Ah crap!" He exclaimed as we fell. My body flew up from my seat by an inch before we landed.
"Jesus, these pirates really need to work on their infrastructure." Sully stated,
"Now how do we get out of here?" Sam asked,
"What about using the winch on the beams?" I asked,
"Great idea." Nate spoke before tying the winch around one of the beams and getting back in to pull it down. Once they both were down we continued on our way to see more shoreline.
"More shoreline." Sam pointed out,
"Yeah. They're definitely going all in, aren't they?" Nate asked
"And getting awful close to that volcano." Sully added
"I was thinking the same damn thing. What if they found the treasure already?" Sam asked
"Well, look, they're searching every inch of this place. If they're found it already, they wouldn't be searching." Nate reassured him,
"Yeah… yeah, you're right." Sam agreed,
"Hey Sam. If you don't mind me asking, how'd you pass the time in prison?" Sully asked
"Ah, y'know…reading, mostly. There was this one guard, saw me as a charity case, I guess. He'd check out books from the library for me." Sam answered,
"So what'd you read?" Sullivan asked
"History, especially everything related to Avery and other pirates…just in case, you know." Sam spoke, "There was this one author who had some theories about Avery and his treasure. Along with the theory of Blackbeard not being violent. It was interesting." Sam then turned to me, "I actually had the guard try to look for books with your name on it but he couldn't find any." Sam told me,
"Well, at the time my first adventure romance novel didn't really take off until the second one came out. The book you just described was actually written by me. I used a pen name not to confuse my writers and incase historians didn't like it." I told him
"I can see why. Some of the things you wrote were going against other historians." Sam agreed,
"We have plenty of time to talk about me. What else did you do in jail?" I asked him,
"Well besides books…push ups…smoking trying to stay out of fights-" He stopped as Nate was about to pass a well, "Hey is that a well?" Sam asked before Nate stopped, "Well, well, well." He laughed. I quietly laughed at how corny it was, "Do you get it? Because it's a well?" He asked,
"Sully, he stole your joke." Nate spoke as he got out of the car and down into the well. Nate came back up once to grab to winch and Sullivan got into the driver's seat to pull whatever he attached it to.
"So?" I asked Nate as he reappeared,
"Nothing major. I'll show ya back at the hotel." Nate told me, "Sorry, you were saying?" He asked Sam as he continued driving,
"Um… oh, right…trying to stay out of fights between rival gangs…Just a whole lot of thinking. That's pretty much it." Sam told us,
"Sam, if you had a guard doing you favors…why didn't you use him to get word to us?" Nate asked. I turned to look at him as I was interested in his answer too,
"Oh, I tried. I asked him to mail a letter – to your P.O. box." Sam looked in between Nate and I,
"I never got it." Nate told him,
"That would be because the warden saw it. I got busted up pretty bad and never saw that guard again." Sam told us,
"Jesus." Sully spoke,
"I got my own back when the warden decided to room me with Alcazar. That didn't turn out how he expected." Sam added
"You know come to think of it, I actually dealt with Alcazar a few decades ago." Sully told Sam
"No shit? How are you still alive?" Sam asked Sullivan
"Ah, it was before he was as dangerous as he is now." Sullivan spoke, "You know what smoke means." Sullivan spoke as he gestured to it.
"More shoreline." I stated before I prepared myself for more shooting and dodging.
