Chapter 10 - Home, sweet home
Cassie was sitting on the kitchen counter, patting Vicky's head with her foot and grasping a tablet in her hands. It was starting getting late and her parents apparently were having a good time downtown. Unlike her. During that afternoon and part of the evening Cassie read another book, talked to Joe by the phone and now she was entertaining herself by watching silly videos online.
Suddenly she noticed something urgent hitting the news on her RSS and she loaded the embedded video. It was titled: "Urgent: Nathan Drake sets upon the working journalists". She fast-forwarded its first part, ignoring some journalist's too-emotional comment on the event and then she noticed nobody else but her own father. He was running through the crowd of paparazzies and random onlookers gathered tightly on the street around their car. He reached the right side of the vehicle and shouted something indistinct towards them. Then, with all his strength, he jostled away two men that were standing in front of the passenger door. It didn't do much: they didn't move backward away enough, because they were blocked by the others standing behind them. After a second of surprise some of them started spreading their arms and shouting something in Nathan's direction. There could be seen some kind of aggression in their movements now. Nathan turned away from them and bracing himself against the car, he crack-opened the door from the passenger's side. Cassie could notice her mother's face through the window. Nathan was saying something to Elena and she nodded.
Second later, the crowd tightened around them again, nearly crushing Nathan against the car side. He braced on his arms on the car and tried to close the door, but all he could do was to stand there, with his back to the crowd. Suddenly Cassie noticed, that one of the paparazzies - a young one, with red hair under a baseball cap - got pushed forward by the crowd behind him so hard, that he literally jabbed her father in his ribs with the huge camera. It had to be enough. In a split second, Nathan turned on his heel, wrath burning in his bright eyes. In a few quick moves, he jostled a few journalists away, then whipped the camera off the redhead paparazzi's hands and threw it on the ground with great force, breaking it into tiny pieces.
"Oh God," Cassie gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. She could notice her mother seated in the car, doing exactly the same gesture at the sight.
The paparazzies' voices on the video ceased immediately and Cassie saw everybody looking up at Nathan, shocked. He was still standing too close to the redhead paparazzi, with the same look of anger in his eyes, as if he was about to hit him. But he didn't. Instead, he looked around one last time and walked towards the driver's seat. This time, paparazzies shoved up in silence, allowing him to walk through, but they didn't stop filming and taking photos. Some of them showed rude gestures towards her father, but didn't say or shout anything.
Nathan got into the car, then started blowing his horn on the journalists and drove with full speed down the street. The video focused on their vehicle vanishing in the distance and then there was a cut and on the screen appeared the redhead paparazzi. Apparently it took an instant for him to understand what actually happened and when he did, he fell on his knees and started whimpering over the destroyed camera.
"Holy… shit," Cassie gasped loudly, as the video ended. She rested her hands with the tablet on her knees, completely shocked. Then she looked down at Vicky, that was staring at her with concerned eyes. "This is bad," Cassie said and the doggy just whined in reply.
A second after Cassie heard the sound of the approaching car engine. She glanced through the kitchen window and confirmed her suspicions. The heroes of the day were finally back. She jumped off the counter and quickly walked to the front door, wanting to greet them and ask about what she just saw. Vicky got on her feet as well and followed Cassie at a lazy pace.
The moment Cassie opened the outside door, she heard her parents' voices from the parking lot. Loud and raised. Full of anger.
She froze on their porch, listening quietly. Vicky passed her and started walking down the stairs but then she noticed that her lady wasn't following her - to what she reacted with a surprised whimper. But Cassie ignored her and just stood there, listening to the voices from the parking lot.
"-could play it out differently! Maybe without attacking them in front of the whole country's TV viewers?!"
"'Attacking'?! I was the one who was attacking?! Then what would you call that what they were doing? 'Gentle patting on my back and ribs' that accidentally turned into crunching me against the fucking car side?!"
"They're paparazzies, they need to keep their fingers on the heartbeat! That's their job, Nate!"
"Oh, sure! That explains everything! 'Scuse me then, I should've let them crush your leg!"
"Don't you understand? It wouldn't have happened if you wouldn't have made that fabulously stupid decision to go to town just like that, before patiently waiting for the things to cool down by themselves!"
That was enough for Cassie to understand how bad things were between her parents. It was evidently worse than it has ever been in the last months, maybe years. Cassie gasped loudly and turned on her feet, then ran to her room and locked the door, truly and fully unwilling to be a witness to this fight.
The second later the main doors opened again and Nathan entered the house, then walked towards the kitchen, Elena following him.
"They just took advantage of the opportunity that you gave them!" Elena called after Nate when she shut the door behind her. "I can't believe I agreed on this! That was incredibly stupid of you!"
"Oh, so sorry to disappoint you, darling!" Nate snapped back ironically while opening the fridge and getting himself a bottle of beer. He turned on his heel and faced Elena again, bracing himself against the counter. "What would satisfy you? Maybe you'll put bars in the windows tomorrow? Install additional locks in the door? Hire the pack of guards? Or, maybe, wait, wait," he continued, raising his hand with the beer in the air, "I think it's not necessary anymore - we already live like prisoners here!"
"Jesus, Nate, stop being this impatient!" Elena groaned, rolling her eyes. "You asked me if I believed you, but you don't believe me! I told you, they'll eventually stop! The topic will vanish!" She made a gesture, spreading her arms widely. "Just like that! Everything will return to normal! All you have to do - or rather, all you had to do - was to keep quiet for a couple of goddamn days!"
Nate sipped his beer, then frowned at Elena and scoffed. "And that's it? Is that all you have to offer? Sit and wait, that's your brilliant strategy against these suckers?"
Elena let her arms fall to her sides and gasped. "Yes, it is! Do you know some other options?"
"Any other option seems better than one that requires being stuck in the house for almost a week now," Nate blurted out. "We should be working like always, blow these idiots off somehow, but certainly we should not run away and lock ourselves up like in a shelter-"
"I'm doing this to protect you, asshole!" Elena yelled at Nate, apparently losing her patience. "I'm trying to protect Cassie! And if that requires locking ourselves up in this house for some time, then it's fine-"
"It's not fine with me!" Nate yelled back, putting his bottle sharply on the counter. The half-empty bottle made a loud thud hitting the furniture. "I'm not going to run away like a coward anymore!"
"Oh, how's that?" Elena asked him sarcastically after a moment of uneasy silence. "You were running away all your life… Every moment when complications were piling up. That was your way of solving problems! You were running away from me, countless times!" She emphasized those words and made a step forward, not taking her eyes off her husband. "And now, in this precise situation, you have some nerve telling me that it's below your dignity to run?"
Nate scoffed dismissively, then took his beer off the counter and walked past Elena without a word. Elena frowned at him with wide eyes. "Nate!" she called after him, then rushed up to him and grasped him by his right arm. "Nate, stay!"
"Oh," he stopped obediently and glanced at Elena's hand on his arm, then at her. He had the same ironic and angry look in his eyes, raising his eyebrow. "I see you're improving in incarcerating, do you?"
Elena's eyes went wide at those words and she froze, shocked by her husband's unexpected and cold-hearted remark. Then she let go of his arm and the look she gave him made Nate nearly sure that she's about to hit him in his face. But she didn't; she just glanced at him, half-angry, half-shocked, searching his face. He resisted her look, looking down on her and nearly feeling the skin on his arm burning at the spot of her last touch, as if she had touched him with burning iron.
"What's wrong?" Elena asked quietly and slowly, her voice trembling. "What the hell is wrong with you, Nate? Why are you doing this?"
Nate swallowed, then made a deep breath, looking down at her. "And you?"
Elena blinked, then shrugged, showing her surprise and misunderstanding of what was he saying.
"Are you still on my side?" he clarified.
"Nate," Elena gasped after a second, rubbing her cheeks and temples with the palms of her hands. "How… just how can you have any doubts…?"
Before Nate could open his mouth, Elena's phone vibrated in her jeans pocket. They both looked at the sound's direction, then Elena pulled out her phone, glanced at the screen and showed it to Nate.
"Answer it," Nate stated when he read the name on the screen, then made a step back and plopped down in an armchair in the corner of the room. It was their manager. At least they were over their fight for some time, giving them time to cool off a bit. Before they both say too much.
Elena made a deep sigh, then answered the call, turning back to Nate and walking into the kitchen again. Nate turned his head and dumbly stared at the wide map hanging on the wall next to his armchair, above the chest of drawers. It was a very old map, hand-painted and crafted, yet to its authenticity Nate always had several doubts. Elena found it on some antiques fair during one of their first trips to Europe. Although it had more a decorative and historical function than cartographic, it showed the contours of the Africa continent and the Middle East and Asia as it was seen by the XIV-century geographers. Africa was far smaller than it was in reality, comparing to Eurasia.
He sipped his beer and watched the map, searching for the region of Mesopotamia. He did it without any specific reason - out of sheer curiosity. He easily found two biggest rivers of the region - Tigre and Euphrates, then started enumerating ancient Mesopotamian cities in his thoughts.
"What?" he suddenly heard Elena's surprised gasp and looked up at her. She was clenching her phone to her ear, her eyes widened. She gazed at Nate for a second, but didn't say or show anything. "Where?" she asked again to the receiver, then rushed through the corridor to their bedroom without saying a word to her husband.
Nate didn't feel like following her. He sipped the rest of his beer and placed the empty bottle on the chest of drawers, looking up at the map again. He started wondering on which city he was before he was interrupted - was it Uruk, Nippur or Kisch? He decided to start again, from the Persian Gulf towards the north. Soon he got past the region in which these two biggest rivers were closing up. He took a moment to visualize the beauty and mystery of this place in his imagination. The cradle of mankind. One of the most important parts of the ancient Fertile Crescent. It was inhabited already during the Paleolithic Age, then ruled by several Mesopotamian dynasties, Persians, Romans… It was always a wealthy and progressive region, so the successors continued and developed the cultural heritage they found there.
He searched the map, trying to find another important cities of the region, when something caught his attention. His eyes wandered further up north, along the riverbed of Euphrates, passing the Habbaniyah Lake. Another ancient city was located there - Sippar, then Euphrates was turning left, towards west, and then again towards north. There was an area surrounded by over three big lakes - it had to be very fertile ground, and that means that people had to live there, working the land on this fertile soil. Then Nate's eyes wondered east. Right on the other side of the valley, on the western bank of Tigris, lied an ancient city of Assur, capital of the Assyrian Empire, that was ruling this region after the dynasty of Ur and the Akkadians. One of the biggest Mesopotamian cities.
Nate looked closely at the little point on the map that was symbolizing the location of the city. It's position seemed to him somehow interesting. The city was built on the western bank of Tigris, on a triangular headland, where the river presented a natural barrier from the eastern side only. It meant that in order to fully protect the city there had to be built a chain of defensive walls from the western side, where there was no natural barriers. Nate narrowed his eyes. It was strange. Why did they chose the western bank of Tigris and not the eastern one? During their times the Assyrians had to face the possible attacks of tribes living mainly in the west and on the Sinai Penisula. So it seemed natural, that the city should be rather built on the eastern bank of Tigris. Waters of the river, additionally straightened by the solid walls on the land could have represent far better barrier against enemies that would try to reach Assur. Building a city on the western bank of the river seemed a bit of nonsense…
…unless they had some backup on the west… Like another city, strong enough to counter the attack from the western side…
Nate frowned at the both banks of Euphrates and then an illumination hit him so hard that he gasped loudly.
"Oh crap."
He got on his feet swiftly and was about to leave the house when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Elena in their bedroom at the end of the corridor. She wasn't talking by the phone anymore, instead she was sitting on his side of the bed, grasping a mobile in her hands and staring at the floor. She had on opened laptop lying next to her on the bed, its monitor was illuminating the profile of her face. Although they were freshly after the fight, Nate somehow felt that he should approach her. Not without any difficult he broke out of his Mesopotamian thoughts and walked over to their bedroom.
"Hey," he started stiffy, leaning against the doorframe and putting his hands into his pockets. "Everything's fine?"
Elena looked up at him and, god, he knew that look of her. The skin on her face went pale and her brown eyes went glassy and full of tears, that seemed ready to fall down her cheeks anytime.
"Honey," Nate gasped, completely startled, then slowly approached her and sat next to her on the bed. He patted her thigh gently, to what Elena reacted by swallowing back her tear. "What happened?"
Elena ducked her head again and clenched her fingers around her cellphone so hard, that Nate was sure that she's enough strength to crush it into tiny pieces. He waited patiently for her to say anything, yet every single nerve in him screamed to run away in order to not know another shit that just happened in their life.
"Our sponsors…" Elena murmured after a minute. She was speaking slowly, like if she was strongly restraining herself from bursting into tears. "They're withdrawing their support. All of them… Right now."
Nate blinked. Elena was the one to control all the 'boring' matters concerning the economic side of their company, including the matter of sponsorship of their numerous expeditions. In reality, the expeditions were very expensive and the gold from Libertalia was long gone. Of course, the Drakes were also earning money thanks to TV programs, interviews or publicity, sometimes got some international funds, plus they avoided most costs because of having their own equipment. But it wasn't enough to capitalize new expedition each month or so. They had to pay for the permits (these were nearly never free of charge), pay their employees (including accountants), the fuel for their barge, harbor charges, insurance, and so on. In order to fulfill their dreams of adventurous life, they had to rely on sponsors, which included labelling their jackets with proper logotypes, taking part in commercials or sponsored interviews. In return, they were given a huge amount of cash to realize every new project they were deciding on. This was how it worked during the years.
Unlike illegal, legal work wasn't cheap at all.
"What?" Nate asked, dumbfounded.
Elena looked up at him, anger building again in her eyes. "What you've heard," she murmured coldly. "They're withdrawing from the D&F Fortunes."
Nate scoffed. "I don't understand… I mean… they're withdrawing because of that event with breaking the camera?"
"No," Elena shook her head sadly, then passed him her laptop. "Because of this."
Nate looked up at the device's screen and froze at the sight.
It was an article on The Morning News website with a photo attached. He quickly recognized the streets of that Nepal city, where he was searching for the right temple together with Chloe. Where he met Elena the second time. The photo showed the ruined part of the Old Town, street was full of debris and human corpses (properly blurred for audience) - among them Nate could recognize both the Lazarevic's soldiers and the partisans.
Then his pulse quickened as he noticed himself, running between the destroyed buildings. His face, his outfit were perfectly visible, although he was on the second or rather the third plan of the photo. Caught in action, looking for a right temple, struggling to survive… with the AK-47 in both hands. And the inscription above the photo said: Nathan Drake mysterious involvement in Nepal Civil War.
"Shit," Nate gasped, then quickly scrolled down to see the author's name and wasn't much surprised to discover that it was Chris Compi's handiwork. "Son of a bitch… Where the hell did he got it…?"
Elena nodded sadly and bit her lip, but didn't say anything.
"Ain't we gonna do something about this either?" Nate asked, exasperated.
"Nate," Elena shook her head then bowed forward and braced her elbows on her knees. "What do you want do? This picture made them think that you've been involved in this war, no matter on which side, that you took active part in street fights… that you…"
"We both know that it's not true, 'Lena," Nate interrupted her quickly, before she could finish the sentence. "We should tell them the truth about this."
"The truth?" Elena raised her eyes on Nate. "Well, go on, tell them truth. Tell them that you went after the tracks of Marco Polo to Borneo, where you found the magical ritual dagger. Then you came to Nepal, where you were trying to locate the hidden temple that would give you a clue on a lead to the forgotten city called Shamballa, hidden somewhere deep in the Himalayas and guarded by yeti-like guardians… During that whole time you was hunted by Lazarevic's soldiers as he wanted to get to Shambala too… There's only one truth, Nate. And it sounds: nobody's gonna believe you."
Nate scoffed. He was surveying the photo, thinking of any other option, but he couldn't find any - apart from that one to erase the gun in a graphic program and claim that the one in the press was falsified. But it seemed an obvious frame.
"This," Elena said sadly as she gazed at the mobile in her hand, "probably ends our treasure hunting with D&F Fortunes... For some time, at very least."
Nate didn't answer anything, although he knew she was right. He felt helpless and furious about the situation. He couldn't believe that during one single afternoon their life changed beyond recognition. If there was only a way to undo things…
They were sitting together on the bed in complete silence for several minutes. None of them was the despairing type and they kept it cool. They didn't whine over their situation or ask useless questions like 'o my god, what should we do now?'. But this time it was harder than usual and constant trying to keep calm took their breath away. They just sat there, without touching each other, like if they were separated by an invisible wall. Nate made a deep breath and looked down at Elena, but she didn't look up at him in return, still grasping her mobile in both hands. He didn't know what to say, his usual ability to tell smart-ass remarks vanished away. There was nothing to say, really.
Finally he slammed the laptop shut, then got on his feet, ready to leave the room.
"Nate," Elena called after him, and he stopped, gazing at her. "We have to be aware that soon you might be interviewed by the cops, if they assume that you could be a war criminal. You should better think of some kind of explanation if that happens."
"Yeah, I will," Nate murmured. "And now I think that Lazarevic is lucky to be dead."
Elena chose to not react to the amount of stupidity included in this simple sentence and let him walk away without a single word. When Nate left the bedroom she collapsed on her back on their bed and covered her eyes with both hands. She breathed loudly, trying to pull herself together and not cry. She had enough of today's events as well. Everything, their whole life, was falling apart and she couldn't think of anything to pick the situation up.
She couldn't help when a single tear went down her cheek. She also didn't notice when Nate slipped away from their house through the main door and walked towards their beach studio, vanishing in the darkness of the evening.
I'm very curious of what do you think about the course of story. I think it's getting darker, but I can't help it. Nathan and Elena are slowly drifting apart - is there any possible way to stop the process?
Also, I had a lot of thinking to make it sound realistic. I mean, really - in real life money doesn't grow on trees, and Nathan and Elena had a limited amount of gold taken from Libertalia. They had to spend it during those nearly 20 years. So I thought of a sponsorship as an optimal way of getting funds for expeditions.
P.S. Originally there was much more of cursing, but I decided to erase some of them - for the rating's sake :) They don't swear much in games either.