Staring past the entrance and deep into the dimly lit tunnel was tempting. Just go inside, I thought, just a foot and then back, but I said I'd wait here, until Chloe got back. I knew I should have gone with her; she'd been a while now. I thought about waiting a few more minutes, I began kicking some stones and was trying to fight back the urge to go inside and explore.
"Sam," Chloe's voice was a sound I needed to hear. She ran towards me catching her breath. Nathan wasn't with her.
"Where's Nathan?" I asked, wondering what had happened to him after we left him.
I knew Chloe's head was still spinning after solving that puzzle to get inside.
"I couldn't see him; he must have found another way in." Chloe began drawing out with her hands in the air of what she saw. The door had closed and there didn't seem to be another way to open it. "It felt like it was locked from the inside."
"What d'ya wanna do?" I said to Chloe. I was excited and nervous about walking into this 'lion's den' – I wanted to make sure Nathan was okay though.
"Maybe he found another way in? I mean maybe he couldn't get back out!" Chloe was turning but's into maybes.
"Yeah, you could be right, c'mon let's go inside." I said as we stepped passed the door. The tracks ran for another mile or so.
Then we saw it…
The tram Charlotte was on with the little girl was right in front of us. At least we knew we were on the right path. It had stopped at its destination but there didn't seem to be anything here except a tunnel wall.
"Something's not right, she couldn't have just disappeared." Chloe said looking at the tram. We peered in the windows but there was no one there. I climbed on.
On the tram looked like something one would ride in a city, like Dublin or San Francisco. There was nothing unusual about it. We walked to the front of the tram and noticed the hatch on the floor. "It won't budge." I tried to lift it up, but it wouldn't move. "We need to find something to open it."
I kept thinking to myself nothing is ever simple with these things, for once I'd like to open a door or a hatch without having to figure out a way to solve the puzzle connected to it. We managed to get a thin piece of metal from the tram and prise the hatch open.
CLUNK
The hatch's catch sounded, and the door opened very slowly revealing a ladder into the ground. We could hear muffled sounds as we walked slowly down the ladder. Each step on a rung sounded a little sharp, as we tried to keep quiet creeping down.
"We are no closer to finding the damn city." A male voice said, someone we'd not heard yet. It sounded deep and had the distinct feel of belonging to someone in charge. He sounded American and from the south.
"According to the records of this place, it should be here."
It was strange listening to the voices, I tried to imagine them looking at a map of this area and trying to work out what they were looking for.
Both Charlotte and the mystery guy started talking about a city near here.
The conversation was short, and the mystery guy sounded angry and frustrated that they'd not found it yet.
CLUNK
The door closed and it felt safe to walk down the rest of the ladder.
We were inside a stone room, it looked like an office.
"What are they up to?" Chloe asked looking at the blueprints to this underground city. "Sam, look at this place." She held up the map and some black and white still photographs. I took the photograph off her and stared at it.
"I think this is 1980…look at the people here and look who that is." I said pointing at two people I recognised immediately, Evelyn and my mom. "They were here, in search of something."
"What?" Chloe asked, as I walked around the room. On the wall was a map of an excavation near here. "This, they're looking for the city."
"What city?" I could sense the excitement in her voice, "this city?" She said confused. I took the map and rolled it out on the table, showing her the four points, they'd been looking at.
"Legend has it, there's a Viking City within the undergrounds of London, near a city built in the fifties. I think this is what they're looking for." There was excitement in my voice too. "If Nathan was here, he'd probably have something to say about all of this." We needed to find this city, I thought.
"It's called the broken city. According to the stories there's three of these somewhere across the world. And many have tried to find them."
"Okay, but what's Charlotte got to do with it and this other guy?" Chloe asked hoping I had an answer. I paced the floor scratching my chin, wondering why no one had found this city yet and if this was indeed what he was looking for.
I walked near the door and listened if anyone was outside. I heard nothing. Opening the door silently showed there was no one around. The long stone corridor led the way with rooms at either side.
One of the rooms had the wreckage of one of Sir Francis' ships in a glass case and other nautical equipment, that had been collected. We walked slowly passed the other rooms hoping to not get seen.
Some of the rooms had space for a family of four and acted as a house within a room. There was plenty of space to move around. Walking further inside, we walked past the kitchen and main hall area. I couldn't help wondering if mom had stayed here at some point. "Maybe we can find Evelyn and my mom's room." I said looking at Chloe who was fascinated by what was hidden down here.
"Sure, which one was it?"
I didn't dignify her with a response, I just tried to imagine where it might be. We walked through the corridor and the rooms got bigger – there were pictures of loved ones still left in them. It was as though the people here disappeared leaving everything behind, either that or Charlotte's mercenaries lived here, I thought.
"Sam, I think I've found it." Chloe said pulling me away from looking at the meeting room.
"How do you know it's there's?"
"It says Cassandra and Evelyn on the door." Chloe smiled, her eyesight was much better than mine, I think too many punches to the face and bad health was the cause. But she was right it did say their names on the door.
We opened the door, and it was like stepping into a time warp. I could see some of the similar stuff I saw when me and Nathan were kids. "Chloe this is kindda weird." I said walking around looking at the walls.
"We're they in prison here?" Chloe had found some scratches on the wall, at first it looked like the numbers were used as a tally to count the days, but I had a feeling it was more than that. Looking at the three walls. I read out the numbers 3,12,9.
"What do you make of it?" Chloe asked looking more around the room.
"It's a clock, well they're numbers on a clock." Nathan said standing at the door. Both Chloe and I just stood there looking at him.
"What are you staring at?" He said, as if he didn't know. Me and Chloe just looked at each other.
"Err…you…where have you been what happened?" Chloe asked.
"I'll tell you later, c'mon there's a clock in the meeting hall."
We followed him back over to the large meeting hall I was looking at before. The large grandfather clock stood tall. A dark brown wood effect cabinet was locked. I found a piece of metal to prise it open. Looking at the brass pendulum I couldn't see anything unusual about it.
"Nathan what are looking for?" I asked watching him run his fingers around the clock.
He explained to us the numbers were the four positions of a clock. And this was the only clock he could see. We tried to move it, but it was too heavy. I watched him putting his fingers behind it.
He started to pull them out but couldn't.
"Shit, I'm stuck."
"Good job Nathan," We went over to try and pull his fingers out. He slowly removed them making fun of us but holding something thin in his fingertips. He carefully pulled it out and it was a small piece of a jigsaw puzzle, with what looked like part of an image to an old type of sailing ship.
"Good luck in putting that together boys we've only got one piece." Chloe said smiling. But it was enough to make Nathan piece it together.
"Time Piece," he said out loud.
"Yeah, a clock?" I said.
"Not just any clock."
We started to walk back to where we came from, as Chloe followed Nathan's words. "Remember why we're here?" Trying to talk while he was moving at a brisk pace. "Dr. Alexandra Knight, who is Evelyn was onboard the SS Petoria."
"Yes, she was." Chloe and I said in unison.
"She shared some information with our mom, she's telling us where the city is. I've seen this before." Chloe was struggling to make the connection.
Inside the museum room, Nathan smashed the glass, without caring that anyone would hear and took out the polished wooden box. Fiddling around with what was inside, he removed an important piece and held it in his hands. "C'mon." He said as we followed.
We started to walk further down the corridor and next to the chapel. The noises of Charlotte and the mystery guy were coming from inside. I peeked my head through the window and could see a West African man in a wheelchair with Charlotte and her thugs alongside. We listened.
"Patience ma'am, our guests should be arriving any minute." One of the goons said, as we all looked at each other.
"After all these years, we nearly have the answers we've been searching for."
"What about Romanov, why didn't you want him to be a part of this, not that I didn't mind killing a scumbag like him for the cause." Charlotte said to the man.
"Charlotte, I see you have your mother's thirst for answers, but sometimes we need to be patient and wait for them to come. Let's just say the Russians were in over their heads. And leave it at that for now."
"What's Redd Fisher got, that we haven't?" Charlotte continued with the questions.
"A map! We have one and he has the other. Did you arrange a meeting with Mr Fisher?"
"Yes, he's heading for Sweden, we will meet him there." Charlotte confirmed, she didn't like Redd Fisher, but she did what she was asked.
"And what of the girl, where is she?"
"She's safe, but what about the Drakes, let me take care of them too."
"Ha, ha, oh my sweet child, we need them both. So, watch your six, they can surprise you."
We walked under the window being careful not to be seen. Waiting for them to leave, we watched Charlotte wheel the man in his vintage wheelchair. The mercenaries followed. We walked around and headed into the chapel.
Nathan pulled out the Chronometer he took from the museum room and placed it on the lectern at the altar of the chapel. "Guys look for three points in this room, they should look like a number."
"Nathan, how do you know this?"
"Remember that Journal Evelyn gave you, there was something odd about a chapter of it. I thought this place looked familiar somehow, it was the chapel mom drew. There was a chronometer and a lectern – this is it."
"This isn't Drake's though, they were invented in the early 1700's, who's is it?"
"A descendent of Nuna Da Silva."
Listening to his words, we each went towards a wall, searching for a number.
"Erm Nate, not to break the clouds up with this thunder rollin' but on a clock there's a 6, where's the 6?"
"On a typical Chronometer, there isn't a six, its usually missing, and this is South."
"Okay."
Nathan started to break more of the weathered back wall of the chapel, breaking the plaster revealing the large wall with lots of numbers over bricks. Each section had a certain number of digits. The left side had four-digit numbers, the middle single numbers and the right side had two-digit numbers.
I saw the one on the wall I needed to press - 1540, Chloe found the numbers 1 to 9 on hers. I told her to press 7, Nathan broke away the lectern revealing a space to fit the Chronometer. It began turning as Nathan pressed his number, which was of course 13 – Sir Francis Drake's birthday. All the hands pointed south. They'd built a city over this elaborate entrance. The stone staircase revealed itself dropping further down below.
"Woah!" Chloe said watching the dust settle.
The floor began to drop at an angle quickly each time we made our way down twisting and turning along the cave walls.
"Where do you think this goes?" I said, looking pleasantly surprised at what we might find.
"It goes down, that's for certain. Wonder how far and where it leads?" Nathan said in his usual excited way.
Thankfully there were lights leading the way, a sort of cable and light pattern running down the length of the walls – pre–Cold War. The cave got narrower, as the walkway turned, and the lights were no longer on the walls. We walked further down and could see a glowing light from the archway below.
"I think someone's down there?" Chloe whispered as we kept looking back to see if anyone had crept behind us. With a gasp and the spirit of adventure we walked around the archway. "What the hell is this place?" I couldn't have said it any better myself, Chloe was asking a good question.
We'd heard of cities, tunnels and caves under London, but I never would have imagined anything like this. I don't know how deep we were, but it felt like we had sunk plenty under the capital. And now looking at this structure, was something very extraordinary.
"Where do you think this came from, Nate?" Chloe asked, feeling the statue to the entrance to the city.
"I don't know but this wasn't made by the Romans." Nathan said.
"Why the Romans?"
"Just like Rome, London was founded on the point of a river. The Romans called it Londinuim." He said, trying to understand the origin of this city. I knew this wasn't built by the Romans. This was built by the Vikings. "I think we've found Den odelagte byen, 'the city of the broken'."
"What's a Viking city doing down here?" Chloe asked.
"I think I've seen something like this before." Nathan had read books and seen pictures of what the city may look like. And now we were here, but Charlotte wouldn't be too far behind. We wanted to have a look around before they arrived, but the entrance was sealed. We needed a way in.
Nathan's attention was brought back to the three statues of the soldiers, I noticed each one had a weapon.
"Nate, what are you doing?" Chloe said watching him trying to move the weapons. One guard had a sword, one a mace and another a bow.
"I think these statues move!" He said remembering what he'd seen. But they weren't moving anywhere. I tried moving them around, but nothing was happening.
"Sam, over here!" Nathan pointed to a plaque on the wall, it was kindda dusty as he moved his hand slowly across. "With Sword in hand, bow by side, mace on back, go forth to who are sure to attack." Nathan translated the words for Chloe to understand. I knew it had something to do with the weapons, but what? I didn't know.
"Any ideas?" I asked Nathan.
I wasn't sure, solving these things was more his thing, I was the muscle, he was the brains, and I was also the looks. But looks or muscle wasn't going to get us through the door. Think Sam! I thought.
"There must be something else in here, there's no handle, the doors are closed, so the statues can't be in the right position." Nathan said.
I thought hard about what would make the statues move and what position they should be in. One question kept entering my mind.
"Why did they not blow their way through?" Chloe said, saying what I was thinking. It was a conundrum that could wait, we wanted to get through this door if it killed us. The curiosity of what lay behind was killing us.
Looking around the room made me feel dizzy there wasn't much in here. Candles on the wall, three weathered statues and a weathered dusty plaque. I looked on the floor near the statues and could see a 6-inch gap, which was covered in dust and grime. These statues definitely moved that was for sure.
"Shit Nathan, I think we're missing something here!" I said and I was right. In each of the weapons was some kind of recess, it looked like there was something that could fit in the grooves. "Well one thing's for certain, no one has gone further than this point."
"I'm not sure about that," Nathan said. "I think there's another way in."
"Where? We didn't see another route, did we?" I pointed back to where we came from. We decided on heading back up, there didn't seem to be anything we could do here.
"Shhh do you hear that?" Chloe said, but I couldn't hear anything.
"No, what is it?"
"Huh! Nothing, I guess, I thought I heard something." She looked around. It was easy to have your eyes and ears play tricks on you down here, but we made our way back up the staircase.
I climbed up and poked my head out, I couldn't see anything. Signalling the others up I waved them forward.
"Well, well we've rodents." The man in the wheelchair said as he appeared with his mercenaries swarming the room. I had had about enough of this, I thought I might be able to reason with them or kill them to get what I needed to save Cassie.
"Bring them up here." Charlotte said to her mercenaries.
"Who's this guy?" Nathan said pushing the brutes of him.
"Ah! Mr Drake, an absolute pleasure, my name is Jasper Conrad." Jasper said in almost the same way he would greet a person he'd call an idol.
"Sam, are you making friends with another devil? And her – she-devil." Nathan pointed to Charlotte, standing behind Jasper.
"Nate since we're gonna be hostages, maybe, just maybe you could tell us what happened when you went through the door. How did you get out?" Chloe was again asking the question.
"Oh, it's a funny story, so…." I interrupted him, glowering at Charlotte and Jasper.
"I want some answers." I said in a threatening manner, "my niece is being held captive by Redd Fisher and I want her back."
"Er, I'm just along for the ride." Chloe said sheepishly.
Jasper extended his arms, "welcome to the city under the city. My predecessors helped build this place in the fifties, a place most thought was to protect the government, but really it was to find…well you know the rest."
Chloe shuffled and looked at me and Jasper. "Erm…actually I'd like to know more." Chloe said, hoping for some more history.
Charlotte walked over to Nathan.
"Nathan Drake, we meet again, took you long enough." Charlotte said smiling, she looked good, even for a psycho.
Jasper moved his wheelchair slightly, I was still surprised it wasn't digital, or electric in any way. The man sitting inside, was certainly old, but looked healthy enough.
"I think you're a long way from home Mr Conrad." Nathan said listening to the deep south accent.
"Actually, I have lived in England for most of my life."
"You must be like a hundred!" Nathan blurted out.
"He's one hundred and five years old. And has seen more than you can ever imagine." Charlotte said very defensively.
"Now, now child, don't over exaggerate." Jasper smiled and made himself feel at ease with the situation.
"You're pretty stupid, for an old guy, you are right on top of it." Chloe said in her usual antagonistic way.
Charlotte walked and Jasper wheeled himself closer towards us, as their mercenaries pointed their guns.
"Good one Nate."
"Please, please I do not want anyone to get hurt," Jasper looked down the staircase, realising he wouldn't be able to go down there. "Please come with us, maybe we can help each other."
It wasn't too hard a choice to make really, either get killed or behave, we chose the latter and followed Jasper and Charlotte to a control room. We entered and two of Charlottes brutes were waking up.
"Oh, hi again fellas," Nathan said as the brutes stared at him. I read it on their faces, Nathan had been here.
Two mercenaries guarded the room as we all huddled inside. Jasper spread out a map of the SS Petoria.
"I've already seen this place," Nathan lent down and whispered to me.
Jasper cleared his throat and started to tell a story. "This is where one of the jewels lies, for years I wanted to return to this ship and find where she put the ring, but Evelyn hid in the shadows and behind the darkness, I never found her." Jasper said with the sound of regret and hatred in his voice.
"You were on board the SS Petoria?" I asked looking at Jasper.
"Yes, but if I had known what was on that ship, it may have turned out better for all of us." Jasper replied, not giving away too much detail. He may have come out of retirement to find the elusive Dr. Alexandra Knight and the ring she took from Kwainaba burial site. "We need three jewels to find the stone, the maps are not enough I don't think. But Mr Fisher has something we don't."
"We tried getting into the place below, maybe there's something inside we can find. But there seems to be something more to the statues." Nathan said, wanting to move forward with everything.
"Statues, what statues…oh, you mean here."
"Yes, where did you mean?"
Jasper began telling another tale, which sounded like he liked telling tales of old. This was a story about three cities, known as the broken cities, that the Vikings had built to house their treasures they had pillaged from the islands they had conquered. The city below was one of them.
"Come, let us go into the city, you may learn something."
"I'm not going anywhere." I demanded. I was worried about our situation yes, but we came for the girl and we knew Charlotte said she was here.
"Thank you for showing us the way." Charlotte said, pointing at the cameras in the tunnel we were in. "We knew you were in the tunnel, and I had to get you down here. I'm sensing some curiosity led you here."
The words you bitch, sprung to mind. So where was the girl, I thought. "What about the girl?"
Jasper typed in some keys on the computer's keyboard and showed her inside one of the rooms. It looked very spacious, if I didn't know better, I would have said she was enjoying her time in there.
"Is that a PlayStation?" Chloe said, looking at the girl playing the console on the monitor.
"Yes, she's being looked after, I can assure you."
There was no reason to think she was in danger, but there was every reason to think she was a captive, they needed her as much as I needed her, and Nathan and I were hoping to use her to get to Cassie. She was all I could think about, the stone kept making its way into my mind as well, but Cassie came rushing back to the memory banks. I was so sorry for getting her involved with this, and sorrier for Nathan. His daughter, my niece at the hands of another psychopath.
"Charlotte, go see what the boys found below?" Jasper said.
Having her come with us to return to the entrance of the city. The brutish men began moving the statues as Nathan told them where to place them, it was much easier to move them with that many guys. The doors opened revealing another city. A place made of stone and timber, and it looked amazing from where I was standing.
"Nate!" Chloe's quiet words of amazement sounded, looking through the dust as it settled from the elaborate opening of the doors. "This place is incredible"
Nathan got interrupted by Charlotte, who walked to a large portrait of a Varangian soldier.
"Do you know who this is Mr Drake?"
Nathan was unsure, and so was I. He had to be famous, but we had no idea what for.
"A survivalist; an explorer; a man of great power and he was the reason why our group exists today." Charlotte began telling yet another story about the founding of the Protectors. Both Nathan and I had heard the story, but we didn't know who the founder was. "We exist to keep the world safe, to root out the ones who may cause us harm and hide the objects which could cause such devastation to the world." She added.
"You didn't count on Sir Francis Drake, though, did you?" Nathan rebuked.
"No Mr Drake and I didn't count on your mother finding this place either."
Charlotte had done her research; she had the same copies of mom's accounts like we did. Evelyn had shown us a side of mom that we never saw. She had secrets that she kept with her until she died.
"So who are you Charlotte, Dr. Knight's grand-daughter? I'm assuming you are, given you have the same last name." Chloe asked.
"Ha, ha, no Ms. Frazer, I'm more akin to the Drakes here. You see Jasper recruited me when I was young, the tale of the student succeeding the master. I proved very valuable to the cause."
"Hang on, are you saying 'rollerboy' knew our mother and how are you connected to us?" Nathan's sharp tongue began stabbing words.
"I'm Cassandra Morgan's daughter."
This was sounding more ridiculous by the second, there had to be some mistake.
"You were flirting with your sister?" Chloe began laughing slightly.
"No, of course not, she's not my sister, we don't have a sister." I looked at Nathan as he was looking at her, did he know something that I didn't.
"Your mother had an affair, and I'm the daughter she should've had." Charlotte said, looking pleased with herself. I wasn't convinced, nothing about this was true. She didn't look like us, or mom, there was no way she was our sister.
"I considered your maternal figurehead, to be my mother, she was full of exciting stories, and I dreamed of one day becoming like her. She was better than I could ever be. England was not a home I liked until I met your mother, and when Evelyn adopted me, I wanted to be like them both." She looked really pleased with herself and continued, "so I created Charlotte Knight. A few years later."
She took a gun from one of the mercenaries, "I don't need both of you, I have what you have, and I know where you're going next." She said, with that psychotic look in her eyes. "Now I need to get to Sweden and unlock the gates to paradise."
Chloe turned and looked at Nathan and me. "Nice sister you've got there."
"She's not our sister." Nathan said, show his annoyance with the femme fatale in front of us.
"The good thing about mercenaries, is, by design they kill for money, and Mr Fisher is paying that bit extra. Right boys?" Her words were like an instruction, the guns came out and were pointing directly at us. "Now as I said," she began waving the gun, "Ms. Frazer, which one should we keep?"
Thank you for reading this chapter, we will continue the adventure next time to see if Nathan, Chloe and Sam escape and we learn more about the mysterious city.
