Next chapter my dudes! You know the drill, please read and enjoy, and if you're feeling generous, leave a comment! Until next time my friends!

I gazed around the room in awe. The architecture! The solid ironwork!

"Look at the ironwork," Nate said, nudging me lightly. I nodded. I probably had stars in my eyes.

"It's gotta be Victorian, maybe older," Charlie added. I made a small whimpering noise as I examined some of the stone. What I wouldn't love to just explore this place. The secrets a place like this had to be hiding!

"Man, all this stuff's been rusting for a century," Sully commented.

"Maybe we can get through here," Nate called. The rest of us wandered over to the solid iron door Nate stood in front of. We tried lifting it, but the thing wouldn't budge.

"That's not going anywhere," I groaned, standing up and cracking my back.

"Hey, there's a counterweight up there," Nate announced, pointing to said weight above the door. It appeared to be caught on a plumbing line. "Looks like it's stuck. All right, one of us should climb up there, and see if they can dislodge it."

I clapped my boyfriend on the shoulder. "Thanks for volunteering." Charlie and Sully laughed as Nate sighed. He clambered up and moved the plumbing line out of the way.

"That oughta work," Sully said. I helped as the two guys lifted the door. "Here we go. Alex, go." I slipped under and grabbed the other side.

"All right, come on over." Sully and then Charlie made their way over. The next room looked like it might have been an old subway station.

"Oh crap, get down!" I heard Nate harshly whisper from a beam above us. Sully, Charlie, and I took cover behind some crates that were lying around. Around the corner came a couple suits. Sully and Charlie took them out once they got close enough.

"Thanks for having our back," Sully called to Nate. With the threat eliminated, we continued further into the room. I noticed a familiar sleek black car parked a few feet away.

"There's Marlowe's car," I announced. At least we knew we were headed in the right direction. I looked up at Nate who was working his way across some beams. "All right up there?"

"Yeah," Nate called back. He grunted as he jumped to a chandelier. "Why are there never any ladders?"

"All right, from here on, no more guns," Charlie stated.

"Is that really the best idea?" I questioned. "We don't know what kind of-"

"Hands up!" I jumped and turned to see another suit stalking towards us, his gun raised.

"Oh, hello, mate, we must've taken a wrong turn somewhere," Charlie said casually as he raised his hands.

"Yeah, is this King's Cross?" Sully asked.

"Uh, non parlo inglese," (I don't speak English). I noticed movement behind the suit as Nate climbed his way down the wall. I quickly reverted my gaze back to the suit.

"Don't move," the suit ordered.

"Hey man you got us all wrong. We're from Cleveland." Nate jumped the man, covering his mouth and nose until he passed out.

"Impeccable timing," I praised, lowering my hands. "Come on, we gotta keep moving."

"'I don't speak English'? Really? That was your go to?" Nate teased.

I set my hands on my hips challengingly. "Well what would you have said?" I argued.

Nate shrugged. "I don't know, something better than that."

I rolled my eyes. "Uh huh." We kept walking, using wooden boards to cross the tracks.

"What the hell kind of place is this?" Sully asked.

Charlie shook his head. "I've never seen anything like it."

"It must have been an old train station," I said as we walked by an old train engine.

"Yeah, but it's gotta be almost two hundred years old."

I sighed. "I know. The secrets a place like this must hold." I threw Sully a grin. "Maybe it really is King's Cross." Nate took my hand as I slowed down to examine some of the architecture.

"Sorry, tesoro (sweetheart), but we don't have time to sightsee," he apologized. I pouted, but allowed him to gently tug me along. We passed through another tunnel blown through the side of the train station. On the other side was another large room.

"And it gets weirder," Sully muttered.

"Whoa, this stonework," Charlie said, mirroring my thoughts. The architecture was incredible! The arches, the columns flanking them!

"Looks like Tudor, 16th century," Nate announced. He tugged me along, still holding onto my hand. "Up this way." We jogged up a staircase. My eyes widened with glee at what we found at the top. A giant ancient museum. There were display cases all around, each filled with various artifacts from who knows where.

"No, no, no seriously, who are these people," Charlie said, staring around. We all ducked down as Marlowe's voice sounded below us. We ducked behind the stone railing to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"I'm not interested in your excuses," Marlowe snapped, entering the room with Talbot who was carrying a box and several other suits trailing behind.

"Yes, it is regrettable-"

"Sh-tch. Not regrettable. Sloppy," Marlow corrected. "Your poor judgment could have cost us everything." She took the box from Talbot and opened it, revealing the decoder Nate and I had seen in that museum in Cartagena twenty years ago. "Four hundred years of searching. Finally - Drake's secret will be revealed." She pulled out 'Drake's' ring and attempted to fit it into the slot in the decoder. She glared at Talbot, holding up the ring accusingly. "What is this?"

"I don't understand…" Talbot said, clearly having no idea we had switched the ring. Nate sent me a smirk. Marlowe held the ring under a magnifying glass.

"It's a forgery," Marlowe announced.

"What?" Talbot gasped in disbelief. He took the ring from Marlowe. "That's not possible. I verified it myself." He carefully examined the ring. "This isn't the ring." It took all my willpower not to yell out 'psych!'.

Marlowe gave her right hand man a flat look. "Really." She took the fake ring back, considering it.

"I held it in my hands - I saw him put it around his neck," Talbot insisted. "This doesn't make sense." I grinned to myself. Oh the power of misdirection. I watched with growing satisfaction as Marlowe figured out what had happened.

The British blonde sighed and glanced at the ceiling. "We've been duped."

Talbot set his jaw as the pieces fell into place. "Cutter."

"Uh huh. You men stand guard and stay alert. We may have been followed," Marlowe barked. Talbot and his men drew their guns and moved to follow their boss's orders. "You - come with us. Find them and bring me that ring. I don't care how you get it." They left, leaving behind a couple suits. Nate motioned for Sully, Charlie, and I to sneak around the side while he took care of the suits. Nate dropped from the landing, taking out one suit and then snuck to knock out the other.

"This is quite the operation they've got going here," Sully commented.

"This stuff's got to be worth a fortune," I added. I wanted so badly to just explore the seemingly never ending display cases. The treasures that Marlowe had locked away, the secrets she'd discovered. Unfortunately, we were only here for one thing. Beside me, Nate had a similar look of awe and longing. He wanted to uncover all the secrets Marlowe had rediscovered and locked away as much as I did. We approached the table where Marlowe had foolishly left the decoding device.

"Hey, Alex, look, it's your favorite thing in the whole world," Nate said. He was tapping at a large jar that held a giant spider in it. Like something you'd expect to find in Australia. A shiver ran up my spine at the sight of the eight-legged devil spawn.

"Very funny, Nate," I snipped, taking great care to stay as far away as possible from the jar.

"Nate, Alex, focus," Sully reminded us. "We haven't got much time here."

"Yeah… yeah," Nate replied absentmindedly. Instead of picking up the decoding device, however, he grabbed the notebook sitting beside it. I peaked over his shoulder as he flipped through the pages curiously. Sully began to protest, but quickly decided it wasn't worth it. The notebook was full of maps, drawings, and various notes on Lebanon, France, Turkey, and Syria. My eyes widened as I realized who this book belonged to. "My God, do you know what this is?"

"It's a book, mate," Charlie answered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "There's a lot of them in here, it's a library."

"It's not just any book, wise-ass. Belonged to T.E. Lawrence - Y'know, Lawrence of Arabia," Nate explained.

"Yes, yes, yes, I know who he is," Charlie sighed. Nate flipped through a few more pages, coming upon an old package. I pulled it out and unfolded it.

"This was mailed from Dorset on the day of his motorcycle accident, May 13, 1935," I realized, reading the label.

"They must've killed him once they got their hands on it," Nate said.

"They?" Sully questioned.

"Yeah, 'they'. They. Them. Whoever these people are," Nate answered.

"Oh, what a lot of rubbish," Charlie accused. "It was an accident."

"Witnesses saw a black car run him off the road," Nate insisted.

"Guys…" Sully tried to cut in.

"Oh, what, so it was a big cover up?" Charlie mocked.

Nate shrugged. "Maybe."

"Nate!"

Nate turned to Sully. "What?"

Sully gestured to the decoder still sitting on the table. "That thing you have been waiting twenty years for?"

"...Right." Nate took the ring from around his neck. He glanced at me and I gave him a nod of encouragement. He slipped the ring into the slot and the little rings on the decoder turned. Nate grinned. "Okay… Here we go." He mumbled the letters as he wrote them down then looked at the final word. "Huh."

"What is it?"

"Ahh, it's… Long Hidden."

"What?!" Sully exclaimed only to be shushed by Charlie. "No shit, 'long hidden'. Are you kidding me?" I stared at the words. That couldn't be all Drake left. There had to be more. I may not know Francis Drake as well as Nate, but I've picked up a few things over the years and I knew he did have a thing for puzzles. Luckily, so did I. I quickly started mentally rearranging the letters.

"No offense, mate, but your ancestor was a right asshole," Charlie grumbled.

"While I'm not going to disagree with you, Charlie, if you boys would calm down and use your heads for a moment you might have noticed that it's an anagram," I informed them. "It spells out 'Golden Hind'."

Nate grinned like a kid in a candy shop. "The Golden Hind!"

"Drake's ship," Charlie said, his frustration ebbing.

"It's a clue. It's gotta be something hidden in this room," Nate mused. "All right, spread out, see what you can find."

"What the hell are we looking for anyway?" Sully asked.

"The Golden Hind."

I sighed. "That's not very helpful. It could be almost anything."

"Well, it could be a model, maybe a painting," Charlie suggested.

"What makes you think it's even here?" Sully questioned.

"It's gotta be here," Nate insisted.

"Marlowe has been after Drake's ring for the last twenty years, I'd bet she has probably collected anything related to Drake that she possibly could," I added. I wandered around, scouring for any possible clues. Charlie continued to make suggestions on what it could possibly be. I stopped in the middle of the room, hands on my hips. With a sigh, I happened to glance up and noticed a particular animal head mounted on a pillar. A golden deer head.

"Hey Nate," I called.

He didn't bother to look up from the desk he was examining. "Yeah?"

"What was the figurehead of Drake's ship?"

"A golden deer head, why?"

"Cause I think I found it." Hurried footsteps came up behind me.

Nate pressed a kiss to the side of my head. "What would I do without you?"

"Chasing your tail somewhere, probably," I teased. Nate climbed his way up to the figurehead. Just as he was about to check it out, he slipped and had to grab onto the golden statue. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. The library door suddenly burst open as several of Marlowe's men charged in. "Merda!" (crap)

"It's a trap!" Charlie shouted. The three of us still on the ground took cover while Nate tried to hide behind the statue. I poked out from behind the pillar I had taken cover and was just about to shoot one of the guards when the figurehead Nate was hanging onto broke, dropping him onto the ground in front of me.

"Merda! Nate, you ok?" I asked. He didn't answer as he quickly grabbed a piece of paper that fell out of the hollow statue and ducked behind the pillar next to me. Ignoring the bullets whizzing by, he opened what turned out to be a map.

"My God, I was right… he went to Arabia," Nate exclaimed.

"Nate, focus!" I yelled, causing him to jump. "We can examine the map later!"

"Come on, Nate! Let's go!" Sully called.

"Grab the journal and the cipher disk," Nate shouted.

"I'll cover you!" I said. I laid down cover fire while Charlie darted from his hiding spot, snatching the journal and disk from the table.

"Got it!" Charlie announced. I finished off the last suit and the slide of my gun locked back.

"Crap, I'm out!" I growled.

"Grab their weapons!" Sully suggested. Seeing as the silencers weren't of any use now that we had been spotted, I tossed my empty gun aside and picked up one of the guard's guns.

"We gotta go!" We ran through the now open doors. We maneuvered our way back into the old train station. Thankfully there were plenty of places to duck and take cover, cause there were a lot of suits. Like seriously, how many guards did one person need? It seemed like as soon as we cleared one area, a new wave appeared. Taking a new route out, we ended up in what looked like a subway station.

"Cutter, where the hell are we?" Nate asked as we ran through.

"It's the North Artwood station, come on," Charlie answered. We bolted up some stairs that would hopefully get us to the surface. Charlie contacted Chloe over the radio. "Chloe, can you read me? We're coming out the old North Artwood Station. There's no time to explain - we got company." At the top of the stairs was a gate, locked shut. "Bollocks!"

"Back up, back up!" Nate warned. He shot the lock and slid the gate open. "C'mon, come on! Go, go, go!" We ran through the gate, closely followed by Marlowe's suits. One dropped and we spotted Chloe a few feet away with the van, gun in hand.

"Come on!" Chloe urged. Nate opened the back as Chloe laid down cover fire. Sully, Charlie, and I clambered in. Nate shot a couple more suits.

"Nate!" I called.

"Go!" He shouted. Chloe floored it as I grabbed Nate's hand and hauled him in. The van's tires squealed as we rounded a corner. I leaned against the side of the van, catching my breath. Nate sat next to me, his head thudding almost painfully against the side as Chloe turned another sharp corner.

"Whelp," I said, breaking the silence. "That was fun."

"Never a dull moment," Nate added with a slight smile.