Nate,

Hi. I hope that this letter finds you alive and well. My thoughts have been with you from the moment I left you in Xi'an.

I don't really know how to say what I'm thinking, mostly because I never wanted to hurt you. I really hope you can hear where I'm coming from in this.

First off: As I'm sure you've noticed by now, I'm not here. I rented myself a little apartment in New York where I'm staying for right now. I just felt like I needed to get away from it all for a bit, and it seemed like NYC was the best place to do that, as far as my new job is concerned. Yes, by the way, I got the position, and I'll be working as a foreign correspondent. I think soon I'm going to be stationed in the Middle East for a time. New York was just the best intermediate between here and there.

Second: I want you to know I still love you. I mean I think I do. I'm not looking for a divorce or anything, I just needed a break for a while. Nate, it kills me laying in bed at night while you're out on a job, and just wondering if I'll get a report that your body was found dead in a cave, or washed up on a beach somewhere. It scares me, loving you so deeply but not knowing just how long until the ticking time bomb of treasure hunting finally blows on you, and thinking about being alone, maybe never even knowing what happened or where you were. If you ever die, Nate, a huge piece of my heart will die with you.

Third, I guess I should explain why I left. I know that in some of our fights recently I've probably been kind of irrational, in the way of resenting you having to save people. Nate, you are a hero to me, and you always will be- not even just to me, but to so many others. But like I said, I'm scared terrified of losing you, and maybe it's immature of me, but running away seemed like the only viable option to cope with it right now. You've always been so strong, not just when it comes to opening heavy gates or freeing people from under debris, but in your ability to carry more responsibility than any one man should have to. And I knew that when I married you, but I guess I always thought that you would be more of a Heracles type- like, that maybe you'd have to bear the weight of the world for a little bit, but eventually you'd be able to set it down and move on. Now I see that you really are more of an Atlas, and maybe you'll always have to bear that weight till the day you die, I don't know (I hope I'm not getting too corny and poetic). And if it's that way, than know that I'll always respect you for it. But right now, with how dangerous this job is shaping up to be, I just don't think I can handle it right now. I think having some space for a bit will help us figure out about our relationship- I just don't think we can keep going how we are. Like I said, I'm not looking to get divorced, and I sincerely hope you won't be either. I still love you Nate.

I don't have the courage to call you right now, but when I do I'll get in touch. Please hear me on this one, and don't be upset.

Elena

Nate read it for the umpteenth time, now through bloodshot but dry eyes, as they had long ago shed all the tears they had to give. A great weight had settled in his stomach and not moved since he saw the letter the first time; he wondered if his heart had physically dropped into his guts. His throat tight, eyes strained, and head pounding, he allowed his head to flop backward against the fridge, closing his eyes and letting out a groan. The minutes passed and drug on into hours until Nate, exhausted both physically and emotionally, drifted away into a deep, deep sleep.

"Whoa! Hang on there!" Chloe stopped on the brink of a deep pit and held up a hand to warn the others. Shining the flashlight down into the abyss, she could see it gleaming off the tips of long, bronze spikes a good twenty feet down. "This is not what I call laying out the welcome mat!" she exclaimed.

"Yeahhh," Sully whistled. "A little extreme for a boot scraper."

Chloe looked out at a oblong platform suspended about ten feet out into the pit, hanging by chains from a bronze arm above them. As she played the light over the mechanism, she found that the arm extended past a central support and over to an identical platform at the far end of the long chamber that lay perpendicular to the hallway they were currently in. "It's a giant scale," she marveled. All along the pit, to the ends on both sides of the scale, the spikes shone menacingly, dotted here and there with the skeletons of unfortunate visitors of times past.

"The weighing of hearts," Cutter said solemnly.

Chloe side-eyed him. "What's that?"

Cutter glanced at her and then motioned to the bowl of the scale in front of them. "For weighing souls. One of the duties of Anubis was to weigh the hearts of the dead to see if they were worthy to pass into the underworld, or Duat. They were weighed against the concept of truth, represented by an ostrich feather."

"Weighed against a feather?" Chloe scoffed, putting her hands on her hips. "There must have been a bloody awful lot of people who failed that test!"

"Mmm, suddenly I'm wishing I had gone on that diet after all," Sully muttered, doing a gut-check while looking dubiously at the scales.

"Just keep your pants on, will you?" Charlie growled. "Truth was also personified in the goddess Ma'at, Shu's sister." He pointed to a small statue on the edge of the pit. "See that figurine, there, with the wings? That's her." He pulled Newton's journal from his back pocket and fished out a scrap of paper they had taken from the lab in St. Paul's. "I think it has something to do with her arms. See how they're positioned differently in the picture here then on the statue?"

Chloe looked at the paper in Charlie's hand and saw that, indeed, Ma'at's arms in Newton's sketch were held in front of her and at slight angles, like a sideways "V", while on the statue they were spread wide on both sides of the goddess. "You're right," she said, and knelt by the statue. "Let's see what we can do here."

"When in doubt, find some goddess to manhandle, amiright?" Sully said cheekily.

Chloe glared at him. "I'm going to pretend like you didn't just say that."

"Pretend away," Sully mumbled in the background as Chloe placed her hands on the goddess' left upper arm and began to pull. She applied firm, steady effort, and soon the metal appendage was rotating slowly in a socket, grinding slowly around until it stopped on the right side of Ma'at's body. Chloe then pushed down on the left and pulled up on the right arm until they resembled the sketch in the journal.

She stood as a deep and low rumble shook the sandstone-paved hall, and a stone pillar rose from the bottom of the spike pit, twisting slightly as it ascended to touch the bottom of the scale's bowl, then stopped with a boom that resounded through the temple. Quite pleased with her efforts, Chloe remarked, "I think we just tipped the scales in our favor, boys." While Cutter muttered something about a cheap shot, she backed up a couple paces and then ran and jumped, clearing the distance to the scale and then to the ledge on the opposite side of the pit. Charlie was close behind, crossing the large metal bowl in two strides and then landing beside her on safe ground.

"Why did that feel so much like cheating?" he asked, nodding at the pillar propping up their side of the scale.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Chloe answered blithely.

Sully brought up the rear, not going quite as far with his initial jump and grabbing the lip of the bowl instead. He pulled himself up with a huff, then hunched over, poised to make his second leap to the other side. Some movement behind him caught Chloe's eye, and she saw the arms on the statue of Ma'at suddenly swing back to their original position, and premonition of danger suddenly washed over her. "Sully, go!" she shouted, herself already springing into position to act. Sully took his first step in crossing the scale, but suddenly the pillar dropped out from under it and the entire balance lurched to the side, tilting the bowl nearly vertical and spilling him toward the wicked spikes below. Chloe was in motion, throwing herself back across the abyss and grabbing one of the chains of the scale, then using it to swing down onto the steeply slanted bowl. Her hip bone struck the metal hard and she released her grip on the chain, sliding down to the lower edge of the platform just behind Sully, who was frantically reaching for a hold on something. She reached out and caught his hand, then grabbed the chain connected to the bottom edge of the bowl as they both slid off the metal surface and into the air, and she felt their combined weight jerk excruciatingly on her shoulders a moment later. Through gritted teeth, she maintained her grip as she called down, "Sully! Climb up me and get yourself back on that goddamn scale!" She looked down and saw that the tips of his toes were brushing the spikes.

"Best idea I've heard all day!" he exclaimed, and began hauling himself up hand over hand.

Chloe sighed with relief when he was able to transfer his bulk to the scale, and she also pulled herself up, standing on the connection point of the chain to the bowl, with one hand holding the chain and the other pressed against the bowl. Sully had climbed to the top edge, and was now perched and looking skeptically at the feat of getting to the other side. "What now?" he asked. "This jump didn't exactly get any easier with the whole thing at an angle like this."

"Come on, now," Cutter said, then clapped his hands and then half-squatted at the knees, looking something like an American football player. "I gotcha."

Sully steeled himself, then lunged forward, grabbing Cutter's hand with a grunt, and Charlie immediately hauled him up onto the platform and then got back into position to catch Chloe. Chloe pulled herself up onto the top edge of the bowl, smirked at Cutter, and leaped across, grabbing his hand just as Sully did. As she was pulled up, she remarked, "My gallant hero," and patted Cutter's shoulder. Cutter gave the front of his jacket a tug as she walked by and then followed her further into the crypt.

The passageway soon rose steeply upward again, and when it leveled out they found themselves in a large, open room with a multiple dark doorways around the perimeter, and a towering statue of Shu just to the side of the entrance they came through. The god was facing the middle of the room and holding an ankh in front of him at arm's length. "This looks promising," Chloe said.

Cutter frowned and held up a hand as if feeling the air, turning his head first one way and then the other. "You feel that?" he asked. "There's a breeze."

"Good!" Sully said. "That means there's another way out."

Cutter looked at him with less enthusiasm. "Also means there's another way in."

Sully shrugged. "Ah, tomato, tomahto."

Chloe had walked out into the room and was pacing in a circle around the center, staring at the floor. Her eyes widened. "Do you see this?" she asked, her voice hushed with amazement. "It's a map. A map of the northern part of Africa as well as some of Asia." She spun in place and then pointed at the floor. "This must somehow tell us where to find Atlantis... but how?" She trailed off, considering what to do. As she thought, her eyes drifted up to the statue of Shu by the door, eventually finding their way to the ankh in his hand. A single ruby gleamed in the middle of the loop at the top of the ankh, the glow of her flashlight reflecting off of its cut surface.

Strange.

Chloe then looked past the statue and noticed a square panel on the wall behind the statue that had chains running to the lower corners, like it was designed to be lifted. "That panel up there is a door or window of some sort," she stated, pointing it out with her finger. Following the chains to the side wall of the room, she saw that it was actually a single chain, with the bight passing around a wooden wheel mounted on the wall that had a groove cut in the edge to admit the links. With a few quick strides, she reached the wheel and grabbed it like a steering wheel. "Let's see what happens if we- ugh- turn this!" She strained to spin the device as she talked, planting her feet wide and leaning into her effort. Creaking and groaning like the knob on an old rusty spigot, the wheel turned slowly, moving the chain with it and in turn lifting the wooden panel on the wall. As another effect of Chloe's efforts at the wheel, the arm of Shu holding the ankh began to turn slowly away from him, moving it more and more in line with the window. Sunlight from the world above shone through in a slowly widening beam, casting its welcome light on the scene in the room, and particularly on an astounded Sully and Charlie, who stood, mouths agape, as the panel neared the ceiling. With one last grunt, Chloe heaved the wheel again and the window was fully opened, and Shu's arm came to rest directly in the path of the light from the sun. The sun's rays were momentarily dimmed as what was presumably a cloud passed by outside, then the light came back full strength, hitting the ruby in the ankh as it passed by. There was a moment of anticipation as the three treasure hunters looked expectantly at the little gem and the light seemed to lag as it passed through, like it had to filter through it and get focused. Then a very distinct, focused beam of light emerged from the ruby and shone down on the map on the floor, pinpointing a very specific spot. Three pairs of eyes locked on to the spot where the blood-red light was touching down in the northwest corner of Africa.

"That's the coast of Morocco!" Charlie exclaimed. "Looks to be right in the middle of the-"

"...Atlas mountains," Sully finished with wonder in his voice. "Well, I'll be a sonuvva gun."

Chloe scoffed, a smile spreading across her face. "Of course, right? I mean where else would 'Atlas' Island' be? Oh god, good thing Nate's not here, he'd have one more thing to kick himself about." She pulled out her phone and started snapping pictures of the map from several different angles. "We've gotta tell Nate about this," she said, slipping the phone into her back pocket. "Come on, let's-"

She was interrupted by the sharp clack of an AK-47 being cocked. Chloe looked toward one of the doorways around the perimeter and saw a familiar face emerge from the shadows, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Surprise!" Floki sing-songed. He stepped forward, keeping his weapon pointed directly at Chloe's face. "Did you miss me?"

About a dozen of his lackeys now also stepped forward from the various other doors, effectively surrounding them, and each brandished a machine gun that was resolutely trained on the three adventurers. Cutter glanced around, pistol in hand but pointed at the floor. "You know, gotta be honest," he deadpanned. "I really didn't."

"Put your weapons down!" Floki barked.

Chloe scowled but did as she was told. Three handguns clattered as they hit the sandstone floor.

Floki nodded to his men, a couple of which stepped forward and collected the weapons. "Now," the Icelander growled. "Where is Drake?"

"Not here," Chloe volunteered, relishing the surprise she saw pass over his face. "Sorry to disappoint."

A frustrated rumble came from Floki's throat. "Where is he?"

"Go to hell," Sully shot back.

Floki turned his gun to point at him. "Shut it, old man! Do you think I have some need of you?" He glowered at them. "Give me the journal!" No one moved a muscle to obey, and Floki screeched, "NOW!"

"Here," Cutter held up the journal and tossed it to him.

The redheaded savage snatched the book out of the air and shoved it in his pocket. "Finally, someone with a little bit of sense. Now, the astrolabe. Quickly, I'm getting tired of this fast!"

"It's not here, dumbass," Sully said snidely. "Try again."

Floki's eyes narrowed. "You're bluffing."

"The astrolabe's with Nate," Chloe confirmed. "And there's no way your catching up with him."

The AK moved to point at Chloe again, and then Floki let out an enraged roar. "Miserable little shits! Where is the astrolabe?"

"What, are you afraid that Garnier might let you go, you 'stalker with a penchant for explosives'?" Chloe countered, then nodded to the gun in his hands. "Point that thing away from me, you know we're no use to you dead."

Surprisingly, Floki faltered and lowered the AK-47 slightly.

"Good boy," Chloe said condescendingly. "See, you're not quite as dumb as you look."

Floki glared at her, then suddenly took one long stride forward and smacked the side of her face with the butt of his gun hard enough it spun her 180 degrees away from him. Moaning in pain, Chloe bent at the waist and pressed both palms to her temples.

"Hey!" Cutter shouted, and made a move to lunge at him. He was immediately stopped by a half dozen machine guns being shoved in his face.

Floki continued to glower down at Chloe, and he reached out and grabbed the phone sticking out from her back pocket. "Hey!" she said, straightening up. "Don't you put your hands in my pants! And give me my phone back!"

Floki withdrew from her reach, slung his AK-47 over his shoulder, and began scrolling through her contacts while his men's guns held her at bay. "Where is Drake's number? I want to speak with him."

Scoffing, Chloe said in a cutting tone of voice, "Surprisingly, Nate's number is under the contact 'Nate'. A long shot, I know..."

Floki mimicked a talking movement with his free hand. "Talk, talk, talk. You do a lot of that, bitch. Too much for my taste." He sneered at her. "If it wasn't unfortunately true that you're more valuable to me alive, I would shoot you now. Now if you will kindly shut up for a minute-" he dialed the number and held it to his ear. It took Nate a minute to pick up, but presently Floki gave a cry of mock delight. "Ah, Nathan! How are you?" The brute began pacing back and forth, smiling like he was having a casual conversation with a good friend. Sully scowled and met eyes with Cutter, while Chloe watched with stony resignation. "Oh my!" Floki clapped a hand to his cheek, feigning shock. "Such strong language! Surely your mother didn't teach you to talk like that!" He stopped and rested his free hand in the crook of his arm that was holding Chloe's phone. "Alright, enough child's play, Drake. Here's what I want: You have the astrolabe, and you're going to bring it to me. Otherwise, you'll never see your three friends here again. Capeesh?" There was a pause, and a sly grin spread across the redhead's face. "No, you will come meet us at Atlantis, or at least nearby. ...Yes, I have the journal, and we found quite the fascinating little map-"

"Actually, we found it," Charlie corrected, though Floki wasn't listening.

"-and I'm going to send you some pictures here in just a moment. For the time being, I will be keeping Miss-" he gestured to Chloe for a name.

"Frazer," Chloe growled.

"-Bigmouth Frazer's phone, and I will tell you where exactly to come if you want to get your friends. That will be all, Drake." Floki gave a wide, shit-eating grin. "Cheers." He hung up and stuffed the phone into his vest pocket, much to Chloe's annoyance. Turning his smug smile on the three treasure hunters in the room with him, he surveyed them like a cat about to eat a mouse and then suddenly clapped his hands.

"Men!" he barked. "Tie them up and bring them out to the truck! We've got a long road ahead of us."

Time passed and Nate was unawares as he slept soundly from pure exhaustion. Shadows came and slowly lengthened, their tendrils snaking across the floor to encompass him in ever-increasing darkness. The sun set, and night fully set in, and still Nate slept, dreamlessly and fitfully. An untold amount of hours passed in this way, then, through the fog and sludge of his exhausted mind, Nate gradually became aware of a noise coming from somewhere nearby, and his head lolled to one side while his still-closed eyes scrunched a bit in confusion. It took his sleep-addled brain a solid ten seconds to piece together that it was, in fact, his phone ringing, and he lurched forward, his chest banging into his knees in his position on the floor of his kitchen. He fumbled the device from his pocket and looked at the screen to see who it was.

Chloe. Scrubbing a hand over his face, he flipped open the phone and pressed it to his ear. "N'ya, hullo." His head flopped forward until his forehead rested on his knees and he squeezed his eyes shut again. His left leg tingled from lack of circulation, and he tried to massage the pins and needles from his calf.

"Ah, Nathan! How are you?" Floki's voice came through in saccharine tones that were just dripping with the unspoken taunt, begging him to guess why he had Chloe's phone. Since Nathan had just woken up and was in an altogether foul mood, he cut right to the chase.

"Floki? You son of a bitch!" He clambered clumsily to his feet, his partly asleep left leg still refusing to serve him properly. "Where's Chloe? For that matter, where's Sully and Charlie, asswipe?"

"Oh my! Such strong language! Surely your mother didn't teach you to talk like that!"

"This from the guy whose mother apparently taught him that leather vests were an acceptable style choice," Nate growled back. The words were as snarky as ever, but they felt hollow and strange on his tongue, tainted with the unspeakable hurt he felt over Elena, as well as bitterness toward Floki and Garnier for dragging them all into this. "But," he continued with all the bravado he could muster, "I'm guessing you have a lot more wrong with you than mommy issues, so-"

"Alright, enough child's play, Drake," Floki interrupted. "Here's what I want: You have the astrolabe, and you're going to bring it to me. Otherwise, you'll never see your three friends here again. Capeesh?"

Nate's stiff-legged gait brought him to the front door, and he gazed out the light to where night had fallen outside. A pair of headlights passed by and his heart irrationally quickened its beat, as if it were one of Floki's goons driving by. "Where do you want me to meet you, asshole? Alexandria?"

On the other end, Floki chuckled. "No, you will come meet us at Atlantis, or at least nearby."

Heaving an dejected sigh, Nate shook his head and turned away from the door. "You took the journal, didn't you?"

"Yes, I have the journal, and we found quite the fascinating little map-" Charlie's voice was vaguely audible in the background, butting in to say that they had actually found it, "-and I'm going to send you some pictures here in just a moment. For the time being, I will be keeping Miss... Bigmouth Frazer's phone and I will tell you where exactly to come if you want to get your friends. That will be all, Drake. Cheers. "

Nate went wide eyed and blurted, "Hey, don't even think about hanging-" Then the line went dead. Holding the phone away from his face, he scowled at the screen and then jammed it into his back pocket. "Son of a..." He ran to his room and pulled out his battered army surplus duffel, then jerked open his dresser drawer and began stuffing clothes into the bag. After packing, he threw on a light gray Henley and a pair of tan work pants and ran back to the kitchen where he took his shoulder holsters from the suitcase and slipped his arms into them, then pulled the astrolabe from his suitcase and packed that in the duffel as well. As he stuck his feet into his boots and turned toward the island, his eye fell on the letter Elena had left him, sitting next to his journal on the floor, and he paused.

Slowly, he stooped and picked up both objects. Sparing one last glance at the letter, he pulled his sketch from the pages of the journal and settled his gaze on the pencil lines.

I'll like you forever, I'll love you for always. As long as I live, my sweetheart you'll be.

He frowned. The words seemed so childish, so naive- how could he think that he could make up for his glaring flaws with some trite little note like that? In frustration he crumpled it and his wife's letter and threw both in the garbage can. His hands moved to his throat and fingers delicately lifted Sir Francis Drake's ring around his neck. The familiar silver curve sparkled in the light, the engraved letters Sic Parvis Magna like a glimmer of hope, some motivation to keep going. Truly, beginnings didn't get much smaller than his.

"I guess this Drake was only meant to have one ring," he mumbled grimly, letting it fall back against his skin. Grasping his wedding ring instead, he removed it from his finger and briefly examined it before placing it on the counter and heading for the door.

Just as he was about to shut the door behind him, he froze. "I do not want to have to explain this to Sully and the others right now," he breathed. Sighing deeply, he turned back and retrieved his wedding band. "For now, it stays." Then he headed out the door and into the night.