"That'll be $13.50" said the taxi driver.
Nate handed the driver a $20 and told him to keep the change.
"Hey thanks buddy. Looks like a fancy shindig happening out there."
"Yeah, something like that," Nate replied as he climbed out of the taxi.
"And here's you rolling up in a junker of a taxi" the driver chuckled.
Nate laughed and closed the door. He slapped the roof and the taxi drove off leaving Nate standing on Bernice St, just outside the entrance to the Bishop Museum.
He pulled at the bowtie that felt too tight around his neck and smoothed down the tuxedo's jacket that felt too tight across the chest and headed along the path into the carpark where numerous expensive cars were parked. As he walked, he pulled out his phone and typed a message:
I'm here.
He pressed send and put the phone back into his inner-jacket pocket. He took a right, walking between a low-lying flat building with a dome - The J. Watumull Planetarium - and the Atherton Halau, an open-air pavilion with a high-pitched roof used for smaller events. From there he made his way to the stone building where the event was being held.
People dressed to the nines were slowly filtering into the building where two guards were standing by checking the invites. When it was his turn, he handed his invitation to a guard built like a bull and twice as ugly and Nate was suddenly glad he wasn't wearing anything red.
"Says you got yourself a plus one, Mr Drake" the guard grunted as he looked at the clipboard held in his paw. "Where are they?"
"He's not coming" Nate replied putting on a smile, "Too many Mai Tai's."
The guard grunted something that could have been a laugh or an acknowledgement or a complete lack of interest, but he wrote something on the clipboard and waved Nate through.
He entered a wide open, three-storey expanse. Hawaiian Hall, along with the adjacent Pacific Hall, was the main feature of the Bishop Museum. Three levels featuring artefacts of Hawaii's history, including the Hawaiian Gods, native animals and the day-to-day life of the indigenous before contact and key moments in Hawaii's history.
Hardwood floors and posts, stained dark and polished enough to reflect the downlights, ran the length of the hall. From the roof hung the skeleton of a sperm whale with a paper mâché body running half the length of the animal. Next to it was a sea turtle and some sharks but the whale, known as Ward's Whale, was the main attraction in the room.
The first floor had been cleared of the existing exhibits, including the statue of Ku that Nate had knocked down days earlier and replaced with a long table filled with items Nate recognised from the chamber of King Kamehameha.
The King himself was set in a glass cabinet, like what you see in Egyptian exhibits and people were milling around it to take a look at the shrouded King of Hawaii.
Aside from the glass cabinet, the hall was filled with people, men in tuxedos and women in their finest dresses, browsing the artefacts, drinking champagne served by the wait staff who wandered around with trays filled with champagne flutes and canapes and trying to look as invisible as possible.
He was looking at a statue of the Hawaiian God Kane, this one found in the tomb, carved from wood and looking menacing despite being a meter high when Mia found him.
"Hello" she said and kissing his cheek in greeting. She was wearing a deep blue cocktail dress and dark pearl earrings.
"Hey" Nate replied. He indicated the hall, "Pretty good turn out."
Mia smiled, "Yes, Stefanie is happy. Especially with the interest from the investors."
"That's great."
Mia looked around, "Where's Sully?"
Nate took a glass of champagne from a passing waitress and took a sip, then put on his most apologetic face, "He's...not well. Something he ate, I think. He sends his deepest apologies."
"Well I hope he feels better soon." she said.
"He'll be fine. Old salt like him has a stomach made of iron. Some of the things I've seen him eat...well anyway, he just needs a couple of days."
They stood in silence watching the guests enter and browse around the displays, talking in groups, laughing, drinking and generally enjoying the night.
"Did they change their mind about the letter making an appearance?" Nate asked, browsing a display cabinet of native weapons from the 19th century, including spears, daggers and the shark-toothed wooden club known as a Leiomano.
"No" Mia replied. "When Dr. Spence arrives, we will take him to one of the offices to look at it and confirm its authenticity."
As if on cue, Steven arrived with a tall, casually dressed, middle-aged man with haggard features, a couple of days growth along his jawline and flecks of silver in his short brown hair.
"Mia, this is Dr Kelvin Spence." Steven said, pointedly ignoring Nate.
Kelvin held out his hand, "Pleased to meet you" he said with a tired Cockney accent.
"The pleasure is all mine." Mia replied. She held her hand out to Nate, "And this is Nathan Drake. He was the one who found the chamber of King Kamehameha."
Kelvin regarded Nate with brown eyes behind his glasses, "Nice to meet you," he said with a tone that suggested otherwise. Obviously, Steven had gotten into his ear about him, Nate decided.
"How long are you here for?" he asked conversationally.
"I expect I will be on a flight tomorrow morning" said Kelvin. "Unless this letter turns out to more than a wild goose chase" he added, glancing at Steven.
Steven clapped him on the shoulder, "Oh well, if it is just a load of hooey then it should be over with quickly and we can get drunk just like old times!"
He laughed while Kelvin gave the briefest smiles.
"Shall we?" Steven said.
Kelvin sighed, "Let's get this over with."
Steven lead Kelvin towards the door and asked Mia, "You coming?"
"Just a minute" she said and turned to Nate. "Sorry to leave you like this. But please hang around, Stefanie will be giving a speech after we are finished with the letter."
Nate gave her a smile and put his hand on her shoulder, "As long as I am not mentioned."
"Oh, I didn't forget your conditions" she said with a laugh. "I'll see you soon."
And with that she turned and followed Steven and Kelvin out of the hall. As she left, Nate moved around the perimeter of the hall studying the guests while pretending to be interested in the artefacts displayed around the hall.
Most of the guests were congregating around the glass cabinet of King Kamehameha, while others were in tiny groups deep in their own conversations and kitchen staff entered through a side hall. Some security guards stood at various points throughout the hall while others were staged upstairs and they all wore security passes on their belts. From the other end of the hall, where it connected to Paki Hall, another guard entered, and Nate knew he was coming from the security offices located on the far side of the adjoining Hall.
He pulled his phone out and sent another message:
Have you got her?
Less than 10 seconds later his phone buzzed:
Loud and clear.
Don't lose her.
He replaced the phone in his jacket pocket. Grabbing another glass of champagne from a passing waiter, he walked towards the guard who had just entered and just as he was about to pass him, he stumbled and spilled his champagne over the guards' jacket.
"Hey!" he grunted.
"Crap! Shorry. I'm sho shorry" Nate said with a slight slur to his voice. He grabbed a towel from one of the ever-present waiters and started dabbing the jacket.
"Give me that!" the guard demanded swiping the towel from Nate and wiping down his jacket.
"Shorry" Nate muttered again and stumbled off.
"Maybe quit the drinks" the guard yelled after him. Nate gave a non-committal wave and stumbled up the stairs to the gallery. The gallery overlooked the main hall and had a handful of guests and a couple of guards. Here he got a closer look at the whale skeleton as he made his way towards the hallway connecting to Paki and hid behind a display case of a large turtle shell, out of sight of the two guards stationed at the entrance to the hall.
Hand in his pants pockets, he fingered the security card he'd swiped from the guard downstairs. He pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and sent another text:
Ready.
He put the phone in his pants pocket and as he did the lights in the hall went out and the guests cried out. In the ensuing confusion Nate slipped passed the guards and out of Hawaiian Hall. He hurried through the dark, keeping close to the wall, knowing that he wouldn't have much time before they checked the circuit breakers and turned them back on.
He rounded the corner into Paki Hall just as the lights came back on. He climbed a set of stairs and reached a landing adjacent to a darken reception desk. Nate gave silent thanks that the desk, and the reception itself was empty. He pulled out a balaclava from his jacket pocket and pulled it over his head. Then he undid his bowtie and shoved it in the jacket pocket and then pulled off his jacket, turned it inside out and put it back on. It was incredibly uncomfortable and he looked like an idiot, but he didn't want to leave any trace of his being there, especially with a rented tuxedo.
His phone buzzed in his pants pocket and he pulled it out:
She's in the archive. They're just about to start. Hurry up!
Nate shook his head. Sully could be like a demanding wife sometimes, and it was easy for him to demand from his position of safety. He wasn't the one risking his ass placing the tracker on Mia, nor creeping around in an unauthorised area.
He sighed, no point dwelling on it. He was here and he had to get a move on.
Looking around he saw a sign hanging from the roof indicating the library and archives were ahead of him. He crept down the empty hallway, listening for any signs of guards coming his way. He reached a junction in the hallway where the sign told him to turn when a voice said, "Hello?".
Seeing nowhere else to hide, Nate immediately flattened himself against the wall although he knew it was pointless considering he stood out like a black dot on a white canvas.
There was no one ahead of him and he looked behind him but there was no one there either. He peered around the corner and saw Kelvin Spence at the far end of the hall pacing up and down, a mobile phone held to his ear.
"Yes" he said, his voice strained. Then, "No I was about to look at it when you called. I am sure it is just a wild goose chase. But I thought it best-"
Kelvin listened but continued to pace the hall back and forth, looking agitated.
"Assuming it is fake, I will be on the next flight back to England to continue my search."
"No. No I understand you are funding my digs-" he stopped suddenly as if interrupted, "-yes, your digs, and I am not wasting your money.
"No, Mr Khanoğlu, I am not trying to hide from you...Ok...Goodbye."
Kelvin pressed a button on his phone and looked up at the roof, he seemed even more strained than when he had met him earlier.
Whoever it was on the other end had him by the balls. He pulled out his phone again and typed a quick message to Sully:
Check who is funding Spence's digs...
Kelvin waited another minute, took a deep breath to compose himself before heading back in the opposite direction to a door at the end of the hall.
Waiting another minute, Nate followed Kelvin's footsteps down the hall and reached the door. It was a standard office door with a square glass window. It was labelled: Library and Archives
Bingo!
He peered into the room through the window and looked for any sign of Kelvin or Mia. The archive room was a large round room with rows and rows of stack shelving filled to the brim with archives, folders, manuscripts, articles, magazines and books on Hawaii and its history.
In the centre of the room were study tables and a long bench where Mia and Steven stood waiting for Kelvin. The letter sat on the table in a clear plastic protective sleeve, next to it, in another sleeve, was the envelope.
Gripping the handle, he turned it carefully and pushed the door open as quietly as he could. He left the door open a crack and crept behind one of the bookshelves, following it to the end and moved behind another shelf closer to the group. He peered around and watched as Steven and Mia stood looking at Kelvin who arrived at the table.
"Sorry about that" Kelvin said. "My assistants for my digs don't know which end of a shovel to use whenever I'm away."
Interesting.
He supposed Spence had reason to keep his own work private from the others, though it furthered Nate's desire to look deeper into Kelvin Spence and his research, more so into who was funding him.
"We've all been there" said Steven genially. He was a different man when around his old friend. Not the surly bore he was towards Nate and Sully.
"This is it?" Spence asked.
"Yep"
He picked up one of the clear protection sleeves, the one with the envelope, and examined it. He focussed on the front first, holding it up close and then flipped it over examining the red wax seal. He asked for a magnifying glass and placed the sleeve on the table.
He studied it for five minutes before he spoke, "Well if it is a forgery it's a good one. I can't see anything obvious to suggest it is a fake. I would need to examine it closer of course, compare the seal to a legitimate one we have."
Mia and Steven glanced at each other while Spence put down the sleeve and picked up the one with the letter in it.
He read the letter, murmuring as he went, but Nate was unable to hear anything beyond the occasional mumble. After reading through it a second time, Spence put it down.
"This is impossible," he said with a tone that sounded like frustration. "It's just not plausible. Secret missions and fake deaths? This is James Cook, not James Bond. He died here centuries ago."
"That's the common belief, yes" said Mia.
"Then why did you send for me?"
"It was found in Kamehameha's chamber, the dates fit and it looks legitimate. And if it isn't real, then someone has played a very unique practical joke."
"It does look legitimate" Kelvin conceded. "That looks to be King George's seal, faded though it may be."
"Is it worth further investigation?" asked Steven.
Kelvin considered for a moment and then nodded, "Yes I would say so. I will have it sent to my team at Cambridge to verify it."
"Wait" said Mia. "Cambridge?"
"Kelvin..." said Steven at the same time.
Mia put her hands on the table, "You can't take this with you. You can have your team come here to study it, but it's not leaving the Bishop Museum. Dr Keahi won't allow it under any circumstances."
"I'm afraid I must insist" said Spence. "This letter is properly of the British government."
"Found on US soil," Mia shot back.
While they were toing-and-froing, Nate sent a final text:
Now.
Almost immediately the lights in the room went out and they were plunged into darkness. Nate slid out from behind the shelf and, guided by the faint light provided by the artificial lights outside, he hurried to the table, slipped in beside Kelvin and ran his hand along the table until they brushed against the first, and then second, plastic sleeve. He grabbed both, turned and bolted to the exit.
As he did, he knocked Kelvin who had unknowingly moved in his way.
"Hey!" yelped Spence.
"What" said Steven.
"Was that you?"
"What?"
"Someone knocked into me."
In a matter of seconds Nate was already out the door of the Archives and running down the hall. Halfway down, the lights came back on and two security guards were standing at the end of the hall, their backs to him.
"That was weird" said one of them.
He took the next turn before they saw him and as he did, he heard someone shout from behind, "Guards! Guards! Thief!"
It was Mia.
"Call the police!" shouted Steven.
"The letter is gone!" cried Kelvin.
Nate hurried down the hall, past office doors and as he reached the end, a klaxon horn erupted all around him. Someone had pulled the alarm.
He turned and headed down another corridor, past more office doors and the staff kitchen, trying to get some distance between himself and the guards. There was no way to get back to the party now, not now that the alarm had sounded and the halls would be shut down.
Behind him he heard footsteps and muffled talking, probably more guards which meant he had to keep in front of them. Their confusion was clearing, and they would soon be organising themselves into a proper search.
At the end of a hall Nate saw an emergency exit door. He crashed into it, expecting it to open but it barely moved. He rattled the push bar handle but it was locked.
"Who the hell locks an emergency door" he muttered. Then he saw a sign that said the stairs beyond were out of order and to use the other emergency exit with a map pointing to the nearest one which was back the way he came.
He shoved the two sleeves into his jacket pocket, winching at the scrunching sound and pulled his phone from his pocket and dialled Sully's number.
"Nate?"
"Sully, do you copy?" he asked as quiet as he could.
"Yeah, just barely, kid. What's your status?"
Nate looked around, "Uhh not good. The emergency exit is sealed and there is no other way out, except another emergency exit back the way I came."
"Sealed? Who seals a god-damned emergency exit?"
"You're telling me. Get the car and meet me at the North-East corner. This is going to be a quick getaway."
"Gotcha" Sully replied.
From behind him, Nate could hear the footsteps of people approaching. A lot of people.
He stepped back and took a deep breath, raised his foot and kicked the door just beneath the push bar. The door rattled violently but remained closed.
He tried again but same result.
"There!" Someone shouted behind him.
Crap!
Taking a deep breath, he gathered up all the energy he could muster and kicked again. The door clanged open and Nate hurried through. He shut it behind him, but the lock plate was ruined.
He turned and quickly studied the surrounding area. He was in a fireproof stairwell, concrete coloured walls surrounding him. To his left, stairs led up and in front of him were the stairs heading down. Or where they should have been. The entire lower section has been removed and replaced by scaffolding and building equipment. They were rebuilding the stairwell.
"Great" Nate muttered. In front of him was a gap where the stairs and landing would be but now there was a scaffolding platform. With no time to think, Nate stepped back and took a running leap, launching himself in mid-air just as the door crashed open behind him.
"Oompf" he gasped as he crashed into the scaffolding guardrail. The rattle of metal on metal echoed in the stairwell, but the railing held as he wrapped his arms awkwardly around the metal poles and held on for dear life.
Shouts of protest came from behind, but Nate ignore it and climbed over the railing and onto the wooden platform. He ignored the door, knowing it would be locked, and hurried across three narrow, wooden planks that connected to the next platform below while two security guards behind were arguing about whether to try jump across.
One of them thought it was a good idea, and the other didn't want to deal with the paperwork due to a broken leg. A third was on the radio calling out Nate's position to the other guards.
Reaching the next platform put him at the first-floor emergency exit, Nate, ignored the door here and looked over the side and saw piles of lattice-shaped rebar, a concrete mixer, and some tools and debris. The stairs from the ground floor had started but only a few steps had been completed and was too far for even Nate to attempt to jump.
There was a crash at the door next to him and yelling. More guards and they were trying to get in. They were probably waiting for someone with the key, which would no doubt be any minute now.
With no time for anything else, Nate swung his leg over the guardrail and began climbing down the side of the scaffolding, grabbing on to the vertical brace and placing his feet on the diagonal cross brace, he slowly made his way down.
When he was halfway down, the emergency door above crashed open and Nate looked up to see two guards peering over the guardrail. They spotted him in and the first swung a leg over the rail to begin their chase.
Crap!
Nate quickened his pace while the guard awkwardly climbed down after him, the second was already over the rail and was trailing his colleague down the side. The scaffolding started shaking as all three of them clambered down. A couple of meters from the ground, the scaffolding gave a great shudder and Nate heard a metallic groan.
Near his head, a bolt from the horizontal pole popped out and the scaffolding violently shook. Nate's eyes widened as one the horizontal pole h was holding pulled loose from a vertical post and he swung away from the scaffolding like a swinging gate.
His legs kicked wildly as he swung over a haphazardly stacked pile of rebar offcuts and broken concrete and then the pole groaned due to the weight and lack of support. Suddenly the scaffolding pulled away from the wall, unable to take the weight of the three men, and Nate let go of the pole and fell.
He landed with a grunt and rolled to the side as the scaffolding landed all around him. Nate covered his head and ears as best as he could as the poles crashed all around him in a cacophony of metallic noise. When the sound stopped, he uncovered his head and amazingly found himself unhurt. He kicked off some stray scaffold poles and stood up, brushing off the dust and concrete and checked himself. His jacket was torn around the shoulder and scuffed at the knees and turned from a black to a grey-white from concrete dust but otherwise he was fine, just the usual bruises and scratches. He sighed with relief and looked up to see the two guards watching him from inside the first-floor door while the other two that fell with him groaned under a stack of poles.
Nate slithered around the fallen scaffolding towards the door. He pushed on the push bar but it was locked, as expected. Picking up a fallen pole, he wedged it between the door and the push bar and using the wall as leverage he yanked it as hard as he could. The push bar broke off the door and the door swung open. Nate tossed the pole down with a clang and hurried out of the door.
The night air was cool with a slight breeze and the moon shone brightly in the cloudless sky. From somewhere behind him the alarms blared, shattering the nights peace and Nate hurried away from the building into the east carpark, the cars sitting silently watching him run between them, his shoes slapping on pavement until he reached the grassy area beyond. He could see Bernice Street, and an idling dark blue Nissan Sedan. Nate clambered over a chain link fence and climbed into the open door.
"Go!" Nate said to Sully, slamming the door shut. He pulled off his mask as Sully gunned the car and pulled into Kalihi Street and then a right on to Lunalilo Freeway.
There was no sign of pursuit and Nate breathed a sigh of relief. From his pocket he felt his phone buzz. He pulled it out and opened the app. It was from Mia.
Where are you?