The idea, if it could be called that, first involved hiring a boat which they were able to do back in Selitrennoye. It was a three-metre-long dinghy with an outboard motor, a set of oars and barely enough room to fit them both in the boat.
Once they were in the boat, Nate started the motor and headed back along the Akhtuba river towards Sarai Batu. When they reached the point where the river branched, Nate turned the motor was turned off and Nate began rowing, taking the right branch and heading into the gorge below the site of the replica ancient city. The sound of machines working tirelessly rang out in the afternoon air. From the river, Sarai Batu sat on top of the gorge providing the Mongols a vantage point over the area but Khanoğlu's men didn't bother patrolling this area. Nate steered the boat right to the edge of the sheer wall and held on to an outcrop of rocks, holding the boat in place, while Mia grabbed the oars.
"Alright" Nate said quietly. "I'll climb up here. You know the rest of the plan?"
"Yeah. I'll wait here and hope I don't get found and you don't get killed," Mia said drily. "Real solid plan."
Nate grinned, "Just trust me, would you. I'll be back as quick as I can with Sully. We get in the Jeep and get the hell out of dodge before Khanoğlu can sneeze."
Mia rolled her eyes, "Like I said, real solid plan. It's broad daylight, you'll stick out like a sore thumb if anyone decides to look this way."
Giving her another grin, he said, "Then let's hope they don't look this way."
And with that he stood, secured his backpack and grabbed onto the rocks and began climbing up the side of the gorge, leaving both Mia and the boat shaking, but for very different reasons.
After ten minutes of climbing, Nate reached the top and hurried across the open, flat land, exposing himself to anyone looking, to the buildings that formed the perimeter of Sarai Batu. The walls of the buildings were rough, made of timber and concrete but with a clay render to simulate what a Mongol home looked like back when it was a thriving population.
Finding the building unoccupied, Nate grabbed the edge of a square window and hoisted himself up until he reached the flat roof of the building. Here there were several square buildings built on top of one another, creating a mosaic of geometric shapes that resembled a child's blocks haphazardly thrown together. Nate kept moving at a crouch and climbing and moved deeper into Sarai Batu.
He stood on the flat roof of one building and peered around the corner of another second-storey building and assessed the open inner area of Sarai Batu. He saw there were at least 20 black-clad mercenaries, walking casually around the site in pairs talking and genuinely looking bored of their detail while around the centre he saw trucks moving back and forth, taking away the dirt excavating machines and shovel-wielding workers had dug up, exposing the foundations of the original Sarai Batu.
In the midst of it all he saw Kelvin Spence ordering people around, clipboard in hand and dressed in khakis, even from this distance Nate could tell he was looking even more haggard than last time. Khanoğlu must be really pressuring him to find the treasure.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy Nate thought with a gratifying smugness.
He continued scanning the area but couldn't see Sully anywhere, he might be in one of the tents if he had been captured. Moving on, he dropped down to the ground on the river side of Sarai Batu, away from the patrol and carefully made his way around the perimeter of the site towards the city of tents. The beige tents were a basic two-man tent with a single entrance flap at the front, thankfully the area was mostly empty, everyone working on the dig. Nate quickly checked each one but came up empty until he reached one of the larger tents located in the centre of the others. He peeked inside and saw a low-lying cot against one wall and a long table, strewn with books and papers against the other. The tent was empty and Nate ducked in, glancing at the papers and books on the desk. The worn books were based on British history and the papers just reports from dig sites, expenditures and maps of an area of England known as The Wash where the Crown Jewels were thought to have been lost. There were also newer books on Mongolia, the Mongol empire and Genghis Khan, Sarai Batu and maps of Mongolia, notations and marked pages fanned the books. This was clearly Kelvin's tent.
Just as he was about to leave, Nate noticed a thick, leather bound book. He picked it up and flipped it open, it was Spence's personal diary, detailing his digs for the past 10 years.
He scanned through the pages, most of it just describing site locations and information on any findings but he came to a page written over five years ago:
My fears of having my funding cut have been saved. While the university has backed out, citing funding issues and lack of significant findings to continue backing this research, I received a visit today from a man named Miraç Khanoğlu, a Turkish man who says he has a personal interest in the finding of the Crown Jewels.
I didn't care what his reasons were, and I told him that the funding has been cut, the site is being packed up and restored. He told me it was a shame but if I wanted to continue my work in the search for the Crown Jewels that I come work for him. He would fully fund my search for as long as necessary and to employ my own crew.
Of course I jumped at the chance. The search continues.
A personal interest in the Crown Jewels? Nate wondered what he meant by that. He flipped through more pages, mostly to do with the progress of his search until he came to another entry from two years ago:
Mr Khanoğlu visited today and he was not happy, he wants results but what can I do? The Wash is a big place and if they got pushed into the North Sea...well they would be almost impossible to find. It has been 800 years after all.
I told him he wants a miracle if he expects me to find the Crown Jewels in such a short time. It could take decades to find them, if they are found at all in this lifetime.
I knew as soon as I uttered those words I had made a mistake, his normally neutral expression took a dark turn, it was as if he was a completely different person. His slapped me across the cheek, hard enough that I fell to the ground. I cowered, I am not afraid to admit that, expecting him to beat me but merely told me to keep working and keep him updated.
He flipped to the last entry in the diary, it was from the night before.
Sullivan is alive! He should be buried under a tonne of dirt and stone in Budapest. He either has more lives than a cat or is the luckiest man alive. Khanoğlu is not happy, he beat one of his lieutenants to death when he received the news that a man matching Sullivan's description was seen in the area, they carried him out of his tent and tossed him in the river.
If Sullivan is around, then there is no doubt we will be expecting to see Drake again and this time Khanoğlu will not hesitate to kill him.
Speaking of Khanoğlu, he is becoming more unhinged, he is angrier, brooding a lot, lashing out at his men and me. I think he is worried about the Crown Jewels being discovered by Drake and lost to him forever.
But he won't have to worry about them. I will make sure of that.
Nate shut the diary. So Sully was still alive, at least as of last night. He put the diary back on the table and exited the tent making sure the coast was clear. As he moved back through the tents towards the back of the site he felt a sense of relief at knowing Sully was still alive. But where the hell was he? Did he find the bunker? If so, how?
So many questions went through Nate's mind as he circled back around the way he came and he kicked something. He looked down, thinking it was a rock, but it was the stub of a cigar. One of Sully's cigars!
Nate picked it up, it was cold, half smoked and looked like it had been here for a while.
So he has been here!
He looked around, there was nothing around except the conical tower, without having any better of an idea he started to climb the tower, using the rough handholds to climb, Nate made his way up, and despite being out of view of anyone inside the site he felt incredibly exposed. He reached the top of the lookout and peered over and immediately ducked back down.
Shit.
Facing away from him was a merc standing in a casual pose, probably bored at having to look at the same scenery all day and itching to use the Dragunov sniper rifle slung over his shoulder. Nate had to get on the tower, see if Sully was up here. He dragged his foot on the outside of the wall making a scraping sound and he waited. After a moment he felt the presence of the merc approaching.
He waited for one breath.
Then a second.
Then a third.
He pulled himself up, revealing himself to the merc who gave a start but Nate grabbed hold of his bullet proof vest by the shoulder strap and pulled him over the edge and he tumbled through the air until he crashed to the ground with a thud.
With no time to waste, Nate pulled himself over and was in the tower. He looked around but found nothing. The tower was empty of anything except a bottle of water the sniper was drinking from.
"Crap" he muttered. There was nothing here from Sully. He pulled out his diary and opened it to the sketch of the map. Then he grabbed the map of the area and his binoculars from his backpack. He studied the map, comparing it to the scene before him. It looked similar enough that he thought he was roughly in the right spot where the map indicated. He compared reference points - the thickest part of the river, the lake and a crop of trees that may not even exist anymore to the area. Putting the binoculars to his eyes he scanned out towards the area where the map indicated the door would be. He found the lake below the river but the only crop of trees he saw were along the shoreline of the lower river. The crop from the map had been cleared away for farmland long ago. Using what he could to triangulate the area, he scanned side-to-side, all he saw were tall, lush green trees fed and watered from the river and grassy green fields beyond until it reached the main Volga river.
Looking back to the green plains, he examined them around the south west side near the lake and he noticed a cut in the ground, almost imperceptible except for a square of slightly discoloured grass that seemed struggled to grow there.
That must be where the door is! He marked his map and folded it. He put it and the diary back in his pack and did another scan with his binoculars but was certain that was what he was looking for. He did another quick check to see if he could see Sully and, not finding him, put them away and climbed over the tower edge and scurried back down.
Soon he was back on land and heading to the gorge, he grabbed his torch from his pack and stuck it in his waistband and began to climb down the gorge face. When he was halfway down, he stood on a jutting ledge the width of a footpath and he flashed the torch three times in the direction where Mia waited with the boat.
Once he saw her rowing the tiny boat his way, he continued his climb down and not long later he was easing himself into the boat. He grabbed the oars from Mia and began rowing across the river.
"Well?" Mia asked.
"He's been and gone" he said telling her about Spence's diary and the cigar butt he found, "I think he found the bunker, left the cigar as a clue."
They reached the shoreline and they got out. Nate pulled the boat into a bunch of reeds and shade from overhanging trees, it should stay hidden from any casual glance.
"A clue? You're sure about that?" she asked him sceptically as they began walking through the trees, pushing branches out of their way. Nate had the local map out and was studying it, in the dense foliage it was hard to make out where they were but he headed South-West and would reassess when they cleared the trees
"Yeah, for all of the issues Sully is having I am sure he is still retaining some control over himself."
Mia said nothing and they continued deeper into the thicket. After half an hour of pushing through wishing they had a machete, they emerged on the other side. The lake was only a couple of hundred meters away and as they walked he told her they were looking for a square discolouration in the ground.
"It should be big, maybe half the size of a soccer field on the left side of this lake towards the river."
After another five minutes of walking and searching, Mia said, "Is this it?"
She was pointing to a straight section of the ground, slightly off level, where it looked like it had been dug out and filled again.
"That's it." Nate said. "If we follow it, we should find the square." He pointed behind her, "You follow it that way and I'll go the other way and we should meet up on the opposite side. We need to see how big this is."
After ten minutes of following the faint line they met back up on the other side, about 50 meters closer to the lake. The square was at least 30 meters long on each side giving them a search area of 900 meters square.
"The entrance should be somewhere in this square area" he told her. "I think we just have to do a sweep until we find it."
"What are we looking for?"
"It's got to be a door or entry built into the ground, anything else and it would have been discovered by now. Also look for any footprints or signs that Sully has been here, if anything we are likely to find evidence of him stomping around before the entrance."
"Alright" she said and they began walking, searching the area. Thankfully the area was flat and cleared of anything but the smallest shrubs and shin-high yellowed grass, however the grass had been crushed, likely under Sully's feet, in every direction, eliminating any chance of following his route. 20 minutes later, Mia called out, "Nate!"
He hurried over to where she was crouching just behind a scattered pile of leaves and grass, "Doesn't think seem strange?" she asked him.
A moments confusion was replaced by revelation, "There are no trees around to create a pile of leaves like this."
She nodded, "Also-" she grabbed at the leaves but they didn't move, as if glued to the spot, "-they're fake."
Nate stamped his foot on the ground over the leaves, it sounded wooden and hollow. "This is it," he said. "See if you can find a handle or a switch or something to open it."
Running his fingers over the fake leaves and grass, he found no handle or even any defined edges to indicate there was a door here. He raked his fingers over the leaves while Mia did the same and his fingers hit a bump, spreading the leaves and grass he saw it was a switch. He pressed it, there was a thunk, but nothing happened.
"See if there's a switch on your side," he said. He watched Mia while she searched the space until she said, "I found something."
"Press it on three," he said. "One...two...-"
"Wait," she said.
"What?"
"Is it One-two-three then press or one-two press?"
Nate gave her a look, "One-two-three then press."
"Just making sure. Ok, let's go."
He sighed, "Alright...one...two...three."
They both pressed their switch and a louder thunk was heard and then a rectangular door, about half the size of a door, popped open.
Nate laughed and pulled the door open on its hinges. Inside was a stone stairway leading down into darkness. He pulled out a torch from his pack and handed it to Mia then grabbed one for himself. Flicking it on he said, "After you."
"I must admit," she said as she took her first steps, "I can see why this appeals to you."
Chuckling, Nate grabbed a branch and placed it diagonally across the entrance and then closed the door on it, leaving the door open a crack, enough that it would appear as it had for centuries to anyone passing by.