Nate scurried away from the tents, easily avoiding the guards who had stopped patrolling and were sitting on a couple of chairs eating and talking around the fire. Obviously, content with how things were and that they were safe. But that wouldn't last long Nate knew. The unconscious mercenary would wake at any moment and alert the others.
He moved in the shadows, running parallel to the fortress until he was satisfied he was far enough away from the tents that they wouldn't notice him. He then ran across the open field to the curtain wall feeling very exposed in the sunlight. The snow here was shallow and easy for him to move through, but he still stood out like a black dot on white canvas. He reached the safety of the curtain wall, taking cover behind a fallen chunk of battlement and waited.
After the count of ten breaths and no sound of alarm he was satisfied they hadn't spotted him, and he examined his surroundings. He was about 50 metres away from the end of the curtain wall, where it joined the mountain side. The walls were smooth, made of stone and well built to last so long in these conditions. Cracks appeared in parts, and other parts had fallen into disrepair but otherwise it stood solid. He followed the wall until he reached a rusted portcullis. He looked through the tiny square holes at the chains and winches, the left side one was still intact but the right-side winch had snapped from its base and lay against the iron gate still attached to the chain but forever unusable.
The sound of footsteps made him spin around, his gun in his hands in a flash. But it wasn't one of Khanoğlu's men. It was...
"Mia!" he growled.
She had her hands up, "You gonna shoot me?"
He put his gun back in his waistband, "I told you to go with Gansukh!"
"And I told you I wanted to see this through. I'm willing to take the risk, Nate" she added before he could say anything.
She wants the Jewels!
Nate ignored the thought, "Fine" he growled again. "Stay close."
Seeking another way in, Nate studied the barbican, they could climb the portcullis gate but needed a way to the battlements. The barbican was still standing, barely. Being the tallest part of the wall, it had taken the brunt of the weather in the valley and parts of it had fallen away, either on to the battlements or to the ground in front of the portcullis gate. Timber and stone protruded from the building and Nate thought he saw a way in.
"Follow me" he said and he grabbed on to the gate and began to climb it like a ladder
"So where's Gansukh?" he asked Mia as he made his way up.
"I told him to go get help."
"And he understood you?"
"I think so."
Nate chuckled as he reached the top where the stone arch connected to the barbican above it. Grabbing a hold of the arch he fell away from the gate, hanging airborne only by his hands he pulled himself up, grabbing on to the handholds available until he was flat against the barbican wall, his feet resting on the protruding arch. Moving diagonally, Nate climbed towards the battlements and just when he was about to reach out to grab a hold of the parapet a shot rang out, echoing loudly around the mountains and Nate slipped.
"Nate!"
The cold air rushed around Nate and he cried out, his hands scrambling along the wall for purchase and finding one, he clung to it with one hand and his body jerked to a sudden stop, his shoulder protesting in pain.
He hung, panting loudly, "Shit".
"You ok?" came Mia's voice from above.
"Argh, yeah" he groused. "Just my shoulder."
More shots rang out, the echoes amplifying the sounds making it as if the shots were coming from right next to him, but the expected bullets didn't come. He grabbed the handhold with his other hand and looked around, expecting to see mercenaries charging him but instead he saw the Ezemshsen charging the tents.
"Holy shit" he said watching as they flooded out of the shadows, from nooks and crannies and passages in the mountains and charged the three mercenaries who stood and fired their Steyr's into the rabid creatures.
"What are those things?" Mia called out.
"Gansukh's people call them 'Ezemshsen' but I have no idea what they are or where they came from."
They watched as the Ezemshsen fell under the hail of bullets but more kept coming like a tidal wave, and the mercenaries turned and ran but they had no chance, the Ezemshsen were on them like a pack of lions on an impala. The mercenary's screams were drowned out by the roaring from the Ezemshsen as they piled on top. Nate had no idea what they were doing but he didn't want to find out.
"Let's go," he said.
He started climbing again, first going sideways and then up until he reached the first crenel next to the barbican in the battlements. He climbed over and landed on the battlement path where Mia waited.
He flexed and rotated his shoulder, stretching it out, "Oh that's tight" he groaned.
"You ok?" she asked.
Nate nodded and they entered the barbican.
Inside were dust covered tables and chairs and an empty weapons rack. Laying side-by-side against the far wall were two skeletons dressed in tattered red coats and grey trousers. Laying across their legs as if waiting to be used were muskets. The rifles rusted and rotted away, much like their owners.
"Red Coats?" Nate said kneeling before the two skeletons.
"So Cook made it this far?" Mia said.
"Looks like it." Nate said searching the bodies. He noticed a piece of paper sticking out of the inner pockets of one of the skeletons coats. He carefully pulled it out and opened it:
James Cook has left us for dead. He told us to keep a look out for the and he disappeared into his fortress.
When the creatures attacked, we held off as best we could, but we found he locked us out of the keep when we tried to retreat. We had no choice but to hold up in the barbican with scant food and supplies.
I've lost track of time and date, but Richard has passed, succumbing to his injuries last night. There was nothing I could do for him, not with the supplies I had and with no way out. Not with those savages trying to break in to the keep and with my own injuries. There is only one way in and out of this fortress, Cook saw to that and now he has doomed us all. And for what? His "paradise"? This isn't a paradise, it's a snow-covered hell.
Charles Clerke was right to abandon this idea. I should have listened to him. We all should have listened to him. But what does it matter now, we are doomed.
Cook promised us great treasure, gold to live out our lives in comfort. I fear this is God's punishment for our avarice and I fear for my soul.
God please forgive me.
John Watts
Nate put down the letter, "Poor bastards" he muttered.
"How did he get redcoats here? Cook was a Navy man Mia asked.
Nate had no answer, just another mystery added to the pile. They left the barbican, taking a stairway that took them to the ground level between the outer and inner portcullis. The inner gate was raised slightly, propped open by a mound of broken timber from tables and chests. Nate rolled under the gate with Mia following and found himself in a pile of debris, all pushed up against the gate except for a single lane that had been cleared out.
"Were they trying to block the gate?" he said aloud.
"What do you mean?"
Nate indicated the debris, "This isn't natural, everything here was put here."
"To keep someone out?"
"Or keep them in" he said.
The air was still and the silence was eerie with Nate expecting to see people emerge from the yurts and buildings to go about their daily business, but of course this place had been deserted for centuries. As he moved towards the fortress, he checked some yurts but they had been cleared out, standing empty with only the shattered remains of earthenware to be seen.
Here and there were more skeletons, some redcoats but also others in rags, some buried in snow, or crushed by debris.
Were they civilians? People who lived here?
A shot rang out from some indiscernible location, the echo ringing out the mountains. Khanoğlu was still having trouble with the Ezemshsen it seemed. But where were they?
Nate pulled out his gun and hurried along, Mia in tow, following the debris-laden main thoroughfare towards the fortress, eyes sweeping left to right for any sign of the Ezemshsen or Khanoğlu's men. They arrived at the bridge without incident but cursed when he saw it. The bridge, which crossed the width of a ravine, or would have had it not been destroyed. Only parts of the frame remained intact.
"Is it always like this?" Mia asked. "Broken bridges and things in the way."
"If I had a dollar for every time it was a straight in and out job, I'd be broke."
"I thought as much" Mia grumbled.
He turned to her and gave her a grin, "If it were easy, everyone would do it."
More shots rang out, closer this time, and Nate thought he could hear the faint growling of the Ezemshsen. They were running out of time, it wouldn't take much for them to be sandwiched between the fight between the mercenaries and the Ezemshsen.
"Wait here" he said.
Cautiously he walked out onto the remaining deck of the bridge, only a couple of meters before the broken timbers gave way to the darkness of the ravine below. The bridge was arched beneath the deck and Nate marvelled at the construction. He wondered if Batu Khan brought an architect along to help build it considering how advanced it was. Beneath the arch was partially intact and Nate climbed down the side of the bridge, his feet touching a horizontal cross beam connecting the top of the arch to the ravine wall. He let go and was now standing on the beam. He moved toward the arch balancing himself until he reached the end of it. He gripped either side of the wooden arch and hoisted himself up until he was on top of it. A section of the arch between the top and part way down had broken off some time ago and fallen away. Just out of reach, suspended in mid-air was a horizontal beam that connected the top of the arch on the far side of the bridge to where the deck would have been on his side.
Nate leapt for the cross beam and latched on to it, his legs swinging in mid-air, nothing beneath him but darkness. Pulling himself up, he shimmied across until he was on the other side of the arch.
"Halfway" he said encouragingly to himself.
He slid down the arch, hugging the beams until he was at the bottom of the bridge where the arch butted into the ravine wall. Then he began to climb up the wall, taking it slowly, he pulled himself up and up, using the available handholds and ledges until he was just out of reach of the top. He tensed his body and pulled himself up and grabbed a hold of the edge and pulled himself up and over.
"Alright" he called out over the ravine. "Just follow my path."
As Mia began climbing across, Nate studied the fortress keep. The building loomed over him in the shadows, bigger than he thought possible, a tower on either side stood taller than the square-shaped keep, it was mostly intact, safe from all but falling rocks from the mountain peaks that overshadows all of it. The front gate was rusted and twisted, torn away from one of the railings and he made his way towards it but stopped suddenly.
He thought he saw something moving at the top of one of the towers.
Was that Sully?
Mia arrived beside him, "What's wrong?"
Nate frowned, "I thought I saw-" he paused, "-something. Come on."
Hurrying past the front gate, they immediately turned left and hurried up the circular staircase until he reached the trapdoor. Pulling his gun out of his waistband, he slowly pushed the trapdoor open a crack, the hinges sounded like they were yelling in protest to his ears, he peered around but saw nothing. He pushed the door open and it flipped over with a thud on the roof.
Emerging on to the roof, Nate looked around but there was no one there. If it was Sully, he was gone, either taking the path across to the other tower or the stairs leading to an inner courtyard.
The sound of an explosion caused Nate to whip around and look out over the tower's parapet to the portcullis where dust and debris were blown into a cloud and a black smoke came from a newly formed hole in the wall.
The smoke cleared away and Nate saw men in black exiting the hole, peering down the sights of their rifles while others began clearing away more debris from the gap in the wall. Reinforcements had arrived.
The noise was still echoing, bouncing around the mountain walls when Mia asked,
"What are they doing?"
"Idiots!" Nate spat, "That's going to bring every Ezemshsen in the Altai Mountains running."
"We better get going," she said.
Nate nodded, "Come on" he said leading her down a flight of stairs into the courtyard. They walked across the stone and rubble covered courtyard, passing more skeletons that sat against the wall as if resting, towards a set of iron banded, double doors built into the mountain. One of the doors was already cracked open and Nate, holding his hand up to Mia, poked his head in and almost had it taken off by the swipe of a sabre.
Nate fell backwards, away from the door, as a tall mercenary crashed through, charging Nate, sabre pointed at his heart, ready to run him through but he ducked at the last instance, the fist-sized rock that Nate threw just missing his head.
Nate scrambled to his feet and tried to pull his gun out but the mercenary charged again, swinging his sabre. Nate dodged to one side and then ducked a swipe aiming to take his head off and threw a punch into the man's stomach. He let out a gasp and swiped the sabre again giving himself some distance but Nate charged again and threw a haymaker connecting on the mercs jaw and he stood dumbly, staring at Nate as if trying to remember where he had seen him before, then the sabre clanged to the ground and his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed.
Nate was bent over, hands on his knees and taking deep breaths, "That was lucky" he puffed.
"Why didn't he have a gun?" Mia asked as they entered the door into a fire-lit entranceway.
Looking around, Nate immediately knew why, against the wall was a weapons rack, still full of rusted sabres, and leaning against it was an assault rifle. Nate went over and picked it up, "The idiot was playing with the sword when I poked my head in."
"That was lucky," she said.
"Yeah, lucky he's an idiot," he replied, handing her his handgun.
Together they moved deeper into the keep, the stone walls merged into natural stone and soon the only man-made items were the rotting wooden furniture, moth-eaten tapestries, corroded brass candle holders and sconces with fires burning brightly in them.
Mia examined one of the tapestries, "Nate, this isn't Mongol."
"What's that?" he said, looking at the tapestry.
"These are English. This is a scene from Daniel in the Lion's Den."
Nate looked at the tapestry opposite, "You're right, this is Jesus on the cross" he said.
"What?" Mia looked over at where he stood, "But this means what? Cook made it here, turned it into his home?"
Nate remembered the bodies in rags and the letter they found on the red coat, "I think so. I think he found this place and decided to stay and created his own city. Promising them a paradise."
"Why though? If the Jewels were here, he was to take them back to the King."
Nate shrugged, "We've seen the effect the Jewels have on people. Clerke said he was reckless. He must have fallen under their power and stayed."
They continued through the keep, passing open doors filled with rotting and dusty tables, chairs, chests, beds. They examined one of the rooms, finding clothing, bedspreads, chamber pots and other things that lead them to believe that Cook settled down here.
Some of the rooms had bodies in them, men and women, still clothed in moth-eaten dresses and pantaloons, shirts and greatcoats.
"This is so weird" Mia commented.
Nate agreed and they moved down the hall, coming to a T-intersection. They went right and passed through a door at the end of the hall that opened into a grand ballroom. Hanging from the ceiling was a golden chandelier, the thick neck attached to a chain that was fixed to the roof and the arms attached at the base connected to a circular mount which made it look like the helm of a ship, bobeche attached at every spoke for the candles to sit in.
On the floor were a handful of round tables with cresting's attached to the centre table leg and five or six bergère chairs seated around each one. At the back sat a long gilded trestle table, more bergère chairs tucked neatly underneath and silver plates and serving platters sat caked in dust, the remains of a feast still evident in the bones scattered over the serving plates, the cores of fruit long rotted and goblets still filled with drink.
"This is bizarre," Mia said. "It's almost like they just upped and left in the middle of a feast."
"You're telling me."
The roof was formed naturally, with water dropping from small stalactites and splashing into puddles centuries in the making.
Across the ballroom was another door and they exited through it and into a hallway. They followed the twisting halls, past more rooms until they came to a pile of timber and stones, beyond it was a door.
"A barricade?" he said. "I wonder what they were keeping out."
"Whatever it was, it doesn't look like it worked" Mia said, pointing a path through the barricade.
"Let's go" Nate said and moved through the rubble until he got to the door and pushed it open.
Outside was an open-air courtyard covered in snow. It was formed in the recess of the mountains with stone benches and low-lying ionic columns that bordered a path meandering its way to the other side.
"This must have been a garden" Mia said, studying one of the handfuls of dormant trees that stood isolated.
Nate pointed to the blanket of snow, "Khanoğlu hasn't been this way" he said. "No tracks in the snow."
"Should we go back?"
Nate considered for a moment, "No" he decided. "We don't know where the Jewels are, this is as good a way as any. We find the Jewels, we find Sully."
"Or he finds us," Mia added.
They trudged through the snow to the other side, passing underneath an arch and gate into another open area. This area was much larger, the size of four or five football fields covered in small square buildings, almost like a miniature city.
"These aren't British" Nate said approaching one of the buildings. He ran his hand over one of the stone walls, it was rough like sandpaper and very similar in design to the ones they saw at the mock city at Sarai Batu.
They moved further into the city, checking buildings as they went. The insides were all similar in design with basic furnishings and animal hide rugs covering the floors.
"This is a Mongol civilisation," he said walking along one of the streets.
"They were living here along with Cook?"
Nate shook his head, "I don't think so. These look older, and don't have any of the same furnishings as the fortress did."
Something in his mind clicked, "It makes sense now. This is the original civilisation that followed Batu Khan here, another Sarai Batu."
He pointed back the way they came, "Compare the architecture of the fortress and tunnels to what's here."
"They're different."
"Exactly! This place has been settled twice. Once by Batu Khan who created this-" he indicated the city in front of him, "and 500 years later by Captain Cook. He brought in builders and architects and built the fortress and wall and everything else we've seen."
"But why?" Mia asked. "Why stay here and bring people in? Why not just disappear?"
Nate shrugged, "I don't kn-" he stopped when they rounded a stone pillar and found more skeletal remains of Cooks redcoats. The bodies lay clustered together in the centre while circling them were more bodies, these ones in tattered rags. Nate looked at the scene and understood what had happened, "The redcoats must have been attacked and made their last stand here, but they were surrounded. They took out as many as they could but were eventually overrun."
"That might explain why they blocked off that tunnel" Mia said. "To keep whatever it was that attacked them out. But who was it? the Mongols?"
"I don't know, the Mongols living here for 500 years seems unlikely. I-", but before he could say anything more he heard the familiar groaning and grunting noises, "Oh crap."
"What?"
"It's the Ezemshsen," he said holding the rifle up. Ahead of them a dozen of the shuffling, stumbling creatures appeared heading in their direction. More appeared from side streets and buildings until a horde of them shuffled in their direction. Nate and Mia stepped backwards, towards the entrance. They had just reached an intersection when Mia screamed. Nate turned and saw more of the Ezemshsen approaching from the sides.
"Run!" Nate commanded and they headed back the way they came, the Ezemshsen following behind. They went back through the gardens and stopped at the formerly barricaded door.
"Should we barricade it?" Mia asked as Nate shut the door.
He was about to answer when there was a banging on the door and then Nate was flung to the floor as a great force shoved against the door and it flew open, slamming into the wall and the Ezemshsen poured through. Nate fired his rifle, the sound a deafening roar in the narrow tunnel and the leading Ezemshsen fell.
"Let's go" Nate called over the echoing din. They hurried down the tunnel. Behind them the remaining Ezemshsen shuffled over the fallen, some falling over and being trampled themselves, and continued to follow.
"What the hell are these things?" Mia asked as they rushed through the ballroom and out the other side. They reached the T-intersection and turned left, heading back to the fortress entrance when they encountered more of the creatures.
"Back! Back!" Nate shouted, skidding to a stop. They turned and ran, this time taking a left at the intersection while the chasing Ezemshsen converged at the intersection and gave chase.
They ran through the tunnel until they entered a large square room with a double staircase leading to a second-floor landing. Nate lead Mia up the staircase and through a grand double door and into a large bedroom.
Mia slammed the door shut and twisted the lock while Nate noticed an oak armoire next to the door. He called to her, "Give me a hand with this."
Mia moved next to him and they pushed. The heavy armoire shuffled a little but didn't tip.
Something slammed into the doors.
"Again" Nate said.
They pushed it again, their groaning heard over the thumping of the creatures on the door, the armoire tipped a little on its legs and Nate gave it another shove and it tipped over. The armoire crashed to the ground and the doors popped open, spilling its contents all over the floor. They pushed it against the door.
"There. That should hold them for a bit" Nate said huffing.
Mia took in deep gulps of air. The thumping continued but the doors were made of solid oak and wouldn't be easy to break open. "Hopefully they'll give up," she said.
"Hopefully", Nate agreed. "We need to find Sully and get the hell out of here."
"Where could he even be?" she asked.
Nate shrugged, "This place is bigger than I thought. He could be anywhere."
"Where are we?" she asked, looking around.
Nate looked around as well, "It's a bedroom," he said noting the large four poster bed, curtains drawn with a side table on either side of the bed. Nate pulled open the curtain to find the bed made, though dusty and grimy from time and lack of use. Paintings adorned the walls, including religious scenes, landscapes and, above a fireplace - which Nate had no idea how it worked when enclosed in a stone room - was a large portrait of an elderly man with grey hair tied back, standing proudly with his head held high and piercing brown eyes staring off at something unseen. He wore a blue jacket with white undershirt and grey pantaloons with black buckled shoes. On one hand, was a military sword, straight with a gold bowl guard, drawn and pointed down held like a walking stick and in the other was a golden sceptre, cradled snugly in the crook of his arm.
"That's Captain Cook" Mia breathed. "This is his bedroom and..."
"And that's part of the Crown Jewels!" Nate finished. "Look around" he said urgently. "See if they are here!"
He began to search the fallen armoire and chest of drawers, pulling out moth-eaten jackets and shirts but no treasure. He did discover a body on the far side of the bed, hidden from view from the door, near one of the drawers. It wore a brown waistcoat with grey pantaloons, both tattered, and a sword was caught under the body.
Nate was searching the body when Mia appeared, "Find anything?"
Nate stood up, hands empty, "Just the body."
Mia knelt and examined the skeleton, "Brown waistcoat, shoes look worn, probably a servant. Definitely not Cook."
"Did you find anything?" he asked.
"I found this" she said standing and holding up a leather-bound diary.
Nate took it from her, "Where was it?"
"In the side table," she said.
He thumbed through the pages, "This is Cook's diary" he said. "Beginning from Hawaii, 1779." He glanced over the first few pages, "Yep, take a look" he said handing her the diary.
"This details his letter from King George, how he faked his death with the help of King Kamehameha...Nate if this can be verified this will be one of the greatest historical finds in British history! This would clear you completely!"
Nate liked the sound of that, but before he could say anything there was a loud BOOM and the ground shook violently.
"What the hell was that?"
"Wait here" Nate said. He opened a side door that led up a spiral staircase where it opened up to the top of one of the fortress towers. He looked out towards the collapsed bridge where black smoke billowed up slowly. The remains of the bridge had been destroyed and in the midst of the dust cloud he saw more of Khanoğlu's mercenaries. Some were standing guard, looking out with their rifles ready. Throughout the streets Nate saw the unmoving bodies of both the mercenaries and Ezemshsen. There were also mercenaries working on the bridge, extending what looked to be a smaller, narrower version of a bailey bridge across the chasm. There were not many mercenaries, Khanoğlu must have taken big losses just to get to where he was.
Amongst the mercenaries he saw Kelvin Spence barking orders, though the mercenaries were barely giving him a glance and, approaching from one of the buildings was the unmistakable figure of Miraç Khanoğlu, wearing the same black fatigues his men wore but towered amongst them, like a God amongst men. So he hadn't gotten into the fortress yet. He must have been waiting for the bailey bridge and had been searching the outer buildings first.
He strode with purpose, giving orders which the men jumped too without question. Spence tried to say something to him but he was ignored and within a couple of minutes the bailey bridge was set and the mercenaries crossed over in single file led by Khanoğlu. Kelvin Spence coming up in the rear.
"Crap."
Nate hurried down the staircase to where Mia was still reading, "Nate, I-"
But he interrupted her, "Khanoğlu is here. He's just about to cross the chasm. We really need to get Sully and get the hell out of here."
"I might be able to help with that," she said. "He wrote in one of his entries that he had kept the Crown Jewels hidden away, with the only path to them available from his room via an entrance 'only I can see'."
"So, the entrance is in here, but only Cook can see it?"
"That's what he wrote"
"Let's look around" he suggested.
Mia sat in the chair seated at the desk and looked around, while Nate examined the walls before opening the curtains to the bed and laying on it. It was surprisingly soft as his body sunk into the mattress, the pillow in its stained satin case was also comfortable and he gazed at the roof but saw nothing indicating a path out of the room. Finally his eyes rested on the large painting of Cook directly opposite the bed and it suddenly hit him like a brick.
"The painting!"
Mia frowned at him from the desk.
He got up from the bed and walked over to the painting, "'Only he can see'" he repeated, "It's the painting, it's looking at the entrance, or the way into it." He climbed onto the low-lying table beneath the painting and stood in a similar pose, trying to see where Cook was looking.
Despite herself, Mia laughed, "You look ridiculous."
"I prefer to think of myself as dashing" he said with a fake British accent. He looked in the direction that the painted Cook was looking, towards the far wall, the opposite side of the door to the tower where a set of five paintings hung.
"There" he said, pointing to the paintings.
He jumped down off the table and walked over to the paintings.
"How do they open the way to the Crown Jewels?" Mia asked.
"It's not the paintings, it's-" he unhooked the middle painting, "-what's behind them" he finished.
Behind the painting was a small switch, "We just press this and just like magic!" After a dramatic pause, Nate pushed the switch, but nothing happened.
Mia gave him a look, "I think you need to work on your tricks, Houdini."
"Hang on" Nate said, pushing the switch but again nothing happened. "This has to be it!"
"Maybe it's broken?" Mia suggested.
Nate pulled the second painting off the wall, revealing another switch. He pulled the next one down and there was another switch. Mia followed suite and soon they were looking at five switches.
"Well, this is a bit more complicated. Did Cook's diary mention anything about the order?"
Mia pulled the diary out of her pocket and glanced over the pages. Finally, she shook her head, "No." Then she added, "What do we do?"
Nate was silent a moment, looking at the switches and then the paintings that leaned against the wall. The paintings were of five churches with labels beneath them:
Berne Abbey, North Brabant
St Paul's Church, Stanwell
Mokuaikaua Church, Hawaii
Matthias Church, Buda
Church of St. Peter and Paul, Tyniec.
"Can you read the entire passage?" he asked Mia.
Opening the diary, she read, "My suspicions were correct, my servants and those of the people living here ask me about the treasure and I can see the hunger in their eyes. They don't want the Mongol horde, they want the Crown Jewels thus I have hidden them. Only I can access them from my room by a path only I can see. All I have to do is follow my journey."
"Follow his journey?" Nate looked at the paintings, "These three are churches he would have visited in following the route here."
"And St Paul's Church is where he was born," Mia said. She pointed to the Mokuaikaua Church which was just a painting of a simple hut. "This one didn't exist until the 1800s, at least as it stands now, but this looks like the site of it."
"Maybe it was what Cook used until they built the current one." Nate suggested. "Let's give it a go."
He pushed the switch for St Paul's Church, then Mokuaikaua, Berne Abbey, Church of St Peter and Paul and then finally he pushed the switch for Matthias Church.
A faint sound, like the unlocked of a door, was heard and the portrait painting of Captain Cook swung open revealing Cook's secret tunnel.
"And there we go," Nate said. "Let's hurry."
They climbed on the table and stepped into the tunnel.