Author's Note: Well, this chapter was supposed to be posted days earlier, but my household has been sick back to back for weeks since my kid started daycare, so it's been a struggle.
CHAPTER 6
In Case You Haven't Been Paying Attention
"Watch out Nathan!" Sam shouted as the UTV barely hugged the corner, tilting to one side, and headed full-speed toward a steep cliff ahead.
Nate slammed on breaks, turning the steering wheel sharply. A wave of dirt and rocks flew at their pursuers, as the UTV took off again after a significant drag. There were panicked screams and Nate saw two ATVs flying off the cliff side into the vast valley below before the ones following them took stock of the situation and were able to harmlessly turn the corner.
"Hey, you okay?" Nate threw a quick glance at Elena, who held on to her seat for dear life.
"Yeah," she managed to say, but without much confidence.
"We should be nearing the main road soon, gotta get easier from there!" Sam's voice reached from the backseat.
"Oh craaaap," Nate drew out as two ATVs suddenly sprinted from in between the trees and into the road, where they stopped to block their way.
There was no way he could stop before hitting them. So Nate targeted the widest stretch of air between the vehicles because the only other option of swerving into the bumpy thicket of the forest with his pregnant wife in the passenger seat was not at all appealing. The UTV approached. Horror reflected in the eyes of Abbas' goons. Instinctively Nate threw his arm over Elena, pinning her to the seat and his eyes squinted, anticipating the crash, but…
"Nathan!" Sam shouted, "Keep your eyes on the road for heaven's sake!"
Nate opened his eyes – the UTV kept going on its merry way to hell. He looked back – the goons managed to dash (each to its respective side) out of the way at the very last moment.
"Whew," he let out a mad chuckle and wiped beads of sweat off his forehead, "That was close!"
"It's not over yet!" Elena warned as the pursuers behind them revved up on a long stretch of relatively straight road and gained in on them.
"STOP DRAKE!" Yelled a man leading the pack and Sam flipped him off.
"Nice, let's just piss them off even more so," Nate commented and Sam shrugged innocently.
"So, what do we do now?" Elena tried to raise her voice over the roar of vehicles.
"I don't know- you tell me, it was all you two's idea!" Nate replied, not taking his eyes off the road for another second as it snaked left and right.
Elena and Sam shared a look - each of them clearly had nothing to add.
"Well, at least there's no shooting involved this time," Sam chuckled carelessly and, just then, a bullet ricocheted against the back of the UTV and he ducked down, covering his head along the way, "Oh shit, WHAT THE HELL?!" he yelled at the men behind, "There is a pregnant woman in here – show some damn respect!"
"They are trying to shoot the tires!" Elena shouted, briefly looking back before bending her head as far down to her knees as her belly allowed.
Nate reached for the gun holster – there was no gun in there – and he belatedly remembered Abbas and his men relieving the two of them off weapons before letting them join the search for Elena.
"CRAP!" Nate cussed and, as bullets rained down against the back of the UTV, he glanced nervously into the rearview mirror, gritting his teeth as decision ripened in his mind. He looked at Elena and immediately caught her perceptive gaze – she already knew what he was about to do.
"What are you doing Nathan?!" Sam yelled, watching Nate flip on the hazard light switch, throw his arm high up in the air and start to slow down.
"I'm not doing this," Nate answered as the UTV turned another corner and came to a complete standstill. He let his hands off the steering wheel and demonstratively froze them above his head as the bulk of the pursuers flew past them – some by inertia, some not reacting to the change of plans quickly enough.
"What?!"
"I'm not going to wait for them to finally shoot one of the tires and send us into uncontrollable slide down the side of the mountain," Nate said with grim determination.
"But we were so close to the main road!" Sam protested and looked at Elena, who sat quietly with expression of deeply philosophical acceptance of current situation.
Under Sam's incredulous gaze, she only shrugged, and busied herself with shaking dry dirt splatters off her shirt, "It was worth a try I guess," she sighed and coughed shortly.
"Worth a try? Oh c'mon guys, we can still get away!" Sam gestured profusely in righteous indignation, "If you can't do it, just give me the keys," he extended an open palm toward Nate.
Nate scowled first at his hand and then at Sam himself, "Really?! You wanna risk my wife's and my unborn child's lives like that?! You know what-" he snatched the keys from the dash and, before either Sam or Elena could react, threw them into the bushes nearby, "How about that?" he glared.
"Oh boy," Elena slowly shook her head as Sam was about to open his mouth to respond, but before squabble could escalate any further, a group of goons approached the UTV, keeping each of them at gun point of their rifles.
"Hands up!" the leader yelled.
"Okay, okay!" Nate snapped at one of the men, who nudged the back of his head with the barrel of a gun, and raised his hands back up. Elena followed suite and then, finally, Sam did too, albeit accompanying it with all due grumbling.
"I guess I haven't been one hundred percent clear with you!… I haven't gotten a point across successfully!...Well, then let me correct my unfortunate mishap-…"
Abbas seethed, measuring the room with grave paces of his steps, resembling a lion trapped in a cage, blazing with murdering fury. They were back in the same room where Nate and Sam initially met him and the three of them were lined up in front of the French windows, facing Abbas who thundered by the fireplace with his men surrounding the scene along the perimeter of the room.
James stood several steps behind his boss, with his eyes lowered to the floor, and Alia sat in one of the armchairs, with her eyes averted in similar fashion.
"It is one thing that your wife escaped-," Abbas continued, burning a hole through Nate, "-that could be forgiven! If anything it is on my men that they weren't diligent enough and let a pregnant woman get away," a killing glance followed in Emir's direction as the young man stood in the corner of the room with a look of exemplary penitence, "But taking off- trying to escape- despite my warnings – that is quite another!" he finished with a roar.
"Oh, c'mon man, let's cut the crap, you didn't exactly lure us here with milk and cookies yourself in case you happen to forget," Nate protested with a glare.
He had never been very good at conversing with villains. And he received a clear confirmation that things didn't change much over the years, when Abbas' black eyes flew even wider open than before and his nostrils flared, almost breathing out smoke.
"We had a deal, Mr. Drake! The one you broke the moment you decided to take off and now I have my men lying dead at the bottom of a cliff – good men at that! What am I going to tell to their families?!" he bellowed and his voice seemed to fill the entire room, bouncing off the walls and leaving shattering silence behind.
Then there was a sneeze and all eyes shifted to Elena, who stood rubbing her nose with a sleeve of her shirt, "Well maybe you should have considered such outcome when you started kidnapping people," she said with a light shrug and Nate winced as the incinerating glare of onyx eyes settled on his wife instead with Abbas looking a word away from snapping somebody's neck.
It seemed Elena never quite learned the subtle art of conversing with bad guys either.
"Abbas," Alia, who previously sat quietly, said in a soft, pleading tone, "Please, let's all calm down."
"Yeah, Abbas, listen to your wife," Sam chimed in, making an attempt of a very small, very careful step forward to half-shield Elena with his figure, but was frostily discouraged by the sound of numerous guns drawn at his head, "Okay…let's not get crazy here," he said quietly, trying to catch Abbas' eyes, but…
It was too late and things progressed very quickly from that point.
As Elena, with reckless courage, stared the man down, Abbas shot a quick look at one of his men – he nodded in response and, in his turn, authoritatively glanced at several other goons on either side of the captives.
Nate swallowed a heavy lump in his throat, sensing imminent unavoidable danger and, ignoring the drawn guns, stepped in front of Elena, coming almost nose to nose with Abbas, but…
Two sets of arms pulled on him from behind, he tried to lunge at Abbas, but to no avail, "Don't touch her!" he helplessly shouted.
There was a flash of metal in the sun. Shiny thin edge cut through the air with a fleeting chime of ultimate sharpness. Elena gasped as Abbas snatched at her hand with almost a theatrical leap, span her around and held her in a steel hold of his arms with a long knife pressed to her throat.
"No Abbas, no!" Alia's screams rose to the ceiling and she run to her husband, clutching at his shoulders, but one of the men gently dragged her away.
"You bastard!" Sam heaved, throwing punches that rarely missed the mark, but he, too, was overpowered, dragged into a corner of the room, "Why won't you pick on someone your own size?!"
"That was not part of the deal Abbas!" James shouted, eyes darting in panic.
"I have told you James – you are not one to dictate rules after your long string of failures. Stick around or no – I don't care! Now, Nathan Drake!" Abbas' stare settled on Nate, writhing in the arms of now three of his men as they struggled to hold him down, "Let me make myself absolutely clear this time in case you haven't been paying attention," the tip of the knife came in close contact with Elena's tan skin, "I will NOT hesitate to KILL your precious wife if you flip another surprise on me, is that understood?!" the blade grazed her slowly, and Elena let out a breaking sob as a scarlet line of blood rolled down to her collarbone.
It was a compelling argument. Argument Nate could not dispute.
They left the mansion early next morning. With few belongings, they boarded one of the helicopters that miraculously materialized on a grassy clearing at the foot of the hill the house stood upon.
The skies were grey, and so was the mood of everyone involved. Nate stared into the round window at the mountainous landscape underneath, with Elena's hand squeezed tightly in his. After several hours in the air, they got to New York – he could see Empire State Building piercing clouds in the distance surrounded by the sprawling megapolis around.
Upon landing in the private sector of the JFK airport, they were escorted into a small windowless room where a sweet chattering woman checked all of their passports before granting them permission to board.
If only she knew.
Following Abbas, Alia with the little boy Hamza stuck to her skirts and all the rest of the men, they boarded a private plane and prepared for eleven hours of the transatlantic flight.
Nate shifted uneasily in the broad tan leather seat. He remembered countless times wishing for this level of flying comfort, all the while being rattled in the cramped salon of Sully's seaplane. …And now he'd sell his kidney for it to be the other way around. The thought of Sully's comforting growling voice gnawed at his heart and he wished that his mentor was here with them. He'd know what to do. Better than the three of them who were chased into a corner.
After yesterday's dramatic events he faintly recalled what followed. There was some food, which he devoured without catching much taste. They were shown to Elena's room, where Sam crashed on the couch and Nate crushed into bed, feeling sick to his stomach with the aftershock. It was only when Elena laid down beside him that he somewhat calmed down, and, holding her close under the covers, closed his eyes, enjoying her comforting presence and the sensation of her fingers stroking through his hair. In this haven of peace and solace that she was, he let himself relax for the first time since he found out Elena was kidnapped and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
He slept without interruption through the rest of the afternoon, through the night and into the morning, but when he woke up he still didn't feel rested enough. Fortunately, he had eleven hours on his hands to fix that. Nate rubbed his eyes and pulled a window screen down.
He raised a bar separating his and Elena's seats and reclined back, earning an unimpressed grunt from Sam who sat behind them.
Nate pulled Elena close and they lay there, watching their fingers laced together in front of them.
"Hey," Elena whispered, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine…all things considered."
"No I mean…aside from this whole mess…what you said out there in the woods after you and Sam found me, I…"
"Forget it, I didn't mean what I said, I was just tired and stressed out and… I'm sorry."
"Nate," Elena sighed tiredly, "It's been going on for a while, when you blew up it was just… the last straw that broke the camel's back," she looked at him and her eyes implored sincerity, "Before we get separated again, I need you to talk to me. Please."
Nate thought he got better at not imploding when it came down to emotional stress. He thought he was done shutting her out like he did many times before when all he needed to do was open up and share.
Easier said than done.
All the patience and all the love Elena had been pouring into their relationship over the years to try and make him feel secure enough to talk on most dark and most delicate of topics – when it came down to practice, Nate still felt too wobbly, too raw, too unsure whether those lockers really needed to be open, but… he knew she was right. She had always been right. Maybe not when she tried to escape the mansion, yet…
"I…," Nate started and immediately regretted when trying to put his feelings into words proved to be increasingly harder than he thought. He paused. Elena was quiet, giving him as much time as he needed and when he continued, after shooting careful glances at possible eavesdroppers around, his voice was barely audible and only for her to hear, "I'm scared out of my mind to lose you…to lose you in this mess we're in…to lose you to the baby if something goes wrong. I'm terrified at the mere thought of it, but can't get the thoughts of it out of my mind…I dunno…," he hesitated, knowing damn well there was more. His mouth parted again - he wanted to continue, but he doubted that he could.
Elena looked back at him with understanding. She waited, but, as seconds turned into minutes and no more words followed, she squeezed Nate's hand and did not push further.
"I'll be okay."
"You don't know that," Nate's glance fell on the scratch on Elena's throat.
"I know," Elena insisted calmly, "Just as I knew it was a good decision to marry you, I know that we'll be okay."
Nate pursed his lips quizzically, not at all convinced.
"Yeah- and what good did that great decision give you?" he chuckled with irony.
"It gave me most loving, generous, kindest, funniest, sexiest husband there is!" Elena smiled and poked him lightly in the chest, "Even though he annoys me out of my mind sometimes!"
"Ouch!"
"And he'll be the best father a little girl could wish for too," Elena added quietly. Their eyes met in complete understanding and a mixed shadow of surprise and fear casted over his face before Nate caught on it and replaced it with an easy smile.
"Well," Nate looked down at his wife's baby bump, then, in sudden determination placed his hand over it. Elena gently moved it couple of inches to the side and he felt strong kicks and a smile of genuine delight lit up his face. He didn't know why, but, unlike all the many times before, he did not feel anxiety anymore – no sinking feeling of ground slowly slipping away beneath his feet. Just calm curiosity and overwhelming sense of endearment. He had to clear his throat and swallow heavily, and, when he finally spoke, he directly addressed their little daughter for the very first time, "Hey Cass- it's your Dad here-" he paused for a moment, fascinated by how the previously bitter taste of the word did not seem so bad when applied to his own self, "you might not know it yet, but you've got the best Mom in the whole damn world and… you're not even born yet and you're already having an adventure- what a true Drake!" he shook his head and Elena chuckled, and then he added more seriously, "I'm going to get us out of this, don't you worry, your Dad's got this."
Nate raised his eyes at Elena and found her watching him with a long glazed look. She smiled, scrunching up her nose and blinked emotion off, covering his hand with hers and pressed it gently, reassuringly.
"And we'll be waiting for you," she said, "For as long as it takes."
They landed in sunny Istanbul – first in the giant international airport for passport check, then on the premises of a sprawling villa that closely resembled the mansion they just left, with the only major difference of no river dramatically crushing off a steep cliffside, instead replaced by the vista of cypress and orange trees, softly rustling in the wind.
Abbas was to stay there, with Alia, little boy, Emir and a handful of men…and Elena, who seemed far less rebellious and more accepting of her newly found hostage role.
"Cover the yellow," Nate said half-jokingly, glancing at her hair capturing golden sunlight as they were saying goodbye. Then he stepped back up onto the airstair, accompanied by Sam and James and controlling glances of Abbas' son-in-law Ruslan, who acted on his behalf for the remainder of their quest.
And so they took off East and several hours later landed in another airport, where they were seen to yet another windowless room, but this time the woman sitting there had no smiles or chatter for them. Slim and dignified, she measured them with cold indifferent stare, ignoring Nate and Sam's attempt at utilizing the little Russian that they knew and, surprisingly, stumping extremely expedited visas into their passports after a brief conversation with Ruslan and somebody else on the other end of the phone.
"Guess money solves everything," Sam said in the end before leaving the room.
The sun was arching down toward the horizon, when they arrived at the site in the middle of Siberian wilderness. They parked their Jeeps faraway, on the other side of a wide slow-moving river with multitude of bare little islands, which they used for crossing. Insisting that the rest of the men stay behind, it was Nate and Sam, joined by James and Ruslan, who went on trekking through the woods until they sighted the edge of the dig and slowed down.
They heard voices and spotted several men with rifles, scattered along the perimeter and so they slowly inched away, sticking to the cover of trees and bushes, aiming for the thick undergrowth sitting right above the edge.
Expecting grand unveiling of what lay underneath, Nate squinted with disappointment, as he peered over and his eyes skid across dull brown mounds and short rickety columns of dusty white rock, glistening with streaks of silver in the setting sun. There were more tents and supply crates here than anything else - they littered the clearing, with more men walking about, chatting and minding the casual duties like washing dishes and bringing firewood.
"You guys didn't make much progress on the dig, huh?" he sneered at James in hushed voice.
"Most of it is underneath," the older man pointed his finger at the gaping blackness of a wide entryway, supported by two massive pillars, brushed to perfection and sporting intricate Slavic designs carved into stone, depicting dragons and solemn bearded faces, "It leads underground, into the main chamber.
Sam chuckled a quiet joyless laugh, "So, we just stroll right in like nobody's business? How d'you even know the journal is still there?"
"We had scouts keeping an eye on the place," Ruslan explained, suspiciously looking around the elevated areas for potential guards approaching, "The leaders seem to be a man and a woman and they never left the site ever since they…-," Ruslan struggled to pick the right word.
"…evicted you?" Nate finished for him, sharing a look with Sam, as they both silently enjoyed the look of annoyance on the Turkish man's face.
"Since they trespassed and barged in on us – yes," Ruslan's slit brow darted up grudgingly.
"Well that answers one question, but not the most important one," Nate held his hands open in question, "How do we get in there if you wanna keep low profile? Wait for them to go to bed? This place will be illuminated like a concert stage with all those lamps," he gestured at the tripods of lights scattered around the camp, "I guess we could go shut off some of the generators but that would be a dead giveaway for the guys uptop."
"No need," James said and his eyes twinkled slyly, drawing in their attention.
There was a pause as they waited for him to continue until Nate impatiently rolled his eyes, "What, you want us to play charades or something before you finally tell us what you mean?!"
"No need to be a smartass," James gave him a stern look and Nate scowled incredulously, "After we dug up the entrance and worked our way into the chamber, we discovered a passage, leading to the…backdoor, so to speak. So we quietly get in through there. We find the journal – secure it. And then we leave just as quietly as we came. And not a soul needs to know how it happened."
"Sound like a solid plan," Nate grasped at the straw with enthusiasm, while his eyes already scanned through the trees behind them, "Where is the backdoor?"
"That way," James nudged his chin in westerly direction and they padded along, following Ruslan from bush to bush and tree to tree until they were far enough away that they could no longer be heard.
"And why is it that you didn't tell us about this secret entrance right away?" Sam voiced his indignation as dusk gradually fell over the forest, draining it of color and light, "Why risk being spotted by taking us all the way to the foot of the camp?!"
"Because you needed to see the whole picture, especially while we still had daylight," James said with a serene expression of a professor lecturing a student and then his face lit up as his eyes caught on something on the ground, "Here we are," he smiled, stopping next to a small hill entirely covered with overgrown weeds and grasses. James climbed up, leaned in, his arms went through the greenery and grasped around something. He pulled and they heard grinding noise, "Here, give me a hand," James grunted and Nate trotted into the thicket, discovering a stone sort-of-trapdoor hidden inside. James moved to one side, giving Nate enough space to grab a handle on the other and they both pulled, grunting away until the circular plate budged with a low caving sound and they lifted it off, setting it carefully on the grass.
"Would you look at that…" Sam whistled, staring into the dark tunnel within.
"Surprised it didn't crumble after all the years," Nate mused, brushing his fingers over the carving of a three headed dragon on the stone surface, "Must be thousands of years old."
"Well, it certainly fared much better than Venus de Milo," Sam said and rubbed his hands together, "I presume the bad guys don't know about this entrance?" he looked at James and the older man shook his head.
"It is well hidden, so I doubt they figured it out."
"All right then," Nate stood up, shaking dirt off his fingers, "Ladies first?"
He looked at Ruslan, who didn't find the joke amusing, "You go in first, I'll stay behind and guard the exit… and make sure you don't try something funny again," he said distrustfully and Nate shrugged.
"Tough crowd" he said, catching his brother's gaze and Sam dismissed the two men with a shrug and a twitch of his mouth.
They tied a rope around the most solid-looking tree and threw the end into the dark opening.
"Sure would be nice if they carved a ladder in too," Nate grumbled, slowly lowering himself into the mouth of the tunnel.
"Yeah, and maybe an elevator?" Sam chuckled, waiting for his turn, "Don't tell me you grew soft after years of domesticated living- remember how we used to scale rooftops?"
There was a pause, after which an echoed reply followed, closely resembling Sully's growling voice, "I'm too old for this shit kid!"
Sam chuckled. Ruslan's face stayed unreadable, while James looked down into the hole with concern.
"Be careful there Nathan!" he called out.
Sam looked at him with a sarcastic frown, "Oh don't you worry, he's so got it."
And in the depth of the tunnel, with his hands grasped around the rope, Nate made his way down. The air felt muggy at first, with humidity trapped close to the surface, but the lower Nate went, the cooler and more comfortable it got as he descended underground. It wasn't long until the rope ran out and the tips of his shoes wedged in between the cracks of aged stone walls.
"Well that's unfortunate…"
Holding onto the rope with one hand, Nate examined the walls with the other, relying on his sense of touch more than on anything else as the light from above became heavily dispersed. He discerned promising unevenness and his fingers dug into the gritty crevices as he completely shifted his weight off the rope and continued climbing down in circles to the approaching ground underneath, until…
"Oh crap!"
Nate squinted his eyes as a thin ledge crumbled under his fingertips, sending grainy dust flying down, bouncing off the surrounding stone and his nails scrambled to regain grasp, but there was only air, "Oh no, no – WHOA!" he came tumbling down, unable to catch hold of anything to slow down his fall.
Fortunately for him, the bottom of the tunnel was not that far away. Unfortunately for him, it consisted of a floor of solid rock. But Nate didn't complain.