Chapter 2

Sully and Drake quickly stole a car and headed out into the direction of the Villa de Serrano, a large rustic manor on the outskirts of the massive city. The villa was placed amongst the rolling Spanish hills and valleys, so forgettable when lost in the middle of the city, yet greeted warmly and readily when returned to. But as darkness settled, there was a certain ominous tone to the countryside, and as Sully drove the car up to the villa's main gate, the foreboding solidified into fear.

"Well we certainly aren't the first ones here." Sully commented, looking along the wall where the gate had been blasted off of its hinges.

"Yeah, I just hope we're not too late." Drake added. "Hey, Sully, park over there. We can be much sneakier on foot."

"You know, your 'sneaky' plans usually don't work out so well." Sully grumbled, but obliged and parked the car between some bushes and the wall.

The two men got out of the car and moved into Serrano's property, padding along as silently as they could and keeping low to the ground. The villa's grounds were huge, and the villa itself an intimidating structure on the horizon. As Drake and Sully moved through the garden, they took note of several flashlights flickering along the grounds, as well as light being cast from almost every window of the villa.

"Geez, this guy has got to be loaded." Sully whispered as the duo paused to assess their situation.

"Yeah… apparently he is a big history buff. Even this villa looks like it has its decent chunk of history. It has an entirely Muslim influence with the courtyard center and that tower, which is clearly reminiscent of a minaret." Drake said, his awe matching Sully's. Meanwhile, Sully chuckled and shook his head at Drake's own fascination with history.

"Kid, Muslim influences don't bring in the big bucks. Think of the artifacts this guy has collected and stashed. A successful raid could bring in a whole lotta cash."

"Don't get any ideas, Sully." Drake chided his greedy friend. "Remember, the journal and that's it." Sully mumbled a response and started moving down the small knoll they had perched on. Drake followed in suit, keeping a careful eye on a pair of guards moving towards them.

"So do we have a game plan?" Sully asked as soon as Drake caught up with him.

"Of course. Don't I always?" Drake said with a smile, and Sully gave him a condescending look that perfectly mimed his "Whatever you say kid" response. "Right, so, anyway- you see those two guards over there, walking isolated from the group, completely unaware of us nearby?"

"Suckers."

"Exactly. We'll take them down and grab their weapons. Then, we make our way to an entrance of some sort."

"Front door doesn't cut it?"

"What do you think?"

"Right, so, a window or back door."

"Then we find the journal and get out." Drake said with a nod. Sully glanced back at him and arched his eyebrows.

"'Find the journal and get out.' Really? That's your plan."

"What?" Drake said defensively. "I don't usually plan out as much as I have. It's progress, you can't expect me to be a brilliant planner overnight!"

"Okay, sure."

"Baby steps, Sully! We'll figure it out once we get the journal." Drake said, trying to justify himself to Sully's silent judgment. "Look, here come the guards. Initiate Operation Silent Bookie."

The two men quickly descended upon the two guards and swept up behind them, snapping their necks before they had a chance to cry out.

"Operation Silent Bookie?" Sully hissed as he picked up one of the fallen guards' pistol and ammo. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Sure it does." Drake said, picking up the other gun. "We are being silent and stealing a book."

"That's not what a bookie does! A bookie doesn't even work with written out books, he works with number books. You mind as well call it 'Operation Silent Librarian.'"

"Don't be ridiculous." Drake said with a mocking scoff.

With weapons now in hand, the two men started moving along the villa's wall to find a way in. They soon came under a window that was slightly ajar, and Drake motioned for Sully to boost him up. With the extra height, Drake barely managed to grasp the window sill and pull himself in. Supporting his weight as best he could, Drake leaned out the window and extended a hand to Sully, who, with a running jump, managed to grab hold. Drake struggled with the additional weight, but finally succeeded in pulling his friend through the window.

Drake and Sully toppled to the floor of a small bathroom, and remained still for a moment while catching their breath. Drake was the first to stand up again, and after helping Sully to his feet he moved over to the door and pressed his ear against it. He waited and listened for a few moments before he turned his head to Sully and nodded.

Drake slowly opened the bathroom door and inched his way into the hallway that looked out to the courtyard of the villa, which was crawling with Teppa soldiers.

"Shit." Drake swore, ducking out of sight. "Sully, these guys are everywhere. Stay down."

Sully moved low across the floor then nodded his head at a flight of stairs not far away. Drake gave silent agreement and the two moved up the stairs and through a door which led onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Several other second floor balconies surrounded the courtyard, and a few of them had Teppa positioned on them. Fortunately, the balcony Drake and Sully were on was unoccupied and provided good covering from any of the other soldiers.

While peeking over the edge of the balcony and down at the Teppa in the courtyard, Drake became aware of the tattooed Teppa in the center. The man paced around, apparently waiting for something.

"Commander Chandra!" A voice shouted out, and the tattooed man turned expectantly. Two Teppa marched in, dragging between them a badly beaten older man with flowing white hair and a thick white moustache. "He speaks English, Commander." One of the Teppa said, throwing the old man to the floor in front of Chandra.

"That's Serrano!" Drake whispered to Sully, pointing to the old man. Chandra walked over slowly to Serrano and used his pistol to lift the old man's head.

"Boreas Serrano, yes?" Chandra questioned rhetorically with a cold smile, then turned and walked away from Serrano. "This is really a beautiful villa, yours. I must be thanking you for this hospitality which you provide to us so well. It is true yes we had to kill all guards you had employed, but after that we have felt quite at home."

"What do you want from me?" Serrano groaned, staring at Chandra.

"There is something you are having we want badly." Chandra explained, carrying on an air of apathy as he walked around the room.

"You see my artifacts and collections. Take whatever you want, just please leave me and my family alone." Serrano pleaded, but only prompting a chuckle from Chandra.

"No, no, no, Mr. Serrano. What we seek you have hid, quite well." Chandra turned and walked back over to Serrano, grabbing his face and forcing him to look up. "We are wanting Magellan's logbook."

"Goddamn it." Sully whispered, tightening his grip on the pistol in his hand. There was a tense pause where Serrano simply stared at Chandra.

"You will never find the book." Serrano said calmly. Chandra remained still for a moment, then with incredible speed brought the pistol across the man's face.

"Tell to us where the book is hid!" Chandra shouted, spit visibly flying from his mouth into Serrano's face.

"No." Serrano said, remaining unflinching before the Teppa commander. "It is only with my wisdom you could find it, a wisdom you lack. Kill me if you must, it will only assure the security of the book."

"Your house is small with so many men I have." Chandra hissed, fastening his hand on Serrano's throat. "We will find these secrets you hid. We do not need wisdom with the strength we have of numbers." Chandra forcefully released Serrano's neck, throwing the old man to the floor. He paced for a moment, then turned and kicked Serrano in the gut. The old man grunted and crumpled into the fetal position, at which point Chandra delivered a few more kicks.

"Jesus, I can't watch this, we've got to do something." Sully said, but Drake signaled for him to stay down. Chandra walked to the other side of the room, angrily muttering to himself. Serrano slowly lifted himself from his hands and knees to a kneeling position and watched Chandra. The Teppa commander finally seemed to make up his mind and ran at Serrano, pressing the gun into his forehead.

"This is last chance for you, old man!" Chandra barked, cocking the pistol "Tell to us where the book is hid."

"He was to me as he was to his crew." Serrano said, his voice heavy with resignation "If you know that, you know where it is."

Chandra paused for a moment, seeming to analyze this bit of information. Then he shook his head with disappointment.

"Foolish old man." Chandra said as he pulled the trigger and executed Serrano.

"That son of a bitch." Drake said as Chandra started shouting orders to his men, ignoring the freshly killed body. Drake turned to say something to Sully, when he noticed that on the balcony across from them a shocked Teppa soldier had just locked eyes with him. "Oh crap." Drake muttered, just as the Teppa raised his gun. Drake reacted quickly and fired his pistol, knocking the man off the balcony. Immediately, the courtyard erupted into chaos.

"It's Drake! Kill him!" Chandra shouted, and bullets assaulted the balcony Drake and Sully were hiding behind.

"So much for 'silent' bookie!" Sully shouted, barreling through the balcony door and back into the second floor hallway "C'mon kid, it's time to go!"

"I'm right behind you Sully!" Drake shouted, following his friend through the door while blind-firing for cover. Drake looked both ways down the hallway and saw that Teppa soldiers were approaching from both ends. Reloading his pistol, Drake sighed. It was going to be a long night.


After running down the hallway and killing anybody who got in their way, Drake and Sully managed to work their way up to the third floor and to hide in what appeared to be Serrano's study. Sully braced the door before turning to Drake. Both men were out of breath and sweaty, as well as fairly beaten from their arduous escape.

"Alright, what the hell is going on here?" Sully barked between breaths. "Thugs chasing some old book in a house full of priceless goodies? It doesn't make a lick of sense!"

"I know, I know." Drake said, pacing nervously. "But either way, I think it's a good idea to keep it out of their hands and in ours."

"How do you suggest we find it?" Sully questioned. "They have an army searching and they couldn't find it. The book is hidden, and the only guy who knew where to find it has his brains splattered in the courtyard."

"Alright, that's enough Sully." Drake said, waving an exasperated hand at his friend. He looked around the room and took a deep breath to steady himself. "All of the answers are somewhere in this study, I'm sure of it." He declared. "We just need to find out where."

"You make that sound like it'll be easy." Sully said, looking around the massive room. The walls were lined with large bookshelves and artifacts, a large mirror on one wall, and a massive ornate desk in the middle. Sully was right; finding anything in the huge study was going to be no easy task, certainly not made better with the Teppa soldiers hunting them down.

"Wait…" Drake said, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Wait…" He said again, rushing to the desks and rustling through the notes.

"Wait what?" Sully questioned as Drake continued to move rapidly around the room.

"What was it that Serrano said right before Chandra killed him?" Drake said, playing with the ring around his neck nervously.

"Something about how 'he' was to him what 'he' was to his crew."

"Exactly." Drake said, shaking a finger in the air. "Exactly… and we can assume 'he' is Magellan, right?"

"Sure." Sully said, allowing Drake to go through his rhetorical conversation process which helped him think.

"I need to find… oh come on, Serrano must have it." Drake said to himself, running to one of the bookshelves and looking it up and down. "Ah, here!" He exclaimed, pulling a book titled Relazione del Primo Viaggio Intorno al Mondo off the shelf and setting it down on the desk. "This is Antonio Pigafetta's published journal 'Report on the First Travel Around the World'." He explained in response to Sully's confused look.

"And the answer is supposedly in there?" Sully questioned, walking towards Drake and looking over his shoulder.

"Hopefully."

"Ah hell Nate, it's all in Italian!" Sully said, swearing under his breath. "I hardly knew enough to get us out of that Rome situation, how the hell are we supposed to translate that whole book?" Drake laughed and looked back at his friend.

"Sully, gimme some credit here!" Drake said, raising imploring hands. "Don't you remember when we were in Venice and I told you what to say to that waitress?"

"Oh yeah." Sully said, his hand absently drifting to the side of his face "I think that is the hardest a woman has ever slapped me, and I've been slapped a lot."

"Yeah, well, you said some pretty offensive stuff." Drake said, chuckling as he flipped through the journal.

"Thanks for that, by the way." Sully said with a tone of annoyance.

"You're welcome." Drake said, staring intently at one of the pages. "Okay, here it's talking about the final battle of Mactan, where Magellan's forces attacked the army of the Rajah-king Lapu-Lapu. Pigafetta wrote: 'The natives continued to pursue us, and picking up the same spear four or six times, hurled it at us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice, but he always stood firmly like a good knight, together with some others. Thus did we fight for more than one hour, refusing to retire farther. An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses until…'"

"Jesus, that's harsh." Sully commented as Drake paused then slowly raised his head with a look of realization on his face.

"Hanno ucciso il nostro specchio, la nostra luce, il nostro conforto, e la nostra vera guida." Drake whispered, inciting a look of irritation from Sully.

"Pardon? In English, please?"

"'They rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide!'" Drake said, getting excited and moving in front of the large mirror in the study. "Could it be that simple?" Drake pulled out his gun, held it at the mirror and fired several rounds, which thudded into the glass but did not break it.

"Careful, kid, you're gonna let the whole world know where we are!" Sully said angrily, looking nervously to the door.

"Sully, it's bulletproof!" Drake exclaimed.

"Yeah, I see that."

"It must be hidden behind the mirror. We have to get it open." Drake said, running over to inspect the mirror.

"How do you suggest we do that?" Sully questioned, knocking on the heavy glass.

"Well, Serrano said Magellan was to him as he was to his crew, meaning Magellan was his mirror, light, comfort, and true guide."

"I see where you're going with this." Sully said nodding. "We have the mirror-"

"And the true guide." Drake said, pointing out a small compass inscribed near the top of the mirror. "Now we just need to find the light and comfort."

Drake and Sully walked around the room a bit, searching for any more clues as to how they might open the secret door. Sully was rummaging in the desk while Drake closely inspected the walls and other furniture. He stopped when he reached the couch and paused for a moment. The mirror had been obvious enough…

"Hey, Sully, come help me move this." Drake called out, and Sully walked over.

"The couch, huh?" He questioned, joining Drake. "You really think Serrano is the kinda guy to be that literal?" Together the two men pushed the couch out of the way, revealing a compass inscribed on the wall with a small keyhole in the center.

"I guess so." Drake said with a chuckle. "Looks like we need a key."

"This was in his desk." Sully said, pulling out a key and tossing it to Drake who caught the key and stared at Sully. "What?"

"I don't know." Drake said, pausing before he put the key into the compass center. "Serrano was willing to die to defend the location of the log book, but finding it is as simple as pushing a couch and picking up a key from his desk? It's just too obvious, and way to simple."

Drake turned the key and suddenly an alarm started sounding in the study.

"I knew it!" Drake shouted.

"Yeah, good for you kid." Sully shouted over the siren, drawing out his gun. "Now see if you can bust that mirror down or get ready for hell!"

Drake stepped back and pulled out his gun again and started firing at the glass. Several cracks and fissures appeared, but it held. As Drake was firing, shouting could be heard from the other side of the study's door, which was being pushed against by Teppa soldiers.

"Nate, the door's not gonna hold much longer, how we doing with that mirror?"

"Working on it Sully!" Drake shouted, shooting more at the glass. As Drake was loading another clip, the mirror slid back into the wall and a young man jumped out of a spiral staircase wielding a pistol. He fired off two rounds, both of which narrowly missed Drake.

"Ah, what the hell is this now!" Sully shouted. The young man, eyes wild and frenzied, turned and screamed out a battle cry as he fired his gun at Sully. Drake jumped up and tackled the man, dragging him into the staircase behind the mirror. Sully quickly followed them in, and just as the study's door broke down and Teppa soldiers flooded in, Drake pulled a lever that slid the mirror back over the secret staircase.

"Suéltame, culo!" The young man shouted, struggling against Drake's grasp.

"Hey, Nate, he sounds like you as a kid." Sully said with a chuckle.

"Ha-ha, very funny." Drake said. He wrenched the pistol out of the man's hand then pushed him away, holding him at gunpoint. "Who the hell are you, and how did you get in here?"

"I should ask you that!" The young man barked back furiously. "This is my house!" Drake's expression immediately softened and Sully pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

"Alright." Drake said with a nod, lowering the gun. "My name is Nathan Drake, and this is Victor Sullivan. We are here to protect Magellan's log book from the men out in your father's study right now."

"How do you know about that?" The man asked, his eyes widening with surprise.

"We work for a man who is very interested in keeping the log book out of the hands of the criminals outside." Sully said hurriedly. "Now if you don't mind, we should probably get going."

"How can I trust you two?" The man asked, lingering back.

"You can't." Sully said bluntly. "But we have guns, and we don't need you." With that he turned and started walking up the stairs. Drake began walking up too, leaving the young man behind.

"This must be the tower we saw from outside." Drake observed as they spiraled up. Sully was about to respond when he was cut off by a shout from below.

"Where is my father?"

Sully turned to Drake, a sad look in his eyes. Drake gave him a nod, showing that he'd rather the older man break the news to the Serrano's son.

"Listen, kid-"

"Don't call me kid. I am 19, hardly a child." The young man snapped back, scowling.

"I call everyone kid." Sully said incredulously, looking to Drake for support. Drake simply shrugged, and Sully turned back to the young Serrano. "Alright, well what should I call you?"

"My name is André Serrano. You may call me André."

"Okay, André. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat this, because we don't have time. Your father is dead." Immediately, André's confidence collapsed, and his mature, powerful stance crumpled into the isolated child he had become. "He was killed by the men out there." Sully continued, pointing down the staircase. "And they killed him for this book. We are trying to keep it away from them, so if you want to help us, that's great. If you don't, please stay out of the way."

Sully turned back up the stairs, pulling Drake with him while André stood dumbfounded, then silently followed.

"Geez, Sully I knew you could be harsh but that was downright cruel." Drake whispered to his friend.

"I know, and I feel bad, but we got work to do and if we waste time with him we will just end up like his dad."

Drake nodded, not in agreement but in resolution. They needed to get the book and get out. Soon, they reached the top of the staircase and were in a small room with one window looking out onto the grounds of the villa. In the middle of the room was a desk with a locked metal box on it. Drake was about to step over and pick up the box when André silently moved ahead of him and used a key in his pocket to unlock the box then stepped back, still without saying a word or looking at either man.

"Thanks." Drake mumbled, walking to the open box. He reached in and lifted up a small, worn out book with nothing written on the faded cover. He flipped through it quickly then turned to Sully. "This is it." He said, and Sully nodded.

"Alright, now let's get out of here before-"

But Sully was unable to complete his sentence before a massive explosion shook the tower and voices started shouting up from the bottom of the stairwell.

"Here they come!" Sully barked, getting cover before pulling out his pistol. "Get ready for one hell of a fight kid!"

"No, wait!" André said, his eyes suddenly ablaze. "We can't fight them, but we can escape. The walls of the tower are covered in ledges and chains we can climb." André ran over to the window and started lowering himself out, urging Drake and Sully to follow him. Sully shrugged at Drake and then ran over, following André.

"Why do I feel like this isn't your first time doing this?" Sully questioned, but André simply replied with a mischievous smile. The three men began climbing down the tower, jumping from ledge to ledge and clinging to chains. Drake was inching along a chain strung between two points on the tower face when bullets started flying down at them. Drake swore and pulled out his pistol, firing up at the men who were leaning out the window. One of the men who leaned out dropped a grenade, which clattered down the side of the wall towards Drake.

"Oh crap, grenade!" Drake shouted, trying to move out of the way of the explosive. The grenade went off, shaking the face of the tower but leaving Drake, Sully, and André luckily unharmed. However, the explosion had been enough to loosen the chain Drake was hanging on, and one end detached from the wall.

"No, no, no! Craaaap!" Drake shouted as he began tumbling down the side of the tower clinging to the chain. After falling several feet, he jolted to a stop, his weight supported by the chains final contact point. Drake looked back up to where he was being shot at from. Another Teppa soldier was rearing up to throw a grenade, but Drake scowled and aimed his gun.

"Not this time, buddy."

Drake fired the gun, and the bullet clipped the Teppa in the shoulder. Drake saw the grenade fall from his hand and heard panicked shouting at the top of the tower, followed by an explosion that threw one Teppa out the window and undoubtedly killed the others. But this second explosion was too much for the chain Drake still clung to, and it gave out. Drake screamed as he began falling, no longer connected to the tower in any way.

"I got you!" Sully shouted, extending his arm and grasping Drake's. "I got you Nate, just hold on!"

"Oh, really? 'Cause I was thinking of letting go."

Sully pulled Drake up to his level on the ledge he hung onto and chuckled.

"Smart-ass." He said, slapping Drake on the side of the face playfully. They began moving down the wall again, this time much easier without being shot at. Soon, they reached the ground, and Drake pulled out the logbook, handing it to Sully.

"Here, take this. You and André get the car started."

"'Where are you going?" André asked.

"I have something to handle." Drake responded mysteriously as he moved over to a wall and began working his way along the side of the house.

"Nate! Nate, what the hell?!" Sully hissed, but Drake ignored him, moving along the wall to the front of the house. He moved to where the main door used to be and stood rigidly, listening. The central courtyard was just around the corner. Several voices could be heard, one of which was clearly Chandra shouting commands, a few belonging to Teppa soldiers, and one belonging to a woman who was arguing with somebody. Drake ground his teeth and clutched his pistol. He slid out from his cover and held his gun up. Nobody saw him given that Chandra, the woman, and the other Teppa guards had their back to him. Drake moved forward and focused on the woman, who had a colorful fish tattoo on her shoulder that was clearly visible under the strap of her tank top. Drake walked several more steps forward, until he was only a few feet away from Chandra and the woman, then smirked to himself before making the others aware of his presence.

"Hello Rika. I told you I'd find you."


Authors Notes: Surprise! Maybe, haha. It was probably a given that Rika would somehow be involved, but I hope you all still like that little development. I hope you like the entire story; the reviews have certainly been fantastic so thank you very much for that. I apologize it takes a while to upload, I've been doing quite a bit of research for this book, but have and will have a few hiccups. Nonetheless, thank you to my loyal fans and anyone who happens upon my story, please keep leaving reviews (of what you like and dislike). In the next chapter, we'll learn a little bit more about just what kind of a mess Nate is getting himself into.