I'm really sorry for the delay on adding chapters. I've been really bogged down with school work lately, so I'm doing my best to update my story and do a good job at the same time. I appreciate the reviews. Oh, and sorry about the technical difficulties on the last chapter- when I put things in bold or italics, the words somehow get squished together, so I guess I will be using only plain font from here on out! Anyways, I apologize for the delays (and errors) and I hope you somewhat enjoy the story. Also, please know that I'm always open to any feedback/criticism/suggestions that you may wish to voice...er...type. Thanks! :)
Nate sat alone at a table outside the neighborhood Starbuck's and stared at his incredibly slow laptop. He'd been waiting for the results of his google search for nearly eight full minutes. He leaned back against his chair and looked at the other people around him with laptops. All of the people seemed to have fast, functioning Mac laptops with shiny white and silver covers. None of the others seemed seemed unsatisfied or frustrated with their computers. He turned to stare at his dingy laptop's dim screen again, and groaned when he saw that the search bar meter was only half-filled. Would he really have to wait another eight minutes? Nate was distracted by a passing girl with her blonde hair fixed into a bun. She immediately reminded him of Elena. But this girl was, of course, not as pretty as Elena. She probably wasn't half as tough either. While Elena had faced zombies, grenades, and even giant spiders without so much as flinching, this girl would probably have a panic attack if someone accidentally spilled her coffee on her silk dress. Nate smirked at the thought. Elena wasn't one for fashion or other typical girl-things; she was very nearly a tomboy. Nate liked that about her. But, why, oh why, did she have to go to London? Of all places, why London? The headquarters of his last enemies had been stationed there! He'd told her not to go, that it may still be dangerous, but, of course, she didn't listen to him. She'd claimed that it was for 'work.'
Nate leaned further back in his chair and rested his hands behind his head as he attempted to patiently wait for the dang laptop to load. He really did miss Elena. She hadn't been gone for more than a week now, but he still felt something was missing without her. The once-tolerable apartment now seemed like an isolated prison. It felt as isolated a place as Iram of the Pillars had been. Speaking of which, he was in the middle of researching the place. More specifically, he wanted to know more about the legendary hallucinogenic that it on earth had Marlowe's crew been so intent on getting the drug? They'd clearly already had their own powerful hallucinogenic's, so why did they jeopardize their lives to cross the Rub' al Khali for another one? Questions like these bogged down in Nate's head daily. It just didn't make any sense to him. Why would a four-hundred year-old secret organization allow so many members' lives to be lost over one stupid drug?
Nate shook his head and rubbed his temples. He knew it annoyed Elena when he blabbered on about this stuff, but she had to realize that this was important. There were so many things left unanswered, so many ambiguous things that pertained to this last feat. He could go on and on all day asking himself these questions. Other than his questions about the drug, a few things particularly irked Nate about the foes that he had come across. How did Marlowe know so much about him? Did she know his real name? Why hadn't she just had him killed in the first place? Marlowe's cohort, Talbot, also filled Nate's mind with endless questions. Why was he working for Marlowe? Why was he so affected when she died? Why didn't Talbot kill Nate when he had the chance? And who was Talbot, anyways? Nate felt an impending headache, and attempted to clear his mind of these troubling thoughts.
He focused on the cracked screen of the old, used laptop before him and saw that the loading search bar was now full, and the page was redirecting to the results of his search. "Yes!" Nate exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. He looked around at the surprised faces of the people surrounding him, and immediately felt embarrassed and out of place. Sighing, he set his hands back down onto the table. The page finally uploaded a long series of results for his search: "Iram of the Pillars drug legend." What surprised him, though, was that the top search results that appeared were from news websites, such as MSN and CNN. Nate squinted as he scrolled over the brief description of the first article:
"Commotion and Reporters in the Rub' al Khali: Reporters today are staked out at the site of what is thought to be the legendary city Iram of the Pillars. Over time, the city has been mostly submerged beneath the sand dunes, but an excavation site has been set up by a non-profit British archaeological organization. The lucky organization was somehow able to come across the ancient ruins by chance. Here is the interview from on-site MSN reporter Ken Bays, revealing the groundbreaking work the organization is accomplishing in turning legend to fact..."
What? Nate thought. How in the world...? Nate stood up and stared at the computer screen. What troubled him was not that the city had simply been discovered, but that it had been discovered by a so-called "lucky organization" that happened to find the city "by chance." The part that most troubled Nate was the fact that it was a "British archaeological organization." Now that seemed just a bit too familiar for Nate. Wasting no time, Nate closed the ancient laptop and left it on the cafe' table, not bothering to bring the useless thing with him. If this didn't prompt Nate to go and bring Elena back from London, he didn't know what did.