Nathan
It felt like each step moved us closer and closer to danger. Whatever was at the end of this tunnel I hoped could get me closer to Cassie. For Elena and me, we just wanted our daughter back. I didn't care about the rest anymore. Walking through the underground tram tunnel fired off all kinds of bad thoughts in my head, feelings of dread and regret. What was she doing right now? Deep down, I had a feeling Cassie was doing okay. Although I hoped her boisterous ways didn't get her into trouble.
"Good job Nate."
"Huh, did you say something." Chloe's eyes had a look of despair as she looked over at me, she knew I was beating myself up about losing Cassie to those guys. "Nate, what are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking this a really bad idea."
On the 'this-is-a-really-bad-idea scale' I thought this was one of the worst ideas I've had, but I couldn't think of anything else to do differently. Charlotte and the Romanian girl were our only lead, and probably the only way to get Cassie back.
"Nate, you need to focus, I mean who knows what we'll find at the end of this!" Chloe said, her words, like a double edge sword. I wasn't sure if they were meant to mean at the end of this dimly lit tunnel or the end of yet another adventure of life in peril. I kindda hoped at the end of the adventure, I'd get Cassie back. Elena and Sam would forgive me, and this would be the end of fortune hunting – well and truly the end. I don't know how I've survived this long - how any of us have. I had a feeling this was going to get much worse.
As we continued walking each step felt like we were heading into the lions den, I was just waiting for one to break free from behind the gun metal coloured service doors that we passed every few yards. Curiosity set in and I tried a couple of the doors, to see where they might lead. But they were well and truly locked. No one was getting through 'em.
Every door we walked passed reminded me, when I had Cassie on my lap once. We were watching cartoons and the characters would run across a seemingly endless background. One episode was this creepy circus and they ran passed the same cage with the same lion about four times.
I feared that if one of these doors opened a lion would jump out and maul us to death.
Why are we going forwards, knowing we're gonna end up in trouble or worse killed. But if I don't keep going forward how will I get Cassie back? I thought.
If we did catch up to Charlotte, and somehow take her out and her goons, could I sink that low to capture the girl and hold her ransom? I mean that's what Redd had done, and...with my daughter.
"Think Nate, think!" Who is this Charlotte, and what kindda people does she associate with? The way she executed the last team was just insane, sheer precision. No matter who she is, I knew she was gonna be a handful. Nadine times ten to the power of...ten.
It's funny how a person's mind can think of one thing and end up somewhere else. The notion of how Charlotte got through the door at the beginning was playing on my mind. We had one coin, but where did she get hers from? If she got through, then maybe she's one of the protectors.
I thought of a plan and a way to execute it as I continued looking around the tunnel - that seemed to go on forever. It sortta brought back flashbacks of searching for the head of another secret society in a clandestine pursuit - exactly like this, when we were following Marlowe's trail. Boy that feels like a millennia ago. At the end of that tunnel was a library, full of tales and clues. I had a feeling this place was a little more secret and off limits – it wouldn't be a 19th century library at the end of the tunnel but a city. A little more 21st century and I was kindda excited to see what it looked like. There was a part of me that felt we were heading to a place a lot more state-of-the-art.
There were rumours of cities under London, but the one that I knew of for sure was a place constructed at the Southern side. A city built underground inside an old quarry. I remember seeing Images of the thick concrete walls designed to keep people in and everything else out. Walls forged into rooms, strategically placed into each part of the bunker.
It was to be a place to hold around 700 people. The city was to act as a command centre to hold the heads of the British government - in case of 'Nuclear Attack', but the pictures of that place seemed to be spent using government funding and it was obvious the money wasn't enough to create a more functional 20th century city underground. The bunker was decommissioned in 2004 and was now a tourist attraction.
I wouldn't of thought the government would allow construction of this, maybe it had been built by the realm.
I shone my light around the terracotta brick walls, this place looked well maintained. No water coming in, and there was probably a subway nearby. We could hear the sounds of trains coming from somewhere. The ceiling shuck on occasion, as dust particles sprinkled on the floor. The feel of the air made me think no one had been using this entrance for a long time. Judging by the track and structural integrity of the station earlier, it was clear to me a lot of money had been spent here to create this tunnel system and keep it hidden as it twisted into the heart of London. If there was a city under the Capital, then we'd be the first tourists to visit this one.
"Nate what happens if this tunnel goes on for miles, and miles and..."
"Erm, good point, but let's just keep goin', we can always try and break one of these service doors open if we want, I don't think it's much further." I assured Chloe that I knew what I was doing.
It can't be that far can it?
It was true the tracks did seem as they went on forever. This place wasn't designed to walk down, we were supposed to take the tram.
There was hardly any lighting in here, at all, so the light from our phones just kept catching glimpses of Sam's sullen face. He didn't engage in conversation, he just kept walking, most likely thinking about why I'd let this happen.
Chloe was listening for people ahead and Sam was looking out for security cameras and guards and guard dogs, but so far nothing. Due to the lighting, it was hard to tell if there was any security roaming the tunnel. There were plenty of cables but where they led was just a mystery. We decided to keep walking and just see where it goes. Unfortunately, the batteries on our phones were running low as we each shone our lights to light the way forward.
"Nathan, we need a plan!" Sam finally spoke up, interrupting my thoughts. We'd not heard a peep from him for nearly ten minutes. He was right though, what would the plan be? Thinking of something off the top of my head, lead to shooting our way out. But with the little ammo left in our weapons and no idea of how many people we'd encounter, my bets were well and truly hedged.
"Wait...Sam...you know about this girl, you said she's a map, right?"
Sam remained quiet, either he didn't hear me or he was ignoring what I was saying. "SAM?"
"Why did you let this happen Nathan? Why?" Yep, Sam was pissed off with me.
"I didn't just let this happen and besides I think you know more than you're lettin' on. I think you know more than any of us!"
"Oh right blame me." Sam said as I walked around, readying up a comeback.
Chloe stepped in as the proverbial intermediary, "Boys, let's focus on getting the hell outta here and see if we can't reason with this Black hatted Knight." She was right, we needed to clear our heads and work together if we were ever gonna get through this.
"Sam, tell Nathan...well..tell him everything!" Chloe glowered at Sam.
Sam took a breath and started to tell me what he knew.
"Remember the old lady that we found at the mansion, the one that knew mom?" Sam said, which took me back, way back in history.
"Yeah, she gave us mom's journal, before she just collapsed in front of us." I said.
"Yeah, that's right, but after the cops had gone, a few days later I went back. There was so much mystery about that place, and about her."
I was kindda worried about where this was going, but I continued to listen to him tell his story.
"Turns out she was something of an explorer herself, in fact she was one of the most sought after anthropologists in the world. For many she was known as Evelyn Namba, but before that she was Dr. Alexandra Knight." Sam's revelation of the doctor was unprecedented, we've grow to know she was on-board the SS Petoria when it sank.
"Wait are you saying? She escaped the destruction, when the two ships...the" Chloe was struggling to remember the ship's name. I took over and filled in the blanks.
"When the MS Copenhagen collided with her, in '56," I began pacing around, "she must have known something!"
"Wait, are you saying the hit was well...a hit. These people caused those ships to collide?" Chloe said raising her voice in shock, that anyone could have the tenacity or money to pull of that kind of assassination.
"They've never found the ship, there was some instrumental failure and it was lost somewhere in the Atlantic..." I said thinking about what I know of the story.
"According to Evelyn, it was most likely in the Baltic Sea, near Gotland island, an island said to hold the broken city." Sam said, drawing out the map with his hands.
"Holy shit Sam, that's where it is, did she have it?" My words came with excitement too.
"Woah, boys slow down, what are saying?"
"The broken city has the only temple of the Mother, the Varangian's worshipped her, knowing she was the answer to the existence of what the race later became. Following the Greeks they showed Prometheus had bitten off more than he could chew, and who we know as Eve was the true callin' of humanity."
"What's this gotta do with the stone of Eve?" Chloe asked, she felt outta the loop a little.
"The true stone has the ability to heal all wounds, to cast protection and to manipulate the elements, those who live within the true bloodline keep it from being found." Sam added, in his usual enigmatic way.
"The maps! Are people, they're the true bloodline." I said also catching up to what was being told here.
"Right, the boy or man has the ability to protect himself from danger. The girl..."
"So how many men, women, children are out there with these maps on their back?" Chloe was full of questions, interrupting Sam.
"...no idea, but these maps are tattooed on them, they're not birth defects."
"Tattooed? By whom?" Chloe asked with a quizzical look on her face.
"I would think by the protectors, but I'm not sure. And why would they do this?"
We were all a little unsure on the what and why of things, but I told and showed Sam about the map fragment. And confessed about what I told Father Tomas about another of Sir Francis Drake's mysterious voyages. "I think when Drake found the island, the stone had either been destroyed or stolen. He picked up a fragment of what was left and took it with him back to England. Once he realised it's true potential, most likely from John Dee – his alchemist. He unleashed its power."
"Yes Nathan, but not being connected to the whole stone, it was a one-time gig." Sam said, confirming the one use of these fragments. "But I think mom has seen the stone, it might not have been in Africa when she found it, but it's somewhere on the planet, and it will reveal where the true Garden of Eden lies."
Listening to what Sam had to say raised more questions, but time was against us and I thought some of the questions I needed to ask could wait.
"What does Redd Fisher want and how does he know about this?" Was probably the best question to ask.
"Don't you know who he is?" Sam said as though I knew who he was.
"I had read, Redd's biography, your typical billionaire's son rising to power. Stepping on everyone he came across. There was nothing special about him, that I could see."
"Nathan, he knows of our mother's epic trails. Did he not know who you were?"
"Shit, I may have started this, but why now after all these years?"
Sam explained about Redd's progenitor disease and the links to the statues, but there was something odd about these statues. I needed to see these ciphers myself to be sure, but I had my suspicions about their origin.
"Sam did you plant those ciphers for Redd to find?"
"Of course not, me and Chloe were keeping an eye on him, he had already picked up the trail and we wanted to see where he was goin' next. I think he's got his hands on a map though."
I turned Sam's attention back to the fragments.
"Evelyn had one in her possession, there were rumours that three existed, Drake gave two of them to the upper echelons of the Slave Trade."
"If Drake has one, and Evelyn has one, where's the other?" Chloe asked?
I had really done my research on this, "I think it's in Brazil, Ilha da Queimada Grande."
"The secret island off Sao Paulo, where death comes crawlin'". Sam said, "an island not many dare set foot on. This must be where Redd is going."
"Yeah, but there's one thing Redd hasn't figured out!" I said looking at Chloe.
"Really what's that?" Chloe asked looking at us both, we both knew what that was.
"If the stone is broken, and mom realised it, we'd need to return the fragments, otherwise who knows what will happen if he manages to find the right scripture in the temple. It could bring forth Armageddon without all the pieces the stone will be unstable."
I wasn't sure how Sam knew this, but he had a way of finding things out.
I told the story about plagues, natural disasters and any other time in history that the world had to rebuild, connecting it to the stone. Blaming mankind as the cause of these effects.
"Redd Fisher bought himself a seat at the table, using Sergei Romanov to locate the maps. My guess is there was a problem, Sergei was known to be greedy, so he was probably gonna double cross Fisher the first chance he got." Sam said.
"What team is Charlotte batting for?" I kept wondering how she was involved with this, Sergei's killer was our problem here, Redd was our problem there. Maybe if I could get someone to track Redd's whereabouts, I might be able to get to Cassie. The good thing, if it is a good thing was that Redd wasn't going anywhere without both maps but if we didn't get the stones back, and if the supernaturalism of the stone was real, an incantation could have devastating consequences.
Our attention swayed as we got further into the tunnel, there seemed to be warning signs, some notices about structural damage and unfinished areas of some place called Site 3. I hadn't seen a service door in the last ten minutes, we passed a few, but the last one was kindda different to the others.
We finally reached the end of the tunnel, but it was blocked by another door.
"What is that?" Chloe asked shining the light ahead, it was a huge bunker door. Marine Green and God knows how thick it was. There seemed to be an active hatch. As though the innkeeper was ready to pull down the hatch and tell us there was no room.
"I guess we could knock." Sam said.
"What would we say?" Chloe put on her sarcastic voice, "we're here to see a psychopath and a little girl," but to be honest I wasn't sure what we could say. Maybe there was a way to override the controls, or maybe there was another way in.
Wait I thought, there was a service door a few yards back, wonder where that'd take us?
"Sam, Chloe, wait here, I'm gonna check out that last service door, maybe there's a power room, I might be able to get the door open."
"And when the door opens, we'll all get shot by Charlotte and her psychotic employer." Chloe rebuked, disapprovingly of the plan. In her usual way.
"Look I won't do anything, besides the mics are still working right!?" Chloe and I switched them on. "Chloe can you hear me?"
Chloe smiled at me, "yes! You're right next to me," she smiled again, but confirmed she could hear me through the earpiece.
"Great, see if you can get a holdda Charlie, and keep the channel open so I can tell you what's happening." I said looking at Sam, "Can you two keep yourselves busy for ten minutes?"
"Sure Nathan, we'll just play click and clack to Mary Mack?"
"Who's Mary Mack?" I'd never heard of that, Chloe and Sam looked at one another.
"You know Nate...," Chloe said, with Sam patting his arms, they started doing some weird clapping children's game, singing in a deep southern accent...
'Mary Mack,
Dressed in black,
Silver buttons all down her back.
...'
It's was kindda weird to watch. I don't think I'll ever get that memory of Sam act that way out of my head. "Okay, just stay here..."
I could still hear them as I back tracked following the cable I'd seen from the bunker door, if it was an alarm maybe I could cut it and it'd open the blast door, or maybe we should have just gone inside with Charlotte originally. My thoughts were firing off maybes like no tomorrow, and if I didn't get Cassie back, for me they'd be no tomorrow.
The light on my phone was pretty bright, but it was only a matter of time before the battery died. As I walked closer to the last service entrance, I spotted what looked like a golden necklace, a small shape of the African continent attached to a thin gold chain, it was near the track. Hidden in a small part of the vegetation.
"Shit!" I thought back to what I could see, who was wearing this? The little girl wasn't wearing anything, but the woman, my god...Charlotte had this around her neck. Why would she drop this and why here? It was becoming clear to me now, Charlotte must have got off here, to open this door.
"Nate, what's happening, what did you find?" Chloe asked, replying to my curse.
"Charlotte opened this door somehow." I explained to Chloe that just looking at the door there was no keyhole, no way of opening the door.
"How did she get...kkkrrrrr?"
"Chloe...can you hear me..? Shit!" Chloe wasn't coming through clearly enough. "Charlie are you there?" I couldn't get through to anybody. I started calling Elena on my phone, but by the time it rang its third ring, the phone went dead.
"Great Nate, this is something you're gonna have to figure out on your own." I said to myself. I began feeling the door, touching certain areas. I knew there was something behind here but what?
I looked at my phone to see if it was still on, as some small light appeared, reflecting on a brick, it was very faint, and disappeared on occasion. I went across the track and tried to peer through the hole, it was too small to see, but it could've been people walking passed, I thought about shouting, but what good would that of done?
There was nothing special about the brick, but what about...?
I darted over the track again, not that I could hardly see my hand in front of my face, really the lights in this area were really dim and I waited for the light to shine on the brick.
"Bingo!" I pressed the brick and it moved in and then popped out on the floor. I took a deep breath and bravely put my fingers inside. I could feel a button.
Pushing it turned the lights in the tunnel from the dimly lit, to not your typical subterranean tunnel lighting, this was black lighting - revealing a riddle on the wall and a calendar with odd looking dates.
In all of my adventures, I'd never seen anything like this. I looked at the riddle and the calendar. The calendar stood out the most. I wasn't sure about the calendar at first. I could hear footsteps quickly approaching.
I looked around trying to figure out where else to go, there was nowhere. Looking at the track I laid down in between the rails.
"Nate, what are you doing?" I looked up to see Chloe and Sam standing over me, as though I was a scared child hiding from the monsters.
"I was just looking for something," I said flustered.
"What? You're spine?" Chloe laughed.
"I thought I told you two to wait there."
"Good job we came back, what do we have here?" Sam said looking at the riddle and the calendar.
Chloe looked at too and started reading out the riddle, "When man and woman, 'something' garden floor, 'something' leave will open the door." The words were Latin, and not widely used, but Sam filled in the blanks."
"Okay so which date do we choose?" Sam said, touching the dates written on each block. The blocks were numbered 1-30, and some felt looser than others. "I think we should be exact here!" His words aired on the side of caution.
"The riddle's asking us about the day Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden." Not something which has been confirmed, but it's been given a common date.
"Okay, so let's assume this calendar is showing dates of the Eden month, we know God created, light on day 1..." I said thinking back.
"Yeah, fish and fowl on day 5..." Sam added.
"Man on 6, rested on 7." I concluded.
"When did he create the Stars and the Moon?" Chloe asked, she didn't really follow this exactly.
"4..." Sam and I said in unison.
"Boys you know too much about this stuff."
I started to think about what I knew, moving across the different days, I thought about the last day, day thirty. "Mankind was evicted from the Garden of Eden on the 30th." I pressed the thirtieth brick and the steel door sounded like it unlocked but it didn't open.
"Nice one Nate," Chloe said as we heard the door. We all tried to open it, but the door wouldn't budge. There wasn't enough room for our fingers to fit, to even prise it open. "Why won't it open?" Sam said.
It was a good question, I had an idea. "Wait," I said thinking about it more...Chloe looked at me.
"Is that not right?"
"It is...but maybe it's not the right Calendar?"
"What are you saying Nathan, this is Roman?" Sam asked, as confused as Chloe was.
"I'm saying maybe it's Antediluvian!"
Sam's eyes lit up, "right of course!"
"Boys, wait, help me catch up here?"
Sam began explaining, "we know the earth rotates and this results in around 365 days, right!?"
"Yeah, so?" Chloe said even more confused.
"But the earth rotates, as you know to rotate a circle – a full rotation is 360 degrees." Sam's words were met with silence.
"So where did the extra five days come from?" Chloe asked.
"Not five, seven!" I said, adding more confusion.
"Huh!?"
I wandered over to the calendar. "Adam uses the 8th day as the starting day after creation, thus creating an extra seven days." I reached out my hand, "making Adam and Eve's exile on the 37th day." I pressed the 7th day brick and the door opened allowing us to get through.
"Good job Nate," Chloe began congratulating me.
"Guys get back to the bunker door, I will see if I can open it from inside here, this must be how Charlotte did it." I watched as Sam and Chloe ran back to the bunker door.
Inside the room, was a winding stairwell up. I slowly walked up the staircase and into the control Room. Two guards were laying on the floor – unconscious.
"Nate...Nate...have you found the controls for the door yet?" Chloe said in my earpiece, I could see they hadn't got back yet on the monitor. I was too focused on the fact these two would have seen us, if they were still awake.
"Why would Charlotte do this to her own men?"
"Nate...what?"
I told Chloe to standby and I'd let them in, clicking the 'open blast door' button did the trick as I watched the door open inwards, revealing another track.
"Nice one Nate." Chloe said with her usual excited tone.
"You and Sam stay put, I'll be there soon."
I didn't see the brute until the last second. "No you won't Drake," were the last words I heard before blacking out.
Thank you for reading. In the next chapter we'll follow Sam and Chloe into the underground city. Sam discovers something from his past and Chloe is presented with a difficult choice. Find out in the next part of Uncharted greatness from small beginnings.