Nathan heads down the hallway to the room where he left the head footman. “Sully? Sully!”
Through his earpiece, Sully says, “You out yet kid?”
Nathan says, “No, my cover is blown.” He enters the room and finds The Head Footman still laying on the floor.
Sully says, “God damnit Nate! We don’t have time for this.”
Nathan says, “Good news, I got the key.” He quickly changes back to his tailor’s outfit and puts the key in his pocket.
Through his earpiece, Sam says, “What do you want a cookie? You’re cover’s blown!”
Nathan says, “Alright, alright.” He goes to the door and listens for activity. He hears nothing. “I’m coming out. See you in a bit.”
Nathan cracks the door open and sees many tall, muscular men walking down the hallway with swords and bullet proof military gear. He closes the door and whispers, “Crap.” Where’d they come from?
There’s a soft knock on the door. Nathan opens it to many awaiting soldiers and asks, “How may I be of assistance?” They grab him, pull him into the hallway and hold him up by his neck. They’re much stronger than he expected.
Jameson walks up to Nathan and says, “And you must be Mr. Nathan Drake.”
Nathan struggles to say, “I see my reputation proceeds me.”
Jameson says, “It does. The clumsy, less capable younger brother.”
Nathan says, “Pleased to meet you?” His speech is less audible. He struggles to breathe.
The soldier tightens his grip while Jameson asks, “Why are you here? Do you have an interest in The Room of Gold?”
Nathan tries to break the soldiers grip but it’s useless. His breathing weakens when a flash bomb goes off blinding everyone. The soldier drops him and Nathan blindly crawls his way out of danger.
He can’t see shit, but someone grabs his hand and pulls him safely into another room.
The Lady says, “You know, you really suck at this.”
Nathan says, “It’s good to see you too…or not…” The effects of the flash bomb are pretty strong.
The Lady says, “This was supposed to be a stealth operation and you really screwed things up for me.”
Nathan says, “I’m sorry ok. I’ll make it up to you…by not getting you killed?”
Sarcastically, The Lady answers, “Aren’t you the charmer.”
Nathan says, “I have my moments.” The effects of the flash bomb are wearing off and he can sorta see again. He asks, “Do you have a weapon?”
The Lady answers, “A tranquilizer gun.”
Nathan says, “That’s it? They’ve got swords.”
The Lady says, “And super strength.”
Nathan says, “You know?”
The Lady says, “You didn’t? Hence why this was supposed to be a stealth operation.”
Nathan says, “I screwed up, alright? Just give me the gun.” He has his full sight back now and continues to say, “I’ll see what I can do with it.”
The Lady looks confused and says, “Are you daft? Why would you come here with no weapon against fifty soldiers with swords and super strength, and then expect me to give you my gun?”
Nathan says, “Um…because…I’m a…well…”
The Lady says, “Make yourself useful and find another weapon.”
Nathan says, “Fine.” Nathan quickly searches the drawers, cabinets and shelves but finds nothing. Then he lifts a lamp shade and a mirror twists open revealing a secret passage behind it.
The Lady says, “Well looky what we have here.”
Nathan asks, “Do you know where this leads?”
The Lady says, “Nope. Let’s find out.”
Nathan says, “Let’s find out? My cover is blown, I’m trying to get out of here.”
The Lady asks, “Alive?” She walks through the secret passage then continues to say, “Those soldiers would’ve gained their sight back, same as you. They’ll be here soon.”
Nathan says, “Crap.”
Nathan reluctantly follows The Lady into the secret passage and the mirror closes behind them. The passage leads to a hidden room full of books, two mirrors, a large table and three exits. On the table is a large map. They both walk over to the table to look at the map.
Nathan looks at the map and asks, “What is this?”
The Lady answers, “Looks like a map.” Her eyes widen as she continues to say, “to The Room of Gold?”
Excited, Nathan says, “That’s exactly what it is.” He studies the map closely, then continues to say, “I know this area. The terrane is shit, but it shouldn’t take us more than 5 days to get there.”
The Lady asks, “Us?” She grins and asks, “Are you asking me out on a date?”
Nathan blushes and says, “Yes…I mean no…I mean…”
The Lady asks, “First time?”
Nathan says, “Look, whoever these people are, they’re trying to kill us while we’re saving each other’s lives.” Nathan sticks out his hand for a handshake and says, “The name’s Nathan Drake.”
The Lady accepts his handshake and says, “Chloe Frazer.”
Nathan says, “Can we agree to work together on this? It’s better to be friends than enemies, right?”
Frazer grins and asks, “With benefits?”
Nathan takes a step back and says, “No…just don’t kill me. I’ll save your ass if you save mine. Deal?”
Frazer says, “Deal.”
Nathan refocuses on the map and asks, “What is The Room of Gold? The way Jameson and Moreno were talking, it sounds like there’s more than just gold in it.”
Frazer answers, “There’s plenty of gold, but it’s the mystical treasures that attracts so many treasure hunters.”
Nathan says, “I’ve heard about mystical treasures, but have never seen one.”
Frazer says, “Oh yeah? What do you think that key is?”
Then it clicks. The key is a mystical treasure. Nathan asks, “What does it do?’
Frazer answers, “Other than open a door, no one knows…well except maybe my buddy Sierra.”
Nathan asks, “Sierra?”
Frazer answers, “Yeah. She was my partner on this one. She kept a journal of her findings on The Room of Gold.”
Nathan pulls out the journal and says, “You mean this journal?”
Frazer asks, “Where’d you get that?”
Nathan says, “Jameson had it.”
Shocked, Chloe asks, “Jameson?”
Nathan nonchalantly answers, “Yeah” He takes notice of Chloe’s reaction but keeps it to himself and says, “He seemed to think it was pretty important, so I took it.” He flips through the pages to a picture of a fancy looking staff and asks, “What is The Staff of Ayar Manco?”
Clearly uncomfortable, Frazer says, “It’s a…trinket…we were looking into.”
Concerned, Nathan asks, “Oh yeah?” He casually walks away from Chloe towards one of the mirrors and asks, “What does it do?” He looks up just in time to see a reflection of her pointing the tranquilizer gun at him. He ducks and runs for the closest exit. Frazer fires repeatedly as she chases him.
The exit leads to two hallways, left or right. Nathan goes right and she follows. Five feet down the hallway there are two stairways, up or down. Nathan goes down and she follows. The stairs turn left, right and then right again and he loses her. He steps quietly now; he can barely hear her footsteps because she is so far away. The maze leads Nathan to another hidden door. He slowly enters the door and it leads to the back of a walk-in pantry. Nathan walks up to the front of the pantry; cracks open the pantry door and it leads to the kitchen. Looking out the window next to the back door, he sees the exit to the backyard and the tailor truck still parked.
Through the earpiece, Sully yells, “Nathan!”
Nathan says, “What?!”
Sully says, “Where in the hell have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you for 10 minutes.”
Nathan says, “I’m alright. Just ran into the other player is all.”
Sully says, “Is she still on you?”
Nathan says, “Not at the moment, but she’s good. She’ll catch up.”
Sully says, “Where you at?”
Nathan says, “I’m in the kitchen near the back door. Right now, it looks clear so I may just make a run for the tailors’ truck and drive out of here.”
Sully says, “Sounds like a plan.”
One of the soldiers from earlier walks to the backdoor and takes post, effectively blocking Nathan’s exit.
Nathan says, “Crap.”
Through the earpiece, Sam says, “What the fuck is that at the door?”
Nathan says, “Oh…yeah…did I forget to mention they have some kind of superhuman soldiers here too.”
Sully says, “God damnit Nate.”
Nathan hears footsteps closing in on his location, and whispers, “Shhh…someone’s coming.”
He walks to the hidden door in the back of the pantry and bends down low next to the door. Frazer slowly opens the door and Nathan pounces on her before she can react. He takes the tranquilizer gun and shoots her. She immediately goes limp.
Nathan takes the map and a flash bomb from her backpack. Then picks her up and hides her inside an extra-large flour basket near the back.
Through the earpiece, Sully says, “The guard is moving toward the pantry.”
The pantry door opens before Nathan can respond. He covers his eyes and throws the flash bomb right in front of the guard. The guard is blinded and Nathan runs out of pantry, through the kitchen, out the back door into the tailors’ truck. The kitchen staff was too much in shock to have much of a reaction.
Inside the tailors’ truck, the tailors are both conscious but tied and gagged.
Nathan says, “It’s been one hell of a day huh? Do you mind if I borrow your truck?”
The tailors’ mumble something unintelligible as Nathan starts up the truck and drives off the property.