⚔

     Amanza wasn't really surprised Nathan didn't believe her.  It was a pretty far out there idea anyways.

     "Where is all of this coming from?"

     "Fine, don't believe me, but why would I lie?"  She did have to admit that a part of herself was relieved that he didn't believe her, or anything she had just said.  Even if she looked pretty crazy now for putting it out there.  Still, she shrugged.  "I told you, he's been planning this forever."

     "Are you drunk?"

     "I wish I was."

     He rolled his eyes, averting his gaze from her entrancing ways.  "Look, this is really entertaining and all, but I just really want to get out of here and go home.  It's been a long night."

     "Understandable," Amanza rose from her seat.

     "What are you doing?" Nathan asked, confused.

     "Leaving," Amanza pointed towards the sidewalk.  "So you can grab a beer, lock up and steal someone's watch on your way home."

     Nathan furrowed his eyebrows together.  "I don't—"

     "Save it for someone who actually believes you," she cut him off, bumping into his shoulder as she walked past him.  Nathan paused for a moment, rethinking the last ten minutes of his life, watching as the tanned woman made her way down the sidewalk and around the corner — out of his life again.

     Or so he thought.

     "That was weird," he thought to himself before going inside.  He was interrupted in his cleaning again by a man sitting by himself at the bar, wearing a black tux.

     "That trust fund ingenue... She was the right mark."

     "Don't know what you're talking about," Nathan said, confused about how two people had already caught onto his quick steal of the night.  But he wasn't going to give that away.

     "Sure, you do," Sully nodded.  "You're going slow, playing it safe, not lifting too much at once.  I mean, stop me if I'm wrong."

     "Well, you're wrong," Nathan deadpanned.  "And we're also closed, so take off."

     "Victor Sullivan.  You can call me Sully."

     "Thank you.  I won't, but thank you."

     "I got a job coming up... a big one."

     Nathan sighed, slowing his movements.  "Oh... she said you'd say that."

     Sully smiled, almost kindly as if thinking of the girl fondly.  Neither had to disagree about who they were talking about — Amanza was hard to miss, even if she did blend in well.  "She's not a liar, I need another set of hands on it."

     "So this is what you do?" Nathan asked.  "You stumble into bars, trying to pick up an accomplice?"

     "I'm offering you a real ticket out of here, a chance to see places you only read about in books.  What do you say?"

     "You missed the read, Victor.  I'm not a mark in some bar.  Neither is Amanza, so you should just leave her out of whatever thing you're planning.  And some of us here would really like to go home, so...get out."

     "Fair enough," Sully rose from his seat.  

     "Bye-bye, now."

     And like that, Sully was gone in seconds just like Amanza had been moments before.  Nathan wanted nothing more than to grab a drink, go home and forget like anything from this night had just happened.  He actually wanted to curse at the fact that Amanza knew him well enough that he would be asking Goldie for a beer right after the door closed.

     Still, he found his way to the counter.  "Hey, Goldie, let me get a beer."

     "Sure," the woman said.  "Hey, did that girl leave here okay?"

     "What girl?" Nathan questioned.

     "There was a girl who came in after a man she was with started harassing her, bothering her about what she was wearing I think," Goldie shrugged.  "Honestly can't remember."

     Nathan's throat went dry.  "What did she look like?"

     "Short, but wearing heels," Goldie said while passing Nathan a beer.  "Dark hair, red lipstick.  Walked with her hands in her pockets."

     "Yeah... she left here just fine," Nathan said.  If anything, he knew that Amanza packed a mean punch and was better off than most young women roaming the city's streets alone.

     "That's good," Goldie commented before walking away.

     Just as Nathan thought that he would be finally able to go home and rest, he placed his hands in his own pockets — only to realize they came up empty.  The only thing he could find was a business card belonging to the man he had just met.  "Son of a bitch."

⚔

     Right after Nathan left the bar and locked up, he skipped along to the address listed on Sully's card, upset that the man took the bracelet that he had just stolen.  He picked at the lock to his apartment pretty easily, turning the light switch on as he entered Sully's residence.  A couple of girly coats hung by the door, and a random bobby pin on the floor — Nate detected that a woman had been there recently, if not lived there.  But there was a lot of random décor in the apartment, including a large map in the middle of the living room that made Nate stop and stare for a moment.

     "Hey," Sully greeted him with a smile.  "I see patience ain't your virtue."

     "Surprised to see me?" Nathan asked.

     "Not even slightly.  I made you a drink."

     Nathan glanced towards the drink Sully motioned to, easily detected as a cherry sprite to him.  "Shirley Temple.  That's hilarious.  And the bracelet?"

     "It's in the first drawer there on my desk, if you want it.  But I think you're here 'cause you got bigger fish to fry."

     "Nah, I'm just here for the bracelet," Nate walked over to Sully's desk and grabbed the bracelet from the first drawer on his desk.

     "You done?"

     "No.  Oof.  This looks valuable," Nate picked up a hefty paperweight before dropping it in his backpack.  "Now I'm done."

     Sully chuckled softly.  "Why the map?" he asked, and when Nate looked confused, Sully explained, "Of everything in here, that stopped you."

     "Because it looks like it might be authentic."

     "Oh, not might be.  It is."

     "Holy shit," Nate walked up to the map.  "This line here shows the path that Ferdinand Magellan took to sail around the world."

     "First guy to do it," Sully nodded.  "You know your history."

     "Yeah, only he wasn't the first guy to do it," Nate kept talking.  "Magellan died in the Philippines on a random beach somewhere.  It was his captain, Juan Sebastin Elcano, finished the trip with 17 others.  Also known as the Infamous 18.  I know the legend that his voyage wasn't about exploration... it was about finding that gold... but it's just a story."

     "No.  I beg to differ," Sully stepped forward.  "These trips were hugely expensive back then.  The king of Spain couldn't afford it.  There wasn't gonna be any trip until a private financier stepped in."

     "House of Moncada."

     "Yep.  Bankrolled the Crusades, the Inquisition, Franco's fascists in the '30s and just about every horrible thing you can think of.  They offered Magellan his grand voyage of exploration so long as he came back with that gold."

     "How much gold?" Nate asked.

     "Today's dollars..." Sully exhaled sharply.  "Five billion, easy.  It's the biggest treasure that's never been found."

     Nate closed the book the two had been staring down at, tracing pale fingers along with the weathered pages on old drawings of ships, captains and inscriptions.  "Look, I've been dreaming about this since I was a kid, but somehow you already knew that," Nate said as if he were suspicious.

     "You know, when Sam said he had a little brother who was just as into this Magellan stuff, I thought, there's no way."

     "Wait, you know my brother Sam?" Nate asked, his interest obviously piqued.

     "Oh, we were practically friends.  That's saying something, considering the company I keep," Sully's lips curled at the sides, almost forming a smile, as he pulled his phone out from his back pocket to show him a photo from his gallery.  "Look."

     "Look at him," Nate chuckled.  "He has a beard.  Where is he?  When was this taken?"

     "Almost two years ago, San Sebastian, Spain.  We were getting close to Captain Elcano's tomb, where Sam was sure we'd find his journal and in it the location of that gold.  Then he disappears.  Doesn't call, doesn't answer my texts, nothing.  He ghosted me."

     "Yeah, that sounds like my brother."

     "Oh, so he hasn't been in touch?" Sully questioned.

     "Sam?  No."

     "Not even a postcard?"

     "No, not a postcard, phone call, text message, email, nothing," Nathan shook his head.  

     "Why isn't the door lock—" Amanza trailed off as she stepped into the doorway, losing her train of focus upon seeing Nate standing in the room with Sully.  She dropped her purse on the couch.  Suddenly, the feminine coats by the door made sense to Nate.  "Sully!"

     "Amanza?" Nate turned his whole body to her.  "What are you doing here?"

     Amanza groaned.  "I just told you everything at the bar!"

     "You didn't tell me you were living with this guy!" Nate exclaimed, motioning towards Sully who was already flustered because the two were yelling with himself standing there in the middle of an obviously heated arguement.  Sully didn't know the two when they dated, but he had to assume this was a usual routine for them.  "What the hell!"

     Amanza placed her hands on her hips.  "Oh please, like you told me you were flirting with random women at bars to make a living?  You really wanna play that game?"

     "Sounds like you two have a lot you need to work out," Sully suggested, looking back and forth between the two.

     "Yeah well, that ship has sailed, amigo," Amanza rolled her eyes.

     Nate shook his head.  "I can't believe you just lied to me."

     "Yes, okay, sorry, it's just like... you weren't supposed to know!  Not like this anyways," Amanza glared at Sully.  "Why would I lie to you?  I was gonna tell you, I swear."

     "When?"

     "When what?"

     Nate groaned loudly.  "When were you going to tell me you were living with an old shady con artist?"

     "When you agreed to do the job!"

     "You're such a liar."

     "Again, why would I lie?" Amanza was now aware she was raising her voice higher to combat his, which wasn't very much a surprise considering this was her Nate Drake.

     Nate groaned.  "I'm not gonna do the job!"

     Amanza rolled her eyes again.  "Oh yeah right, there's not a single bone in your body right now that doesn't want to."

     "Alright, kids!"

     The two turned to the man standing in front of his desk, surely rethinking every choice he ever made up until that moment.  Amanza could read the look on his face.  "Nice planning, Vic."

     "Hey, look, I don't know what happened between you two, but I think if we find that gold, there's a real good chance we find your brother, too.  What do you say?"

     Nate took a moment to calmly think to himself as Amanza took a step back, not realizing the two had gotten so close to the other.  She could practically see the wheels in his head turning.  Finally, he answered.

     "Sam left when I was 10.  He would call every once in a while, swore he'd come back, but he never did.  The Sam that I knew disappeared a long time ago.  So, nah, you'll have to find somebody else," Nate said before turning on his heel and walking out the front door.

     "Wow.  I'm really losing my touch."

     "Told you, old man."

⚔