The Uncharted Tales

Chapter 28

Nate shared a glance with Sully, and he gave a little shrug. "After you, kid."

Nate pressed ever further forward with Sully following right on his heels, although now they continued on with much less haste than before. If they were nearing the first excavation site, that meant there would be soldiers crawling everywhere, and it was in their best interest to keep their heads down and not alert Lazarevic of their presence.

As they neared a bend in the bank, voices drifted their way and Sully shot Nate a quick look. From what Chloe had explained to them, the first dig site was situated well enough away from Lazarevic's watchful eye. That didn't mean, however, that it was unguarded, and there would be armed men patrolling its perimeter. Pressing their backs along the large boulder, Sully peered around alongside Nate. Wooden platforms had been built above the bog to give the soldiers dry areas to work, and if Sully didn't know any better he would have thought this was a small military camp, not an excavation site.

The only hint of any sort of excavating were torn ship parts strewn throughout the gorge, dating all the way back to the thirteenth century. It must have been a powerful tsunami to push the ships this far inland...

The graveyard of ships mostly remained untouched by Lazarevic and his quest for the Stone, although the forest itself hadn't been spared. The clearing was torn apart from trees being chopped down and tangled roots were shoved to various pockets of whatever dry land was available for use. It was a wonder they hadn't found any evidence of Marco's greatest treasure from the carnage they had wrought.

"You ready for this?" Nate murmured to him.

"Let's do it. Quietly."

Nate crouched down and crept around their hiding spot to an unsuspecting soldier. He stayed low, out of the way of watchful eyes, and snatched his arms around the neck of his first target. Sully kept one eye on him as he snapped the man's neck and the other on the rest of the mercenaries floating around the camp. He counted at least fifteen of them from the limited view he was provided, and Nate got to work picking them off.

Predictably, quiet didn't last long and bullets rained down on them. "I said quietly!" Sully grouched as he took cover behind a pushed over table. While Sully used the riverbank behind him as a funnel, to prevent soldiers from flanking him, Nate jumped into the fray. Speed wasn't on their side, not while they were waist-deep in bogs. Still, that didn't stop the kid from darting from one cover to another as he took out men, either with fists or with his handgun. Sully looked down the barrel of his own weapon, picking off mercenaries that made the mistake of exposing themselves for a second too long.

The camp fell silent when the last man standing crumpled to his death, and Sully let out a breath. Chloe had told them there were soldiers all over, and that they should expect a small unit waiting for them at this particular location. If this was small, he didn't want to know how many more men were serving under Lazarevic. He holstered his weapon and the two of them got to work combing the platforms and makeshift structures for charges Chloe left behind for them. As promised, she set aside the detonator for them to find with the first explosive Sully came across, and he pocketed it away for later.

There were four charges in all from what Sully and Nate could find in the vigilant examination of the first of many dig sites. Until Nate got his hands on the documents in Lazarevic's tent, they wouldn't have the faintest idea of where to begin their search. Chloe had been certain they could risk disturbing the first excavation site, and that they would have better chances in other locations.

They pressed onward, ever further into the jungle, keeping an eye out for any stray scouts in the area. Sully and Nate resorted to gestures, subtle signals forged from years of working together, and occasional verbal communication.