"...so then guy says 'well, you'd better tickle mine too, 'cause now I gotta catch the goddamn thing'!" Sully tells his story. Chloe sits on the windowsill, laughing with the cipher disk in her hand and Cutter hands the two their drinks.
Nate sits away from them, looking through the book and the map. (Y/N) sits opposite Sully at the table and picks up her cup. "Cheers."
"To a job well done." Sully adds and the three raise their drinks.
"Are you going to join us, darling?" Cutter asks Nate, making (Y/N) chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah..." he closes the book and picks up the map, coming to join them. "Well, the map proves it." He says, laying it on the table. "Drake didn't screw around in the East Indies for 6 months. He sailed straight through and headed to Arabia."
"Right." Chloe states.
"But here's where it gets interesting. See this mark." Nate points to the marking at the bottom corner of the map. "This is John Dee's signature."
"Who the hell's John Dee?" Sully asks.
"John Dee. One of Queen Elizabeth's closest advisors. Everybody knows that." Cutter answers before either Nate or (Y/N) could have a chance.
"Yeah, yeah, he was a great mathematician and navigator. Way ahead of his time." She adds and Nate points at the disk in Chloe's hands. " Probably invented that."
"Seriously into the occult. I mean like, in a really creepy, dark way." Cutter says.
"See, he signed all his letters to the Queen with this symbol - meaning he was her 'eyes'." Nate carries on.
"The original OO7. You see, look-" Cutter points at the signature. "Not really that relevant." Nate cuts him off, seemingly annoyed.
"So, it was John Dee who sent Drake to Arabia?" Chloe pipes up.
"Yeah it looks that way - Dee and Elizabeth." Nate says. "And Walsinghan." Cutter adds, making Nate sigh.
"Great, but what for?" Sully questions.
"Well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it?" (Y/N) replies.
"Exactly, and this is where T.E Lawrence comes in." Nate says, opening the journal back up. "See, before Lawrence became Lawrence of Arabia -"
Cutter cuts him off: "great film."
(Y/N) laughs, turning it into a cough at the frustrated expression on Nate's face. "-he was an archaeologist." He finishes, holding up a photo of Lawrence on a site, placing it on the map. "Even when he was just a kid, he was obsessed with history, everything to do with knights and the Crusades. He travelled all over, documenting every Crusader site he could find. It's all in here."
"All right, you've lost me completely, kid, what the hell has this got to do with Drake?" Sully inquires.
"I'm getting to that. See, after the war, Lawrence said that if he were ever to go back to Arabia, it would be to search for this place he called 'The Atlantis of the Sands'. Now the legend crops up over and over again under different names: Ubar, Iram of the Pillars, the City of Brass... but the story is always the same."
Nate hands the book over to Sully who begins reading: "Oh, 'A city of immeasurable wealth, destroyed by God for its arrogance, swallowed forever in the sands of the Rub' al Khali desert'."
"Right here." Nate points to where it is on the map.
"Well, I like the immeasurable wealth part, anyway." Sully says.
"And you think this is what Elizabeth and Dee sent Drake after." Cutter states.
"Oh yeah. And more importantly, it's what Marlowe is after." Nate replies, and (Y/N) takes a sip of her drink.
"So wait, if Drake was on a mission from the Queen to find this place, why all the secrecy?" Chloe questions, standing from her place and joining the table.
"It does look like he went to a lot of trouble to hide whatever he found, I mean even from the Queen." (Y/N) shrugs.
Nate sighs and shakes his head. "I don't know."
"Oh, I'm sorry- what was that?" Cutter jokes, cupping his ear.
"No, hang on a second. Because, if you recall, the last time we went halfway around the world searching for a lost city, things got more than a little dicey." Chloe reminds him. "(Y/N) almost died!" She says, her voice raised.
Nate looks at his girlfriend and she stares at the bottom of her now empty mug. "Yeah, but this time we have the upper hand." She says, not looking up.
"Drake only had half the clues. Lawrence only had half. We have both. And Marlowe has nothing." Nate adds.
"Small problem. The Rub' al Khali desert - 600 miles across. The Bedouin go around the damn thing." Sully states.
"And even if we knew where it was - which we don't - we would die trying to find it." Cutter adds.
"Just, hold on. You see these symbols here?" Nate points to them down the side of the map.
"Yeah. Looks like Sabaean script." Sully says.
"It's Sabaean script -" Nate says at the same time, surprised Sully knew it. "Right." Sully, Chloe and (Y/N) all fist-bump at his accomplishment.
"Look, the crusaders were searching for the same lost city a thousand years ago, but out of all the sites Lawrence documented, only two are marked with these symbols." Nate turns the page of the journal. "One in Syria." He turns the page again. "The other in France."
"Ooh." Chloe puts her hand up.
"No." Nate shuts her down instantly. "You two are going to Syria, we're heading to France." He motions to (Y/N), him and Sully.
(Y/N) then pulls a face at Chloe, who jokingly pushes her, rolling her eyes.
"Look, we track down these clues, we find Lawrence's lost city. I'm sure of it." Nate says, the excitement in his eyes.
"And then what? How are we gonna get across 600 miles of impassable wasteland?" Cutter asks.
"Well, it's in the middle of the desert, so technically it'd be about 300 miles." Everybody sighs at his lame attempt at a joke and Nate laughs, "look I don't know, we'll figure it out."
"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it, eh?" Chloe says, holding up her drink.
"Exactly." Nate looks between the three. "Whaddya say?"
"What the hell." Sully shrugs.
"Let's do it." Cutter adds, lightly punching Nate's arm.
***
Exiting the bathroom, (Y/N) notices Nate sat at the foot of the bed, still wearing the same clothes. She hadn't heard him come in and her t-shirt was still pulled to just under chest, exposing the scarring left behind from Flynn's grenade.
A parting gift he had called it.
She is quick to pull it down, but it was too late, he had already seen it.
Nate had known his girlfriend suffered injuries from the grenade, specifically the partial hearing loss that she was too afraid to admit. She didn't want anyone to know and he always tried his best to make sure she was caught in the loop.
But this - this was something else. Now it made sense, why every time he wanted to be closer to her, she would refuse.
''Nate - '' (Y/N) starts but he was already over to her in an instant, his blazer discarded on the bed, his top two buttons undone.
''Why didn't you show me?'' He asks it straight away, tentatively holding his hand out, his fingers brushing the fabric but she moves away, facing the mirror in their room.
''They're...'' She trails off, her own fingers dancing across the cloth. ''Disgusting.'' She breathes, her eyes focusing on him behind her in the glass.
Nate doesn't say a word, instead gently wrapping his arms around her waist, leaning his head on her shoulder. (Y/N) leans back into him when his fingers curl at the hem of her shirt, he stays silent, waiting for the nod and when she does, he is soft in his approach of lifting it up.
''I think they're beautiful.'' He admits, turning her to face him. He kneels down, looking up at her and her eyebrows crease slightly, confused to what he was doing. She knew whatever it was, she felt safe with him.
Nate's lips press against her scarred stomach. The coldness of them makes her shiver and his hands rub her arms in reassurance.
''And I love them because they're a part of you and I love you.'' He whispers and (Y/N) wipes her eyes, kneeling down with him so that he can embrace her in his arms.
''I love you too.''
And that's how they stay. In an embrace only soulmates would understand.