A Man of Fortune

6: The Twelve Towers Part One

 "This is so much better," I breathed a sigh of relief as we stepped off of Sully's plane onto a small wooden dock in King's Bay, Madagascar. "Screw the cold, I need this heat."

"Yeah, I thought I missed the cold but this is much nicer," Sam agreed, joining me on the dock. "So where's our hotel?"

On the flight over I had booked us a room each at a cheap motel, nothing fancy but we knew it would be early evening by the time we arrived and that there wouldn't be much we could get done before night fell. "This way," I checked the maps on my phone and led the small group towards the hotel. Sam and I walked ahead, Sully behind us smoking a cigar and Nate at the back on the phone to Elena.

"Hey - er - (y/n)?" Sam said, his voice sounding unsure.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"You were impressive back then... in Scotland I mean," he said and I chuckled. "I had no idea you had such stealthy moves, or that you were good with a sniper."

"They're skills I've honed these past few years. I prefer that to getting shot at," I said.

"I don't blame you there. It's thrilling but a pain in the ass," he said but as I looked at him I could tell there was something more he wanted to say.

"What's wrong?"

"If you liked me-," Sam started but my phone interrupted us, dinging and a message appeared saying that we'd reached our destination. I looked up and saw we were at the motel, but a second later I realised what Sam had started to say I looked up at him to see him blushing.

"Is this it kids?" Sully asked, approaching the building. I nodded and the four of us entered the run-down looking hotel, then being taken to our rooms which looked to be a part of an apartment complex. We set up our base in Nate's room, sticking a large map of Kings Bay, in particular the volcano, on the wall but my mind was elsewhere: I was wondering what it was Sam was about to say to me. Whilst in the presence of the other two I acted as casual as possible, Sam also seemingly able to do so.

"So what now?" I asked openly to the three boys.

"Drinks? Food?" Sam suggested.

"Sounds good to me. I saw a bar next door," Nate led the way and I quickly followed, my stomach rumbling at the thought of food. When we settled in the bar, drinks and food in front of us, we began planning, ready to execute once the sun was up.

- The Next Day -

It was a scorching morning as I laid in the back of the four by four truck that Sully and Nate spent ages trying to rent due to an argument they were having with the rental guy - during which Sam and I stood in the background and watched. I of course remembered what he was about to say to me last night, but we had more pressing matters at hand: namely, finding a centuries old pirate treasure.

The sun beamed down as Sully raised his phone in the air, trying to get any form of signal. The view of the volcano in front of us was stunning, but we had a lot of ground to cover so we needed to get a move on. "What're the satellites saying Victor?" Sam asked, him having gotten out of the car moments ago to stretch his legs.

"Right now not a goddamn thing," Sully said and Nate, sat in the drivers seat, sighed.

"Hey, do you know what never looses signal? Paper!" Nate said, pulling out his map.

"Yeah, but you still use a flip-phone. It's 2016, Nate, get with the times," I teased, hopping out of the car as he spread the map across the bonnet, getting a good look at the route he wanted to take to the volcano. He shoved me playfully as I stood next to him and I couldn't help but laugh.