The Uncharted Tales

Chapter 1

Part 1 – From Small Beginnings

Victor Sullivan

It was just business, really. A well-paying job at that.

Victor Sullivan had racked up quite the black-market reputation for himself after his Navy days. Quick to take a job, just as quick to leave for the next highest bidder, but worth every cent.

Contrary to the mythos surrounding his existence, Sully didn't survive this game as long as he had by being reckless. For having low morals and little attachment, he generally knew what people he'd end up working for. Namely, he liked to have contingency plans in case a job went south, or someone offered him a better bargain. He made damned well sure that if there were hard feelings, his ass was well covered. It didn't hurt that he could schmooze his way into most pockets.

He was a self-proclaimed asshole, and he didn't care much who got screwed over in the process.

The world was jaded and full of selfish people; it never hurt to remember that fact.

So how did he end up in the service of one Katherine Marlowe? She had one hell of a bid and it didn't hurt that kind of pay could go towards his retirement fund. At almost forty-one years old, he was getting too old for the field-work life and no amount of behind-the-scenes services would reach what he earns as a professional smuggler and thief. Again, contingencies, and this instance put him in the service of a dangerous woman.

It was just a job, but it didn't hurt they'd shared a bed once or twice...

The details of this heist were a little fuzzy, as Sully preferred. All he needed to know was what he was hired for. Didn't much care for the why's. The details he concerned himself with were as followed: steal some ring that once belong to Sir Francis Drake and an astrolabe the deceased explorer used, and walk off with his pay.

A part of him worried there was more than his employer let on, because the amount he was earning didn't match the stakes.

Sully stood outside Museo Maritimo – a museum in Cartagena, Columbia. Security would be a joke at best, which was what had him worried. Either Katherine had deep pockets and was desperate enough to pay him a pretty penny, or he was missing something. H never asked for the why's. He left heists like this before for a lot less.

Besides, weren't they all the same after a while? Some rich, self-entitled prick wanted a rare artifact, and Sully just so happened to be the perfect man for the job. The only part of this whole operation that he couldn't quite seem to wrap his mind around was how Katherine could have easily bought up the entire collection once in Sir Francis Drake's possession, yet here she was, travelling all the way from London and whatever life of luxury Sully could care less to think about, slumming it with the likes of him.

Perhaps it wasn't just about the prize; it was about the thrill of adventure, a way out of their stuffy, rather bleak lives. Half the time, his employers involved themselves in his work, just to get a taste of the adrenaline that came with what he did for a living. Katherine was no different, and, in fact, it all seemed to be a game to her.

Sully didn't attract much attention from the sparse amount of security guards drifting lazily inside the museum's walls, blending in with every other American tourist. The top floor presented the same challenges, and the task of easing passed dozing museum guards was easy enough.

A room branched off from the hallway that contained more of Sir Francis Drake's artifacts from his various journeys.

The catch? There was a security guard at the door and some street rat was hunched at another display. The urchin stood hunched before the exhibit, with his nose buried in the journal he was currently scribbling furiously in. Sully didn't have any reason to pay much mind to him, not until the runt seemed to take notice of him. He averted his gaze and wandered to another corner of the exhibit hall, and yet all of his body language remained directed towards whatever lay inside the display.