While happy to help the duo, ostensibly visiting to conduct "historical research", Elena effortlessly intuits Nate's true motivation. The clues found in the abandoned French chateau and Crusader citadel lead the protagonists to a city in Yemen, where they meet with Elena, now working in the region as a foreign correspondent. After a narrow escape from the clutches of its agents in Syria, Chloe asks to have no further involvement in Nate's increasingly quixotic venture Cutter, reluctant to quit but lucky to be alive, bids farewell, in order to convalesce. The cult is very old, remorseless in the pursuit of its goals and - as demonstrated by Marlowe's attempt to execute Cutter - capable of great cruelty. Built on the foundations of the Queen's once extensive spy network, this hermetic order still remains true to its original modus operandi of seeking power not through direct conflict, but through espionage, manipulation and fear. It appears that Marlowe's secret society has existed since the Elizabethean era. However, having lost track of Nate (and Sir Francis Drake's ring) for so many years, Marlowe and her agents spare no expense in shadowing their every move. Armed with information gleaned from Lawrence's research, and knowing the Atlantis of the Sands to be situated somewhere in the Rub' al Khali desert, the story then takes Nate, as well as his companions, to France, and then to Syria in the search for clues leading to its exact location. Lawrence, who dedicated many years of his life (which he perhaps lost as a consequence, after coming into contact with Marlowe and Talbot's predecessors) to his search for the hidden city. Drake's voyage was just one of many expeditions throughout history, with documented attempts to find it dating back to the Crusades. Though known under many names through history - Ubar, the City of Brass, Iram of the Pillars - this "Atlantis of the Sands" is believed to contain treasures of impossible value. Sir Francis Drake, Nate reveals, was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth and her closest advisors (famed mathematician and occultist John Dee as well as her spymaster, Francis Walsingham) to travel to Arabia to locate a legendary lost city. Later, the four conspirators analyse the clues at their disposal.
With the exception of a few unanticipated bruises, the con is a success Nate enters a secet subterranean library where he retrieves the antique cipher disk (designed to reveal a message with Drake's ring inserted), a map and a journal belonging to T.E. Though Talbot, Marlowe's lieutenant, arrives with a substantial payment to purchase Drake's ring in good faith, Nate's true goal is to track down Marlowe - and, by extension, the cipher disk. This stalemate lasts for many years until the opening scenes of Drake's Deception, where Nate, with the assistance of Sully, Chloe and Charlie Cutter, orchestrates an elaborate subterfuge. Without the astrolabe (which is in fact a cipher disk), Nate cannot solve the mystery of Sir Francis Drake's protracted voyage through the East Indies denied the ring, Marlowe's shadowy organisation is frustrated in its search for Iram of the Pillars. The encounter with Marlowe has a profound effect on Nate, and he harbours a desire for one-upmanship that abides into adulthood. Intrigued by the teenager's knowledge, wit and resourcefulness, he proposes to take Nate under his wing.
Despite being in Marlowe's pay, Sullivan - a thief, yes a cad, yes but by no means bereft of a moral core - intervenes to rescue Nate as the latter attempts to flee with the ring. His intended theft of Drake's ring and what appears to be an astrolabe from the city's maritime museum brings him into contact, be it chance or fate, with Victor Sullivan, a thief for hire, and Katherine Marlowe, a senior member of a British secret society with a vested interest in Sir Francis Drake's history. Though it is unclear how a young Nate came to arrive in Cartegena, it soon becomes apparent that his visit is no accident.