Among Thieves

Lore & Background

The mission opens with Nathan Drake being approached by former associate Harry Flynn and Flynn's associate Chloe Frazer to help steal a Mongolian oil lamp connected to Italian explorer Marco Polo's doomed 1292 voyage from China. The group plans to cheat Flynn's client and take Polo's treasure for themselves. Unbeknownst to Flynn, Chloe and Nate are former partners, and Chloe plans on escaping with Nate afterward. Nate and Flynn break into a museum in Istanbul and find the lamp, which contains a map and flammable resin that reveals Polo's fleet was shipwrecked in Borneo, and was carrying the Cintamani Stone from the fabled city of Shambhala. Flynn double-crosses Nate, leaving him to be arrested. Three months later, Chloe and Sully help free Nate. She reveals that Flynn is working for Zoran Lazarević, a Serbian war criminal seeking the stone. In Chapter 4, set in Borneo, Nate and Sully infiltrate Lazarević's camp. Nate discovers that the stone never left Shambhala. They locate a temple containing the bodies of Polo's crew, as well as a phurba and map detailing that its carrier will gain passage to Shambhala through a temple in Nepal. Nate and Sully escape after being cornered by Flynn and his men.

In Their Own Story

The museum in Istanbul was quiet, the kind of quiet that only exists in places where every footstep echoes like a confession. Nate and Flynn moved through the exhibits with practiced ease, their eyes fixed on a single glass case holding a Mongolian oil lamp. The lamp was unremarkable to the casual observer, but to them, it was a key—a key to Marco Polo's lost fleet and the treasure it carried. Flynn's voice was a low, confident murmur as he cracked the case, and for a moment, everything went according to plan. Then the lamp was in their hands, and the map inside it revealed a truth that would change everything: Polo's fleet had been shipwrecked in Borneo, carrying the Cintamani Stone from the fabled city of Shambhala. But Flynn's smile was a lie. The double-cross came fast and brutal, leaving Nate in handcuffs and Flynn gone with the prize. Three months later, Chloe Frazer—former partner, current wildcard—broke him out with Sully's help. The game had changed. The search for Shambhala had begun.

Reader's Guide

Among Thieves is the first mission of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and serves as the narrative overture for the entire game. Nate and Flynn break into a museum in Istanbul to steal a Mongolian oil lamp connected to Marco Polo's 1292 voyage. The lamp contains a map and flammable resin that reveals Polo's fleet was shipwrecked in Borneo, carrying the Cintamani Stone from Shambhala. Flynn double-crosses Nate, leaving him to be arrested. Three months later, Chloe helps free Nate with Sully. The mission's key turning point is the double-cross, which sets the entire plot in motion. The central MacGuffin is the Cintamani Stone. In the broader Drake saga, Among Thieves establishes the partnership between Nate, Chloe, and Sully, and introduces the villain Zoran Lazarević. It also introduces the idea that the Cintamani Stone is not a simple treasure but a source of dangerous power. For players approaching the mission, focus on the stealth sections in the museum and the combat sequences in Borneo. The mission also introduces the phurba, a key item that will be used to unlock the passage to Shambhala.

Did You Know?

• The game's opening mission is titled 'The Museum,' not 'Among Thieves.'
• The story is set approximately one year after Drake's Fortune, not two.
• Chloe and Sully help free Nate, not Chloe alone.
• The event in Borneo occurs in Chapter 4, not the opening mission.