Lara smacked Jankovic in the back of the head, throwing him forward and crashing into Michael. The two tumble down, and despite being hit in the head, Michael was the one who was unconscious upon hitting his head. Jankovic growled like a demon and kicked Lara in the crotch, seriously hurting her. He proceeds to kick her in the chest while she is still bent forward and she crashes into a nearby table.
Ben raises his foot to stomp on Jankovic, but the man appeared to have noticed and deflected the stomp instantly. He strikes Ben in the knee before kicking him in the back. He kips up and proceeds to punch Ben in the back of his head and shoves him towards the restrained Nadia. Ben crashed into Nadia and the chair which she sat in fell backwards.
Jankovic turned backwards toward Lara with a grin on his face. Lara was still shocked on how Jankovic was able to take a pipe to the head and the pain would disappear instantly. He was a fighting machine of some kind, designed not to feel any pain. If he could take down Ben instantly, who was a highly skilled fighter especially in martial arts, then that meant that Jankovic was born to become a Trinity commander.
"Lara, little Lara Croft. You actually thought you could screw with me. You actually thought you could lie with me. You have so much to learn you brainless assholes." He clenched his fists. He had no intention of harming Lara, he actually wanted her to escape. He already hatched a plan as soon as he found out that their object of desire was in Rome. Since he currently knew where the Crown of Immortality was, he wanted to make things a little more interesting. He wanted a challenge and Lara Croft was most certainly a challenge. He was going to let Lara Croft escape one way or another with Ben and Nadia while he would have a day head start on getting to Rome before Lara and her two companions would. If Lara finds the Crown of Immortality before us, then good. If we find it before her, that is good as well. If Lara was successful in finding the crown before Trinity, then he knew that Lara would most likely destroy the crown just like she destroyed the Divine Source, but after that, Jankovic will brainwash Lara Croft into joining Trinity.
However, if Trinity found the crown before Lara, then they will initiate their plans on becoming immortal beings and continue to forcefully brainwash Lara into joining Trinity. In Jankovic's mind, it's win-win.
"You knew I was lying?" Lara asked.
"Does not sound like a denial," he says as he walks towards her. "Did Markie sleep on the job or something?" He swings a fist at her, she dodges it and punches him in the gut, but no effect. Lara dives out the way and picks up the fallen pipe to hit Jankovic with it.
The commander was more agile and struck Lara in the shoulder, hitting her pressure point with just a single finger. She yelped and fell to her knees. "You are now under my control Lara. I learned this move in the Spetsnaz, they sure know how subdue adversaries." He moves his hand to the right while keeping his finger on Lara's pressure point, she moved to the right. Everywhere he moved his hand, she would be followed. "I can easily call my boys in here, but I'm afraid they will do actual harm to you. I'm hot harming you, I'm just hurting you; there's a difference between hurt and harm."
Lara's face was turning red from the pain. Her eyes were shut tightly and her fingers were wrapped around Jankovic's wrist, desperate to remove his hand from his shoulder, but it was useless.
Use your resources Lara, she says to herself and moves one of her hand across the floor, trying to find anything to use as a weapon, and then she feels something brush against her pinkie. She moves her fingers to the object and wrapped her fingers around like a spider. It felt metal and heavy like a large rock. Whatever was in her hand, she struck Jankovic in the one place that will cause pain to almost anyone: the groin.
Jankovic groaned and folded over, taking his finger off of Lara's pressure point and allowing her to hit Jankovic in the face with it. The commander falls flat on his back with his nose bleeding badly with crimson colored blood. Lara felt the pain in her should disappear as she got up to her feet and stomp on Jankovic's throat.
"You're gonna pay for that Lara!" Jankovic shouts as he clutches his throat. He meant business when he elbowed Lara's knee with all his might and kicked Lara off to the side.
Ben was going to help Lara, but he was trying to concentrate on freeing Nadia from the chair. He already got the gag and blindfold off of her and all she had was the restraints on her wrists and ankles.
Jankovic obviously had the key to Lara's restrains, but Michael had the key to Nadia's restraints since he was the only one watching her. He quickly crawled toward the unconscious Michael and removed the watch from his wrist. He typed in the same combination that was used to unlock his restraints, but much to his surprise, it failed to work.
Jankovic looked forward and his eyes widen upon seeing a bloody Ben trying to free Nadia using Michael's wristwatch. How stupid of you to think that Michael had the keys this entire time. Who do you think was the one who unlocked you keys Ben? It was not Kovak, it was me.
Jankovic reached for his wristwatch and typed in a combination. He gets up on his feet and turns to Lara, who was steadying herself against the table.
Ben was completely bewildered on how Nadia's restraints released all by themselves, but she was free nevertheless. "Let's get him Nadia," Ben says as he helps the wounded Nadia to her feet.
"Ben, the cube, we have to find it," Nadia urged. "We have to take it with us, we may need it!"
Ben looked at the unconscious Michael and saw the golden transparent cube lying against his head. Ben quickly dives forward and grabs the cube with only one hand. Just as he grabbed it, a foot stomped on to wrist, forcing him to open his hand. He smashed on the foot with his other hand, but it was useless. He looks up, his eyes rolling and he sees Jankovic holding Lara in a chokehold. The commander uses the foot he stomped on Ben's hand with to kick Ben in the jaw, splitting his lip and snapping his head backwards.
Nadia, wounded, charges at Jankovic, who sees her attacks coming right off the bat. She was already wounded and there was no point in wounding her anymore. With Lara still in his chokehold and struggling to get out, he uses his free left hand to punch Nadia in the jaw and kick her backwards.
He then looks at the cube at his foot. If I am going to have a challenge, I at least want the cube in my possession in case. Lara Croft doesn't need the cube to look for the crown, if she can.
Jankovic puts a foot on Ben's throat and starts pressing down. He turns to Lara and puts his face close to her ear. "I would like to play a game with you Lara. The race to the Crown of Immortality, winner takes all and winner, if she's a Croft, will be Trinity's newest member."
He wastes no time to shove Lara as hard as he could in a specific direction towards a wall with a window. Lara crashes through the window headfirst and rolls down a desert-like hill.
"Second contestant," Jankovic says as he grabs Ben by the throat, hauls him up to his feet like a bag of feathers and throws him towards the destroyed window and sending him rolling down the desert-like hill.
"Last but not least, the contestant who also happens to be Siberian like me." He moves to Nadia and grabs her by the chest and belt and lifts her over his head. He turns his head upwards to face Nadia and smiles at her. "Remember Nadia, to tell Lara and Ben that the Crown of Immortality is in Rome. If you don't mind, we'll keep the cube, to make it fair. You get a challenge and we get a challenge. Увидимся (See you)." He hurls Nadia headfirst through the window and watched eagerly as she rolled down the hill, picking up dust and sand. He smiles at the beautiful sight and licks the blood around his lip like a dog. All he had to do for his teammates was to make it look like Lara and her three friends escaped, he certainly had the bruised face and unconscious Michael for it. He still had the cube in his possession. He had to cover his tracks pretty well because he knew that if Trinity found out that he allowed their prisoners to escape, he would be branded a traitor and will be publicly (to Trinity) executed.
He may be a liar and traitor, but he was no backstabber because unlike Zima and Kovak, he doesn't plan coups against his leader and even if he did, he would kill the leader himself instead of waiting for him to die. I'm better than Zima and Kovak.
"Jankovic, are you okay?" a voice said behind Jankovic. He looked over his shoulder and saw Zima with a false look of sympathy on his face. "What happened, where's the prisoners?"
"They escaped," Jankovic said quickly. "They somehow got out of their chairs and they killed Markie and Slavik." He looked quickly at Zima's face to try and detect any hint of anger. "We're going to avenge them, we still have the cube and we have it deciphered. We are going to Rome. We leave in no less than twelve hours. Also, how many bullets do we have for each gun, it's rather important that I know?"
Lara lied on her stomach on the hot ground with her head bleeding from when she got hit by a rock. She slithered towards Ben a few feet in front of her and wrapped a hand around him. He lied on his side with his hands around his throat. "Ben? Ben, are you okay?"
Ben moved one his hands to a Lara's hand. "Throat feels a little sore, but I think I'm fine," he says groggily as blood drools down his lip like saliva. "I'll be alright, I've been through worst. That Jankovic was like a Mr. Miyagi or something. Wait, where's Nadia?"
As if on cue, Nadia rolled down the hill and landed right on Lara, barely missing Ben by an inch. Nadia landed on top of Lara with her knee connecting to Lara's jaw and her elbow poking into her left breast.
Lara groaned in pain and pushed Nadia off of her. "Why did you have to roll on me? When you are jumping out of a window, can you at least watch where you roll?"
"I didn't jump out the window, I was shoved out," Nadia explained as she spat blood out her mouth. "Jankovic picked me over his head and he threw me out. Before he threw me, he told me to tell you guys that the Crown of Immortality is in Rome."
Lara and Ben asked Nadia for clarification and were stunned to find out that the Crown of Immortality really is in Rome. "But why would he want us to know?" Ben asked.
"Because he wants a challenge," Lara said, deducing Jankovic's intentions. "He knows that he has a headstart on us and he wants to challenge us to see who will get there first and get the crown first. That means we have have to find our way out of here and get to the nearest airport to Rome." Lara slowly stood up to her feet and helped up Nadia and Ben. "Anyone know where we are?"