6- Do You Trust Me?
They watched each other for a long time without a word, both of them in shock.
'What are you doing here?'
The adventuress was seized by the coldness with which the mercenary had addressed her. He pointed his weapon at her, his gaze cold and distant, his face completely closed and devoid of any expression. From what she perceived at first glance, he looked just like when she had seen him for the last time: wrapped in a thick black winter coat, his locks of black hair fell back onto his forehead, slightly masking the piercing blue eyes staring at her.
'That's all you have to say to me after all this time?' she replied in the same tone. 'What are you doing here? What is this all about?'
He stared at her silently, his gun still pointed at her.
'Follow me,' he simply replied, putting away his gun. 'We'll talk later, for now we have to get down to the lowest levels of the castle, hoping it's not too late.'
'What do you mean? What's going on?'
The young man walked towards Lara, before going in the direction of the door through which she had entered. The adventuress could not hold back her anger: she kept her gun pointed at him, her eyebrows furrowed. Her heart was beating a hundred times an hour against her rib cage. Without another word, the young man passed in front of her, before disappearing through the door.
She remained a few seconds with the pistol still pointed at the door that Kurtis had just passed through, torn between surprise and incomprehension. Then, she finally put away her weapon before leaving in the footsteps of the mercenary, hurrying to catch up with him.
She lengthened her steps as she saw Kurtis disappearing at the bend of a corridor. The parquet floor resounded with a sonorous crackling sound with each of her steps. She walked past a number of empty rooms, each one dustier than the next.
'Kurtis! What the hell is going on? Who was that girl?'
'Someone who doesn't want our good...'
The mercenary branched off to his left and went down a big dark staircase. Lara had reached him back.
'...and she may not be alone, so stay on your guard.'
The staircase, quite wide, went down into the depths of the castle. Its access was delimited by a large wrought-iron gate wide open. Still without a word, the mercenary walked down the steps, before entering a dark tunnel. They had to slalom there again between numerous pieces of debris that littered the ground as a result of the bombardment. At the humidity and the pace of the place, Lara guessed that they had just reached the castle basement, everything looked like a labyrinth. Another landslide blocked the access to the tunnel that went to their left. She followed Kurtis in the darkness, their footsteps echoing against the stone walls. At the end of the tunnel they had to climb over large stone blocks that had fallen from the ceiling, to reach a sort of round airlock, the decorations of which strangely reminded her of the sanctuary under Montsegur Castle.
A huge round door too, carved out of what looked like copper, was resting against one of the walls, as if it had been blown away from inside. Lara saw Kurtis rushing through the opening that was to be sealed by the large metal door. She followed him carefully, before she too arrived in the large vaulted room. In its centre, three stone pillars formed a triangle around the iron base in which the rusty fasteners of large iron chains were placed. In a corner, leaning against a wall, were the remains of a first person. On his back, arms and legs apart, with his head hanging to one side, he looked like a disarticulated puppet. A few metres away from him, the body of a woman, this time lying face down on the ground. In her now tattered dress, she seemed simply asleep, lying on the ground. A shiver ran down Lara's spine when she realised that this space had most certainly been used as a cell. Everywhere on the walls, she noticed various traces, ranging from blood to scratches and scrapes in some places and when she looked a little bit closer, she recognized the symbols they had encountered in both Paris and Prague, in Werner's notebook, and for every Monstrum's killing, painted with blood.
'What...?'
Kurtis was walking around the room, looking in all directions. He stopped dead in his tracks, hands on his hips. He looked down at the floor in the center of the room. His gaze then stopped a little further away, his eyes glued to the wall at the bottom of the cell.
He walked with hurry towards it, almost running this time. A large paving stone had fallen to the ground, and left a small opening right in the middle of the wall, which revealed a small cavity. The mercenary stuck his arm into it.
He groped blindly. He felt the roughness of the stone, which had obviously been roughly cut to hide the artefact. He also felt the countless insect corpses that cracked under the palm of his hand. As he pushed his arm a little further into the stone, he finally hit the bottom of the wall. A wave of stress then fell on him, like a wall of ice. The disc should have been there, and they had been overtaken.
'Damn it!' he exclaimed, banging his fist against the stone wall.
'What is it? What's wrong?' the young woman exclaimed as she walked towards him.
The mercenary remained as if frozen, looking at the empty wall in front of him. She expected him to explode with anger at any moment.
'Kurtis, answer me, what were we supposed to find here?'
'Something close to another Sanglyph disk...' he finally answered in a low voice.
The world around her became blurred. Her feet, which had supported her until then, became soft, her head began to buzz. She watched him, unable to form a single thought.
'Wait...' she said, her eyebrows frowning.
A heavy sensation formed in the hollow of her stomach. She swallowed her saliva with difficulty.
'What are you talking about?' she said in a whisper.
'I am here to find what was supposed to be here, in this cell.'
'Wait, are you telling me there might still be murders somewhere ? Is the Monstrum still alive?'
'You defeated Eckhardt at the Strahov, but Karel survived, and two sleepers may still be alive' Kurtis concluded as he finally turned to her.
Lara blamed the blow. She remained silent for a moment, digesting all those information. She thought back of the moment when she had stabbed the sleeper and thought she had killed Karel at the same time. She had the impression that the ground was suddenly collapsing beneath her feet.
'The explosion killed Karel, they burnt before my very eyes, him and the sleeper...' she tried to explain.
'One of the sleepers was destroyed that night, indeed. But Karel became so powerful that only a part of him was destroyed...'
She kept silence, unable to utter a single word. She just kept staring at him. Kurtis' gaze had softened, and seemed to understand the state of shock she was in.
'Come on, we have to go,' the young man told her.
For a few moments, Lara stood there with an empty look in her eyes. A strange feeling took hold of her: all the bad or geniuses things were gradually resurfacing, everything she thought was behind her was coming back to her head. Her breathing quickened, her eyes looked for a reference point to hold on to, but all she saw around her was this sinister cell.
'Come, Lara.'
She slowly turned away. The mercenary was waiting for her at the entrance to the cell, half hidden in the darkness. Slowly the young woman came back to life, letting her feet carry her where they could.
They went up the long tunnel. They climbed over the collapsed blocks of stone in the middle of the passage again, before going back up to the upper floors. Soon they emerged from the castle basement; at the top of the stairs, Kurtis entered the corridor that led straight to the main entrance of the castle. The place was just as grey and sinister as the rest of the building here.
'What are we supposed to do now?' asked the adventuress.
A noise was heard in their backs. At the same time, they turned and faced the other way, their handguns out. They both blocked their breathing, on the lookout. They didn't see anything at first sight. Only some old furniture and decorations were lying in the corridor they had just walked through. The wind blew against the large window with tarnished stained glass that adorned the end of the corridor. The silence was icy.
Suddenly, a huge beast appeared out of nowhere, running towards them.
It emitted a muffled growl, close to the cry that would have been that of a prehistoric beast. With its crest slabs spiked on its arched back as a sign of attack, the monster rushed towards them, its powerful paws lacerating the floor on which it was leaning. A new, hoarse sound escaped from its gaping mouth, whose exaggeratedly long canines seemed razor-sharp.
As a reflex, the adventurer fired a first burst of bullets, rolling to one side to take shelter. Kurtis did the same, and found himself pinned against an old piano that was lying around. The beast skidded a little further, missing its targets.
'It doesn't really look like the wolves I've seen in the forest!' the English woman yelled.
'It's not really a wolf!' the mercenary yelled back.
Lara took advantage of the distraction to set the beast on fire again. A few bullets went into the flesh, but the monster didn't flinch. The metal disc hanging from the American's belt came to life and suddenly came loose, running straight into the beast, which had flipped over. The weapon struck the monster several times, cutting into its shell, making large continuous circles in the air.
Furious, the beast gained momentum and again rushed forward, this time targeting Lara. She aimed directly between the two eyes of the ferocious beast, which was coming straight at her with its fangs out, its bloodshot eyes focused on her. The moment she pulled the trigger, she was suddenly pushed aside by an invisible force, almost taking off from the ground. She landed heavily a little further away, stunned. The beast closed its fangs in the void, just where she had stood a few moments before. She glanced at Kurtis, who lowered the hand he had held out in front of him. He then rushed towards the beast, brandishing a dagger which she recognised as one of the periapt shards. As the young man lowered the weapon, the monster suddenly turned around and Kurtis' blade went into the thigh of the forepaw, instead of the flank which he had originally aimed at.
'Damnit!' she heard him yell.
Taking advantage of the monster's confusion, the young man rushed at it to tear off the blade stuck in its thigh. Just as the blade was coming out of the flesh, the animal gave the mercenary a powerful headbutt, and he found himself propelled a little further into the room. His hand tightened on the periapt shard he had managed to recover, cutting deeply into his flesh. He escaped a grunt of pain. He straightened up and crawled on the floor, his hand bleeding.
Lara took the opportunity to throw another burst of balls at the monster. Kurtis's metal disc kept coming and going, whipping the air with its sharp blades. The monster gave off a scream of rage when the weapon slashed his back.
'I need you to create a diversion!'
She stooped down and barely avoided the dry snap of the jaw that was about to close on her.
'What do you want me to do?' she replied loudly, trying to protect herself with her own arms.
'Run!' he replied, his breath short.
Without asking any more questions, Lara listened to the mercenary and ran down the long corridor, going up to the young man who had taken refuge in one of the small rooms adjacent to the corridor. He was lying on the ground, ready to attack. She heard the beast roar in her back, she tried to fire a few shots, but the bullets only grazed the monster. Lara accelerated her run. The monster took a strong impulse and took off from the ground to melt on its prey.
'Get down now!'
The adventurer plunged to the ground and rolled into a ball. Kurtis then came out of his hiding place and, propelling himself forward, slid to the ground to get under the beast. With a quick and precise gesture, he grasped the periapt shard and planted it in the monster's rib cage, where its heart was. The monster uttered a final cry of rage.
The enormous carcass of the beast, stopped in its momentum, landed heavily on the ground, rolled a little further and went to hit the back wall with a resounding crash. A cloud of dust rose, blurring the view of the two adventurers. Panting, both of them lying on one side of the room, they looked at each other. Kurtis was the first to straighten up, and came to help Lara to get up.
'Well done' she told him with a smile.
They approached the body of the monster lying a little further away. A trickle of blood spread under it.
'It looks like what we saw at the Strahov...' the Englishwoman observed. '...All these modified beings...'
'It is a Proto indeed. A beast genetically modified by the Cabal with essences of nephilim. They are quite robust, and dangerous.'
The young man approached, and leaning with one foot on the side of the beast, ripped its periapt glow from its chest. His flying weapon made a final turn in the air and returned to him. He grabbed it gently before hanging it up on his belt. Before she had time to react, the young man had already turned his heels and walked away.
'We have to hurry,' he simply told her.
The adventuress followed him somehow, still groggy. Soon enough, they left the building and found themselves outside, in one of the courtyards of the castle. They were surprised by the wind, which rose suddenly. Kurtis walked fast, taking distance. Tired, stressed, and above all annoyed, Lara stopped dead in the middle of the paved courtyard, while the mercenary continued on his way for a few metres.
'Where were you all this time?' she asked with a powerful and loud voice which echoed against the castle's walls.
The young man stopped in his turn. Slowly he turned around and looked at the young woman standing there, a few metres away from him. She hadn't changed either: she was as impressive as ever, he could feel the strength of her character burning through her big brown eyes, which he knew were just waiting for an explanation.
'Somewhere safe, trying to survive.'
She didn't know whether to be satisfied with his answer or feel disappointed. She tried to decipher the bitter smile on the young man's face.
'There's still a long journey to go, and this is not going to be easy... You don't have to come with me.'
She stood there with her hands on her hips, pensive. Everything was blurred in her head, but the idea that Karel was alive and well, ready to enslave the world, perhaps for good this time, terrified her.
'Easiness has never been my thing...'
'So typical of you.'
This time she detected a sincere smile from the young man.
'Where to?' she asked.
At first, the American just kept on looking at her in silence. He watched the wind sweep the fur off the young woman's hood, her face disappearing almost completely behind it.
'Can't tell nothing for the moment. But you'll find out pretty soon.'
The adventuress sighted noisily, visibly overwhelmed.
'So that's your thing? You disappear for months and come back to play the lonely and mysterious hero who shows up out of nowhere?'
Another smile appeared on Kurtis' face, which annoyed the young woman even more. Silence fell again, and they kept on observing each other. The wind blew a big gust of wind between them and whistled against the walls of the old building. Large grey clouds above their heads announced the rain that would soon fall in large drops.
'There are lots of things we'll need to talk about. I know I owe you some explanations, I promise you'll get them soon, as soon as we'll have reached a safe place. But for now, we need to keep moving, this is all about a matter of time.'
The young woman did not move.
'Do you trust me?'
The adventuress' heart vibrated in her chest. Her only response was to stare at him, still without a word. She lifted her chin, as a sign of defiance, then looked away for a few seconds, pensively. Then, suddenly, she came to life and moved towards him. She lowered her backpack from her shoulders and reached into it to pull out a gas compress. Gently and firmly, she grasped the mercenary's injured hand, sprayed some disinfectant on it, wiped the wound as she could, before wrapping it in the compress. The young man watched her do so, before she finally looked up at him.
'Let me get some of my things before we go at least.'
Lara put her things away and headed for the great arch that marked the entrance to the castle, leading the way. The mercenary watched her for a few moments, waiting for another sudden and impulsive reaction from her, and then followed her. They quickly crossed the courtyard before disappearing into the pine forest, leaving the castle behind them.
—
SOMEWHERE IN NOTHERN EUROPE, TWO DAYS AFTER
With her long spear clinging to her back, the young girl advanced with a determined and hurried step into the long dark corridor. She passed several guards stuck against the walls and lined up one after the other, scorning them with contempt.
She was exhausted, and her corset made her suffer atrociously. Every step she took reminded her how her body, however so young, no longer belonged to her. A bandage filled with blood surrounded her badly scratched hand, she felt the blood pulsing under the cloth tightly wrapped around her hand.
After a few more steps, she pushed the door on her left forcefully. She entered a relatively large room with a strange high ceiling for an underground fortress like this one. The walls were filled with shelves full to overflowing with books of all kinds. On one side, a table served as a worktop, covered with various jars and chemistry tools. She rarely came to this part of the headquarters, she had little to do there, and even felt very uncomfortable every time she found herself here. To tell the truth, she had already spent enough time here when she was younger.
She surprised her master and Rouzic in the middle of a conversation, leaning over several papers spread out on the solid wood desk. A shiver ran down her spine when the empty gaze of the archivist, as they called him here, fell on her.
'Not now, Vasiley. Go back to your work,' Joachim Karel told her coldly, leaning over the desk.
'Master Karel, I...'
'Are you deaf as well as stupid Morgau?'
Exasperated, the young woman walked towards the desk, grasping the artefact she had slipped into her inside pocket. She placed it violently on the desk, on the pile of documents lying there. Rouzic was startled, taken aback by the young woman's reaction.
'When are you going to show me the recognition I deserve?' she shouted, beside herself. 'Haven't I sacrificed enough of my body and soul for you?'
The girl's breath was wheezing with rage, she didn't take her eyes off her master. Karel looked at the object she had just placed in front of him: a gold metal disc with a precise chiselled pattern, similar to the one used to destroy the nephilim in Prague. He felt extremely satisfied, even though no emotion could be seen on his face. He finally took the object in his hands, turning it over and over to observe it in all its aspects. With a snap of his fingers, a guard suddenly made his entrance.
'Put this in a safe place, Moskine.'
With a snap of his heels, the guard took the object and turned it around to execute himself. Karel came back to Morgau, who had been staring at him all the time.
'This Lux Veritatis bastard outstripped me in Montsegur, but I arrived just in time at the Kriegler Castle.'
'And I should congratulate you for not having shot him down like a dog when you had the chance?' replied the nephilim, scathing.
'I'm more than capable of beating him master, I was however interrupted by another bitch who was dragging him along at the same time.'
Karel stood up, intrigued. If she didn't know him so well, Vasiley would have thought she had detected some anxiety in his eyes.
'The bitch? What bitch?'
'An English woman who was also on our trail in France,' she replied, suspicious.
The master frowned, annoyed.
'Lara Croft...' he said in a whisper.
Karel walked away from the desk and started to walk slowly across the room with his hands folded behind his back. He seemed to be in the throes of reflection.
'I don't think they followed me here, I'm at least two days ahead of them. What's more, I think the proto will save us some time.'
'We mustn't lose track of them.'
'Master, if I may say so, I managed to outstrip them, I don't think that...'
'For God's sake, just think a second, Vasiley. The Lux Veritatis has the first scrolls in his possession.'
The young woman was about to answer, but she changed her mind, lowering her gaze. Karel turned his back on the archivist and the sentry for a moment, his gaze lost in the wall of books facing him.
'Where are you with translations?'
The pale, skeletal man went through the documents and notes spread out in front of him.
'I managed to decode an excerpt dealing with the Sanglyph itself, relating to the process of resuscitation of the ancient nephilim... but it could be that the one Vasiley brought back to us is rather the key to a sanctuary...'
'Nothing I don't already know, so... Shall I ask you if you have any idea where this shrine is?'
'The language of Lux Veritatis is quite complex, master... it takes time...' Rouzic replied, bowing his head.
'We are wasting time...'
The nephilim started feeling annoyed. The alchimist looked up at the young girl.
'To tell the truth, master, I remember that the Sentinel was also trained in this language. Why not make her talents available to help me translate the end of the manuscripts? That would help me save time. And we could wait a few days to see what the Lux Veritatis and the English lady are planning to do. It is not impossible that they might be on our trail...'
The nephilim finally turned his head towards Rouzic, attentive.
'... in which case they will indeed have to be wiped out, but I imagine Gunderson and his men will be able to carry out this kind of mission,' Rouzic concluded.
The two men looked at each other, before Karel finally turned his attention to the young woman. He walked away from the library and, with a silent step, passed the young woman on his way to the door.
'Get back to work.'