Chapter 21

Several hours later, some things had changed in the plane's hold. The Impreza was now fitted with another roof-top carrier that looked just like the one it carried in Central America. When Lara asked about it, Max just giggled and said something about it being 'too good" and walking away. Installing the carrier, in addition to Max smoking several cigarettes at their fuel stop, served to elevate his mood considerably. Max had also traded a pack of his 'Weak American Cigarettes' to one of their escorts on the ground and was now wearing a large, fuzzy Russian military hat. He had made several attempts to do routines from Fiddler On The Roof, bit no one on board seemed to care.

Now, Max and Lara both leaned over the hood of the car. She was spreading out maps, photos, and intelligence of the area in which they were headed. Max raised a cautious hand and pointed in the direction of the cockpit.

"Are they okay? Should we wait to do this?"

"No, they are trustworthy."

"You sure, we've both had some bad track records with 'helpers.'"

"Don't worry, I pulled them out of the South Pacific, they are indebted to me."

"It was them with the..." Max lowered his voice, "...dinosaurs?"

"Yes."

"Man, I wish I had some footage of that..."

"For your 'too-real-for-real' reel?"

"Yeah. When this is all done, I'll have you over and we'll watch it - ever seen an alien?"

"Actually, yes."

"You're no fun at all."

"Focus, Max."

"I'm all ears..."

"Good. I've plotted out course up these roads, their conditions is rather poor, but it also means that the roads are not used that often."

"Rally action..."

"You really are in a rut, aren't you?"

"Like it or not, you're gonna be navigating me there - do you know the territory?"

"The territory is right here," Lara gestures to the map before them. "Now, Mount Koryaksky is here, and the coordinates that I have place it in the south-southeast side of the cone - approximately two hundred meters below the surface."

"Whoopee..." interjected Max sarcastically.

"I have some incomplete maps of Koryaksky's lava tubes - we'll have a place to start looking."

"So, when will this thing blow?"

"That's a little complicated. Koryaksky has a pretty constant record of erupting every thirty-odd years."

"The Russian 'Old Faithful.' right?"

"Not really, it's now been forty-two years since it was last active."

"Great."

"The chances of an eruption while we are there are astronomical."

"Sure, but we both tend to dwell in the realm of astronomical chances."

"Granted."

"Hey, let's talk about something we can do something about - how's the fighting going?"

Lara glances at some other papers, preparing for her next portion of the report.

"Afraid there is some good news here. The fighting between splinter groups has been significantly contained to an area a hundred kilometers to the north."

"They could always move things south and heat 'em up."

"Yes...they could. You can remain here if you'd like. I've done this sort before and will be fine alone."

"Sorry, some think me a doom-and-gloomer, I like to think of myself as pragmatic in a charming way."

"Really..."

"Okay, anything else we need to work about up there?"

"Actually, there is. They have quite a lot of..."