Obscure
With a dangerously threatening thwack the door that Kurtis had opened mere moments before snapped shut, briefly diverting the attention of the two people who had just crossed its threshold.
"I guess we can't get exit the way we came in." Kurtis said as he turned his head from the door, to Lara, and then to the room.
"Yes, well, I wouldn't have recommended it anyways." Lara answered, her gaze falling back to the room ahead once more.
The room, although large, was a perfect square intercepted by four pillars, which effectively split the room into four quadrants. The walls were an intense marble, pristinely white and giving the impression of a sterile hospital wing, with the exception of the otherworldly glow emanating from each tile. The architecture was clearly gothic, with impressive archways adorning the walls and ceilings; the columns, Corinthian. In the center of the room, however, mirroring the high dome in the ceiling, the white tile was replaced with black, a large, dark, circle manifesting itself as though limited by the pillars. Within this circle was another, smaller and once again created by the white marble. Flame torches bedecked each of the columns, and although they shed little light, their brilliance was reflected in the sheen of the marble, adding an intense light throughout the room.
"Your ancestors certainly got their kicks via architecture," Lara disturbed the peace of the room as she spoke to Kurtis, who merely grunted in reply. She stepped gingerly into the dark circle and knelt to read an inscription separating the inner circle from the other. "Permissum Fides exsisto vestri rector quod permissum Deus tribuo vos volo, pro minimus dubium mos plumbum in depths of abyssus. Let Faith be your guide and let God grant you speed, for the smallest hesitation will lead into the depths of hell. Sounds promising." She said as she looked at Kurtis, who was leaning against one of the pillars. She looked confusedly at him before her gaze altered completely, and looking past him she realized what she had to do. She smiled.
"What?" Kurtis asked as he watched her expression change. She stood from her kneeling position and started walking towards him.
"I'm going to fetch us our key." She said excitedly as her fingers examined the pillar's surface.
"And how are you going to do that?" Kurtis asked, still confused.
"Well, we'll just have to wait and see." She said, focused on the wall before the trademark ah-ha escaped her lips. Her fingers found the small handholds in the visibly perfect marble, supporting her weight as she pulled her body up the surface of the column. Kurtis watched idly as she grunted with every pull before reaching the top of the pillar. She pulled herself up onto the small square, which allowed just enough room for her to stand up. Carefully planning a jump, she ran to the end before jumping up and grabbing a ledge of the domed ceiling. She traversed around until she found a ledge where she could pull herself up.
"Everything okay?" Kurtis called to her from his spot on the floor, slightly concerned over his lack of visual proof of her safety.
"Never better." She confirmed. "Hold on, there's a lever up here. Brace yourself," she instructed before pulling the switch downwards.
Kurtis watched in bewilderment as the four columns suddenly sunk into the floor, rapidly although rhythmically as though mechanically instructed to do so. He stared on as the columns soon disappeared altogether, a small pedestal in the inner white circle having lifted up in their stead. One glance at the object lying on the pedestal and he knew it was the object they had sought; it was the key.
"What happened?" Lara asked, unknowledgeable of the changes in the room from her vantagepoint.
"Bingo." Kurtis replied. As soon as the words escaped his lips a violent tremor overtook the room, nearly knocking him off his feet and sending pieces of the ceiling crashing to the floor as the weight bearing columns no longer served their purpose. His eyes quickly found the pedestal in the center of the room, and he noticed it's rapidly descending form; he sprinted to the pedestal, grabbing the key only moments before the it sunk into the floor, replaced by a tile which concealed the fact that there ever had been such an occurrence.
A particularly large chunk of ceiling crashed to the floor, alerting Lara of what was happening in the room below her. "Kurtis!" she called to him, "Did you get it?"
"Yeah, but I don't see how we can take it out of here!" he shouted back in an effort to both cover the distance between them and make himself heard through the dust and collapse. "Here, you take it!" he exclaimed as he tossed her the key. Effortlessly she caught it and tucked it in her backpack.
"Kurtis, quick! We are not going through this again! There's an exit up here—use your telekinesis— I'm not coming back to find you this time!" She yelled at him, getting the point across. He jumped up, using his palms to push his powers down, giving him the extra height to reach the ledge before landing on his own feet next to Lara. "Now lets get out of here, I'm not a fan of collapsing temples." She said with a smile. She pointed up at the pinnacle of the dome, only a few feet above her, where a large tile rested with a handle. She jumped to grab it and effectively pulled the tile down on two hinges, allowing space for an exit. She scaled the wall through the trapdoor, Kurtis immediately behind her. Together they climbed through the door before they heard it close beneath them.
The space they climbed into was pitch black, and as Lara took a flare from her pack and lit it, it revealed itself to be a long, narrow tunnel. Finished but not as elaborately textured as the entrance. In silence they trudged along the narrow, serpentine path for sometime, before finally they reached an end. Lara, never one for defeat, searched upwards to find a manhole cover atop a short ladder. She smiled as she climbed it, pushed the ladder aside, and crawled out into the brilliant light of dusk.
"What about Gunderson?" Kurtis whispered as he crawled out behind her into the plaza outside of the church.
"I'm not sure—they must still be inside. Come on, let's get out of here." She examined the square to find that they were, fortunately, very close to an alleyway, which she gestured to, crawling towards it cautiously. She suddenly heard heavy boots in the sandy street, but had no time to react before she felt a searing pain in her arm. She glanced futilely at the alley she had hoped to reach before it disappeared along with the night in Istanbul; Lara Croft's world went black.
"Ah, so I see our guests have arrived."
"Yes, sir."
"And no harm has come to them?"
"No sir, they were drugged before placed into the truck. We brought them directly here sir,"
"Ah, yes. I see you've made the trip in a record three days. Well-done, Gunderson. Escort them to their chambers. Have replacement clothing articles and food placed in their room, I want them comfortable, so they will comply with out opposition. See to it that it is done quickly, though. I'd imagine the agents will be wearing off soon, if not already. I will inform our master now."
"Yes sir. And of the other?"
"We'll leave her to her own devices until she complicates things. Very good, you are dismissed."
Lara Croft peeked through her drug heavy eyes at the speaker. She heard every word of the interchange, but her body was still too weak from the injection to act upon it. She finally coaxed her eye into seeing who "sir" was and would've gasped had she had the capability to do so.
Before she was carried out of the room to her chambers, before the speaker left, before she fell back into the dream-like state offered by the drug, she saw the form of Ulrich Kaufman.
A/N: there you go! I have a couple of the next chapters written, buti still won't be able to update as frequently anymore, what with school controlling my life...but keep on reviewing!
Thanks to Froggie, NFI, and Akkon for reviewing...also thanks to NFI for beta-reading!
Akkon-- i know they speak Turkish in Turkey, but, according to CIA world (yay i love that site), Armenian, Greek, and Arabic are also spoken. I know Arabic is probably more common in the Southern and Western areas of the country, but i figured i could pull a few strings! Thanks for letting me know, though!
Keep on reading and please review!