34- Desert Rose
ALEXANDRIA SUBURBS, EGYPT, THE DAY AFTER
The shrill and unpleasant whistle of the old kettle interrupted their conversation. The archaeologist got up and rushed to retrieve it and remove it from the fire, fearing once again that it would explode at any moment and destroy half the kitchen. He then quietly made his way back to the living room, and took a seat on one of the wicker chairs, not far from his colleague.
"And so you were telling me you hadn't heard back from Tarek about the request for pumps?"
The Englishman, with his tousled hair and a slightly baggy shirt, reached for the cup his friend had just poured for him. He pushed his glasses back on his nose with one finger, visibly annoyed.
"Dr. El Awady is hard to reach indeed," Mark replied somewhat wryly. "But I imagine he's a very busy man, he must have so many things to deal with, and so many archeological sites to rule all over the country..."
His companion shook his head, and settled back into his chair.
"But it would be really great if he could get some equipment for us."
The Frenchman smiled compassionately at him.
"I don't ask for much. I mean, Josef's been scrambling to get us a LIDAR system, it would be so damn silly to... I mean, we're stuck on our digs, and I feel so frustrated. Without these pumps, we'll never be able to clear the access to the cave we've discovered..."
"I can arrange that, if you like," Jean Yves offered as he sipped his tea. "A simple phone call and I should be able to get you an answer within a few days."
Mark thanked him with a relieved glance. He really did look tired and desperate.
"It's gotten so complicated with everything, finally," he said, shrugging a shoulder, now staring into space. "Even the smallest grant application takes months to get approved, we have to fight all the time for materials..."
"Not to mention the lack of manpower. Archaeology is not what it used to be, unfortunately."
Both nodded slowly in agreement.
"We've had quite a few problems like that with my teams recently, if that makes you feel any better," Jean confided. "I guess the priorities of the administration are elsewhere, and-"
A bright light coming from the outside and that swept across the room interrupted him. They both heard the sound of an engine, followed by the screeching of tyres. Through the living room window the French man saw a large four-wheel drive car stop in front of his house. He put his cup of tea down on the coffee table and got up quickly. But no sooner had he taken a step towards the front door than it opened wide. The two archaeologists jumped and had no time to open their mouths to protest before three people appeared in a cloud of dust - a young man supporting another man obviously in a bad shape, followed by a young woman with a braid and a pair of sunglasses that were slightly kicking. She had donned a traditionally coloured veil to cover part of her head and face despite the fading light of the late day. She glanced outside one last time, as if to check they were not being followed, before shutting the door with a bang.
The curly-haired young man walked straight to the sofa, where he laid the other barely conscious man down. Mark had just enough time to get up and move out of the way, his eyebrows furrowed, almost shocked at what was happening. He looked at them with a bewildered look, his mouth slightly ajar, but Jean Yves' face lit up when he recognised the adventuress. He rushed towards her and they exchanged a brief but sincere embrace.
"I wasn't expecting you that soon," he said as Lara shed her shawl and glasses.
"Let's just say we didn't waste any time on the road," she replied, glancing at her Russian companion. "I'm sorry again to show up unannounced like this."
The archaeologist gave her a friendly smile, though she sensed he was a bit worried.
"You know you're welcome under any circumstances. I'm glad to see you, after all this time."
"Me too, though I wish it had been under different conditions," she replied with a genuine smile. "Hi, Mark. I didn't know you were here," she said, turning to the other archaeologist, who responded with a few rough movements of his mouth, still stunned by this sudden appearance.
"So tell me, what's all this about? What happened to you? Is he all right?", the Frenchman asked worriedly as he saw the man lying on his sofa.
"It's a long story," Lara told him. "I'll tell you everything, but first I need a place to put him, so he can be quiet and rest," she replied, pointing to Kurtis.
"Sure, follow me. We'll set him up in one of the guest rooms."
Jean Yves then turned around and waved for them to follow. But as Lara and Roman grabbed Kurtis by one arm each and lifted him up, the mercenary suddenly began to struggle and slightly opened his eyes. He groaned.
"What the…?", he muttered.
His distraught eyes turned in all directions, desperately seeking a point of reference. Lara and Roman gently placed him back on the sofa. Sensing that he was resisting, the young woman placed a reassuring hand on his chest and applied considerable pressure to force him to lie back down. She knelt down beside him.
"Where are we?"
"It's okay, everything's fine."
The American turned his head to one side and then to the other once more. He looked first at Roman, then at the two archaeologists who had remained a little behind. He felt as if he were suffocating; no matter how much he tried to breathe deeply, he felt as if a weight were crushing him. He was freezing, and he knew it was because he was covered in sweat. Lara's hand pushed him back a little more, his gaze finally locked with hers. Against her palm, Lara felt the beating of his heart slow down gradually, and his muscles relax. The American finally let himself go against the cushions. He swallowed with difficulty. A faint, yet very real glow seemed to reignite as he watched the young woman kneeling beside him. He raised his arm, which seemed extremely heavy, and placed his hand on hers. His fingers met hers and intertwined tightly.
What took you so long, Miss Kickass?
She couldn't hold back a smile, and shrugged an innocent shoulder.
"Just busy trying to come back to life and find a way to save you, Guardian Two."
"Nothin' special, then," he answered in a whisper.
A faint smile lit up his swollen, almost unrecognisable face. His whole body was screaming in pain, but the warmth he felt coming through her hand did a world of good to him.
"Were you scared I wouldn't come for you?", Lara asked teasingly.
"Were you scared of what'd happened to me?"
She pouted mischeviously.
Don't see anything personal
They smiled at each other, enjoying those few seconds of intimacy. Then Kurtis, who seemed to be getting back to his composing, looked around and discovered Jean Yves' house and the impressive, if somewhat oppressive Egyptian statues that were placed all around the room.
"Egypt, then?"
"Yes. We're in Alexandria."
Jean stepped forward cautiously to greet his host. He offered Kurtis a friendly hand, which he shook gently but confidently.
"This is my friend Jean Yves. Jean Yves, this is Kurtis."
"I'm absolutely delighted to finally meet Miss Croft's unofficial companion," he said, as he winked to the young woman. "Nice to meet you, Kurtis," he said this time bowing reverently forward.
The mercenary gave him a slight nod.
"I understand that you and Lara know each other well," he replied politely. "You're among one of the few friends of hers who are still alive. Hard to stay out of trouble when you're close to Miss Croft, isn't it?"
"Indeed," the man replied with a bitter laugh. "But, even though we have lived through the darkest hours together, we are and will remain bound by Egypt."
He exchanged a knowing glance with the young woman, before finally letting go of the American's hand, who then turned to Mark. The Englishman approached hesitantly, entrenched in his eternal shyness.
"I'm glad to see you're all right, although I'm not sure what happened," he said softly, pushing the glasses up on his nose with a nervous gesture.
Kurtis grabbed the hand he held out to him and squeezed it firmly, planting his bright blue eyes in the archaeologist's almost fearful gaze.
Hadn't missed that dumb ass, though
He felt Lara's eyes on him.
"Thanks," the demon hunter finally answered to his companion's insistent look. "How's your shoulder since the last time we saw each other by the way?"
"Oh, if you mean the incident at the British Museum, it's fine, I'm over it. Thanks," Mark replied half-heartedly, still staring warily at the American.
An awkward silence settled between the two men, who held each other's gaze for a moment, both mentally recalling the incident in question, during which some bolts of the solid scaffolding on which the archaeologist and Lara were standing -Mark a little too close to her for Kurtis's taste-, had suddenly given way. The metal construction had collapsed on one side, and the archaeologist had accidentally fallen from a small height, causing him a dislocated shoulder. Despite several subsequent checks, the cause of the collapse was never really established. Quite expectedly, Kurtis had made no comment about it.
He gave Mark's hand one last pressure, as if to warn him before releasing it. Lara gave him a reproachful look, to which the young man replied with a falsely innocent nod of the eyebrows, before catching sight of the man coming up to him. Although surprised to find him there, his face lit up when he recognised him.
"I was getting worried," Roman said as he stepped closer.
Kurtis held out his hand and the two friends exchanged a firm handshake and a few words in Russian.
"Good to see you, man," Kurtis murmured.
Roman gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Always a knack for getting yourself into trouble, huh?"
"I didn't know I had a backup babysitter."
The two men laughed, genuinely happy to be back together despite the strange circumstances.
"How are you feeling?", his friend then asked.
The demon hunter closed his eyes for a brief moment, then shook his head.
"Well, not to mention the fact that I look like some kind of mutant leopard man, I feel like I've literally been run over by a huge steamroller," he said, glancing down at his body. "Or maybe it would be closer to a leper with a hangover, I dunno exactly."
"So, pretty good, then," the young man next to him retorted.
The two friends laughed again, and after a sincere knowing smile and another friendly pat, the Russian let go of his friend, who took another look around the room.
"How did you find me?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Lara replied.
Jean Yves stepped forward and put his hand on the young woman's shoulder.
"Why don't we take the time to discuss this, so that you can tell us exactly what's going on?"
The adventuress nodded, and the atmosphere in the room seemed to lighten a little. While Jean disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a tray full of food and drink, Roman and Mark took a seat on the armchairs, and Lara sat down on the floor, not far from the mercenary. For the next few minutes she explained what had happened since the events at Croft Manor. Kurtis remained impassive but attentive, despite his fatigue. When she had finished her story, he remained silent for a moment, digesting all the information, his mind still confused. Jean put his cup of tea back on the table and sat back in his chair, his eyes still round with surprise at what the adventuress and the ex-soldier had just told them.
"That's quite a story we got ourselves into, I know," the young woman cut short before the two archaeologists could show the slightest reaction or utter a single word.
Jean and Mark glanced surprisingly at one another, Roman couldn't hold back a smile at their reaction.
"Did you see something when you were over there? Did you discover anything?", the adventuress asked, turning to the mercenary whose eyes seemed suddenly lost in the void.
Kurtis shook his head slightly in annoyance.
"Not really. They kept me high all the time, so..."
His gaze suddenly darkened.
"What did those bastards do to you? What happened out there?", Roman asked as he understood the implication of his sudden silence.
His tone suddenly became much more serious, and gave way to a slightly heavier silence, bringing everyone back to the gravity of the situation in which they found themselves. For a moment, Kurtis felt again the thousands of needles in his skin, and the icy effect of the product that was spreading in his veins, paralyzing him a little more every second. In an unconscious reflex, he clenched and unclenched his hands, as if to make sure that he had regained all his senses.
"Sorry, I-"
He waved reassuringly at his friend, who apologized with a look.
"The idea was to neutralize us. Svendsen knew she was taking us by surprise. She thought she was using me as a go-between to use the glove, again, until she realized she could inject herself with the last dose of Prima Materia she had..."
"That's when it all went wrong, I guess?", the Russian asked.
"Saija murdered Svendsen to inject herself with the last available dose of Nephili DNA. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but unlike some guinea pigs her body didn't reject the product, she may have even mutated. She's growing in power."
Kurtis remained pensive for a short while. Jean Yves and Mark made no comment, trying to figure what was going on.
"She stayed in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike. Tobias' death in Antarctica must have made it easier for her. And even if she still had to deal with Miranda's case, it was only a matter of time."
"I guess we came at the right time," the Englishwoman murmured.
They looked at each other fondly.
"But we'll have to be quick from now on," Lara said a little more seriously. " What happened at Kutna Hora slowed them down, but it didn't stop them. She'll be looking for us. As I was saying, she's getting stronger. She doesn't have much control over the glove and its powers yet, so we have a little leeway."
"And we know who we're dealing with, plus we're one step ahead of her now," Roman said.
"By a few hours, maybe a day or two, at most," Kurtis said quietly.
"But she has no way of knowing we're here!", his friend protested.
"Karel had no way of knowing we were in Iznik," Lara retorted dryly. "And believe me, I'd prefer we didn't have to go through what happened in Turkey again."
There was a brief silence, during which the former military and the adventuress exchanged another glance. Quickly, the young man looked away with hatred at the memories that were attached to the events to which the young woman was referring.
"I made some arrangements with some of my dark Web friends, some pretty high profile people," finally said the Russian, his jaw clenched tightly. "There's a data-tracking system, which will alert us to any suspicious movement in Kutna Hora and Prague area. All flights landing in Cairo, and some private airports in the country are under surveillance too. We'll be safe for some time."
"We're not safe anywhere, Roman," Lara said firmly. "Because we're a threat to her, just like we were to Svendsen before she attacked us at the Manor. It's only a matter of time now. We'll have to be very careful what we do. We have to manoeuvre carefully, be constantly on our guard from now on."
"But she was caught by surprise too, who says she's not gonna hide and wait for our next movement?", Roman asked pensively.
"Saija is young, impulsive and immature. Now that she knows I'm alive, she'll most likely do anything to find and kill us. She won't let us get in her way. We took her by surprise once, but she won't let that mistake happen again."
"So our only chance is to focus on the Nephilim source for now, then," the young man stated.
They all nodded in agreement as if to convince themselves.
"So, you're looking for something, or rather somewhere the original powers of these... Nephili could be?", asked Jean Yves, his eyebrows furrowed.
Lara nodded again.
"It is a source of ancestral power, the one from which the Nephili have derived all their power and knowledge. A source that Eckhardt was also desperately seeking in order to increase his own powers and in the end, dominate the world."
"And so if I understand correctly, this source would technically allow the destruction of this black alchemist's glove?", the archaeologist asked.
"That's what I hope, yes. At least, I hope that if we find this source, it will provide us with answers, and more importantly a way to destroy it for good."
A slight uneasiness crept into the conversation at the doubt that persisted in the young woman's answer.
"And do you have any idea what this shrine looks like?", Mark asked innocently, trying to follow the conversation with a concentrated expression on his face.
The adventuress merely looked at him, her mouth slightly pursed in reflection. She became inwardly upset when she realised that once again, they were at an impasse.
"That's the problem. Our clues are minimal, almost reduced to nothing. It's all guesswork."
She was silent for a moment, more pensive than ever. Mark and Jean Yves look at one another with a doubtful expression, not knowing how to respond to this uncertainty.
"The only good thing is that Saija doesn't have any more information on her side either," Kurtis said.
"Otherwise she would have started the apocalypse by now," Roman added quietly.
"That's reassuring, indeed...", Mark grumbled.
"But we have to be realistic," Lara said reluctantly. "She's going to be almost impossible to beat if we don't find a solution soon."
Jean Yves suddenly put his cup on the table, his eyebrows furrowed in reflection. Something seemed to be nagging at him.
"Forgive me Lara, but there's something I don't quite get. How did you know you had to come here, to Egypt?"
With all this thinking, she had almost forgotten how they had gotten here, indeed.
"You probably won't believe me," she said finally.
"You know, nothing surprises me from you anymore," his friend replied with an amused smile.
Lara pouted.
"Actually, it's thanks to Kurtis that-"
She suddenly stopped speaking, her hand raised and suspended in the air as if she had suddenly thought of something. Again, she thought back to the conversation she had had with the mercenary at Croft Manor, just after she had woken up, about their respective visions that Parsa's old site had triggered. And what hadn't been clear to her until then suddenly was. Something seemed to wake up inside herself, as if what she had been missing in this puzzle had suddenly appeared. She snapped her fingers.
"In fact we may have all the elements we need..."
She suddenly stood up and started walking around the room while her brain was thinking at full speed. An idea, however small, made its way into her mind.
"... Except we didn't see what we were missing because our attention was focused on something else," she muttered to herself.
The four men exchanged a surprised look, not understanding at all what the young woman was referring to.
"Did we miss something?", Kurtis finally asked.
The young woman did not answer immediately.
"To fully understand, we have to go back to what happened in Iran."
Kurtis gave her an insistent look.
"We both touched that pillar, and we both had visions of our past lives as Guardians. As far as I was concerned, the elements were not very specific about where all the scenes I saw were taking place. But most importantly, I was missing a part of the story, maybe even the most important one..."
"... Because you were technically dead," the American breathed, as he suddenly began to understand.
She pointed at him, as if to emphasize the truth of his answer.
"Exactly."
"So, the idea is that all the answers would be found in what I saw?"
"Yes, but also in the history of the Nephilim. It all ties together."
He couldn't take his eyes off Lara, who resumed her explanations, marking each word she used.
"Turkey, Cappadocia: cradle of the first civilization of fallen angels, or rather Nephili. Iran: presumably, the first great battle between the Nephili and the Angels, where the two Guardians found each other. And there's a third symbolic place..."
She was silent for a brief second, trying to ignore the completely defeated and lost faces of Jean Yves, but especially of Mark, who remained as if petrified in their chairs. She stared straight at Kurtis to see if he was still following.
"You explained that you saw a tree in your visions..."
"... somewhere in the middle of a desert, yes...", he replied, frowning a little more.
"... which the first Guardian went to find to let himself die."
Kurtis seemed lost in thought, trying to put everything back together and find the link that seemed to connect everything together. Then he began to recite a few lines from the Prophecy that suddenly came back to his mind.
"But his strength was no more,
And weaker his powers became.
Far into the Lost Lands he went,
And the place where his Loved One was once lost he found.
On the cold sand he lay down,
And an ocean of salt his tears formed.
And when his last tear was shed,
His Light and Soul reached the Heavens,
And forever left Earth.
The Light of the Guardians disappeared."
His voice faded, and the room fell silent again. It took him a few seconds to understand. He looked up at the adventuress.
"So you think the source's where the two Guardians fought the last forces of Evil, and thus where they died, right?"
"Precisely."
The American stared at her without a word, letting the idea work its way into his head. He straightened slightly.
"The very first mission of the Lux Veritatis' Knights took place in Egypt, during the Seventh Crusade...", he murmured. "But the earliest writings of the Order are rather vague about this crusade to the east. They didn't know where the source was, but they'd surely detected strange phenomena in the region, without knowing what caused them. That'd explain why they came here."
"That's what I think too. And so, to get back to your question Jean Yves," Lara said, turning to her French friend, who gasped slightly, "I did some research on the tree that Kurtis saw in his vision. It is a species found only here in Egypt."
She grabbed the tablet Roman was handing her, and showed some pictures to the archaeologist, who recognized the plant without hesitation.
"Adenium Obesum, or Desert Rose. A very rare species, yes."
Mark raised his hand in protest.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but there are no more trees like this one today."
The adventuress turned back to him, and gave him a astonished look.
"You mean this kind of tree doesn't grow anymore?"
"It's long extinct, yes. You won't find any more here."
The two adventurers looked at each other in shock. All of her theories were falling apart in the face of the revelation Mark had just given them. If the place where the Guardians had disappeared from the earth, and therefore the potential location of the source was marked by one of these trees as she had hoped, then all their hopes were now dashed away. If there was no trace of those trees anywhere, then they had almost no chance of finding the source.
The young woman stared into Mark's eyes and could not hold back a deep sigh of dismay. She could also see the disappointment on Roman's face, and the anger on Kurtis'.
"I don't know if you'll care to know anyway, but the Desert Rose only grew in a very specific area, along the Nile," Mark stammered again, almost apologetically.
The Englishwoman's unconvinced gaze locked with his again, but her curiosity had been piqued. But very quickly, the man's usually awkward and naive expression turned into something much more serious.
"I don't know if you remember, but my ex knew a lot about botany too. That's why she was recruited by BIOTEKNIKA actually. In fact, some of her research helped me for the archaeology concours... but anyway. She explained a lot of things to me about plants that ca, be found in Egypt. Concerning the Desert Rose, buildings and monuments have replaced the virgin area where these trees used to be, and even if they have disappeared, it is easy today to determine the exact place where they used to grow. It's quite strange, by the way, and has always remained an enigma to many biologists and botanists, but it seems that these trees were only growing in one specific place."
He reached for a paper map stuck under the tray. Lara moved closer, arms crossed against her chest, eyebrows furrowed. The archaeologist pointed to a place not far from Cairo.
"But I'm not sure you'll like it."
Lara watched him for a long moment without answering, before finally lowering her eyes, almost dreading what she was about to discover.
In spite of herself, she suddenly felt a terrible wave of anxiety sweep over her as her eyes fell on the place Mark was pointing to on the map. The sensation was so violent that her vision blurred for a short time. Her heart began to pound so hard against her chest that she thought it would break her ribs. She suddenly began to suffocate. Everything became confused in her head, but also crystal clear.
She walked away and headed for the French window that led to the outside patio. She opened the door, thinking that the fresh evening air would do her good, but it didn't at all. She didn't know where to look, or how to contain the oppressive feeling that crushed her chest and now prevented her from breathing properly. She had thought that everything was behind her, yet she found herself plunged back into the darkness. She felt trapped again, just like when that cursed place had closed in on her.
And if what Mark said was true...
She heard footsteps, and felt movement behind her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Roman's figure looming up beside her. But she remained silent, her arms folded tightly against her, her lips pursed as she bit them nervously. She could feel Roman's blue eyes scrutinizing her from every angle, caught off guard by her reaction.
"Lara, what's going on?", he asked, a little confused.
Lara took a deep breath, and finally turned her head towards him. She kept asking herself how this was possible, even though it all suddenly made sense to her.
She looked away.
"It's just that..."
She paused for a moment, and raised her arms in helplessness.
"I could have imagined every possible scenario, this is the last place I would have thought of," she finally concluded in a whisper.
She let out a nervous laugh, unable to tell herself that it could be that. Again, it was all so... ironic. And yet, when thinking about it, it could only be there. The source had always been there. Everything was intimately connected to it, from the very beginning. Everything was connected in some way.
"What was on that map?"
"The only place in this world that has any hold on me."
The French window creaked slightly and opened softly, interrupting them. Mark poked his head through the opening.
"Is everything all right?"
The two young people turned their heads to him, who watched them in turn with slightly raised eyebrows, his gaze full of questions. Behind him, Lara noted the complete silence in the living room.
"Nothing, just a little unexpected detail," the Englishwoman replied, grabbing the door to open it wide and step through.
Roman took a step to the side before being jostled. He tried to catch the archaeologist's eye for an explanation, and followed him as he followed the young woman's lead. Jean Yves, somewhat stunned, watched them return to the living room. They exchanged a glance with Kurtis.
"What do you mean, 'unexpected detail'? What's going on?", the Frenchman wondered.
"You found it, didn't you?", Roman questioned her, trying to meet her elusive gaze, but the young woman was definitely lost in her thoughts.
The Englishwoman remained completely unmoved by her friend, unable to pay the slightest attention to him. Faced with her silence, the excitement that the Russian had first felt gradually disappeared, replaced by a certain anxiety at seeing the adventuress so stressed. They had known each other for some time now, he was familiar with her mood swings and her tenacity. But he realised that he had never seen her in this state, and it was clearly a bad omen.
"I guess I just wasn't expecting this," she finally replied half-heartedly.
What did Mark show you that map?
She turned to the mercenary, who had somehow managed to sit up on the couch. He seemed to be in better shape, and had regained some of his colour.
"Where it all ended. Or perhaps, where it all began," Lara said, her eyes filled with a strange light.
The mercenary's face, which had been impassive until then, quickly changed expression when he finally understood what the young woman was getting at. He recoiled slightly, and she saw a flicker of surprise mixed with a certain discomfiture in his eyes as everything fell into place in his head.
"Giza..."
Their eyes locked, they stared at each other for a moment,.
"What-"
Kurtis waved his hand at the Russian to interrupt him gently as he was about to protest. He calmed down at the steady gaze the American gave him.
"Perhaps none of us expected this, indeed," he said finally. "But what did we expect, after all? We were looking for something, we may have found it."
"If the nephilim source is indeed there, then we have a big problem," the young woman retorted in the same voice, suddenly straightening up, hands on hips.
"We finally found what we've been looking for all along. You know this place, that's all to your advantage. What difference does it make if the source is there or somewhere else?"
"What's different is what I've locked up in there!", the Englishwoman retorted angrily as she suddenly turned to him.
Silence fell over the room, and for a brief moment they simply stared at each other, both panting under the worried gaze of the other three men. The ex-military tried to take a step forward, his hand outstretched in a sign of appeasement.
"Lara, I don't want to be rude to you, but you're going to have to explain to me what's going on," he said in a solemn voice. "We have to work as a team on this one, and I am clearly missing elements to understand what lies ahead, and what, in this case, puts you in this state. We are all involved in this story. And given the seriousness of the situation, I think I deserve to know, as do Jean Yves and Mark."
Lara stared at him with her large brown eyes, her lips slightly pursed, before glancing at Kurtis, who remained impassive. Jean Yves' voice suddenly rose.
"Lara averted the apocalypse by locking one of the most powerful gods in the pyramid of Khufu."
All four of them turned in one motion towards the archaeologist, whose usual jovial attitude had disappeared, his gaze now serious.
"During an expedition to the Valley of the Kings, Lara recovered an amulet, which sealed a sarcophagus imprisoning the god Set," he explained, guessing at the question the ex-Russian soldier was about to ask. "She unknowingly set him free. After a number of trials and a most trying struggle, she finally succeeded in locking the god of darkness in the temple of Horus, hidden beneath the great pyramid."
Roman turned to the young woman, he felt suddenly guilty.
"Was it when trying to escape from that temple that you ended up under the pyramid's rubble?"
She nodded slowly, her arms tightly crossed against her.
"And so the idea is that Set is still locked up there?", Mark asked.
"Last I heard, yes," Kurtis replied in a bitter voice.
"Do you think Set is connected to the source and the Nephili? I must say that I'm not sure I understand...", the Russian man said with a sorry look.
Lara and Kurtis glanced at each other.
D'you think that would be it?
I don't know. But I find it hard to believe
Kurtis saw something pass in her eyes, something titillated her.
Tell me
What if this is what the prophecy was all about?
You mean the ultimate demon being?
She stared at him intently, suddenly in doubt. It could fit, and yet she pushed the idea away with all her might.
"Okay, okay, I see you doing with your mental thing," Roman suddenly interrupted them. "Don't forget we're here too."
The two adventurers glanced apologizingly at him.
"Do you think the Temple of Horus and the spring could be one and the same?", asked Jean Yves.
"Or maybe the spring is located elsewhere under, or in the pyramid. The temple itself is just a cavity in a particular part of the whole building after all," Mark retorted.
The silence fell for a few seconds, everyone lost in thought, Roman finally understanding the threat before them, Mark and Jean Yves on guard, a little lost but determined to help.
"Mark and I have the necessary credentials to access the site," the Frenchman said as the Englishwoman's mouth opened to ask him the question. "That won't be a problem."
Lara remained silent, scrutinised by the four men's gazes, before shrugging a shoulder in resignation.
"There's only one way to find out anyway," she replied in a low voice.