36- Akhet Khufu
At precisely three o'clock, they met Roman and Jean Yves outside, near the Frenchman's tent. The two men were already waiting for them, ready to leave. Roman was visibly focused on his digital tablet, and the archeologist, with his backpack already on, seemed to be in good shape despite the few hours of sleep he had been able to enjoy. They heard some noise a little further away and Mark came out of his tent, muttering something incomprehensible before pushing back his glasses to put them back on his nose. With a gesture that was still imprecise and sleepy, he reattached the few buttons of his shirt that had remained open.
"The security agents stopped by here to see if everything was all right, and went back to the command post. They've finished their rounds for tonight," Jean Yves announced.
"Were you able to do anything about the alarms?", Kurtis asked, turning to his Russian friend.
They saw him nod in the light of his tablet screen.
"It wasn't easy. It's a pretty elaborate and very well protected system. I've seen similar equipment and protection systems before, but I had to ask a person or two for help."
Jean Yves watched him worriedly.
"Legally speaking I'm not sure we're in the clear, but I had no choice," he said apologetically to the archaeologist.
"As long as we don't get into trouble...", the man muttered, not very at ease.
"And what does that mean in practice?", Lara asked.
"To make it short, I'm going to use a coding system like the one we used at the Hermitage. But in a little more advanced way given the surveillance technology used here. And for a shorter time, I have no choice."
"Which implies?"
"That the time we have to get into the pyramid is going to be quite short. We'll have to move fast. Once we're inside it won't be a problem, but we'll have to move fast to get in."
"How fast?", Kurtis asked.
"About thirty seconds."
There was a silence in the group, the young man felt Lara and Kurtis' eyes on him.
"Thirty-four exactly."
"But it's technically and humanly impossible to reach the pyramid's entrance in 34 seconds from here?!", Jean Yves told him, his eyes round with panic. "We're bound to be spotted!"
"Jean is right, the cameras are strategically positioned all over the site, they'll see us coming. A group of five people walking in the dark in the middle of the night and trying to break into the pyramid is certainly not going to go unnoticed...", Mark said, his eyes suddenly wide open and awake.
"Technically speaking, it's not an attempted break-in," Lara corrected him.
"But the problem's still the same, we've gotta avoid drawing attention to us in any case," Kurtis retorted.
Roman suddenly raised his hand as if to wave at them. Jean Yves, Mark and the two adventurers saw him think for a moment, then type at full speed on his digital tablet. For a few minutes he remained focused and concentrated on his screen. Then suddenly he looked up.
"Okay," he said. "I can try to switch the cameras to a looping image, as we also did at the Hermitage. Unfortunately, it will only be for a few minutes. The protection system is very powerful, if I leave the sequential recording on for too long, they'll be alerted."
"There's no time to lose then," Lara replied as she slung her bag over her back.
Roman nodded his head in confirmation, and they all got ready. He typed on his tablet again, before suspending his hand in the air.
"Ready?"
Everyone nodded.
"So, let's go," said the young man, pressing a button on his screen.
Within seconds, the group was on its way. Guided by Jean Yves in the dark night, Roman and Kurtis followed at a steady pace. As quietly as possible, guided only by each other's shadows and the shape of the huge pyramid, they made their way through the sand and dust to the nearest corner of the large building. They then walked along the high blocks that formed the base of it, and Jean Yves made them stop in front of a large iron gate, which sealed the entrance. With the thick stone blocks that framed it perfectly, it reminded Lara of the exit of the pyramid, the one she had tried to escape from, which she knew was on the other side of the building. She thanked Jean inwardly for not having led them there.
The Frenchman took out a large bunch of keys, and slipped one into the padlock that blocked the lock. There was a click, he got rid of the long chain around the iron bars, and pushed the metal door open. All four of them felt a powerful draught, like a breath, coming from inside. The air was heavy with moisture and dust. Without a word, Kurtis and Roman rushed inside.
But just as Lara was about to follow, she noticed that Mark had suddenly moved away, his phone screen was glowing in the night, showing his position. She saw him hastily, or maybe angrily hang up.
"Come on Mark, we have no time for that!", she said over the whistling wind.
The man suddenly looked up, and after a short moment of hesitation, he walked sheepishly back to her. A strange expression had frozen on his face, his gaze was serious and worried.
"Sorry, urgent call. Dr. El Hawady. He didn't have very good news for me."
"In the middle of the night?", the young woman wondered.
He shook his head, stammering slightly.
"I have a lot of insomnia... El Hawady knows it, and so does he, so it's not uncommon for us to exchange emails at this late hour."
"All the same, right?"
A shy smile appeared briefly on his sullen face, but it soon disappeared. Feeling visibly uncomfortable, the archaeologist swallowed with difficulty and looked down, unable to look into Lara's eyes.
"You know, you don't have to come with us if-"
"I owe you that," he replied a little sharply.
But in the face of his scowl and silence, Lara did not insist further. The man walked past her, and entered the huge stone building too.
"Is everything all right?"
The others had already moved into the pyramid, torches in their hands, but Jean Yves was waiting for her in the doorway. She met his gaze. Thinking about it, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel at that very moment.
"And you, is everything all right?", she answered softly.
The man watched her for a moment without saying anything, then smiled gently at her, a little amused, but also somewhat reluctant to return to the heart of the pyramid. It was nothing compared to what Lara herself had gone through during that terrible epic against Set, but the events had left a mark on him that he could never erase. For a long time, he had kept the after-effects of his kidnapping, not to mention the ghost of his friend's death, for which he always felt a little responsible.
"The site has been secured since the incident. So there's nothing to be afraid of… normally."
"Sorry to drag you into this," Lara told him, sensing his discomfort.
"I thought for so long about what happened here... if I could have found a way to... Knowing that you had perished in there really broke my heart..."
She felt a hint of sadness in his voice.
"... but that's in the past now, and we can't change it. But we can always learn from our mistakes, and come out stronger. Everything is different now. And besides, who knows what awaits us there after all?"
The young woman placed a friendly hand on her friend's arm, and exerted a slight pressure.
"I won't make the same mistake, I promise."
They exchanged a sincere smile, but were interrupted by a sudden thud overhead. In the distance, thick clouds loomed in the sky, driven by the warm southern winds. A storm was coming. Lara had seen this before: in Egypt, when the forces of Set had been released, but also in Cappadocia, when Karel was about to resurrect the last nephili. It was as if, strangely enough, these clouds were a harbinger of something other than a simple sandstorm.
Pushing this idea to the back of her mind, the Englishwoman looked up one last time at the top of the enormous building, then followed Jean Yves.
—
SOME MOMENTS BEFORE
She let out one last sob, and the man finally pulled the phone away from her and cut the call. She tried to articulate a few words, but her lips were cracked from the punches. She was in agony. She could feel blood running down her cheek. She glanced desperately at the first henchman, who was standing a little further back in the upside down room, and then at the one pointing the gun at her forehead. Its cold, hard touch made her cry even harder. She closed her eyes, her hands and her whole body now shaking uncontrollably.
It was all so stupid, she didn't even know why they were here, and why they had done this to her. She had a quiet, simple life. She had never had any problems in her life before, not even a single fine. Everything was going well in her new job. She had never had any problems in her previous job either. She had no problems with the neighbourhood, or with any of her exes. Or so it seemed to her. She was perfectly blameless. She had no enemies, because she was not the kind of person who made enemies. She came from a modest family, with no fuss, and had grown up in a quiet neighbourhood, also with no fuss. No matter how hard she thought about it, she didn't understand. It made absolutely no sense.
There was a metallic click. But before she could protest, the gun went off.
—
Saija hung up, satisfied, and put the huge GPS phone back on the table. She turned to the Argentinean standing next to her.
"You see, it wasn't so complicated after all," she said with a wicked smile.
—
For a few seconds there was only darkness around them, before their eyes finally got used to the pyramid's inside. Jean immediately closed the gate behind Lara - it would still make the illusion he thought, even though deep down he still feared that guards would turn up at any moment. They joined the three men who had stopped a little further up the tunnel. The chirugai had left its master's finally found belt, and was floating silently above them, waiting to know which way to go. Lara knew they were in one of the access galleries, one of those that served the most important rooms of the pyramid. But she paid no attention to the hieroglyphic-covered walls around them, far too focused on her own feelings at the moment.
"If we follow this tunnel, we should arrive at the great gallery in the pyramid's centre. Then we can go back up to the king's chamber," Jean Yves explained, pointing to the tunnel in front of them.
"Let's start with that, then," Lara confirmed as she pulled a torch from off her bag.
Kurtis' metal disc took the lead with a soft hiss. Roman and Jean Yves followed the young woman's lead, while Mark and Kurtis were the last. The archaeologist seemed more nervous than ever, which indirectly stressed the mercenary out. The young man gave him the stink eye.
"I just hope we don't have any problems inside the pyramid too," the English justified himself. "I know Lara, excursions like this are rarely a walk in the park..."
"If you wanna turn back now, we won't hold you back," the American retorted with a Machiavellian smirk.
The Englishman did not reply, and merely looked away to concentrate on his steps. As he had promised the young woman earlier, Kurtis tried to remain calm, even if the idea of throwing the archaeologist out of the pyramid while he could crossed his mind for a moment.
Ahead of them, Lara, Roman and Jean Yves walked in silence. But the adventuress stopped after a few feet only. They had just reached a kind of intersection, where several tunnels met. On their left, they saw a rustic antechamber with relatively basic paintings. The Englishwoman's lamp passed from one tunnel to the next, and Jean Yves pointed to a path on the left. All followed without a word. They progressed for several minutes, in almost total darkness, surrounded by stone walls whose coolness contrasted sharply with the heat outside. The ground was uneven under their feet, but bore the obvious traces of the passage of the archaeological teams everywhere.
After about a hundred feet, the tunnel widened, and they arrived in another and much larger gallery, as high as it was wide. Lara recognised unequivocally the central gallery she had walked through a few years earlier. She stopped, the four men behind her did the same. She tried to listen and to hear, but she realised that the bowels of the great pyramid were perfectly silent, as if in a deep sleep. She knew, however, that they had to be on their guard. She was all too familiar with this type of building and configuration by now, and she knew that appearances should not be trusted under any circumstances. She was completely rediscovering the place since Putai had pulled her out, she had to keep in mind that the pyramid they had entered was obviously a whole new labyrinth.
"Did you see anything?"
Jean Yves, who had joined her, glanced at her questioningly, waiting for the young woman's conclusion. Without answering, Lara simply shook her head and resumed her walk. The chirugai passed in front of her and shone a light on her steps. The gallery sloped steeply, but evenly, so they would have no trouble reaching the king's chamber.
When the five of them reached the gallery's top, they found themselves facing a new tunnel. Still following Jean Yves' instructions, they entered it. It was a little narrower this time, its walls were literally covered with hieroglyphic writing from top to bottom. The characters in the magnificent coloured frescoes, now protected by their Plexiglas walls, seemed to watch them pass by with their huge almond-shaped eyes. For a brief moment, Kurtis had a rather unpleasant, oppressive feeling. He adapted easily to the environment in which he was evolving, even if he was rather used to chasing demons into dark and oppressive urban underground passages, and yet wide and spacious places. But he had never really appreciated abandoned tombs or enclosed spaces, especially when he knew that their remains were potentially still there. Wether it was a simple superstition or a bad memory buried somewhere, he had never really known.
To his relief, the group finally arrived at a rather large room. In front of them, there was another small cavity, the entrance to which was strangely carved into the rock, and to the left, at ground level, a sort of tiny tunnel. Lara, Jean Yves and Mark naturally headed for this one. The Frenchman knelt down to clear the iron grate from the entrance, before crawling in. Mark, eager to distance himself from the demon hunter who had been watching him closely since they entered, rushed to follow him. Then it was Roman's turn, and Lara and Kurtis followed.
They crawled on the completely smooth black granite stone, which led them to a new large room. Although it was completely empty and devoid of decoration, it was nonetheless impressive with its high ceiling. At the back was a large granite block the same colour as the walls. Lara stepped forward and glanced inside the sarcophagus.
"I'm not sure we'll find much here," Jean told her.
Even though she knew it almost by heart, the young woman walked around King Khufu's chamber, observing the walls and reliefs in great detail. Above them, the chirugai arced through the air, illuminating the top of the room with its golden light.
"It would be easier if we knew what we are looking for," Mark grumbled as he glanced around, also seriously dubious about what they might find here.
"We really thank you for that pertinent comment," Kurtis hissed through clenched teeth.
As the archaeologist opened his mouth to protest, Roman interrupted them, pointing at something on his tablet screen.
"That's exactly why we're here," he said to the Englishman. "Lara, Jean, perhaps you will confirm this, but it seems there's something on the other side of this wall."
The adventuress and the archaeologist approached.
"That's what the plans indicate anyway."
Lara turned the device slightly towards her. There were a lot of incomprehensible lines and details on the digital map, but it was easy to make out the king's chamber and the galleries that surrounded it. But looking closely at it, the device showed another gallery leading off from where they were. However when she looked up again and looked in the direction where the entrance to the other tunnel was supposed to be, she saw only the smooth black granite wall. She walked back to the large, imposing sarcophagus and skirted it. She then turned to the wall behind and laid her hand flat on it, looking for a clue.
"There's nothing on the other side, at least that's what the LIDAR systems have established... the place has been photographed from every angle, how could we have missed this gallery, if it exists at all?", Jean wondered, taken aback.
"But it wouldn't be surprising there're hidden rooms in this kind of construction, right?"
"It's more than likely," Mark confirmed. "Besides, you said it yourself, the configuration of the pyramid has changed since the incident..."
He fell silent, and threw an undertone glance at his comrades. Lara, half-focused on what they were saying behind her, frowned. She walked around the room, her hand sliding along the wall without encountering the slightest roughness. She stopped, hands on her hips. She thoughtfully looked back at her companions. Then, seeming to think of something, she returned to Roman and his machine. With her finger, she followed the line of the gallery they were looking for. But soon she understood something.
"It's below us," she murmured.
"What?", the Russian asked.
Lara turned away. She walked around the room again, her hand sliding over the stone.
"The gallery shown on the plans was not dug at the same level as the king's chamber," she said as she went back to the sarcophagus.
The four men saw her walk around it. She then crouched down and disappear for a moment, before standing up again. She waved to Kurtis. The mercenary joined her, suddenly understanding her idea. They glanced at each other, placed their hands on the sarcophagus, and leaned with their feet against the wall behind them. And suddenly they began to push.
Roman let go of his tablet and equipment to join them. Even if they were not sure of being of any help, the two archaeologists came to help too. And after several minutes of fruitless effort, the sarcophagus finally began to move. When she looked down, Lara noticed the gap that had appeared underneath the granite block.
"Push again!", Kurtis shouted beside her.
Redoubling their efforts, their shirts drenched in sweat, the two archaeologists pushed in unison with the two adventurers and the Russian. The enormous sarcophagus moved a little more. They gave a final push, and thus succeeded in freeing the hidden opening under it. They all stood up, panting. At their feet was a hole no larger than a human shoulder width. Everyone leaned over it, but it was difficult to see anything in the darkness.
"Oh God... Now we're definitely getting into troubles," Jean Yves said, unable to contain his amazement at what he had just done.
"But you already knew it, didn't you?", Lara retorted with a slightly mocking smile.
Kurtis took one of the flashlights and threw it into the hole. But to the surprise of all of them, the object landed almost immediately on the ground. The mercenary crouched down, and bent down to take a look.
"We're gonna have to crawl around a bit, obviously."
After checking his device, Roman nodded and pointed the direction to follow. Kurtis offered to go first. After poking his head through the hole once more to make sure there was no danger - at least, no imminent danger - he wriggled through the opening, and entered the narrow tunnel, which could only be crawled through. He began to move forward, the adventuress went down in turn, followed closely by Mark, then Jean Yves. Roman put the strap of his machine around his neck before slipping into the tunnel. He followed the movement of his comrades, whom he could barely see in front of him, except for the distorted shadows that appeared in the chirugai's light ahead.
Their progress was long and painful enough, and was made with the greatest concentration. Only the scraping of knees and jerky breathings could be heard, until Kurtis shouted something in front of him. But the Russian only understood what he was saying when he reached the end of the tunnel.
All the others had straightened up already. But he realised they were now stuck on a relatively narrow ledge perched above a chasm whose bottom was not visible. They were facing several feet of emptiness, but on the other side, the chirugai's golden light gave a glimpse of an immense gallery similar to the one that had led them to the king's chamber, only much larger and more imposing. The ceiling could not be seen either, but the huge stone blocks that stood in the darkness could be clearly made out, and seemed to form a gigantic and deformed staircase that went up into the pyramid's chore.
"Do we have to go through this?", Mark asked, his eyes wide opened.
Lara glanced at the wall beyond, then took a look down. She couldn't make out anything, but she had no trouble imagining what was at the very bottom of this chasm - or what wasn't. She was able to jump to the other side. Kurtis and Roman would probably have no problem crossing either. But it wasn't so obvious to her fellow archaeologists.
"D'you feel like jumping to the other side?", Kurtis asked as he approached her.
She pulled a long rope from her backpack and held it out for him to tie it around her.
"If you have my back, that's fine by me," she replied with a sensual smirk.
The demon hunter smiled back at her, and pulled the rope tightly around her waist. After checking together there was enough slack, the young man stepped back so that Lara could stick to the wall. The chirugai positioned itself to illuminate her landing spot. She then took two long strides, put her foot on the edge of the precipice and jumped over the void. After a fraction of a second hanging in the air, she finally saw the ledge appear. She grabbed it with both hands and broke her fall with her feet, the stone cracked under her weight. A light trickle of dust and sand came off the wall as she pulled herself up onto the large block of stone. She heard Mark and Jean sigh with relief.
Glancing around, she noticed a huge boulder that had fallen there, no doubt after the shaking and crashing that had occurred after she had locked Set up in there. She walked around it and uncoiled the rope to hang it on. Below, she sensed that Kurtis had done the same on the remains of an ancient marble column. The rope was now taut to allow them passage.
Jean Yves did not look very confident, but he was the first to step forward to take his turn on the rope.
"At least if it gives way now, there will be someone to catch me," he said to Kurtis, trying to joke.
After that he suddenly refocused and grabbed the rope to suspend himself to it. It took him several seconds to find a suitable hold, then he slowly started up, one hand and one leg after the other. The archaeologist was not the most renowned of sportsmen, but he had an iron will, and even if the rope pitched dangerously several times, he crossed without difficulty, recovered breathlessly by a relieved Lara.
At a nod from Kurtis, Mark then stepped forward. He gave him a terrified look, sweating profusely before he had even hung on to the rope. His gaze dropped to the chasm.
"Among all your telekinetic powers, didn't you have the ability to make people float in the air?"
"No, sorry. I'm running outta urarealpainintheassum."
Behind him, Roman, who had finally got himself out of the tunnel, held back a violent laugh. The archaeologist looked at them one after the other without understanding, still unsettled by the cold scowl the mercenary was giving him.
"But don't worry, everything's gonna be fine," concluded the American, giving him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
The archaeologist, though not really convinced, walked to the edge of the precipice. He couldn't help but look down once more, which caused a violent sensation of dizziness. He swallowed with difficulty, and took one last desperate look at the mercenary beside him. Then, seeing that he had no choice, he finally grabbed the thick rope and let himself hang. Kurtis helped him get his legs over the rope. Then slowly, and shaking with all his limbs, the Englishman climbed for endless minutes. Lara and Kurtis exchanged several glances, fearing that the man would fall into the void at any moment. But to their great surprise, Mark finally reached the other side without any foreseeable accident, and it was not without a huge sigh of relief that he put his foot down to safe ground.
Roman crossed after him, followed almost immediately by Kurtis.
"Of course, they do this almost every day," Mark grumbled at the ease with which the two men climbed up the rope.
Beside him, Jean Yves smiled sympathetically. But neither of them had time to breathe. Lara was already looking at the boulders behind them, looking for the best way to continue up the gallery. According to the plans, there was a passage up there. The mercenary and the ex-military man had barely joined them when the young woman had already put her foot and hands on the rocky façade. The chirugai took the lead, trying to guide them as best it could. All four men followed her one by one, and they set about climbing the huge stones that faced them, moving from one side of the gallery to the other according to the configuration of the wall.
They progressed at a moderate pace, keeping a safe distance between each other, just in case. The climb itself was not very difficult, but the sand and dust made the holds slippery and dangerous in places. They took short breaks at each landing they reached, before resuming their ascent with a chain.
The air around them was dry, and unpleasantly breathable. They felt that the higher they climbed, the more oppressive the darkness became. In several places, buried under the sand or piled on top of each other, they could see the ancient traces of columns and decorated walls. Lara was sure she had never been in this gallery, just as Jean Yves was unable to understand how he and his teams could have missed such a place.
After one last effort, they finally reached the top of the huge stone staircase, and found themselves on a much wider platform. A few feet away from them was a large opening, framed by two imposing, half-destroyed statues. One represented the dog god, Anubis, and the other, although reduced to pieces, showed the head of a falcon, the symbol of the god Horus. Between them stood a kind of door, but part of it had also collapsed.
The group took a moment to catch their breath and admire the thousands of hieroglyphs that covered the passageway, which had been destroyed by time. Behind it, there was a tunnel, which went further into the pyramid: there were large columns framing it on either side, the paving stones on the floor looked irregular, probably deformed by time and covered with thick layers of sand. On the surface, it looked like a simple abandoned tunnel in its current state. However, when Roman tried to approach to take a look, Lara held him back with one hand.
"A necropolis, for a change?", Kurtis asked her.
The adventuress shook her head gently. Her eyes scanned the door's outline and the nearest walls.
"Um, I'd bet my life this tunnel is full of traps," Mark said, leaning over to try and catch a glimpse of something. "I'm sure as soon as we step into it, something will go off..."
Roman rolled his eyes and sighed in a exasparated way.
"'Cause we all know you're a real expert on death traps and ancient riddles, aren't you?", Kurtis retorted scathingly.
The American gave the archaeologist an annoyed look, then, preferring to ignore him, looked away and joined the young woman, who had positioned herself as close as possible to the door. On his orders, the metal disc shot out with a slight hiss, and travelled several feet down the tunnel to illuminate it. But at first glance, the adventurers did not notice anything strange or abnormal. Lara bent down to pick up a fairly large stone from the ground and threw it forward. It landed a few feet away with a resounding thud, the echo of its ricochets reverberating off the walls and columns. Then silence fell. Nothing happened.
Kurtis waved his hand, and everyone gathered behind them. Lara stepped over a piece of statue that had fallen there, and stepped in first, hand on her 9mm, ready to draw or run, she didn't know yet. Her eyes never left the flagstones of the floor, looking for any clue that might betray the presence of traps, as Mark had suspected. Kurtis followed, his eyes squinting as he tried to make out something in the persistent darkness. Jean Yves and Mark followed without a word, under the watchful eye of Roman who was walking behind this time. The gallery was strangely high-ceilinged, but also quite irregular in its layout. The walls were not exactly straight, the columns and part of the ceiling had collapsed. Strange shadows were drawn on the walls around them by the light of their torches and the chirugai, which gave the place an even more gloomy atmosphere.
But in a matter of seconds, everything changed. Jean Yves, who was walking just ahead of Roman, seemed to stumble over something. The pavement on which he had just set foot collapsed under him, causing him to lose his balance. There was a sort of click. Roman did not think, and threw himself on the Frenchman to tackle him to the ground. The man let out a muffled cry as he toppled over and fell forward with the Russian. They fell heavily to the ground, narrowly escaping a gigantic swinging axe that came from one of the side walls. Mark took a step to the side and pressed himself against the wall, his eyes horrified to see that the huge weapon had passed within inches of him.
Lara and Kurtis turned around, but when they tried to move forward to find the Russian and the two archaeologists, they were stopped by another axe, which had appeared right in front of them. They discovered a dozen gigantic weapons hanging at regular intervals all along the gallery, swinging from side to side with an incessant scraping noise. In the distance they saw Roman and Jean Yves finally straighten up. The young man's radar system had not survived the shock of the fall. The machine lay on the ground, broken into several pieces scattered all over the place.
"What do we do now?", Mark shouted from the space in which he had found himself trapped alone between two axes.
Kurtis suddenly raised his hand in front of him, and concentrated. But soon his face tightened into a grimace. He tried to draw a little deeper into his resources and powers, but he realised that it was of no use. The axe in front of them slowed down slightly, but he could not stop it. He lowered his arm. Roman and Jean glanced at each other with concern. But Lara seemed strangely confident and calm. At the risk of sounding a bit pretentious, she had seen far worse, and she had expected worse. But as a specialist in Egyptian tombs, she knew more or less what to expect. The movement of the axes was quick, but by running fast, and passing at the right time, they should manage to get back to Kurtis and her.
"Get ready to cross, but wait for my signal!", she shouted back.
The Russian and the Frenchman took up their positions, under the worried eye of Mark, who was waiting for them on the other side. Several seconds passed, during which no one moved. There was only the axes' incessant and hypnotic swinging sound. Then Lara finally raised her hand to signal them to get ready. Her eyes did not leave the movement of the huge axe. It went to one side, then the other, then the other...
"NOW!", the Englishwoman yelled.
His head down as if that would save him from being cut in two, Jean Yves threw himself forward, pushed by Roman. They reached Mark just as the axe went back the other way. They had made it, but soon the smile that had appeared on Jean's face faded as he realised how many more axes they had to go through before they were potentially safe.
"Let's do the same thing again. Wait for my signal, okay?", Lara said, focusing on Roman.
The young man wasn't an expert in this kind of situation himself, but this was no more complicated than some of the physical exercises his team leaders had made him do during his time in the Russian army. So it was with quite some confidence that he prepared to pass the axe that was swinging before them. By mutual agreement, he, Mark and Jean positioned themselves strategically: two at one side of the gallery, and one at the other. When the axe was on one side, then one of them could go through, while the others would wait for it to go the other way before going through themselves. In theory, it would work, thought the Russian.
Once again, several seconds passed during which the Russian, the American and the adventuress counted the comings and goings of the huge axes. Then, once again, the young woman raised her hand to indicate to get ready, before giving them the signal. Jean Yves went to one side. The axe rose and hung in the air for a fraction of a second before coming down again. Mark let it fall again and hurried past. Then it was Roman's turn. They finally managed to join the two adventurers.
"Are you all right?", the adventuress asked when she saw the discouraged look on her French friend's face.
"I must say that I couldn't have expected nothing less from this little excursion with you," he replied in a mocking voice.
"Don't worry, you get used to it," Kurtis told him friendly.
But soon the expression on the young man's face changed completely. They heard a resonating noise at the other end of the gallery. At first he thought it was just his imagination, or perhaps the movement of axes. But he knew from the look on Roman's face that he too had felt what he had felt under his own feet. A kind of deep, dull vibration that had spread all around them, even into the walls.
Suddenly everything began to shake, the walls and ceiling creaked. There was a kind of sonorous screeching, like an animal gnawing on stone. There was also the sound of stones smashing into each other. Everyone turned around. And in spite of the darkness, they had no difficulty in seeing the gigantic hole that was forming in the ground, and which seemed to be spreading throughout the gallery.
"The floor is collapsing," Mark said, unable to articulate properly.
Lara and Kurtis glanced at each other. There were no holds on the walls, no place to take refuge. They were surrounded by the axes, and thus trapped. They had to react as quickly as possible.
"We have no choice but to run and cut through the axes," Kurtis said.
Lara turned to the other side. She could hardly make out the other end of the gallery, which was also in darkness. It was quite risky, they didn't know what was waiting for them at the end. But they didn't really have a choice. She nodded.
"Come on, let's move!", the mercenary shouted at once.
"What, you really want us to run through those axes? Is there any chance we'll survive at least?!", Jean Yves asked, now overcome by panic.
The mercenary simply grabbed him by the arm and placed him in front of the axe that was swinging behind them. When it went on the side, he pushed the archaeologist forward. At the same time, Roman followed at a run. The two men disappeared, carried away by their momentum. At a nod from her companion, Lara went after them. Kurtis then turned to Mark, who stared at him with big round eyes.
"Are you coming or would you rather be swallowed by the pyramid?", the demon hunter told him.
The archaeologist took a reluctant step forward. He felt the stone vibrate dangerously under his feet, and saw a thick stream of dust falling from the ceiling. Behind him he felt as if a gigantic tidal wave was about to overtake him. He stared at the axe swinging in front of him, and finally broke through when he felt the pressure of Kurtis' hand on his back. The demon hunter followed without looking back.
In front of them, Lara was leading the way, slaloming with ease between the huge sharp blades, Jean Yves didn't seem to think anymore and followed headlong, encouraged by Roman who had stayed at his side. Mark, on the other hand, progressed with much more difficulty and hesitation, which caused them to lose considerable time. He and Kurtis had to stop several times to let the axes pass and cross. And then, the Englishman stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. The stress tightened Kurtis' chest when he saw that the axe blade was already coming down on the archaeologist as he was getting up.
Gaining momentum, the mercenary threw himself at the other man and tackled him to the ground. The axe passed right over them, only a few inches from their heads, and Mark could not hold back an terrified scream. He barely had time to realise what had just happened -what could have actually happened- when the demon hunter grabbed him by the shirt to get him back on his feet. They could no longer see Lara or the other two men, but they heard the young woman call out to them to report their position. With a bit of luck, they had found stable ground. Kurtis glanced behind him: the floor tiles were falling one by one into the endless abyss that was devouring the gallery. He and Mark only had a few seconds to get out of there, and judging by the look on the man's face, it wasn't going well.
"I guess that's a sign, right? Maybe the pyramid doesn't want us...", Mark told him with a completely defeatist look on his face.
"No time for philosophy! Come on, let's move, bookworm!", Kurtis shouted, trying to motivate the archaeologist.
But he knew it was already too late for them. The cobblestones just behind them were giving way, he could already feel himself tipping over into the void.
Lara called out his name, and almost immediately he saw something rise from the darkness. It was a rather large object, with a handle and a trigger. A firearm. For a moment he thought that it would be of no use to him at all, until he realised it was in fact a grappling gun.
His brain stopped thinking.
"Hang on to me," he said, turning to the Englishman. "And when I say hang on, hang on like your life depends on it!"
"It kind of does, doesn't it?", Mark replied over the collapse's din.
Kurtis grabbed the grappling gun the adventuress had thrown at him, and had just enough time to cock it. He felt the slab beneath his foot give way, he wobbled slightly but held the weapon firmly in his hands. Mark rushed at him, screaming. Just as the ground collapsed beneath them, exactly as Mark desperately clung to him and dragged him down, Kurtis pointed and fired. The metal head of the grappling hook shot straight out and disappeared into the darkness.
The last slabs of granite slid away one after another beneath their feet with a terrifying noise, forever swallowed up by the darkness. For a brief second, they both found themselves suddenly floating in the air, before gravity took over. Kurtis' heart clenched in his chest as he felt himself falling, until he finally heard a metallic click, and felt resistance in the rope. The two men's fall was stopped short, and they were propelled forward at full speed. Mark let out another cry of fear and clutched Kurtis with all his might, his head pressed against him.
But just as they thought they were out of danger, the mercenary realised with horror that they were running straight into an axe that had suddenly come down from the ceiling. He barely had time to bend in two to dodge the blade, which passed right over his fingers and sliced through the rope from which they were both hanging. And suddenly they found themselves completely in the void again.
Realising what was happening, Mark let out another resounding scream of terror. His hands slipped and tried to hold on to anything they could on the mercenary. Kurtis knew that he had only a fraction of a second to pull them out, otherwise they would both disappear into the pyramid's abyss.
He finally saw the light of his chirugai, which was floating not far away ahead of them. But he had to be quick and precise.
The mercenary grabbed the archaeologist with his mental strength and propelled him forward with all his might. The man screamed even more, arms and legs stretched through the air like a flying squirrel, before landing heavily where his other companions were safe. All that remained was to find a way out for himself. The edge of the cliff was not far away, Kurtis had only to hope that he would manage to cling to it, it was his only hope.
He reached out his hands to catch himself and hold on. His fingers clutched at the pieces of rock, but the landing was violent. He hit the stone wall hard, nearly losing his grip. His breath suddenly stopped, but he held on. And hopefully, so did the stone he was holding on to. A thick cloud of dust blurred his vision for a moment, and then there was silence in the great gallery. He felt someone rush to grab his arm. Lara's head appeared above him.
"You look like you've had a hot day," she said with a casualness that made the young man smile.
He grabbed her hand and pulled himself up onto safe ground. He got to his feet as if nothing had happened. He tilted his head to one side, then the other, then shook his shoulders a little like a wrestler warming up before stepping into the ring. He massaged the palms of his aching hands, under the mischievous eye of the young woman.
"Could've been worse... but the grappling hook was a good idea," he said finally.
Lara glanced at him insistently as he dusted off his clothes, and noticed his messy hair and those two clear eyes standing out amidst all the grime that now covered his face. The smirk on the mercenary's mouth widened subtly as their gazes locked. But they were interrupted by the groans of Mark, who had curled up on the floor a few feet away. He was clutching his ankle. Nothing too bad in this case, judging by the exasperated look Roman gave the two adventurers as he turned towards them. Jean Yves approached and they both took a moment to examine the archeologist's sprained ankle a little more closely.
Tell me that after all this we'll go on holiday somewhere far, far away
Lara turned back to Kurtis, and looked again into his mesmerizing eyes.
"When everything will be over, yes. A long, well-deserved holiday."
"Away from Winston and Croft Manor..."
… And as far away as possible from that archaeologist twit, of course
The young woman's smile became even more pronounced on her lips.
I promise
The mercenary reached out to take her hand. In a thoughtful and tender gesture, he brought it to his lips and placed a kiss on it, before Lara turned away. Behind them now remained the axes, suspended in the void and lost in the middle of this great empty space, as if it had been an old abandoned carousel. But not far from where they stood, there was an opening, the size of a door, cut into the wall of the great gallery. Mark's cries of pain finally ceased. When Lara and Kurtis turned, he was more or less on his feet, supported by Jean Yves and Roman. A thick bandage now surrounded his ankle, but he seemed able to walk. They gradually gathered their belongings, and moved one after the other towards the gate that awaited them.
"I guess you will be better once you're back at Al Qaraya," Lara told Mark as she turned to him.
The man slowly nodded, limping as best as he could beside her.
"Well, maybe not. It's complicated on our side too. Not as complicated as your mission, of course, but we've had some difficulties with our research recently. I'm not going to repeat the speech I gave you at the British Museum party - I've had a lot of compliments on your work on the exhibition by the way... But the research is complicated. But you know how it is. Not much money, so not much material, so not much research, so not much discovery..."
Lara shrugged a shoulder in a sympathetic gesture.
"... sometimes I think we should just do it your way, after all. You know, like, going for it without thinking, and rushing into the heap. But maybe with less damage at the end, because it's not very ethical to destroy sites that are sometimes thousands of years old. And some relics are priceless..."
The man abruptly stopped talking when he caught the young woman's murderous look.
"I mean, you have your own way of doing archaeology, I have nothing against it, but it's not very conventional..."
"That's the word, yes."
Lara felt the mercenary next to her about to make a cynical comment, but they were interrupted as they reached the next gate. Again, it was all dark in there, Lara and Kurtis naturally took the lead, their flashlights and guns pointed at them. They passed a large stone archway, and another room appeared, just as high and large as the gallery they had just been through. The chirugai sped past Lara and circled the huge space, revealing it in the trail of its golden light. It was probably a large round room, with a domed ceiling covered with thousands of hieroglyphs and frescoes. There were columns everywhere, but above all, an impressive number of stone blocks on the floor, piled up in irregular heaps everywhere. And as strange as it may seem in such an environment, there was also an impressive amount of water, which formed large puddles. The two adventurers felt as if they were entering a swamp, and the young man looked doubtfully at the greenish water not far from him.
Lara and Kurtis took a second to check that nothing would come out of the darkness, but the place seemed deserted and abandoned. All they could hear was their own breathing, and the small grunts of pain that Mark was suppressing. The group walked slowly forward, looking in all directions. They discovered to their amazement that the blocks of stone they had seen at first were in fact the remains of statues that had been blown to pieces. The lack of light and the obvious humidity had allowed green mould to grow and spread throughout the room.
The five of them moved forward without a word, weaving in and out of the stone blocks, wading through the mouldy water when they couldn't dodge it. There was a pungent smell in the air, which caught them by the throat and stung their eyes slightly. Lara didn't know what to make of this place at first, given the chaos here, she couldn't work out what this room in the pyramid was for. She could see bits of inscriptions and hieroglyphics on some of the stone, but could not make any definite deductions.
They passed over a huge block of column that was in their way, and suddenly came face to face with a huge stone structure that stood before them. The adventurers and their companions discovered by the light of their torches two imposing statues still standing in the middle of all the debris, right in the middle of the room. They were two human figures with their backs to each other, standing on a large pedestal. Their legs were slightly spread, as if they had been in motion, in the typical style of Egyptian statues. One of the loincloths, eaten away by time, had come off and left a gaping hole in one of them. Beneath the green mould, their human torsos wore sacred ornaments, a sign of divine recognition. With their arms bent, they seemed to bear the full weight of the ceiling above their heads.
The statues were so tall that it was difficult to see their faces, but Lara could make out a long, elongated snout. For a brief second she thought it was Set's jackal head, but soon she realised those snouts were much longer, more like a reptile's, with small teeth protruding from either side.
"Sobek,"Jean Yves murmured from a few steps away.
"The crocodile god?", asked Roman.
Mark confirmed with a small nod.
"There are exactly the same representations in Crocodilopolis," he commented, wiping his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand. "It's strange to find them here, though..."
Lara frowned slightly, her eyes fixed on the two gigantic statues. She thought for a moment.
"And these very same statues can be found in the heart of the sacred temple, if I'm not mistaken?", the young woman asked, turning to her archaeologist friends.
"In the basin where the sacred crocodiles were kept, yes," Jean Yves answered in a breath.
Suddenly there was a noise behind them, which startled them all. It sounded like the splash of a stone falling into the water. All five of them turned around abruptly. The silence fell again, and suddenly became heavier. Roman, Kurtis and Lara pointed their weapons in the direction the noise was coming from, controlling their breathing to make sure they would hear any other suspicious sound. They waited without moving for long seconds, concentrating on the darkness and the stones' threatening shapes that loomed all around them.
And this Sobek, was he a good god or a bad one?, Kurtis asked.
It depends on what you want from him
A hoarse, menacing growl rose from the darkness. There was a sudden, stealthy movement, something slithered between the stones and ran straight at them. Lara, Kurtis and Roman all turned in the same direction, just as a huge mass sprang from the shadows, its mouth wide open. Its two small, bright green eyes suddenly glowed in the light of the chirugai. All three fired. The huge reptile crawling towards them let out a roar of rage, before rolling onto its side and stop moving, cut off in its tracks. Its long, rough tail fell heavily to the ground.
Deep rumblings rose in the darkness. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of wards suddenly appeared all around them. The five companions discovered to their horror that they were surrounded.
The horde of reptiles charged at them in one single movement, like a tidal wave. The ripples of their heavy bodies made the ground seem to move, ready to engulf them once more. Roman saw a gleam of terror in Jean Yves' eyes as several crocodiles slid towards him, pushing the sand away with their huge paws, their tiny eyes trained on him. The French archaeologist took a few steps back, both hands held out in front of him, as if to protect him. The Russian fired. Several bullets passed through the beast's skull, and shattered it. The monster collapsed on itself, its body sinking heavily into the water. But already another was passing over its carcass to make its way towards its fresh prey, closely followed by its fellow creatures.
The grunts increased in intensity. As Lara covered Roman's back and Mark's at the same time, Kurtis turned around and fired a burst into the crocodile that was crawling towards him and the adventuress. Another beast collapsed at his feet, this time hit hard by the chirugai. Soon the group of adventurers found themselves pinned against the Egyptian statues. They would soon be drowned under the flood of snapping jaws, glowing pupils and stench. It was a real nightmare vision.
Kurtis's metal disc whirled through the air, before plunging at full speed towards the huge beasts. His sharp blades sheared the muzzles and skulls of several of them, and they stopped dead in their tracks. The others seemed to get a little more excited, shaking their heads in all directions and snarling more loudly. His face focused, his finger on the trigger of his automatic rifle, Roman killed several crocodiles in a row, aiming between the eyes when he could. But the animals were surprisingly fast despite their size and obvious bulk. He kicked one away, narrowly missing the fangs that were about to end into his calf, and narrowly knocked it down. He felt a pang of stress tightening his gut as he saw that wherever he looked, the room was literally filled with hungry crocodiles. Despite the corpses piling up in front of them, the animals seemed to keep coming back in droves.
Kurtis cast several insistent glances back and shook his head sharply.
"Everyone on the pedestal!", he shouted suddenly as he dodged another reptile whose jaw snapped just inches from his arm.
Lara shot the animal down. Jean Yves and Mark did not hesitate and climbed the high pedestal on which the two gigantic statues were standing. Lara followed, trying to shoot as many crocodiles as possible. Then Roman and Kurtis, who were covering their backs, climbed up in turn. The ferocious beasts showed their displeasure with a few more yelps, aggressively jostling each other to get a piece of fresh flesh.
Out of breath, the five companions gradually sat up. They were safe for the moment, but their hopes were dashed when the sight of hundreds of hungry crocodiles undulating a few inches below came into view. The place was full of raging animals, it looked like a tide of zombies. Mark glanced at the animals in disgust. Jean Yves had taken refuge a little further away, completely panicked. Lara, Kurtis and Roman still managed to kill a few more, but they realised it was probably a waste. They were trapped.
"What do we do now?!", the Russian shouted.
Hard to say, indeed. Lara tried to look around them, but it was difficult for her to concentrate with all the noise and the reptiles' incessant movements. And she had to admit, she had never been in such a situation before, she had never seen such a configuration in a pyramid. Despite the gunfire and the hubbub, she tried to think: it was obvious the crocodiles were not there to protect anything. At least not directly. They were a decoy, a sort of diversion. This room had clearly been designed so that whoever entered it would not be able to get out, the young woman was pretty sure there would be no possible exit or anything in this room. Which, of course, seriously complicated things for them.
She turned to one side, then the other, her gaze a little squinted, as if that would allow her to see through the darkness.
"Do you have a plan to get us out of here?!", Mark asked nervously.
The adventuress shook her head, before looking up at the two statues. Then an idea occurred to her. Without bothering to explain, she turned and walked towards the foot of the nearest statue, abandoning her companions. Roman and Jean Yves exchanged a surprised look, but Kurtis did not seem to react too much. Despite the height that now separated them from the hideous beasts, he preferred to remain on his guard, ready to shoot to keep away the too reckless beasts.
Lara then began to climb the statue's leg. The stone was smooth, which did not help her to progress as fast as she wanted. However, she reached the statue's hips fairly quickly, before climbing up onto its chest. To climb the last few feet, she leaned on the ornamental carvings that hung around its neck, so that she could reach one of the shoulders. She realised, however, that she would not be able to go much higher: the enormous heads of the two crocodile gods were stuck to the ceiling, thus depriving the whole room of support.
Lara took a moment to observe the surroundings. Down below, she saw her comrades waiting quietly and without a word. From where she stood, the image of the crocodiles as a living tidal wave was even more compelling. As for the statues, she didn't notice anything strange, nor did she notice anything in particular. A few feet away, the enormous divine headdress and its ornaments cascaded down over the shoulders of the other statue. To her regret, Lara did not notice any sink, any trapdoor or anything else that she had hoped would help find a way out. Trying not to feel discouraged, she turned her attention to the ceiling supported by the two huge statues. There wasn't much in the way of inscriptions or hieroglyphics. But on closer inspection, there was definitely something engraved in the stone. The young woman climbed a little higher, as much as she could, to get closer. But it was extremely dark up here, she took out a torch.
At first she could not make out much, but then her attention was focused on some kind of lines, sometimes straight, sometimes more rounded, that ran across the ceiling. She couldn't get any closer, but the lines did seem to be drawing something. The adventuress' heart skipped a beat when she finally recognised a circle, surrounded by straight lines of various sizes, all of which seemed to converge towards it. The idea seemed somewhat incongruous to her, but it made her think of a kind of simplified sun, whose centre was precisely located between the two statues.
"Did you find anything?", Kurtis shouted from below.
She didn't answer, she was too focused on her movements. She reached into her backpack, and then pulled out two ice axes: she grabbed the first one and stuck it into the back of the head of the statue she was standing on, which would give her a foothold. Holding firmly the axe to counterbalance herself, she also secured her position resting her feet against the statue. With her free hand and the other axe, she then began to tap the ceiling. The stone made a loud creaking noise, but the weapon stuck in without difficulty. When she pulled it out, small blocks of rock crumbled and fell into the void.
"Be careful," cried Jean Yves, who took a step to the side to avoid getting the rocks and dust on his head.
They exchanged a look of dismay with Mark. Then suddenly the amount of dust falling from above increased, the rocks became a little bigger. The four men had to cling to the statues' legs to protect themselves. Lara was digging like a born force, scraping the ceiling with all her might with her ice axe. A deep hole appeared in the stone, she gritted her teeth a little more. And then, finally, the ice axe's blade stumbled on something. Or rather, it stumbled into the void. When Lara stopped digging and took a look, she couldn't believe her eyes. There was indeed something above, and in this case, a room.
She let out a small cry of triumph and began to dig again, working hard to enlarge the opening she had just created. A large stone block broke off and fell into the void before ricocheting off the statue and crashing into some crocodiles below. After several minutes, the hole was big enough to hold them all. She climbed back down onto the statue to steady herself. She then took out the grappling hook, and cocked it. After a short second of concentration, she aimed, and pulled the trigger. The weapon's hooked metal head whizzed through the air and disappeared into the darkness. Only a second later, she heard a sort of scraping sound, and then the rope suddenly tightened. The grappling hook's head had stuck somewhere.
After making sure the rope held, Lara let it fall back into the void. At the bottom, Kurtis caught it. Despite the distance between them, the Englishwoman had no difficulty seeing him blink.
That's my girl
He then signalled to the archaeologists to come closer and grab the rope. The climb was difficult, but Jean Yves reached the statue's shoulder and the adventuress first. Mark took much longer, his arm muscles burnt like crazy now. He stopped several times to catch his breath. But the more he climbed, the less progress he seemed to make. He paused at the level of the statue's hips, where the relief of the loincloth allowed him to put both feet down and stop for a moment. With the encouragement of his companions, he resumed his climb, gritting his teeth more than ever. But just as he reached the statue's shoulder, his hurt foot slipped. An expression of amazement mixed with terror appeared on his face as he realised he was about to fall. His hands firmly grabbed the rope, but his feet were dangling in the air. He let out a scream and struggled. Lara and Jean Yves rushed to help him. They managed to grab him by one hand each, and finally pulled him to safety. When the rope was stabilised, Kurtis was able to climb up, not without a sense of relief at the idea of getting away from the hungry crocodiles, which remained amassed at the foot of the two statues and desperately watched the young man disappear. But no sooner had he reached the level of the others than Lara was already climbing up to the hole above their heads. She let herself hang in the void, and with the strength of her arms and legs, pulled herself upwards. When her head was through the opening, she put both hands on the ledges and pulled herself up. After a quick, even if only approximate look around to make sure that nothing was waiting for them here, the young woman leaned over the hole to help the two archaeologist. Jean Yves sat on the ground for a moment, heavily out of breath, while Mark gave everything he had to pull himself up through the hole, before finally collapsing on the ground, dripping with sweat. Roman appeared in his turn, and a few moments later, it was Kurtis' turn to join them.
A strange silence settled. The five companions took time to catch their breath. To their surprise, they had reached another room, much smaller than the ones they had passed through so far. Its domed shape, like the previous one, and the openings in the walls that looked out, as if they had been small windows, clearly suggested that they were under the top of the pyramid.
The adventuress slowly got up and took a few steps. Not far from her, she sensed that Kurtis was also on edge. All they could see in this enclosed space was the two huge and imposing pillars that were facing them. And they clearly saw the triangles drawn onto both of them: one with the point upwards, and the other inverted.
Lara and Kurtis exchanged a meaningful glance, while behind them, their companions straightened up one after the other. Outside, they heard a dull roar. A storm was coming.