Chapter Three

Korsveien

Lara felt the impact of the waves enhanced by the fact she was inside the truck; she knew she would have to move soon. The boat trip when on for a few hours, movement on the boat's deck seemed minimal. Lara needed a plan to escape the truck and boat just before the boat reached its final stop. Deciding to leave the safety of her hiding spot, she moved out cautiously towards the end of the truck. She stopped and listened for any sounds on the deck. Nothing, everything seemed quiet and the sea was calm with only a slight sea breeze. Taking a final look around she climbed out of the truck and looked around the deck. It had the crane at the front of the boat and several containers strapped down around the deck. Catching Lara's attention was a lifeboat attached to the side of the boat, ready to be used in an emergency. She looked around the deck, it was clear. She headed towards the life boat and inspected it. It wasn't fancy and looked as if it could only carry five to six people at most. It did however provide Lara with enough space to hide in it. Not wanting to stay out in the open any longer, Lara jumped into the lifeboat and once again hid under some blankets at the back of the lifeboat. Lara slowed her breathing and waited. The trip lasted another hour before the boat began slowing. Lara heard some movement followed by voices on the deck as there finally the journey was seemly coming to an end. Lara listened in to the conversations.

"Are you sure you're ready for this type of cold?"

Some awkward laughing followed the comment. Lara guessed the conversation was between a senior Trinity leader and a new recruit. More silence, then more voices.

"Regroup and take stock of the new recruits and then head straight to the rendezvous point to search the spot the boss wanted us to look at".

Lara felt confident the boss was J.G.H. the mystery leader of this Trinity Cell. The discussion died down and the boat continued to slow until it came to a full stop. There was an outburst of noise and movement as the boat was tied to the dock. Lara chanced a peek at the deck. Trinity soldiers started jumping onto the dock and unloading the supplies. The crane was attached to the first truck and the unloading process was in full swing. Lara watched closely looking for an opening where she could jump onto the dock without been seen. On the dock a few fishing huts had been set up and they were close enough to the boat that she could use them as cover. Trinity and the boat staff were completely preoccupied with exchanging goods and money at the far end of the dock, Lara saw this as her best chance. Cautiously she stepped on the deck and made her way to the makeshift fishing huts, watching the exchange at the end of the dock. Reaching the fishing huts, Lara listened for any sign of someone who may have spotted her. Nothing, it seemed she was in the clear, for now. Waiting for the Trinity troopers to clear out and the boat staff returned to their boat, Lara leaves the fishing huts and goes up the road. Green hills with winding roads and a clear blue sky. Lara came to a crossroads and checked the signs to find out where she was now. Korsveien the sign read; Lara had a cursory knowledge of different languages and recognized this as Norwegian. Lara looked around for phone box and after wandering around the area she found one at an outlook car park. Ringing for a taxi, she looked around her surroundings. The green hill continued all around her and the odd clumps of trees, the blue sky was starting to grey over. The taxi arrived and Lara climbed in.

"Afternoon miss, where are we off too?"

The taxi driver was an elderly man with a mostly bald head of grey hair. He had what sounded like old Norwegian folk music on. Lara checked her tracker on the trucks.

"Afternoon, sorry I have some odd directions, this is my first-time visiting Norway."

The driver nodded; Lara continued.

"Head north and I'll update you as we go."

The taxi driver frowned slightly but nodded once more and then started driving north.

The drive continued for a while, Lara looked out the window and now the sky was now completely grey and the temperance was dropping rapidly. Geographically they were heading inland and towards a valley in between two mountains. Checking the tracker Lara saw the trucks had come to stop. Looking closer it appeared they stop directly in the middle of the valley, strangely it looked as if they were inside the right mountain. Lara wondered if they had entered a hidden base. The center of the valley was approaching. Lara waited till they were only ten minutes' walk away from the tracker.

"Here is a fine place to stop."

The taxi driver looked at Lara bemusedly in his rear-view mirror.

"Here? There's only an empty valley."

Lara understood how odd her request appeared and had prepared a response.

"I'm a rock climber and I'm meeting a friend in area to check out a spot."

The taxi driver relaxed and nodded.

"Sorry, didn't mean to pry, I just didn't want to abandon you in the middle of nowhere.

Lara smiled at the driver and got ready to pay him.

"Thank you for your concern."

The taxi stopped and Lara paid, thanking the driver once more and then exited the taxi. Lara looked around, the two mountains on each side towered over. From a distance it would look like it was once a whole mountain that had been sliced down the middle. The taxi driver was right, this was the middle of nowhere. Lara checked the tracker; it was still a walk to the location but they weren't moving. Pushing towards the location, the rocky face of the eastern front starting eroding away and eventually it opened up to a cavern. The cavern looked artificially made, no plant life was anywhere to be seen. In the middle was a set of warehouses, Trinity was gathered around them. Lara hugged the darkest wall and headed towards a rock formation closer to the warehouses. Trinity soldiers moved supplies from the warehouses into new trucks, two of which looked like troop trucks and the last one was just a supply truck. Lara positioned herself behind the rock formation and watched them closely. The supplies they were moving were in fact winter jackets, boots with ice cleats and various other cold climate gear. Lara felt horribly unequipped for coming trip. Surveying the area and weighting up her options, she decides the best course of action was to stowaway on the supply truck. The truck had no cover and was just open truck and trailer. It would also be the last to leave so it would be the easiest to jump onto with the least amount of risk. Lara kept watching as slowly Trinity finished up loading the new trucks and were starting to head out. Keeping to the shadows Lara crawled from her current position to a closer rock formation, the ground had a gentle descent towards the warehouses.

Wrapping up, the last of the Trinity recruits and soldiers got into the troop trucks and they started heading towards the exit. Lara stuck down low and waited for chance to get onto the supply truck, she would only have one opportunity. The last of the supplies were loaded and the remaining Trinity locked the warehouses and climbed into the truck. Lara would have to stick to the shadows and move quickly. The truck moved towards the exit. Lara's spot was close but she would still need to cover some distance. The truck got closer and Lara hid down. As the truck moved past her, she darted out and followed directly behind so on one could see her. The truck wasn't moving fast and was now slowing further due to the ascent. Lara moved quickly and jumped for the back end of the truck. It held just; the trailer was solid enough for Lara to roll herself into the back. She was in, although she felt her lucky run was wearing thin. Nonetheless she was now on the back of the truck and heading towards the new location.

The journey is long and they seem to head inland as the sea completely disappears. The sky above Lara was breaking the grey up slowly as a clear blue came through. Nightfall was approaching and Lara was grateful for the cover of darkness, she just hoped they would arrive at the location soon. The drive continued long into the night. Lara eyelids were heavy, she'd only just realized how tired she was while lying in the supply truck. She knew she couldn't keep sleep away forever and put her headphones in and set a song to start playing in an hour and half. Lara shut her eyes. Sleep came surprisingly easy; Lara was used to sleeping on the road. The opening melody of the song started playing in Lara's headphones and she stirred herself awake. The truck was still traveling and looking above her, she could swear she could see faint colors. The temperature had got much colder now and Lara reached for a jacket among the supplies, she just hoped they were in too much of a rush to notice a missing jacket. The lights above her were getting stronger. Lara realized these lights must be part of the aurora of the Northern lights. It was incredibly rare to see the full spectrum of colors that were on display. Faintly, she could see there were clear lines that seemed to be running diagonally towards one point. She couldn't see where the final point was, but it seemed to be there somewhere. They kept driving for an another hour or so before Lara heard someone shouting ahead of them.

"Fifteen minutes till arrival."

Finally the journey was coming to an end, Lara felt glad she had some rest. She would need to jump off before the trucks came to a full stop. Counting the minutes, she reached thirteen and watched as the trucks pulled into a sheltered cave archway. It wasn't a cave exactly as the roof of it the was letting the light come in, similar to a skylight. The front two trucks slowed to a crawl and Lara took that as her chance to exit the supply truck. She grabbed the guards of the trailer and carefully dropped herself onto the ground, while keeping in line with the trucks so no one could look in their mirrors and see her. The trucks in front came to a full stop, once again this cave was covered with natural rock formations that made for perfect places for Lara to hide. She quickly moved behind the one she was closes to, feeling the cold in the air she was happy she grabbed the Trinity jacket. Watching Trinity climb out of the trucks, then the senior soldiers started handing out the jackets and other gear they had loaded earlier. It looked like they were gearing up for exploring rather than combat, possibly a test for the recruits. What made no sense to Lara, was what made this so important to Trinity. The light from the hole in the ceiling shifted further up. She moved forward carefully and looked past the trucks to what laid ahead of them. The light kept moving and eventually Lara could she the colors from the Northern lights start pouring in. The lines among the colors was now meeting up into one spectrum of all the colors moving towards the far wall of the cave. Trinity moved towards the door and Lara followed, staying in the shadows and behind cover. The light finally covered the far wall, now Lara could see it wasn't a wall. It was a doorway with a large door.

The door looked possibly forty feet tall and forty feet wide, all around the doorway was Nordic runes and symbols. The connected spectrum of the Northern lights met at a single point on a large individual rune above the doors. The sound of creaking gears and mechanisms filled the cave. The door opened by themselves. Now Lara knew why Trinity was here for.