The Wages of Sin
Together, the trio raced double-time back the way they had come, tracing their way back using the arrows Anna had made. No other explosions came, but there was a low rumbling noise that echoed from somewhere in the deep that hastened their way. Before long, they rounded the corner back to the supply depot, where the curious sight of daylight greeted them.
They stopped in their tracks when they suddenly heard voices from around the corner. Elsa and Anna pressed themselves against a wall while Kristoff took cover on the side opposite to them. They clicked off their flashlights and removed their respirators.
"Shh shh shh!" Elsa shushed as she peered around the corner.
"You shh shh shh!" Anna shushed back.
"Guys!" Kristoff whisper-yelled. "Shh!"
Ahead, the light of the afternoon sun was pouring in through the now open bunker entrance. It had been blasted off its hinges and lay on the ground in a smoking pile of bent and twisted iron. A small retinue of armed men were making their way slowly in, aiming their flashlights that were mounted on their weapons around the interior of the supply depot.
"That's not good," Kristoff ducked back behind the wall.
"What is it?" Anna asked quietly.
"We've got company," Elsa warned.
"What? How?" Anna asked, crouching in front of Elsa as she tentatively peeked around the corner. "Crap. Who the hell are these guys?"
Far ahead of them, the armed men, numbering about six in total, were spreading out and slowly proceeding towards their position.
"Fan out. Search the complex. Their climbing gear is still outside, so they still must be here," a voice called out. "Alive or dead doesn't matter. The boss just wants them out of the picture."
Anna reached down for her pistol in her holster to get it ready. "Well, what do we do?"
"They've got us cornered," Elsa replied as she withdrew her own weapon.
"Just follow my lead," Kristoff said, gesturing for them to move silently as he slunk out from cover and crept forward.
Between the numerous stacks of crates and parked vehicles, there was plenty of cover to use that offered them concealment and afforded them the opportunity to sneak up on their foes undetected.
The group of armed men had split off in different directions, spreading out as they carefully searched the entrance of the bunker complex. A lone gunman was approaching a pile of sandbags that Kristoff was kneeling behind as he lay in wait. Across the way, Elsa and Anna were similarly hidden behind some barrels.
Kristoff quietly gestured towards Elsa and Anna for them to stay put. "I got this," he mouthed silently.
The gunman paused on the opposite side, inspecting a pile of nearby crates when Kristoff shot up, grabbed the man by his collar and punched him square across the jaw. Then, he used his strength to drag the man over the top of the sandbags before he could react and slammed the back of his head into the ground, knocking him out. In the span of a few seconds, Kristoff had already quietly dispatched one of the gunmen.
"Nice and quiet," Kristoff whispered. "Just like that."
Elsa and Anna nodded their understanding and departed from their cover, heading towards the nearby truck that was parked off to the side. Another gunman was advancing on their position, shining his light through the windows of the trucks he passed by. He paused and climbed on the wheel by the back of the truck, peering into the cargo bed as he faced away from Elsa and Anna, unaware of their presence.
The sisters nodded silently to each other, then separated as Anna broke off and tiptoed down the opposite side of the truck. At the same time, Elsa slowly inched forward until she reached the front, just a short distance shy of the gunman. She peered around the corner and spotted Anna in a similar position, lying in wait.
"Psst," Elsa whispered.
"Huh?" the gunman whirled around. "Who's there? Weiss? Are you playing tricks again?" he walked over to where Elsa was hiding.
With his back turned towards Anna, she leapt out of the shadows and wrapped her arms around his neck and tightened them as she held him in a chokehold. He gasped in surprise and as just he opened his mouth to call out for his allies, Elsa darted outwards and kicked him in the diaphragm, forcing the air out of his lungs and silencing him. He fell to his knees then quickly passed out under Anna's grasp and fell limp. Anna released him and he slumped onto the ground.
A flashlight passed over their position, then snapped back and lingered, causing Elsa and Anna to freeze for a moment before it started it waving about erratically. In front of them, they could see Kristoff holding another gunman in a chokehold as he rendered him unconscious. He had struck at just the right time before Elsa and Anna were discovered. As he laid the unconscious gunman to the ground, he gave the sisters a thumbs up before slinking away.
"That was a close one," Anna muttered.
"Look out!" Elsa whisper-yelled as she dashed forward and pulled Anna back behind the truck.
A pair of gunmen were passing by when Elsa spotted them. She pulled Anna out of sight and held her arm protectively over her chest as it heaved up and down. She felt the gentle swell of Anna's breasts brush against her forearm, igniting a trail of chilly goosebumps along her skin. Elsa withdrew her arm as if she had been burned.
Anna missed the contact immediately, and even felt the peaks of her breast begin to stiffen and rise in response. What the hell? she thought, then remembered their precarious position.
She did not know why her body had responded the way it did to Elsa's touch. Perhaps it was a mixture of the cold, the danger, or the strange and unknown desire that had been growing steadily in the presence of her older sister. In any case, it certainly was not the time nor the place to dwell on it.
The pair of gunmen had nearly passed them by, when a string of shouting followed by gunfire split the air. They stopped in their tracks and raced towards the shots.
"Contact! Open fire!"
Deciding to forego stealth, Elsa and Anna darted out of the shadows and engaged the pair of gunmen in a short melee. Surprised as they were, each of the gunmen were unprepared for Elsa's boot heel that found one's face, nor Anna's pistol grip that slammed into the other's head. They crumpled quickly beneath their combined assault, barely able to retaliate before each of them were dispatched by another flurry of rapid blows delivered by the sisters.
Elsa and Anna looked up in time to see Kristoff running out under a hail of bullets and diving over a pile of crates. He peeked out and took aim with his revolver, placing a well aimed shot between the eyes of another gunman leaning out from behind a pillar. A volley of return fire slammed into his position, forcing Kristoff to shrink back down.
Just then, four other gunmen came running into the bunker from outside, having heard the commotion within. They spotted Elsa and Anna standing above two of their fallen comrades and opened fire immediately. Elsa and Anna both ducked and ran towards Kristoff's position until they reached a pile of sandbags adjacent to him.
"So much for nice and quiet, huh!" Anna shouted to Kristoff over the gunfire.
Kristoff fired blindly over the crates with his revolver until it clicked empty. "You can yell at me later, now can you please shoot something!" he yelled as he snapped open the cylinder. Hot brass sprung out as he inserted fresh rounds.
Elsa sprung up with her pistol, taking careful aim and squeezing off a few rounds at the nearest gunman. He fell over dead, and the remainder of the shooters split their fire as they pinned down the trio. Three of them remained, with two of them providing covering fire as another flanked their position.
Anna spotted the flanking gunman and took aim with her own pistol. "Kristoff! Duck!" she yelled.
"Wha- woah!" Kristoff turned and knelt down, shielding his head with his hands when he saw Anna aiming in his direction.
Once he was out of the way, Anna fired until the gunman dropped. As he fell, he let loose on his trigger and fired erratically, causing an errant bullet to bounce off the ground and whiz by Anna's ear. She flinched from the bullet that just passed by her and crouched back behind cover. On the other side, Elsa ducked back down, sliding the empty magazine out of her pistol and slotting a new one in, then she pulled back on the slide to chamber a new round.
With the rest of their allies dead, the two remaining gunmen were overcome by a surge of fury and rushed forward, abandoning their cover. One of them leapt over the crates where Kristoff was kneeling and walloped him over the head with his fist. The other charged towards Elsa as she finished reloading, and before she could take aim, he grabbed her pistol and wrenched it out her grasp. Next, he raised his own weapon in the air and meant to bring it down on Elsa when Anna caught his wrist and pushed him back against the sandbags.
Anna struggled with the weapon in the man's hand, pointing it up and away as he fired off continuous shots in an attempt to shoot her. Elsa recovered and drove her knee into the man's stomach. Anna followed up by headbutting him in the nose. The gunman backed away from Anna, and Elsa used the opportunity to deliver a final blow by spinning on her foot and striking out with her other, dropping him with a roundhouse kick to the face.
"Guys! Agh… little help!" Kristoff shouted as he struggled in his opponent's grasp.
Elsa picked up her pistol and took aim. "Get down!" she shouted.
Kristoff repeatedly drove his elbows hard into his opponent's sides, causing him to release his grip. "No, wait, Wait!" he yelped as he held up his hands and bent over.
Elsa dropped the final gunman with a single shot to the chest and he fell on his back, dead.
"Are you two crazy!" Kristoff rose up and shouted in indignation. He patted the top of his head twice then jabbed a finger at Elsa and Anna. "You could have blown my head off!"
"We saved your life," Elsa said.
"You're welcome!" Anna added cheerfully.
Kristoff sighed and shook his head. "Let's just get the hell out of here," he grumbled as he put away his revolver.
"Hold on a second," Elsa held up her hand when she noticed the uniform worn by one of the gunmen. She turned him over and revealed the logo of the Westguard company emblazoned on his uniform. "That's what I thought," she scowled.
"Oh crap," Anna muttered.
"Yeah… crap," Kristoff muttered and ran a hand through his hair. "What the hell do Westguard goons want with us?'
"It's Hans and Weselton," Elsa said. "They must be after the grail, same as we are."
"Great! That's just great," Anna tossed her hands up in frustration. "So, what then? Those two assholes are working together and now we've got competition?"
"Looks that way," Kristoff rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "We better hightail it outta here, come on."
... ... ...
"Alright, I think the coast is clear," Anna said as she glanced down either end of the hallway before entering their hotel room.
They had returned to their lodging in Bavaria after an uneventful drive back, which they were thankful for after their encounter with Hans's mercenaries. Elsa and Kristoff shuffled past her, and Anna closed the door behind them with a soft click. She then strode through the room to the table where she had left her belongings, as well as several maps and charts pinned to a cork board. As Anna busied herself with shuffling through her papers and muttering to herself, Kristoff raided the mini-bar and Elsa sat on her bed, pulling off her boots.
"I hope you plan on paying for those, because we aren't covering your tab again," Elsa chided as Kristoff twisted open a bottle of scotch.
Kristoff held up a single finger as he took a long swig, then reached into his pocket and tossed the gold bar to Elsa. "I'm good for it," he said as he set the bottle down and smirked.
Anna finished pinning her maps to the wall and stepped back to consider their new vectors. "Okay… okay… okay," she continued to mutter to herself.
"So," Kristoff took another sip. "What's our next move?"
Anna pinned two thumbtacks over the southern portion of the Arabian desert known as the Rub' al Khali, or the empty quarter. She threaded a red string between the two thumbtacks and stepped back again.
"Okay… so. The Nazis believed they narrowed down the city of Sarras to these two locations," Anna pointed to the thumbtacks connected by red string.
"Sarras was supposed to be a coastal city near Egypt, at least, according to the accounts of Joseph of Arimathea," Elsa said as she walked over next to Anna and studied the maps. "How could it be so far inland?"
"Maybe he had it wrong?" Anna shrugged. "By some other accounts, Joseph of Arimathea never even accompanied Galahad and the others to Sarras. His son did, and if that's true, it makes his version even less reliable."
"That's right. What was his son's name again," Elsa paused then snapped her fingers when the answer came to her. "Josephus! That was his name."
"Joseph? Josephus? Alright this is getting too much for me," Kristoff waved his hands hurriedly. "Let's pretend I already know about all this stuff and cut to the case would ya?"
Anna chuckled. "A man only interested in the climax. You must be a real hit with the ladies," she teased.
"No complaints so far," Kristoff held up his hands in defense.
Elsa rolled her eyes and then frowned when an odd pang of jealousy struck her then. Anna and Kristoff's friendship was so easy and natural for them, and this brief moment of camaraderie provided a snapshot to the times they shared together when Elsa was not around. How many inside jokes did they share? How much did they know about each other? These doubts were enough to put Elsa at unease, and she felt ashamed again for not being better, for not being there.
"Alright, look. Forget all that crap about Joseph-whos-its because all that matters is that three of King Arthur's knights; Galahad, Percival, and Bors set out to return the holy grail to Sarras. After they made it there, they stayed for about a year to reintroduce the locals to Christianity and Jesus and yadda yadda yadda," Anna explained. "After they spread the word of the good lord, God decided to thank them by allowing Galahad to witness the grail ascend to heaven," she turned to Elsa. "Did I miss anything?"
Elsa tapped her chin in thought. "Galahad died shortly after witnessing the grail's ascension. Then, Percival died shortly after him. Bors was the only knight from the round table left and he returned to Britain to tell the king of the quest. But if it's true, and assuming that the grail didn't actually float up into the sky, then the remains of Galahad and Percival will be at Sarras, along with the grail."
"So, the only catch is that the grail might have actually just magically disappeared and we would be hauling our asses all the way out to the middle of the desert for nothing," Kristoff said and fixed Elsa and Anna with a pointed stare. "I'd say our chances are pretty good," he grinned and crossed his arms confidently.
"Yup," Anna agreed. "The only problem is, these two places are over two hundred kilometers apart."
"And we can't be in two places at once," Kristoff said.
Elsa frowned. "We have to split up."
"What?" Anna turned to Elsa. "No, there must be some way to-
"She's right," Kristoff said. "We've got competition now. Hans has a whole army at his disposal, chances are they're already heading to both of these locations now."
"What does he even want with the grail anyways?" Anna asked. "It's not like he's hard up on cash."
"I'm not sure," Elsa muttered. "I've done some digging on his operation. The Westguard is a huge family of business magnates. They've got a hand in nearly every industry in Germany. Automotive, electronics, energy, you name it. Hans is the youngest of thirteen other children, and they all command a piece of the family empire. Except for him."
"So, what?" Kristoff started. "He wants to carve out a little place of the world for himself, is that it?"
"Maybe. His company shares the family name, but he runs it completely independent from their empire. Westguard Security Solutions was in some hot water a few years ago. Apparently, Hans backed a few wars and a revolution that didn't turn out in his favor," Elsa continued. "Perhaps this is his way of getting back back into the good graces of his family."
"Doesn't change the fact him and Weselton are still a couple of rich pricks looking to make a name for themselves," Anna grumbled. "You guys are right, we can't risk losing the grail to a fifty-fifty chance. We need to split up," she turned to Kristoff. "How soon can we get to Yemen?"
"About a day, I reckon," Kristoff said. "You guys better pack a lot of sunscreen."
... ... ...
Elsa closed the bathroom door behind her after Anna had finished. She stripped naked and entered the shower, standing halfway out as she turned on the water and waved her hand through until it was at a suitable temperature. Satisfied, she stepped fully in and allowed the water to cascade over her head and down her body.
She closed her eyes as she relaxed, gradually loosening the muscles in her body as her thoughts soon drifted to Anna. Ordinarily, Anna was never far from her mind, but as of late, her thoughts had been taking on a more unsettling turn as she considered her younger sister in increasingly strange ways that she never had before. Elsa took more notice of Anna's appearance now, and first, she thought of her eyes. Anna's round blue-green perfect eyes that held a pool of emotion that drew from a deep reservoir of intense feeling. Next, Elsa thought of Anna's face; her soft and sloping jawline, her slender nose, her dusting of freckles that Elsa could map like the constellations, her smooth and supple lips that often widened into a grin or a smile or a smirk as bright as the sun. Then, she thought of Anna's body; the leanness of the muscles in her arms, the planes of her sculpted thighs. Elsa recalled the way her arm had brushed against Anna's soft breasts in the bunker, relishing the way the goosebumps spread like wildfire as they had then, and just as they were now. She pictured Anna in the shower when she had used it just before herself, imagining how she might soap and lather her body, running her hands over her breasts and down her sides, over her stomach.
Despite the warm water, Elsa felt an even warmer flush between her thighs as the unmistakable bud of arousal flowered within her core. First, she thought of Anna running her hands over her own body, then Elsa pictured her own hands on Anna's body before her addled mind conjured the image of Anna running her hands on Elsa's body. She snapped out her thoughts then and opened her eyes. She hadn't even realized that she was mimicking Anna's imaginary movements in her mind.
Elsa was suddenly disgusted with herself, ashamed of her own thoughts and disturbed of where they had emerged from. She glanced out the glass doors of the shower towards the mirror and almost didn't recognize the lustful creature staring back at her. Elsa tore her eyes away, desperate to look at anything else when her eyes settled upon Anna's swimming goggles she had left by the sink. Even after all this time, Anna still lived with her fear.
Feeling intensely distressed, Elsa adjusted the temperature knob until the water was freezing cold. The sudden shock washed away her sinful arousal and her immoral thoughts. Elsa knelt until she sat on the floor of the shower, shaking not from the cold, but from the sobs that wracked her body.
I'm a monster.
Elsa felt unworthy of her Anna's love, unsuitable of her warmth and undeserving of the happiness she gave so selflessly to her.
This is what you deserve.
... ... ...
She's taking a while. I hope she's alright, Anna thought as she toweled her hair.
With the excitement of the bunker behind them, Anna had time to reflect upon everything they had discovered, as well as consider certain bodily responses she had in the face of imminent danger.
She replayed the moment when Elsa pulled her out of sight in time to avoid two of the gunmen, taking her by the shoulders and shielding her with an arm over her chest. Anna was breathing heavily, her chest was heaving up and down and for a small moment, Elsa's arm brushed against her breasts. She recalled seeing goosebumps on Elsa's arm, and more importantly, she recalled the peaks of her breast stiffening in response.
What the hell was that about? Anna frowned. Do I have a thing for danger? Wait, of course I do. But that's not it, this is Elsa we're talking about. Why did it feel good, and why would I have not minded if she kept her arm there? Ugh, I need some fresh air.
Anna stood up, walking towards the balcony where she opened the sliding door to step out into the cool mountain air. She looked out over the city of Munich towards the mountains in the distance. The sun had set and evening advanced as the first stars kindled out of darkness above her as she looked out towards the silent horizon.
A breeze blew gently past Anna, delighting her body with its cool and clean touch. Goosebumps appeared all over her arms and legs, and her nipples hardened in response to the cold sensation. Before she even knew what she was thinking, Anna pictured soft hands cupping her breasts and tweaking her stiff buds followed by the warm and wet touch of soft lips wrapping around them. As that was happening, Anna ran her fingers through platinum blonde hair. She looked down and Anna saw Elsa's face. Anna hummed in contentment, growing warm and moist between her thighs before her eyes shot open.
What the fuck was that? Anna shouted internally. Nope, nuh uh. That did not just happen. Elsa is my sister!
She shivered in place as another colder breeze blew past.
That's it, no more fresh air for me.
Anna turned and stepped back into the room, shutting the sliding door behind her.
I was just cold, that's what happened. It was cold out there. It was cold in the bunker too. That's all it was.
She couldn't wait to get to the desert, where she hoped the heat would dispel these alarming thoughts that had been clouding Anna's mind ever since Elsa returned to her life.
