Before Christine could react the Phantom grabbed her, putting a hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream.
"Don't make a sound or I'll break your neck!" he hissed.
Christine froze, through her terror a thought made its way to the surface of her mind. Did this mean that Erik was truly dead?. She found herself being hauled, none-to-gently into a passage. Whoever this new Phantom was he knew his way around Erik's tunnels and corridors. Finally he took her down to the lake.
"Get in the boat!" he snarled, "Don't try anything funny either!"
Christine obeyed, at that moment she would have given anything to see Erik again, perhaps she should have listened to Raoul and stayed home. There was no knowing what this man was going to do to her.
As The Phantom rowed he wondered what he was going to do with this woman. Killing her was out of the question, considering who she was and what her history at this opera meant that would be the worst thing he could do. He'd have to hold her hostage until he could come up with a plan...
...
"What do you mean she's vanished?"
A vein throbbed in Luc's cheek as he shouted at Madame Giry, who was seated in a chair in his office.
"I mean just what I said, she's gone, disappeared from box five and The Phantom with her," Madame Giry was not unduly worried, this had happened before and she was nearly certain that Christine and Erik were fine.
"WHY IN THE HELL ARE YOU SO CALM WOMAN?" Luc bellowed. "If this gets to the papers I'll be ruined! Don't you understand? The press is looking for me to fail this job because I'm the youngest manager in the history of the Palais Garnier! This sort of cock-up is just what they want and if it leaks then I'm done for!" he sank into his chair and buried his face in his hands. "How could it all have gone wrong so quickly?"
"I wouldn't worry so much, Erik would not harm Christine," said Madame Giry.
"Are you certain?" Luc gave her a hopeful look.
"I am quite sure that all will be fine," she said.
"I hope your right, I don't think I can take it if the famous Christine Daae were to die in this opera house while I was the manager," said Luc. "I want to see this through to the end, I'm not going to quit by any means, this opera house is to important to me. I knew that this would be a hard job, business was bad and the Palaise Garnier was on the brink of ruin when I came here but I'm doing everything I can to change that. Now that this Phantom is interfering I don't know what I'm going to do,"
"Are you going to proceed with tonight's show?" Madame Giry asked.
"Of course, I'm going to keep going with this until the end," said Luc, "Even if it's doomed to fail, the shows must go on, Klara must sing and I will keep up with the expenses and the revenue until I can't anymore."
Madame Giry tilted her head and gave him an appraising look. She had at first thought him a foolish, ambitious boy who was only concerned with his reputation and the money he could make from managing the Opera Populair, but he seemed as if he was genuinely interested in the opera house's success, not just for his own gain but for the sake of the Palais Garnier. Perhaps she had been wrong about him.
"You care about this opera then, Monsieur?"
"How could I not? Just look at it! This opera house is the most magnificent building I've ever seen, I first saw it as a child and ever since then I knew it had to become part of my life. It is a thing of beauty that no other theatre or opera house can match, it cannot simply fall to ruin and be forgotten, I won't let it!" said the young man, his face full of earnestness that bordered on child-like.
It was at that moment that Madame Giry was struck by how truly young Luc was, he may have been ambitious and business minded when if came to his work, but he still believed with his whole heart that if he worked hard enough he would triumph in the end. In a way, he reminded her of Meg. Her daughter was now married and living happily with her husband outside of Paris.
"I see, well, I can assure you that Erik will not harm Christine," she said.
"You seem so certain, how well do you know Erik?" asked Luc.
"It's a long story, and I am old and tired and today is not the day to tell, it," said Madame Giry, "But I hope you can feel a little more at ease now, and I will bid you goodnight," she rose from her seat and took her cane in hand. Then she walked out the door and left Luc alone.
The young Manager sighed and turned to his bookkeeping, he could only hope that Madame Giry was not mistaken about this Phantom, Erik.
...
When he heard in the newspapers that The Phantom of the Opera had seemingly risen from the grave, Nadir Khan, former police chief, or Daroga, as he was called in Persia, knew that he had to go back to Paris to see what was going on. Erik had been quiet for ten years, he'd given up being the Phantom after Christine had left and Nadir hadn't heard from him since. He'd assumed that Erik had either left the country or died. But something was amiss here. He knew he had to investigate, even so he was long retired, he was as sharp as ever and he knew that there had to be a reason for the Phantom to reappear like this, he just had to find out what.
...
Luc was a bit surprised when the Daroga showed up, but when he heard the man's story he eagerly invited him into his office so that Nadir could explain everything...
"I have some suspicions about this Phantom, Erik was my friend you see, I knew him better than even Madam Giry. It stated in the papers that the Phantom pulled some sort of disappearing trick, correct?" asked Nadir.
"Yes, I'd never seen anything like it, one second he was at one side of the room, the next he was at the other," said Luc.
"That would be a difficult feat to pull off, but it wouldn't have shocked me if Erik had done it...twenty years ago," said the Persian.
"You don't think he could pull it off today?" asked Luc,
"No, when last I saw him he was over fifty, and he was suffering heart troubles. It is not likely that today he would be able to do anything that requires so much energy,"
"So what are you saying?" asked Luc, dreading the answer.
"I do not think this Phantom is Erik,"
"Then who could he be?"
"I do not know, but I would like your permission to stay here in Paris and conduct and investigation," said Nadir. He watched the color drain from the younger man's face.
"Who ever he is, he has the Vicomtess De Chagny," said Luc, "Madame Giry said that Erik would not kill her but if this man is not Erik..." he couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence.
Nadir frowned, "There's no telling what he'll do, we have to go down there," he said.
"Down where?" cried Luc,
"The Phantom's lair, I know the way, as long as he hasn't changed the traps I can get us down there, but bring a pistol, there's no telling what he'll do if he catches us," replied the Daroga.
"Shouldn't we summon the police?" cried Luc,
"I don't think we should waste anymore time, besides, I may be able to guide you down safely but there's no way I can ensure that a whole group of people will make it to the lair alive,"
"My God, what if we get there to late?"
"Pray we don't, now follow me,"
...
Luc stayed close to Nadir as he lead him down through the basement of the opera house.
"Put your hand to the level of your eyes, some of Erik's left over lasso traps may still work, he was a master craftsman and I doubt a mere ten years will have been long enough to disable them," cautioned Nadir.
Luc quickly did as he was told and looked nervously from side to side, expecting at any moment for a noose to wrap itself around his neck.
"How did this new Phantom get down here with all these traps...he is down here right? You're not just assuming that he's using Erik's old hideout instead of a different one right?"
"I believe he's down here, after all, a trick like the one he pulled surely makes use of the secret passages,"
"You believe...You don't actually know?" Luc hissed he was starting to get a little irritated with the whole thing.
"Well, no one can be certain, it's just the best lead we have," said Nadir matter-of-factly.
Luc sighed, why could things never go as well as he hoped? They continued walking down the passage until suddenly Nadir signaled for him to stop.
"The floor's given way ahead of us...we can't go down through here," he said.
"What? Then how do we-"
"We don't, this was the only tunnel Erik trusted me to know about and I wouldn't dare try any of the other passages, " he lifted his head and looked about, he had a sudden strange feeling that they weren't alone. "Perhaps we should leave, now," he motioned for the boy to follow him but a rope suddenly coiled around his arm.
Quickly Luc raised his pistol in the direction the rope had sprung from. The flash illuminated the darkness just enough for him to catch a glimpse of the Phantom off to the side in the shadows. His second shot rewarded him with a deep, male, cry and the slackening of the rope around Nadir's arm.
"I shot him!" Luc cried triumphantly.
Nadir was already running over to inspect the limp figure. The bullet had cracked the Phantom's mask but it seemed it had just grazed his temple. The man was already stirring, having only been stunned. Thinking quickly Nadir tied him up with the rope. "We should take him to your office and question him. Find out what he did with Madame De Chagny."
"Should we call the police yet?" Luc asked, while he was worried that this might lead to bad publicity, he didn't want to think that any further negligence to communicate with outside parties might end in tragedy for one of the opera's greatest stars.
"No, all they'll do is arrest him and lock him up, we may need him if Christine is still alive. The Parisian police mean well but likely the most that will happen is that he'll be hanged and we may never find Madame De Chagny," explained Nadir.
"Lovely, we can't keep him tied up in the office forever," said Luc.
"We'll turn him over to the police as soon as we find out what happened to Christine," Nadir said as he hauled the bound man up, "Hold his legs and help me carry him, he's nearly twice as heavy as Erik was..."
...
Once they got him into the office Nadir removed the broken mask, and with it came a black wig. The, thick. gently curling, light blond hair that spilled out made Luc think at first that he was a white man but when he looked more closely at the face he noticed that this man's skin was a little to dark. His nose, lips and cheekbones gave the impression that he may have had Indian or Arabic ancestry.
Nadir looked him over, "Luc, look here, he's got an earring, and he's wearing a Gypsy talisman,". He held up a necklace so that Luc could examine the charm.
"So he's a Gypsy?"
"No, he's a half-breed, my guess is that he was tolerated by a band of Gypsies, for a time, but never really accepted as one of their own," Nadir checked the ropes to make sure he was tied down tightly. The man was beginning to regain his senses and he struggled a bit.
"Stop moving or things will be worse for you!" the Daroga snapped.
"You don't know who you're dealing with!" the man growled, "you'll pay if you don't let me go!"
"Are you going to tell us what you've done with the Vicomtess De Chagny?" Nadir folded his arms and glared down at the man.
"She's not dead, but you'll never find her," replied the man, "I won't tell you anything,"
Nadir's expression turned grim, "Luc...I'd like you to step out side so I can interrogate him properly,"
Luc turned pale and hurried out so that the Persian could get to business. Once the young man had left Nadir turned to the bound man in the chair. "Now...let's see how long you feel like staying quiet," he said.
...
While Luc waited outside he could hear the sound of heavy thumping and deep male grunts coming from with in his office, every so often there would be a pause and Nadir would ask a question, The Phantom would laugh respond venomously in a language that Luc didn't recognize but would have placed as Eastern European. This went on for some time when finally Nadir emerged., closing the door behind him.
"He's unconscious, I don't think he's going to break," he said to Luc.
"What do we do now?"
"Keep trying, if he doesn't tell us where Christine is then we'll hand him over to the police,"
Luc frowned and opened his mouth to ask a question but his words died in his throat when he saw the Phantom stroll right past them on the other side of the hall.
"W-what?" Nadir's jaw dropped, it was the same man, same hair, same clothes but there wasn't a scratch on him. He grinned and winked at the Daroga before he took off down the hall.
"After him!" Nadir shouted pulling Luc along to give the chase. That was impossible! Not even Erik could have pulled off such a feat. As he ran after The Phantom he tried to work out how this trick could have been accomplished. He had just left him tied up in that room! There was no way he'd had time to...
He skidded to a halt as everything became clear to him. "Get back to the room! Hurry!" he said.
"What? But he's going to escape!"
"Let's hope he hasn't already!"
"That doesn't make sense!"
Nadir ran back to the office and threw open the doors, The Phantom was gone. "Dammit!" he groaned, "I should have guessed when you told me about the disappearing trick he pulled at the Gala,"
"What's going on? Why wasn't he injured?" asked Luc.
"Because the wasn't the same man, this whole time our Phantom has been two men. Twins!" Nadir sank into the chair. "I don't know why I didn't figure it out, I've seen tricks like that at carnivals where a magician would use a double to make it seem like he was in two places at once," he said.
"So our Phantom...is actually Phantoms," said Luc.
"And now that we know their secret, they'll come after us."
"Is it time to call the police yet?" asked Luc, his tone a hopeful one.
"Somehow I don't think even the police can help us now..."