Lara

"1, 5, 3, 2, 8." I said, as I entered the code for Francine's apartment. There was a small beep, meaning that I had entered the code correctly. The door flew open, revealing a small garage with a red truck. I walked up the stairs to Francine's door. I opened it, and walked to a woman, presumably Francine.

"Bouchard is in the old church. You need to find the mausoleum in the church yard. It leads down to the church basement."

"Is this the best way?" I asked her.

"It's the only way past the doorman. Watch out for the ledges. They are dangerous."

"Where isn't these days?" I asked rhetorically.

"Welcome to Paris." She replied. With that, I headed out the door to St. Aicard's Church. It was really high up. There were ledges everywhere.

I climbed up a large pipe leading to the guttering. I jumped to them from the pipe, and they started breaking. Just my luck, as usual. I jumped to another pipe, and slid down to yet another ledge. I climbed across a rope to a platform. I dropped to a roof, and climbed down to the ground. I knew there were police dogs around so I climbed up to another roof. I jumped to another roof and then another, and another, and another-

I busted open a door to gain my strength. Then I pushed over an angel statue. It cracked open the coffin lid and I jumped in.

A sewer- really? Rats, disgusting water- what could something (other than a rat) like in here? The place was disgusting. I have no other word for it. Debris and muck – that was all it was. Couldn't Bouchard pick a different hideout, other than a sewer? The place was brick, mostly. Debris covered the passageway I needed to get to so I had to find a way around it. I pulled it out of the way and kicked in a vent. I climbed through it, and reached another room. I busted through the door and reached another passageway with platforms ready to fall.

"OK. I'm ready." I told myself. Then I ran through the platforms into another room. This one was reasonably clean. I opened a cage door. It led to another passageway. One side had two bodyguards. That's the way I was going. Inside another room a sick man with legs made of what looked like grey matter. Looked like works of the Monstrum. I was about to open the door when the two bodyguards put my arms behind my back and pushed me into the same room as Bouchard.

"Found an intruder Bouchard. Says she needs to see you."

"Tell her I'm busy and throw her out." I stepped in.

"What happened to the man in the room out there Bouchard?" I asked.

"To Arnaud? You've got something to say about that?" Bouchard replied angrily.

"Maybe. It might be linked to what happened to a friend of mine."

"I doubt it. Get her out of here." Bouchard told his guards.

"Do you know the name Eckhardt?" I asked.

"Never heard of him."

"OK. You helped a friend of mine a while back. Werner Von Croy."

"Names don't mean a lot here. Even real ones. What did he want?"

"Maps and information, on the Louvre."

"I remember. Four weeks ago. Wanted to take a coach load of Japanese tourists to see the Mona Lisa."

"Easy Bouchard. I lost that friend yesterday. Now I'm wanted for his murder."

"There was a newscast about a Monstrum killing earlier," Bouchard suspiciously questioned me. "What would you know about that?"

"Nothing that would interest you." I eyed him off cautiously.

"You'd be surprised how much the Monstrum interests me." Bouchard replied smugly.

"My friend…? The Louvre…?"

"Yes, the academic. He wanted access to recent archaeological diggings inside the Louvre. I gave him a contact. You want the same?"

"And more. I need 9mm protection, backpack, plastic explosive, stun packs. Paris isn't safe these days."

"Who for? You obviously can take care of yourself."

"Do you have what I need?" I asked, ignoring his question.

"I know who does. Daniel Rennes; works out of the pawnbrokers on the corner of the Rue St. Mark, and Cours La Seine." Bouchard explained.

"What would you suggest?"

"A trade. I have to get certain things into his hands. Passports. You could deliver them for me."

"Why not have one of your men deliver your…passports?" I responded lazily.

"I have no one to spare."

"What happened to your man in the sickroom back there? Was he delivering packages for you too?"

"Poor Arnaud. One of my toughest; the only survivor of four attacks so far." Bouchard shook his head.

"Attacks? By who?"

"An interesting question. We don't know for sure, yet."

"The Paris Monstrum perhaps." I suggested.

"We're looking into that. You should take care."

"An automatic would help. You sold my friend Von Croy some hardware. I need the same."

"That was then. We need all the firepower we can get. Rennes is your man. Is it a deal?"

"OK. Deal." I replied, shaking his hand. I pulled a lever, and it opened up the door next to me. I climbed the stairs, and opened up the passageway door to St. Aicard's Church.

Entering Rennes Pawnshop, a man came through the hallway.

"Step aside." He said. He was wearing a black coat and glasses with red spectacles. He pushed in front of me and exited through the door. The place was messed up! The desk was pushed over to one side, books and comics were everywhere, a chair sat broken in the corner, shelves fallen over and, the worst thing of them all, Daniel Rennes, lay dead on the floor, with a symbol of blood next to him. Daniel must've offered the Monstrum money, because his wallet sat next to him. I didn't want to act cold, but I picked up his wallet and searched it. In it was a small scrap of paper, holding the code to the safe up ahead.

"1, 4, 5, 2, 9" I said as I pressed in the numbers to the safe. The door slowly opened and it contained three shelves with weapons and maps.

"Werner obviously never had the chance to collect it." I said as I picked up the items. It was exactly what I needed. Plastic explosives, a dart gun, K2 impactor, poison darts, maps of the Louvre Storm Drains, maps of the Louvre, batteries for the K2 Impactor.

As I picked up the Louvre Storm Drains, the door behind me shut, and lasers turned on.

"Dammit!" I yelled. I pressed the button behind me, and it opened up the door. I heard beeping. I checked behind the bookshelf and saw that there was a bomb, with thirty seconds left until it exploded. I opened up a trapdoor in the ground, and jumped into a large pipe. I ran and swan dived out of it, and landed on a boat. The man I'd seen in Café Metro threw his cigarette, and it slowly tumbled into the water, and I realized what kind of powers he had.

Eckhardt

"Esteemed Cabal members, the hour of your reward grows ever closer. As you know we already possess three of the Obscura Paintings. Our contact Professor Von Croy has located the fourth one for us here, in Paris." I said, as I walked slowly around the circular tables. The Cabal is made up of five people; me; Pieter Van Eckhardt, JoachimKarel, Dr. GrantMuller, Kristina Boaz and Luther Rouzic.

"When we have this we will reassemble in Prague. It is time to awaken THE SLEEPER. Hopefully we will be more successful this time. We are also closer to the fifth and last Obscura painting in Prague. We will gather at the Strahov. Gunderson!" Gunderson came into the room.

"Master Eckhardt…"

"Dispatch your team for the fourth painting."

"Immediately!"

Lara

I got off the boat after I'd put my black shirt on. The place was a scrapyard; no literally, a car cemetery. A fence circled the place. The door to get to the other side was locked, so I had to find another way around. I checked the map. The entrance to the Louvre was past the fence amidst the cars.

I found a crane. An easy way to get rid of the cars. I moved the claw to pick up a bunch of cars, and it unblocked the entrance to the Storm Drains. I got off the crane, and slid down into the Drains.