Chapter 3

It was April and weather was warm and dry, almost like summer. When Lara arrived at that village in nothern Greece that morning, it was as always peaceful. Lara decided to go around it and directly to the river and the cave, so he made the left turn at the crossroads on her Ducati and headed towards the hills.

Not a quarter later, she was there. It was silent, as always, invisible for unsuspecting visitors, cleverly hidden behind a hillside. The mouth of the cave was small and concealed by a thick tree and bushes. Lara found it easily and entered the dark cave. It took her a couple of seconds to adjust her gaze to the lack of light, but she was soon able to see around the cave. It was approximately twenty yard wide and thirty yard long, with a waterfall pouring down through an opening in the ceiling, which was the only source of daylight in the small shadowy cave.

In the far corner, through the waterfall, there was a passage that led to another cavern. Lara commando crawled through it and soon stood up in somewhat larger room than the other, with no waterfall this time. sixteen thin stone pillars were circling an altar hidden in the shadow. As Lara approached the sanctuary, she turned on her PSL and took a deep breath. This was what she needed... A smell of an adventure...

Suddenly, she stepped onto a bone that cracked under her boot. Skeletons were all around this place, as if they tried to escape the punishment of pulling the wrong lever... But wait... There was something in the far left corner, she noticed. Lara almost jumped at that surprise. Someone had tried to use the levers more recently than all those dozens of skeletons lying around there for centuries.

Lara shed some light on two skeletons dressed up in contemporary clothes, maybe dead for a couple of years or so. Their clothes were still relatively preserved, which was an exception in the entire scenery. Lara carefully looked through almost decomposed garments and finally found a Beretta, a model which has been in use for more than twenty years. Convenient, she thought.

The next she found was something that looked like a wallet. It was in a bad shape and seemed as if about to disintegrate. Lara carefully opened the wallet and realized that she needs surgical instruments to actually discern anything from the paper brickette inside. But never mind, she'll keep searching... Only ten seconds later she found an old mobile phone in something that used to be a jacket pocket.

She doubted that anyone could ever recover anything from the phone or the card, after all these years and moisture, but she'll take it anyway. Zip constantly proved that she had hired him with a good reason.

After having searched the most recent skeletons, Lara finally stepped inside the circle and approached the altar. It was so strange. Those stone pillars around her were thin and it was simply impossible that they were standing after all those centuries in this wet cave. They were clearly damaged and not so smooth as they used to be, but they were all standing. And the bowl... It was most curious thing of all... It was as clean and shiny as a copper bowl could ever be, as taken care of every single day. But, it was useless to search for the answers now. The reason why she was there was collecting as much information and many clues as possible.

The camera was soon ready in her hands and she made a nice, long video of the entire site. Then she photographed every single corner of the cave, including old and new skeletons, and every inscription and tablet. She even took some samples of the rock used to build the pillars and scanned them as well.

Scanning indicated much greater density in the axis of all these pillars, density of a metal, most probably steel or iron. Like a pencil! Only this time we have rock around steel! Even cold-blooded and icy calm Lara was impressed by this. Three hours later she was satisfied with the material she collected and left the area, promising to return as soon as she figures the gate out.

Three days later, Zip broke her gym session and called her to come to the computer room immediately. Lara was jumping from the ceiling ledge into the small pool below when she heard his voice in the intercom. „I think I found something in the phone... And in the wallet," Zip's voice was garbling in the speaker as she climbed out of the pool.

„Great," she thought. „And I have almost deciphered all those tablets.".

„Hi, Lara," Zip said as soon as he saw her in the grand hall. „It's good that you came immediately. I have something you'd want to see yesterday."

„What did you find in his wallet?" she asked and wrapped her long hair in a towel.

„Not much, but I did get the number and the name of the card holder, although it's ancient. It's Michael York from London, who bought the number and the device in 2006. He was reported missing in 2007 and still not found. However, that is not a proof of identity..."

„I know," Lara replied. „And what did you find in the wallet?"

„Most interesting thing, Lara. I found a card of a person you've heard of... Jeremiah Carter..."

„Now, that's something..." she said. She remembered what Mr. Carter wrote in his diary. He wished he could return to the sanctuary once again and use it to bring back his old love to life. But he couldn't... Why? Did he actually sent those two men to try to figure out the gate? Perhaps without even telling them that pulling the wrong lever is dangerous? After they failed and never returned, he wrote those lines and sadly realized that he had to die to meet his girlfriend. Mr. Carter hires Michael York to figure out the gate. It did sound possible to her.

„Also, I found 3000 pounds in cash and remainings of two credit cards. The chips were sufficiently recoverable, I managed to hack their accounts and here's an interesting twist: Mister Michael York was in debts and had lost his house due to mortgage. Suddenly, he receives a deposit in the amount of 100 000 pounds, which covers all his outstanding debts. Only one month later, he receives another 100 000 pounds on another account, from the same source: Jeremiah Carter. The reason for payment was: house purchase, remuneration for services. Only three months after having received the second instalment, Mr. York was reported missing to Scotland Yard. No-one has ever claimed this cash so far..."

„Jeremiah Carter paid York and sent him to the gate... Michael York had a companion, or at least someone who died with him in that cave."

„I haven't found anything on him yet," Zip shook his head. „However, I did found another thing in his wallet..."

„Indeed?" Lara asked, intrigued more than she was with the Amulet of Horus.

„Look," Zip said and handed over to her a small glassy dish with a piece of paper inside.

Lara took a magnifying glass and glanced at the finding. „Athos Mo..." the handwritten text said, breaking at the edge of the paper.

„I don't know what it means and it's all I could recover from the folded letter from the wallet," Zip said. „I googled around a bit, but all I got were three musketeers and Alexandre Dumas. However, after having read everything Dumas ever wrote when I was a teenager, I can with certainty confirm that he never wrote anything about Greece."

„I know what it means," Lara said suddenly. „Athos, a semi-island on Khalkidiki in Greece."

„Well, in that case, it could be totally irrelevant. Maybe it's a motel in which poor Mr. York spent a night before he died."

„No, Mo... does not stand for 'motel' but for 'mountain'," she replied. „And there are no motels on that mountain. That's not a place to visit by chance or for fun."

„What kind of mountain is it?"

„It's a semi-island, Zip," Lara retorted patiently. „It's an area closed for tourists, it belongs to the Greek church, there are some 50 monasteries there, and no-one visits this area except for spiritual reasons. The monks are pretty isolated from the outside world and prefer to keep it that way for good."

„Well, then it must be important... When will you want to go there, I can book you a flight..."

„No," Lara said. „I cannot go there. It's one of those rare places in the world which I cannot explore."

Zip cast a puzzled look at Lara.

„They don't allow women to visit the Holy Mountain of Athos, Zip," Lara explained and took the flash memory from him. Reaffirming the towel on her head, she turned and left out into the main hall and went up the stairs to change into something dry.