III. BORNEO

Harry looked behind himself. The silent lush jungle of Borneo stretched out all around him, lulling him into a sense of security. Yet, he thought he heard something behind himself as he ascended the small trail up towards the mountain temple. Finding a dry enough stone he sat down. It had been thanks to luck and finesse that he had managed to escape both those damn blue beasts and Sanjana. As he had ran down the hill from the gates of the monastery, he had found a jeep. It had belonged to some old monk judging by the prayer beads hanging from the rear view window. He had jumped into it, pulling out his handy set of lockpicks from his pocket. What would he have done without them? The ignition had been child's-play to unlock. With his foot on the gas, he had removed himself from both the outer premises of the monastery as well as from the grunting beasts within half a minute. After the escapade, he had stopped to look down and check to his pouch, but it had been gone! Cursing violently, Harry had not believed that he had managed to lose the only thing he really treasured! In the end he had forced himself to drive off, as he valued his own life more than any blue resin in the world. On its way down the jeep had run out of petrol and Harry had been forced to hike down the rest of the way, passing all of Lazarevich's inflicted destruction to the countryside in slow motion. By the time he was on a plane out of Tibet, his feet were sore, his clothes were dirty and his last money gone. But he had gained a valuable insight on his way down from the ancient mountain peaks to the lush lands of Tibetan civilization…

It had been during the second week of walking, when he had been recalling the events at Borneo, that he remembered the grim old ruins in the shadow of the mountain. There, among hundreds of skeletons, he had seen the blue resin! He had been standing over it, wondering what it had been, when Drake had escaped from Chloe and he had been forced back up to the surface. After that insight, the remaining days of hiking had been easier. And now he was back in Borneo. He did not have any real money left, but he hoped to find some junk in the ruins to sell. And then… he would sell the resin, to the highest bidder. Harry's thoughts drifted off towards all the things he could do with that amount of money… The wind picked up slightly, making the leaves dance above his head. He took a sip of water from his canteen. It was warm. He was warm… and sweating. It was not far to the temple now.

As he continued to ascend the mountain, the warmth grew, enveloping him like a woollen blanket on a hot summer's day. He came to the vantage point that overlooked the bay and found some relief in the slight breeze coming from the ocean. It sparkled beneath him like a deep blue mirage, tempting him to return down to it, with its alluring sound of waves breaking on the beach. Behind him stood one of the moss covered eldritch statues belonging to the temple. In a light pace he walked upwards past it, finally coming upon the hole leading down into the ruins. As he was looking down into the dim interior below, he once again felt uneasy. Remembering the escapades in Shambhala, Harry carefully looked around before pulling off some hard shelled berries growing on a nearby tree. He spread them over the path leading up to the hole. If someone followed him, he would hear! Then, with a slightly grouchy expression on his face he jumped down.

At first there was only darkness. Slowly, Harry's eyes adjusted to the dim interior, his hand went to his pocket, where he had, next to his lockpick, a lighter. It lit up the crumbling chamber with a flickering orange-yellow light, bringing out the cracks and deep shadows of the interior. He passed the old piles of bones; their owners had all died because of the sap. Had they gone insane after too much of it? Perhaps… He did not care, really. Why care about the dead when one could spend money on the living? Kicking away some of them from his path, he entered a long chamber with columns on each side, soaring up into the murky ceiling. And there, by the back wall he found the blue twinkle his eyes were searching for.

"Oh, there you are!" He whispered to himself. All the fatigue that had gathered in his body suddenly disappeared, as if vaporized by the brilliant sparkling of the resin. He approached it slowly, afraid that there would come beasts or treasure hunters jumping out of the shadows. But none came. With a small laugh of relief Harry took the blue ball of sap from the torch-handle and examined it. It was slightly charred. Had Drake been burning it? He frowned at the thought. Wrapping the resin up in a piece of cloth, he put it in his backpack. Hopefully, he would notice if it fell of!

Still holding the lighter in one hand, he turned and went back towards the exit. As he approached the crumbling pillar he would have to climb back up, he returned the lighter to his pocket. As he was looking down, something dropped on the back of his head, making him grouch. When he realized it was a berry, he already heard someone above him. It was an Indian man, who looked as surprised to see Harry as Harry was surprised to see him. He darted into the dark interior of the temple before the man could get a proper glance of him. But alas, the man was already on his way down. Harry, who had stalked around the interior to the other side, could now see other people, among them was Sanjana. He didn't even bother to curse his bad luck, at least this time he had known, or rather felt, someone behind him, he had been prepared.

As he quickly walked back towards the hall where he had found the resin, he retrieved a rope from his backpack. Onto it he tied a hook. Finding himself back on the obscure back of the hall once again, he swung the rope around a few laps before he threw it high up into a crack.
"Lovely." He muttered to himself as the hook secured itself.
"There!" He heard a familiar voice call. After it came the whining noise of an RPG. Instinctively he fell to the floor, covering his ears with his hands. The blast rolled him straight into a pillar, and the small fragments rained over him like a hailstorm. The air became filled with smoke and debris, but at the same time, light shone through a newly formed hole in the ceiling. The blast wave must have dislodged an old rock there. A foul smell also leaked out of the hole that the RPG had blown up in the back wall. Deciding he had no time to brood on it just that second, Harry grabbed hold of the rope and swung himself upwards. After a few tugs upwards, a strange noise, as that of a wild animal made him look down. He wished he had not. Just beneath his feet stood something he could only describe as a thin human like figure. The hair was long and torn, hanging down the back. The eyes were vacant and the teeth black. Harry hung cramped to the rope for a few seconds, staring at the abomination. Was it one of Marco's crew? Still alive? It looked like it had not eaten for… ages!

Returning to his senses, Harry focused and began hauling himself up the rope. The thing made some low sounding noise and started up the rope. The noises it made under his feet certainly spurred Harry upwards faster than he had ever climbed before. His hands were burning as he made it to the top, yet he clung to the rope harder than ever. He looked down and saw the… thing, it was farther down. Harry let go of the rope with one hand and began fumbling after a knife. He pulled it out and locking his feet in position on the rope, began cutting off the rope underneath himself. Slowly, slowly the rope began untwining. The thing began reaching or him, its cold fingers almost grabbing his wrist. Harry just lunged at it with the knife and severed half of the hand from the arm. The thing retreated just enough just to give him time to cut the rope. The rope underneath his feet fell, as did the creature. Harry clambered up the remaining part of the rope and wrapped it around his right hand, and then he did the same to his feet. Now he finally managed to relax at least a part of his body and looked down.

It was chaos; it looked like at least ten of the creatures had been somehow locked behind the back wall of the temple for God knows how long until Sanjana and her crew had managed to RPG it into oblivion. Now they were… eating her companions. He was so tired of monster people! He changed the hold from his right to his left hand. Sanjana managed to down two of the things before she was forced to retreat back up to the surface. Luckily, they all seemed to rush after her and her companions instead of paying any attention to Harry. As the silence settled itself over the ancient pillared hall, he dried some sweat from his forehead and looked up. It seemed that that the carvings in the ceiling seemed sturdy enough for him to be able to make it to the hole in the roof. Slowly he unfastened his feet from the rope and tried the first ledge with his hand. It held and he swung to it, then to the next and next. One almost gave away, but he managed to jump to a root hanging down from the newly formed hole. Clambering up it, he finally saw blue sky. Feeling dirt under his fingernails he knew he was almost up. Mustering his strength Harry tugged yet another few times before he sprawled out on a patch of grass. He rolled over to his back and looked at his hands, they were still burning hot and blisters had formed where they had touched the rope. He lay there for perhaps a few minutes before he saw the blisters retreating, leaving fresh skin in their place. The sap still worked? He had not dared hope it, yet it was obvious that it did.
"Don't move!" He heard a voice say. Harry looked back, finding a man holding a gun. He was obviously one of Sanjana's mercenaries. Rising to his knees, Harry raised his hands. If only the man would come a little closer… The man looked at him and noticed his backpack. "Take it off, now!" That was all the excuse Harry needed. He slowly removed the backpack from his back, making sure it was closed properly before he threw it right in the face of the mercenary. Surprised the man had only just the time to catch it before Harry twisted the gun out of his hand. A single shot was all it took before the man rolled down the hole that Harry had just climbed out from. He could hear the things below rushing towards the fresh corpse. Quickly he picked up the backpack and pulled it on. He could feel the weight of the resin inside. Noises of falling rocks made him look back, finding Sanjana on the way up. Strangely enough she did not care that he was there.
"We need to get out of here!" She said, and then looked down on the gun. "You killed one of my men?" Harry gave up a shrug.
"I didn't know he was yours…" He lied in a light tone. "Sorry." Sanjana just shook her head.
"We need to get away from here, those things are coming!" She said and pointed. Harry could indeed hear the monsters crawling their way onto the roof. He looked around, deciding to take the fastest way down… Down a tree.
"We need to go!" Sanjana said.
"We? Why? You just launched an RPG at me!" Harry countered.
"I just wanted to stun you a little!" She said. Harry pointed at the tree.
"Let's go." He said. Although he did not believe her, she could perhaps be persuaded to… change allegiance. The thought had occurred to him already in the Himalayas, but he had lacked the funds at that time. Now he knew a good bargain…

They practically flew down the ancient tree. The branches were as thick as bodies, so it was just a question of getting down before the monsters did. Stumbling down on the ground Harry pulled up Sanjana and pushed her forward.
"Well, come on, run!" He yelled and looked behind himself. The damn buggers were fast! They both ran down the hill, past the overgrown statues and broken walls. As Sanjana began too sag, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her along. "Down there!" He said and pointed at the drop from which Drake had jumped together with that old thing named Sullivan. How had he even survived the jump? Harry had not pursued Drake down at that time, but now he really had no choice but to go down the same way Drake had. Pulling a screaming Sanjana over the edge, he took a long breath and jumped. The pitched screams of Marco Polo's crew died away as he fell further and further down.

For the second time in a few months he landed in cold water. Once again there was a slight delay in sense and perception as he sank down, but then his senses returned and he managed to propel himself upward. The cold mountain water seemed quite endless and he was almost out of breath as he broke the surface. The current was quite strong, dragging him along further downstream. After gasping some air, Harry began looking for Sanjana. She had to be further downstream, so he floated as best he could, looking for her. Eventually he found her; she had managed to get her head above water. As the current slowed down, the both managed to get ashore.
"So we are even now?" He asked. "You saved my life, I saved yours."
"Even..?" Sanajana coughed up. "Sure, whatever, I'm going arrest you… Bring you back to India…" Harry sat down next to her.
"I have another idea."
"What?"
"Something that would allow you to make some serious money, not simply that low salary India's Antiquity Department pays you." He squeezed out some water from his shirt. Behind his leg was the gun, just in case. She just looked at him.
"Are you bribing a public official?" She asked.
"Corrupting you to the very essence of your being!"He joked. "If you want the Sanakara stones so badly, we can go get them… I know where the client I sold them to lives… On the way we can pick up some more shiny treasures… and earn serious money. If you want to buy out the stones against something of you share and return them to the people of India… I suppose such a deal would be possible."
"You cheeky…" She began.
"Do you really think your department would miss you?" Harry asked. That certainly made her think.
"I want to know how you managed to run away after that bolt hit you." She said.
"If you come with me, I might tell you." Harry said. He would perhaps tell her… But he would never reveal that he had the resin with him. That was his share.
"We should get out of here… in case those things come back." Sanjana said.
"We can continue this conversation on my boat." Harry said.
"You have a boat?" Sanjana asked.
"Meh…" Harry said and put the gun in his belt. He rose and pulled Sanjana up from the ground. "I stole it." His words made Sanjana laugh.
"Oh really!" She said. "Wonderful, let's go then, to your stolen boat!"
"Come on." He said. "To the coast."
"But stealing the Sankara stones… from the man you sold them to…? Is there no honour among thieves?" She asked.
"Honour among thieves?" Harry shook his head, giving up a little grin. "That's just legend, love… just legend…"