Difference between Trinity soldier and Trinity mercenary
Soldier-Initiated member of Trinity
Mercenary-Uninitiated member of Trinity
Daytime has arrived and Lara, Ben and Nadia arrived at the archaeology site. Lara was dressed in her trademark outfit, a blue tank top and brown cargo pants. Ben and Nadia wore the same thing they wore last night.
The current Turkish and American archaeologists at the site evacuated and left the trio to themselves, using only the porters they hired. Lara hoped it would be worth it, it cost her twenty million in both American and Turkish dollars to get rid of the archaeologists and three hundred dollars for both porters.
Lara, Nadia, Ben, and the two porters entered a huge temple with giant miniature statues inside made of brass. The room was lit up with torches that were discovered before they even arrived and at the very end of the room was a bottomless abyss. It reminded Lara too much of meeting her guardian at Delphi.
Ben had wondered how that eagle saved her eighteen years ago. Lara told him that when she saw the eagle, she felt weightless as she was almost about to fall into the bottomless abyss. Also, she told that when she looked directly into that eagle's eye, she saw herself flying above a chasm with that eagle carrying her, making sure she would not fall to her death; that is why she believes it to be her guardian.
On Yamatai, when she fell out of that airplane and the first parachute failed to deploy, she saw her guardian angel once more and that is just seconds before she deployed the backup parachute. In Siberia, she saw her guardian angel once more when she was swimming for her life to the surface. Just as she was about to blackout, she saw her spirit again and she suddenly found herself out of the ice.
Nadia and a lean porter named Kazim dropped their equipment near a pillar reaching from the ceiling to the floor and started pulling out supplies. The other porter-a stocky man with a graying beard that stretched four inches under his jaw-named Oktan decided to stay behind and wait for the others to finish unpacking before he decided to join them.
"All right fiance and fiancee' we should send these rope down...there." Nadia pointed while holding grappling ropes. She then gestures to the hooks on their grappling ropes and says, "Where do we plant these guys in?"
Lara decided to wrap the ropes around the closet pillar tightly. "Over here." Lara catches one of the ropes Nadia throws at her and she wraps the rope around the pillar, tying them together when the ropes meet. Lara looked at her husband-to-be and he looked at her. Not needing words, they both give each other a big, loving smile. Still should have bought a ring, she thought sarcastically.
"Need a hand Lara?" Ben asked, but he clearly knew the answer. "Alright then. I'll just hook up these ropes to the pillar. Kazim, Oktan, you two can leave now. Yout work is no longer required."
Kazim and Oktan bid farewell and left the place as soon as possible.
"I think it's safe to say we can go down there now." Nadia says as soon as all three ropes were tied to the pillars. Nadia rappelled down first, then Lara and Ben.
"Oktan, Kazim, good job boys," Mehmet-or rather Ivan-praised. "Jankovic, Lima-Charlie-Beta-Whiskey-November (LC-BW-N) have descended down into the...Charlie-Oscar-India-Hotel-Oscar-Lima-Echo (COI-HOLE). According to these two guys at least."
"They seem so sure in finding the Crown of Immortality." Oktan pointed out. "They shouldn't have told us about it though."
Jankovic lightly patted Ivan on the back. "Good work. My instincts told me they would be here and it looks like I was correct. We just have to wait ten minutes, and then we can go down there ourselves, find the Crown of Immortality and then we can capture all three targets."
Kovak smiled. He was getting closer and closer to his target. While everyone else had their own plans for Lara, he had his own plan to cause her some real pain for a very personal reason. It involves his uncle, whom she killed two years ago.
"Sir, permission to speak?" Zima asked. When Jankovic granted him permission, he spoke. "What if the Crown of Immortality is not down the hole?"
"Then we still carry out our orders with capturing the trio." Jankovic turned to Slavik with seriousness and fury and approached him slowly. He grabbed him by the collar and shoved him into the rock wall behind him hard. "The Boss wants us to capture the three and brainwash Lara Croft into becoming one of us. If you try to rape her like in the Yucatan Peninsula, then she is definitely going to be permanently broken to the point where we can't even get her to talk. Plus if you get her pregnant then you are going to be executed on the spot, no hesitation from me and that would result in the baby having no father. If it ever comes to that, then we will be forced to give the baby up for adoption. I'm warning you, you try to rape her and I will slit your throat and let you die slowly and painfully." He was not laughing or smiling. He truly meant every single word he said to his small-time subordinate.
Slavik was more furious than scared. Even in an angry bull state, Slavik still followed orders. He let out a deep breath, casting his fury aside like a doll and looked at Jankovic in the eyes. "I understand sir."
Jankovic cooled down. He let go of Slavik's collars and turned to the Trinity mercenaries. "Grab a gun and be ready to jump down in T-minus nine minutes."
"Yes sir," Both Oktan and Kazim said.
"Shit," Lara curses. She tugs at the rope wrapped around her waist in an attempt to free herself. If the rope snapped, then she would plummet thirty yards to the ground. All she was trying to do was signal Ben above by moving the rope from side to side like a snake above her.
Ben quickly picked up on things and descended down to Lara's level. He puts a hand around her and helps her unloosen the rope around her waist. She grabs onto his shoulder a clutches his chest as they lower themselves down.
"Thanks Ben."
"Thought you were supposed to be self-reliant."
Lara smiled and kissed his neck. She could feel his pulse through his neck from the kiss."I just wanted to be with you."
"Quick question, do you see any eagles around?"
Lara looked around, her head spinning like an owl. "Nope."
"Well I'll let you know if I see your guardian angel." Ben hit the bottom, meeting up with Nadia. Lara dismounted from Ben's back and turned towards Nadia.
"Here's a flashlight for you. I hope it proves useful."
"Thanks Nadia," Lara says before she accepts the flashlight and switches it on. When Nadia wasn't looking, Lara looked at Ben's 'package' and he looked at her 'twins'.
"Hey, what is this stuff?" Nadia asked as she shines her flashlight into a sticky black colored substance on the wall. "It looks like some kind of goo."
Ben did an analysis of the stick substance on the wall. As a precaution, he picks up a pebble and throws it towards the substance. Like glue, it sticks to the wall. "This sticky substance is a very rare type of resin. It's like gorilla glue; it is very sticky and extremely hazardous if it gets in your eyes. Also, if it comes in contact with your skin, it is extraordinarily difficult to remove, it's like flypaper."
"So we stay as far away as possible from this resin?" Lara told rather than asked. She shines her light on the wall, checking to see if there was any more of this sticky substance. Much to her relief, there was none left.
"This way," Nadia said, leading down a path with the others following her. They kept their keen eyes and ears open, stopping only when they heard something that sounded threatening. The more they walked, the more darker and darker it got. Even to the point where light coming in from the cliff they rappelled down from was gone.
Jankovic, Zima, Kovak, Slavik, Ivan and twelve mercenaries both women and men climbed down the cliff and into the bottomless abyss. Each of them had a bolt-action rifle to avoid wasting any unnecessary ammo and go only for wound shots.
They did not have flashlights to turn on. If you want to follow someone in the darkness, then use night vision goggles, state of the art night vision goggles.
"Where to sir?" Ivan asked.
Jankovic looked around, hoping to find anything that would prove that people were here recently. The only signs so far were the three ropes. If there was one thing you could always rely on on unexplored tombs, it's that unexplored tombs are dusty and footprints are always left behind. Jankovic's eyes followed the direction of the footprints into a tunnel. He signals his men to move forward and to be cautious. "Who knows what's down here beside our three targets. Remember, there are three sets of footprints here so let's make sure there are only three sets. Walk directly and I mean directly, in their footsteps."
"Kazim, Oktan, did you find out that one girl's name?" Kovak asked the two former porters now mercenaries as they walked in a single fashion in the footsteps.
"Lara." Kazim answered.
"No not her, the other girl."
"I heard Lara call her Nadia."
Kovak smiled and turned to his best friend. "We have the name of our old enemy."
Ivan was not listening to the conversation going on between Kovak and Slavik, he was staring at the sticky substance on the wall. When he questioned Jankovic about it, he deduced that it was gorilla glue-like resin. "I would not want that on my skin."
"Too right Ivan."
Lara, Nadia and Ben made it to the end of the tunnel, where they found a huge door with a hole at the very bottom. This particular door reached to the top of the ceiling and was painted bronze and covered in centuries worth of dust. The hole at the very bottom was big enough for only one person to fit through at one time.
Lara went first with no hesitation. She bent down to her elbows and knees and startled crawling through. Ben stared with wide eyes at her butt, smiling like a schoolboy.
"What was that?" Nadia asked, looking around the caves as if she was lost. "That sounded like a click."
"You can stay out here and investigate if you want. I'm going inside." Ben said, after all, he heard nothing.
Just behind them, Jankovic and his army of soldiers and mercenaries caught up. They were still a good distance from the three and they stayed hidden in the shadows. From his green point of view, he saw Lara getting down on her elbows and knees and started crawling through a hole. Now he knew where to go, but he also had to deal with Ben and Nadia. He continued to stalk his prey.
It was also his first time seeing Ben Wheldon. Now there was no use in him hiding his face, he was caught with his pants down basically.
Kovak had gotten ornery and raised his sniper rifle with a suppressor and lined the crosshairs up to the back of Ben's head. He made sure he was seeing right through the night vision goggles. He places the very tip of his index finger on the trigger and fired.
The gun jammed on him, but it did not suppress the soft sound of a click. Nadia turned and began speaking to Ben about hearing something. Not a single soldier moved at all. Nadia appeared to have ignored the sound and went to crawling into the hole.
Kovak felt his body temperature increase due to embarrassment. Jankovic and the others looked at him with disdain on their faces.
Jankovic shook his head like a disappointed father. "What the hell Kovak? You know better than that."
Kovak wanted to spit something back in his boss's face, but he understood Trinity's rules for inferiors and superiors. Anything the superiors say goes and he was an inferior so anything Jankovic says goes. He could not curse back at him unless he wanted harm brought back to him. When Jankovic threatened Slavik back at the surface, that was a warning. What Jankovic gave Kovak was a lecture in front of everybody. Not only had he been stomped on by his officer, he was stomped on by his officer in front of everyone.
Adding salt to the wound, Kovak thinks furiously.
Slavik walked up to his friend's side and patted him on the back, comforting him on some level. I'm sorry commander, but I think it is time for you to retire from Trinity; one way or another.
Do you think Slavik will stage a coup against Jankovic?