"You know what Ben, we can make this torture last forever, if that is what you want," Kovak said arrogantly as he punched the defenseless Ben trapped in the chair in front of him. His knuckles began turning red from blood. Not Ben's blood, but his own blood. "Hey Zima!" he shouted without looking behind him. "Where the hell is Slavik? He's missing a lot of fun." He then put his hand against Ben's throat and began squeezing.
Zima walked up beside Kovak and shrugged. "I have no idea, and don't choke him. We are to kill him, but he is still an important tool to us. Jankovic says that he wants to use Ben to break Lara can you believe that? We have orders to kill Ben and Nadia and Jankovic wants to use them to break Lara before we kill them. I'm going to go check on Nadia, maybe Slavik is with her and having his own fun with her."
Kovak turned away from Ben to look at Zima. "Oh and when you are done, can you ask how long until we are done deciphering that cube?"
"Sure thing, right away." And with that, Zima left the room, leaving Ben to be tortured by Kovak.
Jankovic was in the lab with a Trinity scientists named Michael who was cleaning off the cube with a scalpel and washcloth. Michael told Jankovic that in order for him to translate what was on the cube, he specifically had to clean off all foreign materials on the cube. Jankovic was patient with him and allowed Michael to work in peace.
"Any progress on the cube?" Jankovic asked eagerly.
Michael was rubbing the washcloth against the cube like he was painting a fence. He put the washcloth on the table beside the scalpel and blew his breath into it. "Just about boss," he answers as he holds up the transparent gold cube.
"Let me see," Jankovic orders as he reaches for the cube, but Michael raised a hand, signaling for him to stop.
"Be very careful, it's thousands of years old," he urges as he slowly puts the cube in Jankovic's hand. "Remember."
"If I weren't careful, then Trinity would be exposed to public." Jankovic studied the golden transparent cube with such wonder in his eyes. Like a boy seeing a dinosaur skeleton. "So, have you decipher this cube? Where is the Crown of Immortality?"
Michael shook his head. "I still need a little bit of time to work on this. I just need five minutes and then we will have a definite answer."
"You have four minutes," Jankovic said firmly.
"Five," Michael protested.
"Four, and I will pay you family half a million dollars." He slowly places the cube in Michael's hands and wraps them around the cube. "Half a million dollars for your family." The smile on his face confirmed that Jankovic was telling the truth. "If you get it done in five minutes or more, then no money for you." Then he looked into the corner of the room to see a tied up Nadia. "Why is she here?"
Michael looked at the gagged and blindfolded Nadia and said only two things: "Psychological warfare."
Nadia may have been gagged and blindfolded, but she heard everything that Jankovic and Michael said. She started thrashing to get out of her restrained chair, but it proved to be useless. Her bonds were about the same as Lara's. She tried to scream through the gag, but it was too useless. When she heard psychological warfare come from Michael's mouth, she knew exactly what he meant. Since she was the one who solved the puzzle back in Turkey and took the cube from the pedestal, then she would be forced to hear as Michael deciphers the cube. She could not escape and she wished that Lara and Ben were here to save her. She heard the door open, detecting a new person in the room, but he was instantly shooed off by Jankovic.
While Lara sat under a shower spray, Markie was outside the room and cleaning her clothes. Lara had no intention for staying for very long, as she knew that the cube was in Trinity's hands. She knew that at this moment that Jankovic and other Trinity soldiers were currently deciphering the cube and she had to get it back before Trinity discoveres the location of the Crown of Immortality. She was all alone and naked in the shower rooms and the only guard and set of clothes were outside the room.
She had to come up with some kind of plan. Before she went into the shower rooms, she saw a half-open door at the end of the hallway. It meant nothing, but her instincts were telling her that the cube was being deciphered inside. She had to risk it, I am a master of stealth after all. After that, she would search and rescue Ben and Nadia.
One hundred and eighty seconds
She stepped out of the shower but kept the shower running to avoid any suspicions. She looked around her to see what she could use as a weapon, but found nothing. But in the farthest corner of the wall, there was a pipe loose in the wall. She noticed and slowly crept towards it and wrapped her hands around it and slowly began loosening it from the wall. She loosened it from the wall as if it weren't even there and it barely made a sound. These idiots have really got to tightening their pipes this is the second time I've broke one off.
Markie sat on a chair outside the door, folding Lara's clean clothes and placing them neatly on the empty chair beside him. He takes out his zune and switches on an American song, despite the fact that he is actually Australian. He puts in his earbuds and tunes himself in, sitting comfortably in his chairs and putting his hands on the back of his head. The joy of relaxing.
Of course the only door to the shower room was locked, but since when did a locked door ever stop Lara Croft? Lara holds her weapon in her left hand while she takes out one of her hair pins with her right hand and begins picking the lock on the door. The keyhole barely made a click and the door slid open by a fraction of an inch.
Lara looked outside, expecting to see Markie out there and she saw him sitting on a chair beside the door with earbuds in ears with his eyes closed. Even from where she was standing, she could hear the music coming from his earbuds, indicating that he had them turned up really loud, giving her a perfect advantage for a sneak attack. Frankly, she was actually glad that his eyes were closed because she did not want her nude form to be exposed to anyone but Ben.
She opened the door a little more and raised her left hand with the pipe in. She raises the pipe over her head and swings it down on Markie's head, killing him. Shouldn't sleep on the job mate. She looked around her to find anymore soldiers or mercenaries and was relieved, while at the same time confused that there were none.
One hundred and twenty minutes
Lara went for her clothes and dressed on the spot. She took the pipe with her as she walked down the hall, being extremely wary for guards and any kind of security systems. She kept crouched down in an awkward position as she stayed moving in the shadows. She was so close to the half open door and her heart started beating at whatever she might find inside.
She stopped when she heard a voice coming from inside the room beside her. She stayed out of sight and hidden in the shadows.
"Ben, I wonder how high your pain tolerance is you king shitbag. You'll pay for what you did back to me in London," a voice said. This voice sounded somehow familiar, albeit very vaguely. She felt like she heard it a long time ago and her brain was really cooking up, trying to figure out where she heard this voice from.
Excuse me miss, don't you think you've had enough? Gin contains 70% of alcohol. You are going to drink yourself to death ma'am.
What the hell was that?
A cure to alcoholism. Do you have a driver?
Kovak, that bartender guy, the one who drugged me and GPS'd me. She may have been drunk that night, but her memory is more superior than an average person's memory. He mentioned Ben so that meant that he was in there.
"Hang on Ben, Zima is calling me," Kovak told as Lara took a peek into the room.
Sixty seconds.
"Zima man, where are you?" Kovak asks as he puts a phone to his ear. Lara saw that Kovak's back was turned to Ben's, and Ben's face looked as bloody as ever. "The cafeteria, we have a Ben Wheldon to torture man. Oh you're hungry huh, why not just bring the food in here and eat in front of Ben? Oh, you want to take a break, well I'll be here for a while but tell Carter to fix me a chicken sandwich, the kind from that American restaurant. The Chick-fil-A kind and I'll see you in ten minutes." He hangs up the phone and turns back to continue to torture Ben.
Lara was not going to sit down and watch Ben get tortured right in front of her. She clutched the pipe in her hand and slowly walked into the room. She walked very slowly towards the blond haired 'bartender' and whacks him upside the head with the pipe.
Kovak looked behind himself and saw Lara holding a pipe. He was a little shocked to actually see her and actually cracked a small smile until he felt pain. He reached for the back of his head and felt something wet. He looked at his fingertips that touched the wetness and saw blood. His legs give in and he falls to his knees, groaning and moaning. Lara finishes Kovak off with a single kick to the jaw.
She looks at Ben and smiles. "Ben, are you okay?" she asked, despite seeing that he had a black eye and busted lip. She dives in and kisses him forcefully on the lips. "Ben, I'm going to get you out here, I promise."
"That thing around Kovak's wrist, the electronic thing. The only way to unlock these restrains is that thing," Ben told in a slurred voice. "I saw the code, it was 8712."
Lara wasted no time to remove the watch from Kovak's wrist and type in the number that Ben mentioned. The restrains around his wrists opened up and allowed him to get up and massage his wrists...and to hug and kiss Lara. "All we have to do is save Nadia and then we can get out of here, right after we get that cube."
"You have twenty seconds Michael," Jankovic reminded. "That money is going to burn in nineteen seconds," he warned with venom in his voice. "Course I don't mind because Trinity has a nearly unlimited amount of money, but we decided what we do with the money and who gets paid or who doesn't get paid. Hurry up!"
"I have it!" Michael declares. "I've deciphered it," he says proudly. "I've discovered the location of the Crown of Immortality and if you don't believe me, then go have Miss Croft authenticate it herself."
"Trinity has faith, give it to me," Jankovic ordered and Michael handed the Trinity commander the cube. He reads the hidden message on the cube and asks Michael what it said. Michael translated and Jankovic smiled evilly. "Wow, it appears that our little Crown of Immortality is not in Turkey, but is in Italy. Rome to be exact." He turned to Nadia and repeated everything he said. "We are going to Rome Nadia."