"Well well well," Jankovic said cheerfully as he held his arms open like he wanted a hug. "You guys finally removed your masks. It took you this long though."
Zima cocked his gun, threatening to shoot Jankovic right then and there. "You knew about us? How?"
"Ivan. In Turkey, he had a wire on him and he recorded everything. I've known about the coup you, Kovak and Slavik have been planning from the very beginning."
Kovak's eyes widened realization and horror. "You killed Slavik!"
"Yes I did," Jankovic answered casually. "And it was a necessary kill and if you were in my shoes, you would understand."
"You killed my best friend!" He cried and raised his gun to shoot at Jankovic. Before he pulled the trigger, he was prompted to stop only when Zima told him not to.
"Zima, Kovak, I would like to point out that I know who is loyal to you and who is loyal to me," Jankovic said. "Danny, Glenn, Chuck, Lee, Vernon, Tate, Roger, and Beck." As he said those names, the seven (minus Danny) soldiers took position beside their leader, firmly installing their full loyalty to him. Coincidentally, all of them were Trinity soldiers while all the people loyal to Zima and Kovak were Trinity mercenaries. "The thing about my crew is that their loyalty is real and is not the kind that has to be bought. If I kill Kovak, then you Zima, will be all alone and you will deserve it."
Behind Jankovic and the seven soldiers, Lara slowly put Danny down on the ground and began walking backwards and away from the group very quietly. Ben and Nadia doing the same thing, but Nadia accidentally kicked a rock and caught the attention of the traitors.
"Stop!" Zima commands. "Come back here Lara. Unlike Jankovic, I actually want you dead. He may be following orders on keeping you alive, but he really does want you to live. It's the opposite for me however."
The mercenaires move past the loyal ones and towards the three friends. Being largely outnumbered and outgunned, they put their guns on the ground and raised their hands.
"Now, before we kill any of you, let's go look for the Crown of Immortality before it ages another thousand years." Zima motioned with his gun for everyone to move forward. Those who compiled moved, those who didn't were forced to. All the loyalists and friends were now completely naked of any guns.
When Danny woke up and his entire team was gone, he was actually little confused. He looked around everywhere and found them nowhere. The only way for him to move was forward. Maybe they assumed I was dead and forgot to take my Trinity tags, or something. He looked at his armpit holster hidden underneath his trench coat and found no gun there. He looked at his backup waist holster and found no gun there either. Jankovic was right, Zima was planning a revolt against him...and Lara choked me out.
The thirty of them people continued to walk the chasms with Zima leading forward with the cube in his hand.
In Nadia jacket pocket, she had a mug of coffee with her and it was actually starting to brew...without being under a machine. When she quietly pointed this out to Lara, she became interested...and so did Jankovic standing beside them.
Lara quietly asked Jankovic, "You know what is going on with Nadia's coffee?"
"Hey Kovak, come chest out this cube, holding it feels really weird," Zima calls and Kovak comes over. The two of them exchange in a conversation, so did the mercenaries, which allowed Lara and Jankovic to whisper to each other.
"You know what's going on with that coffee?" Jankovic asked. "Being underground, there's an increase in pressure. It's like being underwater, except without a suit."
"If that were the case, then we would be crushed to death. This amount of pressure to the point of Nadia's coffee brewing indicates that we should not fire weapons down here because they are compressed, pressurized and aren't designed to withstand that much pressure. That gun would explode in your face and the bloody bullets will fly everywhere. I've heard that's what an archaeologists did back in Iceland in 1934."
"Actually, we would be crushed to death if we were underwater, and we came prepared and emptied the the gunpowder in our bullets before we got here," Jankovic admits. "We actually emptied three-fourths of it because when Michael deciphered the cube, he said that it was underground and I suggested it would be best if we empty three-fourths of our bullets."
"Don't you think we could be crushed by this pressure?" Nadia asked.
"No, our bodies aren't pressurized," Ben answered. "We don't have compressed airs within us since humans have lungs. We should be alright."
"Your dogs aren't as loyal as you thought you were?" Lara said. "You have no idea who to trust anymore do you?"
Jankovic shoots Lara a are-you-serious look. "I know who to trust. Me, I am a man who knows that everybody can be trusted to do certain things. And I will use that trust to my advantage. I trust that Zima will kill us and I trust that he will pull the trigger. If there is one thing that you can trust me with, it's that I do have a plan to escape. I do have a plan to escape alive, and with all you alive with me."
Lara shot him a glare. "Are you serious? You think that we can trust anything a Trinity agent says?"
"Actually," he says as he licks his lips. "You actually can trust a Trinity agent's word. One way or another, like you can trust that Zima will kill all of us and torture you to death once he's acquired the crown."
Zima and Kovak stopped walking as they almost walked over an edge leading to a bottomless abyss.
"Hey pricks!" Kovak shouts, walking towards the group. "No talking to each other!"
Lara and Jankovic just glare at Kovak as he stands in front of them. His gun was aimed at the floor, but his guard was still up. "Hey Zima, I've thinking…why not just waste a few of them right now. The ones we really want to see pay is Jankovic and Lara, so why not just kill Nadia and Ben?"
Nadia actually worried that Zima might actually follow Kovak's word. She did not want to die and she had to buy time somehow. Without thinking, she lunges forward and shoves Kovak.
He goes stumbling backwards and falls...not on his back...in the abyss. Nadia watched as Kovak fell thousands of feet before vanishing into darkness, his screams echoing off the wall before they became nothing. Nadia stares in horror at what she has done. She had never killed a person before and it has really taken a toll on her. She felt remorse for Kovak, but she regretted nothing because she just took care of a someone trying to kill her and her friends and bought a few more minutes of life.
Zima stared in horror down the abyss as he watched his friend fall to his death. He turns to Nadia and galres at her. "You bitch, you killed my friend!"
"It was an accident and you know it Zima," Lara said, defending her friend. "She didn't see the abyss behind Kovak, but it served him right. Now like Jankovic said, with Kovak dead, you are all alone and you deserve it you bastard."
Zima turned all his anger from Nadia to Lara instantly. He pulled out a knife and walked towards her with intent on torturing her instead of killing her. Much to his shock and surprise, Jankovic and Ben stepped in front of Zima's path, protecting Lara from any potential damage that may come her way. Zima stopped in his tracks and grinded his teeth. Lara could actually see his clean white teeth shine and she even saw a glint.
Zima saw how determined both Jankovic and Ben were in protecting Lara and decided it would be better if he did the execution later. He was not going to let his friend's death go unavenged. Although, he was having a hard time trying to come up with a plan to tell his twin brother Novak. If Novak found out his twin brother was dead, then he would go crazy. But he'll worry about that later, the Crown of Immortality was his top priority. "Consider yourselves lucky that I don't want to kill you right now," he warns as he points the knife to Nadia. "You are not going to die quickly and painlessly. You and Lara both. I'll take my time with the both of you."
Ben growled, but Jankovic put a hand in front of him and told him to stop. "I have this under control," he assures Ben, in a somewhat unconvinced voice.
Like hell you do, a voice inside Ben's head said. He's just screwing with you Ben, he has no plan. He is just screwing with you, plain and simple.
Zima clutched the cube to his chest and walked forward with the others following. Ever since Nadia pushed Kovak to his death, everyone else had been extremely wary and made sure to stay as far away from her as possible. She must have one powerful push if she could push Kovak off his feet and into a bottomless abyss.
Nadia was muttering to herself, still shaken about killing Kovak and Lara was there to comfort her. She told Nadia that she has been in her shoes once when she made her first kill. Course it was when she was twenty-one and her first kill was on purpose and it was either her or her attempted rapist Vladimir. Now three years later, she was hesitant no more to pull the trigger and feel remorse. The thought of killing Zima however brought a smile to her face. Not the I-have-a-plan smile, the I-will-enjoy-cutting-your-throat-and-keeping-you-alive smile. Her dark side was emerging from within her once again.
Kovak (February 19, 1979-April 7, 2016)
His twin brother will not be happy about this.
That whole idea of the air being pressurised and emptying three-fourths of gunpowder from bullets is a reference to Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth