Chapter 4 - Paris Catacombs

The building had three floors, blue stained glass windows on the facade and heavy chandeliers inside. Giant shelves that displayed books with mostly red, black and green spines, naturally the place was calm, but it was possible to hear visitors unfolding the maps and turning the pages, it was as if the books were whispering. However none of that mattered, the three looked around trying to spot Karabine as soon as he entered.

To avoid being noticed, Thompson and Thompson had different editions of Robinson Crusoe in front of their faces, it was one of Tintin's favorite books, but the young man preferred to stick his face into Albert London's texts, they had some things to learn from him, but they couldn't. at that moment, because she saw the distinguished gentleman who was guarding her, enter the building. He signaled to the receptionist on shift and headed to the corridor of horror, suspense and mystery works.

"How appropriate" thought Tintin as he nudged the detectives.

Surreptitiously, both of them, plus the dog, followed the figure between the books until they saw him opening a door marked "employees only". The dark wooden door led to a staircase with the initial wooden steps, but from the middle, they became stone, thus revealing how old that part was, the corridors down there could become confusing, like real labyrinths, These were the cunning catacombs of Paris.

When they lost their trail, Snowy took action, making it possible to reach a large room full of spaces in the walls, it was a bit morbid to know that the place was used for burials, this left the detectives almost mortified, these thoughts were dismissed as soon as they heard familiar screams of a hoarse voice.

"Carnival pirates! Ectoplasms!"

A voice was so furious and so agitated like a storm of lightning and thunder, that perhaps it could only be calmed by a well of calm and serenity.

The three crossed the huge room and opened the door to find Captain Haddock tied up, facing Antón with his three armed servants close behind.

"Captain!" shouted Tintin when he saw his best friend again, Snowy was also happy, he could even say some nice words, if someone understood them.

With this unexpected scene, the villain's servants aimed their sights at the invaders, who had no problem returning the favor. He looked at the door, perhaps with a small smile of contentment, it was difficult to tell, the room had lighting that came from the back, darkening his face. In a small, temporary signal, Karabine ordered his henchmen to lower their guard.

"Mister Tintin, this invasion was not necessary. You know very well that you were the first guest."

"I need your kindness" he said, standing two steps ahead of the detectives, dividing attention between the leader of the kidnapping and the kidnapped person. "What do you want from us? All the gold that was on Paparanic 's boat is now gone..."

"Returned to South America", the man interrupted him, just to complete the sentence. Tintin was surprised and astonished.

"But then…"

"Now I know, let's say I contacted some acquaintances on that poor continent to confirm this. But oh! This is so tiring!" he shouted, his refined air drained from his face, giving way to a look of sadness. "I tried to buy that damn gold scrap from you to find out that Haddock doesn't have a single carat of that gold!"

Had dock tried to say something, but at some point his mouth had been covered with a dirty cloth. The place was sweltering , dirty and musty and now, in addition to the rough ropes on his wrist, he had to deal with that damn scarf.

Antón resumed: "Then all I have left is to get rid of both of them. I know it's a cliché, but I don't care" he smiled and gestured to the men.

The readers in the library were lucky that any noise underground was imperceptible to them, as the weapons down there were tired of so much silence. Tintin wasn't armed, all he could do (besides hoping that a bullet wouldn't go through his skin and hit a bone) was to duck, dodge and sneak across the room to free the Captain.

"Boy, I'm glad you're alive! But what happened to your neck?"

"I'm very happy too, Captain. But now is not the time."

Some bullets hit the stone walls and ricocheted off the wooden door, sending some splinters flying, others hit something that made the sound of shattered glass, they were wine bottles. Apparently the place was also used as a wine cellar. The battle seemed unfair, two against four, until Haddock and Tintin made the entire pile of bottles roll and knocked two of the henchmen in front of them off balance, and they fell unconscious. Naturally, the Captain regretted the good wine harvests that were lost, he knew well which was rosé wine and which was fortified wine, but it seemed to be the only option. Snowy dodged two or three bottles and grabbed the third's leg unexpectedly, with the pain he became distracted and could be hit by the young reporter right in the jaw. There were three.

The friends turned around, hoping to see from the other side of the room that the detectives had taken care of the only one left. But they were surprised to find that it wasn't. Karabine had two guns pointed at them, with the weapons of his henchmen in his possession and the detectives unconscious on the ground. This made the sailor and reporter's hearts race, were they witnessing the worst? And... hadn't they even noticed? Fortunately not, with a less desperate look, Tintin found that the brothers had also slipped on the bottles, falling unconscious when they hit the wall, as in a pathetic scene of physical comedy. They were breathing.

"Ah, those two goofballs!" said Haddock as he noticed the same, he then directed all his attention to the standing man. "But as for you, you kleptomaniac, megacycle...!"

"Captain, no" Tintin had to say, placing his hand on his friend's chest, to restrain him.

"Silence!" the villain ordered. As said, he had a weapon in each hand aimed at his enemies. I evaluated the quote, I didn't know if I was going to shoot him in the groin, in the heart, in the neck or in the head. All the options sounded fun.

"Hey, lad. What do we do?" Whispered the oldest. The youngest also assessed the situation, all they had were shattered wine bottles and the hope that this wouldn't make them drunk with the vapor again.

"Listen: I already had them shoot you at a ridiculous distance at close range!" he looked at the boy and then directed his attention to the other man. "I already ordered a bomb to be placed on your boat!" he walked closer and closer as he spoke.

"Snowy" the boy lightly poked his dog with his foot.

"It is more than evident that I will have to do everything! In the end, I only needed one, for the other to arrive soon after" the finger pressed the trigger when Snowy went around the room and barked, diverting the bandit's attention and making the gun in his left hand fire at the window and the gun in his right shooting close enough to Tintin's head, not to hit him but to make a terrible noise in his left ear, seems like he would temporarily share the professor's disability. He and Haddock were quick, each picked up a whole bottle from the floor and hit the pirate's head, for a second, when Tintin felt his hand wet, he didn't know if it was wine or blood and if it was blood, whose?

Haddock looked at it too and just said, "Yeah, that's a big waste of wine, isn't it!?"

"Line? What line? Come on, Captain. Let's call the police! ".