We split up the moment we're back outside, much to Nate's initial displeasure, but Elena's insistent on scoping out the secret entrance while Nate and I make our way to the tower to retrieve the dagger.
No sense in arguing if you ask me, so we agree to it (provided she stays safe and keeps in radio contact) and let her see herself off before we make our own way across the sparse platforms to the huge top window where a plank pointing towards the next building awaits us.
And in the distance as we come outside is the tower itself.
There's a definite focus to us as we scale the rooftops and buildings, swiftly taking out any guards we come across through stealth.
We have a mission, and nothing's going to stop us from finishing it.
Although, I realize once Nate and I clear the corner of a building and see some of Lazarevic's men below firing in a panic at something, that doesn't mean folks aren't gonna try.
Because a peek around the next corner is all it takes to make my stomach flop.
One of the yeti-sasquatches is barreling its way towards the soldiers, bullets be damned.
"Ah shit, not those things again," Nate gripes next to me, once again speaking my thoughts perfectly.
On the bright side, that big beast doesn't take much persuasion to leave. Even better, its left all the soldiers below rattled.
Nate and I stealth-kill them all easily. I even get to take one of the MC-Hammers as a safety precaution.
A flight of stairs up takes us to one of those doors with double cranks we have to open, after which we find ourselves dropping down into a dilapidated alleyway that leads into a small courtyard...with two huge men with machine guns.
Oh God, not more of these behemoths!
Well, at least I called this one right – and apparently so did Nate because he's pulling out an MC-Hammer of his own to my pleasant surprise.
"You take the left; I take the right?" I whisper in a ready tone. Nate nods with a smirk.
Luckily, the two of us and our precise shots are enough to bring these bastards down, although our efforts wind up attracting the attention of their buddies.
Some careful sniping on our part does away with them in due time.
Once we've gathered some ammo, we make our way up to the next floor and across the walls and platforms until we reach the balcony, where we drop down into a room full of rubble.
Right as we start walking, our radios flare up, Elena's voice hushed and spooked.
"Guys, there's something strange going on here. There's some sort of animals."
As if on cue, roaring goes off in the near distance.
Nate and I share a wince before he replies to his radio.
"Yeah, we probably should have warned you about them," he responds.
"Warned me?" Elena's voice is accusatory, not that I blame her. "Wait, you two knew about these things? How long were you guys waiting on telling me?"
"Sorry, sorry!" I plead with my own radio. "It slipped our minds!"
Nate sighs as he and I push forward through the room. "Just lay low and stay out of their way."
As we travel up the steps, we can hear the beasts' snarls, somewhere nearby but out of view from us. After stepping out onto the story's roof and onto the wall, we see the soldiers again – and a lot of them, thrown into fear at the sight of the many mutilated bodies of their dead comrades.
Serves them right.
After a bit of slightly convoluted parkour around the building, we finally reach the wall of the tower and promptly scale up.
"Phew, we made it," I sigh in relief, still careful to keep my voice down.
In no time at all, we reach a hole near the roof where we carefully make our way across the rafters of the tall room. Right away, we can see Lazarevic, Chloe, and I think that Harry guy Nate mentioned far down below us.
We're careful to hide behind one of the support beams as they talk.
And whoa boy, what a talk because Lazarevic seems ready to stab Harry with that dagger. Nope, just a blunt threat and a blow to the ego about Nate before he shoves the blade into Harry's hands and stalks off.
Harry doesn't take long to leave either, handing the dagger to Chloe on the off chance she can't figure something out while he leaves to see if he can't "smooth things over".
God, that guy's such a tool.
Nate and I exchange a gaze and then a nod before stuffing our guns away and moving over to the next beam so we can touch down behind Chloe.
The landing sort of hurts my knees but nothing I won't live through.
Chloe's not too happy to see us, though. Well, she's not too happy to see Nate; she's just confused out of her mind to see me.
"Nate," she gripes with a facepalm. "Why did you bring Sparkles here?"
I have to blink at what she just called me. Seriously, what is with me getting all these glittery nicknames?
"Look, Chloe, it's a long story," Nate replies in a strained voice. "Just give us the dagger."
"He'll be here any minute," she retorts, pulling the dagger the way the moment Nate tries to take it. She shoots a sharp glance at me. "You want your story to keep going, Sparkles, then I suggest leaving."
For a moment, her heavy gaze makes me want to back down – but then I remember my grandmother. I remember Schafer. I remember Tenzin and Pema.
I remember Jai.
I find the strength in myself to stand firm. "Not without that dagger."
She's clearly not prepared for that response, at least not from me, judging by the brief gobsmacked look she has right before Nate nears her again.
And like before, she's back on the defensive.
"Don't make us take it from you," Nate warns.
"Please," I coax, taking a step forward. "We need it."
"And how am I to explain that it's gone, hm?" she quirks a brow at me, challenging.
Nate quirks a brow back as he slowly reaches and even manages to get a hold of the dagger, although Chloe doesn't let go as he tries to pry it away.
The two wind up in a tense stalemate, holding the dagger between themselves, their staring contest feeling like something that I probably shouldn't be spectating right now.
"Just do one thing for me, both of you," Chloe says at last, sparing me a glance. "Take that son of a bitch down."
And like that she shoves the flat of the dagger against Nate and walks out of the room.
I let off a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding, thankful that we convinced her, although a thought is tickling the back of my mind just now.
Never mind that. Time to figure out the deal with this room.
XXX
After a surprising amount of lifting and color-matching, Nate and I figure out the secret entrance's location once we've climbed the newly revealed window and balcony.
"That what we're looking for?" I ask as Nate glimpses through his binocs at a menagerie of constructs at the base of a cliff in the distance.
"Oh yeah," he confirms before handing over the binocs to me and calling Elena up to let her know what we've found and where to meet us.
After that, it's just a quick rappel down – during which yet another of our furry friends pop in and out.
Lord, I hate those things.
Before long, we reach a roof where we crouch low to hide from Lazarevic's men, who are busy at work dismantling the whole place.
Those dummies don't even know the way into Shambhala's right below them.
Well, sucks to be them when me, Nate, and Elena rendezvous to tear them all a new one a moment later, especially the turret guy when I manage to sneak up and knock him out thanks to Nate distracting him from below.
In a couple of minutes, we're back in the clear, exhausted but still kicking.
Just like with the pedestal back in the tower, Nathan stabs the dagger into the swirly symbol, revealing a wheel complete with rods to grab. The three of us each take a rod and push, rotating the mechanism.
"C'mon boys! Put your backs into it," Elena grunts.
"Nag, nag, nag," Nate playfully complains back much to my amusement. These two are such a riot.
Soon, a heavy click goes off, and water starts to emit from above, through the statue, and through the village until it reaches the aqueducts bordering the strange stairs that lead up to the shriveled tree far below.
Before our eyes, the stairs retract into themselves to reveal a secret entrance.
"Guys, that's really it," I murmur in awe.
Nate chuckles, shaking his head. "Hidden right in plain sight."
"C'mon," Elena calls to us as she goes for a nearby rappel. "We can use this to get across."
Across the battle between Lazarevic's men and the yeti-things, we realize the instant we use the damn thing!
"Oh!"
"Whoa!"
"Jesus!"
Would it kill these beasts to at least be more thorough in how many of these jerks they kill? We have to deal with a surprise attack from behind and snipers in a rather tight space.
But on the bright side, once we clear those idiots out, the ropes they used to get down are our way up.
One corner later, the secret entrance awaits just ahead…past all the many, many dead soldiers.
I take back what I said about the yetis not being thorough.
The way down once we enter is not much more welcoming, but then again what else did I expect? Also, the people who made this place really loved their gears.
"Guys, there's some doors some up here," Nate says through his radio to us, having gone ahead. "I could use your help."
"Got it, brother."
"On our way."
Once we all reconvene, together we push the door open and make our way into a massive chamber, a huge sphere in a cup of some sort in the center.
Anticlimactic, but I get the distinct feeling we're missing something here.
"If I have to climb another wall," Elena starts to lament.
"Keep looking around," Nate insists as he starts searching the place. "There's gotta be a clue somewhere."
"Are you sure this is it?"
"Wouldn't make sense to build this place if it was," I remind her. "We just have to think outside the box a little."
That's when I notice something odd about all the Phurba attached to the walls. "Hey Nate, Elena, how about we try turning all these down?"
Nate's already in the middle of turning one. "Way ahead of ya, buddy."
Nothing happens once the last dagger's turned down, but I feel like we're still on the right track. Maybe we just need to examine the orb again and—
"They went this way!" a distant accented voice calls out, followed by the quickly nearing sound of multiple people charging our way.
"Son of a bitch!" Nate cusses as we all pull our guns out.
"What do we do?" Elena asks in worry.
"Just stay behind us. Noah, get ready."
I grit my teeth, already not liking where this is going. We've got nowhere to hide or run here.
We huddle together against the piece of wall right next to the entryway, breath bated. It doesn't take long for a soldier to rush past us, leaving his head wide open for gunpoint from all three of us.
"Drop it," Nate snarls before he grabs the man just as more soldiers flood the chamber and aim their guns on us. Elena and I turn our guns on them in turn. "Do it!"
The soldiers don't buy his bluff, simply advancing.
"Stay back!" Nate's tough guy ruse cracks when he sees who enters the room last. "Ah crap."
Because lo behold, who should bring up the rear but our dear friend, Lazarevic himself? Looking just as gruesome as ever, I might add, as he sneers at the sight of us.
"I should have killed you both when I had the chance. Not a mistake I will make twice." He pulls out a gun on Nate to prove his point.
Elena and I aren't having it though.
"Back off," she snaps at him.
Unfortunately, Lazarevic's not impressed, even having the nerve to lower his own gun. "Go ahead and pull the triggers, little ones – see how long you live."
I huff, not lowering my gun. This bastard's mind games won't work on me this time.
Lazarevic returns his attention to Nate. "Now – you will open the passage to Shambhala."
"Go to hell."
Again, Lazarevic is not fazed. In fact, he seems amused…so amused in fact that he goes off complimenting history's biggest nut jobs.
Ugh, I almost wish he would shoot us.
"…they had the will to do what other men could not," Lazarevic finishes right before shooting our hostage straight in the head, shocking all three of us.
Our guns are on him instantly.
"Compassion is weakness," that madman starts shouting, crazed eyes going from Nate to me. "Mercy defeats us. Now, unless you wish to test me still further, you will drop your weapons!"
At this point, he's all up in Nate's face with his gun, although I can see his eyes are alternating to me, still daring me to fire.
Nate's eyes shift to me, too, and there's a lot of emotions running through, too many for me to keep track of…but I can see the frustration and understand.
I feel it, too.
With great reluctance, Nate and I drop our guns.
"Do it," Nate implores Elena when she doesn't follow suit, Lazarevic now training his gun on her.
I give her the most pleading look I can without words. It's enough to break her resolve and do the same as us.
"Kick them away," Lazarevic orders. We comply, as much as doing so sickens us. Only then does he back off a little. "So – you have tested my will. Now it is my turn to test yours."
And then he's back to pointing his gun at Nate.
"As if killing us will do you any good," Elena retorts.
Lazarevic huffs. "Killing this one, yes" – he shifts the gun to me – "This one as well. But you…"
The moment that gun barrel shifts to Elena, Nate and I get in front of her immediately.
"You hurt her, you won't get anything from us."
"In fact, I'm pretty sure that'll push us to kick your ass even harder."
Once again, Lazarevic is not moved.
"Then it appears we are at a stalemate." For some reason, he starts pacing, waving his gun. Then he smiles. "Unless – I add another pawn to the board. Bring her in!"
Footsteps draw our attention to the entryway, where we see Harry forcibly leading a disgruntled Chloe by the arm, holding her at gunpoint.
I hear Nate murmur a cuss under his breath as Chloe is shoved our way, rejecting Lazarevic's hand when the sicko tries to push her forward.
Honestly, this guy cannot be serious.
"Now, one we will use as a lesson…the other we will use as an incentive to cooperate. You choose."
I take it back. This dumbass is full-on serious, using Elena and Chloe as choices for a sacrifice. Yeah, this totally isn't sexist.
Elena and Chloe clearly agree.
"Nate, Noah, this is bullshit."
"Yeah, don't play into his game."
Nate simply shakes his head. "You want our help, you let them go."
"Alive and unscathed if you please," I add, unimpressed.
"THIS IS NOT A NEGOTIATION!" Lazarevic screams. "Now who would you sacrifice? And who would you save?"
And then he starts trying to toy with us by teasing which one we'd like to save, like this is some morbid game show.
"Or maybe this one, hmm?"
"For God's sake, man," I snap at last, rolling my eyes. "Just ask us to open the door for you already!"
"Tch, as if it's hard," Nate agrees, stepping up to call this maniac's bluff. After a tense moment, he walks off towards the orb, me following suit. "We'll do what you want."
Once we reach the center, I reach into my pocket – or at least about to before Lazarevic and all his men jerk their guns up at us like they're the police. How can I not roll my eyes?
Drama queens.
"Relax," Nate retorts at them in annoyance while I pull out the case of resin he gave me for safekeeping, shaking it for all to see so these trigger-happy idiots settle down.
Once I pour the resin into the bowl, Nate turns to Harry and demands a lighter. Once he receives it, he turns with a sigh and lights the resin up, igniting a blue fire beneath the sphere.
Right away, the sphere ignites into an even larger flame, lighting up the room to reveal runes all over. Nate and I back up in awe, Chloe and Elena joining us since Lazarevic and his men are just as taken by the spectacle.
One section of the wall in particular lights up with glowing runes. The four of us approach it with some caution, not sure what to expect.
Nate is the one to approach and insert the dagger into the odd slot on the piece of wall…and once he does, the entire section sinks into the floor to reveal a whole bridge above a yawning chasm, a row of faces bordering it on each side, lit flames all over.
"Holy crap…"
No kidding. I don't think even my grandma or Schafer ever got this far.
The moment Lazarevic starts to approach the bridge, though, the whole thing's sections rotate out of place, preventing further passage.
That feels pretty symbolic. And vindicating – or it does until Lazarevic orders that Harry guy to find out what's wrong…and to take Nate and I with him.
Yay.
XXX
A minute in and I already do not like Harry. More than I already didn't.
So far, he's let me drop down the ledge first, only to push Nate off on his turn so he'll fall on top of me.
He constantly sasses us – and not in the endearing way Jai would either – when he makes us climb first yet threatens shooting us whenever we get so much as an inch ahead of him.
Oh, and he drops a huge block of rock that nearly lands on our heads.
So yeah, I can be forgiven for not trusting him when the bridge he gets on first crumbles on one side, forcing Nate to rely on that jerk to catch him.
"C'mon big man, put those legs to work already," Harry later jeers as Nate readies himself to catch me once it's my turn. The darkness below leaves me hesitant. "What, worried you'll weigh us down?"
It takes every fiber of my being not to roll my eyes. Seriously, a fat joke? Does this guy think we're still in middle school?
"Just ignore him, Noah," Nate calls out to me. "You've got this."
I smile out of appreciation before taking a steady breath and stepping back to get a running start. I barely manage to clear the gap, but Nate's quick enough to catch me as promised and pull me up.
"Thanks," I grunt once my feet are on (relatively) stable ground again.
Of course, Harry has to shove Nate into me again the moment we pass by him. God, please let a boulder fall on him already.
Doesn't help that he keeps nagging and insulting us every five steps, but Nate and I do our best to ignore him.
After squeezing through a crevice, Nate and I reach the fractured remnants of a statue's eye blocking our way and promptly start shoving it, albeit with a lot of effort.
"C'mon, ladies, put your back into it now!"
Thankfully, we get the rock loose, sending it plummeting to the watery chasm below. Some straddling of the cavern walls and cart-pushing later (once again with Harry providing nothing but commentary), we make our way up to and across some statue outcroppings along a rounded torch.
"Hey look, Noah, a statue of Harry's mom."
I snort at Nate's joke.
In time, we reach one of the bridge sections and make our way across to a stone outcropping that's hanging out to the side, leading to the next door.
"Oh look, it's a life-sized statue of your ego."
"Wow, Harry," I can't help but return. "Way to out yourself like that."
Now it's Nate's turn to snort. Jai would be so proud, too. Harry merely scoffs, whatever backtalk he throws back lost on my ears as I jump across after Nate onto the outcropping. I also ignore his little bit of pretending he needs help.
And we finally reach the stairs on the other side. This time, all three of us work together to get the door open, only to reveal not only yet another door but a high rise on each side with big rotating pillars.
Upon closer inspection, I realize something important.
"Hey, don't the symbols up on those pillars look like the same ones from the tower?"
Nate quickly checks his notebook and opens it to the proper page, me joining him so I can get a gander at the symbols, too. "Yeah, you're right."
"Hmm. I take left, you take right?"
"Sounds good to me."
Solving the puzzle takes us some time, what with only one notebook between us, not to mention Harry consistently nagging us some more out of impatience. Thankfully, I have a decent enough memory, so Nate and I manage to match the symbols without me needing to go back and forth to check.
And like that, another one of those turnstiles emerges from the floor.
"There, that should do it," Nate announces as he and I jump back down.
Harry flinches away from the contraption. "Wait, that's what, just came out the floor?"
"Help us this turn and you'll find out," I answer plainly while reaching for one of the rods to push. To my surprise, Harry actually does lend a hand this time.
"Agh! What, are we grinding wheat, what is this?"
OK, I admit, that quip gets me to smirk a little.
In seconds, the turnstile hits its opening mechanism with a click and sinks back into the ground, rods extracted. Right away, the sound of water rushing fills the room. We all look up just in time to see all of the stone heads on the walls flowing from their mouths.
And with that, the bridge sections have all realigned again.
While also attracting a swarm of death-yetis from the ceiling. Great.
"Oh crap!" Nate exclaimed.
Harry backed up immediately. "What the hell are these things?!"
"Guns, guns," I start screaming. "Give us guns!"
"No way!"
"Flynn, this is no time to argue!" Nate snaps.
Thankfully, Harry acquiesces at last and chucks an extra gun at Nate – and none at me.
I throw my hands up, exasperated. What am I supposed to do, punch the things?
Nate notices too. "Uh hello, aren't you forgetting someone?"
Harry acts like he's just noticed I'm here. "Oh sorry, Princess. Afraid you're gonna hafta think on your feet for this one."
I smile and promptly knee him in the groin, making his weak ass bend over immediately.
Again, Jai would be proud.
"Thank you," I state in a sweet tone while relieving him of the shotgun on his back.
"PUH! You little prick…," Harry wheezes as he tries to right himself back up.
"Serves ya right," Nate sneers while deterring one of the yetis with a bullet to the head.
Thankfully, this encounter's far less chaotic with all of us armed. Since the shotgun's got less ammo but more of a kick, I stick to playing keep-away by sniping these assholes from a distance so Nate and Harry have room to maneuver.
Shooting still sucks on account of how ungodly fast these things are! Nate and I end up getting body slammed once or twice, although now we're wise about how these things fight, so we're able to dodge and push them back more easily.
At some point, one of them manages to get the drop on Nate, tackling him to the ground and knocking the gun out of his hands.
I'm down to my last bullet and fire it at the beast's head. The monster barely flinches, still gunning for Nate's throat despite his best efforts to hold it back.
I'm about ready to screw everything and just run over with this shotgun as a makeshift cudgel – until another gunshot goes off from behind me and gets the beast in the head, actually killing it.
I look back and have to hold back a groan.
Great, Lazarevic just saved us – and of course his shotgun would have that kind of firepower.
Right away, Lazarevic is flanked by four of his men, who come towards me and Nate immediately. I frown and drop the empty shotgun, already knowing using it any further be pointless, although I spot Nate trying to be slick and reach for his gun again, only for Lazarevic to point the shotgun at him next.
"Ah-ah-ah-ah. Hold them."
And like that, Nate and I have our arms pinned.
Harry comes closer to us, rattled, to take a closer look at the dead yeti. "What the hell are these things?"
Lazarevic gets down to one knee and removes the creature's face…revealing it to be a person. Sort of – their skin's this weird purplish-blue and their veins, white and prominent, stand out.
Nate and I cannot believe our eyes! Did the Cintamani Stone do this?
"Scarecrows," Lazarevic comments, standing back up. "Guardians to frighten trespassers."
"Yeah?" Harry scoffs before taking a futile kick at the dead warrior. "Well, it's bloody effective!"
"Well," I chirp oh so merrily. "Not that this hasn't been fun, but I do believe Nate and I have fulfilled our end of the bargain."
"Now how about letting Elena and Chloe go?" Nate demands, struggling against his captors. I notice just now that the girls are being brought into the chamber too.
Lazarevic merely huffs. "Always bargaining…but you two have played your last hand and lost."
The cocking of a gun mixed with a chuckle draws my attention to Harry, who's already got a gun pointed at me, smirking like the snake he is. "End of the road, mates."
Only for Lazarevic to raise a finger, gesturing him to pause. "No, no, no, no…not yet. I want them to see Shambhala…and die knowing that I have taken it from them" – he walks up to Nate and me, looking each of us in the eye –"and that all the efforts to protect it, both theirs and others', have all been in vain."
Oh, I am looking forward to seeing this asshole's world go up in flames.
"Open the gate!" he shouts, backing away from us.
Two of his soldiers get to work on the cranks, and before long the massive door disengages, coming apart in sections to reveal golden light that causes us all to shield our eyes for a moment.
And when it clears, what awaits is nothing short of breathtaking.
A whole city of gold and white buildings, lush with green trees, peppered by imposing Buddhist statues, all under a cloudy blue sky.
This is it. This is what my grandmother and Schafer – what Nate, Elena, and I – had been trying to save this whole time.
Shambhala.