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Chapter 29: The Tomb
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Ian wasn't able to remember the last time that stopped him from doing what he wishes, in fact, bad news was the sweet candy of his day.
"And who might you be?"
"Oh, excuse my rudeness, I am Talia, an associate of Batman." She responded with a smile, "How do you like the private jet?"
"Oh, it's yours?" Ian of course understood their little scheme, but he chose to go along with it. He wouldn't want them to know he already knows Who Batman actually is.
"Are perhaps funding him? I always wondered how Batman gets his resources, especially that cool black car."
Talia nodded, "You needn't know of why, but I am indeed funding him. The Bat wouldn't have been successful without a force supporting him. Fighting crime is certainly not easy."
"Lovers? You don't have to answer, just excuse my rudeness if am being too personal." Ian asked in a strangely pleasing manner.
"Hmm, maybe, it depends." Her answer was quite vague, not that Ian expected an answer in the first place.
"Hmm, so how about gifting me a similar car, you know, as a show of appreciation, or I guess a gift of our first meeting." Ian finally got to the main point, his expression was just as stale. The shamelessness of his words... He's learning from Barney.
Talia's face almost twitched in speechlessness, realizing just how special he was, "Let's say I do that, I give you the gift under the occasion of our first meeting. What gift can you give me that can satisfy my taste."
Ian raised his eyebrow at that, "Right, that's how it works... Anyway, it's quite early and I am still sleepy, so I will take a nap until we reach our destination." The shamelessness is...
The flight took a relatively long time, about ten hours. Not that long of a time for a flight to Egypt, so Ian had plenty of time to sleep and discuss a few other things with Batman, and that includes their plan.
"It's hot, I really didn't think this through, did I?" Ian complained and took off his coat just as they exited the jet.
It's Egypt after all, a land dominated by desert, hot and dry weather.
"You didn't." Talia couldn't help but laugh. He was kind of amusing and she let out an even louder laugh once she noticed Ian eyeing Batman with glances of pity... The tight black suit must be a hellish prison for him.
"Stop acting like children, especially you Talia." Batman was in his full Batman persona, thus he wasn't interested in jokes.
An off-road car was already waiting for them in the seemingly abandoned airport, and now one was around. Everything was prepared beforehand for the journey.
Batman started driving towards their destination, seemingly in the middle of the desert. All that was around is golden sand, numerous dunes of lovely sand.
"I forgot to ask you, but what exactly is your specialty? How are you gonna help in this fight?" Talia seemed to be quite the talking person as she has yet to get enough of asking questions despite asking many before.
"I can use guns, I am good at it? but I am average at hand-to-hand fighting... Yeah, I won't be too helpful."
Ian tried to convince himself of his value, but he ended up giving up, despite being efficient at many things due to his adventurous life. Perhaps he felt a bit rusty.
Talia didn't prey any longer, understanding that perhaps this is a part of Batman's test.
"We're here," Batman muttered. They have reached their destination, a structured hole in the middle of nowhere, all that can be seen is sand.
The sand was still faintly falling into the hole as if it had just been opened, "How was this found? In the middle of nowhere at that, and it seemed to have been buried by sand." Ian questioned.
"Well, our target found a map, or more like two maps allowing him to decipher the location." Talia vaguely answered.
"Let's move, and be alert. Tread carefully, the way must be filled with traps, so follow me closely." Batman warned.
The hole wasn't deep. They just had to jump into a large rocky step leading to downward stairs.
They walked carefully for a long time, the stairs were seemingly infinite, going way too deep. The area was dark but Batman was ready for that, he had a source of light.
The stairs led to a dark hallway which also led to several pathways, "Splitting up is a bad idea, so let's look through the pathways one by one until we found our target," Batman spoke and Talia agreed.
However, the ancient tomb didn't seem to like that option. They triggered a lot of traps along the way, but Batman pretty much took care or avoided them all.
He was the one leading the group, and he was keeping a fair distance from Ian and Talia.
It wasn't long before he triggered a trap that did something he didn't expect, or he couldn't react to and save them both.
The ground beneath them crumbled almost instantly as if the foundation keeping it together ceased to exist.
The last thing Ian saw before falling down into darkness was Batman jumping as fast as he could, catching Talia before using some kind of device to clutch to the wall.
He did try some kind of device to perhaps save Ian, but it was too late. The man has fallen to what appears to be his death... Or not.
"Fucking hell!" Ian shouted as he climbed himself out of the water. A large pool of water was behind him, deep enough to save him from the fall.
The fall however was long enough to hurt his... his legs a tiny bit.
The collusion at least wasn't enough to knock him unconscious. His strange ability did the rest as strangely he didn't fall on the massive stone bricks in the pool nor did the rubble fall on him.
"Phew, at least it isn't so hot now," Ian muttered to himself, "Thank god my phone is waterproof."
The only reason he was able to leave the waterhole is that he used his phone as a light source, and he used it again to observe his surroundings. The phone flashlight provided him with all the light he needs to see extensively.
'Is this perhaps an ancient shower room? The waterhole is the bathtub?' Ian was confused by the structure and how he ended up here, so he just shrugged his shoulders and made his way to the only gate in the room.
'Egyptian symbols all over the place, quite the fancy place.' He was always into collecting stuff and he loved strange and ancient things, thus he learned a bit of ancient Egyptian history among other things.
What he found after the gate was an exquisite but old hallway with several rooms to the side.
'Is this what they call a blessing in disguise.' Ian thought with anticipation apparent on his face.
He started carefully looking through every room, one by one finding most of them empty with only a bunch of jibberish in them.
However, there was one room that is different, the only chamber that had a wooden bed in it... Among other things, "What the actual fuck."