Armand walked along an empty corridor and stopped in front of the door, time was coming to the midnight and many vacationers went to their rooms, the corridors were empty and only a few visitors in the bar on the ground floor were discussing the latest news in their friendly company.
The man raised his hand to knock, but at that moment, as if waiting for his arrival, the door of the room opened and a young man came out.
"What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?" Armand was indignant, having realized what was happening after he had felt an unpleasant shock.
"Maybe I should ask what the h.e.l.l are you doing here after you left the girl alone with your mutual problems, hm?" Nick cast the same annoyed look at the man, he was not afraid of either their age difference or the obvious superiority of Armand"s power.
"Who are you, that I should report to you about what I do and how I do it? You know, now I have every right to kick your b.u.t.t for having the audacity to hang around in my girlfriend"s room at this time of day."
"Ha, your girlfriend? Is that how you treat your girlfriend?" Nick crossed his arms over his chest, demonstrating his dissatisfaction with the man"s behavior, "I think I should make sure that Ashley does not perceive you as a prince on a white horse, I don"t want the girl to have problems later when she grows up."
This guy, not embarra.s.sed by his insolence, began to p.i.s.s Armand off even at their first meeting, something in Nick seemed suspicious and incomprehensible to the man, but he could not catch what the reason was.
"Nick Anderson, I just can"t figure out, what is your problem? You and I are not friends or even acquaintances. Our communication is possible only because you are a cousin of David and Elena and Corey like you much. Otherwise, I doubt that David would agree to take you with him.
But from the very first meeting, I see your over nervousness when it comes to me. So what"s up? Boy, if I offended you with something, I"m ready to apologize; you just explain what the problem is. This is not difficult, right? After all, are we both civilized and grown-up people, or am I wrong?"
Armand straightened up and looked at Nick, as at a stubborn child, who had been acting whimsically because of the toy which he didn"t get. The man"s face was relaxed, and the corners of his lips were slightly raised upwards, behind his charming smile a sincere grin was hidden, which could be seen by the gleam of his eyes.
"This kind of your face I hate the most," Nick sighed, no matter how much he wanted to tell everything to the man"s face, at that point of time it was not possible.
And it"s not that he didn"t like him, no, Nick didn"t have negative feelings for the man. It was simply personal, which the young man was ashamed to admit even to himself, and he unknowingly foiled his anger on Armand.
"Okay, I"m sorry if I seemed rude. It"s just that Lina is a very good and close friend of mine, and I don"t want her to worry. She already had to suffer enough, also because of you. So if I see her crying again," Nick looked intently into the man"s eyes and added in a low, chilling tone, "You will be sorry, Armand Taubert."
Gooseb.u.mps ran through Armand"s body, but the man was more struck not by this fact, but by the look of the young man. When Armand was young, he was most afraid of such a look, because that was how their father used to look at him and his brother before executing his punishment.
Nick took a step to go to his room, but an unexpected push into the wall echoed with a sharp pain in his left shoulder, "Are you crazy?! What the h.e.l.l are you doing?!"
Armand pressed the young man against the wall and grabbed the shirt collar, his attack caught Nick off-guard.
"Who are you?"
"Wh-what? I don"t understand what you are talking about! Let me go now!" Nick tried to break free, but all was in vain. He could not use his special powers, otherwise, it would have raised even more questions, and defeating Armand in a physical battle was a meaningless task.
"I"ve been wondering why your face evokes such conflicting feelings in me and only now I"ve understood what the matter is," Armand pressed the neck of the young man with his elbow and hissed viciously, "You"re not Anderson, right? I already saw your face before, and I"m afraid it was a very, very long time ago. Does the expedition to Tibet remind you of anything?"
"Wh-what?!" This time Nick"s face reflected genuine surprise and misunderstanding. At first, he really thought that Armand somehow guessed about his true ident.i.ty, but the man"s last question only caused Nick"s sincere bewilderment.
"What do you mean by the expedition to Tibet?! Even my parents have never been to Tibet, what are you talking about?"
"Kid, don"t pretend to be an innocent angel. I"m talking about Ahnenerbe"s first expedition to Tibet when they brought all these d.a.m.ned artifacts. My father had a photograph of that entire group on the table, and you were among them. One to one. So I"ll ask again, who are you?"
Nick opened his mouth to yell something in righteous indignation, but could not utter a word. From Armand"s view, it was clear that the man was asking his question in all seriousness and was confident in his guess.
"Um, I really don"t understand what you"re talking about. Whoever was in this photo, it was definitely not me," the young man answered with all the sincerity with which it was possible.
Armand loosened his grip and looked intently at Nick, now it seemed to him that the guy was telling the truth.
"Not you, you"re saying?"
"Not me."
Silence fell between the men for a moment.
"Um, well, I guess, you need to calm down a bit, I understand that you had a stressful evening, so I won"t take offense at your attacking me. Have a good rest, and in the morning talk with Lina so that she does not worry. In short, I"m out. Bye."
Armand stood in slight confusion and did not try to stop the young man when he slipped to the side and disappeared behind the door of his room.
Was he wrong? But the man was ready to swear with all oaths possible, that in that old photograph was none other than this Nick Anderson.
In this case, there were only two options. Either this, indeed, was a coincidence, or it was the same person.
And both options seemed suspicious to Armand.