[ WP ] The hero beats the villain by stooping even lower .

Mozzie let himself be shoved into the wall. Let? He smirked. By let, is is of course meant that Mozzie did n't resist being shoved into the wall. With his hands bound before him and his body bruised and burnt from the torture, let was a very subjective word. So, Mozzie let himself be shoved into the wall. Mozzie let Haddock shove him toward the hole he'd blown in the back of the citadel. Mozzie even let him slam the butt of his rifle into his kidney when Mozzie did n't move fast enough. 
 
 Grave robbing was n't really Mozzie's thing. He liked mysteries and liked being the one to solve them. When Haddock first came to him with the spear haft, the engravings upon it had n't meant much, but when Haddock inferred that that the engravings were part of a map a conquistador had made after leaving El Dorado, Mozzie could n't resist. 
 
 He'd scanned it, projected it, stretched it out into two dimensional print outs, tested the metal of the spear head, identified the wood in the haft, compared the inscriptions, and hit up Spain for the opportunity to search for the spear section in their historical records. After all that, his break came from a Redditor who's father had once worked security for a museum in Chicago. And thanks to that tip, Mozzie was able to locate the rest of the spear and even the helm that completed the map and provided the key. 
 
 `` Move.'' Haddock snapped, jabbing the barrel of his rifle into the fatty part of Mozzie's thigh. 
 
 `` I-I am.'' Mozzie called back. The place is full of spider webs and the damn floor is uneven. 
 
 `` I... said move.'' Haddock growled, jabbing him again. 
 
 `` Dammit, if I twist my ankle or break my fucking leg, then you're going to have to carry me through this shitty place to unlock the door. So, let me pick my way on my own and just follow me. I'm bound and bruised and beaten. What the fuck. Just stop jabbing me.'' Mozzie could n't really see Haddock's face, but the glass eye in his right socket twinkled with unholy light. 
 
 Haddock wiped his brow with a handkerchief, grunted, then responded to Mozzie's reasonable sounding rant by firing a shot into the tunnel floor right between Mozzie's feet. Mozzie swore and went back to trail blazing the spider infested tunnel. He stopped when the floor of the tunnel spread out and the ceiling raised and the corridor went from a barrel vaulted construct to tall rectangular chamber. 
 
 Mozzie stopped and shined his light upon the floor. They had glyphs etched into them. 
 
 `` Move!'' Haddock called. 
 
 `` Stop. I think the floor's booby trapped.'' Mozzie reasoned. Haddock squeezed up beside Mozzie and looked at the floor. 
 
 `` How?'' Haddock did n't talk much, but when he did, brevity was solemnly embraced. 
 
 `` Not sure. I've researched these types of traps before. Some of the panels are, some of them are thin clay plates. Step on the wrong one, and your foot plunges through and trips what ever trigger lies below it. Haddock glared at him. `` Sorry. I do n't know what traps the triggers will set off. There's no way of knowing.'' Haddock grunted and slid back into the tunnel. A moment later one of the local thugs he'd brought was pressed in to the mouth of the tunnel beside me. 
 
 `` What want, boss?'' The thug asked. 
 
 `` Kill snakes.'' Haddock ordered, catching Mozzie's eye. The thug frowned, but pulled out his machete. He gave the prisoner a quick glance and marched out into the chamber ahead of them. His third step punched through a tile. There was the echoing hiss in the walls, and from above a tiny pebble fell on the henchmen's head and bounced off. He looked up just in time to catch the three inch spear in the small of his throat. It slammed to a stop about a foot from the floor, impaling the man who hung suspended on the spike. 
 
 `` Go.'' Haddock ordered. As they moved forward, Haddock would probe the tiles with the end of his rifle. Sometimes the tiles would break away and nothing happened, and sometimes they'd break away and trip the trigger and let another pole slam down before them. By the time they reached the far side of the corridor, a safe path had been found and marked for their return. 
 
 Mozzie was made to wait while the rest of the henchmen made their way across. Mozzie filled that time by studying the next corridor. It was taller and narrower, but just as dark and there were glyphs on the walls like those on the floor. The floor in the corridor was tiled much like the chamber had been. The only difference he saw was the glyphs engraved on these floor tiles were all the same and, he recognized them. 
 
 `` What of these?'' Haddock asked. 
 
 `` They warn the proud man to be humble.'' Mozzie replied. `` A psalm perhaps.'' Mozzie noticed the holes near the tiles in the wall and noticed their height from the ground. 
 
 `` Trap?'' Haddock probed at one of the tiles, it did nothing. 
 
 `` Maybe. Perhaps they seek to make us comfortable with the uniform warning on all the tiles. I'll keep watch on the floor to see if any of them change. You do the same with the tiles on the wall. If you see a change in any of the glyphs let me know. Haddock's reply was another grunt and a prod from the rifle barrel. 
 
 Mozzie moved forward, cringing in fear that his play would be discovered, but Haddock came in proud like his henchmen and kept his one good eye on the tiles on the wall. Half way down the corridor, a tile tilts under Mozzie's foot and the sound of a click was the only warning before the spikes slammed out from the sides of the tunnel all at heart and head's height. Haddock weakly struggled as he was pierced from both sides. The many of the henchmen cried out, but some did n't. One of them in the back had stooped down just a moment before the blades slid out and in his panic to escape the trap, he stumbled back into the chamber and promptly stepped through a clay tile and was impaled as the first henchman had been. 
 
 Mozzie leaned against the tunnel wall and wept for what he'd done. He suspected what the nature of the trap would be. All he had to say was for them to keep low and they would all make it through safely. He'd seen Haddock kill men before, and despite his callous disregard for life, he'd always made it quick and painless. Mozzie was a scholar. He was the adventuring kind. He was n't fighter. He was n't a soldier. He'd never killed before, and if he had, he would have chosen to make it quick and painless. The men were still struggling on the ends of the barbs and Haddock's one good eyes slowly swiveled down like a damning accusation and came to rest on him. 
 
 `` You killed Maria.'' Mozzie said by way of explanation. The light in Haddock's eyes seemed to fade and Mozzie knew he had finally succumb. He looked back at the chamber with the two impaled henchmen and the way out and into the dark ahead. He rose and began stripping the dead men of their gear. He used a confiscated machete to cut his bonds, then with a deep breath and an explosive sigh of surrender, Mozzie moved forward into the dark. Hacking at spider webs with the machete, and clutching a stolen Luger in his other hand to shoot snakes and other animals with. 
 
 He never wanted to be a tomb raider, but now that he found himself at the precipice of becoming one, he could n't find the moral strength to leave. He wiped at his brow with the back of his hand and smiled and that was how Mozzie entered the business. He pushed forward wondering if Mozzie Merchant would make a good tomb raiding moniker. He hoped so because that was his name and he had no plans to change it. 
 
 `` I should buy a hat.'' He mumbled as the darkness swallowed him up.
