CHAPTER ONE

22nd July 2005

It was a peaceful early afternoon in the Amazon jungle as native birds could be heard chirping away in the background. To many tourists, the risk of getting bitten by disease-carrying mosquitoes this deep into the wilderness would easily scare anyone off. But to Lara Croft, it was business as usual.

Moving plants out of the way, she relished in exploring such a secluded area for the sake of collecting another priceless artifact for her collection, like a debt collector hunting down overdue payments from clients.

Trekking a considerable distance further, she found herself greeted by a wondrous sight and decided to pull out a tape recorder from her backpack for research notes, a habit she'd decided to take on recently for the sake of better preserving the memories she had of her adventures.

'Ah. At last, the Temple of Janos! According to research papers Kurtis managed to uncover and send to me from the Lux Veritatis archives, this temple supposedly housed an incredible power. What said power did was never made clear however and to most, was dismissed as a mere myth. Those that did make it back and lived to tell the tale though, were dismissed as crazy and deluded, mentioning details such as 'demons' and 'mirrors'. I don't know what to make of this artifact yet, but I intend to find out soon enough.'

Pressing the stop button on her recorder, Lara put the device back in her backpack and set to work on entering the temple, performing a swan dive into the deep pool below.

After swimming an impressive amount that would make a professional Olympic swimmer blush, Lara climbed ashore and sat down on a rock, pulling out a bottle as she drank the satisfyingly refreshing cool water contained within, before resuming her quest anew.

Reaching the entrance to the temple, Lara was dismayed to discover the front door closed and seemingly no alternate route inside, which usually came about thanks to the benefits of gradual environmental decay. But for someone who had been through and experienced so much in her long career as a tomb raider, Lara wasn't someone quick to back down and pulled out a set of binoculars, examining the structure of the temple door more closely for any loose or secret buttons inside. Nothing!

'Dammit!' Lara said to herself. 'Usually there's at least some clue left behind, to indicate some way for the original rulers to get inside. But I guess those crafty buggers really didn't want any ol' robber to get in and claim whatever lies on the other side. Wonder if Kurtis's notes can give me any hints?'

She did just that and pulled out the research paper printouts with a renewed sense of vigour, examining the scribbled carvings and translated texts over and over, growing increasingly frustrated until coming upon the very clue she was hoping to find.

'Ah. Here we go. This carving here seems to represent a side-entrance at the top. I wonder if that's how the previous explorers managed to get in?'

Glancing up at the temple door foundations and at the notes, Lara formed a sly grin across her face.

'So that's how you lot managed to get into the temple! You pressed upon the three symbols surrounding the door's foundations and in doing so, opened up the giant hole above the door frame. A little unorthodox for tomb entrances, but then again, nothing in my line of work has ever been easy.'

With all this in mind, Lara set to work on getting inside.