Disclaimer: I don't own any characters mentiond in this story.
Zip was sitting at his desk observing the monitor with keen interest. He could not believe Lara had survived that incident, he was certain she was doomed. Alistair entered the room and picked up a headset that was sitting on the desk near Zip. Lara said over the headset 'oh I've missed Ghana'.
Alistair smiled, 'narrowly escaping death again I see'. Lara replied, 'there you are Alistair, you found something about the sword I presume'. Alistair reviewed his notes, 'a few things actually, I extrapolated the markings to get a sense of what the entire pattern would look like, and then I found…', the equipment started beeping. Zip looked at the monitor behind him, 'woops we have a problem'. He looked in horror as the monitor displayed the words 'signal lost'.
Alistair turned around, a look of horror adorned his face. 'What is it?' 'What's going on?' Zip tried effortlessly to re-contact Lara but it was no good. 'I don't know how but we lost the signal'. Alistair leaned over Zips shoulder and gazed into the monitor; Zip was still trying to re-connect the signal; suddenly the screen went blank then all the lights went off.
Zips face went blank, 'I do not like where this is going'. Suddenly there was a pounding noise on the front door; the two took cover in some nearby cupboards. Suddenly the front door came crashing to the ground and a huge black demon burst into the room followed by a woman with white hair and dressed in black; behind her were four armed mercenaries.
Zip and Alistair were shaking like plates of jelly, they were only used to seeing this sort of thing on a video screen. The woman observed her surroundings, 'hmm, nice place' she said. She turned to the mercs, 'the key must be around here somewhere'. 'Split up and search for it'. The four mercs split up and searched the mansion leaving the woman alone with her pet.
Creak. The woman turned and looked into Zips tech lab, 'looks like you may be having an early lunch my pet' she said with an evil smile.
Alistair panicked, he burst out of the cupboard and ran screaming through the lab, the demon leapt through the air at Alistair but Alistair dropped to the floor at the last second and the demon went flying into Zips desk. Alistair leapt to his feet threw open the door to the pool area and ran screaming down the corridor, the demon hauled itself off the floor and raced after Alistair.
The woman noticed the second cupboard and motioned towards it, with each step Zip panicked; he had no idea what this woman was capable of, she had already managed to control an unspeakable entity but was she capable of any other tricks. The woman was upon Zip. She reached out to the cupboard door to open it. Zip panicked. He pushed forward on the cupboard door with all his might knocking the woman to the floor.
Zip darted forward in an attempt to escape but the woman grabbed his leg sending him crashing to the floor. Two armed mercs appeared. 'We heard the commotion, everything alright?' one asked. The woman replied 'keep an eye on this one; my pet is searching for the other one.
Several minutes passed the remaining two mercs re-entered the room. 'We searched everywhere but found nothing' one said disappointedly. 'Well..' the woman said looking at Zip, 'This one obviously doesn't know what were talking about'. Her pet burst into the room, the woman looked at it with an evil smile. 'Finish this one off and then well start off for Kazakhstan'
The demon motioned slowly towards Zip with a hungry look n its face. Bang. The demon groaned with pain. The woman let out a cry. 'Nooooooo!' The monster dematerialised and the smog flew into the womans necklace. The mercs and the woman ran out of the building.
Zip looked up and saw Alistair standing outside the door to the gym with a gun in his hand dripping wet. Zip smirked, 'decide to go for a swim Alistair?' An angry look appeared on Alistairs face. 'I just swam through that blasted underwater tunnel, trying to escape almost certain death and you're joking about it!' Zip noticed the gun in Alistairs hand. 'Where'd you get that?' he asked. I overheard Lara talking to Winston about where her emergency guns were hidden and fortunately there was one hidden in the under water tunnel. Zip looked at the mess in his lab, 'whatever man, lets get the equipment back together and contact her majesty'.
Several hours passed. Alistair had just finished putting the equipment back together in the lab and Zip had just come back from the uplink station. 'Zip there's one thing I don't get, why disable the link and then the power'. Zip replied 'maybe they thought if they attempted to get past the security system protecting the junction box before severing the link, then the alarm would alert her majesty.
'Is everything fixed?' Alistair asked. 'Yep, everything's up and running so we should be able to get back in touch.' Zip and Alistair both replaced their headsets, Zip dialled the line and they were back in contact with Lara.
What happens next is what happens at the end of the Ghana level.