Chapter Two: The Great Wall


Authors note: I have very limited knowledge of guns and helicopters so please bear with any
mistakes I make in that venue.

The night before, Lara had set her alarm clock to early the next morning- at 3 a.m. to be exact- so
she would arrive in China at a decent hour. It had seemed a fairly logical plan at the time, but
now that the darned contraption was ringing in her ear after a mere five hours of sleep, Lara
thought that the action was quite rash. As soon as she pressed the snooze button on her alarm
clock, she remembered that today she was beginning her quest to find the dagger of Xian. She sat
up in bed and sleepily looked around. The next moment, she was on the floor, pulling on her
seasoned khaki shorts and aquamarine tank top. She hummed a cheerful tune as she buckled her
belt around her waist and slipped her trusty pistols into their holsters. Then, she grabbed her
backpack, which contained her shotgun and First-Aide kit and headed downstairs. "Good
Morning, Winston!" she greeted her faithful butler, who was groggily clomping down the steps
behind her. He merely groaned and tried his best to keep up with his mistress.

"Will you be taking tea this morning, Miss Croft?" he asked in as genteel a voice as he could
under the circumstances.

Lara paused her quick, sprint-like stride long enough to reply, "I wish I could, Winston, but the
time difference between here and China refuses me the privilege." She stooped down to put on
her rugged pair of hiking boots which she always kept in the ballroom when she wasn't using
them.

"As you wish, Miss Croft."

Lara stood up and smiled once more on her beloved butler. Each time she left on an expedition,
she gazed at his face almost pitifully, wondering if she would live to see him again. Then, she
would blink back the childish tears in her eyes and march out of the house as quickly as she
could, an action which lessened the heartache somewhat. This particular morning was no
different; she bid him adieu with her smiling eyes and headed out into the darkness of predawn.

The night was very still and almost completely silent as Lara crunched across the driveway to her
large iron gates. She noiselessly undid the latch and tiptoed to the other side of the gate. Then,
without looking back, she headed for her garage to get her Rolls Royce. She knew that Winston
would lock the gate behind her as he always did. As she slipped the key into the ignition, she
reflected on her last great adventure- her pursuit of the fabled Atlantean Scion. It had been one
great thrill after another from outwitting the devious Jacqueline Natla to dodging flames in the
infamous "torch room." She wondered if her new exploit would be as memorable. Little did she
know that her life was going to be changed forever in a way she never dreamed possible.

An hour or so later, she arrived at Heathrow Airport in London. She quickly checked her bags
and flashed her passport which had been ratified by the Chinese government nearly a month
before. Hurrying to the gate of departure, she felt as though a pair of evil eyes following her every
move. "Don't be so paranoid," she told herself. But the dark feeling of foreboding wouldn't leave
her. It clung to her like a burr and seemed to grow larger every moment as she boarded the plane.
As she taxied down the runway, she began to dose off. Through the bleary half-consciousness of
her mind rang the words: "You are the Key; you are the Key." She broke out into a hot sweat as
the dream relived itself from the moment of uncertainty on the davenport to the last chilling
repetition of "I need you!"

Suddenly, a cooling breeze rushed into her mind like a soft touch of a human hand. The dream
was real and definitely prophetic, but perhaps not all that bad. In fact, she rather liked it; it had
become as familiar as a long-lost lover or friend. She sighed as the dream faded into the back of
her mind once more Everything was going to be alright . . .

**********************

"We are now approaching your destination," rang a clear, sappy voice. "Please keep your safety
belts securely fastened until the plane comes to a complete stop."

Lara stretched and sat up wearily from her sleep. Suddenly, her eyes popped open in disbelief.
Surely, she couldn't have slept all that time! But evidently she had, for she was now descending
through the clouds into that busy metropolis known as Beijing. An instant boost of adrenaline
surged through her veins. This was it; she was here; her adventure had finally begun! She took in
several deep breaths only to realize that the oxygen in the cabin wasn't nearly as fresh as it had
been twenty hours before. After a few moments, the sharp pain in her oxygen-deprived head had
calmed down and she could think more clearly. As soon as she got off the plane, she would head
over to the heliport to board her chartered autogiro. She hoped that Young Yang Ho would be her
pilot again. He was so polite and innocent and spoke English fluently as well. "I'm looking
forward to seeing him again," she thought to herself as the plane landed with a sharp jolt. Finally,
the plane's engines turned off and she was able to alight from it onto the airport grounds. After
asking for directions to the heliport in her rusty Chinese, she headed for a remote spot of the
property highlighted by a bright red sign of familiar Chinese characters. She began running as
soon as she was close enough to see Yang Ho smiling at her from his chopper.

"Welcome aboard, Miss Lara!" he called in his Oriental accent as she joined him in the cockpit.
"It is very nice to see you again."

"The pleasure's all mine!" she returned in a jovial tone. "How has the world been treating you,
Mr. Ho?"

"Not at all badly," he assured her as he began the propeller. "What about you?"

"I never felt better!" she called over the whirr of the propeller. She smiled teasingly at him and
squeezed his arm as they began to ascend. Soon, they were soaring up and over the airport
towards the Great Wall. The scenery that whizzed by the windshield was perfectly breathtaking,
but Lara had other things on her mind.

"We're headed due north at about 100 km per hour," remarked Yang after an unusually long
period of silence.

Lara nodded her head in approval. "Lovely. We should reach our location in a fair amount of
time." Lara's heart was surging with excitement, yet a dark premonition still clouded her mind.
What was wrong with her? She was the invincible Lara Croft and nothing could stand in her way
once she set her mind to something. And she would never change her mind about how much she
wanted the dagger, would she?

These thoughts nagged her incessantly until the moment she arrived at her destination. . After
making a pass by the Great Wall, Yang remarked, "It doesn't look as if I'll be able to make a safe
landing on that rocky terrain below."

"Not a problem," Lara answered as she opened the hatch and expertly tossed a rope out the side
of the helicopter. Making sure that her backpack was securely in place, she slowly walked to the
door and began to descend the rope. Yang watched in fascination as Lara dropped the last several
meters to the ground, near a cave entrance. "See you later, Miss Lara!" he called loudly enough
to be heard over the din of the propeller. Sighing a worried sigh, he turned his copter around and
headed back to the heliport.

Lara waved at him until his whirlybird disappeared into the mist and then turned to survey her
surroundings. She appeared to have dropped into a barren cavern that perhaps had never felt the
tread of human footsteps. Hesitatingly, she walked out of the cave into the sunlight. She saw the
helicopter for a brief second before it disappeared for good. "Well," she thought, "There's no
turning back now." Lara craned her neck to the right to see a tower high up on a rocky crag.
Immediately, she began devising a plan to get up there.

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling snarl caught her attention. She whipped around to see a rare Bengal
tiger on the promontory behind her, growling and in pouncing poise. Impulsively, she dashed to
her right into a shallow mountain spring while readying her pistols. When she turned around, the
great orange beast was following her into the water! She aimed at him, whispered a silent prayer
and began pumping bullets into him. The cat howled in pain, but would not venture any further
into the water. Within minutes, the animal collapsed into the water, blood trickling from its
wounded body.

Lara watched as the scarlet stream inched toward her. Suddenly, it swirled to her right. Lara
followed it with her eye until it splashed against the back corner of the pool. "What a fine path-
beater!" she exclaimed as she climbed out where the bloody stream had pointed. Immediately she
was faced with a sheer rock wall. Fortunately it was only five feet high and she scaled it with
ease. She carefully picked her way along the rock ledge until it stopped before spying a pillar of
stone diagonally in front of her to the left. She jumped to that ledge and ran along it until veered
sharply to the left, continued several meters and ended at another stone block. "Child's play,"
Lara mused sardonically as she scaled it with ease. "Pretty clever those Chinese."

Lara realized that she couldn't get any higher from this vantage point and turned around to spot
an identical block above the path she had just come from. She shrugged and expertly vaulted
across to it as if it were a mere stepping stone across a brook instead of a crag ten meters off the
ground. The sound of the tiger's mate from down bellow neither surprised or worried her. She
casually picked it off before continuing her journey. She was about to turn left and begin to
ascend the crumbling staircase to the tower when she spotted a familiar shape on a ledge across a
short gap to her right. She expertly cleared the gap and tiptoed along the rock until she came
upon what appeared to be a small granite statuette of a dragon. "Aha!" she cried as she added the
small carving to her backpack. "It must be one of the fabled Dragons of Xian. According to the
legend, the monks of Xian left three of these 'secrets' in each of the areas you must traverse to
find the dagger. Supposedly, they placed some of them in dangerous or hard to get to places to
distract adventurers from their real goal and possibly cause their death."

After this little lecture to herself, she turned around and returned to the other ledge so she could
continue her way up the tower. After three steps, the stone staircase disappeared completely and
slanted to the left. Cautiously Lara stepped on the slanted slope and did a running jump across the
gap to a barely visible ledge on the other side. One more quick boost and she was inside the
tower.

The turret walls were slimy with mold but other than that, it was completely empty. "What in the
world . . . " began Lara. Then she spotted a metal grate in the front right corner of the room.
"Aha!" she remarked as she advanced toward it a little too casually. As soon as her foot hit the
metal, she knew she'd made a mistake. The grate dropped into the floor and sent her falling into a
room several stories below. Fortunately, the room was flooded and she landed with a splash in
the murky water.

Shivering, Lara stood up in the water, which was only waist deep in the middle of the room, and
climbed out. In front of her was a tightly bolted door; to her left, several stairs appearing to lead
nowhere. She tiptoed up the steps and stared into the water when they stopped. "Hmm," she said,
lifting her head to look across the room. There, in the opposite corner was a rusty old lever
accessible by a narrow ledge. She vaulted across the icy water and grabbed onto the block for
dear life. After pulling herself up, she slowly approached the lever, got a good grip on it, and
pulled it down with all her might. There was a creaking sound and then a loud bang as the door
opened and hit the wall. Lara lowered herself down into the water and waded over to the now
ajar door.

Lara readied her pistols and walked out onto the rampart between this turret and the next. Just
when Lara was about to reholster her guns and reconnoiter the area, her actions were halted by
the sudden flapping of wings. Three ravens appeared seemingly out of nowhere and swooped
down to attack her. Quickly, Lara took aim at the first approaching bird and fired several rounds
into him until he fell. Cursing under her breath, she fumbled to reload the pistols before the
others came too close. She dashed across the rampart to the other side and reverse dived to face
her foes. She squeezed the triggers with all she was worth and jumped from side to side to
confuse them. Finally, the third uttered a dying squawk and plummeted to the ground.

Panting heavily, Lara replenished the ammunition once more and holstered her colts. She hastily
scanned the terrain and noticed a locked guardhouse door behind her and a large breach in the
wall in front of her. After making a quick search for the key on the rampart, she concluded that it
must be down below. Cautiously she approached the dilapidated section of the wall and peered
down. Directly below it was a freshwater pool. Holding her breath, Lara ran onto the sloping ruin
and slid off into the pool below. The cold water made her skin prickle in pain, but she ignored it
as she swam around, searching for the key. Finally, she spotted a small tunnel leading off to her
right and squeezed into it. At the end lay a large rusty object that was unmistakably a key. Lara
smiled triumphantly as she grabbed her prize and turned around to return to the surface.

As soon as her head had popped out of the water, Lara was aware of a familiar snarling growl.
Another tiger was prowling around the pool, waiting hungrily for her to exit the water and
become his afternoon snack. Quickly, Lara calculated the tiger's moves, boosted herself out of
the water when he was at the opposite end of the pool, and immediately opened fire with her
pistols. Within a matter of minutes, the great cat was no more.

Once the beast was dead, Lara began investigating the landscape for a possible way to get back
up the wall. She was about to try scaling it when she spotted a tall hill just to the right of the
breach she slid down. She ascended the mound and grabbed the edge of the wall to pull back up
to the rampart. She fumbled with the key until it fit into the lock and opened the forbidding
guardhouse door. Inside the forbidding chamber was a rickety old ladder leading to a stony loft.
Lara was just about to ascend the ladder when a large, hoary, eight-legged creature scrambled out
of the darkness and began to nibble at her ankles. "Argh!" grunted Lara as she jumped back
outside the doorway. As she grabbed her pistols, she noticed a second mammoth arachnid
crawling toward her. Lara shot several rounds into the first beast while the second advanced
toward her with menacing velocity. After it was dead, she jumped backwards onto the rampart
while two more black widows followed the other toward her. Lara pulled the trigger hard until
only one of the spiders remained. When she tried to shoot it, she realized her guns had jammed.
Quickly, she threw her weapons at the unfortunate spider who collapsed after the blow, finally
vanquished. Lara sighed and relief and cautiously stepped forward to retrieve her beloved pistols.
As she picked them up, her hand brushed against the hairy underside of the dead arthropod. She
shuddered and drew back her hand quickly to make the unpleasant prickly sensation go away as
soon as possible

After repairing her colts, she holstered them and proceeded into the newly opened tower. It was
another small, dank room with nothing but a ladder, a crumbling staircase, and a second bolted
door adorning it. Lara wisely ignored the time-worn stairwell and ascended the ladder, which she
assumed must be newer. She was right, for at the top of the ladder on a large shelf was another
rusty key. She grasped it tightly in her right hand and jumped back down to the floor. She
sprinted to the far side of the chamber and used the key in the bolted door.

Remembering what had happened last time, she quickly readied her pistols and gingerly
proceeded down the narrow hallway. At first, Lara could've sworn that there was no movement
at all in the passage, but suddenly, the ceiling came to life and three more spiders dropped down
in front of her. After disposing of them, she was just about to continue down the hall when she
felt a familiar nipping at her heels. She reverse-rolled and ended the fourth spider's life as
quickly as she had the others.

Looking around the small room at the end of the passage, Lara spotted a skeleton on the floor,
clutching a box of shotgun shells. He was evidently newly killed, for the shells were at most fifty
years old and still in good condition, not to mention that there were still cloths stuck to the
corpse. She grabbed the shells and moved on.

But before she traversed much farther, she realized that the room was a dead end; the only outlet
in it was a small crack in the middle of the far wall. She scratched her head in thought before
kneeling down in front of the wall and trying to pull at least a section of it out. The wall began to
crumble and she jumped back as a great chunk fell off, a chunk large enough for her to squeeze
through, which she hastily did.

Inside the passage, there was a long ramp that led down to what appeared to be another flooded
room. She slid down the ramp and steadied herself on the edge of the water just in time to find
that the whole room was booby-trapped! Sharp blades shot out either side of the room across the
murky waters. Lara panicked for a moment before discovering a small crevice on the left side of
the room, Cautiously, she waded in the water, grabbed the crevice, and shimmied across the wall,
well above the reach of the razor-like disks. When she reached the far side of the chamber, she
carefully dropped into the water and swam past two more slits in the wall that were shooting
blades across the length of the pool. In the corner of the room, there was another hallway which
she carefully boosted herself into. Then, she sat down for a few minutes, panting and letting the
water drip off her. "I'm glad that's over," she thought to herself as she got to her feet. Little did
she know that the worst was yet to come!