Lara stepped out onto a ledge near the top dome of the temple. She tied off her rope and dropped it down to the jungle floor. Where she stood, was above the tree canopy and she looked out over the sea of green. The sun was low in the west and she would need to hurry before darkness fell. Then she heard a commotion in the front of the temple in the plaza she had crossed hours earlier. Balancing along the shelf she moved around to the front. There below, spread out across the plaza, were men with assault rifles disconcertingly pointed towards her.
"Ah Lady Croft, I see you have managed to reach the sacred chamber of the Khmer Temple of Shiva." It was an Asian man some fifty meters below shouting up at her.
She thought she recognized him but he was far away and the light was poor down in the jungle. "Who the devil are you?" she shouted. She was playing for time now.
"Merely a servant of the Cambodian people and I have come to confiscate what you have stolen from our ancestors." He shouted back.
"The Khmer were bloodthirsty butchers. Who would claim them as ancestors?" Lara noticed men beginning to filter around the sides of the temple and knew she would need to move very soon.
The man shouting was clearly in charge and losing patience. "Perhaps so Lady Croft. Don't make me spill more blood. I would like the Ruby Frog Demon. You surely have it."
"Oh this little trinket." She raised the idol up in the setting sun. The Rubies flashed red in the evening light. Now every eye in the plaza was on her and bright red statue. "If this is all you are after then here." And with that she flung it high out into the air over the armed men and the plaza. Every eye watched it arc out into nothingness. There was a surge and men scrambled toward where it would land. Not Lara's eyes though.
—
Li's heart leapt in his chest. The red idol arched out over the plaza and fell down into the jungle vegetation. Spared the hard stones of the plaza, the demon fell through the lush growth of the canopy, gradually slowing and coming to rest in the thick duff of the forest floor.
Li marked where the object had fallen and detailed two men to come with him and search for it. He also directed his Lieutenant to find Croft and finish her.
---
Lara dove back around the dome, hooked into her rope and dove head first from the top of the temple. Belaying herself with her left hand, her Glock appeared in her right and began to find targets in the jungle below. Moments before she reached the ground, automatic weapons fire began to search for her along the side of the temple raining showers of rock chips down on her. Her descent controlled as it was, dropped her unceremoniously into the brush and a tree limb smacked the side of her head so hard her vision blurred for second. Shaking her head, she felt around for her dropped pistol and scampered off into the darkening jungle.
—
The sounds of the fire fight in the jungle took the attention of the guards and Ryan felt safe enough to climb a nearby tree. It had a good view of the parked trucks . They would need to return soon or he would lose the light. They would probably be here soon.. There was nothing like a good fire fight to get people moving.
Within minutes the small arms fire died away and men began to come out of the bushes toward the trucks. A few minutes after that Ryan saw the man who was in charge. Li Than was Deputy Minister for Interior. Ryan knew him because Li was the one who had denied Ryan's request to visit this part of Cambodia. Claiming that the area was too dangerous for civilians, Li had requested that the Cambodian State Department throw Ryan out of the country. Which they would have done except when the officials had come to escort him to the airport he had already unaccountably left of his own accord. Of course he had not left. He had bought an old motorcycle and driven off into the interior.
Ryan snapped a roll of film and tried to figure it out. Why would Li be out here? And if he was in charge of the rebels who was shooting back in the jungle?
Li Than gave some instructions to the guards and another man, then he tossed a leather bag into the back seat of his command vehicle and he and his driver pulled out onto the track and headed back toward town.
Ryan bagged his equipment and started down the tree. Nearly half way down his foot slipped and he crashed through the lower limbs and bushes and sagged down into the forest muck. This earned him a volley of automatic weapons fire. The men had heard his fall and responded with what they thought was reasonable force. Twigs and leaves rained down on him as others joined in the one sided fire fight.
Staying low he cursed under his breath and slowly turned around to see a striking woman, her red hair in a long braid crouched in front of him. And, oh yes, she was pointing twin pistols, whose 9mm barrels looked as large as cannons, right at him.
Lara calmly explained, "You have seven and a half seconds to tell me who you are and just exactly what you are doing here."
Ryan's eyes flew open wide and his brain began to work in overdrive, "NoahRyanI'macontaractreporterforReuters.Heretoreportontheinsurgency" he spat out rapid fire. "ReallyIam." he added though he knew he was sounding like a goon.
"I'm not sure what you just said," replied Lara, "but you don't have a gun. You're probably the only person within miles who isn't carrying a gun. Which seems pretty stupid." she looked over Ryan's shoulder "Well, Noah Ryan, it looks like you found the insurgency." gesturing toward the men along the road shooting at them, with the barrel of her pistol.
Ryan suddenly realized that he wasn't going to die immediately looked behind him. "Those aren't the rebels." he said, "Those are probably Li Than's personal soldiers."
Lara asked, "And who is Li Than?"
"He's a minor bureaucrat. Part of the Department of the Interior. Has a lot of influence around here." replied Ryan, gathering his gear. "You just missed him. He took off before these guys all showed up. Anyway I'm done here. Apparently there is no rebellion. Probably, Li isolating this part of the jungle interior for goodness knows what reason."
Lara could think of a pretty good reason. "We got off on the wrong foot." she said, "I'm Lara Croft. I do archeological surveys. Say, would this Li Than know anything about antiquities?" she asked.
The jungle patrol had stopped firing for now but it looked like four or five of them were getting ready to inspect whatever had made the noise.
"Oh sure," answered Ryan, "He's the big antiquities guy at the Interior Department. Sorry to introduce myself and run, but I've gotta run."
Lara holstered her Glocks. "Stay close," she said, "maybe I can get you out of here alive."
"I can get myself out of here," Ryan shot back, but he fell in behind her anyway.
They moved as quietly as they could parallel with the road until they were 20 or so meters from the nearest truck. Their attackers were being more cautious. They were just now entering the brush on the other side of the road. "See that lorry," motioned Lara, "That's our taxi out of here."
Ryan started to protest but Lara drew her pistols. "Right. Good idea." he replied. Crouching and moving quickly, Ryan broke cover and ran toward the truck. He was almost across the road when one of the men farther down the road saw him. Shouting, he opened fire and bullets stitched a dusty path up the road. Ryan stood up and ran full speed to the truck. He lunged for the cab, wasted a few precious seconds figuring it out and started the engine. A couple well placed rounds from Lara's Glocks kept the armed men disorganized and ducking for cover. In short order the exhaust stack belched black diesel smoke and Ryan pulled out in a long slow arc toward the vegetation on the other side of the road and Lara stepped from cover and jumped in with him.
An American Army two and a half ton truck has the carrying capacity of a big pickup, but it is a large, lumbering hulk of metal, geared low for towing and mud, with a heavy frame and thick metal cargo box. However, once it gets moving it can still drive faster than a man can run. It looked to Lara like they were going to get away. That is until she saw a man remove an RPG from one of the other trucks. The truck wasn't going to outrun a rocket propelled grenade. "Brace yourself Ryan." she commented dryly, " This might get rough."
Ryan glanced at her sideways. At that moment the rocket slammed into the tailgate of the truck. The explosion threw both of them forward, shattered the rear window and sent little pieces of shrapnel through the windscreen. The canvas caught fire and the rear cargo box crumpled as if it were made of cardboard. The truck was a moving disaster, but the two and a half ton truck had been built to take abuse and this one was still moving. Ryan worked the gears and stood on the gas pedal.
Lara shook her head and tried to look through the smoke and broken glass. "You can bet that right now two more lorries are starting up and headed our direction." As if in answer the rear drive shaft began to make an ominous banging noise.
"Don't worry about the drive shaft," shouted Ryan, "It won't matter in about 5 minutes. We're losing fuel from the external tanks." A look out the doors indeed showed a stream of diesel fuel pouring onto the ground. "Hold on." He shouted again. Despite the banging of the drive train the truck was beginning to pick up speed and was bouncing and careening along the rutted dirt road. "Best to use the fuel before it all pours out onto the ground."
They had gone another quarter mile when the drive shaft gave a sharp bang and let go. Ryan had the engine gunned as fast as it would go, so when the drive shaft broke the engine roared loudly before making a loud thunk and freezing up. Black smoke and steam poured from under the hood. "Time to head for the jungle." commented Lara.
"Not yet," said Ryan grimly, "I've got a trick or two left." He jumped from the cab and ran up the road. Not far up the track from where the truck had died, he stopped at the side and began to uncover his motorcycle.
Lara smiled broadly. "You brought me a motorbike." She said sweetly.
"My bike," said Ryan, " you'll have to hold on tight Miss Croft."
"Ok Ryan, sure you're my new best friend and everything, but I don't ride on the back of any bike. It's your motorbike it's true, but these are my pistols." she said drawing a Glock and pointing it casually skyward.
Ryan started to reply but was cut of by the sound of diesel engines approaching. He shrugged and tossed her the key. Lara mounted the old motor bike and kicked the starter over. Ryan clambered on behind her. She gunned the throttle and shot off onto the road, kicking up dust that hung for just a moment in the twilight air.