"But she was sleeping with my cousin, not only that the *beep* got her pregnant..." The TV droned on but Heath Rowson was really paying attention. He was watching the pickup truck slowly making its way to the security post he manned. He grabbed his radio and hit the button presumably calling in to someone in the office building of the compound. "Hey Wyatt, you there?"
A small amount of feedback came over the radio before a voice answered him, "Yeah, what's up?"
"Yeah,... I think that inspector from Alabaster is here..." He trailed off waiting a few seconds before letting go of the button. "Alright, I'll let Natla know. Don't forget to check his id."
"Hey I'm not a rookie anymore Mr. Folks." Heath said laughing a little before setting the radio down and going to the window of the post. He stood there a second looking at the man in the truck. He was a short man and a little unkempt looking. "I know Alabaster said the guy was a little strange but I wasn't expecting this." He thought to himself. The man rolled down the window and handed him his id. "Man ya'll are kinda hard to find out here, not many places in the desert."
"Yeah." He said taking his id. "Ms. Natla likes her privacy, but you already knew that Mr..." He looked down at the id "Reynolds." He walked over to the computer and looked at the email pulled up on the screen. "Blah blah blah, head technician Frank..." He looked at the id again. "Reynolds." He walked back to the window and handed the man his id back. " Alright, you're good to go Mr. Reynolds. You can see where to park from here. Hope you Alabaster boys can give this compound the overhaul it needs." Heath said tipping his hat slightly.
The man rolled up the window and threw the truck in drive making his way to the parking lot. He parked the truck and grabbed a clipboard before hopping out of the truck. He made his way to the back of the truck and pulled out what looked like a tool box. He took a second to look around at the compound. All it housed was a security post and a 10 story office building, the secret headquarters of Natla Technologies. He was lucky that they decided to work with Alabaster or he would have had to come in guns blazing. He smiled a little, "Finally a job that would have a huge mess." He thought glancing back to the security guard watching tv. "Time to kill this bitch." He said quietly and made his way to the office building. Once inside the lobby he made his way over to the counter and set the tool box down.
Behind the counter was a woman on a computer typing frantically who quickly held up one finger signalling it would be a second. Lara took a deep breath and glanced over at the security guard who was sitting behind the counter playing on his phone. "Sorry for the wait Mr. Reynolds." The woman said moving to search through a stack of papers. "Ah here." She said handing him a paper with electrical information about every floor. "We need you to check floors 2-7 as well as floor 9 to see how to supercharge the electronics, or whatever Mrs. Natla hired you for. I don't speak tech."
L laughed. "Well you're kinda right." He said while turning toward the elevator. He kept a smile on his face till the door close. As soon as it closed he hit the button for the 7th floor. He had the floor plan Alabaster gave him memorized. He knew that most of the computers on each floor were just a screen with an empty case attached. Besides the crew in the lobby and the security post only a handful of scientists worked here and Natla didn't want them here while Alabaster was inspecting the building. He opened up the tool box and pulled out a soda quickly gulping it down and throwing the can to the side. The elevator doors opened showing what seemed to be a normal office layout. Lara quickly made his way through the floor ending up in the break room. He turned toward a wall with a motivational poster with a cat playing on it. He reached into the tool box and pulled out a glove. He put it on taking a second to look at the thumb which had an artificial finger print on it. "Man, I wish I would have thought of this one." He took his gloved hand and covered the right eye of the cat. As he did it you could hear a quiet whirring behind the wall. After a few seconds a part of the wall opened and a knob appeared. He smiled and turned it opening the wall fully revealing a hidden hall. L stepped inside and closed the door. The hall had 7 door running down it and at the end of it. L took a minute to think. "It's Tuesday so she should be in..." He pointed at the doors one at a time until he stopped at the second one on the left. "There." He walked over to it quietly and sat the tool box down. He opened it up and pulled on a pistol with a suppressor on it as well as what looked like a grenade. He sat the tool box aside and took a few steps back. He took a deep breath and ran at the door kicking it open. "Honey I'm home." He said as he threw the rounded object into the room. As the object landed it glowed and the lights turned off in the room. Behind the desk in the room sat Jacqueline Natla who reeled back in her chair from the shock. "Who the he... oh it's you Mr. Croft." She said re-positioning herself and reaching under the desk to hit a button.
"Don't worry babe no one is gonna interrupt us. That little device knocked out the power to this room." He said aiming the gun at her. "Now, get your pretty little ass out from behind that desk. I don't want the first shot to have to be in one of those beautiful blue eyes." He said motioning with the gun.
She slightly tilted her head back and bit her lip. She stood up hands in the air complying with his demand. "Very well Mr. Croft let's not do anything crazy." L smiled and quickly fired off two rounds, one into each knee. "Bitch my whole life is crazy."
She screamed as she fell to her knees. "You insignificant little bug, how dare you oppose me. I was going to rule this world with the ancient technology of Atlantis. All I needed was the Scion."
"Oh that? I sold it on my way over here. Got some good money for it."
"You what?" She hissed through her teeth. "Who the hell would buy it? No one knows what it is for besides me."
L smiled slyly. "The same people who have been helping me my whole life..." His smiled widen and his eyes narrowed looking down on her like she was the one beneath him. "Alabaster."
Natla's eyes widen and she looked down. Her heart was beating fast. "You see Natla honey, what you think is your greatest weapon was actually your biggest weakness. Only two guards, an assistant and a skeleton crew of scientists. All of who can't talk to you unless you want them to. You're way too private in your little kingdom up here." He walked over to her and lifted her head with the gun.
She had tears in her eyes. "But why? Why did Alabaster choose you? I was going to give them the world, the ability to be the 1%. What do you have that I don't? What could a worm like you offer them? Answer me Croft!"
His face grew somber as he began thinking of how to answer. "I have the one thing you could never give them..." He pulled the trigger firing one final shot into her head. "The Croft research."