Chapter Four
Destination: Green Rock
Croft Manor, Surrey, England
2:11 P.M.
Lara was still in her bed the day after. Once the police rescued her from the tree, they interrogated her for several hours in her hospital room, insinuating that she was involved in the kidnapping of Eddington. She was left with the promise from the officer that if they had any information on the kidnappers, she would be the first one they informed. An hour later, she was released from the hospital, with nothing but some aspirin and a comment from the nurse that her lack of injury was remarkable.
A day later Lara remained asleep in her room. The side-effects of the tranquilizer had yet to wear off, leading to bizarre dreams and headaches whenever she awoke. Yet, it appeared now that one of those moments of consciousness had come. She sat up and stretched, then rubbed her eyes to relieve mounting pressure from her headache. With a sudden, seemingly random, start, she jumped out of bed and jogged to Zip's workstation. "Any calls?" she asked, frenzy in her bloodshot eyes. Zip shook his head no.
Lara's body slumped. In her dreams she imagined Henry being tortured in unspeakable ways by Amanda, and in her waking moments she frantically thought about his whereabouts, yet to no avail. She had no idea where Amanda lived, nor where any of her hideouts were. For all she knew, they were in some volcano lair on an island in….
The island. Green Rock. She had to get there immediately. If Eddington had indeed been tortured and given up any information, Amanda would waste no time in trying to get to Green Rock before Lara did. "Zip," she spoke up, "I need you to do research on a place called Green Rock Isle. It won't be on any of the standard searches so look in the classified results. Once you find it's location, charter me a flight as quickly as you can."
"Why? What's Green--"
"I'll explain when I get there, just be quick about it!" Lara ran up the stairwell and to the balcony.
"Lady Croft!" called out the wizened old voice of Winston. "I have a cup of tea ready for you!"
"No time, Winston. Have to rush out of England," Lara said without breaking her gate.
"But I thought we could share a spot of tea like we used to," he said, a twinge of disappointment in his voice.
"Sorry, maybe another time," Lara said, and rushed into the hallway to her room.
As she threw her brown gear into her suitcase, she thought absent-mindedly about Winston, standing in the main hall, Zip busily looking for Green Rock, and Alister in the library researching more information about Avalon. Her stomach burned with that familiar, terrible feeling of guilt, yet she had to shove it aside for now. That tea would have to wait. Eddington was being held captive by a lunatic, being subjected to who knows what. There were more important things than tea.
Downstairs, Winston shambled back into his kitchen, hoping that Lara would soon realize that some things, though maybe not now, were less important than tea.