IX

Lara and Kurtis

Lara heard how both people left the house. "I stay here and guard the door", said the woman. The man said something she couldn't hear and a second later she heard a car driving off. Apparently they were serious about getting Kurtis.

The time she had to wait gave her the opportunity to order her mind according to the events of the last ten minutes. The house she was sitting in belonged to Kristina Boaz, the female Cabal member she and Kurtis had met in Prague. The notebook Lara got from the woman in the pueblo probably belonged to her mother.

The two people who caught her inside the house and did tie her to the chair were members of the Lux Veritatis, the religious cult Kurtis was part of. Lara had still no clue how they ended up here. And it seemed Kurtis had told his colleagues that he was responsible for destroying Eckhardt and the sleeper. That, she now realised, had almost cost her life. Because they didn't believe her when she told she had met Kurtis in Prague. And now she was sitting here, tied to a chair in an empty house somewhere in Argentina. It was not as dark anymore inside the living room as some of the planks sealing the windows were removed. She had waited for about twenty minutes when she heard the grinding noise of a car driving up the gravel in front of the house. She heard voices outside and a moment later footsteps in the hallway, the door swung open and she looked into the azure eyes of Kurtis Trent.

"Lara Croft", he said slowly as if he tasted every syllable like expensive wine. His lips curled up in a smile and he wiped a strand of brown hair behind his ear.

"What is it that we always have to meet under such unusual circumstances?" he came closer and took a little knife from his pocket. Lara couldn't answer since the piece of white sheet was still strapped around her mouth.

"Let me help you to get out of this uncomfortable chair", Kurtis continued amused and cut the ropes that were keeping her ankles together. Lara stretched her legs with a painful face and looked angrily at Kurtis who had turned his attention to her gag and only last took care of the sheets around her hands. That moment Lara flew up from the chair and gave him a firm smack on his jaw. He stumbled and fell backwards to the ground; he slowly tried to get on his feet again while rubbing his jaw but Lara grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him up. "Are you out of your mind!" she yelled at him. "Your funny stories of Kurtis the superhero nearly got me killed!"

Kurtis was a bit overwhelmed by the situation and didn't reply immediately. Lara stared at him with furious eyes, her face only inches away from his. She was still holding his collar.

"Hey easy…" the American finally sighed. "I'm sorry about that… I…" he coughed. "I recently started to get people together to form a new Lux Veritatis. I had to tell them about the incidents in Prague but didn't want to include you. People would probably contact you or come round your house. Plus we still are not sure the Cabal is completely wiped out, they could've tracked you down. I wanted to safe you from all that."

The anger in Lara's eyes eased off somewhat and she released him from her grab. "Well, I guess I need to say thanks for that", she muttered and nervously brushed the creases from his shirt.

Kurtis gave her a short nod. "Gotta say my version of the story wasn't worth much, but it was the only thing I could think of." He walked to the small desk where Lara had found the photo of Eckhardt and picked up two pistols. "These are yours?"

Lara quickly took them from him and put them back in the holsters. "Yes, thanks." She said without looking at him

He saluted. "Good to see you again, how're you doing? What brings you here?"

She smiled and looked up, realising they were sort of friends again for the time being. "I'm okay. And I got here because of… Boaz."

Kurtis raised his eyebrows. "Interesting, me too, what exactly lead you to this house?"

"I was exploring the hills of Patagonia a few days ago, looking for three ancient cups of pure gold. They turned out to be stolen from a hidden temple where I found an old notebook with this address inside." She remained silent for a second. "And you?"

Kurtis grinned shyly and bit his cheek. "I… err… you remember that green slime Boaz sprayed on me?"

"Yes."

"It so happens to be very toxic and I'm in search of an antiserum."

Lara's mouth dropped open. "Toxic? Did you perhaps found out the name of the poison?"

Kurtis frowned. "I think it was DL46 or something, no LD-48, why?"

"LD, Liquid Devil. That's the name of the poison that was originally kept in those golden cups!"

They looked at each other with a mixture of surprise and horror. That moment the door creaked open and Pablo poked his head in. "I hope I do not interrupt? Me and Bex were wondering what's going on." he said with a smile. "If it's not too private", he added.

Lara was sitting at the low steps to the front door, Kurtis stood next to her leaning to the wall. He had just introduced Lara to his colleagues and now he was explaining how they both ended up here. Pablo sat at the bonnet of the car, looking at his dangling legs while listening to Kurtis. Bex stood a few metres away with her arms folded and looked bored.

"So, you never saw each other again after those incidents in Prague and its pure coincidence you crossed paths again?" said Pablo and he laughed loud. "Isn't that great?"

Lara looked surprised at Pablo's reaction and Kurtis gave her a short wink saying "don't pay attention, he's always like that."

The Argentinean jumped up from the car and rubbed his hands. "But now I guess we must take a look inside the house again, don't we all agree?"

Bex frowned. "Wait a minute", she said. "Maybe Ms. Croft is a friend of Kurtis but she is not a member of our order. How can we let her take part in our mission?"

Kurtis shook his head. "I just told you she helped me two years ago in Prague. I know I can trust her and she will help us. Won't you Lara?"

Lara stood up from the steps and stared disdainful at Bex for a moment. "I came here to find the golden cups", she said. "And that's still my main target. But now I heard about this poison I sure will try to help you out." She playfully pushed Kurtis' chin up with two fingers. "You're a sort of friend after all."

Bex watched them and produced a cynical grin. "Sort of friend? Kurtis also kept denying you were, or still are, his girlfriend."

"Don't you listen? He just told you we haven't seen each other for two years", snarled Lara at Bex and she turned around. "Now let's examine that bloody house." Bex silenced and turned her face away while muttering something to herself.

Kurtis and Pablo followed Lara inside the house. "Let's not get angry, shall we?" said Pablo cheerfully while putting his arms at Lara and Kurt's shoulders. "I know Bex is a pain in the neck" he added under his breath. "But discord in our team is the last thing we need now."

They walked into the living room together and Lara showed them the bolt she found under the carpet just before Pablo and Bex had caught her. Together they removed the whole rug and discovered another rusty bolt and two hinges to the opposite. They carefully undid the bolts and with a squeaky sound they opened a big wooden trapdoor. A blow of dust spread through the room and it took a few moments before they could check what was beneath the trapdoor.

Kurtis coughed loud and wiped some dust from his face. "Stairs…" he said whilst pointing down. The others joined him and saw some wooden stairs leading down to a hidden cellar. "What did she keep here?" asked Bex. "I have a feeling it won't be a wine cellar", said Pablo jolly.

Lara walked down the stairs with the others on her tail. Pablo took a flashlight and examined the door downstairs. It said 'lab' and was locked. Lara dug in her pockets and took out the little key she had found in the wooden desk.

"Nice job Croft", said Kurtis.

They key fitted in the keyhole and a second later she swung the door open. The same moment they all took a step back as a horrific stench hit their noses. Kurtis cursed loudly and covered his face with one hand. Lara did the same and squeezed her eyelids when she carefully took a few steps inside. A terrible rotten smell of death came from the room.

"What the hell is in there?" asked Pablo. "A slaughter house, a morgue or both?"

Lara managed to find a switch at the wall next to the door and a second later some bright strip lighting illuminated the hidden cellar. Four pair of eyes scanned the room and saw a small laboratory. The white tiles at the floor were covered with dirty stains and small pools of brownish water. In the middle of the room they saw a dentist chair with a shapeless carcass on it. Alongside two walls they saw some working benches, desks and filing-cabinets. The tables were covered with piles of papers and sheets, test-tubes, microscopes, surgery instruments and a computer. At the other wall stood three empty beds, the mattresses looked creasy and dirty. The walls were decorated with posters of scientific drawings of the human body and mysterious other mammals. The flickering strip lighting gave the whole place an extra sinister atmosphere.

"Oh my god, oh my god", whispered Bex. "This is horrible. I need a fag, call me when you need me", and she ran up the stairs.

"What's this boss?" asked Pablo.

Kurtis bit his lip and nodded slowly. "I've seen this place before. Well, not exactly this place of course. But the room reminds me of the sanatorium in Prague."

Still with their hands covering their noses the three people began to examine the laboratory. The corpse on the dentist chair was in a late stadium of decomposing and it was hard to tell if it was once human or perhaps another kind of creature. In this condition it certainly was an awful picture and provided a horrific display of Boaz' activities.

"Lara, the little booklet you found in that hidden temple. You said it belonged to her mother?"

Lara nodded. "Yes, it was owned by an Ulrike Boaz and considering the date it could well be her mother."

"I'm almost sure she is", said Kurtis. "Bex and I found an e-mail Muller sent to Kristina in which he mentions the emotional value of the poison for her." He switched on the computer on the desk but it didn't work. "She had a sick mind", he added. "Having emotional feelings for a lethal poison."

Pablo went through a pile of documents he found on top of the filling-cabinet. "And you said there actually was an antiserum in the temple?"

It was Lara's turn to nod again. "Yes, but it does only work short after the victim gets infected."

"That's why we are here", muttered Kurtis. "Even sick people like Boaz and her mother should have developed a better antiserum before putting the actual poison into practise."

Pablo suddenly waved a little notebook in front of Kurtis' eyes. "I found something. Looks like a diary again, from the hand of Boaz junior this time."

Kurtis yanked the notebook from Pablo's hands and scanned the first few entries.

This is the first entry in my new diary and the first one after mother's funeral. From today I shall fully take over her work and serve the honourable Pieter van Eckhardt.

I already spoke to him in Prague and he is certainly a genius. I'm proud to be part of the Great Work. One of my colleagues is a biology scientist who lives in Rome. I told him about the LD-48 and he was very enthusiastic. If mother was still alive she would be proud to hear her discovery would be used for such an important issue.

"This confirms our theory", said Kurtis happy "Let's see if she has anything else about this."

Next week I will get the keys to my apartment in Prague. Now the moment of truth is getting closer it's important to be there more often. At the moment I'm working at a unique experiment. If it succeeds we will have a 'proto-Nephilim'. I'm sure Master Eckhardt will be proud as soon as he finds out what I did.

On my flight I will also take the antiserum of LV-48 with me. It's safer if Dr. Muller has it in his office on a safe place. It is a better version of the original serum; mother developed it after she got the poison from Patagonia.

"There we got it boss", announced Pablo cheerfully. "She did actually have an antiserum. And it's in Muller's office."

Kurtis grinned cynically. "Muller is dead and his office was inside the Strahov, which is demolished."

"What is this?" asked Lara, pointing at a small floppy piece of paper sticking out the diary. Kurtis took it out and gave it to her. "An article from a newspaper", he said dryly and hauled his shoulders. "It's in Spanish."

Lara began to read and with Pablo's help she could read to Kurtis.

PLANE CRASHES NEAR SECRET MILITARY BASE

A Boeing-737 from Lufthansa on its way from Buenos Aires to Düsseldorf crashed on a small tropical island in the Atlantic Ocean. Not far from Cuba.

The only inhabitants of the island turned out to be American soldiers manning a military base on that very island. They could provide quick emergency service.

Since the presence of the base is top secret there's still a diplomatic war going on between various embassies across the globe.

The American military authority has claimed some of the luggage that was on board of the airplane saying it contained 'suspicious' material. Some of the luggage was kept at the island's base and never returned to its owner.

An Argentinean woman had been held for questioning but got released after two days.

Kurtis frowned "what's that suppose to mean?"

"Maybe it was actually…" began Lara but she didn't complete her sentence. "Give me that book again, will you."

Pablo handed her the little notebook. "Do you think she was carrying..?"

"Yes, I think she was", said Lara while looking for the right page. "Yes, you see? The date of that entry matches with the article in the newspaper. The day she said she would take the antiserum to Prague was the day that plane crashed."

Kurtis slapped his forehead. "Of course, a plane crash. That's why her face looked so strange; it was burned after that plane crash."

Lara put both the notebook and the article at the working table. "Seems like you have an island to explore my friend, got any relatives on Cuba?"

"I do know someone there actually", said Kurtis with a grin. "An old friend of my father lives in Havana." He paused. "But what will you do Lara? It seems there isn't any trace to the golden cups."

Lara hauled her shoulders. "I have a better look in her diary tonight. Maybe she mentions it somewhere. Then I have to think what I will do."