Lara carefully tiptoed behind the five men that faced away from her. She almost laughed at how easy this was. But she had thought too soon. Gunshots sounded behind her; she rolled hastily away into the other corner of the stairs, but she was too close to the men that handled the putty now. Lara gritted her teeth and dove to her left, unleashing numerous bullets into the men that threatened to steal her amulet

Most of them fell, either wounded or dead, but two remained standing, and they quickly showed her exactly how much they wanted to kill her. A spray of bullets crashed into the walls just next to her ears as she pressed herself up against the wall adjacent to the glass walls of the office.

Lara peeked around the corner, her view somewhat obstructed by a potted plant that Hillary had so "strategically" placed about a week prior. Lara's head instinctively snapped towards the sound of movement behind the pillar in front of her. She pushed the plant in front of her and placed her uzis between the huge leaves, awaiting any sign of a body part.

It came.

A leg was the first thing Lara saw, and she shot. She was rewarded with a cry of pain from her opponent, and a wicked smile formed on her face. Quickly, Lara rolled right, away from the plant and took advantage of the wounded assassin; she pulled the trigger, and her target hit the floor.

No sooner had her opponent fallen, a knife was thrown in her direction.

"Well, that's a bit of a change."

Lara smiled and stood up, facing her attacker. "A bit off target, I'd say. Why don't I give you a lesson?"

In a second, Lara grabbed the knife off of the wall, twisted it in her fingers, and let it fly. The man stood there a moment, a stunned look on his face, then he slowly fell to his knees, his face smacking into the floor with a sickening crack. Lara grimaced. She looked sidelong at the men that were still working on breaking into the office. They paid no attention to her; it was like she wasn't even there. She realized just how important stealing that amulet was to them, and she wasn't about to let them take it.

Alex watched from his position by the stairs as Lara gracefully handled the switchblade that was thrown at her. The throw had been poor. If it had been Powell, he would have caught her off-guard, and Lara would certainly be dead. But luckily, this assassin obviously wasn't recruited for his skill with a knife, and he had missed.

Now Alex focused his attention on the remaining men that fiddled with the explosives. It had taken them far too long to set up the putty. Alex scoffed at the "army" that the employer had chosen to send.

Where did he find them, out on the street?

Alex decided to have more fun and he toyed with an English accent as he said:

Dear, sir, I know you're on the crapper, but would you like to break into Lara Croft's high-security home in hopes to steal an amulet from her which you have no idea where it is? Alex laughed at his own corny joke.

"God save you all," he muttered.

Lara calmly strolled towards the shaking men that handled the explosives. She appeared amused as she leaned against the still-intact glass barrier.

"Are you attempting to steal the Amulet of Ilse?" She asked the nearest goon.

He glanced, horrifically at her and continued to stick the explosives on the glass wall.

"You know," Lara chided, "you could just leave now, and I wouldn't kill you." She raised her eyebrows as she watched the three men look at each other with a small flicker of hope in their eyes.

"Then again," Lara chimed maliciously, her eyes becoming narrow and cat-like, "you could just blow up this glass wall, succeeding in tripping another alarm which will bring down a huge steel grate that you will have to melt, taking you about another, oh say, ten minutes, giving me ample time to make you feel even more nervous than you are right now; and when I'm good and ready," Lara paused for dramatic effect, "I'll kill you."

Lara ended with a sickly-sweet tone on her voice that foreshadowed a grotesque death. She smiled at the men and watched as sweat dropped off of their faces like a leaky faucet. She heard Alex laughing to himself from his hiding spot, making her crack another smile.

Lara took another step towards the robbers. "So what will it be?" She asked.

One man stepped forward and looked her in the eyes as the other two backed away, further into the main room. Lara watched as they backed up almost to the front door. Something was not right, and Lara put one foot behind the other, just in case she needed to get away. Lara looked down at the man that approached her. He was rather short, with dark chocolate hair and matching eyes. His coat that he wore bulged more than the others, and Lara didn't believe it was because he was fat. She cocked her head slightly at him and applied pressure to the back of her heel, ready to run.

The man peacefully stopped in front of her and reached into his coat. Lara raised her guns, not trusting the man for a second. His hand reappeared with a small black device clutched in his death-white fingers. A tiny red button occupied the top, and Lara realized what this was.

Alex watched in horror as the man that faced Lara pulled out a detonator.

"Lara! Get out of there!" He screamed at her, getting the attention of the two goons that were making their way out of the manor.

Alex aimed his M-16 at the fleeing men and brought them down, he didn't even watch them fall. He picked himself off of the floor and ran towards Lara.

"Lara, it's a detonator! Run!"

Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Lara turned her head to look at Alex, and then back at the suicidal pawn. In an instant, Lara turned on her heel and ran towards the stairs. An awesome blast sounded behind her, catapulting her into a couch. Debris fell from the ceiling, and the glass barrier, now shattered, flew in every direction. Shards of glass cut at Lara's face and rained down on her.

There was nothing she could do but wait. She felt helpless, and she knew that there was more to come.