Path of Destruction
Part Twelve: Truth Be Known
Miss Lara Croft sat firmly handcuffed to the seat of a Bell UH-1H Iroquois transport helicopter.
On either side of her Devon and his associate, Mike admired the two jewels that they had just rescued from
the young lady's backpack. The third, Mike explained, was now safely in the hands of their employer, Mr.
Drake.
According to the story that he set down the Egyptian stone was recovered shortly after Sam was
taken below in search of Lara. "The fool gave it to a museum for safe keeping," laughed the American as
he concluded the tale.
Croft shook her head. "Have you ever been inside of a museum," she asked mockingly as she
reached back and removed the parchment that she had discovered earlier. The conversation, she observed,
didn't seem to be getting anywhere anyway. At least she could get some deciphering done.
"What's that," Devon blurted out the moment he saw it.
"Are you stupid," answered the explorer, "or did you miss that whole experience back there?"
Suddenly the Texan's mind was jogged and he once again remembered the whole affair far better
than he actually wanted to with special emphasis on scaling the stone wall as well as the number of times
that a pistol was jammed into his face. This had the effect of causing a side effect that was most satisfying
to Lara, silence.
On the other hand, the second American had no such memories within him making him a great
deal braver than the other. To that end he was open the discussion of parchment technical worth. "How
much you think that'll go for," he asked in a very uncultured tone of voice.
"You can't be serious," retorted the young lady, "not only are we dealing with an extremely great
historical and anthropological find but your boss seems very intent on using those stones in some sort of an
old ceremony that may bring about the end of the world and you can only think of money." WHY DOES
DRAKE WANT TO TALK TO GOD
Mike nodded and grinned stupidly. "Yeah," he agreed, "what's your point?"
Suddenly it was obvious that there was no use at all in trying to argue with such a heightened level
of stupidity and since she was handcuffed she returned herself to the only that could possible assist her, the
parchment. "I really hate Americans," she told her self under her breath.
Before she could get anything even half way translated, however, the explorer was interrupted by
Devon's curiosity. Ever since Lara had mentioned of the end of the world he suddenly found himself
growing more and more worried about it as time went on. "What do you mean the world's the going to
end,' he finally asked when he couldn't stand it anymore.
"I mean," Croft answered, "That we don't really know what these stones will do. I, myself, know
only of one legend that speaks of the end of the world. That's why those people were trying to kill us."
"What people," asked the curious young American in the black hat.
"As far as I can tell from this paper," she said with complete ignorance to the man in the black hat,
"They are some sort of a society, or rather ancestors of a society who have survived all these years only to
protect that stone."
"I wonder what they're going to do now," Mike asked still trying futilely to force his way into the
conversation.
"So nobody really knows what the stones will do," asked the Texan now alienating his
countryman as well.
Lara nodded in agreement. It seemed like a miracle but the American seemed to finally
understand. "And for the world's sake," she said slumping down in her seat, "I think we should leave well
enough alone."
"Well where's the fun in that," chimed the second American once again trying pull himself into
the conversation.
The young lady now carefully rolled the parchment up and replaced it into her backpack which, by
now, was hanging almost lifelessly from one arm. "Could you shoot him please," she asked Devon as
cordially as she could.
Mike wagged his finger happily in front of the young lady. Now that he had finally gotten some
attention he hoped that he could get some respect out of her. "Temper temper," he said in the most
sarcastic tone that he could draw out of himself, "Mr. Drake may not like that tone of voice."
Croft glared at the man as if he had committed the most hideous crime of all time. "If I'm right,"
she warned, "The entire world is going to be gone in a matter of hours so it won't make any difference
what Drake likes and what he doesn't."
"You worry too much," Devon chuckled from the other side, "If the world goes boom we'll never
know it and if it doesn't we'll all be rich."
In a flash the explorer's head was turned the other direction bestowing her ill-tempered gaze onto
the other man. She was just about to question the legitimacy of his birth when, without any warning at all,
the air was pierced by a small electronic beeping noise. Nervously, she looked around expecting to see a
bomb smartly hidden somewhere inside the cabin. Much to her relief, however, it was nothing of the sort,
only the alarm on Mike's wristwatch.
"Ah, its time," he announced as he shut off the annoying beep.
"Time for what," chimed the other two almost in unison.
"Time," he continued, "for Miss Croft here to take a short nap." As he spoke he reached into the
inside pocket of his jacket and removed a small black spectacle case.
Inside was a syringe already filled and ready to be used. Carefully, Mike opened the box, picked
up the needle and removed the plastic guard from the point. He then tapped the end and squirted a tiny bit
of the chemical into the air to make sure that there was no problem with it. "This is just a little something to
ensure that you don't find out all of our bosses secrets," he explained
"Secrets like where the airport is," asked the explorer impertinently.
"How'd you know about that," Devon hollered.
"You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure it out," she explained folding her arms in front
of her, "There is no way that this helicopter can make it to Israel. We're either going to have to land to
refuel or to get an airplane."
The two Americans look at each other in curious wonderment hoping beyond hope that the other
would know what to do next. "Go ahead and do it," Devon finally yelled when he could think of nothing
better.
"Sorry, but I think I'll pass," remarked the young lady as Mike swabbed her arm, "somehow I
don't fancy being asleep while you two yahoos are awake and have me handcuffed."
"Don't tell me you don't trust us," Devon asked tapping the pistol in his belt with his index finger.
The young lady leaned forward as far as she could until she was directly face to face with her
nemesis. "I just don't want you to do anything that you might regret later on," she replied.
"I promise we'll be perfect gentlemen," Mike smiled as he gently took hold of Miss Croft's arm.
Immediately, she pulled back from the man as if he were a rattlesnake and prepared to clobber him
at the same time. Before she could do any real harm to the man, however, Devon expediently deployed one
of his stolen pistols and jammed it into the side of her face. "You're going to go to sleep now, he said
sternly, "Whether you wake up or not is up to you."
Lara sighed heavily at the ultimatum. Given the choice she had to choose life so that she could
have a chance to stop Drake later on. "Alright she conceded slumping backward against the wall like a
pouting teenager, "Go ahead. But either of you decide to try something I will kill you both."
Now, for the second time, Mike grabbed the explorer's arm and, as gently as he could, inserted the
needle into her flesh. Within seconds she began to feel extremely tired and after three huge yawns she
finally succumbed to the chemical.
When she finally opened her eyes again she was sitting on the ground in the middle of a small
cave with her arms handcuffed around a tall wooden pillar behind her. Unlike the other caves she had been
in previously, however, light in this one was very abundant. Just to her left an opening had been cut into
the wall allowing a tidal wave of sunlight to intrude upon the granite floor. The wall directly in front of her
was completely obscured by a large curtain which was between two posts. The only visible vestige of what
lay behind it was a small corner of an aqua blue rock that stuck out of the top.
Despite how groggy was the explorer immediately knew that she was in Israel and that her journey
had come to an end. Here a ceremony of some sort would soon take place. The results of that ceremony,
she was sure, were going to be disastrous.
At that moment, a small group of people came whirling into the cave through the opening. They
all seemed to be in some sort of a rage but at the time Lara was still too dazed to accurately discern what
they were saying. All she could really make out of the whole mess was that one of them was Dr. Muselli
who had been heading up the dig in Italy.
He had, she suspected, been brought along for his expertise concerning some aspect of the ancient
ceremony that they intended to pursue. In the midst of the whole discussion the archaeologist happened to
look across the room at the young captive. That was all it took. As soon as he noticed that she was awake
he ran off like a rocket, followed by his cohorts all the time, yelling for Drake.
A few minutes later Devon walked in and he seemed to be in a far happier state than he had been
before. This was obviously due to the fact that he gotten a chance to sleep and, although Lara didn't think
it helped much, shower himself.
In his belt he was still wore the young lady's prized pistols but they now they appeared to have
been polished and cleaned so that the silver shone brightly in the sunlight so that the Texan entered the cave
the reflection nearly blinded her for a moment.
"Oh Devon, you shouldn't have," remarked the explorer sarcastically when she saw them.
The man smiled heartily at his rival. Seeing her tied up made him feel lighter than air. At long last
he had finally gotten the best of her and he intended to enjoy every minute of it. "Don't get any ideas
missy," he ordered, "the boss will probably let you go when were all done here but until then he wants to
make sure you don't get in the way."
"Some how I don't believe you," she responded antagonistically. Her senses were slowly
returning to normal and now that she knew where she was she wasn't about to believe a thing anybody
said.
"Too bad," snapped the other, "because you ain't got no choice."
Lara's face now turned to stone. She looked more serious than she had ever looked before and
even though she was handcuffed Devon's blood began to turn cold with fear. "Listen to me," she said in a
low whisper, "I honestly don't know what's going to happen here but I do know that it's not going to be a
good thing."
"And how do you know that," retorted the American.
"Think about dimwit," she yelled, "if this were a simple honest archeological dig would I be
here…tied up? For that matter would you be here? Would there be so much gunfire and killing and trying
pass off fake jewels."
Devon shook his head at her and laughed. "You're just being paranoid," he said, "even if you can
talk to the gods like your suppose to it ain't like that Scion thingy you was trying to get a while back. It
like what that Natla gal was up to."
"Actually," the young lady replied, "it's a lot like that. Drake won't be able to revive Atlantis but
he now has the ability to talk to the gods. Who knows what he will do with such ability.
"A very good question Miss Croft," came a voice from just outside the cave.
"Ah Mr. Drake," she answered as the young executive made his way into the cave, "Long time no
see. Have you killed anyone in cold blood yet today?"
"Well, not yet," replied the man after a moment of thought, "but in about twenty minutes that may
change." With a great deal of excitement he motioned through the cave door for Dr. Muselli to come in
which he did quite hastily bringing with him the three recovered stones.
When he had received them Drake strolled proudly over to the curtain. "Gentlemen," he began,
"and you too Miss Croft. Allow me to present to you the greatest archeological and theological
find…ever."
With that he tugged on one corner of the curtain sending it floating to the ground making visible
the wall behind. It was almost totally covered by jewels each exactly the same as the three that Lara had
been looking for. The only difference between any of them was that each of them bore its own distinctive
mark on the front.
The one exception to all of these was one very large jewel that sat majestically in the midst of all
the others. It was almost five times as big as any of the others and had no distinguishing mark about it what
so ever. All the other stones that surrounded it were identified by an engraved picture each one representing
a different religion but this one was blank.
Almost immediately her mind was thrown back to a story she had heard years before in college. It
wasn't of particular interest to her at the time but now it seemed strangely relevant. It was about the Greece
during the time of a great epidemic. The people built shrines to all of their gods hoping to stop it but
nothing happened. That is until they built one last shrine marked only, "To the unknown god."
That's when she noticed something else strange. There seemed to a number of religions absent
from the group. She searched the entire wall from one side to the other as well as top to bottom to be sure
but still she could not locate them at all.
Suddenly it all made sense. The ancient sect may have believed that all the gods existed but they
certainly didn't believe they were equal. They wanted to get closer to one particular god…literally. More
over, at least one of the three stones was carefully hidden behind a whole secret underground society
indicating, at least to her, that something bad was about to happen.
"Wait a moment Drake," Lara called out in earnest.
The businessman turned around with a look of irritation in his eyes. "Miss Croft," he interjected,
"I really don't have time to listen to your ramblings anymore."
"I just wanted to say that I think you've overlooked something," the prisoner pointed out.
Drake smiled at the young lady and sighed annoyingly. "Yes, thank you," he said arrogantly, "but
you are not the only one here who is expert on the ancient world." With that he quickly snatched two of the
three stones and jammed them into two empty slots located directly underneath the huge jewel.
"So you are saying that you do know that at least three religions aren't represented then," Lara
interrupted again, "and it doesn't bother you at all why they aren't there?"
Once again the man turned around to face his captive. "Oh but they are there Miss Croft," he
answered taking hold of the last artifact.
"Somehow," answered the explorer, "that frightens me more."
Devon stared down at her with almost a quiet reverence hoping to pickup on at least a little of
what was happening. To his dismay, he thought he had. Lara's testimony to the fact that she was
frightened about something began to work its way around his head. He considered all the trials he had been
in with the young lady, as well as against her, and all at once decided that he knew her better than he knew
his current boss and if she were frightened about something than there was major cause for concern.
"Maybe we should listen to her," he said in a slightly reluctant voice.
Drake silently shot an evil glance across the room at his lackey to prove that all the delays were
seriously aggravating him. "Drop it," he ordered scornfully, "or I'll have you locked up too you miserable
dirt mucker. I'm sick of all your little theories and ideas. You people think you're so smart don't you?
Well, in a minute you'll see what real intelligence is."
All of a sudden, the Texan was not a happy camper. Drake had not only just insulted his
profession but he was also ignoring the opinions of Miss Lara Croft's, an action that not even he, as her
greatest rival, would dare to undertake. The fact was that even though they hated each other they were cut
from the same cloth. True, they had their differences and their reasons for doing the same thing were
almost never the identical but one thing was for sure, he trusted her far more than Drake.
It was clear, then, what he needed to do. With the precision of a well skilled magician Devon
reached into his pocket and took hold of the key to the explorer's handcuffs. Then, with knowing glance to
the prisoner, he dropped it silently onto the cave floor.
Without hesitation the young lady snatched it up as best she could and inserted it into the slot on
her manacles. Unfortunately, it was too late for, at that very moment, Drake shoved the last stone defiantly
into place on the wall.
As soon as he did the sunlight that had been pouring into the cave all morning suddenly faded and
was instantaneously replaced by a thick swarming darkness. It was almost as if an eclipse had
unexpectedly appeared and encompassed the whole world. Quickly, Devon pulled out his pocket flashlight
and began to shine it around.
Before he could truly see anything, though, the whole cavern began to shake around them. At first
it was only a small vibration sending small clouds of dust floating off of the ceiling to the ground. A
moment later the shaking turned more violent sending small chunks of rock hurtling to ground.
"What's going on," Drake called to his associate.
"I'm not sure," Muselli answered, "I've never heard of -"
Before he could finish his sentence, however, the earthquake escalated once again sending a large
chunk of rock on top of the archeologist burying him alive.
"I was trying to tell you this would happen," Croft remarked as she rose to her feet and reclaimed
her pistols from Devon's belt.
Drake whirled around to see who was speaking to him. "How'd you get loose," he asked when
noticed Lara standing confidently in front of him.
"Never mind that," she yelled over the now ear-splitting rumbling, "right now I think we should
find a way to get out of here before we're all killed."
"What do you mean, we," Devon exclaimed as he rushed in front of the young lady, "I say we
leave him here."
Half ignoring him for the moment Lara slipped off her backpack and made her way to the wall
where all of the jewels were now inserted. "You're one to talk," she called back as she removed the three
stones from the wall and placed them into her pack, "up until ten minutes ago you would have back him to
the hilt."
"Up until ten minutes ago," rebutted the other, "I thought this would work."
Slipping the bag over her arm the young lady looked back at her one time adversary. "Ah, but it is
working," she remarked, "Just not the way anyone expected it to."
Suddenly Drake whipped his head around so that he could see the explorer more clearly. Her face
was stern and calculating offering no sign of levity what so ever. "What do you mean by that," he asked in
an almost whiney voice.
Just then, the intense rumbling ceased as if someone had simply hit an off button. Lara smiled at
her accomplishment. She didn't know if, as the legend suggested, the whole world was truly in danger but
she knew that a moment ago she had been and that was all that mattered.
"Haven't you ever heard of the tower of babble," she asked smugly scanning the room for a way
of escape.
Unfortunately, there was only way that she could think of and it wasn't extraordinarily pleasing to
her. She was staring directly at the wooden pillar that she had been handcuffed around just minutes before.
The very top of it, she observed, seemed to be the only thing holding the ceiling in place.
It would not, however, stand up for much longer for with every passing second the wooden beam
creaked and groaned underneath its heavy load. "I'm sure that this is a bad plan," the explorer told herself
as she deployed her pistols and took aimed at the very top of the post, "but it's a better chance than staying
here."
Immediately Drake moved forward in fear. "What are you doing," he yelled at the explorer,
"you'll kill us all."
"Perhaps," Lara answered coldly, "shall we find out." Before he could say anything else she fired
a volley of bullets directly at the top of the wooden beam splintering it, along with the ceiling above it, in
several places. A moment later a few particles of dust floated peacefully to the ground. This was soon
followed by a few small bits of rock and before long large chunks began to once again plummet to the
ground.
Suddenly, a rush of fear gripped Mr. Drake. He was sure that they whole roof of the cave was
coming down on top of all of them. He had to do something. Like a rocket, he shot past Croft before she
could stop him and threw himself onto the wooden plank as if he were hugging a long lost friend.
"Drake," Lara yelled calmly, "get back here."
"I can't," he yelled back, "I have to save us."
"Leave him," exclaimed Devon rushing up to his former adversary's side.
The young lady tossed him a quick menacing glance for his statement but immediately turned
back to businessman in front of her. "Listen to me," she reasoned, "the only way to safety is to let that
beam fall.
But it was too late. The damage was already done. As he stood frantically trying to steady the
collapsing structure, bigger and bigger boulders dislodged themselves from their home above and
plummeted to the earth below. One of these large stones found its mark directly on top of Drake's head
sending him falling limply to the ground. As soon as that happened the beam fell to one side and he was
covered with a ton of rocks and dirt.
Once again a bright shaft of sunlight flooded into the cavern from behind a brilliantly blue sky.
The dark eclipse had vanished completely leaving everything just as it was before.
Miss Lara Croft shook her head. "Poor man," she said, "I guess he'll really get to talk to God
now."
"I still don't get it," Devon asked staring at the wall of jewels, "what was this tower of babble you
were talking about the?"
The young lady solemnly moved toward the new pile of rubble. "It's from the Bible," she
explained as she picked through the rocks and rubble in front of her hoping for a faint sign that the young
executive underneath might still be alive, "A bunch of people once tried to build a tower to get to heaven.
God made them speak in all different languages so no one would be able to finish the tower. I think the
same concept may have been at work here as well."
The Texan turned so that he was once again facing Lara. "So you think this was all man made just
so a bunch of people could to talk to the gods," he asked.
"Not gods," she corrected the God. While the others exist he is the most powerful and just like the
tower, bad things happened"
"How do you know that god is more powerful than the others," gasp the other.
Croft stood up and made her way back toward Devon. "Speculation," she answered, "after all
there are three religions built around him. And even if he's not, the fact is that man was not meant to talk
directly to any god. If they want something I suspect we'll know."
The American shook his head in wonderment. "So what do we do now," he asked.
"You can do what you want," answered the other, "I have to find a way to get a hold of MI-6 and
tell them to stop worrying. Then I have to destroy one of these stones, so that no one can try to activate this
thing again, give the Egyptian stone back to the museum it was stolen from, and then find a place for the
third in my trophy room. But first, I think I'll go get some food. I'm starving for some reason."
The End
Part Twelve: Truth Be Known
Miss Lara Croft sat firmly handcuffed to the seat of a Bell UH-1H Iroquois transport helicopter.
On either side of her Devon and his associate, Mike admired the two jewels that they had just rescued from
the young lady's backpack. The third, Mike explained, was now safely in the hands of their employer, Mr.
Drake.
According to the story that he set down the Egyptian stone was recovered shortly after Sam was
taken below in search of Lara. "The fool gave it to a museum for safe keeping," laughed the American as
he concluded the tale.
Croft shook her head. "Have you ever been inside of a museum," she asked mockingly as she
reached back and removed the parchment that she had discovered earlier. The conversation, she observed,
didn't seem to be getting anywhere anyway. At least she could get some deciphering done.
"What's that," Devon blurted out the moment he saw it.
"Are you stupid," answered the explorer, "or did you miss that whole experience back there?"
Suddenly the Texan's mind was jogged and he once again remembered the whole affair far better
than he actually wanted to with special emphasis on scaling the stone wall as well as the number of times
that a pistol was jammed into his face. This had the effect of causing a side effect that was most satisfying
to Lara, silence.
On the other hand, the second American had no such memories within him making him a great
deal braver than the other. To that end he was open the discussion of parchment technical worth. "How
much you think that'll go for," he asked in a very uncultured tone of voice.
"You can't be serious," retorted the young lady, "not only are we dealing with an extremely great
historical and anthropological find but your boss seems very intent on using those stones in some sort of an
old ceremony that may bring about the end of the world and you can only think of money." WHY DOES
DRAKE WANT TO TALK TO GOD
Mike nodded and grinned stupidly. "Yeah," he agreed, "what's your point?"
Suddenly it was obvious that there was no use at all in trying to argue with such a heightened level
of stupidity and since she was handcuffed she returned herself to the only that could possible assist her, the
parchment. "I really hate Americans," she told her self under her breath.
Before she could get anything even half way translated, however, the explorer was interrupted by
Devon's curiosity. Ever since Lara had mentioned of the end of the world he suddenly found himself
growing more and more worried about it as time went on. "What do you mean the world's the going to
end,' he finally asked when he couldn't stand it anymore.
"I mean," Croft answered, "That we don't really know what these stones will do. I, myself, know
only of one legend that speaks of the end of the world. That's why those people were trying to kill us."
"What people," asked the curious young American in the black hat.
"As far as I can tell from this paper," she said with complete ignorance to the man in the black hat,
"They are some sort of a society, or rather ancestors of a society who have survived all these years only to
protect that stone."
"I wonder what they're going to do now," Mike asked still trying futilely to force his way into the
conversation.
"So nobody really knows what the stones will do," asked the Texan now alienating his
countryman as well.
Lara nodded in agreement. It seemed like a miracle but the American seemed to finally
understand. "And for the world's sake," she said slumping down in her seat, "I think we should leave well
enough alone."
"Well where's the fun in that," chimed the second American once again trying pull himself into
the conversation.
The young lady now carefully rolled the parchment up and replaced it into her backpack which, by
now, was hanging almost lifelessly from one arm. "Could you shoot him please," she asked Devon as
cordially as she could.
Mike wagged his finger happily in front of the young lady. Now that he had finally gotten some
attention he hoped that he could get some respect out of her. "Temper temper," he said in the most
sarcastic tone that he could draw out of himself, "Mr. Drake may not like that tone of voice."
Croft glared at the man as if he had committed the most hideous crime of all time. "If I'm right,"
she warned, "The entire world is going to be gone in a matter of hours so it won't make any difference
what Drake likes and what he doesn't."
"You worry too much," Devon chuckled from the other side, "If the world goes boom we'll never
know it and if it doesn't we'll all be rich."
In a flash the explorer's head was turned the other direction bestowing her ill-tempered gaze onto
the other man. She was just about to question the legitimacy of his birth when, without any warning at all,
the air was pierced by a small electronic beeping noise. Nervously, she looked around expecting to see a
bomb smartly hidden somewhere inside the cabin. Much to her relief, however, it was nothing of the sort,
only the alarm on Mike's wristwatch.
"Ah, its time," he announced as he shut off the annoying beep.
"Time for what," chimed the other two almost in unison.
"Time," he continued, "for Miss Croft here to take a short nap." As he spoke he reached into the
inside pocket of his jacket and removed a small black spectacle case.
Inside was a syringe already filled and ready to be used. Carefully, Mike opened the box, picked
up the needle and removed the plastic guard from the point. He then tapped the end and squirted a tiny bit
of the chemical into the air to make sure that there was no problem with it. "This is just a little something to
ensure that you don't find out all of our bosses secrets," he explained
"Secrets like where the airport is," asked the explorer impertinently.
"How'd you know about that," Devon hollered.
"You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure it out," she explained folding her arms in front
of her, "There is no way that this helicopter can make it to Israel. We're either going to have to land to
refuel or to get an airplane."
The two Americans look at each other in curious wonderment hoping beyond hope that the other
would know what to do next. "Go ahead and do it," Devon finally yelled when he could think of nothing
better.
"Sorry, but I think I'll pass," remarked the young lady as Mike swabbed her arm, "somehow I
don't fancy being asleep while you two yahoos are awake and have me handcuffed."
"Don't tell me you don't trust us," Devon asked tapping the pistol in his belt with his index finger.
The young lady leaned forward as far as she could until she was directly face to face with her
nemesis. "I just don't want you to do anything that you might regret later on," she replied.
"I promise we'll be perfect gentlemen," Mike smiled as he gently took hold of Miss Croft's arm.
Immediately, she pulled back from the man as if he were a rattlesnake and prepared to clobber him
at the same time. Before she could do any real harm to the man, however, Devon expediently deployed one
of his stolen pistols and jammed it into the side of her face. "You're going to go to sleep now, he said
sternly, "Whether you wake up or not is up to you."
Lara sighed heavily at the ultimatum. Given the choice she had to choose life so that she could
have a chance to stop Drake later on. "Alright she conceded slumping backward against the wall like a
pouting teenager, "Go ahead. But either of you decide to try something I will kill you both."
Now, for the second time, Mike grabbed the explorer's arm and, as gently as he could, inserted the
needle into her flesh. Within seconds she began to feel extremely tired and after three huge yawns she
finally succumbed to the chemical.
When she finally opened her eyes again she was sitting on the ground in the middle of a small
cave with her arms handcuffed around a tall wooden pillar behind her. Unlike the other caves she had been
in previously, however, light in this one was very abundant. Just to her left an opening had been cut into
the wall allowing a tidal wave of sunlight to intrude upon the granite floor. The wall directly in front of her
was completely obscured by a large curtain which was between two posts. The only visible vestige of what
lay behind it was a small corner of an aqua blue rock that stuck out of the top.
Despite how groggy was the explorer immediately knew that she was in Israel and that her journey
had come to an end. Here a ceremony of some sort would soon take place. The results of that ceremony,
she was sure, were going to be disastrous.
At that moment, a small group of people came whirling into the cave through the opening. They
all seemed to be in some sort of a rage but at the time Lara was still too dazed to accurately discern what
they were saying. All she could really make out of the whole mess was that one of them was Dr. Muselli
who had been heading up the dig in Italy.
He had, she suspected, been brought along for his expertise concerning some aspect of the ancient
ceremony that they intended to pursue. In the midst of the whole discussion the archaeologist happened to
look across the room at the young captive. That was all it took. As soon as he noticed that she was awake
he ran off like a rocket, followed by his cohorts all the time, yelling for Drake.
A few minutes later Devon walked in and he seemed to be in a far happier state than he had been
before. This was obviously due to the fact that he gotten a chance to sleep and, although Lara didn't think
it helped much, shower himself.
In his belt he was still wore the young lady's prized pistols but they now they appeared to have
been polished and cleaned so that the silver shone brightly in the sunlight so that the Texan entered the cave
the reflection nearly blinded her for a moment.
"Oh Devon, you shouldn't have," remarked the explorer sarcastically when she saw them.
The man smiled heartily at his rival. Seeing her tied up made him feel lighter than air. At long last
he had finally gotten the best of her and he intended to enjoy every minute of it. "Don't get any ideas
missy," he ordered, "the boss will probably let you go when were all done here but until then he wants to
make sure you don't get in the way."
"Some how I don't believe you," she responded antagonistically. Her senses were slowly
returning to normal and now that she knew where she was she wasn't about to believe a thing anybody
said.
"Too bad," snapped the other, "because you ain't got no choice."
Lara's face now turned to stone. She looked more serious than she had ever looked before and
even though she was handcuffed Devon's blood began to turn cold with fear. "Listen to me," she said in a
low whisper, "I honestly don't know what's going to happen here but I do know that it's not going to be a
good thing."
"And how do you know that," retorted the American.
"Think about dimwit," she yelled, "if this were a simple honest archeological dig would I be
here…tied up? For that matter would you be here? Would there be so much gunfire and killing and trying
pass off fake jewels."
Devon shook his head at her and laughed. "You're just being paranoid," he said, "even if you can
talk to the gods like your suppose to it ain't like that Scion thingy you was trying to get a while back. It
like what that Natla gal was up to."
"Actually," the young lady replied, "it's a lot like that. Drake won't be able to revive Atlantis but
he now has the ability to talk to the gods. Who knows what he will do with such ability.
"A very good question Miss Croft," came a voice from just outside the cave.
"Ah Mr. Drake," she answered as the young executive made his way into the cave, "Long time no
see. Have you killed anyone in cold blood yet today?"
"Well, not yet," replied the man after a moment of thought, "but in about twenty minutes that may
change." With a great deal of excitement he motioned through the cave door for Dr. Muselli to come in
which he did quite hastily bringing with him the three recovered stones.
When he had received them Drake strolled proudly over to the curtain. "Gentlemen," he began,
"and you too Miss Croft. Allow me to present to you the greatest archeological and theological
find…ever."
With that he tugged on one corner of the curtain sending it floating to the ground making visible
the wall behind. It was almost totally covered by jewels each exactly the same as the three that Lara had
been looking for. The only difference between any of them was that each of them bore its own distinctive
mark on the front.
The one exception to all of these was one very large jewel that sat majestically in the midst of all
the others. It was almost five times as big as any of the others and had no distinguishing mark about it what
so ever. All the other stones that surrounded it were identified by an engraved picture each one representing
a different religion but this one was blank.
Almost immediately her mind was thrown back to a story she had heard years before in college. It
wasn't of particular interest to her at the time but now it seemed strangely relevant. It was about the Greece
during the time of a great epidemic. The people built shrines to all of their gods hoping to stop it but
nothing happened. That is until they built one last shrine marked only, "To the unknown god."
That's when she noticed something else strange. There seemed to a number of religions absent
from the group. She searched the entire wall from one side to the other as well as top to bottom to be sure
but still she could not locate them at all.
Suddenly it all made sense. The ancient sect may have believed that all the gods existed but they
certainly didn't believe they were equal. They wanted to get closer to one particular god…literally. More
over, at least one of the three stones was carefully hidden behind a whole secret underground society
indicating, at least to her, that something bad was about to happen.
"Wait a moment Drake," Lara called out in earnest.
The businessman turned around with a look of irritation in his eyes. "Miss Croft," he interjected,
"I really don't have time to listen to your ramblings anymore."
"I just wanted to say that I think you've overlooked something," the prisoner pointed out.
Drake smiled at the young lady and sighed annoyingly. "Yes, thank you," he said arrogantly, "but
you are not the only one here who is expert on the ancient world." With that he quickly snatched two of the
three stones and jammed them into two empty slots located directly underneath the huge jewel.
"So you are saying that you do know that at least three religions aren't represented then," Lara
interrupted again, "and it doesn't bother you at all why they aren't there?"
Once again the man turned around to face his captive. "Oh but they are there Miss Croft," he
answered taking hold of the last artifact.
"Somehow," answered the explorer, "that frightens me more."
Devon stared down at her with almost a quiet reverence hoping to pickup on at least a little of
what was happening. To his dismay, he thought he had. Lara's testimony to the fact that she was
frightened about something began to work its way around his head. He considered all the trials he had been
in with the young lady, as well as against her, and all at once decided that he knew her better than he knew
his current boss and if she were frightened about something than there was major cause for concern.
"Maybe we should listen to her," he said in a slightly reluctant voice.
Drake silently shot an evil glance across the room at his lackey to prove that all the delays were
seriously aggravating him. "Drop it," he ordered scornfully, "or I'll have you locked up too you miserable
dirt mucker. I'm sick of all your little theories and ideas. You people think you're so smart don't you?
Well, in a minute you'll see what real intelligence is."
All of a sudden, the Texan was not a happy camper. Drake had not only just insulted his
profession but he was also ignoring the opinions of Miss Lara Croft's, an action that not even he, as her
greatest rival, would dare to undertake. The fact was that even though they hated each other they were cut
from the same cloth. True, they had their differences and their reasons for doing the same thing were
almost never the identical but one thing was for sure, he trusted her far more than Drake.
It was clear, then, what he needed to do. With the precision of a well skilled magician Devon
reached into his pocket and took hold of the key to the explorer's handcuffs. Then, with knowing glance to
the prisoner, he dropped it silently onto the cave floor.
Without hesitation the young lady snatched it up as best she could and inserted it into the slot on
her manacles. Unfortunately, it was too late for, at that very moment, Drake shoved the last stone defiantly
into place on the wall.
As soon as he did the sunlight that had been pouring into the cave all morning suddenly faded and
was instantaneously replaced by a thick swarming darkness. It was almost as if an eclipse had
unexpectedly appeared and encompassed the whole world. Quickly, Devon pulled out his pocket flashlight
and began to shine it around.
Before he could truly see anything, though, the whole cavern began to shake around them. At first
it was only a small vibration sending small clouds of dust floating off of the ceiling to the ground. A
moment later the shaking turned more violent sending small chunks of rock hurtling to ground.
"What's going on," Drake called to his associate.
"I'm not sure," Muselli answered, "I've never heard of -"
Before he could finish his sentence, however, the earthquake escalated once again sending a large
chunk of rock on top of the archeologist burying him alive.
"I was trying to tell you this would happen," Croft remarked as she rose to her feet and reclaimed
her pistols from Devon's belt.
Drake whirled around to see who was speaking to him. "How'd you get loose," he asked when
noticed Lara standing confidently in front of him.
"Never mind that," she yelled over the now ear-splitting rumbling, "right now I think we should
find a way to get out of here before we're all killed."
"What do you mean, we," Devon exclaimed as he rushed in front of the young lady, "I say we
leave him here."
Half ignoring him for the moment Lara slipped off her backpack and made her way to the wall
where all of the jewels were now inserted. "You're one to talk," she called back as she removed the three
stones from the wall and placed them into her pack, "up until ten minutes ago you would have back him to
the hilt."
"Up until ten minutes ago," rebutted the other, "I thought this would work."
Slipping the bag over her arm the young lady looked back at her one time adversary. "Ah, but it is
working," she remarked, "Just not the way anyone expected it to."
Suddenly Drake whipped his head around so that he could see the explorer more clearly. Her face
was stern and calculating offering no sign of levity what so ever. "What do you mean by that," he asked in
an almost whiney voice.
Just then, the intense rumbling ceased as if someone had simply hit an off button. Lara smiled at
her accomplishment. She didn't know if, as the legend suggested, the whole world was truly in danger but
she knew that a moment ago she had been and that was all that mattered.
"Haven't you ever heard of the tower of babble," she asked smugly scanning the room for a way
of escape.
Unfortunately, there was only way that she could think of and it wasn't extraordinarily pleasing to
her. She was staring directly at the wooden pillar that she had been handcuffed around just minutes before.
The very top of it, she observed, seemed to be the only thing holding the ceiling in place.
It would not, however, stand up for much longer for with every passing second the wooden beam
creaked and groaned underneath its heavy load. "I'm sure that this is a bad plan," the explorer told herself
as she deployed her pistols and took aimed at the very top of the post, "but it's a better chance than staying
here."
Immediately Drake moved forward in fear. "What are you doing," he yelled at the explorer,
"you'll kill us all."
"Perhaps," Lara answered coldly, "shall we find out." Before he could say anything else she fired
a volley of bullets directly at the top of the wooden beam splintering it, along with the ceiling above it, in
several places. A moment later a few particles of dust floated peacefully to the ground. This was soon
followed by a few small bits of rock and before long large chunks began to once again plummet to the
ground.
Suddenly, a rush of fear gripped Mr. Drake. He was sure that they whole roof of the cave was
coming down on top of all of them. He had to do something. Like a rocket, he shot past Croft before she
could stop him and threw himself onto the wooden plank as if he were hugging a long lost friend.
"Drake," Lara yelled calmly, "get back here."
"I can't," he yelled back, "I have to save us."
"Leave him," exclaimed Devon rushing up to his former adversary's side.
The young lady tossed him a quick menacing glance for his statement but immediately turned
back to businessman in front of her. "Listen to me," she reasoned, "the only way to safety is to let that
beam fall.
But it was too late. The damage was already done. As he stood frantically trying to steady the
collapsing structure, bigger and bigger boulders dislodged themselves from their home above and
plummeted to the earth below. One of these large stones found its mark directly on top of Drake's head
sending him falling limply to the ground. As soon as that happened the beam fell to one side and he was
covered with a ton of rocks and dirt.
Once again a bright shaft of sunlight flooded into the cavern from behind a brilliantly blue sky.
The dark eclipse had vanished completely leaving everything just as it was before.
Miss Lara Croft shook her head. "Poor man," she said, "I guess he'll really get to talk to God
now."
"I still don't get it," Devon asked staring at the wall of jewels, "what was this tower of babble you
were talking about the?"
The young lady solemnly moved toward the new pile of rubble. "It's from the Bible," she
explained as she picked through the rocks and rubble in front of her hoping for a faint sign that the young
executive underneath might still be alive, "A bunch of people once tried to build a tower to get to heaven.
God made them speak in all different languages so no one would be able to finish the tower. I think the
same concept may have been at work here as well."
The Texan turned so that he was once again facing Lara. "So you think this was all man made just
so a bunch of people could to talk to the gods," he asked.
"Not gods," she corrected the God. While the others exist he is the most powerful and just like the
tower, bad things happened"
"How do you know that god is more powerful than the others," gasp the other.
Croft stood up and made her way back toward Devon. "Speculation," she answered, "after all
there are three religions built around him. And even if he's not, the fact is that man was not meant to talk
directly to any god. If they want something I suspect we'll know."
The American shook his head in wonderment. "So what do we do now," he asked.
"You can do what you want," answered the other, "I have to find a way to get a hold of MI-6 and
tell them to stop worrying. Then I have to destroy one of these stones, so that no one can try to activate this
thing again, give the Egyptian stone back to the museum it was stolen from, and then find a place for the
third in my trophy room. But first, I think I'll go get some food. I'm starving for some reason."
The End