Chapter 17
Max thumbed through the pages of Lara's copy of Sex while he sat upon her toilet. Once again, he had interrupted her sleep to use her facilities. When she greeted him at her bedroom door (sans shotgun - this time) he had explained to her, again, that his bowels were still on Eastern Standard Time.
Lara didn't seem to care about his needs - she could be such a grouchy-bear.
Max wondered how she would contend with being married with two daughters and some dogs. His house was never truly quiet and interruptions in sleep were par for the course.
Max concluded his 'meeting' and was cleaning up when he heard the bedroom door open. Quickly replacing his boxers, Max turned towards the noise.
Lara Croft was walking quickly towards him, her face a mask of pure business. Max was about to ask her what was going on when she placed her hand over his mouth, pushed him against her wall, and leaned her head in.
"We have intruders," she whispered.
Max let out a sigh of relief at this news - the other alternative was just too much for him to deal with.
"How many?" he whispered into her own ear.
"Unknown, but I think that Elder has made her play for my pieces."
"How did you find out?"
"I noticed that the security panel by the front door was off, and I am sure to set that each evening before I sleep."
Lara removed the shotgun from her bedside and handed it to Max.
"Can you use that?"
Max checked the weapon and trained it on the bedroom door.
"I'm more of a Mossberg man, but I guess it'll do."
Lara seemed unamused as she removed a key that she wore about her neck and inserted it in the door next to her bed.
"Maybe there's something more to your liking in here..."
Lara opened the door and Max's eyes went wide. Her gun closet was Christmas to Max. He gawked, trying to make up his mind as Lara tied on her thigh holsters, making her t-shirt into more of a dress. Into the holsters, Lara deposited a set of Ingram MAC-11 machine pistols. These small weapons had a very fast rate of fire and had served her well in all of her adventures.
"Guess we're doing the close quarters thing," Max remarked as he returned Lara's shotgun. "is calling the cops is a dumb idea?"
"We've got far more weapons than they do."
"Hoakie religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."
"What?"
"Been waitin' years for the chance to say that..."
"I don't understand."
"I've got it on DVD, we'll check it out if we live through this."
"Agreed."
As Max had been talking, he had donned a kevlar vest (why had she never used this before?) and an MP-5 submachine gun with several attachments - including a laser site.
"Christ Lara, have enough mail-order crap all over this?"
"They were there when I found it."
"Whatever."
Lara's bedroom door opened as she rolled out of it and came to a crouch, scanning the area with her weapons. Simultaneously, Max appeared in the doorway, his underpants and bullet-proof vest making for an odd combination. He covered the other side of the room with his own weapon, the laser sight picking up dust particles in the air.
A big, dark, empty room. Nothing.
"Where to next?" Max asked.
"We start from the library and work our way down."
"You take point, I cover your ass?"
"Agreed."
Lara crept to the other side of the foyer, weapons trained in front of her. Less than a foot behind her, Max side-stepped so that he could stay with Lara and still watch out for any surprises from the rear. They walked slowly, the journey to the music room took them just over two minutes.
Max was growing weary, Lara kept looking back at the area he was covering - and ignoring the area that was hers when she did so. Was he not trustworthy? The next time she turned, he finally reacted.
"I've got you."
Meeting his eyes, Lara's went to the floor for a moment. She concentrated on the music room doorway, but she just could not shake the apprehension that there was something going on behind her. Even with Max covering her, it was still a blind spot.
She was no fan of blind spots.
All things being equal, she should have been thrilled at the concept of component backup, but she was just too used to working alone...
...And what if something happened to Max?
The thought was something that she could not even begin to deal with at that moment, too many other things were happening. She pushed at the emotions and felt her face firm as she composed herself.
As they reached the doorway, Lara took position on the far side and mouthed a countdown to Max. When she reached 'zero' they went through the doorway, Lara slightly in the lead, but Max there a split second later.
Again, nothing except what should have been there.
Lara pointed up at the library as Max went over to the mussed blankets on the couch that served as his bed and retrieved his hold-out Glock. He was about to head over to his clothing and camera gear when Lara holstered one of her weapons held a warning hand up, then waved Max over to her without taking her eyes off of the stairs to the library.
"What is it?" Max whispered when he reached her.
Lara drew her second pistol and motioned in the direction of the library, "the fire is out."
At that moment, Max realized that the fire had been burning constantly since his arrival - that thing had to be gas-fed. A sickening thought occurred to him.
"Will it blow?"
"No, but whomever is here went that way."
"Into the fireplace?"
"Yes."
"What the hell is up there?"
"What they came for..."
"Hell, that fire was out when I grabbed the book. God, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. Your sleepy eyes might have saved your life."
"Wow, never thought I'd be glad to be clueless."
They took a moment to compose themselves. There was no noise at all from the house. Whoever they were, they were very good.
Lara and Max started up the stairs to the library. The perpetually burning fire usually lit the room reasonably well, but the room was filled with deep pockets of darkness in which anything could be hiding itself.
Max almost retreated down the stairs to get his camera, as its infrared capabilities would not allow anyone to hide. However, it took his over five minutes to suit up with his gear - time that would leave him a proverbial sitting duck.
No, better to stay here and not tape this incredibly tense sequence.
When you put the camera down, that's when something cool happens...
He and Lara cleared the room carefully, then she went over to the fireplace and looked up the chimney.
"As I feared," Lara commented, "go down and cover the foyer."
"We should stay together..."
"I know, but I am going to drive them towards you - just get down there and be ready..."
With that, Lara disappeared a la St. Nick.
Max headed down the stairs and onto the foyer balcony. At that moment, he realized that he had failed to ask from where Lara was going to drive the intruders. Because they headed up the chimney, they must be going outside - maybe the front door? They also might reenter through Lara's balcony.
Max shuttered at the thought that they might have been on the balcony when he was having his "meeting" in Lara's bath.
He decided to orient himself at the balcony corner nearest the music room, just next to the door to the attic. The area offered him the greatest amount of options in covering the area. Extending the shoulder stock on his weapon, Max double-checked that he was set to single fire - full auto was good only for desperate situations when accuracy did not count. A quick scan of the room revealed that all was quiet, Max quickly adjusted his glasses, very glad that he had brought them to the bathroom with him.
As he was enjoying the feeling of Lara's rich carpeting beneath his bare feet, muffled gunshots shattered the moment They were quick bursts, hopefully Lara's Ingrams. Sadly, Max could not tell what direction the sounds had come from...
So Max waited.
Several agonizing moments later, Max heard a odd Pop! From the foyer below him. This noise was followed by that of hinges squeaking.
The noise was coming from directly below him, which was strange because there were no doors down there.
Taking his time so as to remain completely silent, Max approached the railing and leaned over, his weapon ready to fire at any intruders.
With his attention focused on the mysterious noise below him, Max was taken totally by surprise when he heard the attic door open behind him. He whirled about and came face-to-face with a female form dressed completely in black.
One moment, Max was leveling his weapon at this person, a split second later he was empty handed. The moment after that his world filled with stars as a foot connected firmly with his nose. Through the tears that instantly formed, Max barely made out his attacker leap to the tile below, roughly the same time as he heard the clatter as his MP-5 did the same.
The figure looked up at him briefly, giving Max the chance to draw his hold-out and cap off a round. The thing in black dodged the round and headed down the hallway to the ball room.
Max shook his head to clear it, then wiped at the large quantities of blood that were flowing freely from his nose. He could not tell if it was broken - it did not matter.
He was going to get the intruder.
His cotton-poly boxers made for surprisingly little friction as he slid down the railing to the lower level. When he had arrived, Max saw the source of the squeak, secret door built just under the bannister.
Just as Max was retrieving his weapon, he heard another pop, and saw that the door was cycling shut in front of him. He dove at the door and slid the MP5 towards it, wedging the stock in the jamb. Rising, he forced the door back open.
Inside, more darkness awaited him.
The worst part of the situation were Max's feet. He did not know what he was about to step in - and that was just not right. He had boots for a reason. Big boots...the kind of boots that a bear trap would have trouble getting through.
He really had to stop being such a wuss.
There was some flickering light coming from the far end of the hallway - and what the hell was this place?
Then again, what other kind of basement would the Tomb Raider have?
This intruder was fast, really fast, and that made Max feel a little desperate.
Max carefully approached the light, taking a moment to flip the selector from single fire to automatic.
Turning the corner, Max was floored. The entire room appeared to be a giant aquarium, there was more water space than there was space for people there. Brilliantly colored fish swam to and fro, the lighting (all coming from inside of the water) making them shimmer.
But the fish were the only residents of the area.
There were a couple of bookcases, a couch similar to the one on which Max slept, and a large crate. There was no sign of the intruder. Max was thinking about other hidden passages along the hallway when something in the tank caught his eye.
This was no fish.
The black-clad intruder was swimming in the aquarium.
To make matters worse, she was now carrying a sealed box, presumably from the bottom of the tank. Max trained his weapon on her, but there was little he could do. If those clear panels could support then tens of thousands of gallons of water, then his 9 mm MP-5 rounds would as effective as cursing at them.
He watched the figure swim about the pool to an opening in the roof that he had not noticed before. Tensing up, Max tried to ready himself for anything.
Drip...drip....drip.
Max turned to find the source of the noise, but there was nothing there...
Then the flickering light played across the room just right, and Max saw the small puddle that was forming on top of the crate. Max raised his weapon in that direction.
"I've got you, give it up," he ordered.
"I could have killed you," a cold, feminine voice responded. "I could have shoved your nose into your brain and ended it."
"Well, hell...tell you what...to say 'thank you' how's about I just give you my car keys and open the front door, would that be all right?"
"Sarcasm."
"Be great if you'd just drop dead from laughter about now."
"Not tonight."
With that, the figure dropped to the top of the crate and crouched, motionless. Max placed the laser dot on her back the moment she appeared and wavered just short of pulling the trigger.
"Don't even think about moving," he warned.
"If you were going to shoot me, you already would have."
"Don't test me, Tootz. You interrupted a borderline mythical B.M. and I am not the mood."
Two small objects dropped from her hand. One of them was a small metal handle...
...the other, a grenade...
Assessing the situation in a moment, Max realized that his opponent would not be taken alive, as the explosion would kill her unless she made it out of the area. His moment of decision gave the black suited woman the chance to run, and she was out of the room in an instant.
As the handle had just been released, Max had several seconds (there were too many types of fuses to be sure of the time) before the thing went off. He had two choices - taken cover in this aquarium or get out of the area. Max chose the latter in the hopes that it might give him a better chance of catching his prey, not to mention not being drowned under thousands of gallons of water...
Max ran after her, trying to choke down his rage and be calm while getting a bead on this woman. As he rounded the corner to the stairs, he could just see her flipping a switch near the secret door.
Still moving forward, Max leveled his weapon and squeezed the trigger - forgetting that it was still set to full automatic. Repeated muzzle flashes lit up the stairwell as he fought the upward recoil of the weapon, coupled with getting as far from the aquarium as fast as he could.
Then he was hit from behind.
His elbows hit the stairs painfully as he was thrown forward by the blast of the explosive. Ears ringing, he saw the figure slip out of the open door and pondered (briefly) why he was still alive from so close a grenade blast.
Flash-Bang! He thought to himself. This staple of SWAT room clearing made a lot of noise and light, but was not terribly lethal - except to the ear drums. More angry now, Max rose (again) and ran to the top of the stairs.
After inserting a fresh magazine in his weapon, Max burst from the secret passage to find that the foyer was again empty - but the front door was open. He ran to the open portal, chastising himself for letting the intruder get away. Had that been Elder, and who the hell was Elder anyway?
The front courtyard was empty and unremarkable - except for the front gate that stood wide open. Instinctively, Max thought that too obvious a trap from his crafty prey, but then he heard a motorcycle staring up from close by.
Max ran full force to the gate, the stones that made up part of the driveway were like knives against the bottoms of his feet, but he did not care - his only concern was that this woman did not get away.
As he reached the gate, there was the blur of a tail light streaking off into the night. Max raised his weapon and emptied an entire magazine at the fleeing bike, with no appreciable effect.
Max was just about to give up when he was bathed in light from behind. Lara's Subaru screeched to a halt next to him.
Get in, he read from her lips.
