A Lovable Evil Part Seven: Truthful Liars Miss Lara Croft sat comfortably on the edge of the small bed listening with fixed interest as the Doctor explained what exactly had happened to him. She had already given him her account and now it was becoming obvious that at least one of them had been lied to. The only question was who was it? In the case of the Doctor the answer was totally obvious. It had to have been Atans. After all, while claiming to be such a good soul, he had the audacity to ask Lara to steal the king's scepter. On the other hand, Lara accused Odg. From what she had just heard he seemed to somewhat manipulative. Besides, she had seen Atans along with the pain in his eyes. Every time the young lady even considered for a second on not fulfilling her mission her mind would wander back to those eyes and all the pain that she had seen in them. No, Odg had to be the liar. The only problem was that the Doctor was not about to agree in the least. If he was lying then he had to be the best she had ever seen. "Madam," the Time Lord said when she had, as bluntly as she could, given her opinion, "I appreciate your point of view but have you ever considered that you have been brainwashed by this creature? Odg made it quite clear that it is standard practice of his enemy." "What are you talking about?" Yelled the tomb raider, jumping up off the bed. "Are you saying that I don't know what I am doing?" The Time Lord nodded. "That, my dear, is exactly what I am saying." As soon as the words had passed the man's lips Lara went for her pistol. "Listen to me." she ordered. "I work for nobody but myself and anybody that gets in my way pays for it. If there is anyone who is brainwashed around here it is you." Slowly, the Doctor pulled himself up to his feet. "Yes, my dear, you may very well be right about that and I would have even thought it probable except one thing. The description you gave of this Atans, reminds me of a race I encountered long ago known as the Evlids." Miss Croft shook her head. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard." She scolded. And even if it were true my next question is, so what?" "Oh, you stubborn girl!" Snapped the old man. "They Evlids are a race of mind readers. Can't you see that you're being manipulated?" Instantly, the Doctor reached out and grabbed the young lady's arm. "You have been brainwashed?" Immediately, Lara dropped her free hand onto the butt of her pistol. "Yes, I am a stubborn girl." She smiled. "And if you don't get that hand off of me you'll regret it." Reluctantly, the Doctor released his grip. "So, you are not going to listen to me, hmm?" He said. "Well, then I'll just have to keep you here where you can't causes any trouble, won't I?" That was all Croft needed to hear. No one got in her way and certainly not some old space relic. With lightning speed she deployed her weapons and trained them on the man in front of her. "Look, I don't think I need to kill you but I am very capable of doing it so don't get in my way. Got it?" The Time Lord shook his head. "Oh, I've got it." He answered. "But what's to stop me from following you, hmm?" "Well, first off there are these." The explorer answered, cocking the hammers back on both guns. "And if that's not enough." Here she paused momentarily in thought and then smiled evilly. "Well," she continued," let's just say that anybody with half their wits would consider that enough." The Doctor's eye gleamed. It was obvious to the young lady that he was going to follow her no matter what. So, in an effort to avoid a great deal of unnecessary bloodshed, not to mention the cost of ammunition, Miss Croft decided to attempt a nonviolent solution to the problem. She stepped backward a few feet and slowly removed her backpack, careful to keep one pistol trained on her adversary. She then removed, from inside, a set of handcuffs. "My goodness, child. I thought you were some sort of archeological explorer. What are those for?" Croft smiled knowingly as she clamped the old man to the bedpost. "No reason really." she answered. "Except I stole them from a Texan friend and I hadn't got round to taking them out yet." With that, Lara spun around and made a b-line for the door. The Doctor said nothing. He was too busy working on his own plans. She may have won this round but he was not about to let a pair of handcuffs stop him. As soon as his adversary had left the old man set to work on freeing himself from his forced confinement. Without a second thought, his hand reached down into his coat pocket and fished around until he came up with his trusty fountain pen. What he had to do next appalled him to no end. After all, it was his favorite pen, given to him long before he even acquired the TARDIS. He almost wanted to skip it but there were so many mysteries floating around that he could hardly justify it. Besides, there were hardly any other options open to him that did not require his cutting off his hand. So, after a few deep breaths, the Doctor shoved the end of the favored pen into the keyhole on one of the handcuffs. He cringed as he felt its tip interact with the hard metalworkings of the lock. Slowly, he twisted the writing utensil around, trying to free him. After a few seconds there was a small click and shackles that had held him at bay opened easily. Unfortunately, as he had expected, the tip of his pen was bent. With a deep sigh of regret, he threw his fetters aside, placed what was left of his pen back in his pocket, and moved over to the door. Somehow, he had the feeling that the young explorer might be lurking in the hall just outside the room, waiting for him to exit. Slowly, the Doctor pushed open the door until there was a slight gap between it and the doorframe where he could see out into the hall. Then, like a curious child, he stooped over and peered out of the room. Though his vantage point was severely limited by the door he could see well enough for his liking. He glanced right and then left but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. It was, he surmised, safe to exit. Unhurriedly, he pushed the door open the rest of the way into the hall. For a moment he had a sensation of being watched but only fleetingly. As he now looked around the hall without anything encumbering his vision it was clear that he was alone. Now was the heard part, figuring out which way Miss Croft had gone. The Doctor glanced off to his right. It was the way that he had come from earlier as he was escorted from King Odg's throne room. Chances were, he figured, that if she had gone that way the guards would easily discover her. That, then, left only the passage to his left. He took his time strolling down the corridor almost oblivious to the fact that he was following the young lady. His mind drifted off to a great admiration of the architecture around him. The stone walls did not look that much different than those he had seen in other areas of the universe but somehow they seemed to call to him. It was the fact that walls were nearly identical everywhere that had caught his attention. They had no individuality. The question so grated on his mind that he was hardly aware of anything else. So much so that when he rounded the corner into the next hall and found himself face to face with Miss Lara Croft's nine-millimeter pistol it hardly fazed him. "Some how I thought you'd get away." The young girl said irritatedly. "Now the question is what to do with you. " I may just have to shoot you. " The Doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry, were you saying something?" He asked, still slightly distracted. Lara was now more annoyed than ever. "What, you're not even listening to me? This is beginning to sound like a bad Monty Python sketch." "Monty who?" replied the other glancing to his side. It was then that he finally noticed the gun in Lara's hand. "Dear me child!" He said, pushing the weapon away. "Put that out of sight before you hurt someone." The young tomb raider stared back at the old man in disbelief. No one had ever talked to her like that before, especially when she had a gun pointed right at their nose. It was nearly the most insulting thing anyone had ever done to her. What was even more astounding to her, however, was the fact that she actually listened to the man and holstered her weapon. She could not think why in the world she did it but she did. The Time Lord noticed it too. Despite all his complaints he never expected the girl to actually follow his command. More over, for a moment Miss Croft seemed to have a cold blank stare in her eye. Immediately, the old man's thoughts drifted back to what he had mentioned before about the Evlids. At the time he had only mentioned them in passing without giving much thought to their actual involvement but after seeing what had just occurred he was beginning to wonder. He needed to test the theory. Drawing his face into the most serious and mean expression the Doctor stared directly into the tomb raider's eyes. "Stand on one foot!" He yelled as forcefully as he could. Like clockwork, the woman's left leg raised off the ground. "What did you do?" Lara inquired angrily. "Why can't I move my leg?" The time traveler chuckled lightly to himself. "As I told before, girl, you have been brainwashed, most likely by an Evlid. All anyone has to do is sternly give you an order and you will do it. If humans weren't half immune to it you probably would have killed me already." Miss Croft was not amused. The idea that anyone could make her do anything that they wanted to seemed utterly ridiculous. Of course, that left the question about her leg. She still could not move it no matter how hard she tried. It was as if it did not belong to her at all. "I don't believe you." The lady announced. "It's probably more likely that you've done something to keep me from getting to that scepter." The Doctor shook his head. "Oh, it was me was it? And why? What motive could I possibly have to do such a thing?" "Power." Lara responded. "I mean, you are an older man. Perhaps you think it could make you young again." The Time Lord shook his head. There was obviously no way to get through to this woman. More over, if neither of them truly took charge of the situation they would both be stuck standing in that for eternity, Lara because she was still stuck on one leg and the Doctor because he needed Lara's help to figure out what was going on. There was only one thing for it; he had to make the first move. "Put your leg down!" He ordered sharply. The young lady complied. "Now listen, child. One of us is right and one of us is most definitely wrong and I consider it imperative that we find out one way or another." The explorer leaned sideways onto her left foot. She would never have admitted it but she was quite ecstatic to have it once again under her control and leaning on it was the best way she could think of to prove it to herself. On the other hand she was still vexed by her companion's ramblings. "What's your point?" She asked as if she were an irritated school girl. "The point," the older man repeated, "is that we will never know for sure which of us is right as long as you are obsessed with that scepter. So, I will help you find it. Lara nodded her head. As much as she detested the thought of working with someone, especially this someone, she had to admit that it was better than to lurk about all evening, wondering if a senile old man was following her. "Alright." She relented. "But if you do that to my leg again I swear I will shoot you straight through the head, got it?" The Doctor nodded and turned to look down the hall adjacent to the one he had started in. It was fairly short with four wooden doors all on the right side. At the very end of it, the corridor split in two. Straight ahead, it became a set of stair leading upward, most likely toward a tower. The other hall turned left and disappeared behind a corner. This, in particular, was curious because the direction it went was right into the outer wall. It could have been, he supposed, just a niche in the wall. Of course, that brought up the question of why. In turn that brought up several other questions, most of them pointless to the current situation, which made him even more curious. "Are you all right?" Lara asked when her companion had been dazed for an extraordinarily irritating amount of time. The Time Lord shook his head back to reality. "What was that?" He replied, still half dazed. Then, like a bolt of lightning he understood. "Never mind." He quickly continued. "Let us examine this curious oddity shall we." Miss Croft shook her head as the old man moved on ahead of her. She wondered how she had gotten herself involved with such a weird character. Still, she couldn't fault his curiosity. In truth, she had noticed the architectural anomaly as well but had not had a chance to examine it because of the Doctor and his one legged trick. Now, as the duo moved toward it they began to realize that it was actually a spiral staircase. Neither of them said a word when they discovered its true identity either. Instead they each turned to the other with an expression that seemed to say, "We should have known." As they began to descend, first Lara and then the Doctor, a feeling began to come over them, that the whole scenario seemed too easy. It was almost as if they were in a bad sci-fi action story. The Time Lord, in expectation of an environment of utter darkness, pulled out his matchbook and struck one. The tomb raider rolled her eyes. "If you're going to come on an expedition like this," she scolded, "you should really bring the proper equipment. With that, she reached into her backpack, pulled out a flare, and lit it. "And why should I do that?" Responded the Doctor, tossing his match onto the stone steps. "You seem to be prepared for the both of us." Lara rolled her eyes and continued down stairwell. It seemed to wind around forever. More than that, the further they went the narrower it seemed to get and it began to make both of them strangely nervous. Neither of them was really the kind to get apprehensive over such a thing, however, glow from Lara's flare, coupled with the odd events they had already been involved in, they were not exactly surprised by the fact. Still, the steps seemed to go on into the earth for quite a distance yet. Conversation seemed inevitable; at least, it was in the case of the Doctor. "So, who is this friend of yours that you mentioned before?" The young lady shook her head as if she were coming out of a flare-induced trance. "What?" She snapped. The sudden lack of silence was annoying to her.if not expected." "Oh, that would be Devon. A regular tart he is. Still, he's a good deal better than the other one." "The other one?" Repeated the Doctor. Miss Croft did not answer. Instead, she stopped. A large metal door was blocking their path. "I guess we're at the end then." She said looking over her shoulder at the old man. "Shall I open it?" The Doctor nodded affirmatively. Lara bent down, grabbed the handle, and twisted it. However, it caught quickly on the way down. She tried again with the same result. There was no doubt about it, if she was going to get in, she would have to pick the lock. The young lady took a deep breath and began a thorough examination of the structure. Besides the handle, that she had already tried, there was not much else to discover. The whole thing appeared to be fused directly into the stone wall. There was no sign of hinges, or a keyhole, or anything that might be useful in opening it. Meanwhile, the feeling that The Doctor had been having of being on the right track had suddenly gotten a bit larger. Along with it he was getting a feeling dread too and at least part of that was due to something that he had just realized. "Hmmm, that's strange." He said curiously. "That door is metal, but most of the things I have seen around here are wood or stone." "Must mean there is something important behind here." Lara answered, still examining the door. She refused to believe that she could not find anything useful from it. There had to be at least a keyhole somewhere, otherwise, how did anyone else get in. It had to be there somewhere. At the same time, The Doctor, not being in a position of usefulness at the moment, let his mind drift backward to the previous conversation. "So, young lady, are you going to answer my question or are you going to ignore me." Lara did not even turn her head, she was too busy trying to figure out the door. "What question was that?" She answered, half oblivious to the fact that she was speaking. "About your friend." Replied the other. "Not that Devon fellow, the other one. You said he was worse." Lara smiled slightly to herself. "Oh, that would be Larson." She said. "Yes he is a bit off in the head you know. The weirdest part is that he has this thing for starfish. He eats them like mad whenever he can. Puts little sugar sprinkles on them." "Really?" Answered the other in wonderment. "Sugar sprinkled starfish? It isn't what I'd expect most Texans to eat." "Quite." Croft stood up and turned back to face her companion. "Well, I can't find anyway around this thing right now. There is no keyhole and if it has any hinges they are in the wall. We may have to find an alternant route." The Doctor nodded in agreement. Still, there was something very fishy about it all. "May I have a look first?" He asked, squeezing around Lara. "You don't believe me?" The tomb raider replied, half insulted. "Oh, it's nothing like that, child," answered the old man, his nose almost touching the door's metal frame, "nothing like that. However, I see things in a way that most people do not." Now, Lara was intrigued. What had she not seen? And what did The Doctor mean he sees things in a way that most people do not? It all came out in one word, "Oh?" The Time Lord nodded. "You see, my dear, you were looking for a way in. What if we are already in, hmm?" "I beg your pardon." Interrupted the other." "It's quite simple, really." The old man continued. "You assume that this door is meant to keep us from getting past it but that someone with a key could open it easily. Correct." Lara nodded. "What if it were only meant to be opened from the other side?" "But why have a door that only opens from side?" Croft asked, trying to jump ahead of where her companion's explanation. The Doctor smiled. "Indeed. Such doors are only to keep people in one place, such as in a jail cell." Now the young lady was totally lost. Some how, in all her years of study, she must have missed something. She thought she almost understood it all but not quite all. Even so, she thought she would give it a chance. "Are you saying that we have to find out who the jailor is and have them open the door for us?" "Very nearly." Replied the Doctor. "That is at least part of it. The other part is that who ever is the one to open this is not from around here at all." Lara nodded again. "Well, you are right about seeing nothing else made of metal around here. Are you saying that whoever built it is an alien like us?" "Indubitably!" Replied the Time Lord. "And all of that leads up to a theory of how we get in here." "What's that?" Asked the young lady. Without hesitation, the Doctor pulled his right hand into the air and made a fist. He then, turned and gave two quick knocks on the metal door, sending a pair of loud vibrating kongs wafting through the air. "We knock." He said triumphantly.