Jack sighed. He was bored. He had been sitting in the van for what seemed
like hours. He looked at the NID agent to his left, but the man was too
busy staring at the multitude of computer screens around him. Jack sighed
again, and looked at his watch.
When he saw the time, he perked up. Time to check in with Teal'c. "Hey, buddy." He said into his headset. "How's it hanging?"
"I do not understand, O'Neill. I am not hanging." Teal'c's dry tone replied.
"It's just an Earth saying Teal'c . . . never mind." Jack sighed. Sometimes it was so hard to explain things to his big friend. "Anything to report?"
"No." Teal'c said. "Is everything alright, O'Neill. You do not seem to be yourself."
"I'm fine, Teal'c. Just a little bored."
"I understand." Teal'c said.
Just as Jack was about to reply, the NID agent beside him tapped him on the shoulder. Jack turned to him. "What?"
Then Jack saw the screen. A shadowy figure was crouched near the entrance to the Richards' vault. "I'll talk to you later Teal'c." he said.
"Who is that?" he asked the agent.
"I don't know yet, sir."
"Well, find out." Jack snapped.
As Jack watched, the figure on the screen turned towards the camera and Jack saw it was a beautiful woman. Her hair was tightly bound into a long braid and she was wearing a very tight cat-suit. She gave a quick grin after a while, before disappearing into the shadows.
"I've got her ID now, sir." The NID agent said, and Jack saw on another screen, the woman's face had been highlighted and inserted into a match program. "Her name is Lara Croft."
Jack nodded. "Daniel, Carter?" he said into the headset. "We've got a problem, guys."
"What's wrong?" Daniel asked.
"A few minutes ago we spotted a figure near the vault through our access of the surveillance cameras."
"You think someone else is after it?" asked Sam, referring to the artefact.
"Well, they're not there for the scenery." Jack said dryly.
"Do you have any idea who it is?" Daniel asked, more curious than alarmed.
"Yeah. Our friends have quite a set up." Jack said. "Her name is Lara Croft. She's English and is something of a mercenary. It says here her occupation is 'tomb raiding'."
In the corner of the ballroom, where he stood, Daniel winced at his friends tone. "She's actually a brilliant woman. Not to mention the fact that she has found many artefacts that were previously lost to present society." He said defensively.
Back in the van, Jack raised an eyebrow. "You know her?"
"I've met her before." Daniel replied.
"Okay." Jack said, but he wasn't convinced. Daniel could believe this woman was some sort of hero to the archaeological world, but he would reserve his judgement. This was all a little to convenient.
"So what are we going to do?" Sam asked, breaking the silence that had fallen.
"You guys are going to get out of there." Jack ordered. "It's too risky. You'll end up getting caught. There's already one thief in this building."
"We won't get another chance at this." Daniel said. "Richards' will double the security when he finds out."
"Let the NID deal with it." Jack said. "We don't have to clean up all of their messes, you know."
Daniel sighed. "We'll meet you outside."
* * *
Lara watched the two guards standing in front of the entrance to the vault. When one of them disappeared around a corner, she quietly dropped down from the vent in which she was hidden, and landed in a crouch on the thickly carpeted floor. She crept forward, unheard, until she came up behind the first guard. She quickly slapped the chloroformed cloth in his face, and he crumpled into her arms. She slid the body to the floor, and crept around the corner to deal with the second one.
She slipped down the corridor like a dark shadow, and soon found what she was looking for. The second guard stood at the end of the corridor, eating a doughnut. He never saw Lara coming. She crept up behind him and gave him a hard hit to the back of the head with the butt of one of her guns. He crumpled face first to the floor. Lara smiled and returned to the vault entrance.
Getting into the vault was easy compared to what Lara was used to dealing with. No hidden booby traps or collapsing ceilings. Just an electronic lock and some lasers. The handy device Bryce had built her dealt with the first and infrared glasses and practice helped Lara avoid the second. It took no time at all until she stood in front of her prize.
The stone was a square-based pyramid in shape, covered on two sides by recognisable Egyptian symbols. The other two sides were the key, Lara thought. The symbols on one were very similar to Egyptian, but not exactly. And then there was the final side. These symbols were not Egyptian in any way - but they looked familiar. Lara couldn't place what they were.
It didn't matter now, and she blinked to clear her head. She could figure out the mystery at home. All she had to do now was get out with the stone. Unhooking the black pouch from her belt, Lara picked up the stone and slipped it inside. Then she re-hooked it to her belt.
Getting out of the vault was as easy as getting in. She slipped past the beams with a fluid grace and made it to the door in around two minutes. Not bad, really. "Okay, Bryce. Lock the door." She said quietly.
As the door swung shut behind her, Lara carefully swung back into the ventilation system and replaced the grate. She was lucky she had, because at that point a shrill noise went off and then stopped. "What just happened, Bryce?" Lara asked, as she began to crawl back through the vents.
"The alarm got triggered. But I swear it wasn't me. Someone else is in the system."
"Someone else?" Lara asked. "Were they trying to get into the vault?"
"I don't know," Bryce replied. "But it wasn't official. Whoever it was, they were hacking in, just like us."
"Okay." Lara considered the information. "Get me out of here, Bryce."
"Take the next left, then go straight ahead to the next intersection. Take the one on the right this time and then crawl two meters. There should be a grate there, and that's where you'll have to leave. The ventilation shafts are crisscrossed with too many lasers to deal with up ahead. Not even you could get past them."
Lara half nodded to herself and followed Bryce's instructions to the vent. Since no one was in the room, Lara removed the grate and jumped down. The room was not unlike the office she had seen before. "What are all the offices for?" she muttered as she dragged the chair over and replaced the grate.
"Richards has employed scientist to help decode that stone in your pouch." Bryce told her.
"Can you get me any information on what they've found?" Lara asked.
"I'll try." Bryce said. "You're in an office about ten meters down the corridor from the first, but on the opposite side. But be careful, there's a security team patrolling the corridor."
Sure enough, when Lara carefully peered around the doorway, she saw two men in uniforms standing with their back to her. Two Dobermans sat at their feet, and Lara quickly ducked back into the room before they could spot her. She frowned. There was no way to get past those dogs. The guards she could deal with, but the dogs . . .
Lara walked to the window. When she peered out, she grinned. There was a small stone ledge that ran around the building. Lara climbed out onto it, shutting the window behind her, and keeping her back flat to the wall, she edged along. The air outside had turned cold and Lara risked a glance at her watch. 1:35pm. She raised an eyebrow. Getting the stone had taken longer than she had thought.
Lara past the next window she saw and continued to the next one, before opening the window and slipping inside. She waited for a minute and peered out. The guards were just a few meters down the corridor, talking to each other. Lara glanced at the window, but before she could do anything, she heard one of the guards - and he sounded a whole lot closer to the room than before.
Thinking quickly, Lara raced to the window and climbed out, barely managing to shut it before the guards entered the room. She hugged the wall next to the window when one of the guards shone his torch outside. Lara waited for a long and painful five minutes until she was sure the guards had gone. "Bryce?" she whispered.
"Yes, Lara?"
"Where are the guards now?"
"Three rooms down the corridor." Bryce replied. "Wait . . . they're moving into the fourth now."
Lara waited a minute longer, until Bryce said, "They just turned the corner."
Not needing to wait for anything else, Lara quickly slipped back inside the room and crept up the corridor to the room she was in before. She carefully opened the window and slipped outside, before grabbing the bag she had hidden previously in the tree. She quickly slipped back inside the room, and slid the desk chair under the vent again. She stood on it, slid the vent cover off and put the bag inside, before replacing the chair.
Then she quickly jumped up and climbed into the vent, and replaced the vent cover. "Am I clear?" she asked Bryce.
"Transparent." Bryce said, and Lara stifled a groan.
"Bryce." She said softly, with a shake of her head.
"Sorry."
Lara crawled forward a few meters and took the next branch to the left. She soon came to the vent she was looking for. She grinned. She checked the room below was empty, before carefully somersaulting into the bathroom underneath. Replacing the vent cover was easy, because Lara only had to stand on the toilet below her.
Once that was done, Lara closed the stall door and opened her bag. Taking out the dress and wig she had been wearing before, she put them back on. It took a few minutes of wiggling, but she managed to do it. Lifting up her skirt, Lara re-strapped the pouch she was wearing to her leg and rearranged her guns so they didn't bulge through the skirt. The black bag was carefully rolled up and wrapped about her leg, and everything was hidden from view when she shook her skirts back into place.
As Lara stepped out of the stall, another woman entered the bathroom. She smiled briefly at the curvy brunette dressed like a saloon girl and walked to the mirror. Carefully checking herself over, Lara touched up her makeup and left. The ballroom was perhaps even louder now than it had been, and just as crowded. The party didn't look like it would be over soon.
Lara pushed her way through the crowd, keeping an eye out for Charles so she could say goodbye. She spotted him standing in a corner talking to an assortment of people. There were at least two pirates and what looked like Robin Hood. Lara fixed a smile on her face as she walked over. She never smiled this much normally, she reflected.
"Lara, my dear!" Charles greeted warmly, as she walked over.
"Charles." She returned.
"Excuse me gentlemen." He said to the group, and looked at Lara. "A great deal of my business associates." He told her.
Lara nodded at them. "Gentlemen."
"Lady Croft." One of them nodded back.
"I didn't mean to interrupt, Charles. I was only coming to say goodbye." Lara told her old friend as they walked away.
"Don't worry." He replied. "I was happy to stop talking business anyway. I do far too much of it already."
Lara smiled. "If your business ever takes you to London," she said. "Don't forget to come and visit."
"I'd love to." Charles replied. Then he glanced at Lara. "I take it you concluded your business?"
"Absolutely."
"Then," he turned to her and kissed her cheek. "I bid you goodnight."
"Goodnight, Charles." Lara said.
When he saw the time, he perked up. Time to check in with Teal'c. "Hey, buddy." He said into his headset. "How's it hanging?"
"I do not understand, O'Neill. I am not hanging." Teal'c's dry tone replied.
"It's just an Earth saying Teal'c . . . never mind." Jack sighed. Sometimes it was so hard to explain things to his big friend. "Anything to report?"
"No." Teal'c said. "Is everything alright, O'Neill. You do not seem to be yourself."
"I'm fine, Teal'c. Just a little bored."
"I understand." Teal'c said.
Just as Jack was about to reply, the NID agent beside him tapped him on the shoulder. Jack turned to him. "What?"
Then Jack saw the screen. A shadowy figure was crouched near the entrance to the Richards' vault. "I'll talk to you later Teal'c." he said.
"Who is that?" he asked the agent.
"I don't know yet, sir."
"Well, find out." Jack snapped.
As Jack watched, the figure on the screen turned towards the camera and Jack saw it was a beautiful woman. Her hair was tightly bound into a long braid and she was wearing a very tight cat-suit. She gave a quick grin after a while, before disappearing into the shadows.
"I've got her ID now, sir." The NID agent said, and Jack saw on another screen, the woman's face had been highlighted and inserted into a match program. "Her name is Lara Croft."
Jack nodded. "Daniel, Carter?" he said into the headset. "We've got a problem, guys."
"What's wrong?" Daniel asked.
"A few minutes ago we spotted a figure near the vault through our access of the surveillance cameras."
"You think someone else is after it?" asked Sam, referring to the artefact.
"Well, they're not there for the scenery." Jack said dryly.
"Do you have any idea who it is?" Daniel asked, more curious than alarmed.
"Yeah. Our friends have quite a set up." Jack said. "Her name is Lara Croft. She's English and is something of a mercenary. It says here her occupation is 'tomb raiding'."
In the corner of the ballroom, where he stood, Daniel winced at his friends tone. "She's actually a brilliant woman. Not to mention the fact that she has found many artefacts that were previously lost to present society." He said defensively.
Back in the van, Jack raised an eyebrow. "You know her?"
"I've met her before." Daniel replied.
"Okay." Jack said, but he wasn't convinced. Daniel could believe this woman was some sort of hero to the archaeological world, but he would reserve his judgement. This was all a little to convenient.
"So what are we going to do?" Sam asked, breaking the silence that had fallen.
"You guys are going to get out of there." Jack ordered. "It's too risky. You'll end up getting caught. There's already one thief in this building."
"We won't get another chance at this." Daniel said. "Richards' will double the security when he finds out."
"Let the NID deal with it." Jack said. "We don't have to clean up all of their messes, you know."
Daniel sighed. "We'll meet you outside."
* * *
Lara watched the two guards standing in front of the entrance to the vault. When one of them disappeared around a corner, she quietly dropped down from the vent in which she was hidden, and landed in a crouch on the thickly carpeted floor. She crept forward, unheard, until she came up behind the first guard. She quickly slapped the chloroformed cloth in his face, and he crumpled into her arms. She slid the body to the floor, and crept around the corner to deal with the second one.
She slipped down the corridor like a dark shadow, and soon found what she was looking for. The second guard stood at the end of the corridor, eating a doughnut. He never saw Lara coming. She crept up behind him and gave him a hard hit to the back of the head with the butt of one of her guns. He crumpled face first to the floor. Lara smiled and returned to the vault entrance.
Getting into the vault was easy compared to what Lara was used to dealing with. No hidden booby traps or collapsing ceilings. Just an electronic lock and some lasers. The handy device Bryce had built her dealt with the first and infrared glasses and practice helped Lara avoid the second. It took no time at all until she stood in front of her prize.
The stone was a square-based pyramid in shape, covered on two sides by recognisable Egyptian symbols. The other two sides were the key, Lara thought. The symbols on one were very similar to Egyptian, but not exactly. And then there was the final side. These symbols were not Egyptian in any way - but they looked familiar. Lara couldn't place what they were.
It didn't matter now, and she blinked to clear her head. She could figure out the mystery at home. All she had to do now was get out with the stone. Unhooking the black pouch from her belt, Lara picked up the stone and slipped it inside. Then she re-hooked it to her belt.
Getting out of the vault was as easy as getting in. She slipped past the beams with a fluid grace and made it to the door in around two minutes. Not bad, really. "Okay, Bryce. Lock the door." She said quietly.
As the door swung shut behind her, Lara carefully swung back into the ventilation system and replaced the grate. She was lucky she had, because at that point a shrill noise went off and then stopped. "What just happened, Bryce?" Lara asked, as she began to crawl back through the vents.
"The alarm got triggered. But I swear it wasn't me. Someone else is in the system."
"Someone else?" Lara asked. "Were they trying to get into the vault?"
"I don't know," Bryce replied. "But it wasn't official. Whoever it was, they were hacking in, just like us."
"Okay." Lara considered the information. "Get me out of here, Bryce."
"Take the next left, then go straight ahead to the next intersection. Take the one on the right this time and then crawl two meters. There should be a grate there, and that's where you'll have to leave. The ventilation shafts are crisscrossed with too many lasers to deal with up ahead. Not even you could get past them."
Lara half nodded to herself and followed Bryce's instructions to the vent. Since no one was in the room, Lara removed the grate and jumped down. The room was not unlike the office she had seen before. "What are all the offices for?" she muttered as she dragged the chair over and replaced the grate.
"Richards has employed scientist to help decode that stone in your pouch." Bryce told her.
"Can you get me any information on what they've found?" Lara asked.
"I'll try." Bryce said. "You're in an office about ten meters down the corridor from the first, but on the opposite side. But be careful, there's a security team patrolling the corridor."
Sure enough, when Lara carefully peered around the doorway, she saw two men in uniforms standing with their back to her. Two Dobermans sat at their feet, and Lara quickly ducked back into the room before they could spot her. She frowned. There was no way to get past those dogs. The guards she could deal with, but the dogs . . .
Lara walked to the window. When she peered out, she grinned. There was a small stone ledge that ran around the building. Lara climbed out onto it, shutting the window behind her, and keeping her back flat to the wall, she edged along. The air outside had turned cold and Lara risked a glance at her watch. 1:35pm. She raised an eyebrow. Getting the stone had taken longer than she had thought.
Lara past the next window she saw and continued to the next one, before opening the window and slipping inside. She waited for a minute and peered out. The guards were just a few meters down the corridor, talking to each other. Lara glanced at the window, but before she could do anything, she heard one of the guards - and he sounded a whole lot closer to the room than before.
Thinking quickly, Lara raced to the window and climbed out, barely managing to shut it before the guards entered the room. She hugged the wall next to the window when one of the guards shone his torch outside. Lara waited for a long and painful five minutes until she was sure the guards had gone. "Bryce?" she whispered.
"Yes, Lara?"
"Where are the guards now?"
"Three rooms down the corridor." Bryce replied. "Wait . . . they're moving into the fourth now."
Lara waited a minute longer, until Bryce said, "They just turned the corner."
Not needing to wait for anything else, Lara quickly slipped back inside the room and crept up the corridor to the room she was in before. She carefully opened the window and slipped outside, before grabbing the bag she had hidden previously in the tree. She quickly slipped back inside the room, and slid the desk chair under the vent again. She stood on it, slid the vent cover off and put the bag inside, before replacing the chair.
Then she quickly jumped up and climbed into the vent, and replaced the vent cover. "Am I clear?" she asked Bryce.
"Transparent." Bryce said, and Lara stifled a groan.
"Bryce." She said softly, with a shake of her head.
"Sorry."
Lara crawled forward a few meters and took the next branch to the left. She soon came to the vent she was looking for. She grinned. She checked the room below was empty, before carefully somersaulting into the bathroom underneath. Replacing the vent cover was easy, because Lara only had to stand on the toilet below her.
Once that was done, Lara closed the stall door and opened her bag. Taking out the dress and wig she had been wearing before, she put them back on. It took a few minutes of wiggling, but she managed to do it. Lifting up her skirt, Lara re-strapped the pouch she was wearing to her leg and rearranged her guns so they didn't bulge through the skirt. The black bag was carefully rolled up and wrapped about her leg, and everything was hidden from view when she shook her skirts back into place.
As Lara stepped out of the stall, another woman entered the bathroom. She smiled briefly at the curvy brunette dressed like a saloon girl and walked to the mirror. Carefully checking herself over, Lara touched up her makeup and left. The ballroom was perhaps even louder now than it had been, and just as crowded. The party didn't look like it would be over soon.
Lara pushed her way through the crowd, keeping an eye out for Charles so she could say goodbye. She spotted him standing in a corner talking to an assortment of people. There were at least two pirates and what looked like Robin Hood. Lara fixed a smile on her face as she walked over. She never smiled this much normally, she reflected.
"Lara, my dear!" Charles greeted warmly, as she walked over.
"Charles." She returned.
"Excuse me gentlemen." He said to the group, and looked at Lara. "A great deal of my business associates." He told her.
Lara nodded at them. "Gentlemen."
"Lady Croft." One of them nodded back.
"I didn't mean to interrupt, Charles. I was only coming to say goodbye." Lara told her old friend as they walked away.
"Don't worry." He replied. "I was happy to stop talking business anyway. I do far too much of it already."
Lara smiled. "If your business ever takes you to London," she said. "Don't forget to come and visit."
"I'd love to." Charles replied. Then he glanced at Lara. "I take it you concluded your business?"
"Absolutely."
"Then," he turned to her and kissed her cheek. "I bid you goodnight."
"Goodnight, Charles." Lara said.