Lara Croft in the Search for Xanadu Chapter 6: The Great Escape, a tomb raider fanfic

Lara Croft in the Search for Xanadu Lara Croft in the Search for Xanadu

Neil Stokes

This story contains some violence and bad language.

Thanks to Eva, Chris and Jess.

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Chapter 6: The Great Escape

Lara Croft was on her knees while the youngest of the policeman behind her forced her wrists into handcuffs and snapped them shut. Meanwhile she watched his older, fatter partner speaking into a radio with his back to her. Calling for reinforcements, thought Lara. Am I really that dangerous? she asked herself. Leaving the question hanging, she considered her situation. Lara had only one worry at this point. The fact that she had been arrested in a foreign country for illegal possession of a firearm and that her hands were handcuffed behind her back did not worry her in the least - par for the course. What caused her concern was losing Angela. In her mind she saw the intimate spark of trust in Angela's eyes; no one had ever looked at her with such faith before. She was little more than a stranger and aware of how fragile that trust was and vowed to get her back straight away. Get her back! She smiled to herself as she thought how she and Smiley, normally in competition for artefacts, were now competing for the custody of a child.

The monotonous voice of the policeman reading her rights brought her mind back into focus. With cool accuracy she considered possibilities; three to five minutes before reinforcements arrived; four exits she knew of in the vicinity but no real choice because she was going after Smiley; the absence of passers-by made her think more police were already involved. The officer on the radio still had his back turned. The policeman behind her was close and she could feel his leg against her side. For the moment he was occupied; nothing to wait for, she went into action. She buried the back of her head into the policeman's groin with all the force she could muster. She heard him wheeze and sensed him bend over her. Straightening, she stood as quickly and as rigidly as possible, smashing the top of her rising head into his down-turned face. It hurt but not as much as it had hurt him. There was a cracking sound, a single yelp of pain and the dull thud of the policeman's body hitting the deck while Lara was already skating away fast, her legs thrusting to the rhythm of the distant sirens.

The other policeman had dropped his radio and despite his surprise had managed to draw his gun but before his befuddled mind could get him to raise it, Lara had disappeared. He sprinted down the rest of the stairs, stopping at the bottom and looking around frantically. His hearing was first to sense anything. With a screech of metal, one foot extended in front like a soccer player intercepting a ball, Lara skidded across the shiny floor. A second later her outstretched skate made contact with the policeman's shin and with a scream he went into a sprawling dive as Lara's momentum carried her on beneath him. She bounced back onto her feet as the officer slammed face down onto the floor behind her.

Making for the open door of the car park she noticed a short flight of stairs beyond the doorway but without reducing speed she spun round, skating backwards and looking over her shoulder. She counted out seconds in her head as the first of the concrete steps slipped beneath her and she began to take the rest two at a time. At the bottom she planted one skate beneath her and stretched out her other leg, swinging round 360º and taking in the extent of the car park as she did so. There was no sign of Angela or her abductors but she'd seen the curling ramp that presumably led out to the street. Before setting off she sat and, rolling backwards, pulled her feet up and passed her skates through the loop of her handcuffed hands. The cuffs were still a major problem but at least they no longer clamped her hands behind her back; the limited movement of her shoulders was going to be necessary.

She started skating again, heading for the ramp ahead. As she drew nearer she realised just how steep it was; uphill wasn't going to be easy. Undeterred, she found a rhythm and piled on the force, her powerful thighs pumping hard. As soon as she hit the upward slope all her speed disappeared but she'd been expecting it and pushed even harder until her thigh muscles reached bursting point. Her progress was slow and within seconds she was exhausted; her breathing began to falter and her pace slowed as the ramp went on and on until she was hardly moving. It didn't matter as long as she kept pushing and avoided a slide back down to the bottom. She began to grunt with each thrust, swearing at the torture in her legs and lungs. Just as she was rejecting the latest overpowering temptation to stop, feeling in a rush of exaggerated agony flooded her body. She lay on the pavement gasping for breath, almost giggling with relief.

The respite was short lived because she was already back on her skates and moving on legs that felt like solid rubber down the pavement behind the shopping centre. She could hear the police sirens clearly now and a lot of crowd noise coming from a large group of bystanders gathered at the far corner of the building. Lara approached from behind and walking on her skates slipped in among them. Everybody was looking at the entrance of the complex where an array of police cars, their doors open and their lights and sirens on, were drawn up in a random formation. There were policemen everywhere; pushing at the crowd, waving on the cars that slowed to look, running in and out of the mall. One group with shotguns were splitting up in order to surround the building. Lara scanned the scene, looking out for Angela, Smiley or the twins. She couldn't see any civilians at all in the cordoned off area. Of course they would be far away by now and Lara feared for the girl, despite the spirited resistance she had exhibited in the mall. Anyway, there were more urgent matters to attend to, like her own escape.

Detaching herself from the crowd she crouched and let herself roll down the middle of the street, which joined the avenue at right angles. She kept low using the parked cars as cover. When she reached the junction of the two roads she didn't stop but floated out into the centre at the same moment as a car was passing. She extended her handcuffed hands, grabbing the bumper tightly and letting herself be dragged along by the moving vehicle. Almost immediately she heard another car approaching from behind on the right. It was travelling faster than the one she was skitching on and as it passed she let go and reached over to grab its bumper. Her timing was impeccable although the sudden increase in speed nearly broke her grip. Praying the car wouldn't suddenly stop she left the shopping mall behind, the cars on the inside lane shielding her from the deployed policemen.

Despite the handcuffs she managed to make another change of car into the outside lane as the traffic came to the end of the long avenue. Glancing behind she saw a police car approaching and knew she'd have to get as far away as possible if she wanted to avoid detection. The car she was skitching on began to slow as it came to the lights, the police car behind getting nearer by the second. Lara let go as the car came to a halt and slipped silently between the two outside lines of vehicles, trying to keep one eye on the traffic lights and hoping they wouldn't change before she arrived. The front vehicle was only one car length away when she saw the red light dim. She crouched even lower, squeezing a tiny bit more speed out of her slowing skates. As the lights went to green and she saw the first car jerk as the driver put it into gear, her outstretched hands made contact with the rubber bumper. It picked up speed and Lara Croft, thinking So much for Picasso, Miró and Gaudí, was borne away into the centre of Barcelona.