House Guests
L.A. Sway
The rain was steady outside the manor, sounding like the footsteps of a child. Lara lay still in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep. The moon cast a soft glow against the furniture in her bedroom, and skirted across the floor. Lara turned on her side, and glanced at the clock. 2:45 am. She steadied her eyes on the falling rain on the balcony outside her bedroom. Each glistening droplet grasping onto the drainpipe before plummeting to the ground.
She began to close her eyes when suddenly she saw movement outside her window; shadows. She didn't move from her bed, but instead, waited. Daniel had retired to his guest room several hours ago, and Winston had retreated to the opposite wing of the house.
She reached for the blade beneath her pillow, only to find her hand grasping her silk sheets. It struck her suddenly, that she had allowed Winston to finally remove it from behind her pillow, after his constant prodding of how dangerous it was to sleep with a sharp object. She chided herself for giving into Winston's parental instincts, and pulled the silk sheets off of her.
She saw it again, movement, a shadow. She moved away from her bed, squinting into the darkness of her bedroom. The house was silent; completely still. Only the soft swaying of the trees and the gentle droplets of rain could be heard. She moved out of her bedroom and into the main corridor leading to the stairway.
She brushed her hand along the edge of the banister, when suddenly a small red dot appeared on her hand. Not a red dot; a red stream of light coming from her bed room; laser sight. She knew what that meant.
Invasion.
Just as Lara placed both hands on the banister, gun fire erupted. She immediately swung her body over the balcony, and dropped to the floor; rolling as soon as she hit the ground.
Her body stung, but she took off running, avoiding the gunfire that sprayed at her heels. The key; they wanted the key. She heard the shattering of glass, as she rounded the corner, and slammed hard into another body.
She looked up to see Daniel aiming a gun straight at her forehead.
"Get Down!" He yelled, and Lara dropped her body to the floor. A single shot fired, and she turned to see a dark figure crumple to the ground.
"C'mon!" Lara yelled to him, picking herself off of the ground.
She needed her guns.
She took off down the hall, Daniel right behind her.
They cut through the expansive ball room, and Lara skidded to a stop beside the far left hand of the wall. She laid her hand along the wood panel, and pressed down. It swung open, revealing a gun cabinet.
"Whoa. Who are you? Mrs. James Bond?" Daniel said sarcastically, watching over her shoulder. Lara tilted her head back to give Daniel one of those 'We're standing in front of a cabinet full of guns, don't make me mad' looks. She handed Daniel a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum.
"You know how to use one of these things?" He nodded, accepting the gun and clicking the safety off.
Just as she reached for her classic two pistols, she heard the main windows in the ball room shatter. She turned to see several black suited figures crash through the tall, arching windows, weapons in hand. They began firing as soon as they entered the room, and Lara and Daniel took cover as best they could. They fired several shots before running through the opposite doorway. "They've come for my bloody key!"
"Where is it?" Daniel yelled back, before turning back and firing a few shots.
"I'll take care of it. Just hold them off for me!" Lara took off through the doorway, and Daniel continued shooting in the opposite direction.
"This is not good." He said to himself, and turned back around to follow Lara. He had only made it so far, when he felt something hard slammed into his face. He stumbled backwards, and then felt a forceful kick to his stomach. He fell on his back, his desert eagle skidding away from his hand. He immediately flipped himself back up, and slammed his fist into the face of his attacker. He went to hit again, but his opponent blocked his attack with his arm. Daniel brought his knee up in the middle of his enemy's legs, and then again punched him in the face. The dark figure fell backwards, gasping for breath. Daniel grabbed his gun, and ran through the doorway where he had last seen Lara.
Lara wasn't far ahead of him, rushing through the maze of hallways.
She made it to the main entrance way, and rushed towards her artifact room, only to find the doorway completely gone. Lara paused in front of it, cursing under her breath. She went to take a step forward, when the cool metal of a blade was pressed against her neck.
Before her attacker could even speak, Lara swung her pistol around slamming him hard in the jaw. She twisted her body around, bringing her knee into her enemy's ribs, and hearing a slight crack. He fell to the floor, his weapon skidding away from him. She immediately retrieved the blade, and pressed it up the dark figure's neck.
After all, she was only returning the favor.
She leaned over his place on the floor, the knife digging into his skin. He hissed through his teeth, but made no attempt to move.
"Who are you?" Lara growled, crouched over the still body.
The stranger strained to move his neck away.
"They're all gone. All of them. They got what they came for." Daniel's familiar voice came from behind her.
She was suddenly aware that the manor was completely silent, all gunfire having ceased. She peered around, and with how still the night had become, would have guessed that not a single person had been in the house. Lara turned back towards the figure lying on the floor.
The moon's pale light now reflected on his face, and Lara could make out the features of a young man. His pale blue eyes glared up at her, and his teeth were gritted in pain.
"I said," she repeated, her voice strained in frustration, "who are you? Who sent you here?" Finally the weak voice replied, "Go ahead. Kill me."
Lara noticed that he had a French accent.
He continued, "What he will do is much worse then anything you could think of." She watched him a moment, and then noticed a tattoo on his wrist. It was spider web with a diamond set in the middle. Before Lara could respond, or prevent it, the young man grabbed Lara's hand and pushed the blade through his neck, a pool of red instantly spilling onto the floor. Lara stepped back in shock, immediately looking away from the body. She couldn't help but feel guilty. He was just a kid.
She closed her eyes, and sighed. Daniel sat down on the stairs, fidgeting with his desert eagle.
"I cant believe this. What do we do now?" Lara looked up at him with a strained expression on her face. She didn't say anything, but instead removed the relic from the pocket of her pajamas. She held it up in her hand, and Daniel stared at her in surprise. "I had a copy made. Not the same of course, but in appearance, they're nearly identical. I hid it in the artifact room so they thought it was the real thing." Daniel shook his head and tried to smile a little. He was speechless.
***
"YOU IDIOTS!" The wine glass slammed against the opposite wall, the glass shattering into a thousand tiny pieces.
Amir Bello paced back and forth, twirling a pistol around his index finger. When he seemed to finally calm, he gestured for the terrified young man standing in the doorway, to come closer.
His name was Claude Bello, Amir's nephew. Taking a deep breath, Claude came closer to Amir, his body trembling.
"A simple task. No? And yet, you managed to screw up." Amir spoke, the words sounding completely casual, as if they were discussing the weather.
"We…I had no way of knowing, that she would make copies. We have under estimated her." Amir paused, "No, Claude. You have underestimated me."
Amir aimed the pistol, and fired. Claude's expression of surprise remained frozen on his face as he collapsed onto the floor.
Amir paused a moment, eyeing the corpse.
"Cal!" He called, "Come take care of this mess."
And returned to his desk to pour himself another glass of brandy.
***
"This blade," Lara said, twisting it around in her fingers, "I know the man whole sold it to our friend."
Daniel looked up from his breakfast, and raised his eyebrows. "Yeah…?"
"In Paris, there's this man. He sells different kinds of weapons. He marks each of them with his own insignia. He's the only one that would have sold it."
She paused and pointed to a small 'D' with a circle around it and three lines going through it. "Dominique Becker. An old friend of mine."
Daniel leaned back in his seat, and seemed to watch something outside the kitchen windows. The sun was out, the rain clouds having cleared away.
Birds chirped happily outside the house, and Lara became aware that Winston was in the room, sweeping up the mess left from the night before.
He had surprisingly slept through the whole thing, and when he woke the next morning set to work cleaning up the manor. She supposed that he had become accustomed to such things, and often wondered why he bothered to keep such an occupation. After all, she wasn't exactly your typical archeologist.
Pure loyalty, she decided. He had been with her since she was a child, and she couldn't imagine it any other way.
After a moment, Daniel leaned forward in his seat and replied, "I hear Paris is beautiful this time of year."
***
The soft drone of the airplane nearly lulled Lara to sleep. It was completely silent, most of the passengers sound asleep. She glanced over it Daniel, his expression pensive. He was fidgeting with something in his fingers.
She leaned over towards him, "You okay?"
He looked up at her, and connected with her gaze. "Uh, yeah. Just thinking."
Lara nodded, and leaned back in her seat.
"This was my fathers," he said suddenly, holding up a small pocket watch, "He died when I was just a kid. Doesn't work so well anymore. But I've always kept it." He clicked the small silver latch on the side, to reveal a motionless clock inside. Next to it, a small picture of a little girl was pressed inside the small space.
Lara recognized her as the same little girl in the picture at his flat. "My daughter," he paused, "She's almost 7 now."
Lara turned to look at him, her eyes searching his face. He sighed, avoiding her gaze, and closed the watch.
Lara had had no idea that he had a daughter. She didn't know a single thing about him, she realized. And for some odd reason, it bothered her. But why should it? After all, he was just her partner in this. All she needed was his information, that was it. But then why did she suddenly want to continue the conversation? To learn more about him; his past?
"We need to get some sleep." He said finally, leaning his seat backwards.
Lara watched him for a moment, and then slowly nodded. She leaned her head against the window, listening to the soft buzz of the engine, and soon fell asleep.
***
Lara pushed open the store door to 'D's Fine Weaponry' and made her way to the glass display table. A large man, with jet black hair stood with his back to her.
"I was hoping to get a pistol. Actually a pair. Classic, you know." Lara said, smiling a little. Dominique Becker laughed as he turned around, "Lara Croft! It's been awhile." He had a tan complexion, and deep brown eyes. He was an American, born and raised in Boston. How he came to be in Paris, she had no idea.
"It's good to see you Dom, how have you been."
"Oh, alright. But I know you didn't just come out here for some pistols."
Lara smiled, "Well I still have the pair you gave me. But I was hoping you could help me out. This is my friend Daniel Lane." She said gesturing towards Daniel who stepped forwards.
Becker nodded, "What can I do?"
"This knife." Lara said, pulling the blade from her jacket pocket.
"Do you sell a lot of these?"
Dominique reached forwards, pulling the knife from her hands.
He studied it for a moment, "Where did you get this?"
Lara eyed him before responding, "Lets just say, a friend of mine left it to me when he died."
Becker paused and handed the blade back to her.
"I've only sold a couple in the past few months. They're top of the line. Real Expensive."
"He was a young man, blonde hair, blue eyes. I would say about 20 or so."
He pursed his lips, "I don't know Lara. A lot of people come in here."
Lara nodded, "Just one more question. This tattoo. Have you seen anyone with it?" Becker looked over the sketch Lara had drawn, and then looked up at her suspiciously.
He turned back towards the shotgun he had been polishing.
"Amir Bello. One of my most frequent customers. Seems like a real nice guy. He pays me a lot more then just the price of these guns. He pays me to keep my mouth shut."
"You know I wouldn't ask you, unless it was important."
He sighed and turned back to her, "He owns a few underground clubs in the red light district. You have to be either real rich or important to get in that place."
He explained to Lara where exactly to go, and that Amir wouldn't be in town for a few days. Lara nodded and thanked him for his help.
"It was good seeing you Dom."
"You too Lara." He smiled, "Oh and Lara?"
She turned back to look at him from the door way. "Be careful. I don't want to lose my favorite customer."
Lara smiled, "I always am."
With that, she and Daniel walked out into the busy streets of Paris.
