The Lost Caverns of Gold
Written by Dean Peterson
AKA Raidr
© Copy writes 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2004

Writer's Notes:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bare with me as I am fully aware this story has spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, present/past tense issues that I'm trying to deal with. I was horrible at English back in '98 and I haven't improved much since. If you are an editor and wish to help me with my project, I welcome any and all assistance.

Chapter 2 – The Airport Encounter

The chartered bi-plane came to a complete stop on the New Mexico airstrip as Lara Croft gazed out of her window seat. She lethargically stood up and took the time to stretch her arms and legs just before grabbing her pack. The cabin hatch was thrust open and she stepped out into the summer mid-afternoon heat. Lyle Calloway followed closely behind but instantly shaded his eyes by placing his hand over his brow. Lara donned her trademark circular sunglasses and gazed out across the runway.
"Here we go again." She muttered to herself as she stepped down from the doorway and onto the asphalt.

Lyle fumbled through his passport and paperwork looking for his claim ticket. He wasn't used to the quick pace of Lara's stride and kept running into other travelers along the terminal. After his 3rd apology he realized his rather athletic partner was completely out of sight. Lyle picked up the pace and tracked her down only to find Lara stopped dead in her tracks.
"Son of a bitch", Lyle heard her say under her breath as he nearly ran into the back of her. He peered through the rather busy terminal trying to find what Lara was staring at and finally spotted the southern redneck figure she was referring too.

"The feeling is mutual love."
A burly voice answered back. Lyle whipped around realizing the person that spoke was directly behind him. His face became buried into the chest of a rather tall and sturdy-built man looking to be around 6'5" in stature.
An unsurprised Lara motioned with her arm and deliberately pointed a finger off to the side. She flipped her wrist as if she was playing a single note on a piano and playfully cooed.
"...and cue the asshole twin."
Even without having to turn around, Lara knew who made the comment.
Lyle gazed upon a tall scruffy-looking man with an unmistakable bony complexion. It was easy to recognize his unique facial structure just as easily as Lara recognized his distinctive voice. The top of his head donned wispy dirty blond hair mostly covered by a white thick-rimmed cowboy hat. On his wide shoulders covered a plain khaki long-sleeve shirt followed by a faded black cowboy vest that appeared to tell a few stories of its own.
He heard the man simply give a single chuckle to counter Lara's sarcastic remark.

"Nigel Reese, how are you these days? Still hanging out with the lowlifes I see." Lara's head was cocked slightly to the right as if to acknowledge Nigel's presence. Through her playful greeting, she never keeping her eyes off the oncoming figured originally spotted.
"Why Miss Croft, you know I only employ the best."
Lara responded with an upper body shrug that acknowledged the comment.
"Lara?" Lyle was looking directly up at the 'intimidating tree-trunk' and spoke in a curious but noticeably frightened tone, "uhh.. do you know this person?"
Lara replied in a focused, more serious voice "Tsk, tsk.. It would be rude of me not to introduce you but I'll have to save it for another time."

Lyle had finally stepped back enough to be Lara's stationary line-of-sight but hardly noticed as his gaze was still fixed on Nigel's towering figure.
She added, "The last person I introduced to Nigel ended up swallowing his food by means of a throat-tube for bloody near a month."

Lyle stopped staring at the 'most-intimidating-man-he-had-ever-seen' and ended up finally glancing over at Lara.
"What?.." he stammered, "Wh.. What happened to him?"
Lyle noticed Lara's eyes move back toward the figure she had been originally staring at but observed that she was looking at a person 'directly' behind him.
"He's what's happened to him," she answered back just as Lyle backed into the body of a rather burly man standing slightly smaller in stature than Nigel. Lyle turned around to glance up at a sturdy-faced individual with blue eyes intensely focused directly back at Lara Croft.
"Ima gonna kill you rite now!" the burly redneck snarled at Lara as he took out his right hand and shoved Lyle out of the way. Calloway found his gaze short lived as the Redneck individual sent him crash-landing to the tiled floor, sprawled out as if he were a rag doll.
Lara casually reacted as if she had rehearsed a similar scene a thousand times. Her left hand shot out and latched onto the retracting wrist of the ill-tempered Southerner. She twisted it in an unnatural direction and thrust it downward with surprising effectiveness. The man's own momentum sent him hurling face first toward the floor, his other arm braced for impact. Just as the man was about to hit head first, Lara jerked on the wrist causing the falling body to inadvertently roll into a somersault making him land directly onto his back. Lara twisted on the man's wrist one last time causing a wave of pain and words of obscenities to flow from his mouth.
"Marcus Larson," Lara casually addressed her succumbed adversary. Her tone was that if speaking to an upper-class banquet guest she distained being around. "If you don't want to end up like your brother, I suggest you stop introducing yourself to me this way."
Larson growled in pain and frustration as he repositioned himself for an attempt at freedom. Lara reacted by nonchalantly forced the top part of her steel reinforced boot onto his neck and cheek, further pinning him floor.
"Ghhhhaahh" was all that Larson could mutter as strands of salvia streamed from his mouth caused by his intense breathing.

Nigel strolled on over to where Larson's feet were and offhandedly removed his hat as if to inspect it.
"Now, Now Marcus," Nigel advised. "You know Miss Croft can hold her own." Larson peered over the boot toward the face of his employer as if to expect assistance of some sort.
Lyle Calloway was still helping himself up but paying close attention to the situation. Lara glanced over at him and surveyed the growing crowd of onlookers. Off in the distance she could just make out the movement of uniformed officers making their way through the crowd. Nigel too caught notice of the oncoming security and peered back over to Lara.
"Oh Nigel, just like old times" Lara removed her foot from Marcus's neck and proceeded to loosen her grip on his wrist.

"Its never the same with out you," Nigel responded while still half- heartedly inspecting his hat. Larson quickly regained his composure but took his time removing himself from the terminal floor. The intense anger he was radiating was more than visible but showed great restraint in calming himself.
"Do you want to keep a leash on him or shall I?" Nigel simply smiled and started to open his mouth but Larson barked out first.
"You keeled my brother. You deserve to die!" Lara replied in her upper-class party voice. "Don't we all?"

Nigel took his hand and casually placed it on Larson's shoulder.
"Now, now Marcus. Mind your manners," he said, in his heavy southern accent.
"I apologize for my partner here," Nigel sarcastically remarked as if mocking both her and Larson. "The whole vendetta gets him all worked up inside. Hah hah. I'd ask my partner here to give you an apology himself..." He glanced over at Marcus. "...But I'm not exactly sure how he'll respond."

The gathering crowd of airport passengers could only stare in awe at what they were seeing. The intensity in the burly Redneck's eyes memorized everyone that saw what happened. Though it appeared to take hours, only a few seconds passed before Larson reacted. He gargled back with his mouth and spat a rather large piece of phlegm on the floor directly in front of her. He turned around and broke through the gathering of people surrounding them. "Charming..." Lara responded as if she just witnessed an infant spit-up its dinner.
"HEY, Break it up..." A single police officer burst through the crowd behind Lara and Lyle. He forced his way between the two parties and pushed Nigel back a few steps with his baton arm. Just as he made contact, two more officers emerged through the crowed.
"Now what's going on here." The first officer barked.

Lara smirked and answered back in a cool, calm voice. "Nothing at all officer," she took a casual step back. "Just catching up with some old friends of mine. That's all."

Nigel finally replaced his hat back on his head, tipping it politely to show his Southern curiosity. He concluded, "Well Miss Croft, I have a feeling we'll be meeting up again, ...real soon" Nigel chuckled and turned around completely ignoring the uniformed men trying to stop him to get answers.

Lyle re-adjusted his shoulder strap and breathed a little easier as both men walked in the opposite way they were headed. He looked over to Lara to get some reassurance that it was going to be all right. Though he couldn't tell by her playful demeanor and relaxed stance, he sensed she was relieved to watch them walk away.

Lara looked back and called to Lyle in a 1950's June Cleaver persona.
"Shall we go dear?"

He quickly nodded in agreement and both of them walked through the officers and the large gathering of people.