Author's Note: Thanks for all the positive feedback, guys… A few notes on this chapter: near the tail end of it, there's some history of the Cabal and Lux Veritatis. This you can take as fact, because I got it from an interview with Adrian Smith… Also, Cappadocia is correct, as it's where the second game would have been set…
Revised 15/06/08
Lara halted at the door of Kurtis' room at Prague General Hospital, still relishing her freedom of the past hour. She'd spent two nights in a cell while police had swarmed the Strahov. Nearly seventy-two hours after her arrest, the shell-shocked authorities had gotten in touch with the Parisian officers in charge of the Monstrum murders and cleared her of the slaughter of over twenty individuals. Always good to know. Now it was time to check in with Kurtis.
Knocking softly on the door, she entered the private room without waiting for a reply. Kurtis turned his head towards her and smiled a welcome. "You're out."
"So it would seem," Lara agreed. "How are you feeling?"
He closed his eyes for a second before answering. "Uncomfortably indebted to you."
Lara bit back a smile and took the chair beside the bed. "Don't mention it. You'd have done the same for me."
"You're half my weight," came the ironic reply.
"A little more than that." Lara cast a critical eye over his injuries. "You're going to have some interesting scars."
"Already got a lot. A few more won't hurt." Kurtis reached out a finger and traced one of her own scars, which ran from shoulder to elbow. Lara shivered at the gentle touch and averted her eyes. "What did this?" he asked, his hand tapering off at her elbow. When Lara looked up at him, his eyes were unreadable. Was he toying with her, or was he genuinely interested? She wished she knew.
"A few years back, in a Chinese temple near the Great Wall. The swordsman statues came to life. They still had their swords."
Kurtis continued to study her. "What happened with Eckhardt?" he asked.
Lara kept her face as neutral as she could. As much as she hated to lie to someone she respected, she didn't think the knowledge that his father's murderer might not have been Eckhardt would help his recovery. "I killed him with the Shards," she said simply.
Kurtis raised himself up onto one elbow, eyes intent on her features. "There has to be more to it than that."
Wonderful. Time to give him a relapse. Drawing in a deep breath, Lara told him about Karel, leaving out his face's transformation into Kurtis'.
"No." The word, and his expression, conveyed nothing but flat refusal to believe it. "Eckhardt killed my father. Eckhardt is dead, and my father's avenged."
Lara stayed silent, not wanting to say anything that would incite the rage she knew was building within him. Perhaps it would pass if unprovoked, leaving acceptance and resolve in its place.
Or perhaps not. "You're lying." The cold anger in his eyes was directed at her, only at her, and it stung as much as a physical blow. Lara shook her head, still maintaining her silence. "Yes, you are. You're lying, because you think that if I know this business is over and done with, we'll have no reason to stay in touch, and you'll never see me again." The words were delivered with the chilly calm of utter conviction.
Lara stood up, her own blood beginning to boil. "Take that back," she replied, voice a warning growl.
Kurtis gave a derisive laugh. "Or what? You'll shoot me? No guns allowed in the hospital, huh?" he said, gesturing at her empty holsters.
Lara's eyes narrowed, and she lowered her face until it was just inches from his. "I trained with my fists and feet long before I laid eyes on a firearm," she answered, encouraging the threatening tone that longed to escape her lips.
To his credit, Kurtis didn't flinch. Lara straightened up and stepped over to the bedside table. Using the pen and paper there to scribble down her home address and telephone number, she dropped the note into his lap. "When you come to your senses – and not before – I'll be back home. I have contacts there. I'll be researching the Nephilim and Karel."
She turned on her heel, still seething, and headed for the door. His sarcastic tone stopped her. "What's your interest in this, anyway? Your illustrious name's in the clear."
Turning to shoot him the iciest look she could muster, Lara answered, "Karel killed my mentor. Werner was more of a father to me than my own father was. On top of that, he was my friend." She resumed her path to the door, muttering under her breath, "We're done here."
As she stepped out into the corridor, she heard him speak her name, a little less angrily, but her own pride was painfully inflamed. She strode down the hallway, not bothering to close the door behind her.
Lara slammed her fists into the punching bag over and over, remembering that frosty argument of three weeks ago with barely diminished rage. Bastard, bastard, bastard. Kicks began to find their place in the assault as she speeded up her rhythm, taking out all her frustration on that one padded object. When, at last, she'd exhausted herself, she stamped over to her bottle of water, only to find her 9mm missing from where she'd left it.
"Winston?" she called warily, surveying the room. Perhaps the butler had taken it to be tidied away somewhere, though he of all people knew better. That wasn't likely, though. Croft Manor had an intruder.
She was halfway through her more detailed perusal of the gym when a voice spoke up. "I could have shot you full of holes by now."
Lara scowled at the familiar, slightly hostile American accent. She had no doubt as to whom it was: she had heard this voice in her mind a hundred times a day since that scene in the hospital. She turned, arms folded, and glowered at Kurtis, who sat on the floor beside the door, his back to the wall and her weapon held up for her to see. "Most people don't possess the magical powers needed to bypass my top of the line security systems," she snapped.
Smirking, Kurtis pulled himself to his feet and tossed her the 9mm. Lara caught it, immediately checking to see if the safety was on. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to throw a loaded gun at you with no safety?" he asked, advancing with caution.
"So many remarks… which one shall I pick?" Lara retorted sarcastically. "And, by the way," she added, levelling the weapon at him, "don't come any closer."
He knew what she was waiting for, and sighed. "I'm sorry. It was unexpected, and it hit me hard. I shouldn't have taken it out on you."
Not taking her eyes from him, Lara nodded, giving no indication of friendliness as she strapped on her holster and slipped her gun into it. Kurtis kept his distance, perhaps remembering the fists-and-feet comment she'd made the last time they'd spoken. There was an awkward silence before Lara dropped her gaze and told him, "Come and see what I've found on the Nephilim."
The flesh between her shoulder blades tingled as she headed down the hall, not waiting for him to reply. Her mind raced. Now that the initial surprise was over, she remembered with a deep unease the moment when Karel had assumed Kurtis' identity. Three weeks… long enough for the shapeshifter to regroup? Lara hoped not. Kurtis' presence and apology had calmed her anger, and she was beginning to feel those stirrings of attraction that made her so uncomfortable. "This is business," she'd told him once. Even then, she hadn't been so sure.
If this Kurtis was in fact Karel, she was in a lot of trouble. The Periapt Shards, the only thing that would kill a Nephilim, had gone up with Eckhardt's body. As far as Lara knew, there was no other way to defeat him. Perhaps Eckhardt's glove, but she'd had to abandon that, too. It looked like her only course of action was to hope for the best. Maybe if she just assumed this was Kurtis Trent, and she was wrong, Karel would be amused enough to leave her be until she'd figured out a course of action.
They reached her study, furnished with comfortable armchairs and lined floor to ceiling with shelves full of books on myths and legends, archaeology, arcane texts… An adjoining door stood ajar, allowing a glimpse into Lara's trophy room, where she kept the artefacts she recovered on her expeditions. Kurtis chose a chair and sat without being asked, while Lara headed to her desk and picked up a sheath of manila folders bearing labels which read, 'J.K.', 'Nephilim', and 'K.T.' On second thoughts… Lara dropped the file on Kurtis back onto the desk and handed him the other two. He raised an eyebrow in the direction of the abandoned file, but took the others without comment.
Silence fell on the room. Lara sat at the window, gazing out into Croft Manor's expansive gardens. She could hear Kurtis' steady breathing behind her, and the crinkle of turning pages. Finally, he murmured, "So Eckhardt was a pawn all along…"
As I tried to tell you three weeks ago. "Yes," Lara replied, voice carefully neutral.
He shot a half-grin in her direction, almost as if he sensed her irritation. Lara turned back to the window, resting her forehead against the cool glass and taking deep, measured breaths to calm her racing heart. That is not fair. That's use of masculine wiles to manipulate.
She became aware of movement behind her and looked around, to find Kurtis going through the file she'd withheld from him; the file into which she'd deposited all of her background research into a certain American Lux Veritatis member. Cobalt eyes held a sardonic tinge as they met hers. "You could have just asked me."
"Where was the guarantee you'd tell me the truth?" Lara replied.
He dropped the file back to the desktop and sat back down, seeming more curious than angry. "Why'd you want to know?"
Lara hesitated. The truth, or sarcastic repartee? She chose a mixture of truth and lying by omission. "Now that I have a choice, I'd like to know whether I can turn my back on you and be safe."
"Can you turn your back on a former assassin and be safe?"
His tone mocked her, but his expression did not. Surprised at the intensity in his face, Lara studied him thoughtfully. "It's not the assassin part that bothers me." At his hiked eyebrow, she muttered, "If you are Karel, you're going to find this amusing as hell." Raising her hand to quell the question that formed on his lips, she continued, "I didn't tell you everything about my meeting with Karel. Yes, he was Luddick, yes, he was Bouchard, but he also tried to tell me he was you."
Emotion flared in his eyes, one that Lara had never expected to see – sympathy. Bugger. That could only mean he was putting himself in her shoes, which could only mean he knew how she felt about him… or was assuming she felt the same as he did – if he did at all. "What?" she asked sharply. He only smiled. Lara gave him a withering look, stepping over to one of the bookshelves and extracting a thick, dusty, leather-bound tome. They were in dangerous territory – time to distract herself with some work.
A couple of minutes into her translation from ancient Sanskrit, she looked up. Kurtis was watching her with a thoughtful intelligence, a notepad in one hand, a pen poised over it in the other, as though he were analysing a lab rat. "What are you doing?" she asked wearily.
"Adding to my file on you." Oh, he knew she'd go through the roof. She decided she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"And do I get to see this file?"
Vague disappointment underlying the amusement. "Maybe later." He closed the notebook. "What do you have on the Lux Veritatis?"
Business; business was good. "I assumed that anything I'd find, you'd already know. I'd just given up on you and started to research them when you… popped in. All I really know is that they supposedly defeated Eckhardt and have a long-standing feud with the Cabal, dating back at least a couple of thousand years."
A nod. "The Black Death, the Great Fire of London, the World Wars… all part of the feud." Lara winced. "Jack the Ripper was a Cabal member," he added.
"Wonderful," Lara answered wryly, jotting down his words. "Does Cappadocia have any significance to the Lux Veritatis?"
Kurtis frowned. "Cappadocia, Turkey? Not that I know of."
"Back to square one, then." Lara stood up. "I'll start there tomorrow. For now, I'm hungry."
"Know a good Chinese takeout?" Kurtis asked, standing with her. He laid his notebook on the arm of the chair, something Lara surreptitiously noted.
"I was going to say beans on toast, but that would require cooking. The little village down the road has a Chinese…"
He nodded. "Are you coming with?"
Lara considered. She was getting restless cooped up inside, but there was that intriguing notebook to pilfer... "No," she decided. "I need to get this organised." She gestured at the desk behind her, strewn with paper.
Kurtis nodded, and scooped up his notebook from the chair as he began to leave the room. In the doorway, he turned to look at her, laughter in his eyes. Lara couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as he vanished down the hall.