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Admissions

The airport terminal was warm, comfortable and calm, as terminals often are. People whiled away their infuriatingly long waiting times by chatting quietly, wondering up and down browsing through the shops, and sleeping, their heads propped on bags or shoulders. Hillary stared out of the windows at the planes below, loading, fuelling, taxiing. Workers scurried about, only really visible due to their fluorescent jackets shining out against the gathering dusk. Beside him, Bryce gasped and jumped.

Hillary shot him a narrowed eyed look, taking in the laptop and headphones about Bryce's person, eyes fixed on the monitor. "What are you doing?" Hillary asked suspiciously.

"Playing Silent Hill 2. Very scary."

"You jumped," Hillary stated.

"Monster," Bryce said shortly by way of explanation.

Hillary, tiring of watching the aircraft, settled himself to see Bryce's laptop. "What do you have to do?"

"Kill the monsters, find your dead wife, and figure out what the hell's going on."

"Who's that?" Hillary pointed to a second figure standing next to the one Bryce appeared to be controlling.

"Maria. Not sure who she is, but she looks and sounds exactly like the dead wife. Bit suspicious."

"Hmmm." Hillary sat back to watch the proceedings, ready to while away the time to boarding by any means necessary.

The Jeep drew up outside The Company's headquarters, Lara staring out of the passenger window long ago lost with regards to their route. They were south of London, but that was all she knew. They had taken so many small roads, twisting, turning and dodging the main routes that she was almost dizzy from the journey. Either Kurtis didn't want her to learn the route, or this was the way The Company had shown him and he knew no other. She didn't bother asking, it wouldn't do to show suspicion yet.

"Now, before we go in there, you have to remember one thing: you're my prisoner."

"Yes, I know." Lara nodded.

"So no retribution for me treating you appropriately, ok?"

Lara only stared back, slightly incredulous as to what he was implying was 'appropriate'. He didn't see her look, however, having turned back to the road in order to start the Jeep moving again, drawing it around the back of the building and down the 'In' ramp towards the underground carpark surrounded by doorways that they had left last night in the van. At the bottom was a barrier. Stopping at it, Kurtis leaned out and pressed a button on a post-mounted intercom. "Trent and Croft, Mission 2205PT."

"Bay zero one niner," came the tinny reply, and the barrier lifted. Kurtis eased the car forwards again out into the open space and sped it across the car park, pulling the car roughly up against the appropriate doorway. Lara stepped out, her footsteps echoing loudly throughout the enclosed concrete area, dimly lit and chilly without the benefit of the earlier day's sun. A red glow above the door attracted her attention and she looked up to an electronic display showing, '#2205PT Incoming – Prisoner Detail. Medical not required," scrolling across in LED formed lettering.

"Prisoner Detail?" Lara said to Kurtis.

"Just precautions – you're a dangerous woman, Croft." Smiling amiably, he put one arm around her neck and produced a gun at her head, a far less dangerous reprise of his treatment of her in the alley in Manchester. "Here we go," he whispered into her ear, voice low and rumbling. His proximity was enjoyable but not distracting. Lara was more than capable of retaining full control of herself, and especially so now that she knew Kurtis better - his dark side, cold, hard and all too frequent was more than sobering once you fully comprehended it.

They moved to the door and Kurtis abandoned his grip on her to reach into his pocket, retrieving an unmarked keycard and waving it in Lara's face. "If you'd be so kind," he said, flicking the card with a finger. Lara reached up and took it, sliding it through the key slot on the wall and replacing it between his fingers where his arm was once more wrapped securely around her shoulders. The doors swished open a short moment later and they stepped inside to meet Cheney and five armed guards, waiting patiently for them.

Cheney was smiling again, that sincere smile that was so dangerous in its deception. The guards, however, were expressionless, staring straight ahead like statues awaiting their orders.

"Mr Trent, so good to have you back. And you, Lady Croft, I'm so glad that you decided to return."

"You're despicable," Lara spat back.

"Really? And what makes you say that? I am, after all, just assuring that you follow through on our little deal."

Bugger. They'd been so blasé about how they'd go about stealing the Tip from inside The Company that they had totally forgotten to sort out just how much they wanted to reveal to Cheney about Lara's new-found knowledge of his real intentions. Well, if they wanted anything even remotely resembling an advantage, then they needed to make sure that Cheney knew nothing. Before the possibility that Kurtis might say something could be realised, Lara leapt back in with a retort, leading the conversation and hoping that Kurtis could follow.

"You kidnapped me, tricked me, put me in a situation where I could easily have died for no real reason, shot at me and then had me kidnapped again. In my book, that's not fair play."

"Shut up, sweetheart." Kurtis' loud drawl intervened before Cheney and Lara could talk any more, a dangerous prospect. "Take her away." He shoved her forcefully forward into the waiting grip of the guards, suddenly attentive at his words. She stumbled as they caught her, gripping her arms painfully and roughly turning her around to face the same way as they did in readiness to lead her away, but they waited for Cheney's confirmation of the orders.

Cheney only smiled, laughing to himself at her predicament. "Send for Reynard when she's settled. There's no telling what she might have got up to whilst she was out."

"Reynard?" Kurtis enquired casually.

"Chief interrogator." Mr Cheney smiled almost gleefully before turning and setting off down the corridor in the other direction.

Lara, eyes suddenly filled with fear, could only too easily guess what that particular euphemism meant. The Company had already proved itself to be a master in misleading terminology. She looked pleadingly to Kurtis but he only stood by impassively staring after his boss.

"Fuck you!" Lara screamed at him, terrified and amazed that this was what he could include under the widespread heading, 'Appropriate'. He reacted, turning to her.

Walking towards her, stopping the guards from leading her away just yet, Kurtis took Lara's chin roughly in his hand, squeezing hard to prevent her from pulling away. "That's no language for a woman of your stature," he said, and kissed her, hard and possessively, not a hint of 'trust me' or 'I'm on your side' to be found even though Lara looked hard enough for it. "Have fun, babes." He smiled that confounded grin and waved mockingly, watching Lara as she was dragged down the corridor kicking and squirming and screaming abuse over her shoulder, now more angry at his latest, and most violent, betrayal then scared at what was about to happen.

Kurtis laughed to himself as she rounded the corner, and then turned and set off at a dash in pursuit of Cheney, his face not so amused any more.

"Mr Cheney!" Kurtis panted, as he just managed to catch Cheney's office door as it was swinging shut, and darted inside after him. "Mr Cheney."

"Yes, Mr Trent?" Cheney sounded mildly annoyed, glancing up irritably as he seated himself behind his desk.

"Call off Reynard. Please." Kurtis leant on the desk, breathless after the run and desperate to stop things before they started. He continued panting, trying to get both his panic and his breathing back under control.

"Any why should I do that?" Calm, detached, the Company head folded his hands on his desk and regarded his newest employee with a look akin to impatient indulgence.

"Please. I – I don't have a reason why you should. I can't tell you that she won't respond, I can't tell you that I have her trust and she'll tell me anything I ask, I just – please don't torture Lara. Please."

"She's a security risk, Trent. We need to find out if she did anything to compromise our control of this situation whilst she was on the run from us."

"And if she didn't? Are you just gonna torture her until she tells you she did something just to get you to stop? Come on, Cheney, please." Kurtis was pleading now, too scared to think of a proper argument.

"You're emotionally involved." Cheney was quietly accusing, as if he knew that this would happen all along, and was irritated rather than surprised.

"Yes! I am! Lara and me, we have history. Now I will let you get away with holding her prisoner, I will let you deceive and trick her, hell I'll enjoy every opportunity I can get to leer and flirt, and though I might not like it I accept that she's going to have to die for the greater good, but if you do this to her...if you hurt..." suddenly it came to him. He'd had insurance against Cheney all along, he'd just forgotten in the chaos. Once again in control, Kurtis straightened up and fixed his opponent with a threatening gaze before moving in for the kill.

"I know you have family. I know that they think you're dead. I know that Susan thinks she was widowed five years ago right before you got this position, I know that Mark has just got his first girlfriend and I know that you've never even met little Megan, who is still scared of the dark. You hurt Lara," and with those words Kurtis leant forward and moved his face close to Cheney's, eyes darting in barely concealed rage, "and I will find your family, and I will tell them the truth about you right before I put bullets – in – their – heads. Am I clear?"

Cheney, to his credit, met the gaze readily. "Crystal."

Kurtis nodded his head slightly and stood freely once again. There was silence and then Cheney pressed an intercom built into the desktop and said, "Cancel Reynard. Move Croft to quarters and post guard. Only myself and Trent to have access."

Breathing out heavily through his nose, Kurtis turned and made for the door, but Cheney stopped him with a word.

"Collateral. You are collateral, Trent, as much as Lara. I may find your assistance in this matter helpful, but you are not immune. There will come a point where you will push too hard and I will push back. Try not to reach that point."

The door to Lara's quarters at The Company opened and Kurtis stepped in, shutting it quietly behind him and standing with his hands in his pockets, staring at the floor and then looking up to Lara, who had been reading on the bed and now stared at him, waiting for him to say something.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yes." She snapped the book shut and pulled herself to a more sitting position.

"I'm sorry about before, I couldn't argue in front of the guards. Cheney would torture me too just for undermining his authority in front of people, and I have to keep what little hold I have on them."

"It seems you have quite a lot of hold."

"No. They do what I tell them because Cheney told them to. My position is a little more precarious than you might think."

"I take it I have you to thank for my narrow escape?"

Kurtis moved to the bed and lifted Lara's feet, sitting down in their place and letting them rest on his lap, staring down at his hands resting on her ankles. "I begged Cheney to leave you alone. I used my wild card and now we are both much worse off than we were before. I got no more tricks to pull on Cheney and I can't convince him that I'm just in this for the action and money any more. He knows that I care about what happens to you. That's not how it was in the beginning. I had control then."

"I'd noticed."

"Yeah, well I was possibly lying to Cheney and myself then." Kurtis looked up and smiled weakly. "I should have known better than to get involved with you again."

Lara's own smile was awkward, a little forced, as she blinked rapidly and turned back to her book.