Slouching Toward Bethlehem
A continuation of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.
Disclaimer:
I do not own any recognisable characters that appear in this piece of fiction. Lara Croft, Kurtis Trent and others are property of Eidos and Crystal Dynamics. The only thing I own is some OCs and the plot. This story was written for pleasure only. I am making no profit from this story.
Contact:
If you have any questions or comments about this story please don't hesitate to drop me a line. Just click the review button at the bottom of the page. Thank you.
»Chapter Nineteen: Business Deals »
Doctors, nurses and random patients bustled down Florence Nightingale Hospital's corridors. In the medical store room, with the door slightly ajar, Lara peered out, desperately searching for the familiar face.
After a few more minutes of waiting she saw who she was looking for, and ducked back into the safety of the store room.
"Miss Croft?" a voice whispered. Into the darkened store room a male nurse now slipped, closing the door carefully behind himself.
"Right here," Lara replied, stepping forwards to meet him, "Have you got what I asked for?"
"Uh-huh," he answered, reaching into his jacket and removing a white paper bag, "Everything's here. Fresh from the pharmacy."
"Fantastic," she said, taking the proffered items and sitting down on a packing crate, "I wasn't sure you'd be able to get everything."
She tipped out the contents of the bag. Out spilled various packed herbs and a bottle of painkillers.
"Do you need anything else?" the male nurse asked, fidgeting by the door.
Lara looked up and gave him a sultry smile.
"Just let me take my medicine," she cooed, "I'll meet you in the men's bathrooms in ten minutes."
"OK, OK," the man agreed, nodding vigorously and practically scampering out of the room like a dog missing its master's leg.
Lara rolled her eyes. Med students. They were all after one thing, and merely hinting at the aforementioned had them crawling on their hands and knees to do your bidding. She had absolutely no intention of following him to the bathroom, and chuckled to herself when she imagined his waiting around for her to come.
She moved over to the table in the corner, clearing the space of any junk before laying out her herbs on the tabletop. An electric kettle stood on a nearby shelf, and she plugged this into the wall socket and proceeded to fill it with water from the sink. Whilst waiting for this to boil she began to prepare her ingredients.
She still remembered vividly her time spent with the Shaman, after the collapse of the tomb in Egypt. The mystic had healed her in both body and mind, using cleansing rituals and herbal remedies. In the North African desert there were not the medical facilities like in the Western world. This meant though that all the ingredients used in the Shaman's remedies and medicines were common plants and herbs, whose mystical properties most people had never before discovered.
One medicine in particular had fascinated Lara; it was a tea which, once drunk, had completely healed a gunshot wound she'd received to her shoulder. After a lot of pleading the Shaman had revealed to her the secret of its making. The process was a simple one, and the herbs were quite easy to find in exotic countries. The mixture had come in handy a lot of times in the past, although she wasn't one hundred percent sure it would work effectively on a wound quite this severe.
Once the kettle had boiled Lara separated out the correct amounts of the herbs, mixing this into the water and gently stirring it until she was certain it was at the right consistency. She poured the tea into a polystyrene cup, holding it up to her lips and blowing on it to keep it cool. Once the temperature was right she drank the whole cup in one go.
She put her cup down, sticking her tongue out in disgust. The tea may have had mystical properties but it still tasted horrible. It was an old Cambodian recipe, discovered by the monks, who had obviously never heard of flavoured tea.
She dared not remove her bandages to see if it had worked just yet. She was feeling a lot stronger on her feet however, and took some painkillers to balance everything out. She then poured the rest of the kettle's contents into a flask and stored everything away in her backpack.
As she exited the room she certainly felt much better, and quickly made her way out of the hospital to the private car park at the side of the building. The motorbike was parked in a place marked simply, 'Reserved', and Lara quickly fit in the keys, gunned the engine and roared out of the hospital gates.
She'd made it out of the hospital alright; now it was time to go see an old friend.
A vicious pounding at the front door pulled Remy Girard out of a light doze. He rolled his eyes with a sigh, hauling himself out of his armchair and abandoning the television – which was playing some obscure Turkish game show – and approached the front door.
The knocking sounded again, and Remy said in a strong French accent: "Just a minute!"
He reached the front door, but instead of opening it he instead slid back the metal bar and peered out of the slit.
The words caught in his throat when he recognised the woman standing outside his door.
"Lara Croft?"
"Hello Remy," she replied, arms folded, "Are you going to let me in anytime soon?"
"Oh, right," he replied distractedly, fiddling about with the various locks and bolts on his door. Soon enough the front door swung open, and Lara stepped inside. Remy locked the door again behind her.
"Lara Croft," he repeated, turning to face her, "What brings you to Istanbul?"
"Business," she replied unhelpfully, "I need the whole nine yards: guns, holsters, ammo, explosives…"
Remy just smiled. "Follow me," he said.
Lara had first met Remy a few years ago, when she'd been travelling to visit the ancient site of Troy. There had been a bit of a misunderstanding at the airport, and she'd had all of her weapons confiscated. A contact had given her the number for a weapons dealer in Istanbul, and she'd ended up on Remy's doorstep. Needless to say he had been more than pleased to do business with her, although things had got out of hand and she'd ended up punching his lights out. Lara Croft was not one to take any crap from the opposite sex.
She now followed Remy as he led her down the basement steps. He flicked on a wall switch and flooded the dank room with light. Lara could see the basement floor was covered with crates, boxes and various other paraphernalia.
Upon the wall were various cabinets and hooks, and Lara walked right over to a pair of leather holsters and pulled them down. She strapped these onto her thighs and gave a smile. She was feeling better already.
Remy walked over to the opposite wall and began prying at the top of a dusty looking crate. Presently there was a crack as the lid came off, and then a cry of pain as it landed on Remy's foot. He began to hop about clutching his foot, whilst Lara stepped forwards unconcerned and began to examine the crate's contents.
"Excellent," she murmured, taking in the vast array of weaponry. Something caught her eye and her lips pulled up into an easy smile. She reached into the crate and pulled out a pair of pistols.
"God damn," she said, looking the guns over in her hands, before easily twirling them around and slipping them into the holsters at her waist, "You don't know how long it's been since I used these babies."
Remy had finished massaging his injured foot, and stepped in closer.
"I got Uzis, Desert Eagles, Automatics, Shotgun, you name it. Just take what you need."
Lara delved into the crate again, and soon she was equipped with a pair of Uzis in her back holsters and a small knife which slipped into her boot. She needed firepower, but she couldn't risk carrying an entire armoury on her back. She simply took as much as she would need, and as much as she was comfortable with on her person.
She stocked up on enough ammunition for all these weapons, and then turned her attention towards explosives.
Remy rubbed his hands together with glee.
"Alright," he said, moving over to the correct crate and removing its lid, "Got your basic explosives right here: Incinerator, C4… May I ask what you're planning on blowing up?"
"An underground city," Lara stated, "The explosive's gotta be strong enough to blast through solid rock a couple of miles deep."
"No problem," Remy answered, searching through another crate, "I got some TNT somewhere… Ah!" He lifted a bundle of TNT from within the crate. "It's rigged up to a timer. You can set it anywhere up to an hour. For best results I'd suggest you plant it somewhere deep in this underground city. That way you'll get the best structural damage, and hopefully a somewhat contained explosion."
"Perfect," Lara smiled, taking the packaged TNT and slipping it inside her backpack, "I think that's everything I need... How much I do owe you?"
"Let me check it on the computer," he answered, walking over to the computer terminal in the corner. He tapped something on the keyboard. Various figures scrolled across the screen.
"It may take a while," Remy explained, leaning back against the desk, "In the meantime… What really brings you to Istanbul? I thought you'd given up tomb raiding for good."
Lara baulked.
"How do you know that?"
Remy shrugged.
"I hear these things."
Lara sighed. "Well, I thought I was done with tomb raiding, but some things just come back to bite you in the ass."
"What jaunt you trying to pull though? I thought Lara Croft was preserver of all things ancient, not destroyer."
Lara ran a hand over her face. "It's a long story. I gotta go to Cappadocia and find my partner."
"Partner?" Remy repeated, obviously shocked, "You mean to say Lara Croft has a partner?"
She simply nodded.
"Is it a guy?" At Lara's look a smirk spread across his face. "It is a guy, isn't it! Lara Croft has finally let someone in!" He leaned in closer, almost conspiratorially, "Have you guys done it yet?"
A gunshot rang out throughout the room. Remy remained frozen where he stood, his mouth agape in shock. A bullet hole now marred the wall about half an inch from his head.
Lara returned her gun to its holster with a smile, reaching into her shorts and pulling out a wad of notes.
"So nice to see you again Remy," she whispered, tucking the money into his shirt pocket, "Keep the change."
She slipped on her sunglasses and gave him a smile, turning away and ascending the stairs. She closed the basement door behind her with a resounding slam.
Remy remained standing by the computer, eyes still staring at the empty spot of floor where Lara had once stood. Then slowly he succumbed to gravity, and toppled sideways to the floor in a dead faint.
TBC...
Author's Notes
hehe I hope everyone enjoyed Remy :) I had a lot of fun writing him. Who knows? If enough people like him he might make an appearance in the next story... This update ended up being quite long because I decided to combine two chapters. The tea thing you might recognise from the first Tomb Raider movie. I thought I'd use a bit of artistic license and fit it into this story, since it ties up the loose ends of Lara's injury so well :D
lara-n-kurtis Thank you! I am feeling better, but the good thing is I got like a whole week off! Woooo! Lots of time to write ;)
The Odd Little Turtle Thank you for all suggestions! I actually had the tea thing in mind but your review spurred me to put it in. Blame my RS teacher - he said someone could get up one day after surgery :D If you got to throw in a Star Wars reference I'll throw in a Red Dwarf one - "The doctor thought I was feigning illness. He didn't accept it was possible to have Athlete's Hand." LMAO :D
godavari lol I don't update that fast, do I?
SilverDragon67 Thank you :) I do have a tendency to put out chapters before I have my whole plot worked through lol
dtaylor hmmm What happened to Kurtis? It just seems to have slipped my mind :D You waited for Lara, so I guess you're gonna have to wait to find out about Kurtis hehe
Arakanga Thanks!
AngelTrent2 Yes, Lara is safe and well. For now...
Acid-Rush Yay! Thanks for the review ;) I've never actually had hospital food before but if it's anything like plane food... :p
Lady Lara Croft (hugs the reader) Thank you! Yes, well, you're gonna be seeing a lot of Lara for a while :) Let's get to the tomb raider action shall we? Thank you for your sympathy! Anything that prevents me from reading fanfiction is evil!