Chapter 36

Lara came from the pool, a towel and her swimsuit in a bag slung over her shoulder. She stepped into the lift paying no attention to the three guys already in there. Her mind was elsewhere. She wanted to have a nice hot bath, then read a book before Kazuya would pick her up tonight. The lift doors closed behind her. One of the men in the lift with her moved closer to her, making her feel uncomfortable. And then Lara felt the barrel of a gun pressed against her back.
"Not your lucky day, Miss Croft." said another man in a very bad English. Lara noticed that the man had a cut on his face.
It seemed they didn't know that Lara spoke Japanese, or they didn't care, but Lara wasn't going to tell them either. This might be something she could use to her advantage. Instead of going up the lift went down to the garage.
"Where are you taking me?" Lara asked.
"You will see, Miss Croft. It was very unwise to meddle in the affairs of Mr. Mishima."
Lara's phone which was in her bag began to ring. Another of the men drew his gun and pointed it at her head.
"Take it out." the guy in front of her ordered.
Lara did so and looked at the display. The man looked over her shoulder.
"Mishima junior." he said to his colleagues. "Answer it and pretend everything is alright." he commanded Lara.
"Are you crazy." one of the other men said.
"Hey, you know him; if she doesn't answer he will come looking. And if the lady here tries something stupid, I swear he will be too late." the man said raising his gun as well.
Lara picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey Lara. You have to be careful, Heihachi has sent out his killers again."
"Ok, I promise you to watch out for them." she said looking at the gun that was pointed at her head.
"Ok, I will pick you up at 6. See you then." he finished the call.
Lara hung up.
"Very well done, Miss Croft." the man said lowering the gun.
The other was still pressing his gun against her back. The lift came to a halt on the parking deck. They pushed Lara out and towards a van with darkened windows parked nearby.
"Get in there and don't make any trouble." the guy hissed from behind.
Lara complied and got into the van. Two of the armed men climbed in with her, the one with the cut went to the front to accompany the driver. The two guys watched Lara closely during the whole journey. After a while they started talking Japanese, not thinking that Lara might understand. What Lara could gather was very interesting. They spoke about tracing Kazuya's car. After 15 minutes they reached their destination. The back door opened.
"Time to get out, Miss Croft." one of the guys said.
Lara got up and walked out carefully watching the three guns aimed at her. She emerged out in a backyard in front of a deserted warehouse. 'This is not good' she said to herself.
"Follow me." a newly arrived man ordered her.
He looked really mean. His eyes were narrowed, he also had a moustache, his black hair was really short.
"I am not telling you again." he barked at Lara.
She followed his command. The other guys stayed behind. The man opened one of the warehouse doors. He shoved her in and closed the door behind them. Lara had trouble adapting her sight to the darkness of the warehouse. She could see a man standing in the shadows in front of her. He stepped out and she could see it was Heihachi.
"Ah, Miss Croft. Finally we meet."
He turned to the other guy.
"Please leave us alone, Miyoko. You and the others are to return to the office building. Keep an eye on my useless son and don't let him get out of there. And take her bag away."
The other man bowed, grabbed Lara's bag and put it aside, then turned and walked out. Lara could hear the van take off. She turned her attention back to Heihachi. He circled around her like a wild beast around his prey.
"You have stolen what's mine. And I want it back."
"I don't have it on me."
"I didn't think you would. I will get the stone back when I'm done with you."
"Oh besides, it's a fake."
"You are not fooling me, Miss Croft."
"It's true. If you would have checked that yourself it would have saved me a lot of trouble. This way I had to get into your house to steal it and then find out it wasn't worth it."
"I don't believe a word you are saying. And even if it were a fake that wouldn't make any difference right now. Your journey ends here and now." Heihachi said moving into his fighting stance.
Lara stiffened, she knew what would come next, he would attack her, and she wouldn't stand a chance. She didn't have her guns with her; she would have to rely on her bare hands which - against an opponent like Heihachi - was pretty useless. So she did the only sensible thing she could think of and ran.
"You can't get away, Miss Croft." Heihachi yelled after her.
"We will see about that." she replied.
Lara ran up a set of stairs. Over her head hung a metal scaffold. She jumped up, held on to it and heaved herself up. Heihachi came up the stairs behind her, but he didn't dare to follow her onto the scaffold, it would probably not hold his weight. Lara crawled over to the opposite side of the warehouse. Heihachi growled. He ran around looking for a way to get to the other side and found one. Lara readied herself to jump down. She brought her fists down hard and Heihachi went to the ground. But with the agility of a cat he got up again. Lara was amazed that the old man could move that fast. He didn't need any time to recover. Lara ran away again but he caught her arm. She kicked him, but Heihachi pulled her other leg away and Lara fell to the ground. He was about to stomp onto her when Lara could roll sideways. She crawled away, got back onto her feet and ran. But Heihachi was already behind her. He kicked her hard and Lara went down to the ground again. While she fell, she cut her upper arm on a wooden crate. She yelled in pain, blood dripping from the wound. Heihachi tried kicking her again but Lara rolled away once more. The crate got hit and burst into a thousand pieces. Lara grabbed a wooden stick that was lying around nearby and hit Heihachi with it. The stick broke and Heihachi tumbled, but recovered quickly. Lara used his confusion to get away again. She grabbed a wooden plank just in case and ran towards the offices. She ran inside one and hid behind the door. Heihachi didn't know where she was, so he went looking for her. He knew in which direction she had disappeared. He looked into one office after the other. Lara was prepared and when he looked into the office she was occupying she brought the plank down onto his head. He went down at once, stunned from the impact. Lara jumped out through the open door and slammed the heavy metal door shut behind her. Luckily the key was in the lock and she turned it. Then she grabbed another wooden plank and rammed it behind the handle to block it. Luckily she had chosen one of the offices without window, so the only way out was through the door.

Lara ran down the stairs and collected her bag pack. Then she opened the gates of the warehouse, got out and closed them behind her. Quickly she ran towards the road. Here she paused for a moment slightly out of breath. She got out her phone and called Bryce to tell him what happened, that she needed a lift and that he should check out of the hotel at once since it wasn't safe any more.
"Lara, I will need at least 20 minutes to pack the bags, then some more to check out..."
"Just do it. You can worry about picking me up later."
"Ok, I will call you when I'm out of here. So where do we go now?"
"Don't worry; this wasn't the last hotel in Tokyo." Lara said laughing. "Don't forget to take the stone." she reminded Bryce.
Lara made her way along the road. After a long walk her phone rang.
"Hey Lara, I am out." came Bryce's voice.
Lara told him where he could pick her up and thirty minutes later they were both in the car looking for a new hotel.