Chianna, Thank you for the review, but I have to bring this up. I am an absolute fan of you're Alex / Lara fic, it had been so long since you last updated it, you are still going to continue it are you?
Darlian, Hi good to hear from you again, surprisingly huh, to see him alive again. I can't tell you what powell wants with the stone I'm afraid but you will find out soon enough, enjoy the next chapter Darlian, but I know you will!
Cato, Yes Powell alive. Thnx for the review and I hope I hurried up fast enough for you ;)
MJ, Once again sorry for stealing you're idea. But then again I didn't steal it because I couldn't know you thought of it as well. Hurry with that story of yours so that we can read the sequel. As for now, enjoy my sequel!
Chapter 3, Patience and Impatience
"We are happy to hear you are still confident about everything Mr Powell, but so you were with the triangle, why should we believe things are different now?" Mr Gareth asked Powel as he stood in the centre of the conference room.
"Because I underestimated lady Croft, but not this time, I know her capabilities Mr Gareth, her weaknesses and her strength, something I did not know when we were after the triangle. All I need is 48 hours."
Mrs King stood up "and that is all you will get Mr Powell, not a second more. You proved to us once, that you have the capabilities to complete a mission and that is the only reason you are allowed to lead this operation."
Powell bowed "Thank you Mrs King."
"You were lucky Mr Powell that we have been able to find you alive in the ruin city," Mr Gareth started again "And you were lucky our organisation possesses the best doctors, but fail, and we will personally let you suffer the consequences, understood?"
Again Powel bowed "Yes sir." Then he turned and exited the conference room.
On the other side of the door Daniel was waiting, curious about how his meeting has developed.
"How did it go?" he asked immediately.
"We have 48 hours Daniel, gather a team of ten men, we are going to London."
"Yes sir." He nodded and left.
It was time to visit Doctor Wagner and get the diary's translation from him. After that he will plan an attack on Croft manor again, or maybe he should do it on a more subtle way. One thing was for sure, he will show the order he is not some man who can prove he can complete missions, Powell is a man they should fear... and that, they will. Once he knows how to use the rings and when he has the stone they will learn who to listen to. But for now it was time to go to London and get the first part of the translation.
Lara's eyes rolled from left to right as she was watching Dr Wagner walking impatiently from on side to another. She had asked him to make her a copy of the pages from the diary that he had already translated. That was what they were both waiting for now, but the good doctor seemed to be uncomfortable, as for Lara, well she is being her calm self. With her legs crossed and her arms folded she was sitting patiently on a chair waiting for the computer to finish its job. Since yesterday Lara had the feeling the doctor was hiding something, maybe now was a good moment to hear him out.
"Dr Wagner, what is bothering you."
Promptly he stopped walking and looked at Lara.
"Hmm, oh, nothing dear. I just don't have the patience to wait this long."
An archaeologist with no patience at all? That was impossible, Lara had learned that in this line of business patience is one of the most important things, she couldn't believe a word the doctor had said.
"Really? You had patience enough to recover the rings and you are telling me that you can't wait thirty minutes for a copy." She paused shortly "Maybe you forget to remember that I am a Croft Dr Wagner and Crofts are certainly not easy to mislead. So please tell me what it is that is bothering you."
The doctor rubbed his hand over his wrinkled forehead and finally managed to grab a chair and sit down. He took a deep breath and then started talking.
"Lara, you might not like what I am going to tell you now." Were his first words.
The tomb raider just raised her brow and waited for the doctor to continue.
"When I found out about the location of the rings I wanted to find them as soon as possible, but the British museum didn't want to finance the dig, the believed the rings weren't valuable enough for them." He paused shortly to clear his throat. "I went looking for another organisation to finance my dig and that Lara had been the worst mistake of my life."
"Why doctor, what happened?" Lara asked.
"One night I received a phone call from a man. He said he knew what I was looking for and offered me a deal. He would finance the dig and get fifty percent of the found. Immediately I agreed and not even a week later we had started the dig. But the man didn't keep his promise, everything we found was taken from us. We had no choice, armed men searched us every time we exited the dig site. I soon started to see my dreams fall apart, especially when my crew found the rings. We didn't want the rings to fall into their hands as well so we set up a plan to lock him and his men into the dig site. It worked with the help of some dynamite, they were locked inside and we went back to England. We didn't hear anything from them again, until the day before the exhibition, I received a note."
He handed Lara the note, her eyes widened when she recognized the triangle that was drawn on it. "The Illuminati." The doctor nodded. Angrily Lara stood up "Why go to them doctor, you knew you could have asked me to finance you!"
The doctor too stood up, his eyes filled with guilt as he tried to reason with the tomb raider.
"Lara dear, I didn't know what to do, I was desperate...I..." the doctor almost collapsed to the floor, he managed to catch his fall by grabbing the desk next to him.
Lara hurried over to him to help him "I'm sorry doctor, I shouldn't have yelled at you."
Doctor Wagner smiled and tapped his hand on her shoulder.
"I can understand you're anger Lara, I know you have a history with them too. You were right Lara I should have come to you."
"Don't bother doctor, it happened, we can't turn back the time. But you can help me to get the rings and the diary back, do you remember the name of the man you made the deal with?"
Suddenly there was a loud bang, the window behind Lara crashed and then the doctor flew back and landed on the floor. Lara let out a yelp from surprise, she crawled down beside the doctor and dragged him away from the window. she placed her hand behind his head and moved him up a little.
"Doctor?" she tapped him on his cheek, he didn't respond on it.
That's when she realized the hot sticky liquid on her hand, as she pulled it away from his head her eyes widened in shock. Blood, there was nothing but blood on her hand.
"No..."
The shot in his head had instantly killed him. A tear escaped from her eye as Lara pulled him closer and wrapped her arm around him.
"I'm so sorry..."
She stayed like this for a while but she knew she was not safe. It hurt her to leave the doctor here but she had to get out of his company alive together with the disk. The disk was her only chance to get the rings back. Lara crawled to the computer and carefully watched the screen. Burn process complete, it said. Quickly she grabbed the disk and put in her backpack. Lara suddenly thought of something better. She removed the cover from the computer and disconnected the hard drive. The Illuminati must be here for the translation, if she would take the hard drive with her there will be nothing to find. It does lead them to her, but they already are after her so no need to worry about that now. The hard drive too was placed in her backpack and seconds later she exited the office.
A quick look to her left told her it was safe, she looked to her right and there was no one there too. As Lara turned right she cursed for not bringing her guns with her, you never know what happens. She choose to take the stairs, it was six floors down but there was this feeling inside of her that told Lara to take the stairs.
"Croft has to stay alive."
Abruptly Lara put herself to a hold, just as she was about to open the door to the stairway. Now instead of opening it, she pressed herself against the wall behind the door and waited for the thug to open it. He did, the door flew open and three men enter the hall. The last one was Lara's first victim. She had removed her throwing knife from her boot and tossed it in his back. The man collapsed but the other two turned toward Lara. One of them tried to shoot her, but just when he realized that his orders were to keep her alive Lara kicked it from his grasp with her left foot. At that same moment the other one tried to punch Lara, he wasn't fast enough, Lara got hold of his wrist and twisted his arm.
The man grunted in pain, Lara was happy enough to put him out of his misery. With her free hand she knocked him unconscious. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her left upper arm. The remaining man had cut her, he tried it again but this time Lara saw him coming. With a firm roundhouse kick she hit him hard across his cheek. He twirled around and when he landed on the floor there was no movement left in him.
"That was fun." She said as her lips curled up in a smile.
Quickly Lara opened the door to the stairway, voices came from upstairs and made Lara run downstairs even faster. Fifth floor, fourth floor, third floor. Lara stopped running again. She heard someone coming upstairs. Her eyes rolled down and when they landed on the tip of a rifle she acted immediately, Lara pushed herself over the handrail and made an 180 turn, the man didn't know what hit him as her right foot landed hard on his head. The man rolled down the stairs, Lara jumped over him and continued running downstairs. Second floor, first floor, yes she had made it.
She pushed the door open, actually surprising some more thugs. But there weren't any. Confusing, yes, but Lara didn't bother. As fast as she could she ran outside towards her Aston Martin. The sound of a helicopter made her turn around. It stood on the top of the building, but Lara also saw someone standing on the roof, she could not see who it was but she could see the person was looking at her as well. Lara turned back and stepped inside her car, she started the engine and immediately drove back to the manor.
Powell was looking down from the roof. He was looking down at a woman running to her car, it was Lara croft, he could not see it but he knew it. She stopped running, turned and looked up. This was fun to him, she had no idea who she was looking at. What a shock will it be for her when they will finally meet again. And that was sooner then she could imagine. Off course, because she expects never to see him again.
Slowly he paced back to the helicopter, one man walked towards him. "She has,-" Powell held up his hand to the man.
"I know Mr Campbell, gather the men we are going back to Manchester."
Campbell nodded and went back inside to get all of his men. Powell stepped into the helicopter and joined Daniel.
"Have you ever had the pleasure to meet Lady Croft, Daniel?"
The man shakes his head "No sir, never."
"Ah," Powell smiled and leaned back "Well then you will tomorrow."
"Are we going to assault her manor again?"
This question made him think for a while, he had stormed her manor twice, one time it had been successful and one time he had failed.
"No Daniel, but I will inform you about it once we are in Manchester, I have a nice surprise waiting for Lady Croft and I want it to be absolutely perfect."
Yay, chapter three already, please review!