Revenge,
Part II: Fates Written In The Stars
By C. Mage and
Sarah Crisman
Lara looked at the rest of the assembled group. "You realize, of course, that if David is bound and locked in his room that he is an easy target for the real killer..."
"Oh, sure," Camilla said. "How can he be an easy target for himself?"
"Be happy that they are merely tying him up," Shike said quietly. "There are those who would be willing to inflict the Wu-Shing upon him."
Lara turned to face him. "And are you one of them?"
"My ancestries lie with Japan, not China, Ms. Croft. Nothing so horrible a punishment could be thought up in my honorable country. And though I lose face to admit it, what does face matter here and now? My immersal in Western culture for so long a time has slightly tarnished my beliefs."
"Excuse me," Lucinda interjected, "but what are you talking about? What is this Woo-Zing?"
"A method of torture and execution that the Chinese developed centuries ago," Shike said. "It begins with small punishments for small crimes, and eventually becomes more hideous as the level of the crime increases. There are five levels: Mo, the tattoo of the face; Yi, the removal of the nose; and Yueh, which literally means 'the merger of knife and foot.'" He sat on the couch again.
"Thought you said there were five," Georges said. "Tell us the other two. Or don't you know?"
Lara looked at Georges. "It's not really appropriate to talk of such things here..."
"Listen, if this guy knows something, I want to know it too. He's piqued all our curiosities, now I say let him get on with it."
"Forgive me," Shike said. "But I will not speak of the last two symbols aloud. The mere utterance of their syllables could curse this entire house. But I will say this: Wu-Shing means 'Five Punishments.' And the fifth one very closely resembles what has happened to Mr. Powers already."
Doria and Darlene both turned the same color of green.
A sudden clatter from the vents caused everyone to jump in alarm.
"Somebody is up there!" Lucinda pointed. "I can hear them walking!"
"Relax," Witherton ordered. "That's the way the whole house sounds when the heater kicks on. Clatters on, then off. It's nothing. I was here first, and it scared the hell out of me too, until I figured out what it was."
"Well, let's see what the weather outside is like," Natalya said as Darlene locked David's door and pocketed the key. "Maybe if it improves enough, we might be able to radio out of here."
"Doria and I will stand guard, in case something happens or David tries to escape," said Darlene.
"Good." Lucinda smiled.
"Not good." Everyone turned to Lara. "I still don't believe that he's the killer." And even if he did want to kill Nicholas, who probably deserved it, David would've been much more careful doing it. "No...this was too neat, too clean-cut."
"Maybe," Camilla said, "but until we know better, we can't take any chances."
James nodded. "Come on...let's check the weather."
The others left while the twins stood by the door. As the rest of the unwilling guests left the hallway, Doria and Darlene looked to each other and smiled conspiratorially.
David felt the cuff release and smiled. Even though the handcuffs were police issue, he still knew his way around the locking mechanism and still kept in the habit of keeping a stiff wire hidden on his person. Shouldn't have cuffed my hands in front of me.... he thought with a smile. Once one wrist was free, releasing himself from the other wristcuff was easy. He sat there on the floor and rubbed his wrists. Now, all I've gotta do is try to convince the others that I DIDN'T kill Nicholas.
He heard the door unlock and jerked his hands together around the bedpost. His positioned his body to hide his wrists just in time to see the twins enter. "Oh. Hi, ladies," he said, playing the defeated part well. "You'll excuse me if I don't get up."
"Oh, we don't mind." Doria smiled. "In fact, you look good down there."
"We just came in to see if you were alright," Darlene added.
"I'm cuffed to a bed in the middle of a house in the middle of NOWHERE, stuck in the house with a raving lunatic and I'm being framed for murder. Unless they changed the definition while I wasn't looking, I am NOT alright."
Doria leaned down to whisper huskily, "Oh, I think we might be able to change your mood. Couldn't we, sister?"
"We could indeed. David?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to be cooperative?"
David narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?" Darlene bent down and whispered into his other ear. His eyes widened and he looked at the both of them. "You're not serious!!"
"Why not? YOU'RE in no position to argue...besides, you might think it's fun." Doria smiled, reaching into her purse to pull out a pocketknife.
"I wouldn't bet on it." David looked at Darlene, who was taking off the leather strap of her purse. "I'm not going to be a willing party to this."
"Oh, we don't mind. In fact, it'll be more fun that way," said Darlene, pulling the strap taut between her fists.
"I'm glad to hear it." David stood up quickly, pulling his hands out and grabbing their wrists. Before the stunned women could react, David pulled them to the radiator next to the bed and shackled Darlene to it. Doria tried to pull free, her pocketknife coming down on David's arm and causing a shallow slash.
David barely noticed the pain, but motion surprised him and he let her go.
"Alright, David...you've got one of us. What are you going to do now? Are you the type of man who would hit a lady?" She waved the bloodied knife in a threatening manner.
"Nope. I'd never hit a lady."
Doria smiled just before David popped her right on the chin. She dropped like a lead weight.
"Fortunately, you're no lady." She took the sheets off the bed and started to cut them into thick strips with Doria's knife while Darlene sat there, a strange, stupid smile on her face.
James sighed. "It's getting worse, isn't it?" He looked out into the darkness, the lights from the house just illuminating the walls of falling snow just outside the windows.
"Da. We are stuck here." Dmitri sat down heavily. "Now what?"
"We've got to get out of here." Lara stood up and looked down the hallways leading out of the foyer. "Has anyone else been to see any of the other rooms in this house?"
The other guests shook their heads. "I just wanted to come here and meet with Powers, not explore," Lucinda said, with some of the others agreeing.
"Then there might be another way out of here...if nothing else, to see if we can discover the identity of our mysterious host. We'll split into groups of two and search this place. Somewhere in here is our culprit, most likely the one who really did kill Nicholas. Camilla, you and Lucinda check the second floor. James, Shike, you check this floor. Nikki, Dmitri, check the courtyard. Natalya, Ludmilla and I will check the top floor. We'll meet back here in two hours. Let's go."
"Hold it! Since when are YOU giving the orders around here?" Nikki said imperiously.
"If you've got a better idea, let's hear it," Lara said impatiently.
"I say we stay here and..."
"And what? Wait for the spring thaw??" James asked incredulously. "We're stuck here...and I'd rather try to find the miserable son-of-a-bitch that put me here. Come on, Shike, let's find this guy." The two men left to head down the hallway to their right. The others turned to Nikki, then left on their own, leaving her and Dmitri in the foyer alone.
Dmitri said, "Come, Nikki. We have some investigating to do." He went to the closet next to the door and grabbed his parka, finding the most expensive-looking ladies coat and throwing it to Nikki. "Dress warmly, it's cold outside."
"Don't remind me. After this is over, I'm never going anywhere cold again. Heat suits me just fine...hot parties, hot rays..." She smiled a bit. "Don't you get tired of the cold here?"
"Nyet. How can you have snowball fight if it's warm?" Dmitri grinned and went outside. Nikki privately vowed to shove a snowball down his back and followed.
Lara, Natalya and Ludmilla went up the stairs carefully. "Lara, what do you suppose the Voice meant when it talked about 'looking to the stars'?"
"I don't know. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that we're going to find out." She looked around at the hallways stretching out to the east, west, north and south. "We may have to split up."
"I was afraid you were going to say that." Natalya looked down at her daughter and picked her up, looking at Lara. "Yell if you see anything."
"Don't worry, I will." Lara went off to the east while Natalya and Ludmilla went to the west.
Doria looked up at David. "You know, David, if you'd asked to do this to us, we probably would've said yes."
David looked down at the nearly mummified Doria and shook his head. "Sorry, but no."
"You could've at least let our hands free!"
"For what? So you could get loose?"
"No," Darlene said with a slow smile. "So we could pleasure ourselves for you."
David frowned in disgust. "No thank you."
"What's the matter, David? Don't like the idea of two women being your willing slaves?"
"Sorry, Doria...it's just I have this slight affliction. It's called good taste." He looked at the two of them for the last time, then turned and left, ignoring their threats and curses. As he closed the door, he sighed in relief. Good thing these rooms are soundproofed...
David stopped. Soundproofed?? A chill ran up his spine. He looked down the corridor and yelled, "HEY!!" As he feared, the sound didn't travel far and the echo he expected to hear never came. Now he remembered why his voice and the voices of the others sounded so strange. "Dammit, the whole house is constructed to defeat sound," he said to himself. "Gotta find the others...wait, check that, gotta find Lara. The others would just as soon shoot me as look at me."
The noise of the clattering vents grabbed David's attention. His eyes narrowed. Something about that sound bugged him. I think it's time to check out the air conditioning in this place.
Meanwhile, James and Shike were getting nowhere.
The garage had been empty, starkly empty, as if the garage belonged to a house that had just been built. There were even sawdust and wood shavings on the concrete. "I dunno, Shike...this place is as empty as a tomb. I haven't been able to find anything."
"Someone must have been here. The house is warm, has been for some time." He looked around. "I do not like..."
Suddenly, a woman's scream came from the courtyard. James turned and went to the garage door. "Nikki! Something's happening out there! Give me a hand with this thing!"
Suddenly, Shike realized what was wrong. When he had approached the house, he had seen no garage door outside. "James, wait!!"
James hauled up on the bottom of the garage door. The "door" didn't move, but the handle did, breaking away. He fell backwards, then yelled as the floor tilted away from the "door," which had been nothing more than a cleverly disguised prop. Shike leaped for the doorway into the house and made it just in time.
"SHIKE! HELP ME!!"
Shike turned and saw James trying to grasp something, anything to keep him from falling, but the wood shavings and sawdust made the floor practically frictionless. Shike looked on in horror as he saw a pit beneath the concrete...and then he saw a light go on in the wall of the pit, revealing a mass of something...MOVING...over the pit floor. Shike looked closer. Scorpions! he thought, looking up at James, but he had already fallen past the lip of the floor.
"SHIKEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" he screamed, landing on the floor. The scorpions attacked blindly at the force that had crushed many of their number and Shike stepped back from the scene as James began to scream and scream and scream, beyond all help the moment he tried to lift the fake door. Shike slammed the door shut and leaned against it, breathing hard. He had seen death before, in many forms, but this was more than just death... No one should have to die like that. This house is a death trap...I've got to find the others. He steeled himself against the horrors yet to come and headed for the foyer.
Dmitri slammed the door against the cold and bolted the door as Shike ran up. Dmitri turned at the Japanese's approach. "Shike...by God in Heaven..."
"What happened?!"
"One of the fountainheads...a dragon. As Nikki walked past, one of the heads turned to her and spat a stream of flame at her! It must've been napalm..."
"Get a hold of yourself!"
"Someone's trying to kill us!" Dmitri said angrily.
"I know." Shike told Dmitri about what happened in the garage. "We have to find the others. The house is...what's the word?"
"Rigged?"
"Domo arigato...the house must be loaded with traps." He looked towards the stairs. "I have heard of Ms. Croft's reputation, she might be one of the few people professionally equipped to deal with this sort of thing. We must find her first."
Dmitri nodded and they walked to the stairs.
Carefully.
One floor up, Lucinda and Camilla were searching the guestrooms. The silence in the house was eerie to say the least, but they were discovering other clues that were making them even more nervous. The rooms were all laid out in identical fashion, right down to the placement of the brushes and combs of the vanities. They didn't notice it at first because both of them had other things on their minds.
Namely, how to get back at Lara Croft.
Camilla was fond of the idea of stripping her naked and leaving her outside to freeze while she watched from one of the windows. Of course, I'll have to get rid of David Connors, but from the guest list, I'd say that there will most likely be a line developing to put a bullet in HIS brain. All I have to do is bide my time...and when she's alone...BAM! Camilla grinned. She'll wake up in a winter wonderland...
Lucinda,
for her part, had her own ideas about getting rid of David. Despite having no real grudge against Lara,
she figured that it might be satisfying to make her hurt a little. ...and,
from the way she reacted around David, doing something to HIM might prove...
"LUCINDA!!"
The cry alerted her instantly and she turned around. Lucinda was suddenly alone in the hallway.
Camilla got up from the large cushion where she'd landed and dusted herself off. She looked up and yelled, "LUCINDA!!!!" but there was no answer. NOW where the hell am I? The hallway was dark, lit by a light at the far end. The walls, ceiling and floor were solid stone, freezing to the touch. With nowhere else to go, Camilla walked towards the light, at least a hundred feet away. As she walked, an idea occurred to her. I must be underneath the lake...maybe this is some sort of secret passage leading out! She laughed. I knew I'd find a way out somehow. And when I get out...
As she went to the light, she found that the hallway split left and right. To her right was more darkness; the torch was the only light in the corridor. There seemed to be another light to the left, so Camilla turned and walked towards the other light. As she got closer, the light became two lights, right next to each other.
Camilla stopped when she saw the source of the lights.
A gigantic metal bull sat in the corridor, as if trying to squeeze through the tunnel. Instead of legs, though, there was a huge roller where the legs should have been. Steam rose lazily from the nostrils. "What the devil ARE you?" she asked, half-expecting the bull to answer. And, in a fashion, it did.
As Camilla walked closer, she felt a part of the floor underneath her left foot sink a few inches. She looked down, then back up at the bull.
The eyes suddenly glowed much brighter, bright enough to illuminate the corridor. The wisp of steam suddenly turned into a hissing blast and the bull began to move forward. Camilla started to back up and she realized that the bull was starting to increase speed. A look of dawning comprehension came across her face and she spun around, bolting towards the torch in the other direction. The roller began to rumble behind her as the bull began to move even faster, now moving at the speed of a brisk walk and accelerating.
Camilla discarded her heeled shoes and ran like crazy for the torch, knowing that it marked the place where the hallway split. If I can just make it to the hallway....! she thought wildly, hearing the rumble behind her growing louder...and CLOSER... Don't look back, just run and run and RUN!! she yelled at herself.
The bull continued to accelerate, closing the distance between it and the running woman.
Camilla's heart pounded and her lungs began to ache, and she disobeyed herself, looking behind her. Her eyes went wide as she saw the bull rumbling towards her, only fifty feet away...and closing in on her. Camilla looked back, saw the torch getting closer and put on an extra burst of speed, fear stimulating adrenaline to flow within her.
The bull was only twenty feet away when she got to the torch, blindly running for the opening. She passed through the opening and felt the most profound sensation of relief...until a split-second later, when she ran into the block of stone pushing her back out into the hall again.
"NO!! NONONO!!!" she shrieked, beating at the wall as if her fists could pummel the five-ton block of stone back. She turned to her right.
It was only a foot away from her.
Camilla felt the pain of being slammed further down the hallway, tumbling twice before the juggernaut caught up with her, grinding her into a thin paste on the floor. Her scream of pain and terror lasted only until her vital organs were squeezed up through her throat...
Lucinda looked around, a chill running through her. Camilla was nowhere to be seen. Lucinda looked around for a trap-door or something to that effect, but couldn't detect anything. Where did she GO?? she asked herself. Something inside her told her to back out of the room and she obeyed the impulse. The door closed itself behind her.
Lucinda had a ghastly feeling that she wouldn't be seeing Camilla ever again.
She headed back down the stairs to wait for the others.
Lara went back down towards the hall back to the stairwell, wondering if Natalya had found anything leading to the identity of their unseen host. She also decided that she was going to go back downstairs and free David, and the hell with everyone who had a problem with it. When Lara got to the stairwell, however, Natalya and Ludmilla weren't there.
What was there was a folded up piece of paper.
Lara picked up the piece of paper and unfolded it slowly, her curiosity piqued.
NATALYA AND LUDMILLA AREN'T FEELING VERY WELL RIGHT NOW...
(CONTINUED ON NOTE AT ROOM DOWN THE HALL)
Lara's heart began to race as she looked with wide eyes down the hallway. She ran down past the doors until she came to a door with another note taped to the door handle. She ripped it off and opened it.
...THEY DISAGREED WITH SOMETHING THAT ATE THEM.
The bottom dropped out of Lara's stomach and she opened the door slowly. The floor had dropped open, all loose furniture not up against a wall now in one of two pits twenty feet below. The rest of the furniture hung there, obviously attached to the wall in some fashion, but the eerie effect of a bed and two dressers defying gravity did not hold Lara's attention at the moment.
The two bears down in the pits DID.
They were thin, apparently half-starved...but they were eating well now. Lara looked and saw that one bear, the smaller of the two, was ripping away something that looked like the sweater Ludmilla was wearing...
Lara backed out of the room wildly, slamming up against the room on the opposite side. Her lungs refused to work and she gasped for air, the shock of seeing the remains of Natalya and Ludmilla too much for her frazzled brain to handle. Lara slid to the ground and stayed there in a state of utter shock as her mind switched off for a while.
David had the feeling that he knew how it felt to be a TV dinner.
Surrounded by metal on all sides, he crawled through the ducts, feeling the rush of hot air that kept the house refreshingly warm. He had crawled only a short distance before coming to a grill barring the way. Examination of the grill revealed a set of sturdy hinges...and a latch, complete with lock.
David's mind began to roll. Somebody is using these things to get around...why else would anyone take the care to lock internal grills?? I'm on to something here...now, I've gotta get the others and let them know what's going on. As he climbed out of the vent, he looked at the door leading to the room where the Falkner sisters were. David sighed. "I'm going to have to let them go, too...damn. Well, I hope they got the hint and decide not to try and fondle me anymore," he thought aloud as he opened the door to find out that Doria and Darlene wouldn't be fondling ANYONE ever again.
The two women lay there, eyes wide open, perforated with several hundred small arrows. Green froth came from the sisters' mouths. Spray-painted on the wall was a message written in red paint over the hundreds of small holes in the wallpaper:
LOOKS LIKE THEY GOT WHAT THEIR HEARTS DESIRED...ENOUGH "PRICKS" TO SATISFY THEM BOTH AND PLENTY OF PAIN.
"HOLY CREEPING JESUS!!!" David breathed and turned away from the room, slamming the door and emptying his last meal all over the expensive carpet. He'd seen dead bodies before...but never like THAT. When the urge passed, David stood up shakily and tried to spit the bad taste out of his mouth. He ran out into the foyer, crashing into Dmitri and Shike and sending them all to the floor.
"David!!" Dmitri exclaimed, then narrowed his eyes as he got to his feet. "What have you done with Doria and Darlene??"
"They're in the room you put me in...and if you can pin what happened to them on me, I'll eat your parka...!"
Shike looked up suddenly. "Some kind of death trap?"
David's eyes widened. "How did you know??"
"The same thing happened to us...or almost happened to us. Nikki and James are dead."
"How?" David asked.
Dmitri said, "Nikki was roasted alive by napalm spat from the mouth of a dragon-shaped fountain and James fell into a pit full of scorpions."
David nodded. "It makes sense, now. Draco and Scorpio."
"What?" Shike asked.
"Don't you see? Whoever our 'host' is, he's using constellations as inspiration for ways to kill us. I just left Doria and Darlene...they had been pierced by arrows. Sagittarius, I'll bet." He looked up at Shike. "Have you seen Lara?"
"No," Dimitri said.
"We've got to get the others together." David stood up and went to the double doors leading to the main hall.
"Where are you going? Are you mad?" Dmitri sputtered.
"I've had some experience with booby traps, Dmitri. You can stay here if you want, but the woman I love is out there somewhere and I'm going to find her even if the entire house comes alive to try and kill me!" David shoved the doors open and went through.
Shike looked at Dmitri. "You know...I think I was in love like that, once. You?"
"Da. Lost her to G.R.U. purge." Dmitri stood up. "Some things worth dying for, eh?" He helped Shike to his feet. "Well, comrade, if I am going to die, it will not be while hiding in the dark like some child."
Shike nodded and they both followed David. They went through the doors to see David kneeling on the stairs...looking DOWN. They ran up to find that a section of the stairway had dropped down and Lucinda was in a giant pit filled with water. "Lucinda!! Just keep treading water! I'm going to get a rope!!" David stood up and met Shike and Dmitri on the stairs. "Excuse me, gents...!"
They stood aside and let David pass, then kneeled close to the edge. "Lucinda! Can you hear me?" Dmitri yelled.
"Yes!!" Lucinda called back up, shedding clothing as fast as she could to keep them from dragging her under the water. "I'm alright...the water isn't cold, it's warm."
Dmitri sighed in relief. "For once, a trap that didn't work. All we need to do is get her out."
Shike looked concerned, however. "Why isn't the water cold...? Lucinda!"
"What?"
"Is the water getting warmer?"
Lucinda felt the water around her. "Why...yes, it is."
Shike's eyes flew open. "DAVID!!! GET BACK HERE QUICK!!"
"What is matter, Shike?"
"Think, Dmitri! Why would someone go to the trouble of heating water out in the middle of a cold region like this?"
"I don't see..."
"Why do YOU heat water, Dmitri?"
"When I'm trying to..." Dmitri's eyes went wide. "It cannot be...!"
A shriek from below caused Dmitri to look down once again. Steam was rising from the pool and Lucinda was screaming in pain as boiling water was pumped into the pool.
David threw aside the other bags until he found his bag, reaching through it and finding the grapplegun, strapping it to his wrist. He ran back as he heard Shike's yell and entered the main hall just in time to see clouds of steam rising from the pit. "Holy Mary Mother of God...!!" he whispered, then heard the screams coming from the pool and ran up to the edge. "Aquarius...I should've known...!"
"David!! Do something, she's going to be boiled alive in there!" Dmitri yelled. "Where's the rope?"
In answer, David aimed his right arm up and fired the grapplegun high into the ceiling overhead. As Shike and Dmitri looked on, David stepped out over the pool and started descending slowly into the pit. He squinted as Lucinda's screams of pain assaulted his ears and the hot steam started to lightly cook him. He looked down through the steam to see...
Shike and Dmitri waited, collective breaths held as they saw the thin, taut line descending into the thick mist...then saw David come up through the steam and swing over to their side, his skin red and wet. They caught and steadied him. "Lucinda...?"
"I was too late...I'm sorry..."
Dmitri nodded, a new respect for David welling up inside him. "You did all you could."
David shook his head to clear it, then jerked away as the stairs closed up behind him. He turned his face up and yelled, "YOU SICK BASTARD!!! WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THIS, HUH??? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US??"
No answer. David turned to the others. "Where did you last see Lara?"
"Top floor," Shike answered.
"I'm going up there," he stated firmly.
"We're coming with you," Dmitri vowed. David nodded and the three men climbed the stairs with determined eyes.
Lara came out of her daze with fire in her eyes. Somebody had done this to one of her best friends in the world...and she SWORE that she would find the one responsible and make him pay dearly for everything. She got up and went back to the stairs, every sense alert to anything out of the ordinary. As she got to the stairs, she felt the thumping of feet running upstairs and she dropped into a defensive stance.
Then she saw David, Dmitri and Shike running up and relaxed, running down to meet them. She fairly leaped into David's arms and gripped him tightly, tears running down her face as she mourned her friends. "Natalya...Ludmilla...." she breathed.
"They're not the only ones." Lara moved back to look at David, shock on her face. "Lara, this whole place is loaded with booby traps...I think we're the only ones left alive."
Lara looked around. "The others are all dead?"
"As doornails," Dmitri said.
"They all have been killed in manners resembling the constellations of stars," Shike explained. "We have to get out of this house before something ELSE happens."
That's when the giant broke through the wall.
At the top of the stairs, a bronze statue twelve feet tall burst through the wall, raising a razor-edged sword. The shield was surrounded by serrated teeth, like a buzzsaw blade, and was a full seven feet across. It wrested itself through the opening it had made and all could see its head, styled in Early Grecian...and wearing a blindfold. "DAAAAVVIIIIIDDDD!" it groaned, stomping towards them.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me...!!" David breathed. "Orion?"
Then Lara broke the trance. "MOVE IT!!" she yelled and ran for the railing of the stairs, vaulting over it to land on the floor below. Shike followed suit, then David and Dmitri followed as well. They ran down the stairs with the metal giant in hot pursuit.
When they got to the stairs leading to the ground floor, David yelled, "LARA, STOP!!!"
Lara had already seen the floor falling away and she jumped through the steam cloud, somersaulting to the other side. Shike barely made it himself. David was getting ready to jump when the Orion statue hurled its shield, banking it off the wall.
Lara saw it heading straight for David's skull. "DAVID, DUCK!!"
David pitched forward just in time as the shield passed over his head, cutting loose some hairs and embedding itself in the main doors. David dropped to the floor just in front of the pool of boiling water, then got to his feet.
Orion was right in front of him.
It swung its sword and David jerked back, his feet stepping to the edge of the pit. For a second, he felt his weight move back, then he regained his balance and ducked under Orion's next swing. He tried to move to the side, but Orion was a bit too fast, slashing down in the direction of David's feint. He was fast running out of options. He moved to the left and saw the sword take a huge chunk out of the banister. "IF ANY OF YOU GUYS HAVE ANY IDEAS, OR WOULD LIKE TO GIVE ME A HAND, I'D REALLY APPRECIATE IT!"
Lara ran to the discarded shield. "Shike! Dmitri!"
They ran to her side and helped her yank it free. Shike took it and held out a palm, telling Dmitri and Lara to back up.
David jumped over a low sword-slash, feeling it take off one of his shoe's heels. He fell forward and looked up to see Orion raising the huge blade high. "ANY TIME NOW, LARA!!" David yelled.
"HEY, YOU!!!"
The automaton looked up to see a disgusted look on Lara's face as she mouthed the word, "Shmuck." Then Shike let the shield fly. David heard the ringing SHHNNNNNNGGGGG of the disc as it passed over his head and bit deep into the android's stomach, bleeding a shower of sparks. It staggered, then went for David again.
Lara's eyes went wide as she saw the blade come down again, but her actions and Shike's throw had bought David a second to act and he did, shooting the grapple-line over the pool of boiling water and leaping from the edge. He felt the blade whisk through the back of his trailing shirt and jacket, then heard a metallic groan as Orion pitched forward into the water. Arcs of electricity climbed up the sides of the pool, sparking through the steam over it, but David was already through, tumbling to the ground and rolling away from the stairs. Lara sprinted over to him and helped him up. "Dave?? Are you alright??"
"I'm...OUCH!...alright. I think I gave myself a good sprain."
"Where?"
"Left wrist. I'll be okay." He looked up at the lightshow over the pit. "Now what do we do?"
"I say we risk the storm. Better that than trying to stay alive in this house of horrors." Lara said firmly.
"What about the mines in the lake?" Dmitri asked. "How do we keep from getting blown up?"
"I think I know...but it's going to mean running VERY fast."
"This is insane!!" Dmitri looked out over the bridge.
"It can work," Lara said through chattering teeth. "All we have to do is run fast enough to outrun the explosions."
"How? They're set to go off when someone tries to cross the bridge." Shike looked worried.
"Consider this...the cold is well below freezing..."
"No shit."
"Dave, please. It could be that the cold will slow down the electronics that work the detonators, as well as the chemical reactions within the explosives themselves. If they've slowed enough..."
"Yes!" Dmitri exclaimed. "It could work!"
Then Dmitri's face came off.
The others turned at the sound of the gunshot to see a man standing in the mansion's doorway, holding up a formidable-looking pistol. "It might work at that, but you'll never know."
David's mouth dropped open. "MAAS????? But you're DEAD!"
"In the immortal words of Lara's Monty Python, 'I got better.'" Nicholas Maas smiled. "I'm surprised at you, David. I would've thought a hotshot detective like yourself would've figured it out. But no, it turns out all along that you aren't smart...just damned lucky."
Shike smiled grimly. "I should've examined you more fully. Something to slow down the vital signs?"
"Yep. Prerecorded voice, a couple of people helping me out...you remember the twins. They had a slight accident, though. They were quite fond of you, David, and they didn't quite have the dedication to their work that I demanded. They had to die as well." Nicholas smiled. "But in the end, David, you were just too damn lucky."
"You did all this just to get back at ME?? You killed all those people because of ME??" David couldn't manage to wrap his mind around the concept. "I thought you were crazy, Maas, but I underestimated you."
"Small minds like you always will. Sorry about your friends, though."
"The hell you are!! Why did Ludmilla and Natalya have to die, huh? They had nothing to do with me!" David clenched his fists.
"Everyone has to have a hobby." Nicholas smiled the smile of the hopelessly insane. "You wanna know something, David, just off the record? You were right all along. I did rape and kill those women. And to be totally honest? The little girls were the best."
David took a step forward and Nicholas sent a bullet into the ground in front of him.
"Don't push me, Davey...if you're lucky, I just might kill you and leave Lara and Shike alone. Or I could kill Shike and have some fun with Lara before I torture her to death and let you watch."
"You're not crazy, Maas," David hissed, "you're a full-blown, card-carrying, state-of-the-art, certifiable psycho."
"Glad you noticed." Nicholas' grin grew even wider. "Any last words, Shike? You're going to die right now, no matter what. Prepare to join your ancestors."
"As a matter of fact, I do have some last words, Nicholas. In fact, it's a riddle for you to answer."
"Oh?" Nicholas looked intrigued. "Well, then. Amuse me."
"What do you call an unarmed ninja?"
Nicholas considered. "Alright, I give. What DO you call an unarmed ninja?"
Shike smiled a smile colder than the air around him. "Impossible." He flung out both arms and Nicholas fired, sending a bullet into Shike's shoulder as the shuriken from Shike's fists imbedded themselves into Nicholas' face, chest and arms.
David caught him and hauled him to his feet. "LARA, COME ON!!" He bolted down the wooden bridge with Lara in tow, leaving Nicholas lying in the snow, bleeding and dying. Inside the house, the electrical arcs had set the carpet on the stairs ablaze and the house was beginning to burn.
Even dying, Nicholas was determined to get rid of David, and his manic zeal gave him the strength to get to his feet and lean up against the doorjamb, unaware that the fire was licking its way towards him. He reached into a pocket and drew out a small box with two switches. He flipped one and a red light lit up on the box. He moved his head slowly up until he could see the trio halfway across the bridge and Nicholas Maas grinned like Satan himself, pressing the second switch.
Nothing happened.
Lara had been right, the cold had not only gotten to the bombs, but it had frozen the electronics. Nicholas staggered out to the beginning of the bridge, screaming his rage at being cheated, when he realized that one bomb still worked. However, he was in no position to be grateful.
It was the bomb right under his feet.
Lara, Shike and David ran for dear life, the first bomb only increasing their speed as they half-ran, half-stumbled across the iced-over bridge. They made it across to see the mines going off across the surface of the ice in the lake, then saw the flames reaching higher and higher within the house, explosions ripping through the superstructure. Shike went to his car as David and Lara stood there, not feeling the cold as they watched the house burn down.
David broke the silence. "I don't understand how someone could hate so much that they would dedicate their lives to ruining one person...not anymore. I used to, a long time ago," he added ruefully.
Lara nodded, then embraced David. "That time is past, now." She continued holding on to David.
"Thinking about Natalya and her child?" Shike said from behind them. They turned to see him resting in his car.
"Yes...they were good friends." Lara felt tears in her eyes and she blinked them away. "And now they are gone."
"You helped to burn the culprit responsible for their deaths. The balance is restored in all but your heart, and soon, that, too, will follow." Shike sighed. "I shall be glad to return to Tokyo...it has been some time since I went fishing."
"Are we going to run into you again?" David asked warily.
"Not professionally. You two saved my life, and for that, I am grateful. Perhaps we may never see each other again. Who knows? The Wheel turns and turns...it may come back to where it stopped before." He got into his car and closed the door, starting it up and putting the car's snow tires to good use. Lara and David watched him go until his lights faded from sight.
"Let's get out of here," Lara shivered.
"I heard that." He walked with Lara to the truck, helping her into the driver's seat. "Oh, Lara, one more thing. Did you ever find any evidence that any of the Atlantean artifacts were there?"
"None. Soon it will all be buried under ice and snow. Let it stay there...there is enough trouble in the world."
"Well, in that case, Lara, I'd like to make a suggestion," David said as he climbed in the truck's cab and savored the feel of the heater.
"What's that, David?" Lara asked, still morose.
"Next time we go somewhere a little 'out of the way,' remind me to bring a shotgun. The automatic variety."
"I'm sorry, David. I'm just not in the mood right now. Let's just go home."
David fell silent. Finally, as a last-ditch effort, he said, "At least I didn't have to carry your shapely butt out of there."
Lara turned to look at him. "I beg to differ, MR. Connors...YOU were the one wounded this time. I had to carry YOU out."
"Au contraire, my dear lady, I was just fine! YOU were the one needing assistance."
"Why, you impertinent arsehole! At least I didn't get chained up like some dog in a kennel...!"
As the argument continued on into the Russian night, David felt happy again. From the sound of Lara's threats and insulting remarks, she would be back to normal in record time.
EPILOGUE
As the sun finally began to rise over the burnt-out hulk months later, a ray of sunshine caught something buried deep within the ice and reflected off its metallic gold surface. Deep within the frozen waters of the forgotten lake, a ring of Atlantean metal sat there until it's discovery a week later by a brown-haired, buxom female adventuress. She wrested it from the ice with almost superhuman strength and looked at it carefully.
"Now, Lara Croft," the woman hissed, "it is about time that you met the one person who could truly defeat and destroy you...and when we meet face-to-face, you'll know WHY."
She threw back her head and laughed high and loud, a laugh very much like Jacqueline Natla's laugh, and, at the same time, very much like Lara's as well...