Tomb Raider: Points of Power
Croft Manor
Kurtis' mouth formed an O of impressed awe as the black cab passed through the gates to the gravel path of the vast manor. The doors opened and Winston stepped out. Not Winston Senior, his grandson Ben – Ben was 23 now – Lara had pulled strings to get him to take up the duties when Winston fell ill (she'd practically had to push Winston into a car and tie him to a seat to get him to head out for his relaxation). Now Ben was doing his grandfathers job while the original Winston was staying in Ireland with his son and daughter-in-law.
Ben was tall and tanned with platinum blonde hair on his head. He beamed as he saw Lara and ran towards her. "Lara I'm so glad you're back" he laughed. Lara hugged him tightly. "Who's this?" Ben asked.
"Ben Cartland – this is Kurtis Trent whom I encountered in Paris"
"The boy who groped you then left you for dead?"
"Yeah me…uh groped?" Kurtis frowned at the Irishman's tone. "It was a search!"
"How many times have we heard that one before?" Ben laughed as he pulled the bags from the taxi and carried them into the hall. "I've left some tea and cakes in the Trophy room. When I heard there'd be guests I assumed that you'd want to really wow them" he smiled. "Of course I could always move them to the maze or the Quad bike course…or the outdoor pool"
"How big is this place?" murmured Kurtis.
"A few dozen acres" Ben smirked as he headed up the steps in his black suit to leave Lara to guide Kurtis to the trophy room. The door hissed open as Lara let the retina scanner in a small mirror glow over her eye. She pushed a panel on the wall and it clicked open so she could access the keypad.
Punching in the code Lara smiled. She led Kurtis into the room, past the reinforced steel doors. "I need some help tidying up" Lara shrugged. The lights clicked on as she pushed a button. Kurtis whistled. "Hope you'll help"
The room was warmly decorated and the walls had large wood panels all over. The big windows were covered by iron bars that were shaped like curling iron leaves. "The glass is bullet proof, if its broken steel shutters come down instantly – the entire room has its own generator" Ben said from the doorway.
Kurtis raised and eyebrow at the boy's wardrobe. He wore a black chauffeur's outfit – it had been tailored to be free moving and fashionable. He looked like a male model or something – Kurtis had expected a high collared tuxedo with white cloves and coat tails or something. Plus the kid was younger then he was…so…that wasn't what he expected at all.
Ben was a lot less old fashioned then his grandfather – Lara had liked that. It had reassured Winston he would never be replaced and the old man had been happy his Grandson was settling into a respectable job.
Lara put her backpack on a hook, there were other backpacks as well on that wall along with pictures of outfits drawn be a designer. "So…we'll have tea and get started after" Lara smiled. Kurtis sat down in the high backed chair as Ben poured tea then went off to fetch the cleaning things.
"I thought you said Winston was your butler"
"That is Winston"
"You said he'd looked after you since you were young"
"Oh – no that's Winston the Third. Uh my Winston is Charles Winston that's Ben Winston, Ben's standing in while Winston has a break he's been ill recently" she explained. "He's gone back to Ireland to have a little peace. I practically had to hold him at gun point."
She laughed a she remembered that. "So what do you think of my humble trophy chamber?" Kurtis looked around. "I'll just turn the trophies on" she said enigmatically, rising and sweeping over to a key pad. With a few taps on the keys she initiated the safes.
Tall cabinets rose from the floor, sections of the wall pulled back and glass cases pressed forwards while others popped out as if from a toaster. The wall on the fire place became highlighted and the tyrannosaurus skull appeared clearer. Kurtis let out a whistle. Lara opened a few cabinets of books and then looked over the display cases on either side of the fire place where all the weapons she'd used over the years were lit by special lights.
"Holy Ravioli" breathed Kurtis.
Lara laughed. Kurtis smiled at her. "So what help do you need?"
"I'm cataloguing everything onto a new computer system my friend Zip has made for me" Lara explained, sipping her tea and waving at the laptop in a wooden book case built into a wall. Kurtis walked around the room, looking into columns that had slid open to reveal more display cases.
"What's this?" he asked, pointing at a case containing a small stone.
"That's the Philosophers stone" Lara said.
"As in the lead into gold, Harry Potter and the, alchemists searching for it Philosophers stone?"
"Yes, I got it in Rome, one of my early outings" lara said.
Lara climbed the last few steps and continued her climb to finally reach the place she'd fallen down.
She focused her mind, concentrated her breathing and sprinted, she soared through the air and landed on the platform, the old stone creaked and crumbled, she slipped but caught the end, she dragged herself up and dusted her shorts and top off.
"So hard to find good masons those days" she snorted. She reached out and claimed her prize.
"Wow" mused Kurtis. "Did you ever use it?"
"The price was too high, to use the stone would require a little part of my spirit every time until greed consumed and ultimately destroyed me – that's why it was so well hidden in the ruins" she shrugged. Kurtis moved on and whistled.
He was standing at a case that showed a set of shattered rings Lara had no intention of putting back together. "The Scion – perhaps my most memorable adventure – I undertook it not realizing Jacquelyn Natyla was a psychotic Atlantian with homicidal tendencies and the urge to get her full powers back"
"I remember her…she was a ho" Kurtis said. "She disappeared – did you kill her?"
"A case of me or her I assure you"
Natyla flew over head and unleashed an energy blast, Lara dived to one side, rolled and fired her shotgun. Natyla flashed with energy as she was hit, then she cackled and swooped. Lara rolled aside.
"Give up Croft I cannot be stopped"
Lara flipped aside once again and fired. "I beg to differ"
"You're a dead woman Croft" shrilled the CEO
"Better then an ugly one I suppose"Lara taunted.
Natyla shrieked and swooped down, flying close to the ground, straight at Lara – the tomb raider smirked and vaulted over Natyla's sweeping form as it shot like an arrow toward her. The woman crashed into a pillar with a sickening thud she struggled to her feet…Lara walked forwards and kicked Natyla down. Natyla hurled a blast that knocked Lara away.
"You're DOOMED CROFT" shrieked Natyla. Lara rolled to her feet and somersaulted over the woman, she caught the lady's shoulders as she twisted in the air, putting a foot on Natyla's back she flipped her over. Natyla was flung but rose unperturbed. "I can't be defeated fool!"
"I suppose" Lara shrugged she looked at her diver's watch. "But I can try" the grenade exploded. Natyla screamed and the pillar she'd crashed into gave way as the force of the explosion affected its fragile lower area.
Natyla looked up.
The Pillar came down.
"Ouch, squashed CEO" muttered Kurtis.
"Very messy…not as messy as that one though" she pointed at the Eye of Isis. "Sophia Lee of Lee cosmetics -"
The energy bolts from the other building burst behind her but Lara kept running, she hurled herself over a gap, rolled under some pipes and vaulted a chimney.
"You're going to be a lot less pretty when I'm done with you CROFT" Sophia screamed as she charged up the energy again.
Lara ignored her, flipped aside from another blast and vanished from view. Sophia looked around, she fired at a shadow but there was no scream of pain…had she missed or had it even been Lara Croft?
"Over here dear" Sophia glanced to her right, across the electrified bridge stood Lara Croft, her hand on a fuse box. "Don't look so shocked" she pulled the lever. Sophia screamed…
"Wow…what about the dagger?" Kurtis asked, pressing his face to the glass panel on the wall where a gold and crimson decorated blade glowed under a display light.
The dragon belched out a cloud of flame…and exploded as the grenade exploded in its mouth.
"Oh…just something I picked up – no big deal"
Kurtis smiled and Lara motioned to the boxes in the corner. "I need to put up the Hall of Infamy" she explained. "All the crooks I've dealt with"
"Whos the cowboy?"
"Hm? Oh that's Lawson…He…bit off more then he could chew" she smiled, then walked over to the laptop and began to type away.
------------------BREAK
Ben served the steaks and then declared that, having eaten earlier, he was off to polish the Rolls. Lara and Kurtis sat alone, the soft candlelight flickering with the fire place's flames… "He's a good cook – most American's can't do steak this good"
"He takes after his grandfather, very adept at cookery" she smiled softly. They sat in silence for a while. "So what are you planning?"
"Well we've already gotten stuck with a mystery, what's the deal with those books?"
"They're texts relating to Ancient Egypt, I was looking into them when my friend Werner Von Croy called, when I arrived in Prague I checked my email and Ben had sent details too me, it was a stroke of luck I was in the city at that time" she sipped her wine. "They tell a story, but they're three parts of one, without the core text I can't decipher anything and the other 9 copies have been destroyed and lost over generations – a Philosopher named Karlosion wrote them". She tapped her fingers on the table softly. "He went mad during the Reneissance and died in an asylum."
"Glamorous History surrounding the books then" Kurtis mused. He brow creased as he remembered the blonde Australian girl. "But that girl…she used a weapon of the Lux Veritatus…I thought I was the only one left". He looked at Lara.
She nodded. "I sent a sketch to my friends in New Scotland Yard, they'll e-mail me tomorrow if they find anything at all" she said quietly. "Now eat your steak and I'll show you the media room."
"What's there?"
"A giant Television"
"I'm in"
"I thought you would be, Yankee"
--------------------BREAK
The Rolls Royce cruised down the city, Ben was at the wheel with his carefully kept black chauffeurs hat and all. Lara sat in the back loading a small pistol she then slid into her bra holster.
"Lord Blackwyn was a friend of my fathers – personally I never liked him" she admitted. "But I haven't seen him in ages. Whatever the reason he wants us to come to his fencing club – it's probably important. He doesn't just try to reconnect out of the blue"
Kurtis watched the scenery pass by, he'd not been in London before – well not the nice parts…or at daytime…or for longer then an hour or two while a flight connection was delayed. "Why are we packing heat then?"
"Because even snobs can be treacherous on greater levels then we first believe" Lara shrugged. "Ben, you can go shopping or something – your anniversary with that girl… Caroline…it's coming up soon"
Ben snorted. "Was. We called it quits. She didn't like my lifestyle – apparently guns kill people and cars kill the earth…I should never have dated someone from Greenpeace – I had to point out that though I'm a member I do have a job"
Lara nodded and climbed out of the car.
The Blackwyn Fencing Club was a large building in London that had banners out front displaying its gold crest on a dark blue background. Lord Blackwyn greeted them, he was a portly gent with a bad comb over of white hair and a tweed jacket.
Kurtis felt uneasy in the stiflingly upper class surroundings – Lara glided through it…born to mingle. "What exactly did you want to tell us?" Lara asked as Lord Blackwyn seated them on a balcony over looking the main lobby.
"Well… I understand you are looking for something – a piece that was stolen from the Prague Archives" he placed a brown paper package bound with string on the table. "It's something that came into my possession by chance – a friend of mine contacted me while you were In Prague and told me that you'd been involved in a gun battle, I recalled what you were currently researching, watched the news and well – generally I suspected this old book is what you were looking for"
Lara took the package…she paused, Kurtis was tense beside her.
"I'm sensing hostility" he murmured. "More importantly – I'm sensing someone watching us" nearby one of the fencers had defeated his ninth opponent in two and a half minutes. He spun around and hurled the sword.
Lord Blackwyn fell forwards, the sword had gone straight through his side.
The fencer turned and ran. "I'll get him!" Kurtis exclaimed, pulling a pistol from his leg holster. Lara nodded as she rushed to Blackwyn's aid.
"They…warned be" mumbled Lord Blackwyn. "They said…that…I was holding a dangerous thing…they…just – didn't say - - - they'd send him" he gave a gargling noise in the back of his throat and went limp as Lara tried to tend to his wounds.
Kurtis raced after the fencer but the man vaulted a table, kicked open a French window and climbed with eerie speed up a drainpipe onto the roof. Growling and swearing in French Kurtis followed. On the roof the fencer was pulling on a black leather bikers outfit.
He turned around. Kurtis fired but the young man performed a sideways roll and hurled a knife at Kurtis. The Lux Veritatis warrior twisted aside and fired again. The fencer tossed aside his mask as he sprinted towards the end of the building, pulling on a motor bike helmet. He flipped off the roof into a swan diver.
"DAMN!" Kurtis swore as he darted over to the edge. The boy grabbed a balcony on the building opposite, kicked off it to a lamppost and slid down the pole. He straddled a motorcycle and looked up at Kurtis. With a salute he sped off.
------------------------------Later
The police carted the body away and Lara finished her statement. She walked with Kurtis back out to the Rolls Royce. "Why was he killed?" Kurtis mused sarcastically. "Oh that's right…the package"
Lara opened the paper swiftly and efficiently, deftly slitting the folds and sliding it away. "The central tome" she said. "This is what I need!"
"Good" nodded Kurtis. "But why kill for it?"
"We should find out" decided Lara.
She had a feeling in the base of her spine that something truly sinister was happening
TBC:
Next: Find out who the blonde girl is. What she is. How she got a Chirugai.
Lara and Kurtis go in search of answers to sinister questions from the book
And is Karel dead?