Chapter Two

Time to Move

Lara always hated traveling on planes, the enclosed spaces and lack of control over the plane itself. It was her only option to get to Hamburg however, it could be worst. Lara sat staring into the back of the seat in front of her, why had Trinity decided to make a comeback in Europe? Maybe this J.G.H. individual was leading Trinity, if so it could be Lara chance to finally break Trinity once and for all. The plane rumbled with turbulence, Lara had faced many terrifying encounters but she had yet to fully conquer her fear of flying. She only realizing she was gripping the arm rests as if they were a ledge on a mountain when the woman turned to her.

"Are you alright?"

Smiling for moment, she composed herself and replied.

"Yes, sorry just bit of a reflex."

The woman softly smiled and returned to looking out the window. Looking at the arm rests, Lara could see the foam was now embedded with the shape of her hand. She couldn't wait for this flight to be over.

Touchdown, the plane rolled to a stop and Lara could finally breathe easy again, departing the plane, the airport that she picked in Hamburg was small and quiet. She made her way to one of the warehouses scatted around the airport. The warehouse was brought under the Croft name, but primarily was used for the Trinity operation. Lara when into the side door into the warehouse, the warehouse itself was very plain corrugated iron building. Inside she found the light and switched it on, a small plane and what Lara was looking for her motorbike were stored there. It was a red Ducati Panigale, it was very extra for Lara but that why she loved it. Pulling out the bike, she put the Hamburg safe house location into her GPS and then put her phone in the holder on the Ducati. Lara took a moment to enjoy the roar of the engine before putting her foot down and making her way into the city towards the safe house. The last time Lara spoke to Umbra it was a very final exchange. Lara needed a location of a Trinity muster station so she can track Trinity's movements. Lara decides to text Umbra the question and then to wait for her reply. The German City of Hamburg when past Lara in a blur, she would have loved to have come here as a holiday but her mission came before anything else.

The GPS beeped to show Lara she was only a thousand meters away from the safe house, she would check her phone once she arrived. The safe house was neither in the city or outside, she had picked this safe house because it offered greater ease of getting into and out of the city. The safe house was a basic two-story brick building, it was made to blend in with the surrounding houses. Lara pulled up to the house and checked her phone. Umbra had sent just an image with a red mark on a map. The spot on the map was just outside of Hamburg, roughly an hour away from Lara's current location. Lara quickly unlocked the safe house and dropped her buffet bag from the back of her bike inside the hallway and locked up. She put her new location into her GPS and set off on her bike towards it. Farmlands started rolling in the distance as Lara drew near to the muster location. The muster station was a collection of three small tin garage, various trucks and car with the Trinity logo on them. There was a small group of people gathered around a decent sized tent just out the front of the three buildings. Lara moves her bike into a nearly wheat field and moves carefully towards the muster station. Watching the recruit's line up at the tent, a recruiter was passing out coats and snow skis and the recruits were taking their new gear and jumping into the back of the trucks. Lara watched the trucks filling with more and more recruits. She needed to find a way to follow the trucks, one of her many tools and tricks was a tracker for sticking it to something and then tracking it on her phone. She had to get closer first before she could place the tracker. Crawling through the wheat field even closer to the muster station and towards a truck. Numerous heavily armed Trinity soldiers roamed the grounds around the buildings and the edges of the area. Lara looked at the numbers of Trinity troops and then looked for possible exits, if this went south, she would need to escape and fast. The latest recruit was struggling to get his new gear into the back of one of the trucks, two Trinity soldiers saw this and when to help, this made the best opening for Lara. She quickly ran towards the truck while staying low. The soldiers were teasing the new recruit, Lara reached the truck and pulled her under, quickly placing the tracker. Everything was going well and she started heading towards the field.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

One of the soldiers had spotted her. She had a slight head start but the soldiers continued shouting. One of soldiers stepped into the field slightly he fired into the sky above her head.

"Run and don't come back here again".

Lara had got lucky, if they had seen her place the tracker, she might very well be dead. There was no way to outrun bullets. Reaching the side of the field with her bike she sat and watched the tracker stand still. It wouldn't be long till they exited the muster station, Trinity was in desperate need of more soldiers after all. Lara waited, watching for the slightest movement of the tracker. Finally, after half an hour of idling on her bike, the tracker started moving. Lara started her bike and slowly followed. The truck traveled for many miles as Lara watched the landscape around her change time and time again. They have now left Germany, Lara wished she had time to go back to the safe house and collect her extra gear, but she couldn't afford to lose them. The trucks moved into the outskirts of Denmark and started traveling up the coast. Lara was sure this was about to get even more complicated. The tracker came to a stop just ahead of Lara, she took her bike as close to the spot as she dared before ditching the bike and moving on foot to further investigate. They had stopped at a small port in Denmark, the recruits were now getting onto a medium sized container boat. The boat wasn't Trinity, but they must have some arrangement with them for this to take place in board daylight. Next the trucks were carefully loaded, everyone was focused on making sure the trucks got onboard safely. Lara ducked down into the port, watching for port workers and Trinity. The second truck was yet to be loaded; Lara checked to make sure no one could see her then she moved towards the truck. The port wasn't busy and fairly small, only a makeshift office and storage container were set up. Also, they had the mounted crane they were using to load the trucks. The back of the truck was facing the road and allowed Lara to jump into the back. The truck itself was a classic trooper carrier with a passenger and driver cab in the front and an arching canvas cover over the back with solid rows of seats down each side. Lara grabbed a nearby spare blanket and moved under one of the rows of seats and covered herself with the blanket. It was dusty and a tight fit but at least she would be hard to spot. She waited for something to move; it was probably ten minutes Lara counted before the truck was moved forward. Lara heard the sounds of the crane's winch drop down as a thump as someone climbed on top of the truck to attach the hook. Slowly the crane started to lift the truck into the air. Now there was absolutely no going back for Lara.