Chapter three: The temple of Artemis
To be sure that she'd arrive before Arnhem Lara had needed to call in another favour from her old friends in the army. She had flown by helicopter to a ship just off of the coast of Greece and given a state of the art motor-boat. The boat was virtually un dectable and could reach it's top speed with hardly a sound. It was an expensive piece of machinery so they had been slightly apprehensive about giving it to her.
"I promise I'll take good care of her' "Lara smiled lowering herself in. "Besides as it's a design you stole from Bryce I think it's more than fair that you lend it to me."
"The British government never steals Lara," The commander laughed. "It merely copies without the creators consent."
She reached the island of Crete after dark. It was a cloudless night. The full moon shone low reflecting on the surface of the water. Watching from a little distance out to sea Lara saw Arnhem and his men unloading their equipment from his yacht. They were all heavily armed including Arnhem. He was overlooking the process with a peculiar expression on his face. He could barely contain his excitement. 'I wonder what's so important to him' Lara thought as the final crates were unloaded. 'What meant so much to him that he had Croydon killed and what has this got to do with the arrowhead?'
Arnhem and his men began to head off into the white mountains. Lara had a very bad feeling about this. She drew the boat into the port once she was sure that they had gone and stalked away after them. It Didn't take her long to catch up with Arnhem and his men. They were almost at a snails pace as they climbed up the steep slopes with their heavy cargo. Lara had expected Arnhem to be hurrying them along so was surprised to find him ambling along amongst the crowd. Though he quivered with excitement he seemed to be relishing every moment of the expedition.
After nearly half an hours walk the dusty road stopped abruptly at the side of a steep mountain in a small valley. It was such a steep climb that it was almost vertical. More like a cliff face than mountain.
Lara watched expectantly from the shadows.
"What now?" Brooke sighed angrily "How are we supposed to get around that?" He did not seem to have been enjoying the walk as much as Arnhem was. Even from a distance Lara could see that he was worn out and drenched with sweat.
"Patience Brooke," Arnhem smiled. He then turned to a smaller man. Lara recognised him as Wesley Morgan, another of Croydon's attackers from the alley. "Wesley fetch the scroll."
Morgan obliged swiftly. He practically dived into the leather bag that he was carrying, knocking off his glasses in the process. Embarrassed by his clumsiness he stooped down and snatched them up and secured them on his overly large nose. He peered out from between a gap in his muddy blond hair apologetically as he handed Arnhem a piece of parchment. To his relief his boss did not scold him. Instead he laughed softly.
"There is no rush Wesley," He said, opening up the scroll. "There is plenty of night left."
His followers seemed to be as perplexed by this statement as Lara was. They watched him move to the mountainside as though they feared for his sanity. When he could move no further he turned his gaze skyward. Addressing the moon he read from Morgan's scroll. Lara recognised it as ancient Greek. Lara cursed herself for never learning to speak it. She could read almost every language on the globe including ancient Greek but had never bothered to learn to speak it. She'd considered it a dead language and hadn't seen little point.
She did However recognise one word Artemis. Lara knew the name instantly. She remembered the legends of Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the moon and sister of Apollo. Artemis was the mother of nymphs and was famous for having a giant scorpion kill Orion who had attempted to rape her. She was also the goddess of the hunt. Suddenly the arrowhead was beginning to make sense.
Arnhem's cries echoed around the small valley so loudly that Lara feared that he might create a landslide. Her fears seemed to be confirmed when as his voice died away the ground started to shake violently. The light of the moon shone down suddenly so bright that it momentarily blinded Lara. She shielded her eyes as they adjusted. A tremendous crack drew her attention to the side of the mountain where Arnhem was standing. The mountain appeared to be splitting in two.
Arnhem's men cried out in horror and started back down the path but he stopped them with a warning shout. "Stay where you are!"
The split in the rock had began to take shape as it widened. It smoothed out to reveal a large doorway underneath a carved crescent moon. Just as suddenly as it had begun the ground stopped shaking. Panting with pleasure Arnhem turned to his men. "Welcome," He bellowed, "To the temple of Artemis! Bring everything in as quickly as you can!"
"sir," Morgan asked edgily, "Shouldn't some of us stay on guard?"
Arnhem shook his head and began to move into the doorway."No reason to Wesley. nobody knows that we're here."
"Want to bet?" Lara whispered, slowly sneaking after them.
Lara crept along the dark corridors a few paces behind the last man. The entire temple appeared to have been hewn from within the mountain. It was incredible. In the dim light of the workmen's torches Lara could see that the walls were decorated with beautiful nymphs and hunters carved in the surface. Wild animals gambled as men with bows and arrows posed, ready to fire. The main image seemed to be of a beautiful woman hunter, flanked by naked nymphs. A small crescent moon sat above her brow, it was Artemis.
The air was becoming much cooler as they went deeper into the temple. They were sloping down into the darkness. It soon became so dark that Lara was forced to pick up the pace for fear of becoming lost. She held her breath, heart pumping madly as she crept closer to the last man. 'If he turns around,' She thought desperately, 'I'm done for.'
Luckily for Lara the man did not turn around, he was engrossed in the images on the walls which were steadily becoming more disturbing. The tranquil images of nature and beauty were slowly fading out as they moved on. Now, as they neared what must be the main chamber they had turned into violent and chilling warnings. The hunters remained but were no longer chasing deer and boars. The animals had been replaced by people. There were men, women, children even all running from the shining Artemis, no longer flanked by nymphs but snarling dogs. 'This isn't going to be good!' Lara thought, shaking her head as the now whimpering man made his way into the chamber.
She hung back in the shadows and watched as Arnhem and his men began to unload their research equipment around a black velvet cloth in the centre of the room and set about recording their find. ' At least they know what they're doing.' Lara smiled,' most of the bad guys just smash and grab.'
She snapped out of her musings as a cry came from the middle of the room. One of Arnhem's men had pulled back the velvet cloth to reveal a stunning silver bow. It stood nearly six feet tall and shone an eerie green, despite the fact that there was no light in the chamber other than that of the men's dim torches. The light was so bright that it lit the entire chamber. Lara could now see everything properly. The room was decorated with similar engravings as in the corridors but was embellished with glorious life sized statues of the nymphs. Lara was not the only ones admiring them, several of Arnhem's men whispered and laughed like childish schoolboys.
This did not hold Lara's attention for long. She soon found herself gazing at a giant silver image of the goddess, holding a scorpion the size of a car. She filled one side of the cavernous room, her eyes made of the same emerald as the arrow head. She sat naked with one had clutching her chest. In the dim light Lara could just make out some sort of stick protruding from the statue. It was an arrow!
"Finally!" Arnhem bellowed triumphantly he suddenly seemed very dangerous. He was loosing control and appeared quite insane to Lara. "Finally I have it. The arrow of Artemis."
"Not quiet sir," Morgan reminded him. He quailed under Arnhem's furious glare as his increasingly maniacal employer turned fiercely to face him. "Not yet anyway. But I'm sure that Lady Croft..."
"Ah yes.. Lara croft! How fortunate for us that she is now after the head. Poor girl doesn't quite know what she's getting herself into."
" Enlighten me then." Lara growled, unheard from her hiding place.
"Brooke," Arnhem ordered sharply, "As you have done nothing but complain all of the way..."
"But sir, I can't do nuffing with me arm like this." He moaned indicating his broken limb.
"Arnhem appeared not to have heard the interruption. "You may have the honour of removing the arrow."
"No way!" Brooke protested, backing away.
Suddenly enraged Arnhem withdrew his gun and aimed it at the large mans head. "DO IT NOW!" He bellowed. His eyes widened unnaturally and his grey hair falling into his eyes.
Reluctantly Brooke climbed up onto the Goddess and reached out to remove it. His hand stopped inches away from it.
"Sir!" He called out. "There's funny writing on this thing. Maybe we should wait...."
"I have waited too long!" Arnhem shrieked. He fired a bullet inches away from Brooke's head. All around the room Arnhem's men flinched at the sound of the gunfire. It had the desired effect. Brooke thrust his arm out and withdrew the arrow. There was a collective intake of breath as the rooms occupants all waited for a terrible blow. It did not come.
Brooke sighed with relief as he slid down from the Goddesses thigh. However as he reached the ground there came another cracking noise, like splitting stone.
"The mountain is closing!" Shrieked the man that Lara had stayed so close behind "We will be killed"
"No!" Shouted Morgan, pointing to one of the nymphs. The stone statues were cracking and crumbling away to reveal the most beautiful women that Lara had ever seen. They had dark flowing hair and skin that seemed to glow like the moon. They swayed towards the men singing and laughing in soothing, fluttering voices. The men were entranced and rooted to the spot as the nymphs drew closer.
"No!" Arnhem cried. "Cover your ears!"
It was too late. Inches away from the men the nymphs changed with a snap into snarling black dogs even larger than Nero. Pandemonium broke out. The men ran desperately but were cut down by the wild beasts. Seizing her opportunity Lara reached for her gun and waded into the Frey.
"CROFT?!" Arnhem yelled in surprise as she ran towards him, dodging two hellhounds and shooting a third in the eye as it leapt, muzzle stained with blood, towards her. She aimed her gun at Arnhem once she was a few feet away and bellowed
"Give me the arrow Xavier!"
"No!" He shouted back, holding back Brooke who still had the arrow "I've waited my life for this Croft. I won't let you stop me!"
He aimed his gun at her and squeezed gently on the trigger. As he did so a mass of black fur swam into his line of vision and he felt a sharp pain in the side of his face. The bullet whistled past Lara as she looked on appalled at the sight in front of her. One of the hounds had latched onto the side of Arnhem's face and was mauling him. Its eyes were ablaze and blood trickled down its entire body.
"Shoot it!" Arnhem yelled desperately. "Shoot it Brooke!"
Brooke stood stock still with fear watched the scene in horror. His hand was clamped so tightly around the arrow that his knuckles were as pale as his face.
"Brooke," Lara called, "Give it to me."
He didn't need telling twice. He flung the silver object at Lara and ran for his live. Lara followed quickly without so much as a backwards glance at the screaming Arnhem.
There's still more to come but- what do you think. I had trouble with this section so any advice and I'll change it. ;-)