Tourists

AN: I'm gld some of you like Morgan! She isn't based on anyone, though. Just a comlpete figment of my imagination. Well, that's a lie, she's based on my friend, Shannon. Hyperactive teenager with the mental age of a two year old and the attitude of a dog. She's nicer than she sounds, though.

Lara sighed, walking up to where Morgan was standing. She had drifted off into her own little world as soon as they stepped into the museum; almost being as bad as Lara, taking a great interest in the artefacts the exhibits had to offer. "Lara, look. Look how gold that looks." Morgan said as she stroked a finger over the small square glass case that contained a small, yet breathtaking object. It looked like it was made of pure, solid gold and patterns of swirls and markings covered the surface. "The Bamburgh Beast." Lara smiled. She gazed at it, taking in the beauty it showed, "Nobody knows what the markings are supposed to mean, except that when looked at from the right angle, it's supposed to show a beast that legend told haunted the grounds of the castle."

"What? Like a ghost?" Morgan chuckled.

"Nope. It was real. One summer, Sir William was out walking and found a dog. He brought it back to the castle, taking it in. Then, a year later, the residents of the castle began to mysteriously disappear-" Lara looked over her shoulder as she heard Kurtis laugh and saw him walking around a bronze model of the building, his head lowered, but she could still see the smile on his face, "- the dog went missing and a few weeks later, Sir William and his eldest son found the dog in the castle cemetery. It was deformed; foam coming out of it's mouth, you could see it's rib cage and it's eyes were bloodshot. Surrounding it were stacks of bones, all belonging to the royals of the castle. And then the dog looked up at them and then-"

"Boo!" Morgan jumped as Kurtis placed both hands on her shoulders, playing along with Lara's little tale. She turned around to see him laughing and lightly slapped him on the arm, "Don't do that!" she walked away, heading to the corner of the room, taking interest in other things. Lara laughed as her and Kurtis made their way to the model in the centre of the room. "What time is it?" he asked her. "We only arrived ten minuets ago." she chuckled.

"Well, I don't want to have to spend forever in one room, when I could be getting something done."

"Oh, shut up. You were only complaining this morning that you were worrying, and now you want to get involved."

"Well, I'm a busy man." he sighed sarcastically.

"Oh, I forgot how vegetating on a couch while watching TV could really fill up someone's time," she rolled her eyes and then walked over to Mason. "How long until we have to start looking?" she asked him. He looked up from the medieval clothing to see Lara. He glanced down at his watch before turning back to the exhibit. "We've got two hours of looking at the exhibits, one hour of looking for the shield, then the next half hour trying to smuggle it out of here."

"Brilliant, two hours of waiting." she sighed while making her way into the other room. The main thing that hit her as soon as she entered the room was the bookcase that covered the majority of the wall. Books were placed in many slots, only very few gaps being shown. Lara scanned her eyes along the books, all labelled with bronze writing, in Latin and English. She walked closer, reaching her hand out to pull a book out that seemed to strike attention to her. She heard someone clear their throat and looked up to see an elderly man in a black suit raising an eyebrow to her, "You look with your eyes, not your hands, Miss. Please don't touch the exhibits." he turned his back to her and Lara sighed as she watched him walk away. She took her hand back and then headed on into the third room. Now, this is more like it, she smiled as she looked around the room. It was more like a hall than a room, being much bigger than all the others she had seen. Glass cases held 19th century guns, pocket knives and daggers. At the back of the hall, there was a part of the room that was sectioned off, showing furniture of many kinds. There was a globe of both the world and astronomy, a seating set, Lara judging that by the decorating patterns on them, they were more recent than any of the other objects, a glass dining table and above it all was a copy of one of the two versions of The Cheat.

She walked over to the first glass cabinet, running her hand along it, reading the piece's of information written next to each weapon. She looked up, just to make sure the 'you see with your eyes' man wasn't around and then making her way around the case, to look at the daggers laid on the other side. They were mostly made of iron, copper or bronze, each with Latin words inscribed on the handle. "Their beautiful, aren't they?" Lara looked up threw the glass case to see the elderly man again, this time looking more approachable than the last time she had seen him.

"They are." she smiled, now looking at the rifle in front of her. She heard the man walk away and then saw Morgan, Mason and Kurtis enter the room; Morgan walking over to some portraits of the Queens of England, Mason taking interest in other things, and Kurtis walking up to her. "I take it that man's bothering you." he sighed, nodding his head to the supervisor that was now standing in front of the restricted area. "Just treating me like a child." she laughed.

"Tell me about it. I touched the cover of the Bamburgh Beast while he was talking to Mason, and I got an earful. Just because he's a millennia older than me, doesn't mean I'm stupid."

"Well..."

"Don't." he warned. She chuckled lightly as they worked their way around the room, only staying at one item for a few minuets, and then moving onto the next. They finally came to the restricted area, standing just in front of the step. Lara gazed up at the picture that hung on the wall, "You know-" she began, but was cut off by the ignorant supervisor.

"Did you know that there were two copies of that painting made? The Cheat, was painted in two similar pictures, but one thing was different between the two." Lara sighed inwardly, but she knew she should be polite enough to listen to what the man had to say. "Can you spot how the man with the hat is cheating?"

"Well, some people think it's the fact that he has five aces, but-" Lara started, but was once again cut off by the man. She gave a sidewards glance at Kurtis, who rolled his eyes, then turning his attention back to the man. Obviously, he was wanting to tell the story, even answering his own questions. "You're correct. If you look close enough, the man is looking into the opposite man's glasses, and he can see the reflection of his opponents cards. The detail is so fine, it took someone with extra powered binoculars to spot that. And you have to position yourself in the right spot. Very difficult to do.

"Many people think that there is only one copy, but there's two, the second's location not being known." he said, before turning away and heading into the next room of the castle, Lara presuming to pester someone else. They began walking over to Morgan, "He's lying." Lara said to Kurtis.

He turned to face her, "What?"

"He said that that was The Cheat, it wasn't. The Cheat looks nothing like that. And one copy is in Fort Worth and the other in the Louvre. I saw it when I was looking for the painting. How lovely of him to lie for us."

"It's all the same to me." he ran a hand threw his hair as they arrived next to Morgan, who was still taking interest in pictures of the royals. "Right, that's Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth the Second and Queen Elizabeth the First, right?" she asked, not lifting her head.

"Yep. Well done, you pass you're history test." Kurtis teased, rubbing the top of her head, messing her hair up.

"I'm the top of my class and do you want a smack?" she took the bobble out of her hair, pulling it back up into a neater ponytail.

"I'm fine, thanks."

An hour later showed the group in the last room of the castle; the 'dungeon'. It was basically made of wax, dummies chained to walls here and there, nothing exciting. Earlier on, they had taken a break from their touring and had a quick bite to eat at the castle's café before returning to business. Morgan was still walking threw the halls of the made up dungeon, her peers waiting outside for her. She had actually enjoyed this more than she had expected; she never really took a liking to things like these – she preferred to be doing things than sitting around working things out. She may be the top student in most of her classes, but that didn't mean she liked the things she was meant to like. She walked into a room that looked like it was supposed to be a barn; hay covered the floor and a stool was in the corner. A hunched over dummy sat on the stool and Morgan leaned over to see it properly, jumping back as the person sat up, looking at her, "Shit!" she screamed.

She gasped, looking down to see a mobile phone in his hand, "Sorry, just...got a little...fright." she said in between intakes of breath. Her eyes still wide, she turned around, her hair flowing behind her and quickly sprinted out of the section of the castle, joining the group outside. She bent over, leaning her hands on her knees, "I am not going in there again." she chuckled before she stood up.

"We should get ready, we'll be going in any second." Mason said, looking at his watch for what seemed the millionth time that day.

"Again?" Morgan sighed.

"Don't worry, we're not forcing you to look at any scary bits of plastic, we need you to distract the workers while Kurtis, Lara and I get the shield."

"I take it you found it, because I don't have a clue where it is." Kurtis said.

Lara looked forward, appearing to be in deep thought, "It's in The Cheat, isn't it?" she asked.

She looked up to Mason who nodded his head. "If you look at it in the right spot, you can see the cheat." Lara mocked the supervisor's comment from earlier on in the day, beginning to walk away.

"How exactly?" Kurtis asked, catching up with her.

"If you listened to what that amazingly ignorant man said, you would have noticed that the cheat isn't the five aces. In our case, it is. One of the aces doesn't belong. The one that has the shield painted on it instead of a heart, club, spade or diamond."

"I thought that was a mistake."

"Nope." she smiled.

They finally made their way around to the front of the castle, once again stepping into the entrance. At the puzzled look the receptionist gave, Lara answered, "I forgot my car keys. We'll be out in a bit. Morgan will you stay here while we go look for them?"

"Fine." she sighed as she watched the older members of the group walk back into the castle.

"Hurry up." Kurtis said as he held the rope of the restricted area up for Lara to get under. "We've got five minuets at the most before Morgan either bores them to death or they become suspicious."

She ducked under the rope, looking left and right and then walking closer to the painting. She hesitated, looking down at the furniture she would have to use to get to the painting. Lara; being Lara, didn't want to ruin anything that had something of historical value, whether it be an ancient artefact or an old piece of furniture. She stood up on the couch and stretched up, lifting the painting off the wall. She turned back to Kurtis who tossed her a small pocket knife and she turned the painting, sliding the blade in between the frame and the picture. She lifted the backing away to see a medium sized metal plate, shaped in a triangle. "There's only one piece." she said, this time turning to Mason. "It's split in two. We'll worry about that later, meet us outside." he held his hand out and Lara threw him the shield and he caught it easily before he and Kurtis turned, exiting the hall as Lara put the painting in it's right position. She hopped down, brushing her hands and walking threw the door to the hall, shortly after her two companions. She walked threw the second room, stopping as a man brushed past her. He walked away without anything such as an apology and didn't even look up from the ground. He was very well-built, tall and bald, and dressed in a work uniform with a dark coat and boots. Wait... Lara turned around, feeling she had seen his face somewhere before, but when she looked, he was gone.

She walked onwards, ignoring her curiosity and walked into the reception area to still find Morgan chatting away with the receptionist. Kurtis and Mason sat in the corner, Kurtis tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. Lara nodded her head, and they all made their way out of the room and back into the castle's grounds.

They walked down the ramp, all in a line. "There's only one piece there, what about the other one?" Lara asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, we'll have to check that one out."

"I'm not sure that the old man will appreciate you wrecking his pride and joy." Kurtis nudged Lara softly in the ribs.

"Well, that's what he gets for being so-" The group was thrown onto the ground as an explosion came from behind. Lara pushed herself off the ground and turned around to see smoke surrounding the castle, as well as fire working it's way threw the stone. She stood wide eyed and couldn't will herself to move as she heard everyone else get up, coughing from the impact. She dropped her backpack, beginning to sprint up the ramp again, towards the castle. She reached the top of the ramp before she felt an hand on her arm and turned around to see Kurtis stopping her, "Lara, we've got to go." he pulled on her arm, but she shook herself free and ran up towards the castle again. Who would do that? So many lives could have and probably had been lost in that single second. And to make it worse, it could have been them. She sprinted as hard as she could, wanting to get to the landmark and get anyone out alive that she could. Kurtis sprinted up to her, stopping in front of her, forcing her to stand still. He held his hands out in front if him, "Lara, we've got to go or we'll be next." he tried to comfort her, but he wasn't doing a very good job. She turned around as Kurtis sighed. He turned around to face the remains of the castle that had stood just moments ago, rubbing the back of his neck. This was getting far too risky. He turned back around to see Mason holding a hysterical Morgan in an embrace, as Lara continued down the slope. He jogged up to Morgan, taking her away from Mason, looking straight into her eyes, "Morgan, look at me. You're fine, OK?"

She nodded her head and then walked back over to her cousin who walked her down the gravel. He took one last look at the flames and then slowly turned away, walking down the hill with his companions. What had seemed to start out as an easy trip to a museum, had ended up in the deaths of dozens of people.

Lara walked into her room in Mason's current house, slamming the door shut behind her. She sighed as she sat down at the desk, propping her feet up on the desk, leaving muddy footprints on the wood and leaning her head back, closing her eyes. She just wanted to sleep. It would be the easiest thing to do. To fall asleep and then all her troubles would be gone. The only thing was, once you fell asleep, you had to wake up, and then all the havoc would come back. She opened her eyes, reaching into her jacket pocket to reveal the box Mason had showed her earlier. She switched the computer on that was situated at the desk, logging onto her email account. Taking her phone out, she connected a few wires to it, then hooked it up to the computer, clicking the 'chat' button on the screen.

After a few minuets, a video link of Croft Manor appeared on the screen, "Zip?" she asked as she saw her friend on the other end. At hearing his name, Zip looked up, jumping back in his chair as he saw Lara's face on his computer. "Lara, don't scare me like that."

"Sorry. I need you and Alistair to check something out for me." she played with the box in her fingers.

"How may we be of service?"

"I need you to look up the Box of Heissturm. Anything relevant to it's place of origin, the Bamburgh weapons or Kurtis himself."

"Will do, anything else?"

"No, thank-you. I'll contact you tomorrow. Good night."

"Night, Lara." Lara clicked the 'end' button and then shut her computer down, putting her feet back up on the desk.

She twisted around in the chair, grabbing the remote control and switching the television on, instantly showing Sky News. "A supposed terrorist attack has taken place at Bamburgh Castle, Berwick. All artefacts and objects that were previously located in the castle have all been recovered apart from the Bamburgh Beast-" Lara sighed, turning the television off again, taking her feet off of the desk as a printed document came threw the printer next to the computer.

She picked it up, quickly scanning threw it, smiling as she saw Zip's signature doodle at the end of the page. She looked back up, leaning back in her chair, reading the information. A knock came to the door and she looked up as Morgan entered the room, "Lara, it's all over the news. What are we going to do? Are we suspects? Why did we just leave without going back to help anyone? Is anyone dead? What's that?" she nodded towards the leaf of paper in Lara's hand.

"A bit of information. If you'd let me read it, I'll tell you what it says." she looked back down at the paper as Morgan sat herself on the edge of the bed.

She sighed, looking up at the teen. "It looks like we're going to Russia."

"Russia? Why?"

"Well, Moscow. I asked some of the people that help me out to find anything important about the box. They didn't find anything, but they know that the shield's second piece is in a stronghold somewhere. The only thing is, it was blown up decades ago."

"So we'll just dig or do whatever we need to do. And how do your friends know this?"

"I have very good friends." she smiled.

AN: Does anyone know who the big baldy boy is that passed Lara? I'm not going to tell you for a little while, but you may have a hunch or two. Anyway, we're off to Moscow in the next chapter which will be up on... hang on....Sunday!