Exiting the airport Lara inhaled a deep gulp of Singaporean air; the humidity filled her lungs creating an almost instantaneous dewy layer form over her aircraft weather skin. Opening her eyes, she strode forward into the night tugging her medium-sized black leather suitcase behind her. From the corner of her eye Lara happened to catch sight of an enthusiastically waving young man, a few years older than herself, motioning her to come across. Well, Lara thought jokingly, if his son has that charade of a car I am paying Winston far too much!
"Lara! Over here!" The man shouted, continuing to wave with both hands until those around him began to look upon him with quizzical expressions.
"Hello Russell, it has been too long!" Greeted Lara smiling back before dropping her case and embracing Russell in a friendly hug. This served to not only say hello, but also to try to stop his incessant waving!
"It has indeed, get in the car and you can fill me in with all the details," gestured Russell as he opened the boot to load Lara's case.
"Are you sure you can manage that?" Asked Lara humorously leaning against the car.
"A case? Lara come on!" Russell laughed bending down to pick up the handle. Expecting it to lift like a normal suitcase, he confidently began to rise. However the case was a lot heavier than he realised which caused a great deal of strained faces and shattered pride. Determined not to give up in front of his longtime friend he tried again to pull the suitcase up the side of the car to no avail.
"Damn it Lara, what do you have in here?" Puffed Russell thinking he should maybe swallow his pride...again for Ms Croft. Always happens! Russell thought, I can never do the chivalrous option with her. I rarely even get the chance!
"Oh just bits and bobs, some light reading mostly," smirked Lara watching Russell's failing attempts to roll the suitcase into the boot.
"This...Is not. Gasp. Light reading." Russell gulped as he gave up his attempts at lifting the suitcase. Dutifully Lara picked up the case and slung it into the boot making the car appear tilted just by the sheer weight of it. Typical Lara, though Russell shaking his head as he watched her smugly get into the car.
Lara fascinated Russell ever since he spent some time with his father, Winston the Croft's butler, when he was eleven years old. On Russell's first visit to the mansion, Lara had shot him with a toy arrow square in the cheek; fairly impressive for a six-year-old! Angrily Russell tried to throw the arrow back at Lara, which missed and accidentally knocked an eighteen century Japanese vase off a side table. Blame was laid on Russell with Winston telling him that "Lara was only little, you shouldn't be throwing things at her". Russell had never forgiven her for that, especially the smirk as she trotted back up the stairs, bow in hand. Nevertheless their relationship improved greatly over that summer resulting in the longest friendship Lara ever had.
Lara found Singapore to be an interesting place, although it is a modern city-state and nowhere near the types of locations to often frequented. There were no ancient tombs or extremely old buildings, but what there were was artifacts of the society kind. She was fascinated how traditions from a variety of ethnic backgrounds had lingered on, bubbling around in a cultural hot-pot to produced the most unexpected results. Looking through the car window Lara observed the bright, gaudy lights of Orchard Road with thousands of shoppers worshiping at the temple of the credit card.
Smiling to herself Lara recalled a fond memory of an old family visit to Singapore when she was only eight. Her mother had tried to get her to wear a hideous pink dress from Tangs, the most impressively stocked department store in Singapore. It was a vain attempt her mother had to get Lara out of her favorite khaki shorts that she had worn all summer while visiting her father on an archeological dig in Egypt. Lara, however was having none of it, she hated the dress, so she promptly escaped from the changing room. A perfect maneuver of jumping from the bench to the top of the stall and then dropping down into the next unoccupied changing room. Overjoyed that her mother hadn't a clue she had escaped as her mother was far too busy talking to the sales assistant about the adorable children's clothes on offer; Lara quickly dashed downstairs to the food hall to gorge on dim sum telling the chef that her mum had told her to order the food and that she'd be down in a minute to pay. It was safe to say that her mother was furious when after twenty minutes of searching, she found Lara happily eating shouting to the chef, "Oh, here is my mum! She'll pay you now!".
Sighing, she wished her parents would speak to her again, but Lara hadn't spoken to them for ten years now after she denounced her engagement to the Earl of Farringdon and ran off to Peru to begin her tomb raiding career away from stuffy British society. She didn't know where to start even if a mutual agreement could be made. Not even a Christmas card exchanged between the two Croft houses these days. Don't be so sentimental, Lara scolded herself, I am no longer their daughter and I certainly don't need them.
"So, What are you doing here Lara?" Asked Russell breaking Lara from her internal argument.
"Long story Russ, one I am not wholly sure of; I just know I need to meet someone here," answered Lara rubbing her temples.
"Do you know him?"
"No, well I know of him, I know his Asian office is here. He is a British geophysicist who is investigating some sandstone sites in Laos."
"Have you arranged a meeting then?" Continued Russell checking Lara through his rearview mirror.
"No. I need to find him first. Even then, I am not sure that finding him is the problem. I just don't know what to expect when I do find him".
"Geologist people were always a tricky lot! I remember from uni, they loved getting on their high horses!" Russell joked laughing to himself.
Lara showed a strained smile before returning again to the view outside the car window. Instead of bright, shining, advertising light screens the view now reflected a much older Singapore with shophouses and the odd brilliant white colloquial house nestled at the end of a street.
"Hmm...Singapore isn't exactly your usual haunt." Russell observed creasing his brow hoping she'd spill a few more details.
Although Russell was an old friend, Lara felt awkward talking to him about the mission. She felt he didn't deserve to become embroiled in an unknown, possibly dangerous situation simply because he was her friend in the right area, at the right time. Furthermore Earl wanted no-one to know about this, Lara mused, and I would rather work by myself so there are fewer complications. An image of Kurtis flashed in her mind before being vigorously shook out as more sentimental nonsense. I don't need anybody.
Since Lara was growing tired of the conversation, Russell drove on in a stagnant silence until he could no longer stand the awkwardness drifting around the car.
"Are you sure you are okay staying by yourself? You know you could have stayed with me and Steph", asked Russell cautiously.
"No, no," Lara shook her head, "I would be in and out anyway, so your house would probably feel like a hotel".
"Okay then, if you are sure. Dad said it was odd packing you off to a city." Smiled Russell, looking again into the rearview mirror, the only way he could see her true reaction.
"I don't always party with the ancient guys, Russ." Lara grinned, he was sometimes annoying but he could certainly bring a smile to Lara's face, rather like his father.
"Yeah sure," Russell laughed, "if he hasn't been dead for at least a hundred years you don't want to know".
"You have spent far to many hours in my company!"
"Probably," Russell agreed as he turned a corner on to Beach Road, pulling up outside a grand white building flanked by flame palm trees, so-called because of the way the leaves create a fanlike shape from the trunk to the sky. A kind faced gentleman walked towards the car dressed in a white suit as he started to lift Lara's case from the boot of the car.
"See, he can do it," Lara jokingly whispered, causing Russell to start rubbing his face in an effort to forget the previous suitcase debacle.
"Ms Croft," The gentleman greeted, "welcome back to the Raffles Hotel".
Raffles hotel oozed history with its beautiful tropical gardens and over a century old white walls. Ascending the marble stairs to her room, Lara looked out to the nearest garden which had a group of young people happily throwing coins into the fountain. By their accents she knew they were British, probably university students. A knot tied in Lara's stomach at the thought of university, remembering Earl and the reason she was there. This was not a holiday, this was business. Pretty dirty business, Lara thought as she entered her room which was flooded in darkness until the accompanying butler turned the dimmer switch slightly. Waiting for him to exit Lara sat on her bed wondering what she should do first. Unpack, obviously.
Walking towards a grand rosewood table, she leant on its weight to steady herself in preparation for breathing in the sweet, sandalwood scented air that filled the room. Slowly she bent down to take off her boots; high-heeled boots nonetheless. She loved the amusement Winston had of seeing her in heels, but how else was a girl supposed to get two pistols through airport security! Picking one boot up she hit the heel hard on the edge of the table to reveal the secret compartment to take out her guns before storing them in the wardrobe with her holster.
Retrieving her laptop from her hand luggage, Lara logged on to hopefully find some more information about the elusive Mr Wright, in particular a location or contact detail, something to go off. Lara groaned at the screen, this was Paris all over again. Why did I agree to this? Running around a damn city like a common thief. Deep down she knew why, it was a new adventure and this urban trail would end up in Laos and an investigation of the Jars somewhere along the line. An email alert pinged into the quietness of the room, upon opening Lara found that the email was from Earl:
Dear Lara
Hope your flight to Singapore went smoothly, I remember how difficult it could be traveling with 'additional items'. Anyway I have recently heard from one of my students at the dig that Mr Wright, or Hadrian as you may wish to call him with your fondness for birth names, is hosting a business lunch at the Bayside hotel on the 16th November, so if you are reading this on arrival it will be in three days time. Please lie low until then! I have attached a document from the university that says you are contributing researcher who is reporting on the profits of sandstone mining, you are a geologist before you ask, NOT ARCHEOLOGIST. This is very important as Mr Wright is wary of any archeologist who is not monitored, certainly one has never been allowed in his business meetings. A pass can be picked up from the hotel reception tomorrow (14th November).
You will also find attached a new image of the harimau ring I have been able to find. It is a lot closer to the student description and there is a small passage of writing which you may find interesting.
Good Luck Lara
Earl
[This email is intended for the addressed individual only. Please disregard if received in error. Any problems can be reported to the University computer service department]
Staring into the screen with a blue light shining on her face in the dim light, Lara reread the email again to consider her next move. She had three days to delve deeper into the harimau mystery and the slightly obnoxious sounding Hadrian Wright; the more Lara found out about him the more she started to despise his pompous nature. Opening the picture attachment she found a much clearer image of the ring, this time a beautiful line drawing that looks as if it were taken from a personal journal. Where is this image from? Lara wondered as she zoomed into the annotation, handwritten as she expected:
"What a curious ring! A great tiger of the East that was found in Laos, site 32. Appears to be forged from gold and rubies. Time wise we are still unsure however we guess before the birth of our lord, nevertheless it is wonderfully preserved for something of that age dug from the earth herself."
"Curious," Lara muttered as she closed her laptop making a mental note to email Earl later to question the origins of the image after a brief sleep rid her hanging jet lag.
A knock on the door changed Lara's plans.