Chapter 6:
A single bullet skimmed past Hadrian's shoulder, shattering a floor vase on impact. Dodging to avoid the flying shards of vase, Lara glanced up to find Kurtis with one of her pistols aimed at Hadrian. Both Lara and Hadrian were shocked by Kurtis's sudden entrance, momentarily forgetting their own heated discussion to turn towards the door.
"Woops," Kurtis stated.
"Who the hell are you?" Hadrian spluttered.
"Kurtis Trent, nice to meet you," Kurtis raised his hand in a mock salute to Hadrian, who was beginning to look meek in appearance.
"Run, Kurtis, Run." Lara shouted as she began to run for the door herself. Hadrian reached out to grab Lara's ankles, missing by a millimetre Lara stepped over his grab and swung her leg in a circular kick hitting Hadrian squarely in jaw, knocking him back into a cabinet unconscious.
"Very nice," Kurtis applauded watching Lara grab a file from the nearby table and her remaining pistol. "Are you going to leave him like that?"
"I'm not going to kill him if that's what you mean. I need him alive".
"Are you going to tell me what all this is about?"
"Soon," Lara muttered, at this stage there was little point in pretending she was on holiday. "However we need to get out of here, I can hear people coming up the stairs. Follow me".
Lara grabbed Kurtis's arm and dragged him down the corridor that a few hours ago she lay tranquillised in. Following a small flight of stairs the two nightly figures emerged into the Singaporean sky by the side of a rooftop pool. She restored her matching pistols to their holster, providing Kurtis with Hadrian's gun. Noticing a nearby bin, Lara kicked off her shoes and started to empty out the rubbish; burying her high-heeled shoes under a pile of left over magazines and fruit peelings.
"That's just nasty Lara," Kurtis noted watching in bewilderment at the scene in front of him.
"Until you are forced to eat left over chocolate bars lying around a city to survive, your opinions on what is and isn't nasty behavior is irrelevant." Lara quipped turning to give Kurtis a warning look. "We need to escape and I don't need anything left behind that indicates we were here tonight". Snapping a dried palm branch from a nearby tree, Lara placed the leaves into a decorative flame that circled the pool and lit a fire in the bin.
"Are you sure there are no CCTV around here?" Kurtis pondered.
"None on the roof, I checked placements yesterday".
Lara ran to the edge of the roof, her bare feet making soft tapping noises across the tiles. Peering between the high metal railing she could see that the way down involved a great deal of ledge grabbing and pure luck.
"You're okay with heights aren't you?" Lara said as she ripped both sides of her skirts to free her legs; Kurtis looked on again in bemusement."I can't move properly in this bloody skirt Kurtis, hence why I'm doing this." Lara signaled downwards towards the ruined garment. "Now come on, trust me I know how to get out of here".
Following Lara's lead, Kurtis climbed on to the metal railings and hopped over the top. Lara was already a floor below hanging on a ledge before jumping on a cable that connected to the high-rise building next to the Bayside hotel. Glancing through the window he was hanging from, Kurtis saw a mob of armed security guards running towards him. Quickly picking up the pace he pushed himself away from the wall praying that he would have contact with the cable during descent. Glass shattered around him as the security mob opened fire, feeling the cable brush under his hand Kurtis clenched his fist and pulled himself to the other building. Lara was already inside standing on the window cill of the 31st floor trying to distract the mob by aiming her own bullets at them. Swerving around the window frame Lara maneuvered out of the way of a well aimed bullet as she watched it smash into a wardrobe on the other side of the room. Lara was just about to reload when Kurtis threw himself through the window followed by another hailstorm of bullets.
"Little bit over dramatic don't you think?" Lara grinned as she crouched on the floor.
"Incase you haven't noticed we nearly died out there!" Kurtis loudly whispered.
"Nearly, we didn't though did we? Come on," The gunfire had stopped and Lara had decided now was a good time to pick up some speed.
"Is this another hotel?" Kurtis asked as he flicked his eyes up and down the destroyed wardrobe.
"Looks like it," Lara responded, "which means we should be able to escape fairly easily through service passages". Unlocking the door Lara stealthily hugged the hotel corridor with Kurtis in tow.
"When are you going to tell me what is going on," Kurtis asked again as he stopped mid step to watch Lara climb up to an air vent.
"I can ask you the same thing," came an echoey voice from the air vent.
"International woman of mystery," sighed Kurtis to himself as he vaulted upwards to follow the bare feet in front of him.
The pair travelled along the vent for approximately twenty minutes, weaving in and out of corners. Carefully dropping down when the passage allowed. At first the only sound present were dull thuds caused by Lara's and Kurtis's joints pressing on the metal surfaces. Yet as they transcended further down a vibration could be felt though the vent; growing louder and louder into audible music and frivolities as they crawled closer to an opening. Peering through the bars, Lara observed the scene below.
"Oh shit, it's a wedding Kurtis," Lara exclaimed.
"Can't we go any further?" Kurtis rolled back on his heels as if he were escaping the noises from below.
"No this is it."
"Only one thing to do then." Declared Kurtis.
"You have got to be joking! Shall we make it any more obvious that we are runaways. Those guards from the Bayside will be in here now for sure."
"And they would hate to disrupt a wedding wouldn't they?" Kurtis replied sarcastically.
Exhaling a large nervous breath of air, Lara knew that this was the only way out. Her back continued to ache from Hadrian's assault earlier on in the night. Nevertheless Lara began to lift the metal grid. In one swift movement she slid down and landed gracefully on the dance floor as a chorus of screams rang out.
"Don't panic!" Shouted Kurtis as he jumped down, "We are just checking the ventilation system, all's good, carry on! Cheers to the happy couple!" Kurtis picked up a half filled champagne flute from a nearby table, drank it and proceeded to run out of the door. Much to the astonishment of the elderly woman whose champagne flute it was.
"Same from me!" Lara cried as she too exited the function room. She couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Escaping the hotel now was easy as they sprinted down three flights of stairs and out into the humid Singaporean air. Sticking her arm out, Lara hailed a passing taxi and climbed into the backseat followed closely by Kurtis, checking at all times that they were not being followed.
"Where to?" The taxi driver said abruptly. Lara provided Russell's address and the taxi swiftly performed a U-turn and headed towards Pasir Panjang, a long coastal area in South West Singapore.
"So, what's going on? I need an answer now" Asked Kurtis, he was eager to get some reasoning why he was running around Singapore.
"I wasn't lying to you before, it is just business." Lara said dabbing a wound on her leg with the edge of her torn skirt.
"It's hardly a cosy meeting of coffee and spreadsheets though is it?"
"I hate spreadsheets."
"Lara, just answer the question. Please for the sake of my limbs." Kurtis joked.
Lara picked at the corner of Hadrian's file deciding the best way to explain her assignment.
"Have you heard of the Plain of Jars in Laos?" Lara began continuing to look downwards.
"Never".
"They are Iron age jars that appear in clusters on the Xieng Khouang plateau, quite significant jars as they are studied to reveal the nature of Iron age South-East Asia. A professor contacted me about a discovery one of his students had made there." Lara opened the file to find the photo of the harimau ring that Hadrian had shown her before. She passed it over to Kurtis looking not at him but to the flying images outside the window.
"Very nice. What has it got to do with you though?"
"The ring is supposed to have some kind of power, a knowledge transfer system. Apparently it was used to increase proficiency in the science and arts. That is why I believe the jars are culturally significant. I don't believe that is the whole story though".
"What do you mean?" Kurtis questioned as he watched Lara return to Hadrian's file to pull out the small bag of golden granules. "What the hell is that?"
"No idea but I am sure it has something to do with the ring and I don't want Hadrian to go near the ring."
"Is he the idiot from the hotel?"
Lara nodded in agreement, "Aside from the fact that I want it, Hadrian is a shady bastard who would exploit it for all it's worth".
"Nothing like you are doing, swiping the world's treasures for your own private dusty museum?" Kurtis quipped.
"Are you with me or not? Because if you are not you can get out now," warned Lara.
"Just making sure you are not taking the moral high ground in this adventure". Kurtis retorted leaning back into the car seat.
"I would be keeping it safe, preserving it. That's all".
Kurtis didn't respond, he knew that there was little to gain in arguing the topic of Lara's career further.
"Anyway enough with one-sided interrogation, how did you find me?" Lara asked, she was happy that there was an opportunity to change the conversation.
"Your phone signal, I was able to trace it to an approximate area when you didn't turn up at Raffles." Kurtis replied emotionless, he did not believe that Lara needed to know all the details of how he found her.
"Some technology there Mr Trent if you can pin point the actual room at such speed, are you sure your supernatural twitchy whiskers weren't flickering away?"
"You know I can't do things like that, that's not my talent." Kurtis remained stony faced in response to Lara's sarcastic comment. Noticing the tense atmosphere, she decided that now was perhaps not the time to ask why, but to be grateful that her body wasn't decorating Hadrian's carpet.
"Thank you anyway," Lara's gentle whisper came from the darkened corner of the taxi as it pulled up to a small white detached house, flanked by palm trees.
"That'll be twenty-seven dollars," The taxi driver snapped, his mood had not changed during the journey.
"Do you have anything to pay him with?" Lara asked as she realised all her money was burnt earlier on in the evening along with her shoes and bag.
"Not a dime".
"Well this is fantastic," Lara remarked, the taxi driver continued to peer around the driver's seat.
"Do something quick because he is freaking me out," Kurtis whispered.
"Okay, okay," Lara mumbled removing the gold watch from her wrist, "Have this, it is more than enough." Shoving the watch into the taxi driver's palm she pushed open the door and slammed it shut ignoring the complaints from the driver.
"What's he moaning about, he can buy a new car with that watch. Why did you give it away?" Kurtis questioned as Lara pushed the door bell.
"Desperate times, plus we have probably bought our silence now if anyone has seen us."
The door opened to a sleepy Russell dressed in a blue silk kimono. Took by surprise at Lara's raggedy appearance, he lurched forward to hug her in his sleepy state.
"Oh god Lara what's happened? Are you okay? Come inside quickly." Russell put his arm around Lara's shoulders and escorted her inside. Kurtis remained on the doorstep astonished by Russell's over friendliness, feeling a pang of jealously that she allowed Russell to care for her like that; knowing that if he did the same he would have been reduced to an ant by her sarcastic comments. Following the pair inside Kurtis perched on the edge of a kitchen counter while Russell went upstairs for painkillers and bandages. Lara felt Kurtis's eyes glaring into the side of her head, she turned to begin questioning his mood but Kurtis was already miles ahead.
"Who the hell is that?"