Sam spends most of the rest of the trip in a happy haze, and truth be told I find it hard to concentrate on my notes and research too. We need to make contacts and I have a rough plan of where to start looking, but like so much of our experiences with these artifacts there's a lot of guess work involved. We're getting led by the ear and it's not an experience I particularly like.

If Soraya notices our mood she mercifully doesn't point it out, even when Sam just stands at the railing making her engagement ring sparkle in the sun. She's one of the most intelligent people I know but hand her something sparkly and it'll distract her for an hour.

I do get some ribbing from the captain and treats us to his secret stash the last night we're at sea. He's actually a really sweet man, despite his size. The gentle giant type with a big smile and a dry wit. He extracts a promise of a wedding invitation out of the both of us before we dock.

Sam is on the phone as we make our way to our hotel. I can hear snippets of the conversation and I know she's talking to Jonah, but she is clearly dancing around the subject of me and her. I turn my eyes away from her (a hard enough task) and examine our surroundings as we approach the hotel. We've selected one that is low key, as we are only going to be in Cairo for a day or two while Soraya makes some contacts and I dig around the library and museum. I hate to admit it, but the mercenary has proven useful and very enlightening. Oddly enough, it's not the stories about Roth and my father that I like the most. It's what she tells me about my mother. We have the same 'stance', but she wouldn't elaborate when pressed.

I take the phone from Sam, ignoring her protest and holding her at bay with a hand at her forehead. "Jonah! It's Lara. I'm saving you from your ear being talked off."

Jonah's laugh is a lot like being wrapped in a warm blanket and I'm immediately at ease just listening to his voice. "Little bird! How long has it been?"

"Far too long." I still have Sam at arms length, her hands flailing towards me. But they're shorter than mine and she's not really trying anyway. "We're in Cairo right now, but we have some news, and wanted you and Reyes to be the first to hear it."

"Is it more of your adventures? Sam was filling me in on some of the interesting things you've found. You need to be careful, Lara. You're playing with fire."

Right now, I'd rather have Jonah than Reyes around, if I had to choose between the two. Reyes is handy in a fight and with machinery, but Jonah is a lot more in tune with spiritual matters and what we're dealing with requires a less practical approach. Plus, I can hear pans banging around and know he's preparing a meal. His food is amazing.

But I move my hand as I speak, as if waving away the bad vibes. "We're being careful. If Yamatai taught me nothing else, it's to go into everything with my eyes open. But that's not what I wanted to talk about."

The pots and pans still. Me, not wanting to talk about ancient wonders? He's probably just a little worried. "Ah..uh, Sam and I…"

"Little Bird has realized who she wants to nest with," he replied. I grin and laugh.

"Yes. With a ring and everything."

"Congratulations!" His cheer is genuine and I feel some tension in my shoulders ebb. "You let me know when and where and I'll be there."

"Thank you. And let us tell Reyes, please?"

"She's all yours."

"Jonah, you watch out for yourself, okay? And I think Sam wants her phone back so I'm going to hand you back to her."

I don't quite hear his response because she's snatched the phone back and danced out of reach. She sticks her tongue out at me and I suppose everything is right with the world.

We get checked in, but don't stay in for long. Sam says she has to stock up on something film related, leaving Soraya and I to make our way across Cairo together. We travel in silence most of the way, until she interrupts my thoughts. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Startled, I look at her. "It feels like my whole life has been leading to this. To these artifacts, this ancient mystery. I know what I'm doing, Touma."

The other woman shrugs her shoulder, and looks straight ahead as we walk. "Then why are you leading Sam into danger? She could be hurt, or killed. She's not ready for this, she's not like us. Do you really want her to be like us?"

What is she getting at? I've had this argument with myself a hundred times and the answer is always the same. "I couldn't leave her behind, even if I wanted to."

"That's what your father said about your mother."

"And you're the one that told me my mother was as important to his success as he was." I'm starting to get irritated. Why bring this up now? She's already seen Sam can hold her own. That she's a valuable part of all of this.

"Can you imagine her moving like you do? That smooth flow in and out of combat, the pistol in her hands and the blood splatter on her face?" She jerked her head for me to follow her down another street. "Because your mother was soft until she wasn't. You have her eyes. Not just the color, but the hardness."

It was the first time anyone had ever hinted to me that my mother had killed. I had always thought it was Roth who had done the dirty work, or the other people that worked with them. I'd let myself be blinded to the idea that either of my parents could have done the things I've done. "I don't understand what you're getting at."

"Richard hated himself for what it had all done to her. Sam will have your eyes, some day. Prepare yourself for that or let her go." She stops in front of a door and knocks, while I hunch my shoulders, brows furrowing.

My mother had never looked at me with dead eyes. They'd always lit up at the sight of me. Even my father hadn't looked like I do when I stare into the mirror.

Or was that simply because I gave them a reason to be normal again? Do my eyes light up when I look at Sam? Or had they simply not been through the sorts of things that I have? I don't know, and the mercenary doesn't seem like she wants to give me any more answers today. Before we enter, I grab her arm. "Sam comes with me through her own choice. Whatever happens won't change things between us."

Sam has a her own strength, and I don't think that Soraya gets it. Sam can keep up with me. I know she can, and I know she will. It's not like she wouldn't chase me around the world if I left her.

"You're devoted to her. That doesn't change that she's a risk. There's a flow to combat. Each pulse of your heart surges into the next, each step you take beats in time to the rush of blood in your veins. Your parents were in step with each other. Like extensions of each other's body and mind. It was like a dance. A deadly one. Can you imagine her moving in step with you?"

I don't have an answer quickly enough. She just gives me this look and smirks, before pushing through the door. I follow her. It's a bit cooler inside than it is outside thanks to several fans spinning slowly overhead but it does nothing to calm me down. I want to punch her. There's a local man sitting at a table with playing cards, with a small wirey dog sitting in the chair opposite him. I stare for a moment, wondering if he could possibly be playing cards with the dog, but it looks like it's actually solitaire. He just has an audience. It's still one of the stranger sights I've seen and I take a mental picture to share with Sam.

"Gyasi!" She holds out her arms and the man stood. He only comes up to Soraya's chest, which makes him shorter than me, but they embrace anyway, like old friends. It's hard to see her making friends with anyone. Even though she gets along with people I always get the impression she is the solitary sort.

Gyasi is about as wirey as his dog, but he has a handsome smile. "Miss Touma, what brings you my city?"

"Cairo is a lot of peoples' city, Gyasi." She let go of him and gestures in my direction. "This is my friend. Lara Croft."

The man pulls a pair of spectacles out of his jacket and put them on. He is balding, what little hair he has as grey as ash, and his skin is like weathered leather and nearly as dark. He squints at me through the glasses. "Croft? That's a name I haven't heard in a long time."

"I take it you knew my father too?" Am I following in his footsteps again? The thought grates on me and brings back those old feelings of being stuck beneath his shadow. I'm still trying to absorb everything that Soraya just told me.

"Mostly through his papers, though I met him once or twice." He ruffles the fur of the dog and gestures. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Just water," I say, moving along with him. "You're familiar with his work then?" So that's why Soraya has taken me here. This is our lead, and that will make our next steps a lot easier if we can narrow down where to go next. I have to beat Shaw. It's become personal.

"Oh yes. It's all fascinating. And until the rumors that abounded from your little stunt in Japan, everyone thought that his work was embellished fiction."

Little stunt? Little stunt?! I control my breathing and say tightly, "Including myself, but I can assure you I've seen far too much to dismiss anything entirely." My hands have clenched into fists.

There were a dozen stories that came out of Yamatai, each one more ridiculous than the last. It had sparked a media frenzy and a renewed interest in what a lot of people call junk science. Some of America's networks were making a killing on all of it. It's one reason I agreed to write that book. I needed to tell my side of the story before the myth overtook the reality. A stunt. The word offends me.

The man gives me a look and smiles, before handing me a glass of water. "You can control your temper, that's good. I mean no disrespect, but you must know how some people view what you've accomplished. Two lost kingdoms if you count the coordinates your friend found. And a lot of blood spilled in the process."

"I know." I sip the water, forcing myself to cool down. "To say nothing of the supernatural nature of these places."

"You have people claiming aliens and hoaxes, and calling you everything from gifted to a media whore," Soraya interjected. She's right. Sam usually does all the filtering on my facebook page and I avoid internet forums for my own blood pressure. I've received everything from marriage proposals to rape and death threats. I'm always more scared for Sam than for myself, but she's used to this kind of thing. For me it's just a little overwhelming.

I don't like the turn of this conversation. "This is all true, but can we focus on why we're here?" I pull some documents out and carefully unfold them. "I found these in Shaw's research lab. He has three sites in or near the Sphinx circled. I don't know if they're dig sites or clues, but I'm hoping you can help me somehow. Either narrow what I'm looking for, or help me get close enough to these sites to get a look at them." I may have majored in Japanese archaeology but I'm a Croft. Languages and symbols are in my blood. I can puzzle it all out eventually but I'm not too proud to look for help.

Gyasi leans over the documents, studying them with a trained eye. "I don't think they're dig sites. There's nothing here that's been officially approved. Shaw is doing this illegally. That sounds just like him."

"Shit, it will take weeks to get any sort of approval or permits." I knock back half of my glass and think. Three sites. There's Soraya, Sam and myself. If we're each quick, we can take pictures and then study them from safety. I look at the mercenary and she seems to have the same idea.

"And you don't have weeks. Well then, good for you that I know some people. If you're able to move tonight, no one will notice a thing." He grinned at me.

I look at him. "Okay. What do I owe you?"

He rubbed his hands together and rolled his shoulders. "I want.. I want to go with you. On the next steps. I haven't been in the field in years. I'm getting so old, and you're seeing these things I've only read about. Things people like your father were laughed at for."

I put out my hand. "You're in. I'm not going to turn down expertise like yours."

He grasps my hand between both of his. "Thank you, Miss Croft. Thank you."

We stay a little longer to chat, and I discover that Gyasi had once worked on one of my father's digs. It had started a love affair with Egyptology and he'd eventually started working at the Museum of Cairo, where he catalogs all the relics that go in and and out of the country on tours. He sees a lot of strange things, and has handled artifacts that always felt a little off to him.

I make him promise to make me a list of these 'off' items, and then leave with Soraya. We head back to the hotel. "So how do you know him?"

"Long story short, he's an in-law. His sister and my brother met when we were visiting the museum."

Well, that explains how she knew to come to him. It also makes me more willing to trust him. "So he's trust worthy?"

"I think so. His sister never talks bad about him, and he's got enough access at the museum to either have bribed a lot of people, or have genuine merit. I don't know if he can keep up, though"

"The way he talks, he's got talent and passion both," I tell her, smiling. He'll keep up because his passion won't let him falter. "I don't mind encouraging that at all."

Soraya heads upstairs and I find Sam at the pool. My mind flashes back to the conversation with Soraya, and I try to catch a look at Sam's eyes without her noticing. When she spots me, they soften but they hadn't been the kind of hardness I see in the mirror. It's a different sort. Determination. But they light up all the same and I have to keep my hands to myself when she hugs me.

"We've got a lead, I hope you don't have plans tonight because I need your help."

She steps back and grins at me. "What do you need me to do, sweetie?"

I look at her, then at my watch. "Why don't you get dressed then I'll take you out to dinner. Just the two of us. I'll explain then."

"Do we have time for a little privacy?" She smiles at me and it's oddly shy. It's also utterly endearing.

"As long as we're where I want to be before one in the morning then I think we can make the time." Sam and I have our own dance, and it's one I prefer. Love over hatred. Gentle touches instead of killing blows.

She acts like she's trying to resist the urge to kiss me, and grabs my hand instead. "Promises, promises."