Twenty Eight Minutes Later (No, not Twenty Eight Days/Weeks Later)
"I have no idea what to make of this man." Jankovic says as he searches through Lara's drawers. He slams them shut out of frustration. There was no sign of Lara Croft in the manor. He and Bank just broke in through the main window while the others found their own ways into the manor. "This Ben Wheldon comes in and beats up Kovak and Slavik and he carries Lara to safety? He must be a man of nobility. Remember gents, we need this man alive. Orders still stand."
All of them were willing to follow any orders given to them, but not one of them.
"The hell with orders!" Novak shouts. "This Ben guy hospitalized my brother! I am going to put my boot on his throat and choke the life out of him! I will make sure he dies a slow and very painful death!"
"Don't, if that were to happen then we will never find the Crown of Immortality." 1-7 reasons. "He is an important man in our research."
(If you are wondering what 1-7 real names is, I will never reveal it, no matter what. But what I can confirm is he is Siberian and he is at the age of twenty-nine. He is six feet tall with dark brown hair and green eyes and his skin is really pale. Distinguishing trait is a heavily tattooed right arm of cross.)
"That means no killing." Zima said as he searched the closets for any clues.
"What if Ben took her to his place? We could search there." Bank suggests, standing at the front door to Lara's room. "Of course, only if we knew his home address."
Ciernik, Ivan and Ivar were checking underneath the beds, well Ciernik and Ivan were. Ivar was actually checking inside Lara's drawers. Not for any evidence though. And then Ciernik slapped him hard against the head, knocking some sense into him.
"Keep searching, maybe something will lead them right to us." Jankovic ordered. After he barked his order, he sat down on the bed and put his elbows on his knees and his hands under his jaw. Don't worry, we will find them, eventually. Now he was starting to regret opening that bottle back in Africa. He was lucky he wasn't as drunk as those people on that American comedy, The Hangover, otherwise he would've been eaten by that Megalodon.
"Bank, come check this out." 1-7 calls from the closet. "Check out this chick." Bank annoyingly obeyed and walked from the door and over to the closet. 1-7 was standing in the middle of the closet with a pile of clothes surrounding him and in his hand was a book with a black cover. 1-7 opens the book and reveals it to be a photobook album.
One of the pages 1-7 turned to had a little Lara Croft on the swing set and being pushed by her father. "She's one sexy chick."
Bank looked at 1-7 in disgust. "What the hell is wrong with you? What the hell is wrong with you you creepy pervert? Why are you calling a seven-year-old Lara 'sexy' you creepy pedophile?"
In a way, Bank was being a hypocrite. While 1-7 was a pedophile, Bank was actually a hebephile. "Turn to one where she's fourteen." He orders, his hebephile side emerging.
"And you're giving me bear for having an unusual attraction to children." 1-7 points out. "When we find Lara, I am having fun with her first. You can go last."
"Nah, that should be Novak. He is a man who likes his coffee before dessert." He laughs like a maniac. "I'm am fine with sexually assaulting her, but I still dislike how you are a pedophile."
"We all got problems man."
Jankovic had had enough and decided to call in the big boss of Trinity. He takes out his satellite phone and dials an encrypted number. "Sir, we have lost Lima-Charlie and Beta-Whiskey. Requesting advice, over."
The Trinity leader spoke back. "Tango 1-1, 0-0 here, I have already found intel on Beta target. It turns out that Beta had a brother who worked for us, under the codename of Juliet-Oscar-Hotel-November (JOHN). He was a casualty in the failed assassination of a politician in Latvia some time ago."
"Oh, okay." Jankovic was at a loss of words. "You think you can track Lima-Charlie via the GPS tracker that 1-3 implanted in Lima's drink?"
"Already done it. Both Lima and Beta are on a plane at the London international airport and my techs are telling me that they are taking off for Paris. If you hurry, you can catch up with them. Also, I want Lara captured alive for a new reason" He told Jankovic his new reason for wanting Lara alive.
"Thanks Boss. I promise you that Trinity will win this fight. If I fail, may you do whatever you want to me." He hangs up and hands the phone to Zima. He puts his hand back to his side and calls all his men forward. "Ladies and gents, we have a destination."
"Where?" Bank asked. Jankovic told him about Ben's brother and Paris. "Awesome, so we are going to the city of love."
"Not quite." Jankovic said softly like he was talking to a foreigner. "If Lara and Ben decide to double back, we need someone to stay here. Me, Zima, Slavik, Kovak and Ivan are going to Paris. I already called the doctors at the hospital, they said that both Slavik and Novak are in perfect health, despite what happened."
Bank shook his head. "If you, Zima, Slavik, Kovak and Ivan are going to Paris, then what of the rest of us?"
"The five of you will stay here. Insurance. Plus, I think it's win-win. If Lara and Ben are in Paris, Kovak will get revenge on Ben and if Lara and Ben are still here, then Novak will get revenge for what happened to his brother. See, everybody wins."
"But we have orders to bring Lara and Ben back alive."
Jankovic smiles. "We are ordered to bring Lara in for a new reason actually. Ben, our plans for him still stand."
Paris, France (We are about to meet a returning character from Rise of the Tomb Raider)
A woman with dark hair and red lips stood at the site of the Louvre. She wore a green cargo jacket, long baggy jeans and her distinguishing trait was her hat. It looked like something a pilot would wear. She was aware people were looking at her, but ever since she left Siberia, she has built up even more confidence than before and she was ready to face whatever dangers awaited her in the outside world.
She was not here to sightsee, that was more of a front. She was here because she was going to meet an old friend, someone who saved her life in Siberia from Trinity. Lara told her if she wanted to visit, then to come to her apartment in Paris. When Lara handed her her apartment address, she felt like a starstruck fan.
That was the good news. The bad news was she was not here to visit Lara to catch up, she was here to warn her of their old enemies. Trinity was back and they were once again up to no good.
When she first left Siberia and took shelter in a hotel in Kazakhstan, she was ambushed and nearly abducted by two goons (ironically, it was 1-2 and 1-3). She escaped and had later found out of their actual identity. Seven weeks later, she made it to Paris and came to warn Lara of their old enemies.
"Whatever punches these guys are going to throw at me, I will throw an even harder punch right back at them." She whispers to herself.
Several hours later, Paris
Lara and Ben stepped out their private jet and onto the runway. Ben held a blue bag in his hands with clothes from his apartment while Lara held a suitcase with her clothes in her bag.
"Welcome to the city of love Miss Croft." Ben says like a little boy talking to his crush. He held his hands out as if he were an eagle.
Lara actually had a thing for eagles. Nothing creepy of course. When she was a little girl-about six, her father took her on a trip to Delphi to look for evidence of the Oracle of Pythia. When they were in one of the temples, her father had been writing symbols in his journal and Lara was standing too close to one of the edges. Although she had been told to stay away, she had gotten ornery and fell into the bottomless abyss. A friend named Conrad Roth grabbed her just as she fell, saving her life.
The odd thing was Lara did not believe it was Roth who saved her, even to this day. When she was about to fall into the abyss, from her point of view, she saw an eagle flying below her. She didn't care what her father or Roth said, she knows it was an eagle. She knows what she saw and she refuses to back down from her belief.
If that eagle had not been there, I would have never lived to see my father.
"Did I say something Lara?" Ben asked, dropping his hands to his side as soon as he saw her stare at the ground as if she were a hungry patient and Ben had food at his feet.
"No, I just had a flashback. It was eighteen years ago, I was at Delphi with my father." She explained what happened to her with the eagle. "True story and I don't care if you don't believe me."
"Who says I didn't? 'Course I believe you. Let me carry your bags for you, I am a chivalrous and very handsome man."
"Thank you. You know, chivalry is dead they say. It's not, you just have to ask for it."
Ben snickered, thinking of something inappropriate. "Yeah, ask for it, don't you mean 'up for it?' "
"Okay you horny wazzock." Lara shoved her suitcase into his chest. He let out a small grunt and chuckled some more.
"The voices in my head are telling me some hilarious things."
"Tell them to tell you to keep your little pal in your pants."
"I will, don't worry."
The apartment that Lara led Ben to was uninhabited and untouched for a couple years. All the furniture in the room was colored red and the walls were painted eggshell white. The light brown carpet had a pattern of dark brown squares that spread from the front and all the way to the back.
"Where's the bed?" Ben asked as he dropped the luggage near the rose red couch. "I am so ready for a kip, but I am willing to get some exercise before going to rest."
Lara chuckled, but wanted to continue to torture him. "In a few minutes my mate. A few minutes."
"Wait a second, you called me a mate? Are you thinking of eating me, like how a black widow eats her mate?"
"Sounds whack." She responds. She closes the door behind her and locks it tightly. "Let me get ready and then we can have our fun."
Ben felt his heart hammer against his chest. He could not believe what was happening to him right now. Life is pretty goddamn good and I loooooooovvvvvvveeeee it. He felt like a wolf howling in triumph. Of course he will be doing plenty of howling when he is 'mating' with Lara.
All ten villains are some kind of paraphilia. This is what each one is.
Jankovic is a erotophonophilia
Bank is a hebephile
Zima is a anthropophagy
Ciernik is a ephebophilia
1-7 is a pedophile
Novak is a autassassinophilia
Kovak is a infantophilia
Slavik is a biastophilia
Ivan is a gerontophilia
Ivar is a necrophilia
You guys probably have a lot of questions. Out of all the villains, who the most twisted and most creepy one? Is Trinity going to get some kind of victory out of this battle? Who is that woman at the Louvre? Are Lara and Ben really in for a surprise in Paris? What new reason is Lara wanted by Trinity for?
Kovak
Born: February 19, 1979 (37), Zagreb, Croatia
Alias: Tango 1-3
Hair: Blond
Eye: Blue
Height: Five-ten
Weight: One-ninety
Nationality: Croatian
Relatives: Novak (Brother), Greg (Uncle (From the Ten Thousand Immortals novel))
Biography: Novak and Kovak were born and raised in Zagreb and grew up in the streets after their parents passed away from lung cancer and they lost all their money. The two brothers spent the next twenty years living in the brutal streets and eventually started their own gang and caused havoc around Croatia. On their twenty-third birthdays, they finally captured the attention of Trinity, who immediately recruited them. They served four years as hired guns for Trinity and eventually warmed their way up to the ranks and finally became initiated Trinity members. During his years of service, he spent several years studying medicine at the UCL. It was actually done as a way to stalk Lara. He was one of the soldiers who stalked her on her Golden Fleece adventure, along with another Trinity soldier name Greg and a big shot Trinity commander named Kennard Montez.