Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Lara Croft and Sam Nishimura.
Author's Note: This took me so long to write yet it's a rather poor chapter. It's more or less here to set the grounds for the next chapter which should be much more action-packed and exciting. As always, feedback is still welcome! Thanks for reading!
It was Tina's bloody overalls. That was the glimpse of red Lara had seen before they hit the ground. She was unprepared and ended up falling on her front after her legs had curled up beneath her. She grunted loudly as she was winded by Quentin's weight landing on top of her. The grass pressed into Lara's left cheek as she felt Quentin undoing the straps in order to free himself from her.
"Lara. Lara, are you okay?" he asked, rising up from her and crouching by her side.
"I'm fine. Sorry about that," Lara groaned, pushing herself up. She was glad to be free of the pressure on her back.
"I'm sorry I landed on you. Did you forget the landing procedure?"
"No, I was just sort of... distracted," Lara admitted as they both stood up.
There was no clue. No note, no sign, nothing, Lara thought as this just suddenly hit her. All of that was for nothing. So why did he send me here?
"Are you ready to go back inside and sort out the payment?" Quentin asked once he had gathered up the kit.
"Of course."
Lara was disheartened. She had been so sure a skydive was all she had to do to get one step closer to figuring out what the bloody hell was going on here. But it hadn't worked. Like she had told herself before: Cow Blood made these messages quite clear to Lara providing she was in the right place. If there was no message, then it was Lara who had gotten it wrong. She must have interpreted the previous note incorrectly. A skydive hadn't been the answer, so Lara was back to square one with that note. She was left yet again with the task of figuring out the meaning behind 'Sky PE'.
"How much do I owe you?" asked Lara once they were inside and she was pushing her card into the machine.
"That'll be $1620," Quentin smiled. "Pin number please."
Lara rolled her eyes and punched in her pin before removing her card. She shook hands with Quentin.
"Thanks for coming out today," she said quietly. She wanted to smile, but somehow she couldn't. All hope and happiness seemed to have drained out of her.
"You're welcome. I'm sure we'll see each other again some time."
"No doubt in Dale Meadows," agreed Lara.
Lara let Quentin drive away before she started to leave the building. She was held back by someone calling her name.
"Lara!" yelled Kat, running after her.
"I'm really not in the mood," Lara murmured, turning to face her.
Their faces were very close to each other and Lara wanted it to be like this. She wanted to seem intimidating and threatening to Kat. To achieve this, she tensed her shoulders and stood up tall, looking down at Kat menacingly.
"Not in the mood for what? I didn't do anything," Kat laughed, her sickly smile overpowering Lara's surly mask.
"I don't care. Whatever it is, I don't have time for it. I have things to do."
"What rattled your cage? Your skydive didn't go too well?"
"It went fine. But like I said, I have things to do. Good afternoon."
Lara turned to go but Kat grabbed her hand and forced her into a kiss. Lara shoved her off violently. Kat scowled, her mouth open as though she was both disgusted and surprised at Lara's rejection.
"I told you to leave me alone. I have a girlfriend and quite frankly I don't like you. I don't know what kind of game you think you're playing, but your obnoxious charm isn't working on me. Goodbye," Lara growled.
She shot another glare at Kat before marching out to her car. She got in and rested her head on the steering wheel.
What is that girl's problem? Doesn't she understand that not everyone is going to like her? Lara shook her head to try and clear it. Just concentrate on the message. You need to keep going. Work out what it means and we'll be one step closer.
Lara was distracted during her drive home. Her mind was buzzing. She had just jumped out of a plane with the 'positive knowledge' that she would land with an answer. Yet now she had nothing. She had been pushed back again. It was like one of those annoying board games where you had to jump back three spaces if you landed on a certain square.
Back in the safety of her own home, Lara was able to study her note further and think about it more clearly.
Sky... PE... sports in the sky...
"Sports in the sky," Lara murmured to herself. "Why does that ring a bell?"
Lara thought for a while before deciding it only rang a bell from the last time she worked it out. She needed a break; it would be easier to think fresh thoughts if she cleaned her brain out a little. In order to achieve this, she switched on the TV. This was something she did relatively rarely, much preferring to focus on her physical state.
The TV turned on to the channel that Lara had last been on. The current showing was something Lara wasn't interested in so she flicked the TV guide on. As she scrolled through, there were no shows that caught her eye until she saw the channel at the bottom.
"Oh my god," Lara muttered. "Sky Sports. Sky and PE, it must be the channel Sky Sports."
Lara hurriedly scrolled down to it. The current showing was a skiing competition with a name of no significance to herself nor to Sam, but she selected it anyway. Perhaps there would be something on the show for her to see. As she put the programme on, a competitor was racing the slalom.
Lara leaned forward and looked hard at the screen, her eyes narrowing to focus on it. Nothing stood out to her. As the camera switched to a helicopter view, she made sure there was no pattern in the snow that would be useful to her. She checked the names of all the skiers and the commentators, none of which brought any interest to her. Lara searched for traces of red that may lead her to a clue, but still there was nothing. Sighing, Lara brought up the TV guide again and looked through the rest of the showings on that day. She even checked the shows before, just in case she had missed something. None of the programmes meant anything to her.
"But surely this must be it. It makes perfect sense," Lara whispered to herself, putting the skiing back on and placing down the remote. "Then again, so did skydiving."
She leaned back on the sofa and decided she should keep watching whilst she tried to come up with something else. It wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out. But it wasn't long before she fell asleep.
"Oh shit," Lara murmured, as she woke up a couple of hours later. "How did that happen?"
Lara looked at her watch when she realised she was hungry again. It had passed 5:30 and she hadn't eaten solid food since breakfast. After finding the cupboards empty of nutritional goods, she decided to head over to Dale Meadows again. Perhaps Harvey could offer more help regarding the note issue.
Lara grabbed her purse before heading out, deciding to walk there like she and Sam usually did. She was glad of the physical exercise and was able to get to the cafe much quicker without Sam there conversing with her. This was something she wasn't happy about.
As Lara entered the cafe, she immediately knew something was wrong. There was no excited exclamation from Harvey as the bell at the top of the door rang, announcing her entering. Lara frowned and glanced across to his counter: Harvey was there with a serious expression pasted across his face. A man was talking to him- or rather growling at him- with a finger pointed to Harvey's chest. He looked like he was in a rage- his lips were moist and his eyes seemed to emit flames as he spoke. Harvey was nodding softly, his eyebrows knitted together in a worried frown. Lara managed to pass without being noticed; she didn't want to get in the middle of this.
As she passed by, Lara managed to hear a snippet of the conversation.
"... it was obvious you gave her too much! If you hadn't, this wouldn't have happened. We're on a time schedule. If it does happen again, you know wh..."
As well as this, on closer inspection, the man ranting at Harvey seemed vaguely familiar to Lara. She frowned as she made her way to her seat. She had definitely seen him somewhere recently, but she couldn't quite place him. Lara leaned out of her booth to take another look, but as she did so, she caught Harvey's eye. He suddenly spoke to the man, apparently cutting him off. The man spared a momentary glance at Lara before calmly walking out of the cafe. Lara leaned back into her booth. Had that conversation been about her?
"Good evening, Lara," Harvey grinned, attempting to be his usual chirpy self as he approached Lara.
"Harvey, is everything okay? That man seemed to be giving you a hard time," Lara commented, deciding they should have it out straight away.
"Ah it was nothing. There was a problem with the meat orders," Harvey told her without faltering.
"I see. I'll take my usual panini and a non-alcoholic elderflower please," Lara said, slightly confused.
Harvey had lied to her. That conversation hadn't had anything to do with meat orders at all. It must have been about her. Otherwise, why would Harvey feel the need to lie to her?
She watched him as he made his way back to the counter. He looked stressed. Great. Another thing for Lara to worry about.
She turned her attention back to the note.
You just need to try something with the words that you haven't tried before, Lara told herself.
It took her a while to work out what that could be, but then she realised she hadn't yet merged the words.
Sky and PE... Skype.
"Oh bloody hell, it's Skype," Lara gasped. "Skype. Could it really be that simple?"
She had to get home and find out. When Harvey brought her meal, she wolfed it down before running out of the cafe and charging back to her house. She must have looked weird, but she honestly didn't care. This had to be it. Surely.
Lara into the living room and pulled open her laptop. She had one new Skype notification. She opened it up.
Hi, LaraCroft131, I would like to add you as a contact.