by Dan Abnett
Lara scrambled to her feet. She glanced around for a weapon. The room was littered with objects. Someone had emptied the desk drawers, and artifacts had been tipped over on the shelves and in the cabinets. The floor was mostly clear, except around the bases of the shelves.
Lara didn’t want to risk bending to pick something up. She wanted to be on her feet. She wanted to be able to attack Frink and defend herself. She circled the room, her stance wide, her arms out, fists clenched.
Frink was on his hands and knees when she aimed a kick at him. He saw the looming boot and he twisted away. Lara’s kick missed, and the force of it driving into empty air made her lose her balance for a moment. It gave Frink the time he needed to get from his knees to his feet.
Frink was dishevelled and lumbering, but his eyes were fierce as he made to attack Lara once more. Lara darted around the room, avoiding the assault. Her eyes moved swiftly from Frink to the shelves and cabinets as she circled, dodging Frink’s lunging attacks. He was slowing down. Lara was able to duck and dodge his attacks, but she had to act soon, before he recovered enough to make a more effective strike.
She glanced at the gun in the holster under his arm and wondered why Frink hadn’t used it.
Lara sidestepped another clumsy lunge, and found herself close to a shelf of busts. Much of Babbington’s collection consisted of pots and vases and statues of various kinds, all of them fragile, breakable objects. Even under attack, Lara couldn’t stand the idea of destroying such beautiful antiquities, particularly after the damage that had already been done in the room. The busts were solid, cold marble. She took one from the shelf, and swung it once, forcing Frink to take a step back. The second swing disoriented the man, and then Lara lunged. She drove the bust hard into Frink’s solar plexus. He folded, letting out a hard, huffing sound.
Frink grabbed the bust in both hands as he went down on his back. Lara didn’t let go of her weapon, and was dragged down on top of him. She rolled to one side and grabbed for the gun in the holster under his arm. She pushed it against his chest.
Frink looked right at Lara with his bright blue eyes, and his lip curled in a smile.
If he thinks I won’t shoot, he’s wrong, thought Lara. She pulled the trigger. The gun clicked. Lara pulled the trigger again. Nothing.
“Guns are fine for threatening and coercing people,” said Frink, breathing hard. “When it comes to killing, a man does it with his bare hands.”
Frink had recovered his breath fast, and he swung a punch at Lara’s head. She was faster than he was. The shock of the gun having no bullets had made her more alert, not less, and she was already jumping off the prone man’s body when he tried to attack her again.
Somehow, Lara’s foot became tangled under Frink’s side, and she sprawled away. There wasn’t room for her to land on the floor. Instead, she landed heavily against Peasley’s dead legs. She felt something cold against her face. Peasley’s gun was still hanging from his hand, and there were still bullets in it.
Frink wasn’t just any cold-blooded killer, he was some kind of lunatic psychopath. And Lara understood just how badly he wanted to kill her now. She reached up and took the gun from Peasley’s limp fingers. She pointed it at Frink, and in that split second, she saw the fear in his eyes.
Lara pulled the trigger. She saw the round explode in Frink’s chest as she heard the bang and felt the ache in her wrist from the recoil. Then, she saw the shock on Frink’s face as his head rocked and then fell back against the floor, disappearing from her view.
It was over.
Lara got to her feet, relieved to no longer feel the sensation of dead flesh against her back. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of the hand still holding the gun, and looked down at Frink. She could see, for the first time, that his initial injury had been a through and through. He would have recovered from it. She had shot him clean through the heart.
Lara took another deep breath. It made her ribs ache, but it steadied her nerves.
It was over.
Lara looked at the gun in her hand and then at the shoulder holster that was exposed under Frink’s jacket. The holster could be attached to any belt or strap with its own fold-over velcro strip. She tore it free and slid it through her belt, holstering Peasley’s gun. Then, she shouldered her rucksack.
The door to the study was ajar. She listened. The shouting and gunfire were not coming from the stairwell, but from the quad below. Lara stepped out onto the landing.
Chapter 29
Lydia covered Hydarnes and Xerxes from the study window as they entered Front Quad of Merton College from the stairwell. There was confusion below, and it was difficult to identify the shooters. Her eyes darted left and right, looking for targets. A head appeared twice at a door to her right. When it appeared for a third time, Lydia took the shot. The bullet ricocheted and hit another student dashing the length of the quad towards the Lodge. He stumbled and clutched his leg.
Lydia looked for another target as Xerxes ran across the quad firing into St. Albans. Hydarnes was already in the cover of Fitzjames Arch. Lydia’s view of him was blocked by students and staff trying to escape. She heard a pop and felt a spray of stone dust close to her face. She’d been spotted.
Lydia withdrew from the window.
“I’m coming out,” she said. “Cover me.”
“Copy that,” said Hydarnes. “Backup incoming.”
Lydia checked right and left, gun raised in both hands as she exited the stairwell. She jinked right, keeping low, with her back to the buildings as she crossed in front of the chapel. She crouched behind the steps to the Hall as more students fled past her, and then made a run for Hydarnes’s last position.
Suddenly, a student stopped right in front of her.
“Out of my way,” said Lydia. “Keep moving.”
The girl of about twenty was wearing jeans and a purple hoodie, and she looked just like all the other students. She locked her hands and swung both arms through Lydia’s body at waist height, flipping the Immortal over her arms, onto her back. Lydia’s Sig Saur flew out of her hands, and she was badly winded. Her head also came down hard on the cobbles. The girl in the hoodie straddled Lydia, pinning her arms.
Lydia couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Who the—?” she began to ask, but she never go to finish the question. The girl in the hoodie knocked Lydia unconscious with two swift blows. She stood over her, flipped her on her side, and cable tied her hands behind her back and her feet together. Then, she picked up Lydia’s Sig Sauer, ejected the magazine, and pocketed it. She tossed the gun on Lydia’s unconscious body. The whole attack took seconds.
Xerxes was holed up in St. Albans Arch, and Hydarnes was still in the cover of Fitzjames Arch, but both were under fire, and could do nothing to cover Lydia.
Lara crept down the stairs. She put her back to the doorjamb and glanced out onto the quad. As she looked out, a passing student stumbled in his panic. He looked up at her, his face pale, eyes wide with fear.
“It’s not safe,” he said, gasping.
Lara stepped out of the doorway, hooked her shoulder under his arm and started to propel him in the direction he was going.
“Thank you,” he said, breathless with panic.
She remembered how that felt from her own experience with anxiety.
Lara left the student at the chapel and turned to face the quad, keeping low behind the Hall steps. Her eye was drawn to movement high in the building opposite. Then, she realised it wasn’t in the building. Someone was hanging on the outside of the building. It looked like a student, casually dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants. He was scaling the wall. Then, she saw movement to her left as Xerxes emerged from St. Albans.
Suddenly, the figure on the building was still. He had seen Xerxes too. As Xerxes came into range below him, the figure on the side of the building r
eleased his grip and dropped down on top of the Immortal, felling him. Xerxes recovered quickly and wrestled with his attacker, but he was still holding his gun. If the Immortal had been willing to give up his weapon, he might have stood a better chance in the wrestling match. It was too close quarters to get off a shot, and trying only hampered his abilities at hand-to-hand combat.
In less than a minute of squirming and struggling, the student had wrapped his calves around Xerxes’s neck, flipped him onto his belly, and got him into an impossible armlock. From there, he was able to cable tie his wrists and disarm him. Xerxes kicked furiously. The student avoided the blows, and finally brought a hand up under Xerxes’s chin and around his throat. Lara watched, amazed as Xerxes went limp, suddenly unconscious. The student cable tied the Immortal’s ankles together and took his gun.
Lara didn’t know what to think. Who were these people? They looked like students, and they were taking on the
Ten Thousand Immortals, and beating them. And it was all because of the Golden Fleece.
The statue! Where’s Hydarnes? How do I get the statue back? Lara wondered.
She turned when she heard footsteps in the lodge. There were fewer people moving around in the quad. Most of the students and staff had left or holed themselves up. She couldn’t tell who were real students and who were… She didn’t know what they were. If people were coming into college, surely they were coming in to help?
The first things she saw were soft boots and tight, black jeans. A glance up told her everything else she needed to know. Tucked behind the Hall steps, she hadn’t been seen yet, but she needed to move fast.
Ares had sent in more Immortals, at least two, and probably three of them, from what Lara could see. Staying low, she dashed up the Hall steps, not looking back, and entered the building.
The Hall was Merton College’s formal dining room, running between Front Quad and Fellows’ Quad. It was a grand room with long tables down its entire length and tall stained glass windows along both sides. Lara crossed the empty room to the Fellows’ Quad side, stepped up onto the high, wide stone window ledge and looked out of the window. There was no one in the quad, except for the four people walking in through Watergate and striding onto the lawn.
Lara gasped. The three men and one woman were dressed in tight black and dark denim jeans with dark jackets and soft boots. They were well-groomed, European and frighteningly familiar. One of the men was Darius, but they were all clearly Immortals.
Lara had the very strong impression that Ares could not be very far away.
Her attention snapped back, and she jumped down from the window ledge and ran back up the room towards the exit. She had heard the squeak of a hinge, and a door opening and closing somewhere above her. Then, she heard a voice.
Instead of leaving the Hall as she had intended, Lara backed into the end of the room. She tucked herself away under the minstrels’ gallery where people were emerging above her, and listened again for the voice.
“Merton College is a big place,” he said, “but we have the advantage. We know these buildings.”
It was him. It was Kennard Montez. He was back in Oxford.
“Trinity can take down the Ten Thousand Immortals. Good work with the woman, April. You too, Teo. That’s two down, and we don’t have the artifact yet.”
“And there’s no sign of the girl,” said a woman’s voice.
Lara presumed it was April. Had Lydia been taken down? And who else?
“No,” said Kennard. “There has been no sighting of Lara Croft in Oxford.”
So, they didn’t know I was here, but they’re still after me, thought Lara.
“Do we expect her to be here? Could she have got to the artifact before us, before the Immortals?” asked a new voice, which Lara assumed was Teo’s.
“She’s been one step ahead of Trinity most of the way,” said Kennard. “If it wasn’t for her, none of us would be here now.”
“Not Trinity, and not the Ten Thousand Immortals,” said April.
“Let’s get back out there,” said Kennard. “Use the buildings. Use your skills, and spread the word. Remember, you look just like any other students. The Immortals don’t know who you are, and they don’t recognise you. Spread the word, use hand signals. Leave the electronic communications to the Immortals.”
“They’re easy to spot,” said Teo.
Kennard laughed.
“Too easy,” he said, “with their cat burglar clothes and their earpieces.”
“Our orders stand?” asked Teo.
“We need to close this down and clean it up,” said Kennard. “That’s the operational brief. No one must survive, and no evidence must remain. No one can know anything. You know the drill.”
“Understood,” said April.
“Yes, sir,” said Teo.
“Teo, take the Front Quad. April, you’re with me. Remember...” His voice trailed off as Lara heard soft footsteps and the squeak of door hinges as the three left the Hall.
Chapter 30
Whatever Trinity was, and however Kennard Montez was involved with it, Lara had one big advantage over it and him.
Lara Croft knew where the ram statuette, the Golden Fleece, was. At least, she had prior knowledge of where it had been only ten or fifteen minutes ago. She didn’t know exactly how long it had been since she’d first entered Babbington’s office, or since Hydarnes, Lydia and Xerxes had ransacked the room. She didn’t know exactly how long it had been since she’d killed Peasley or since she’d witnessed the chaos in the Front Quad. She knew for sure that it couldn’t be more than scant minutes.
Seconds, minutes were an illusion at these times. Every moment passed so slowly that time almost seemed to stand still.
She knew that Lydia had been taken out by April, probably killed. She knew that one other Immortal had been taken out by Teo. If it was Hydarnes, he’d somehow lost or passed on the ram statuette before he’d been attacked. It was possible, but Lara decided that it was unlikely.
Lara had surmised that Hydarnes was a senior ranking member of the Ten Thousand Immortals, that he was Ares’s right-hand man. It was unlikely that he had been taken down so quickly or so easily, even by someone as ruthless as these Trinity people clearly were. Greg must be Trinity, too. Who were they, and how long had they been interested in her? Lara let it go and concentrated on the statue and the Ten Thousand Immortals.
As Ares’s trusted servant, Hydarnes would hand the Golden Fleece to no one but his master. Hydarnes would put the statuette in the hands of one man: Ares. Or he would die trying.
If Lara could find Hydarnes, she would find the Golden Fleece.
She had the advantage over Kennard Montez and his Trinity assassins, because she knew who held the statue. All that remained was for Lara to track Hydarnes down.
She wondered if she had an advantage over the Immortals, because she knew that she was at risk from all and any students. She knew Kennard Montez. She knew his type. Was Greg in Oxford, too? She had also heard the voices of April and Teo. Perhaps she could spot members of Trinity. Perhaps she could tell them apart from other students, particularly in this high-stress situation.
If I’m clever, she thought, and if I’m lucky...
Lara stepped up onto the window ledge and looked out of the window onto Front Quad. It was surprisingly quiet. There was no one around.
The last thing she had seen was the group of Immortals walking onto the lawn of Fellows’ Quad. Then, the stampede began. She heard the sound of pounding feet and shouts and cries as students began to pour out of the doorways on the other side of the Hall. She waited for a moment, and saw them rushing through Fitzjames Arch and into Front Quad.
The students who had holed themselves up and hidden themselves away were being driven out of the buildings around Fellows’ Quad. Lara thought fast. She took her rucksack off her back, rol
led it up, and shoved it hard into a plate rack built into one of the window ledges. Then, just as quickly, she pulled it out, rummaged around in it until she found the Queen Mary tin, and put it in the back pocket of her jeans. Then, she rolled the rucksack back up and pushed it in among the shelves, along with her jacket. She’d come back for them.
Lara stepped back into Front Quad against the flow of the leaving students. It was a chaotic rabble. Some students were jostling through, heedless of others’ needs, some were helping each other. One or two were tearful, others were stoic. Some brought nothing, others had tried to retrieve belongings or were carrying books.
It was easy for Lara to lift a baseball cap from a jock’s head and tuck it under her arm before he realised she had taken it. She pulled a Merton College sweatshirt from a bag, its contents spilling out. Then, Lara squeezed through Fitzjames Arch, adjusting the cap to fit over her hair. Then, she pulled the oversized sweater shirt over her shirt and pushed up the sleeves. It came almost to her thighs, conveniently covering the gun at her belt and the tin in her back pocket.
It wasn’t much of a disguise, but it made her look like any other Merton student, and with the cap pulled well down, even Kennard might not spot her straight away. She’d be identified by her skin tone, her long braid, her rucksack and her physique. She’d done everything she could to hide those things. She hoped that being among people her own age, and in chaos, would do the rest.
Lara slid along the wall of the buildings towards the nearest doorway, allowing the students to pass in front of her, shielding her from view. All the time, she was looking out for the Immortals. Hydarnes was her first target. Her second aim was to steer clear of Trinity.
She took the first doorway on her left, listening intently as she entered a suite of rooms on the ground floor. They were empty, but there were scuffling sounds from above. Lara went into the lobby and up the stairs, taking them quickly but quietly. As she approached the first floor, the noises were louder, but the door off the landing was closed. Lara took the opportunity to brace herself and glance out of the window down onto the quad, which was emptying fast.
