The Cradle of Life (24 page)

The tribesman looked from Lara to the Orb and nodded. Then he spoke to Kosa.

“He says he will not turn back with the others. He will go as far as we go. He will fight the shadow guardians.”

Lara met the man's gaze and smiled.

“Tell him thank you. With brave men like him, we shall win. No, hang on—” she put a hand on Kosa's arm to stop him from speaking. “Tell me how to say that.”

Kosa did. Again, she did her best with the pronunciation. Apparently it was good enough—the warrior smiled and raised his spear in acknowledgment.

Then he said something else to Kosa and both men laughed.

“What?” Lara asked.

“He says you have a funny accent.”

She frowned, then joined in the laughter.

The laugh turned into an exclamation of surprise as an animal came charging out of the brush ahead and ran right by her. She only got a quick look at it and then it was past her.

“Ducker,” the tribesman said, or something to that effect.

Lara was about to ask him to repeat the word when another one shot past, followed quickly by a third. Something swung by in the trees above, moving fast. Moving in the same direction as the animal that had charged her, as the birds that had fled earlier.

Running from something, Lara realized. But what?

Then she heard it. A low, mechanical sound, a relentless thrumming that came on them so fast that she couldn't localize the source until it was directly above them.

Helicopters.

“Reiss,” she whispered and exchanged a quick glance with Kosa. But how? It hadn't been anywhere near twenty-four hours—they should have had more than enough time to reach the summit and find Pandora before he showed.

The tribesmen were all looking at her now for direction, casting frightened glances around as the wind from the copters above whipped up dirt and debris from the forest floor.

She saw ropes dropping from the copters and camouflaged figures sliding down them.

“Run!” Lara shouted.

But it was too late.

Gunfire filled the air. The tribesman next to her—the one who had sworn to fight the shadow guardians at her side—was the first to fall.

It was over in seconds.

Reiss's men—there were at least two dozen, all in spanking new camouflage fatigues, all equipped with AK-47s—surrounded her and Kosa. The two of them were marched through the jungle, past the bodies of the villagers sent to guide them (she counted eight, which gave Lara hope that perhaps the others had made it safely into the surrounding jungle), and into a clearing.

The copters landed as they approached.

Reiss hopped out of the nearest one.

“Lady Croft. A pleasure to see you again.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Lara shot back.

The doctor looked confident and relaxed. He'd actually managed to find the time to change clothes, even to shower, and it was at that instant that Lara realized Reiss was actually going to do it, he was going to find Pandora and release it into the world. Unless she stopped him.

Unless she killed him.

She had a throwing knife hidden in her boot and a small blade tucked into the small of her back, as well. One of those should do the trick.

She shifted position, keeping her hands raised high in the air, but taking the weight off one ankle—the one with the blade strapped to it. Kick off her boot, grab the blade and throw. Should take her somewhere between one and two seconds.

Lara tensed.

Reiss smiled and waved to one of the men behind her.

“Search her,” he said. “Thoroughly.”

Hands seized her and drew her back, away from the doctor. Someone grabbed her pack and pulled it off her shoulders.

“Hello, Lara,” a man whispered in her ear. It was Sean. “Hold still—this won't take a minute.”

He found the knife strapped to one ankle right away and took the gun tucked into her waistband, as well. His hands began roaming elsewhere then, all over her body. In between trying to keep the disgust off her face and herself from kicking him in the groin, Lara realized that in about two seconds Sean was going to find the butterfly knife hidden in the small of her back and then she would have no way to get Reiss.

“You missed something,” she said. The tips of his fingers were inches away from touching the knife.

Sean's hands stopped moving.

“What?”

“My watch.” She held it up for him to see. “It's really a small high-powered laser.”

“Ha,” Sean said, and returned to his search.

But she'd used the intervening seconds to turn her body, ever so slightly.

His hands, when they started moving again, were past the knife.

Sean finished his search. He stepped in front of Lara and handed the Orb to Reiss.

The doctor was kneeling down next to one of the dead tribesmen. He gripped the man's face in his hand, turned it to one side, and frowned, staring at the markings there. Then he studied the etchings on the Orb.

“Remarkable. The similarity of the patterns.” He shook his head. “Primitives will do anything to please their gods.”

Lara began, ever so slightly, to lower one of her arms. Despite the enthusiasm and thoroughness with which he'd conducted his search, Sean had left her shirttail tucked in. She was going to have to pull it out before grabbing the knife and that would add a second to her task. Any head start she could get on the maneuver, she would need.

Reiss stood and walked closer.

“Thank you, Lara, for leading me here. And for finding the Orb in the first place. I'm sure you are aware that if you hadn't found the Luna Temple, none of this would be possible.”

“It had crossed my mind.” The doctor was ten feet away—easily within killing range. The problem was Sean, whose gun was pressed right up against the back of her skull. The second she moved for the knife, he would fire. And if she tried to take him out, the other guards would get her.

“My getting the box is a foregone conclusion,” Reiss said. “However, you've seen its exact location. You can save me hours—perhaps even days. I'll make you a proposal. Help me—and I'll make it worth your time.”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but—”

Reiss took another step forward.

“Think about what I'm offering before you answer. The chance of a lifetime. The chance to find out how all of this began.” Reiss's gaze bore into her. “Life, Lara—the origin of all we are. Don't tell me that's not tempting.”

She smiled. “That's what got Pandora in trouble.”

Reiss shook his head. “Ah, Lara. I admire your resolve.”

He was within arm's reach now. She might be able to do it—have the knife in her hand before Sean could fire. A lunge forward, executed properly, and even a bullet would not be able to stop her.

It was a chance worth taking, Lara thought. Especially given the alternatives.

She tensed, ready to move—

“They told me you wouldn't do it,” Reiss said.

Lara paused. “They.”

The doctor snapped his fingers and a single guard emerged from one of the choppers, holding a machine pistol ready. A second later, two other men—dressed in civilian clothes—jumped to the ground.

Bryce and Hillary.

She felt all the air come out of her at once. The guard marched the two men toward them.

Both men had been beaten—Hillary had a particularly nasty welt above one eye.

“And I told them you would do it,” Reiss said. “Rather than lose two more friends. These, your closest…”

“Sorry, Lara,” Hillary said. “We couldn't stop them. They—”

“It's all right.” She turned her attention to Bryce, who had remained silent. “I should have realized you'd never mess up those tones by accident.”

He nodded. “I should have known you'd hear the distortion and found another way to throw you off.”

“You should have,” Lara agreed, which earned her a brief smile from Bryce.

Reiss stepped in between them.

“Take us to the cradle of life, Lara. It's your destiny to see what's inside. It would be foolish to stop when you're so close.”

Her eyes darted over his shoulder and found first Hillary's gaze, then Bryce's. She could see the determination she felt in their eyes, as well.

Reiss could never be allowed to get to Pandora. No matter what the cost.

She steeled herself, more aware than ever of the knife, pressing against her back.

“He's right, Lara.”

Kosa, who had remained silent several long minutes, stepped up next to her.

“It's foolish to stop. Especially when we are so close. Just through that canyon—remember? Such a short walk might save your friends.”

For a second she didn't know what Kosa was talking about. Had he lost his senses? Take Reiss to Pandora? Yes, that short walk might save her friends, but—

And then it came to her.

The shadow guardians.

They were out there, in the canyon. And she suspected AK-47s would be as useless against them as spears.

“I'm up for a walk,” Lara said. “If it spares my friends.”

“Excellent,” Reiss replied. “I knew you'd see reason.”

He barked out a series of orders then, and split the group.

Bryce couldn't believe what had just happened.

“What is she thinking?” he asked Hillary, as the two were being marched back toward the helicopter.

“She's not thinking, she's feeling. A damned ridiculous time to start acting all emotional, if you ask me.”

Bryce stopped walking. He'd never heard Hillary swear before—the words didn't sound right coming out of his mouth.

“Keep moving, you.” The guard jabbed Bryce in the back with the end of his rifle.

He led them toward one of the copters. As they strode to the door, Bryce saw the pilot, night visor on his helmet down, studying the instrument panel with the oddest little smile on his face. The man had a nasty cut on one of his wrists—a ring-shaped bruise, gouged deep into the skin.

Odd. Bryce hadn't noticed that before.

Their guard slid the copter door open.

“The doctor wants them kept in here for the time being. Any particular place you want 'em?”

“Anywhere is fine.” The pilot turned around in his seat then, and flipped up the visor on his helmet.

“Hillary,” he said. “And you must be Bryce.”

Hillary visibly blanched. “Sheridan.”

“Bloody hell,” the guard said and raised his rifle.

Bryce saw the flash of a knife in Terry's hand and threw himself to the floor of the copter.

Darkness fell as they marched on.

Lara and Kosa were in the lead, guards flanking them on either side. Sean followed, directly behind, his eyes never leaving her for an instant. Reiss and the rest of the eleven men he'd brought held the rear.

Lara was moving by instinct now—taking them out of the jungle, into a narrow, winding canyon. There was no trail to follow, no familiar landmarks for her to set a course by, save the occasional glimpses of the mountain's summit. The landscape was desolate and deserted, and as the sun set, shadows began to play tricks with her vision.

On a rocky path that snaked along one side of the canyon wall, she stumbled and Kosa caught her arm.

“Thanks.” The two of them exchanged a glance.

“How close are we?” Kosa said, and she knew he was asking not about Pandora, but the shadow guardians. She had been wondering the same thing herself for the past several minutes—looking for the cone-shaped rock formations she had been looking at when she sensed the guardian's presence.

No such formations were in sight.

“I don't know,” she told Kosa and started up the path again, hoping they hadn't bet millions of lives on creatures that didn't even exist.

Some time later, Reiss called for a break. He allowed them all a five-minute rest and directed one of the guards to pass out water and rations to everyone. Everyone, that is, except for Kosa.

“We should maintain a bit of urgency about this, after all,” he told Lara.

She was about to protest when Kosa laid a hand on her arm.

“It's all right. You forget who I am—where I come from.” He straightened and stared at Reiss. “I have gone for days without food or drink in this country.”

Reiss smiled. “Hopefully this won't take anywhere near as long as that.”

They marched on, heading up the canyon walls. It was night now—the guards flanking her and Kosa took out flashlights and shone them on the path ahead. The landscape began to look familiar to Lara—the rock formations, the dirt beneath her feet…this was the way the Orb had shown her.

And then, all at once, the path came to an end.

They stood at the edge of a forest. Not jungle—the trees ahead of her were tall, slender, isolated shapes against the moonlit sky beyond. There was no brush in the space between the trees—no signs of life anywhere.

“The Petrified Forest,” Kosa said.

“What?”

“I've heard of this place, but—”

A terrible scream came from the trees directly in front of them, followed almost instantaneously by a second and then a third, each louder than the next.

“Jesus Christ,” one of the guards said. “What the hell was that?”

Kosa pointed to the treetops. Lara saw shapes darting about there, and a second later, her eyes had adjusted enough that she could pick out details.

“Baboons.”

“Yes,” Kosa said. “They're letting us know this is their territory. They will defend it aggressively.”

“Filthy apes,” Sean said, stepping forward and raising his gun to his shoulder.

“No, no,” Reiss said. “Save the ammunition. They will fall back.”

The doctor was right—even now, the apes were scurrying away from them, into the depths of the forest. Lara followed their progress and then saw something else, in the distance beyond.

The final rise to the summit. The moonlight made it hard to judge distances accurately, but she guessed they had three more miles to go, at the most.

Reiss was within striking distance of Pandora.

If the shadow guardians didn't show soon, she was going to have to make alternate plans to deal with him.

The doctor stepped up alongside her.

“Through here or not?” he demanded.

Lara hesitated a moment, then decided that if it came down to a fight, the forest would provide her better cover—a better chance at turning the tables on Reiss.

“Yes,” she said.

Sean stepped up on her other side.

“Then move,” he said, pushing her—and then Kosa—into the forest.

It was like entering another world.

Petrified Forest was perhaps not an entirely accurate name—whatever the trees were that made up this patch of jungle, they were most definitely not petrified—but she could see where the term had come from. The trees looked as if they were made of stone—gray, sleek, branchless shafts that stood stock straight, spaced apart with what seemed like almost mathematical precision.

They didn't, Lara decided, seem like living things at all.

Shafts of moonlight shone down through the canopy, casting one patch of forest in brilliant white and leaving a second, right next to it, in pitch darkness. All the guards had flashlights out now and the beams, darting through the woods, catching the glare from the moon in places, turned the forest around them into an eerie, flickering light show.

Next to her, Kosa's head suddenly darted left and then right.

“What is it?” she asked quietly.

“Listen.”

Gradually, she began to hear it.

A low, rumbling sound—like the distorted tremors of some angry volcano. There were subsonic components to the noise, as well—something felt as much as heard, a sound that reached right inside her and made her feel faintly queasy and more than a little bit scared.

Because she knew exactly what the sound was.

“Shadow guardians,” she whispered to Kosa.

“Just in time,” he nodded, casting a fearful gaze around, looking not at all happy about the news.

Reiss stepped forward.

“Keep moving.”

Lara turned around and smiled at him.

“Your wish is my command,” she said and set off again.

 

Bryce knew Sheridan was less likely to kill them than Reiss, but the man still made him very, very nervous. The way he had methodically dispatched every guard Reiss had left behind, betraying not an ounce of remorse or emotion as he went about his business…that MI6 man had been right. Sheridan was a killing machine. Best to stay out of his way entirely.

Hillary had the same idea, apparently. The two of them hadn't moved a muscle since Sheridan had gone after their guard. They stood outside the helicopter he'd been hiding in, watching as he scavenged among the equipment that had belonged to Reiss's men, picking and choosing his weapons.

He slung a single rifle across his shoulder and stalked over to them.

“Do you know where she's going?”

Bryce and Hillary looked at each other.

“No,” Bryce said. “We don't.”

Sheridan studied them carefully.

“What are you going to do?” Hillary asked.

Sheridan suddenly jabbed a pistol right up against Hillary's throat.

“Worried about your precious skins? Or your precious Lara?”

Bryce tried to clear his throat. It came out as a squeak.

“Both, actually.”

“I don't blame you,” Sheridan replied. “But you don't have anything to fear from me.”

“I'd find that easier to believe without the gun at my throat,” Hillary croaked.

Sheridan lowered the weapon.

“I don't suppose either of you can fly a helicopter?”

Bryce nodded. “I can.”

“What…?” Hillary shook his head. “Don't fool around, Bryce. He's serious.”

“He” meaning Sheridan. But Bryce was serious, too.

“I have one hundred and fifty hours of flight time.”

“Really?” Sheridan looked impressed.

“Yes. Between simulators and models.”

“How about the real thing? How many hours have you actually spent flying a copter?”

“Eleven.”

Hillary moaned softly. But Sheridan, to Bryce's surprise, didn't seem deterred by that revelation at all.

“You're only going to fly it once I'm gone, so…”

He threw Bryce a set of keys.

“Those are for the shackles. Undo yourselves and let's get this thing in the air.”

He climbed into the copter.

A moment later, Bryce and a very reluctant Hillary followed.

 

They went another fifty feet through the forest when suddenly, someone screamed.

The noise came from the back of the group. Everyone stopped walking at once.

“What the hell was that?” Sean asked.

“Those baboons?” one of the guards asked hopefully.

“Not a baboon,” Reiss said. His eyes went to Lara and he frowned. “That was a man.”

Another guard—Lara didn't recognize him, he must have been with the group bringing up the rear—came jogging forward. “Cassovitch. He was walking with us a minute ago and now he's gone.”

Sean frowned. He pointed to the guard who'd just joined them and then two others.

“You three. Check on him!”

The men nodded—somewhat reluctantly, Lara thought—and turned around, heading back into the forest the way they'd come.

Lara looked up to find Reiss's eyes still on her. The good doctor suspected something was up. Smart man.

For all the good it would do him.

They walked on. Kosa and she were alone at the front of the group now. He cast a nervous glance over his shoulder.

“Whatever they are. They're getting closer.”

Lara nodded and thought: Just in time. The summit was getting closer, as well.

All at once, gunfire exploded behind them. One weapon, then a second, and a third. She heard screaming—sudden, intense, agonized. And beneath the screaming…other sounds, as well. Low-pitched, rumbling…not human.

A burst of staccato gunfire sounded again—then the forest fell silent.

“What's happening back there?” Sean asked. He looked at Reiss, and the doctor, in turn, looked at Lara once more.

They were all facing back the way they'd come now. The man at the rear group raised his weapon.

“There!” He pointed at one of the trees. Lara didn't see anything at first.

Then a shadow swooped down out of the forest and passed between the guard and the tree he pointed at—a bat? No. Too big to be a bat.

With a howl, the guard ran forward, firing as he went.

He got perhaps ten feet before something reached down from the trees and grabbed him up.