by Dan Abnett
Lara had hoped to repeat the trick she’d managed on her back. She’d hoped to throw the Immortal’s body over hers, and then make a dash for the gun.
It didn’t work.
The Immortal dropped a little in his knees and bent over Lara from the waist, but his stomach muscles held firm. She did not penetrate the wall of his body, nor did she knock him off his feet.
“Enough, Miss Croft,” said a voice, behind her.
It was Ares.
“I think you’ve had enough, don’t you?” he asked her.
She’d sat back on her heels, and her head had dropped onto her chest, but Lara had not turned to look at Ares. She didn’t need to. She knew she was beaten.
“Stand up, Miss Croft,” said Ares. “Maintain a little dignity.”
Lara stood slowly, and turned to face Ares. He stepped out of the shadow of the chapel tower door at the far end of the walkway.
The Immortal, standing behind her, took Lara by the wrist and forced her left arm back in a lock, making her elbow twinge. She was determined not to cry out, but her lips pursed involuntarily.
“There is no need for that, Karan,” said Ares. “Miss Croft will not resist.”
“Are you sure about that?” asked Lara.
Ares laughed.
“Quite sure, my dear,” said Ares. “What would be the purpose? You are not a stupid woman. You are young, but you have insight. You are brave, too, and you honour your friend with your exhaustive efforts to procure my artifact.”
“Your artifact?” asked Lara.
“That which I conceive as my own, invariably falls into my possession,” said Ares. “It was ever thus.”
“Objects do not fall into your possession,” said Lara. “You kill for them.”
“Have you not killed, Miss Croft?” asked Ares.
“For my own ends?” asked Lara. “Never.”
Ares laughed again.
“And when your ends are your survival or the survival of your friends?” asked Ares.
“I am not you,” said Lara. “I am not like you.”
“No,” said Ares, “you are not. It is a pity. I could use you, Miss Croft, but you are too good, too noble, too selfless.”
“Thank you,” said Lara. “It’s only a pity that Kennard Montez didn’t kill you.”
“The young man I warned you about,” said Ares. “I savor his name. You see, sometimes the things I conceive as my own do fall into my possession.”
Lara was ambivalent. She didn’t know whether to care or not. She couldn’t decide whether Kennard was as bad as Ares. Either way, both men wanted her dead. She was backed into a corner. Ares was going to kill her. She had the ram statuette. She could feel it jammed into the gun holster at her waist. It felt warm and heavy against her belly. Its presence reassured her. Soon it would be gone. And she would be dead. None of it mattered any more.
“Now, Miss Croft, if you’d like to hand me the Golden Fleece,” said Ares. “This can all be over in a moment.
“Whether I give it to you or not, you’re still going to kill me,” said Lara.
“Just one shot, Miss Croft, your choice of head or heart. As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, I suspect you’re ruled by your heart,” said Ares. “No matter. I’m sure Karan will have no compunction taking the Golden Fleece off your corpse.”
“Assuming you can kill me while it is in my possession,” said Lara.
Ares put his hand inside his jacket to pull out the little Derringer that he had insisted belonged to President Lincoln’s assassin.
“The weapon that killed a president has magic of its own,” said Ares.
Lara noticed for the first time that Ares was no longer wearing a tie. She saw the bloodstain on his shirt, and then noticed the small hole in his jacket as it fell back into place. So, Kennard had shot him after all.
Then, she was looking down the barrel of the Derringer pointing at her chest.
Ares took several purposeful strides towards Lara.
Karan took two steps back away from her.
“Don’t worry so much, Karan,” said Ares, holding John Wilkes Booth’s gun lovingly in his hand for a moment, and looking at it. “The bullet from this little weapon will kill Miss Croft, but it won’t penetrate her body, even from this distance. You’re quite safe.”
Lara thought she felt the first bullet sing past her face. Karan’s body had not hit the planks of the chapel roof walkway when the second report rang out. Lara watched as a great splash of red bloomed on Ares’s immaculate shirtfront. He had still been admiring the Derringer in his hand when he had been shot in the back.
Ares’s hand went limp as he looked down at his chest. The gun fell to the planks with a clatter. It bounced, and fired a shot into the parapet wall, which ricocheted off the tiled roof opposite. There was a bang and a spray of stone dust, and then a crack and a puff of orange tile dust.
A spot of blood appeared on Ares’s lip, and then he went down. He toppled like a felled tree. He didn’t crumple or fold, but stayed straight and true, falling flat, as horizontal as he had been vertical only a moment before.
Chapter 35
Lara ducked behind the parapet wall. She crawled over Karan’s body and grabbed her gun. Crouching against the turret room, she held the gun at arm’s length in two hands and looked for a target.
“Why aren’t I dead?” she asked herself.
She scanned for a target again, but her view from below the height of the parapet wall and behind the turret was very limited. She could see Karan’s and Ares’s bodies stretched out on the walkway ahead of her and the pitched roof to her left. She could see the entrance to the chapel tower ahead of her, and she could see a small section of the top of the chapel roof. That was all.
Karan’s head was only a few feet in front of her, and that was where he’d been shot. She shuffled forwards on her hands and knees and examined his fatal wound. She didn’t know much about angles and trajectories, but she could see enough to guess.
Lara centred herself, crouching on the walkway. Then, she turned her head to the approximate angle of Karan’s gunshot wound. Whoever had shot him had been standing on the chapel roof, but low down, below where Lara could see. If the shooter had been standing on the portion of roof that Lara could see from her squatting position, the bullet would have gone downwards and emerged at the base of his skull or gone into his torso. It hadn’t.
Lara hadn’t been shot, because she’d ducked fast enough. The shooter couldn’t see her.
Lara was safe for the moment. She had some time to think. The shooter only had a view of her from a small section high up on the chapel roof. If she got in the little turret, he wouldn’t be able to see her at all.
Kennard Montez raised a hand in a kind of farewell greeting to the policeman, but he was aware that he was still being watched, so he had to enter the chapel. He was losing valuable seconds.
He stayed as close to the entrance as he could. When he was sure he wasn’t being watched, he made his way to the stairs up to the roof. From there, he’d have good access to Mob Quad, and a good chance of intercepting Lara Croft. He knew and Ares knew that Lara had the ram statuette. The rest should be straightforward.
Kennard stepped out of the tower door onto the chapel roof walkway. He glanced along the walkway to the tiny turret at the other end, but saw nothing and no one. He vaulted the low wall onto the chapel roof, dropped down onto the wide gutter ledge, and walked along, negotiating the buttresses that jutted up between the windows below.
Halfway along the gutter ledge, Kennard stopped and looked back towards the walkway. He had heard movement. He saw an Immortal move along the walkway, and lifted his gun. He hesitated. There was no sign of Lara Croft or of Ares, and he didn’t want to signal his position by firing his weapon. This man was incidental, for now.
Kennard dropped his back against the pitch of the chapel roof and slid down. He could still see the length of the walkway, and he could hear the Immortal’s footfalls on the wooden floor. He preferred not to be seen.
The Immortal disappeared behind the turret, and Kennard heard scuffling. He adjusted his position, shifting his back up the roof so that he was more upright. Soon he was standing, aiming his gun, watching the skirmish unfold between Karan and Lara Croft. If he could get a clean shot in, and take out the Immortal, he would do it.
Kennard Montez stood firm on the wide gutter ledge, shifting his position by taking a short step to the left or right, moving his hands a few centimetres one way or another, keeping his sights on the Immortal and Lara. Several times, they dipped below the parapet wall.
Kennard thought about taking a position further up the roof, but the pitch was steep and he couldn’t be sure of a firm firing stance. He would need to fire a very accurate shot to take out the Immortal and not risk killing Lara in the process. If he had to kill her during the operation, he would do it, even though he had liked her from the beginning. If Ares killed her, so be it.
Finally, Lara was out of sight, below the parapet wall, the Immortal standing over her.
Kennard had no way to know whether she was alive or dead. No shot had been fired, but the Immortals were trained killers and Lara might have been killed in any number of ways. Kennard wanted to shoot the man, but it was out of the question. He still needed to find Ares. He still needed to protect his position.
Then, he heard the Immortal speak, and he saw Ares emerge from the tower door onto the walkway.
“Enough, Miss Croft.”
So, Lara was alive after all.
Kennard stood on the gutter ledge of the chapel, arms steady. He sighted Ares, and he sighted the Immortal. It was unlikely that anyone was going to spot him in the circumstances.
He watched the scene play out and listened to the conversation between Ares and Lara Croft. She was an impressive young woman.
Kennard was relieved when Karan stepped back from Lara, and he had a clear shot at the Immortal. He swung his weapon from Karan to Ares and back again, twice. He wanted to make sure that he could kill both men fast, reflexively, with two bullets and no repercussions. The Immortal appeared to be unarmed. Ares’s weapon fired only one bullet.
It was Kennard Montez’s lucky day.
Then, Kennard was amazed to see Ares stop pointing the gun at Lara to look at it. It was too good to be true.
Kennard Montez shot the Immortal standing behind Lara first. He couldn’t be sure the man didn’t have a gun, and he knew that all the Immortals were equipped to kill with their bare hands. Lara wouldn’t be able to hold him off for long. The second shot, the body shot to Ares’s back, was easy. Kennard fired it almost reflexively before his first target had gone down.
He didn’t fire a third shot.
Lara Croft had done exactly what she was supposed to do.
She had done exactly what Kennard Montez had hoped she would do.
Lara Croft had ducked.
Kennard Montez sighted his firearm again, but he could not see his third target, because she was below the line of the parapet wall.
He turned and scaled the chapel roof. He was right; the pitch was too steep, and the surface was too slick. While he was climbing, Kennard decided that it would be impossible to get a good enough stance anywhere on the roof to get a good shot at anyone on the chapel roof walkway. He decided to abort the attempt.
Kennard Montez would have to find another way to retrieve the ram statuette for Trinity, and he would have to find another way to dispose of Lara Croft. He had, at least, accomplished part of his mission. He had neutralised Ares, and the last of the Immortals.
Kennard allowed himself to slide down the far side of the chapel roof. He landed softly on the gutter ledge. There, he paused for a moment to put his hand over the chest of his jacket and feel the hard rectangular shape of the Queen Mary tin tucked in the inside pocket.
Trinity trained its agents well. They were very good. The Immortal waiting in the alley between Fellows’ Quad and Mob Quad to catch Lara’s tin wasn’t an Immortal at all. He was one of Kennard Montez’s men. He was Trinity, and he had done his job impeccably.
There were police stationed at every exit, and Lara’s only way out was to stay above ground. The chapel tower was the highest point in Merton College. Kennard guessed that was where she would go next. He hoped he was right.
Kennard holstered his gun, and walked the gutter ledge to the tower. He considered scaling the roof back to the walkway, but if she was there, she might flee across the rooftops again. He didn’t want to risk her falling. He didn’t want the police involved, and he didn’t want to fight her. If he was right and she made for the tower, he’d find another route.
Kennard looked up at the side of the tower. He found his first handhold, and he began to climb.
Chapter 36
It was quiet inside the tiny turret. Lara sat for what felt like a long time. She rubbed the scratches on her face from the glass and broken tiles, but the blood had gone and there was no pain. Her ribs didn’t seem to be hurting either, and when she flexed her elbow it didn’t appear to be as bad as she remembered.
Good, she thought. What’s next?
“What’s next is you need to get yourself out of here, Lara,” she whispered.
Lara reasoned that the best escape was to get inside. If there was a gunman on the chapel roof, then she needed to get into cover, and she couldn’t stay in the turret cupboard forever. The roofs of Mob Quad wouldn’t be safe, either.
If he scaled the chapel roof and he can’t see me, perhaps he’s figures I escaped, she thought. I could wait it out.
She thought through the architecture in her mind, visualising her view from the walkway. From below the parapet, she had only been able to see a portion of the chapel roof and the tower looming high above it.
If I can get to the tower without being seen, she thought, I’ll be looking down on him.
The walkway was still a problem. It was long and narrow, and there was nowhere for her to hide. The shooter was a good marksman. He’d taken out Karan and Ares fast and accurately with two bullets. The first was a perfect head shot. Wherever he was on the roof, he’d get a shot at Lara at some point along the walkway. She had to assume he was still on the roof. She had to assume he was somewhere higher up on the roof.
Lara had fired a gun. She knew she could shoot, and she knew she could kill if she had to. She knew she wasn’t a marksman. She didn’t stand a chance of killing this man before he got a shot at her, and if he shot first she was dead.
Then, there was the problem of the bodies. There were two bodies sprawled on the narrow walkway. There was no way around them. Lara would have to climb over them. It would take time, and she’d be exposed. If she tried to run over them, she’d be above the parapet. If she crawled over them, she’d be slow and she’d be a bigger target.
The bodies were a big problem.
“What do I do with the wretched bodies?” she whispered. “Think, Lara.”
She didn’t have to think for long.
Lara stood up in the little turret. She squatted a few times to test the strength in her legs. She rotated her shoulders and flexed her elbows. She felt strong. She felt strong enough. Dead weight was heavy, but neither the Immortal nor Ares were big men, and she’d be on all fours.
Lara crawled out of the turret. She looked up at the section of chapel roof that was visible above the parapet wall, but could see nothing. Then, she shuffled over to Karan’s body. On all fours, she pulled the Immortal’s body onto her back, wrapped her right arm firmly around his shoulder, and pulled him onto her so that his head fell forward over her shoulder. Then, she started to crawl forwards, using his corpse as a shield. If she was shot, at least her injuries shouldn’t be f
atal.
Karan’s body was heavy, but Lara was determined, and it didn’t take long before she reached Ares’s prone figure. She was relieved to find that he really was dead. She could see his face in profile. It was slack and awkward. His lips were blue and his skin ashen, and his eye was open and staring.
Lara was looking into that eye when her hand fell on the cold, hard barrel of the little Derringer. She didn’t know if she could hold Karan’s weight with one arm, but she was suddenly determined not to leave the artifact behind. If it was what he had claimed it to be, it should be returned to the Ford’s Theatre Museum. If it was merely an old Derringer, it was still the weapon that Ares had meant to kill her with.
Lara heaved Karan’s body against the parapet wall, hoping it would take some of his weight, and, as quickly as she could, shoved the Derringer into the waistband of her jeans towards the small of her back. She had to wedge her hand between her own body and Karan’s, and it took a few moments to secure the Derringer. She was breathing hard when she rolled back into position, and she almost slumped down onto Ares’s body when the full weight of the Immortal landed on her back once more.
She had to decide whether to ditch Karan and use Ares’s body, or crawl over the loathsome corpse.
Lara couldn’t stand it anymore. She heaved herself upright on her knees, sliding Karan’s corpse off her back. Then, she stood up fast and lunged forwards. She planted one foot on
Ares’s back and the next between his knees, and then she was down again, squatting between his feet. She crawled the last few feet of the walkway to the tower door.
It was a huge risk, but there was no gunfire.
Lara stood in the doorway to the chapel tower and breathed a sigh of relief. She had been reckless and she knew it, but the idea of touching Ares’s body had been too much for her. She wanted to take off the right boot that had made contact with his corpse’s back and toss it away. He appalled her as much in death as he had in life.