古墓5 原文劇情

[Po Yu]

Lara steps into the room and peeks around to the corner to find Yarofev sitting on the floor of the room. The water flooding the room is up to his chest. Lara runs to him and kneels down beside him.

Yarofev turns to her and speaks weakly, "I knew that old Sergei would be the end of us all. He infects my ship with his greed and now we are all doomed."

Lara, not ready to give up protests. "We have a chance. The escape pod. Come on! I'll help you," she urges him.

Yarofev confesses his sins, "I do this only to help my men. He babbles of the Biblical spear and I feed his madness for money to feed our families. And now... to these... corpses left for the fishes."

"Yarofev," Lara presses, "I can help you but you must help me. The ship is about to impact into the ocean bed and then our time is up. We must hurry."

Yarofev coughs and explains, "The escape pods have no internal air supply. You will find oxygen tanks in my stateroom. I hear my ship dying. The internal seals are splintering."

[Po Yu]

With the escape pod in working order, Lara climbs back down the ladder to help Admiral Yarofev up into the pod. As she reaches down to pull Yarofev up, he waves his hand, slapping Lara's hands away, "Nyet! No time," He insists. "The hull is breached and we will drown soon. With the oxygen you escape. Now!"

"Not without you," Lara replies stubbornly.

"I am Admiral Yarofev of the Russian Imperial Navy. I have served my great country for many years. But the country I know withers. The bear lies down to sleep for its final time," Yarofev laments. "And I wish also this fate on the ship I have grown to love.

"No deal," Lara tells him sternly.

"Yes, deal!" Yarofev snaps back. "For the outer airlock can only be opened from inside the ship. This is my gift to you, child. I release you to a future beyond this dying vessel."

Lara squats down beside the Admiral and asks, "And my gift to you?"

Yarofev suggests "Tell my story. Tell how the proud men of the Russian navy fought against the enemy from inside and sacrificed their lives so their dear country might once again stand proud."

"You have my word," Lara promises.

"I salute you. Quickly! Into the airlock and I will release you," Yarofev insists.

Lara obeys and climbs up the ladder. Part way up the ladder, she turns and tells him, "Good-bye, Admiral." After climbing into the escape pod, the airlock door snaps shut behind her and she looks up through the glass of the pod at the ocean above.

The crippled Russian submarine continues to sink slowly, as Admiral Yarofev crawls over to the control panel. His breath is quite ragged and labored. He releases the escape pod and it shoots upward.

Meanwhile an eerie finger of light oozes into the escape pod's control room. Yarofev can do nothing but watch it approach. Lara, is unaware of any of this as the escape pod continues to shoot toward the surface.

With no options, the Admiral can only sit in terror as the white light draws near to him. The horror lasts but a moment when the light engulfs the Admiral, the room, and then the entire submarine.

The whole submarine explodes in a bright undersea explosion, and the escape pod reaches the surface.

On a small salvage vessel on the surface, Jean-Yves is perched in front of a monitor of an undersea sonar. Suddenly he spots a bright blip on the monitor, and he quickly turns, grabs a rifle and heads above deck.

Jean-Yves takes aim on the escape pod after it pops above the surface. He chambers a round, but looking through the rifle's scope, he sees the occupant of the escape pod is Lara, and he lowers the weapon.

Back in the present, Jean-Yves concludes his tale back in the study of the Croft manor, "Lara saw enough of the power of this artifact to recognize its rightful place was where man could never again misuse it."

Father Dunstan, adds "And not enough for it to destroy her. Some powers are beyond the wit of man."

A flash of lightening very near to the estate disrupts power to the mansion, and the three men find themselves sitting by the glow of only the fire in the hearth.

"Oh dear, gentlemen. I do apologize," Winston remarks at the melodramatic timing of the power outage. "It seems someone up above has a sense of humor. If you will excuse me a moment I shall fetch candles." He rises slowly and shuffles out of the room.

"It's a night spurred by hell," Jean-Yves remarks, while staring out the window at the stormy night.

"And as the horsemen drover ever onward across the world, the heavens boiled in their wake. Ah, benefits of a religious education," Father Dunstan adds with a little smile and a blink.

[Po Yu]

By the light of the fire, Father Dunstan comments on the pouring rain outside, "This night reminds me of the time out at Connussie."

"Winston's Home?" Jean-Yves asks.

"Indeed! Yes," Father Dunstan replies. The two men are gathered by the window. Now both are watching the rain. "The staff had taken leave due to flooding. Lara, back when she was a slip of a girl, was staying with Winston and his wife. It was her that contacted me, as a matter of fact. Some trouble out at one of the islands. Weird lights. Manifestations. That sort of thing." As the two men gaze outside, they can see a bolt of lightning strike a tree at the edge of the grounds. The scene brings their minds to Winston's humble home in a little town in Ireland.

"Thought I might be able to help," Father Dunstan continues. "It was on a hellish night like this when I arrived." The night that Father Dunstan describes, so many years ago, indeed was like this night.

In a bedroom of a small cottage, the windows are slightly ajar. Outside it is pouring rain. A young Lara Croft, is found sitting on her bed in Winston's house, dressed in a pair of green shorts and a T shirt. She lays her night gown on the bed and crosses her arms to pull off her shirt and change for bed. As she pulls her shirt above her midriff, she hears a pounding at the front the door. She allows her shirt to fall back down as her curiosity grows. She wonders who can be traipsing around in this weather.

The front door of the cottage creaks open and a back-lit figure with a wide brimmed hat standing is standing in the doorway. The figure, dressed in a long black coat, steps into the humble cottage. The figure speaks, "Evenin' Winston, and how would I be able to help?" The figure steps into the front room of the small house and pulls off his hat to reveal it is none other than a much younger Father Patrick Dunstan.

The two men sit down at a table in the front room. "So people have seen these apparitions out a the island?" Father Dunstan begins.

"There's talk of little else in the village, Bram. I'm doing all I can to keep this gossip from Lara," a younger Winston confirms. In her bedroom, Lara sneaks up to her bedroom door and opens it slightly to eavesdrop on the men's conversation.

"Aye, yet would be a wise man," Father Dunstan complements Winston. "It would be unwise for her curiosity to draw her to that place."

"And you have some idea of what it could be?" Winston asks.

"To be frank with you, no," Father Dunstan admits. Lara peeks her face out of her room and watches the men. "But as the devil finds work for idle hands, I've spoken with Father Finnegan, and I have a boat chartered for the crossing late on this very evening."

"Good Lord, Bram! You have not chosen the evening for it?" Winston asks. The worry in his voice is quite apparent.

"I have my faith to protect me, Winston," Father Dunstan states firmly. Lara moves back a little into her room.

"Be careful, I fear that on that island it is what you cannot see that will hurt you, Bram"

"Time to get to the bottom of this, old friend." Father Dunstan rises. Lara runs lightly across her room and vaults sprightly out the open window on one hand and drops to the ground outside.

The evening has begun to clear, and the moon is visible through the clouds. There is still a bit of fog hanging over the, now calm, waters. At the docks, Father Dunstan is at the bow of a small boat. The man at the helm applies the throttle and pilots it away from the dock and turns to wave to Winston. Winston, standing on the dock, waves back, and the small boat heads out to sea. In the distance, lighting is still streaking from the sky.

As the boat makes the crossing, the waters of the open sea are choppier than near the shore. Lara, who has snuck aboard is hiding inside a hold on the small boat, pops her head up out of the hold to get a glimpse of what's happening outside.

The boat approaches a rocky island and lightning strikes the island. Father Dunstan, still standing at the bow of the boat, surveys the island. They reach a small wooden dock, where Father Dunstan disembarks.

The boat leaves and Father Dunstan waves to the pilot of the boat. He walks a short distance to a sheer rock face. He operates some kind of secret switch, and a section of the rock swings open, revealing a torch-lit tunnel.

Lara, crouching by the dock watches Father Dunstan step into the tunnel with great interest.

[Po Yu]

Lara steps forward cautiously. She is startled by the ring of a church bell from the tower behind her. She turns and looks up at the tower, and then turns back and continues to move forward.

Suddenly in a flash of light with the crackling of electricity, a decomposing corpse suddenly appears, dangling by a noose from the gnarled tree ahead. The corpse is swinging slowly in the wind and missing one hand.

It begins to speak, "Come child. Come closer for I have gifts for thee."

"I'll stay where I am," Lara answers bravely.

The corpse lets out a sinister laugh. The rope creaks as the corpse continues to swing in the wind as it attempts to reassure Lara, "Fear not this visage. It is but a vessel for my troubled spirit." It takes a creepy labored breath and continues. "Hsst.. Come closer for you are safe while I am hung like so much butchered meat."

"Who are you?" Lara asks nervously.

"Who?" The corpse asks back wondering how to answer, but continues along a different tack, "Hmm... For it is more like what. Condemned to wander between the kingdoms of man and that of the elementals. Hmm... But I must be swift in my request. Hsst... For they watch and wait to once more draw me back into the darkness." The corpse gestures in a sort of general way with its one hand.

"Request?" Lara asks.

"My heart, girl," the corpse answers impatiently. "They have hidden my petrified heart in this, the World Tree." The corpse gestures again, this time to what appears to be a grove of trees off to Lara's left. "Down under the watchful gaze of the dragon, Neadhog. Hmm... Find this, my child, and return it to its rightful resting place." The corpse gestures once more at the gaping hole in its chest. "Hsst... And you shall be rewarded!"

"And why on earth should I trust you?" Lara asks skeptically, with the emphasis on "you".

"Not on earth, girl," the corpse answers. "In between." It chuckles and coughs. "My soul is gone and how it fares nobody knows and nobody cares." It chuckles once more, and with a electrical zap and a flash the corpse is gone, leaving just the gnarled tree in the clearing with a small campfire.

[Po Yu]

When Lara picks up the heart, a stone door will slide open. Lara turns and steps toward the opening and slides down the slope beside the opening. She pokes her head around the corner and peers down into the chamber below.

She hears the voice of Father Dunstan over a unnatural hissing and groaning, "Go back to your slumberings. This is but a child, and she shall not cross your path as you shall not cross hers" Lara finds Father Dunstan leaning over a deep pit performing some sort of rite.

"Come closer for often it is easier to be brave from a distance," the unnatural voice calls out.

"I am here now," Father Dunstan calls down into the pit. "And I have a gift for you, you cantankerous worm." He tosses something into the pit.

The voice seethes with anger and calls out, "Arrgh! Curse you priest! If you live till doomsday you shall burn a week longer than the world! I swear!"

Father Dunstan turns casually to Lara and shrugs casually, "Iron. Never found a demon yet that doesn't burn at its touch."

"What was in the hole?" Lara asks timidly.

"In the... Nevermind that," Father Dunstan quickly changing the subject. "What on earth are you doing here? No, don't bother," He quickly decides that he doesn't want to know. "We'll get on to that later. Right now we need to get you out to somewhere safe until the morning. That's assuming you'll stay in once place, young lady."

"Nothing with demons, right?" Lara asks sweetly.

"Well, I can't promise anything in this God-forsaken place. I'll light the way and go on ahead to clear out any unwelcome guests. Now once you're out, head to the chapel over the bridge. I'll meet you there." Father Dunstan turns and begins to go. Suddenly he stops and turns to Lara, "I'm forgetting me manners. Don't speak to strange things and if there's anything around, and trust in me skills in this area there shouldn't be. Iron, girl. Use iron to repel 'em. See you on top. Keep your wits about you." Father Dunstan finishes dispensing his advice and moves up the tunnel.

[Po Yu]

Lara examines the open coffin and cautiously steps through. She slips and falls ungracefully down a steep ramp and lands on her face. She lets out a grunt of pain and starts to get on her feet.

As she works her way onto her knees, she turns to find white-haired figure in black robes holding a torch. She stumbles backwards away from the figure, which suddenly turns around. Lara finds that the figure is Father Patrick, and his hair has gone completely white.

Father Patrick is somewhat surprised by Lara's jumpy behavior, and tells her, "Good Lord, girl. It's me." He helps Lara to her feet. "I've enough on me plate without you making me jump outta me skin, Lara."

Lara looks up and points to the top of his head, "Your hair..."

"What about me hair?" Father Patrick asks.

"It's... white!" Lara replies.

"Hmm..." Father Patrick mumbles as he plucks a strand off his head to examine it. "Aye. That'd be right," He agrees. "I was detained by some unpleasant fellows from down below. Gave me quite a fright," He chuckles pleasantly. "That's why I wasn't at the chapel, but I can see you've kept yourself busy. Anyways, let's get you outta here, and back to safety."

Father Patrick gestures and Lara walks on ahead of him as they exit the labyrinth together.

[Po Yu]

Lara and Father Patrick step out of a tunnel and out onto a hillside. It is still raining out here. Father Patrick immediately begins to give Lara instructions, "Right, young lady, I'm going to have a quick look around now for a safe place to put you. Now you stay put, or you'll be banging into something that'll make your hair turn white. And we wouldn't be wanting that now, would we?"

Lara remembers the book she picked up, "Father, I found a book in the labyrinth."

Father Patrick is flabbergasted, "You've been sight-seeing in there as well? Good Lord almighty, girl! I'll be needin' to chain ya to something."

Lara tries to give the book to Father Patrick. "It has protective symbols," she points out. "Maybe you can use them."

"Bless you for the thought, but I've enough protection from Him above," Father Patrick refuses graciously. Father Patrick points to the book, "And for that diagram to be any good you'd have to draw it out and be sittin' in the middle of it." An owl hoots in the distance, and Father Patrick continues, "And you know something, I've left all me coloring pens at home tonight. Now, you'll be doing me a big favor if you were to stay put before you bang into something bigger than you. "

Lara nods enthusiastically in agreement, "Stay put. Right!" However, as much as she would like to obey, it's just not in her nature not to explore.

Run forward down the path past the dark dirt patch. A demon horseman appears on the hillside ahead. It rides down toward Lara with his sword drawn. Lara recognizes that she's out gunned, so she beats a hasty retreat back down the path. As the horseman rides past he takes a swing at Lara. She ducks down and avoids the horseman's swing, but stumbles forward and flops face down on the path.

The horseman dismounts the dark steed and steps toward Lara. It grabs her by the neck and lifts her up by her neck. Lara struggles, but the horseman is holding her so high that her toes are a foot or more off the ground. The horseman sizes Lara up and decides that she's not a threat, so he tosses her back toward the opening to the labyrinth. He mounts his steed and rides away.

[Po Yu]

Lara drops to her knees and begins to draw a protective symbol. The demon horseman reemerges at the top of the hill ahead. Lara hurries and completes the symbol.

The horseman charges at Lara but the protective symbol stops him cold. The steed however is allowed to pass through the symbol, so as a result the demon horseman is knocked off of the dark steed.

The symbol however doesn't prevent the demon horseman from taking a swing at Lara with his sword. He raises his sword with both hands, but just before he deals Lara a deathblow, Father Patrick appears from the tunnel, grabbing Lara, and pulling her out of reach of the demon horseman's swing.

Lara quickly scampers away, as the horseman grabs Father Patrick by the neck. The horseman lifts Father Patrick up by the neck and hits him in the side of the head with the hilt of his sword. The dark steed returns and the horseman heaves Father Patrick onto the steed.

Lara turns and watches helplessly as the horseman mounts the steed and rides away.

[Po Yu]

When Lara steps out of the tunnel, the demon horseman will burst through the doors of a barn ahead. Father Patrick is still folded over the back of the horse. The horseman dismounts and pulls up Father Patrick's head by his hair.

The horseman raises his sword to Father Patrick's neck and begins to rant, "Who is this that stands before me? The first to visit me in my prison seven hundred years past."

"Seven hundred years?" Father Patrick asks in surprise. "All alone in a barn? Huh, those winter nights must have just flown by."

"Silence, ignorant heretic, or I behead you!" The horseman replies angrily. He reaches up and heaves Father Patrick down off the horse. Father Patrick slams down onto the ground in a heap at the horseman's feet.

Father Patrick lets out a sincere "Oof!" when he hits the ground.

"Leave him be!" Lara threatens the horseman.

The horseman chuckles at Lara's empty threat and comments, "For the child has spirit, but what is that? When this island is littered with the bones of holy men. My gift to them for their spirit in obstructing me from claiming my rightful inheritance." A crash of thunder sounds in the distance.

"And this inheritance, I would wonder, would be some way to explain why your walking and breathing when you should be gone long past," Father Patrick inquires.

"The inheritance is the gift of eternal life," the horseman replies. "Contained within an ancient scroll. Concealed by the Dollard Abbot and his cohorts. The scroll, which draws forth pale demon blood through my veins. I am no longer man. I am one for the earth and one for above the gaping abyss of Hades."

"So why stay on the island?" Father Patrick asks. "Came for a holiday and fell in love with the scenery?"

"Hold your yapping tongue for want I clip it!" The horseman answers angrily, and kicks Father Patrick. "Boils and plagues plaster over this island and its treacherous inhabitants! For it was they, and their ox little abbot, who plotted to incarcerate me in this dungeon hall for an eternity. I, Vladimir Kaleta, who worshipped in the first Kremlin, who butchered the Swede and the Lefsky on the banks of the River Neva. Incarcerated within this prison of flowing water!"

"Running water... You're trapped here by running water!" Lara exclaims with excitement, now being armed with useful information.

"Demons cannot cross running water," Father Patrick confirms aloud.

"Indeed. The abbot's final trick before I was transformed." The horseman turns to Lara, "And you shall find a way to shore up this stream or your holy man shall be opened up and gutted like live fruk." He heaves Father Patrick back onto the steed, mounts it, and rides back into the barn. The barn doors slam shut behind the horseman after he passes."

[Po Yu]

Doing so will stop the water wheel, which in turn stops the flowing water that surrounds the barn. As Lara makes her way out of the small mill, the horseman bursts out through the barn doors. It raises both its arms triumphantly and lets out a satisfied roar.

The horseman dismounts and begins to talk to Father Patrick, "Your child has done her job well, and I taste freedom for the first time in an eon. You will now fear me? For you have served your purpose well holy man, and for this should I exercise mercy as a god might?" The horseman pulls Father Patrick off the horse and holds him up by the scruff of his neck.

Father Patrick answers cheerfully, "Now that'd be nice, but I'm not holdin' me breath." Father Patrick gives the demon horseman a pat on the shoulder.

The horseman is not amused, "Yes, I shall spare, and secure for you a fate worse than death! For when you pass beyond this world, Heaven shall no longer welcome you, for you have released a demon." He is practically dripping with glee.

Father Patrick replies confidently, "My faith will protect me from feckless lesser demons as yourself."

Father Patrick's trivialization of the horseman infuriates the horseman. The horseman head-butts Father Patrick and then flings him against the open barn door.

Lara arrives just in time to witness the horseman abusing Father Patrick, "Father!"

The horseman turns his attention to Lara, "Ah! The child. I shall snuff out her life as a candle." Demon begins to step toward Lara.

Father Patrick is still a little stunned from having been hit on the head and flung into the door reaches out toward Lara and tells her, "The book from the library..."

The horseman continues to step toward Lara, but now she is backing away as demon approaches.

Father Patrick gives Lara more detailed instructions, "The names... Read out the names."

Lara produces the book from her backpack, flips it around so that it is right side up, and opens it to a list of names. She begins to read the names aloud in order, "Askeroth. Aqueil. Arrancula. Belial. Bucom. Boliath." The demon horseman continues to approach and Lara is panicked. She calls out to Father Patrick, "Help me!" She gasps as the horseman is practically on top of her.

"Keep reading, girl, you're almost there" Father Patrick encourages.

Lara obeys, "Camos." She grows impatient and starts skipping down the list of names, "Masteflou." The horseman raises his sword to take a swing at Lara, when Father Patrick suddenly lunges at the horseman from behind. Father Patrick grabs the horseman around the shoulders, but the horseman breaks free of the Father's hold and flings him aside.

The horseman is now right in front of Lara. It raises its sword to take a deep stroke down at Lara, but she calls out one more name from the bestiary, "Verdilet."

Suddenly the horseman is frozen in place and unable to move. He cries out in confusion, "How is this? I move to strike and yet cannot!"

Father Patrick walks over to Lara and dusts himself off, "You've done well, girl, and before you ask, I'll tell ya. The book you've got, I myself was looking fer it, but as I couldn't find it, assumed you had it, and lucky ya did!"

"But how?" Lara asks puzzled.

Father Patrick continues to explain, "If you name a demon, you have power over it, and you named him! It's your shout, Lara."

The horseman is furious and curses her, "For this you shall burn for eternity! I shall drown you in a mire of your own entrails before I squeeze!"

"Be quiet," Lara commands the demon, and indeed, he becomes silent.

"Whatcha reckon we get out of this God-forsaken place and go and get a nice cup of tea with Winston?" Father Patrick asks Lara. "Almost forgot, would you be wantin' to wave goodbye to our little friend?" He chuckles.

Lara turns her head and issues another command to the demon, "Back to where you belong!" Lara looks around but the demon is gone. Father Patrick puts his arm around Lara and turn and leave.

Dawn approaches and the chartered boat has returned for Father Patrick. Father Patrick and Lara stand at the bow of the boat as it ferries them back to the mainland. Father Patrick still has his arm around a shaken Lara. He tells her, "And you'll have learned a few valuable lesions from that, I be thinkin'."

"You'd be thinking right, Father," Lara agrees.

Back in the study at the Croft manor, a much older Father Patrick Dunstan completes his story, "Her curiosity was eventually her failing."

Jean-Yves interrupts to put a different spin on Father Dunstan's statement, "The path she chose was the path she loved, and for this we should celebrate, not grieve." Meanwhile, in a distant desert in Egypt. Werner Von Croy is still searching for Lara. In the hazy dusty desert sun, he lifts his head. His face is furrowed with worry. In the shadow of the Great Pyramids, Von Croy turns and heads toward a group of Egyptian workers that he has hired to help him find Lara. Jean-Yves speaks the emotions that he assumes Von Croy is currently feeling, "Although I fear for Von Croy. Pursuing his inner demons. Driven half to madness in his quest for her final resting place. He will not find peace in himself until this is complete."

Lightning strikes and thunder claps back in stormy Surrey, England. The three men have arisen from the study and are walking down a hallway. The electricity has been restored to the manor.

They stop a mirror mounted on the wall of the hallway, and Jean-Yves exclaims, "Ah! The infamous trophy room, and you will be doing the acrobatics to enter, Winston? Yes?"

Winston reaches up and takes hold of a light fixture mounted beside the mirror. He explains, "Miss Croft did enjoy her little games." Winston turns the fixture counter-clockwise and the wall with the mirror slides back and swings away. The three men enter the tunnel. The darkness of the tunnel leading to the trophy room is lit by a candelabra wielded by Jean-Yves. Winston continues, "And here it is, gentlemen. The artifact which lead to the animosity between Miss Croft and Von Croy. Ending ultimately in this terrible business."

Winston walks up to a case covered by a satin spread. He pulls the covering aside to reveal a strange round artifact floating in the middle of a glass case. The artifact consists of two concentric hemispheric shells, which rotate around a smaller central glowing sphere. The artifact hums with energy. The three men stand around the case and peer at the artifact.

As they peer at the artifact the glowing shape brings to mind another story. The story of how Lara Croft managed to reclaim this artifact after she lost it in Cambodia.

An African-American man wearing a communication's headset is seated at a complicated console inside an unmarked van parked in front of an industrial building. A 3D vector rendering of the Iris spins on the display in front of him. He speaks into a microphone, "Okay Miss Croft, I'm presuming, by the lack of communication that you're at Industries' building, right? Containing our little prize? The Iris?"

"Affirmative," Lara confirms.

"Right! Now this is what you're good at, yeah? Time to switch roofs."

"Switch roofs?" Lara asks. "Easy to say from the ground floor. Wouldn't you agree?" Lara is on top of the building that the van is parked in front of. She's dress in an all black cat burglars' suit. She too is wearing a communications headset, along with a set of special glasses. She's holding onto the bar of a hang-glider and perched on the edge of the roof of the building.

"C'mon now! Stiff upper lip. Top pole, and all that. Time to get hip with Zip."

Lara looks down at the Timex TMX watch she is carrying to see that the current time is 10:09 pm. "Gone," Lara comments. She pushes off from the roof of the building and floats across to the roof of the facing building. Just as she manages to get her toes onto the building, a stiff wind blows the hang-glider back. Lara quickly slips forward to avoid being blow off the building. She falls, and causes her headset to send a loud squeal of feedback to the man in the van.

"Yow! Jimi Hendrix is back! Lara? You there, Lara? Croft? Are you getting' this?" The man calls out, trying to determine if Lara is all right.

Lara shakes off the little fall, and gets to her feet. "Bly me," She tells him as she begins to rappel down the side of the building.

"Geez, now that was a blast! What the hell happened?" The man asks.

"Never mind, Yankee, I'm going in," Lara rappels down to a circular vent. She pushes off with her legs so that she swings away from the building, and she draws her pistol with one hand. She fires two shots, which blows the vent off the building. Lara swings right into the circular ventilation shaft and slides down into building.

[Po Yu]

Lara slides down the circular ventilation shaft and lands in a rectangular shaft. She speaks into her headset, "I'm in."

"Okay now lets see what you can do. Follow the vent to the main corridor. You've come in at the thirteenth floor. Unlucky for some," Zip, the African-American man and security-system expert that is sitting in the van below, warns her.

"Unlucky for them. Any welcome party?" Lara asks.

"That's your job, girl" Zip protests. "I ain't no X-ray vision super-hero."

"I'd noticed the last bit," Lara replies.

"Oooh, you are so sharp you're gonna cut yourself," Zip taunts. "Just remember. The less attention the better. You dig?"

"Thanks, but that thought had crossed my mind," Lara replies.

"Just makin' sure you're on the ball, lady," Zip tells her.

"Enough talk. Contact me if you see anything," Lara interrupts.

"Whew! That girl has got one bad attitude," Zip exclaims.

Lara surveys the ventilation ducts. There are fans and grates. Some of the grates appear to be in severe disrepair.

[Po Yu]

Lara looks down into the room below and transmits the information through her headset. Lara sees a cybernetic suit hanging from a support in the room below. She asks Zip over the headset, "You getting this?"

Zip replies, "Whoa baby! I'm getting too much of that. Looks like the Hulk on steroids."

"You want to tell me what it's doing here?" Lara asks.

"Couldn't be sure," Zip replies. "I hear that VCI is working on some new suit for the military. Suddenly, the door leading into the room below slides open and a man dressed in one of those cybernetic suits steps through. The suit makes mechanical squeaks with each clunky step. Zip is compelled to comment, "And that, sure as mom's apple pie, ain't no civilian protection."

"Can't argue with that," Lara agrees. The man walks over to a large mechanical storage cabinet and presses a button. The doors on the cabinet slide open, and a large circular rack extends from within the cabinet, presenting the man with an array of identical high-tech weapons. The man removes two of the weapons from the rack, with one in each hand. "And the guns?" Lara asks.

"Well, my picture ain't all that clear, but it looks like low frequency laser weapons. Limited range. You get in the way of one, and they'll have to take you out in a plastic sack," Zip answers grimly.

"I get the picture," Lara answers.

[Po Yu]

"Whoo! You'll get a spider dropping there and it's toast," Zip exclaims over the headset.

"Find me some way to turn this off," Lara tells him.

"Don't get you knickers in a twist. I'm on the case," Zip replies.

"Look what I have to work with," Lara sighs.

"Don't knock it, Lady. I'm your eyes and ears," Zip proclaims from the van.

"More of those and less of the lip would be preferable," Lara warns.

[Po Yu]

When Lara emerges from the ventilation duct, Zip will call her via the headset and comment on the sleeping guard, "Check it out, man! No regard for company security. Sleeping like a baby. Somebody could just glide in and slide that ID card out from under his nose. Somebody slinky, that is."

[Po Yu]

Part way across the catwalk, Lara will notice another man in a VCI cybersuit. Zip chimes in over the headset and Lara will stop to listen, "Uh oh! You're going to have to play some fancy moves to get past this quarterback."

"You got any suggestions? Anything to distract him?" Lara asks.

"I got a suggestion right here: Go find a different way out! 'Cuz you don't want to know what happens when you make the Hulk mad." Zip answers.

"Indispensable information as always," Lara quips.

"That face ain't got armor on it, right? Well, that's how you're gonna have to do it. You're one hard-boiled lady. Now, you'll think of somethin'," Zip offers.

"What exactly am I hiring you for?" Lara wonders aloud.

"My extraordinary knowledge of security systems, and my unsurpassed skill in crackin' them. Not to mention my ineffably addictive personality," Zip shoots back.

"You're right. I won't mention it," Lara huffs.