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A few months have past since Lara Croft's return from her expedition to the Temple of the Cat in
Egypt. On this brisk winter evening, Lara returns home from a
speaking engagement in London, and is greeted by her elderly
butler
"You have a guest, Miss Croft."
"When are you going to start calling me 'Lara'?" Lara
quips.
The proper English butler refuses to dignify her remark with an
answer, and continues, "Professor Pollard is waiting for you upstairs
in the library."
"Richard!" Lara exclaims and rushes up the stairs.
Upstairs in the library, her mentor and good friend, Professor
Richard Pollard rises from his chair to congratulate her, "Lara,
dear, smashing job on finding that cat temple in Egypt.
They exchange news and the topic moves to Lara's recent adventure
concerning the Atlantean Scion.
"I've read the manuscripts you sent me to review before you submit
them to the archaeology journals. It's a shame that the Atlantean
Pyramid you discovered was decimated. I agree that you shouldn't make
mention of those strange creatures you encountered. That would cause
unnecessary panic. It's not surprising that people would find it hard
to believe anyway; however, who would have ever thought that you
would find that yeti or even more recently that
Tyrannosaurus-Rex in Peru?
Their conversation continues late into the night. Finally, as
Pollard prepares to depart, he mentions, "I nearly forgot: I just got
an invitation from an old colleague in Beijing to do some excavating
along the Great Wall in western China later this year. Sounds rather
interesting... I'd invite you along but the Chinese government is
pretty particular about these things. I'll let you know how it goes.
Oh, and you must stop by the house and tell Elizabeth and the children
all about your recent trips. Perhaps Thursday for dinner?"
"I would be delighted," Lara answers, "'Til Thursday then?"
"Wonderful. See you then," Pollard leaves.
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A New Day
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The next day, Lara tunes in to the BBC world report as
usual.
"In world news: The wreckage of another fishing boat has been
found in the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean sea. Once again no
survivors were recovered. This is the sixth such incident that has
occurred in that area in the past month. Due to the calm
weather, this incident was also deemed an accident caused by pilot
error, as was the determination in the other five. Local fisherman
deny that these deaths are the result of accidents and fear that such
incidents will continue to occur. To calm the fears of locals,
experts say that these events have no relation to the unusual seismic
activity that destroyed an island in the same area a few months
earlier.
"Seismic activity indeed," Lara huffs, knowing better. However,
this last report grabs Lara's attention and worries her. "Too much of
a coincidence," she mumbles to herself.
Lara returns by boat to the location in the Mediterranean Sea
where the island continent of Atlantis formerly stood. Lara scans the
horizon to find a smaller island nearby. She pushes the throttle
forward and steers her boat towards the small island.
After a detailed survey of this small mountainous island, Lara
finds an unusual cave entrance. The walls within are not natural rock
formations and the patterns are quite familiar to her. "It looks as
though I have some unfinished business," Lara breathes. The cave
slopes down steeply, and Lara steps down into the darkness...
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