Free Tomb Raider: The Ten Thousand Immortals by Dan Abnett, Nik Vincent Page A

respond.
    “I told you,” he said. “It’s pointless struggling.”
    Lara relaxed for a moment. Let him think she was going along with it. They walked a few more paces, and then Lara let out a full-throated shout.
    “Étranger!”
    Crewcut stopped dead in his tracks, still holding firmly onto Lara’s arm. Several shoppers nearby stopped to look in their direction. Lara struck Crewcut two or three times in the chest with the flat of her hand, as if she were desperate. She was desperate. Crewcut smiled back at her, and spoke in soothing tones.
    “It won’t do you any good,” he said. “I’m in control of this situation. Shout all you like.”
    A stern looking middle-aged woman in a smart suit tentatively began to approach Lara, but she was gestured away by a policeman. Lara didn’t know where he’d come from, but she was relieved to see him. Then, Ponytail was beside her.
    “It’s all right, Lara. Everything’s all right,” she was saying in a soothing voice. She held out a bottle of water to Lara. “Here, drink this. You’ll feel better.”
    What the hell’s going on? thought Lara. Is this some kind of ploy?
    “Étranger!” she said again, pulling at her pinned arm and looking straight at the policeman.
    Crewcut, still smiling, began to speak calmly to the policeman in fluent French. Lara understood some of the conversation, but not all of it, and she didn’t have enough conversational French to interject effectively. She heard her full name used early in the conversation, and then “Lara” two or three more times.
    “I’m being kidnapped!” Lara shouted at the policeman, desperate. “I don’t know these people!”
    “He’s just explaining that you suffer from an anxiety disorder,” said Ponytail, calmly.
    Lara stared at Ponytail, eyes wide. She could hear what the woman was saying, but she couldn’t believe what was happening.
    “He’s just reassuring the policeman that everything’s fine, that you’re in safe hands,” said Ponytail. “You’re just panicking, Lara. Calm down.”
    Too right, I’m bloody panicking, thought Lara. She turned to the policeman.
    “I don’t know these people,” she said. “They’re not my friends, and they’re not my family. I’m calm! I’m damned well calm!”
    She wasn’t calm though. Lara was shaking. She was angry. She wasn’t just outnumbered, these people were clever.
    The policeman turned to Lara.
    “Can I see your passport, miss?” he asked.
    “Let me help you,” said Ponytail, reaching into Lara’s pocket for her passport. She handed it to the policeman.
    “My name is Lara Croft,” said Lara. “You must help me.”
    “You need to calm down, Lara,” said Ponytail. “I’m sorry, officer.”
    Ponytail reached into her own pocket and pulled out a British passport, which she handed to the policeman. “I’m Lydia Croft. I’m Lara’s sister. She’s very nervous. I’m so sorry. We can take care of her.”
    Oh no! thought Lara. This is actually happening!
    The Policeman looked at both passports and handed them back to the woman posing as Lara’s sister.
    “I hope you feel better, miss,” he said to Lara.
    Crewcut’s hand tightened still further around Lara’s arm, and she was being propelled through the shopping centre once more. Ponytail was now on her other side. Lara could think of nothing except swiping back her passport, which she shoved back in her jacket pocket.
    Lara tried to think. If the police couldn’t help her, what could she do? She couldn’t fight, and she couldn’t run.
    Bide your time, Lara, she told herself .
    Windcheater was at the wheel of the car in the car park beneath the shopping centre.
    “What’s going on?” asked Lara.
    Crewcut, sitting next to her in the back of the car, said nothing.
    Ponytail turned from the passenger seat and looked at her.
    “And why the hell are you posing as my sister?” asked Lara.
    Chapter 11
    “ What do you know about the Golden Fleece?” asked the preternaturally