Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 10: Promise

The beautiful woman remained for two hours in the faculty café. Not because she had something to do, or because she was waiting for anyone.

She stayed there because she felt more secure. Not even during lesson hours was the bar totally empty, there were always students who missed lectures, or who were killing time between lectures, or professors with gaps or free hours that went down there to relax a little. In any case, she was never alone.

And being alone, in those circumstances, was what most terrified her. He would not attack her there, he would not try to kill her, not in public, not in front of witnesses. She knew him well. His persecutor was a professional, and the professionals left no trace, nor exposed themselves to be seen or recognized.

Or at least that was what she thought.

Two long hours with the empty coffee cup in front of her, with one hand surrounding it and the other on a huge manual on early Christian archaeology of the Cappadocia region, written by Dr. Selma Al-Jazeera, a graduate of the same university. An area she was familiar with, an archaeologist she knew well. Although at that time the manual was more of a distraction manoeuvre.

If she pretended to read, she would raise less suspicion. If she pretended to read, no one, particularly a man, would come to bother her. She'd already gotten used to the fact that it would always be difficult for her to go unnoticed, even with a scarf and sunglasses - but she could avoid being bothered.

A group of students sat at the table in front of her. The woman discreetly passed a page of the manual and pretended to observe carefully the diagrams of the excavation near Göreme from which Dr. Al-Jazeera had been working for years.

It was very easy to hear what the students were saying, carefree.

"... they say that in a week she's going to present her new thesis and then there will be a kind of reception."

"A what?"

"Big party, man. A night gala with cocktails and all the university's big shots..."

"A nice dinner for a thesis? When did you hear that?"

"Al-Jazeera has found something big down there. It's been years since they talk about anything else. I've heard..."

The student lowered his voice, but the woman had sharp hearing. "...she found Nephili!"

Another student, a girl, snorted. "Bullshit much? There's no way. It's a legend, dude. Those things don't exist."

"Well, National Geographic is nuts, girl. They haven't let her alone for months."

"As long as the History Channel and their aliens don't come..."

"What the fuck, guys?" Another one of the youngsters slapped on the table. "Cut the crap. What she found is lots of dead people. That's what I heard. Hundreds of corpses!"

"A special dinner for a handful of dead? What bad taste, man."

"Well, what else's left to an archaeologist? Ruins or bones."

"I've been told that..."

"What? What!"

"That Lara Croft will be there..."

A chorus of exclamations and excited shouts, followed by various considerations about the physical beauty of the British explorer the woman wasn't interested at all about, so she stopped listening.

Slowly, she slid her finger along the edge of the coffee cup, which still had the marks of her lipstick.

The Lux Veritatis, she thought. The horrendous cemetery of Tenebra. The victims of the massacre were going to come to light. And yes, if those remains were revealed, why not the Nephili.