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Lara finished reading the chapter of Stephen Barr’s diary and listened to Doctor Willard’s explanation of what happened to the sailors afterwards, where their journeys had ended. London, South Pacific, Nevada… Lara felt a smile tugging at her lips, trying to let itself be seen. She was just about to accept the offer to search for the artefacts when a sense of déjà vu washed over her.
This… this had happened before. And even in the same country, although in a cool hotel lobby rather than sailing the river Ganges with wildlife providing the background music:
A person asking her to depart on an adventure to find an artefact. And her too eager to wonder why that person would want it. Well, no, she had not asked Natla at all – and for all the adventure it had provided, she should have been more wary of some potential foul play at the very least – but this time, this time she had actually asked Willard what was in it for him. He had simply… avoided the answer. Or rather showed what interested him without explaining what he would also do with it.
Lara pierced the doctor with her stare, the large heavy diary still in her hands. “You might have misunderstood me, doctor. What do you want to do with the artefacts?”
“Oh? Is that it?” he asked innocently enough. He was probably sincere. But even if he tried anything… as long as he was as ordinary a human as he appeared, Lara could deal with him easily. The Infada Stone was closer to him than to her though, and if he managed to do with it what his employee had… “You must excuse me, that wasn’t my intention,” he followed up. But rather thananswering her question clearly, he delved deeper into informing her of what he knew so far.
Lara let him talk before she would decide to interrupt him, thinking that it could still give her some hints about his interests beyond studying it. Or was that really all he was after, just studying it? Rambling too much wasn’t suspicious still, she had ample experience with people who were unable to give a straight answer when it came to their interests, too excited to get to the point quickly.
He was rattling off all kinds of the mineral’s properties – radioactivity, among others, and didn’t that cause Lara to turn her suspicious look to the artefact this time – and then he delved excitedly into how it would… of for god’s sake. Could it be? Again?
“Excuse me,” she interrupted Willard as he was explaining the finer parts of cell mutations, “did you say evolution?”
“Indeed!” he exclaimed. “Despite all of my data, I am unfortunately unable to tell you the specifics. With more of the artefacts, we might get a better idea, as it seems that the whole might be so much more complicated than the simple summation of individual effects. And yes, I am convinced each of them will behave slightly differently, if the sparse accounts of others witnessed throughout history – or even Stephen Barr himself, barely, are any indication. The results of putting all these artefacts together is simply unpredictable!” he exclaimed with unbridled enthusiasm.
“But you still want to put them together?” Lara asked, or rather tried to make him realize why it might not be advisable.
“Well of course, I cannot wait to study the results!” Willard gestured wildly. “It will be revolutionary in several scientific fields!”
“Results?” Lara asked. Now that sounded like doing something inadvisable with them indeed.
“Yes, yes, even now, on our research base in Antarctica, severe mutations have appeared among the personnel, it is a fascinating sight, but too random and uncontrolled. But with all the artefacts-”
“I think I have heard enough,” Lara interrupted again, much more tersely. Not a megalomaniac, or at least not in the same sense as the last time. But with similar outcomes if left unchecked, probably.
Keeping one hand on the diary, she reached for her gun with the other, already wondering to which of the three locations should she travel to first. After all, it still sounded like too much fun to pass up, and she had the information she needed to look for the artefacts now.
And maybe then she would go to check the research site in Antarctica which the soon-to-be-late Dr Willard had mentioned.