Crown of Utama Chap 8

Crown of Utama Chapter 8 – YOU WILL FIGHT WELL AGAIN

Lara looked all around her. She was surrounded by coast guard speedboats – as she expected. The only thing was that almost all the boats were on fire or had been attacked, and the bodies of dead coast guard patrolmen floated all around. Alex reeled back in disgust. Lara turned towards the dinghy. It was empty. She then saw a fire response boat behind in, with Ahmad standing on the deck.

“Ahmad!” she called, shocked. Blake stood, holding a gun to Ahmad’s head. Two burly henchmen held onto him. Ahmad remained silent, figuring out how to free himself.

“You don’t give up, don’t you?” Blake sneered, shoving the gun into Ahmad’s cheek. What looked like a fleet of fire response boats, but were commandeered by Blake’s henchmen for sure, encircled the area.

“Naturally,” Lara scowled in response. “What is it that you bloody want?”

“And who the hell are you?” Alex asked.

Blake shook his head. “I thought you’d have figured out by now, Lady Croft. I also believe you have what I want. Come on board. Your boyfriend too,” Blake finished, pointing at Alex with his free hand. Alex and Lara cautiously swam over to the fire-response boat, proceeding up the ladder. Lara moved her hand over two pockets sewn into the wetsuit. The slight bulge of the guns was evident.

The henchmen noticed too late. Lara drew both RGP pistols, throwing one to Alex who finished off some of Blake’s personnel. Lara rammed her gun into Blake’s head. Blake smiled, keeping his hand on the trigger. He did not have to speak a word for Lara to understand that this sick spin on a Mexican standoff would not end well unless someone, somehow, intervened.

Alex dropped the gun and raised his hands, slowly walking nearer to Blake. “I have the crown you’re looking for. What you want to do with it I don’t give a damn.” He placed the half-torn bag on the floor. Both Lara and Blake kept their weapons aimed at their respective targets.

“Go on,” Blake said. Alex reached into his bag and pulled out a kris. In one fluid movement, he unsheathed the weapon and sliced it across Blake’s back, not deep enough to mortally wound him, but enough to make him cringe and pull his gun away. Lara knocked Blake unconscious with a kick to the head and a frenzied battle ensued, as men realized something was off and viciously battled Alex. Lara cut a relieved Ahmad free.

Ahmad picked up the gun Blake had planned to use against him and put his years of training to good use. He was a superb marksman and methodically took his opponents out. The other “fire response boats” noticed that something was wrong and began firing from hidden turrets. Lara, Alex and Ahmad rushed into the fire-response boat to take cover. Meanwhile, Blake rose, a grimace wiping across his face. He crawled agonizingly across the deck, reeling in pain from the cut.

“You okay, Ahmad?” Alex asked.

“It’s alright,” Ahmad answered. “I know how to drive one of these things.” Ahmad entered the command bridge of the fire response boat. “I can get you to an SOF safe house on the Riau islands some distance from here.” Lara, by now breathless, nodded. Alex sat slumped on one of the benches in the fire response boat. This was more than the two of them had bargained for.

“At least Blake’s taken care of,” Lara said. She set the bag down on the sparse table in front of her and pulled out the crown. At last, she was able to examine it. It was very much unlike the crowns of ancient feudal monarchy. It was ornate and ornamental, much like the Kris. Ancient Arabic letters adorned the rim of the crown. Lara shuddered slightly when she remember her most recent encounter with ancient glyphs. There was also that deep-seated doubt that this was not Utama’s crown. After seeing the lengths her adversaries had gone to acquire it, Lara was almost certain that this was more than just some black market prize.

A figure staggered through the door, his expression something between a manic smile and a painful grimace. Lara realized she had spoken too soon. Despite being badly injured, Blake Tan was still a threat and was determined as ever to get hold of the crown of Utama. “Lara Croft,” he said in a ragged voice. Lara drew her guns. She now realised that Blake was brandishing a kris.

Alex smiled. “Rematch?” he taunted Blake.

Blake scowled. “You filthy American!” He brought his blade up and engaged in a furious duel with Alex. In the meantime, Ahmad worked to get them as close to Riau Island as they could, and Lara took the crown and ran to a cabin. She was confident that Alex would be able to handle the situation. “You know something about krisses?” Blake asked his opponent in-between clashes of the blade. “They have an essence, the ability to give its wielder good luck or bad!” Blake struck out with fury, gouging a deep cut in the wall of the fire response boat’s interior.

He was surprisingly skilled with the ornate asymmetrical dagger which, despite being hundreds of years old for sure, still displayed magnificent power. Alex was having a little trouble adapting moves he had learnt from traditional fencing to use with this unfamiliar weapon. The early afternoon sun caused both blades to gleam menacingly. The thought that this might be the last thing he’d ever see made Alex feel sick to the stomach. Blake moved skillfully, as if the cut Alex had inflicted was nothing now. Alex was unsure if he could keep it up for long. As if reinforcing this thought, the blade of the kris sliced his right forearm, adding to the many cuts inflicted by the tentacles in the cave some time earlier. Alex grimaced, dropping his kris to the floor. Blake laughed in triumph, readying himself for the fatal stab.

Alex was now on his back, at the mercy of the daggers about to be plunged into his chest. He reached over and grabbed the kris he had just dropped with his left hand, bringing it up to defend against Blake’s assault. Alex pulled the blade back, seemingly giving up. Blake smiled.

Then, with an expression of shock the last he would ever have, Blake crumbled to the floor. Alex had thrown the kris into Blake’s chest, the dangerously curved blade embedded in his opponent. Alex growled and yelled at Blake, “who are you working for?! Why do you want the damn crown?”

With what was left of his consciousness, Blake stammered, “you…have fought…well…but you will fight well again.”

“I’m quite sure your kris’s essence gave you bad luck,” Alex smiled. He then focused on Blake’s last words.  “You will fight well again…” Alex didn’t know if it was a compliment, a warning, or a clue. At that moment, Lara burst out from her cabin.

“Alex!” she exclaimed. “You’re alright, thank God.” She kissed him deeply and reached for a med-kit to tend to his wounds. “What did Blake say?”

“I…I don’t know what it means,” Alex began. “Something like ‘you have fought well but you will fight well again’”. Lara thought for a moment.

“Never mind that now, you just relax. I’m sure we’ll be able to salvage some information from Blake’s computers. Now, we wait.”