Red Raider - Prologue Part IV

News

It was the end of May and with another summer of adventuring on the horizon the sounds of spring cleaning and preparations could be heard throughout Croft Manor. When last seen by Lara Bryce was busy in the garage, going over the vehicles just returned from a long stay at the restoration shop Lara used in London.

Bryce was almost as obsessive about Lara's eclectic collection of vehicles as he was about the vast collection of electronic devices he assisted her with on a daily basis. Grumbling about the Illuminati under his breath, he was intent on giving the just returned Mini and McLaren the white glove and cue tip treatment.

Elsewhere in the Manor, Hillary was working his way through the armory doing the annual inventory. Once he finished Lara expected to spend at least a week there herself. As much as she trusted Bryce and Hillary with everything else in her life, she didn't trust anyone besides herself to work on her guns and other personal weapons when they needed attention.

Leaning back in her chair, Lara contemplated the stack of folders Hillary had brought in earlier with her morning coffee. They were the usual preliminary project assessments, using information culled from a number of sources. A few simple artifacts to find in Peru, a mysterious temple in the Pyrenees, and that Brazilian pirate ship that he seemed to be fascinated with.

She'd finished looking through what little they had on the temple, including a grainy black and white photo of a strange symbol, when Bryce rambled into her office, photo in hand and a frown on his face.

"Lara! You'll love this one!" he said, waving the photo. "This just came in."

"And?" she prompted when he didn't continue. There were times when he behaved just like a little boy, needing approval and encouragement every step of the way. Amusing in small doses but liable to draw her ire in larger quantities. "What is it a picture of?"

He placed the photo on her desk. "Do you remember that small town in California you asked us to keep an eye out for?"

"Sunnydale? Yes." She examine the photo. It was apparently a satellite view of a large hole in the ground. "What does this have to do with it?"

"That's it." He beamed at her.

"That's it what?"

"That is a picture of Sunnydale taken early this morning."

Lara raised an eyebrow at his statement and looked closer. Her first thought concerned the fate of the several people she'd met there.

"Do we know anything else? How it happened and what happened to the people living there?"

"No, but Hillary is checking his sources to see what they might be able to tell us."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know." She settled back into her chair with a frown. As the magnitude of what the photo showed struck her her second thought was that it looked like getting back there to search for those other artifacts was going to be a bit more difficult that she'd originally thought.

Hillary joined her in her office several hours later, handing her a folder full of photos.

"Sunnydale?" she asked.

"Sunnydale. These are the only pictures of the survivors."

"Survivors? What exactly did they survive? And everyone else died?"

"Not exactly."

"And that means?"

"It appears that people started leaving the town over a month before this happened." Hillary seemed a little embarrassed.

"And we didn't notice this until now?" she asked incredulously.

"No. No one except the people leaving seemed to be aware of it until the town was destroyed. There were no reports from any of the usual sources before this."

"Okay... I think you need to take a look at your sources." She grimaced and started looking through the photos. "Does anyone know what happened?"

"The official story from the local government is that the town fell into an underground cavern during an earthquake. They don't plan to investigate."

"A town is destroyed and they don't want to know why?" That was odd behavior, even in America, Lara thought. "Do we know who these people are?" She gestured towards the photos now spread across her desk. It was a motley crowd of dirt encrusted young women and several men standing near a school bus. They were clearly exhausted.

"Not really. Reports say they claimed it was an earthquake and refused to say anything more. No one seemed inclined to question them further and they were gone before the video crews arrived."

"And that's it?"

"Actually, I saved the best for last." And he grinned at her as he handed over several additional pictures. "These are actually the first photos taken. Notice anything about these people?"

Lara closely examined the photos. Clearly visible in the first was the woman she'd come to consider her redhead, not matter how odd that might sound. The other two photos also included the blond woman who'd threatened her in that cemetery the previous fall. They were standing in a group near the edge of the crater.

"Well, I'm sure you recognize the redhead. The short blond is the one I told you about meeting when I went to Sunnydale last fall." She looked intently at the other people in the photo. "I don't recognise the others."

"I don't know who he is." Hillary pointed out the man with the eye patch. "This young woman, " he pointed at a tall brunette, "she bares a distinct resemblance to the blond so I'm assuming they are related. The older gentleman looks like someone who occasionally stayed with the ladies who live over near the old Roman ruins last summer."

"The witches?" Lara ventured. "He does look a little familiar."

Hillary shifted nervously. "Yes, well... they don't like being called that. They seem to prefer being called Wiccan."

"So we have a redhead who spent the summer somewhere near here, standing next to a place she used to live in, with someone who knows our local witches. That could explain why no one would admit to knowing her last summer."

"Yes."

"Do we know enough to learn their names?"

"I should have that information by tomorrow evening."

"Good! Can you arrange to keep track of them once you have it? I'm curious about where they'll end up after this."

"That should be possible. Any particular reason?" Hillary asked curiously.

"Yes. If I ever have a reason to go back there it might be useful to be able to talk with one of the last people to be there before it was destroyed." Lara wasn't sure he believed her. Hillary was well aware of her interest, almost a borderline obsession, in the redhead.

"Thank you Hillary." she said in obvious dismissal and he left her alone with her thoughts.

Lara wasn't quite satisfied with the lack of information about what had happened to Sunnydale. She had a number of connections in several governments that she didn't often take advantage of. Maybe they could tell her what had really happened to turn a small California town into a dusty hole in the ground.

Maybe she would explore a Brazilian pirate wreck this summer after all she thought, pulling that folder out of the pile.

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