Lara approaches the elaborately decorated wooden door, only to be ambushed by an armed thug. She manages to dodge his gunfire and throw him off, sending his weapon clattering to one side.
"Pardon me, if that was just your way of trying the doors for me," Lara quips, training her pistols on the man.
"With the tommy gun on my key-ring," he jokes.
"Though not anymore," Lara points out. "So, after you." She indicates the door with a nod of her head.
"Somehow you don't behave like you've got a monk's blood," the thug replies.
"I understand that somehow is in my favor," she says. "So indulge me about the dagger. I'd be indebted with your life."
"These doors are waiting for the right one, the right time to arrive, and then the dagger's blade will honor the hearts of those who believe." As he speaks, the thug withdraws a flask from an inner pocket and uncorks it. "So unless you pledge your loyalty as well. . . ."
"And which one is that?" Lara asks.
"To the sins and fortunes of Marco Bartoli!" he exclaims, drinking a toast. Apparently the liquid is poison, which causes him to choke and die.
"Perhaps not just yet, then," Lara says dryly as she holsters he guns and turns away.
She then accesses the thug's laptop. On its screen, we see the same symbol inlaid in the door, then a fancy Italian villa. "Aha!" Lara says. "Gianni Bartoli. . . Via Caravelli, Venice."
[Level 1: Great Wall | Level 2: Venice]
Lara sneaks aboard the seaplane and begins to root around in one of the crates marked with the mysterious logo she's encountered before. As she works, she overhears voices coming from the cockpit. The roar of the engine drowns out most of the conversation, so she draws closer in order to eavesdrop.
"It's not the workload that is worrying me," a male voice says. "Perhaps the tide has gulped it away.... Perhaps Gianni had never.... I don't know.... It's just his grave has surrendered nothing, like we say, 'substantial'. It's all very interesting. Oh yes, I'm sure of it—believe me—but it's not quite the same now is it?"
As the first man finishes his sentence, the camera shifts to the cockpit. We see Marco Bartoli and his companion, the one doing the complaining.
"Someday you will get a speeding ticket for that tongue, Fabio," Marco says.
"Hey, it's just a gut feeling," Fabio replies, "but maybe you are wrong to look there."
"Is your belief so fragile?" Marco asks Fabio, punching him in the gut to drive home his point.
Fabio doubles over, pushing on the control wheel and causing the plane to pitch forward. Lara, still down below, loses her balance as the crates she's climbing topple over.
"Relax," Marco continues, easing Fabio back upright. "Breathe deep."
As Fabio levels the plane, Marco continues. "The gut, Fabio, has no more direction than a simple 'through and out'. Honest perhaps, but not enlightened."
Lara manages to crawl out from under the fallen crates. She approaches the ladder leading up to the cockpit to better follow the conversation.
"When my father left when I was a boy," Marco continues, "he confided to me that he was enlightened...beckoned by something greater than impulse. He possessed the Seraph, but he was just a disciple in this design, his death plotting a path to be sought by the one: his son. You understand? Have faith, Fabio, not gut-rot. We are searching the right place."
"I know it. I believe it, Marco," Fabio at admits, though it's not clear whether he's actually convinced or just intimidated into agreement.
"Good," Marco replies.
As Lara starts up the ladder, Marco yells down from above, "Eros, have you..." Startled, Lara drops down and draws her pistols, aiming up at Bartoli. His voice trails off as he notices Lara. "...fixed that rail yet?"
Lara begins to back away, but before she can get far, a burly goon with a wrench sneaks up from behind.
"Sí!" Eros answers as he knocks Lara unconscious.
[Level 4: Opera House | Level 5: Offshore Rig]
As Lara wades through the flooded passageway toward the final room, she overhears Marco Bartoli speaking to an underling, perhaps the same the same henchman from the earlier cut scene.
"Blood or answers," Bartoli complains. "I have no preference. He should spill a bit of both!"
"O.K., Marco," the other man replies. "Glad to have to have you aboard," he says to their unseen captive. Then we hear the sound of someone being beaten followed by groans of pain.
"What do you want? Come on. Stick through your stomach?" The interrogator continues. "Tell me where in monastery should we look? Eh, brother?"
Lara's arrival cuts the questioning short.
A little later, she approaches the wounded prisoner.
He looks up and realizes she's not with Bartoli's crew. "Oh, you are not one of them," he says.
"But you are a monk?" Lara asks.
"Brother Chen Barkhang," he introduces himself. "You have come for me. I saw bright light surround me."
"That was gunfire. I think it was them who got taken away by it," Lara explains dryly, crouching to examine the monk's injuries.
"But you are my guide," Chen insists. "My path-beater to a next incarnation. I have done my time here, haven't I?" He asks.
"What are you doing here...with Marco Bartoli?" Lara asks.
"Nothing!" the monk insists. "I led righteous life...here for reasons rooted only in necessary evil, as my father was before me when he bombed Gianni's vessel deep into these waters."
As he speaks, Lara discovers a rack of wetsuits on hangers and examines them to find one that will fit.
"Now I'm here—ah, was here—to prevent his son from salvaging the Seraph."
"The Seraph?" Lara asks.
"You not know my life's work well? You sure you not here for them?" the monk asks, indicating the thugs' bodies on the floor nearby.
"Their Jackanory days are well over," Lara assures him.
As Brother Chen continues his tale, Lara begins to change into one of the wetsuits. "They want the Seraph to unlock a malignant treasure we contain in our monastery in Tibet. Since being stolen by imbecile vagabonds centuries ago, we been without key to it. Relying solely on cleansing of our prayers to keep it subdued." Lara tosses one of her boots across the room and Chen ducks to avoid being hit. He continues, "Then the occultist, Gianni B., acquired it. Trouble we knew. He breathed life back into ancient belief. One not to be stopped by any amount of head bowing. And now again it is here. Marco, infected with madness. He has violent mind but not yet the power to satiate it. So we reach for our weapons once more."
Lara turns back toward him, all zipped up. "The true Dettox of evil," she affirms.
"Where can you be taking me?" the monk asks, still convinced that Lara has come to carry him into his next life. "Thought this was my big break. Guess change is good as rest. Huh, I need one."
Bartoli, now dressed in a dark suit with a red and black ceremonial scarf, sneaks out of the shadows onto the catwalk above. He opens fire on the two below. The monk is hit, but Lara returns fire and dives for cover.
In the next room, the mini-sub begins its descent as alarms blare. Lara, realizing the submersible could be headed down to the Seraph's resting place, quickly dives in after it.
NOTES: Jackanory is a long-running BBC children's program, in which a celebrity reads a story aloud. (See Wikipedia: Jacakanory.) So the gist of Lara's comment is that the goons' story-telling days are over. Dettox is a brand of antibacterial cleanser sold in the UK. So here Lara is saying the monks' rituals and martial arts will purge the world of evil.
[Level 6: Diving Area | Level 7: 40 Fathoms]
Lara says, "Don't you think you've seen enough?"
NOTE: There are several additional cut scenes and FMVs in levels 7–17, but none of them have spoken dialogue. All are included in my Tomb Raider 2 Cinematics YouTube playlist.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Special thanks to The Tomb Raiders Traveler's Guide for assistance with these transcripts. Their versions are quite complete and include numerous details provided by the developers, some of which have been incorporated here.
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