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Level 1
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The Times Expedition -- Backplot
London, England
At the request of Peter Stothard, editor of The Times, Lara has been invited to the London office of this prestigious British newspaper. Lara strides into the office and after a brief exchange of pleasantries, she notices an old newspaper on his desk with a headline that reads "Tomb of the King. Contract given to The Times."

Lara leans forward on Stothard's big oak desk and asks idly, "The initial discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, and?"

"This is Howard Carter's original exclusive," Stothard replies. "Yesterday morning, from our Egyptian correspondent, we received this." The editor points to a second newspaper.

Lara reads the headline aloud, "Tutankhamun's tomb... New tunnels... I see. I've stayed in bed for less."

Stothard replies,"Our man stumbled across this new dig site. After we received this information, news reached us that he had been found fever-ridden and hiding nearby ranting about the new tomb."

"Now you're getting interesting," Lara replies. "Whose tomb?"

"This is why we've called you," Stothard answers.

"I'll see you around," Lara calls, as she turns to go.

Stothard calls to Lara," Wait! You'll get nowhere without Carter's original information. He was the first to discover Tutankhamun's tomb and reported exclusively to us. His original chamber layouts and notes lie in the relevant issues in our archive room. Invaluable to the tomb raider."

"Quite," Lara agrees. "And where are these archives?"

Stothard provides Lara with the directions to the paper's archives. Lara exits Stothard's office and sees a sign in the hallway pointing her in the direction of the archive. Once in the archive room, she finds a table and lays down a thick book which is a bound version of the old newspapers. After reading the relevant information and taking notes, Lara says, "Time to finish what Carter started."

Valley of the Kings, Egypt1
Lara is sitting aboard a British Airways airliner on the way to Cairo. She dons her complimentary headphones to listen to some Mozart while reviewing the recent information in her mind. It appears that her recently published accounts of her adventures are selling well enough to catch Stothard's attention. Stothard thought Lara would be the natural choice to approach regarding doing a celebrity authored piece about this new discovery, much in the spirit that Howard Carter had originally broke the news for The Times in the 1920's.

Lara wonders what this new section of the tomb would hold that wasn't discovered in the original excavation? By now, Lara is already well aquainted with Egypt, as she had been there several times since she was a child, and most recently searching for a piece of the Atlantean Scion and the Temple of the Cat. It had not been long since Lara had returned from Peru on her quest to search for the Nightmare Stone, and now she found herself already setting off on a new adventure.

Upon alighting from the plane, Lara is met at the Cairo airport by an old aquaintance, Professor Nassar Malik, a noted Egyptian archaeologist in his own right and head curator of in the National Museum in Cairo. She is also introduced to Ahmed, who she is told is a well-repected guide. She's taken out to Tutankamun's tomb and shown where the new tunnel has been found.

"Several others have attempted to enter the tomb, but none have returned save for the man affiliated with the Times who is now ranting senselessly at a local hospital," Malik tells Lara.

"Well, it appears that he wasn't the right... man... for the job," Lara answers slyly, shrugging off Malik's attempts to warn her. Lara knows she faces dangers better with a level head than when in a panic. She gives Malik a reassuring pat on the shoulder and steps through a dark opening and slides down into the darkness below.(follow plot)


Footnotes:
  1. This section of the story was written by our staff to supplement the plot of this level. You will not find any cut-scenes or full-motion video sequences that depict what is described here.