Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 11: Barbara

She should have died that day. Against all odds, she survived.

The bullet grazed the side of her skull and, in its trajectory, tore off her ear. It was impossible to reconstruct the torn cartilage, so the surgeon removed what remained of the auditory pavilion, while cursing in a muffled voice - for it was wrong for a doctor to think so - that it was a disgrace to disfigure such beauty.

He'd never had a patient of such beauty - and he'd never have it again.

She, of course, remained oblivious to all these matters. The pain was too intense to worry about anything else, and in any case, she'd never given any importance to her beauty - not even when it had really been something otherworldly.

After screaming for someone to quench her pain, she remained sedated for days in the intensive care unit. Finally, she could not stay there anymore and was moved to an upper floor. She was then informed that during the time she'd been sedated, her fiancé had been visiting her.

She froze. She didn't have any fiancé. She had never had anyone before – and she never would.

But she didn't say anything. She didn't even claim police protection. Why delay the inevitable?

He'd found her once more, and this time, he wouldn't let her escape.

From that moment on, she simply awaited her killer. After all, what else had she done in all those years?

(...)

"When?" Lara said tersely, arms crossed over her chest.

Zip twisted his headphones' wires, uncomfortable. "Last night, I guess."

"And you just let him go?"

The hacker sighed. He'd expected her to burst into a wave of fury, screaming, fists blowing on his stuff or some other outburst when realizing that, once again, Kurtis had acted solo and left everyone else behind. But Lara was dejected, exhausted, almost indifferent... and Zip didn't know to deal with this new facet. "Look, babe, I don't mess with Kurt, just like I don't mess with you. I tried to make him stay, that we were a team. But he said this needed to be done alone, or else it wouldn't work."

"Meaning?" Lara said, her sight lost in Zip's monitors.

"Grand Bazaar's yesterday shooting... he believes it could be Schäffer. He said he would investigate it." Not gonna say any more shit, Zip remarked mentally.

But Lara didn't ask anything else. She nodded slowly and left the barrack.

"You're weird, girl." The hacker mumbled when she'd left. "I prefer you pissed off, honestly."

(...)  

It was ridiculously easy to get to her - in fact, worrying. The Turkish police didn't seem much interested in protecting the victim, busy instead in finding the shooter.

Amateurs, Kurtis thought contemptuously.

He could have killed her twenty times during the week he'd been around her, if he'd wanted to. When he meant it, he was even a good actor. He showed up, visibly distressed, the second day after the shooting, asking for Barbara Standford, and claimed to be her fiancé.

Nobody doubted he was so - but Barbara was in serious condition, in intensive care, and could not be seen. He spent the night and all the next day without moving from his place, wandering nervously, until the surgeon and some nurses, compassionate, informed him that his fiancée was still sedated, but recovering - and even allowed him to see her.