Page 15 of High Stakes

The nurse pushed some buttons into her tablet and then walked behind a steel door with a small window at the top. She watched from behind it as the surgeon parted the doors behind me, wearing a sterile, protective suit and dayglow yellow gloves, and entered the room. He looked like he was about to take a stroll on the moon. His head was encapsulated in a large, clear bubble.

At the corner of his mouth was a microphone, where his grainy voice filtered out to me. “Eve, good to see you. How are you feeling today?”

“I’m feeling well, thank you.”

“Glad you’re up first, Eve, in case anything goes wrong!” yelled Titus good naturedly. His broad back stretched across two of the chairs he was huddled into. He snickered, elbowing Abram, whose countenance only darkened.

My mouth was too dry to fire back a sarcastic Thanks a lot back at him.

The doctor stepped in front of me, effectively cutting off my view of the guys. “This is what we will install today,” he began, using surgical tweezers to hold up a thin, metal circle, no bigger in circumference than a coin. “This is the plutonium disc I’ll be inserting.” He gently placed the disc on a small tray, laid the tweezers to the side, and picked up a scalpel. “Dr. Frost has ordered that we withdraw a few vials of your blood when we’re finished. Turn off your pain receptors now so you don’t feel me make the incision.”

I closed my eyes briefly and nodded, feeling pressure but no pain as a thin line of blood blossomed where he dragged the sharp end of the scalpel across my skin. He used a metal tool to spread my skin, holding it back as he gently placed the disc into the radiation chamber they’d inserted last week, and sealed the small lid with a clear liquid adhesive that looked a lot like what Victor had used to glue the stake to my palm.

The doctor looked up at me. “It’s sealed.” He removed the spreader and pushed my skin together with his hands until the incision healed itself.

As the doctor moved across the room to prepare for Titus and Abram’s insertion, the nurse returned from her safe space and placed a rubber tourniquet around my arm, pulling it tight. Blue veins in my inner elbow swelled. She tapped the largest with a gloved finger. “This one will do,” she offered with a kind smile.

As soon as she inserted the needle, my blood curled around and through a narrow tube and began spurting into a vial. She filled four more vials before removing the needle. Once my skin closed by itself, I re-activated my pain receptors. My hand was sore, but I could curl my fingers and make a fist.

The nurse called for Titus next, and he hopped onto the gurney next to mine. Titus wasn’t squeamish. He watched in fascination as his disc was quickly installed. “Do you need my blood?” he asked when the nurse dismissed him.

“No, only Asset Eve’s was ordered.”

Kael nodded to confirm the assertion and then flicked his guarded eyes to me.

Titus shrugged it off and went back to the waiting area, where I joined him, crossing paths with Abram as he strode across the room. I briefly considered tripping him, but managed to restrain myself. He sat on the gurney, only speaking when spoken to. When the surgeon told him to turn his pain receptors off, he looked the man in the eye and said, “I’d prefer to feel everything.”

“We have to peel back a layer of skin. This will hurt,” the doctor warned, moving aside to pick Abram’s disc up with the tweezers.

Abram locked eyes with me. “Pain is an important reminder of our humanity.”

Chapter Six

I raised my palm and was easing it toward the sensor outside my door when I heard Titus shout, “Eve!” right before I made contact with the sensor’s glowing surface. I craned my head back to see him jogging down the hallway to catch up with me.

“What’s up?”

“Victor and Kael invited us to dine in Victor’s suite at six.”

I wrinkled my brow. “Does Maru know?”

He shook his head. “No trainers tonight. Just us and them. Oh,” he grinned. “Wear something nice.”

I groaned. I hated wearing dresses. They limited a woman’s mobility. “Fine.”

Abram walked quickly past us, his hands shoved into his pockets. Titus ticked his head at Abram’s retreating back. “What was that in there?” He screwed up his face and mimicked in a deep, brooding voice, “Pain is a reminder of our humanity.”

I tried to smile. I didn’t know what was wrong with Abram.

Titus shook his head, watching as Abram entered his room down the hall. “I’m so sick of him. When we get back, we’ll be famous and I never have to talk to that prick again.”

I smiled. I had zero doubt that Titus would become famous, but that was the last thing I wanted. “Once this is all over, I want to move to the middle of nowhere and forget about all of this.”

Titus grinned. “Doesn’t matter what you want. If we do this and live to tell about it, the people won’t let us forget. This is bigger than us. Besides, we’ve given up years for this program, for them. I’m ready to start collecting.”

“Money and fame are all you want?”

“Nah,” he began, scratching the scruff on his neck. “I plan to collect all kinds of things. Dogs. Houses. Yachts. Women...” He waggled his brows suggestively. “Unless you’ll marry me, of course. You could make an honest man out of me.”

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