Chapter 209
Once he was sure he had everything ready, Christian used a device to stretch Aaron’s right eye open and hold it there. He used a numbing solution to deaden the area and let that sit until Aaron said it seemed to be working. With a deep breath, Christian picked up a small scalpel and made a miniscule incision. “Can you feel that?” he asked.
“No,” Aaron assured him.
Relieved that everything was going as scheduled so far, Christian picked up some specialized tweezers and used them to grasp the tiny device. Holding his breath, he moved to insert the device into Aaron’s eye.
The IAC dropped right into the slit designed for it. “How’s that feel?”
“I still can’t feel it, but my brain seems different somehow. It’s kind of weird. What’s the command to turn it on?”
Christian quickly reminded him of all the commands he would need and then said, “You’ll just be hooked up to the mainframe computer for now since no one else has one.”
Aaron’s forehead creased in concentration, and then his eyes widened. “Holy hell,” he muttered. “It works.”
“It works?” Jamie echoed cheerfully. He patted Christian on the back. “All right, man! It works.”
“Of course it works,” Christian mumbled, pretending as if he were slightly offended that anyone had doubted him when in actuality he had been a little afraid it might not work. “You’re the only one who can turn yours off, but you’ll have the capability to force everyone else off and on.” Aaron confirmed that he understood all of that. It was evident he was still playing around with it as Christian put some more drops in his eye to help with the pain and potential problems after the numbing wore off.
“Do you want me to just Heal you?” Jamie asked. “It won’t take much.”
“Sure,” Aaron said with a shrug. “That way I can get back to work. But we won’t expect you to do that with everyone.”
“Except for me,” Elliott added from the back of the room.
“Something tells me Christian is going to ‘accidentally’ sever your optic nerve,” Jamie said, making air quotes with his hands as he spoke. “You will need me around for more than a tiny slit. He healed Aaron’s eye, and the Guardian Leader was up and about like he hadn’t just had the world’s tiniest, most powerful computer installed in his eye.
“When will you have the next one ready?” Aaron asked Christian as he headed toward the door.
“Next week.”
“Great--you go next. Jamie can put it in for you. Then hook up Hannah, Jamie, and Elliott.”
Christian nodded. That had been his plan, except for Elliott. He could be last for all he cared. But Hannah was second in command. How that had happened, he wasn’t sure. The former counselor hadn’t even been born when Christian came to Kansas City to meet with Jordan a hundred and fifty years ago. Nevertheless, it was what it was. It probably had something to do with women’s lib or some bullshit. Hannah was nice enough, but she wasn’t qualified for the job, and that irked Christian. It drove him crazy that life was so unfair.
At least he’d get his IAC next. And even though he’d been instructed to make sure Aaron had control over all the others, he wasn’t about to give another man control over the computer he’d have installed in his eye. No, he’d make sure he was the only one who could truly turn his IAC off and on--just in case.
“Let me know when you’re ready, and we’ll get you hooked up,” Jamie said, patting Christian on the back as he followed Aaron out the door. “Nice job, Christian. Nice job.”
“Thanks.” Jamie was one of the few people in the world Christian could honestly say he liked. He could count them on one hand and have extra fingers.
One he didn’t like at all paused in the doorway. “I don’t know if brain size has anything to do with the size of the device, but if it does, you’re gonna want to make mine a lot bigger than everyone else’s.” Elliott winked at him and then headed out whistling some stupid song from the sixties. He was only about fifty years old, and boy did it show. Infant.
Letting his disdain for Elliott go, Christian decided to start working on his own IAC. he’d have to make thousands of them, one at a time, and every LIGHTS team member in the world would have to come to KC to get them installed. That was a lot of eyeballs to slice. But he was up to the challenge. He hadn’t been going on too many hunts lately anyway, focusing all of his attention on this. There would always be plenty of Vampires to hunt, plenty of bloodsuckers to kill, but an opportunity like this, to truly make a mark on history, didn’t come along often at all, so Christian wasn’t about to let it slip through his fingers.
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