Machine Man (serial)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I sat silently in Cassandra Cautery’s office while she talked about processes and due diligence and ticking boxes. She was telling me why she did not want me to have surgery on Friday. There had maybe been an alarming expression on my face right after she said, Imagine they could, because since then she had been speaking very quickly, and of all the reasons she offered for keeping me out of the operating theater, none of them was: Because we’re doing Carl.

Maybe they had already done Carl. Maybe he was recovering in that medical room they’d given Lola, before they sent her upstairs to the suite. Maybe some of my legs were missing.

Silence. Cassandra Cautery had paused. I mentally backtracked: her last word had been something like eventually.

“Okay,” I said. “I understand.”

She blinked. Her forehead didn’t move, though. “That’s… that’s good to hear, Charlie. I appreciate your attitude.”

I nodded. I wasn’t an idiot. Letting Cassandra Cautery know how much I cared about swapping out my arm would make things difficult for me. They had locked me in a room, not long ago. And while I’d been in there, I’d vowed never to let myself be put in that position again. It was better if everyone believed I was with the program. Planning no more amputations. It meant I wouldn’t get to use that operating theater. But that hadn’t stopped me before.

64.