“Are you trying to hit on me?” Her tone was playful.
“I was going to wait until they anesthetized you.”
“Maybe you should. It would be less painful that way.”
Despite the tension of the moment and all the bad things that loomed before them with the dwindling food supplies, Simon laughed. Leah joined him. Everyone working on the prep stared at them.
“Well now,” a matronly Templar woman that Simon had known since he was a boy said, “look at the two of you. Like you’re out on a lark.”
“Not quite,” Leah said.
“Scandalous is what it is. My name’s Jenny.” The woman inspected the machines hooked up to Leah and made a notation on the digital notepad she carried. “Everything here looks shipshape. Can I look at your eye, luv?”
Since she’d been in the bed, Leah had made the OR personnel keep her voided socket covered with a towel. Simon knew she hadn’t wanted him to see her.
“After Lord Cross leaves, you may,” Leah said.
“Well then, Lord Cross,” the nurse said, turning to Simon, “I believe it’s time to say your good-byes.”
“All right.” Simon focused on Leah. Her hand sought his and held it for a moment. “Quite the death grip you’ve got there.”
She frowned at him. “I’m nervous. The thought of miniature robots crawling through my brain creeps me out.”
“Oh,” Jenny said without turning around, “if those robots crawl through your brain, the surgeon’s doing it all wrong.”
“Lovely thought.” Leah grimaced.
“I wasn’t the one that had it. Let’s get a move on, you two.”
Simon looked into Leah’s good eye. “You’re going to be fine.”
“When my new eye is built, what happens to the nanobots?”
“They deactivate and get flushed out with white blood cells. After your eye’s repaired, using your body’s building blocks and some of the wiring the nanobots will string, there’s nothing left for them to do.”
“You’ve seen them do this before?”
“I’ve had them work on me. Two years ago, while fighting with demons, a Blade Minion skewered me.” Simon tapped his chest. “The blade ruined my heart. I was barely alive when Nathan and Danielle brought me back here. The suit kept me stabilized, kept my heart and lungs going, but I would have died if I’d gone to an OR like the ones you’re used to. The nanobots saved my life and repaired my heart.”
“If they’re so good, why didn’t the Templar turn them over to the rest of the world?”
“Because it’s easier to provide the rest of the world with new armor or new weapons than it is to give them new medical technology,” Jenny said sourly. “That’s the way it’s always been. New technology, new procedures, and new medicines all mean corporations, insurance agencies, and politicians get involved.”
“A trifecta of terror,” a young male nurse stated.
“Exactly,” Jenny said. “Corporations fight against anything new if they don’t have a version of it, too. Insurance agencies have to rewrite policies, and they don’t like doing that. And politicians use emerging technology and the threat of science to win or intimidate voters.”
Simon shook his head. “The Templar made the breakthrough in this field while I was in South Africa. It’s new.”
“Given time,” Jenny said, “the Templar would have given the technology to the world. We just never got the chance to do that.” She frowned and looked at Simon. “And you’ve really got to be on your way.”
“All right.” Simon squeezed Leah’s hand a final time. Then he bent down and kissed her. “Sweet dreams. When you wake, you’ll be back to normal.”
“Aren’t knights in shining armor supposed to kiss sleeping damsels awake?”
“Don’t go confusing them with princes,” Jenny said. “They aren’t that. And enough of them have overinflated opinions of themselves as it is. They don’t need any encouragement.”
Simon grinned, mirroring the one Leah had.
“Wake me,” Leah said, “after I’m out of surgery.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” Simon stepped back and left the room. He told himself again that Leah was going to be fine. The surgery handled much harder cases on a regular basis. Replacing arms and legs with cybernetic units had become something of an everyday occurrence.
The only thing tricky about this procedure was whether or not Leah would regain her vision. He stood at the doorway and watched as the OR team trundled the bed down the short hallway.
“Have you known Lord Cross long?” Leah asked the older nurse. She tried to concentrate on the questions running through her mind so she wouldn’t give in to the panic that threatened to tear her apart. She was more scared now than she’d been while waiting to hear from the physician after the attack on the demon weapons plant.
“I’ve known Simon since he was a boy. I knew his mother, too, before she died.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Jenny.”
“Why yes,” the nurse said brightly, “yes, it is.” She checked off something on her digital notepad as they rolled down the hallway. “The two of you seem to be close.”
“We’re friends. We’ve fought together off and on over the past four years.”
“You’re sure it’s not anything more than that?”
“I’m sure.”
“Because he didn’t kiss you like a friend.”
“Friends kiss.”
“Friends also become something more than friends.”
Leah felt uncomfortable. “Maybe this isn’t a good time to have this conversation.”
Jenny smiled. “Oh really? You don’t think talking about possibilities like this won’t give you something to look forward to? Something to get you on the other side of this operation?”
“No. What you’re suggesting could possibly be more trouble than Lord Cross or I can handle.” Still, her mind traveled down pleasant avenues that, she had to admit, it had traveled down before. It was hard not to remember that Simon Cross was a good-looking man.
“I think you and Lord Cross can handle a lot.”
“Besides that, I’m quite sure Lord Cross has other friends among the Templar that are much more suitable.”
“If he does,” Jenny said, “I don’t know about it. And trust me when I say that I would know.”
“He’s good at keeping secrets.”
“Oh, I’ll grant you that he’s good at keeping things to
