The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 29: Down the Rabbit Hole

Isabella looked up from where she was sitting on the edge of her medical bed, her expression fearful and worried as Lash stepped into her surgical suite, Ellie and a handful of legionnaires behind them. But, as soon as she saw who it was, she was hopping off the bed and throwing herself into his arms, trembling as she clung to him.

"I am so glad you are here!" she whispered hoarsely. "Without Gabriela, you are all I have left!"

"I am very sorry about Gabriela, Isabella," Lash whispered back. "But I will do whatever I can to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to you," he said after kissing the top of her head.

"Promise?" she asked without looking up, burying her face into his chest instead.

"You've my blood vow on it," he replied. "We just need to get that vial out of your head." 'Before it bursts!' he silently added.

Isabella let him carefully bring her back to the medical bed. There, after smoothly scooping her up into his arms, he laid her onto the pad inside.

"So, what are we looking for?" Ellie asked as she stepped up behind him to touch him with a light caress before swinging around to the other side of the table, her fingers dancing across the interface there.

"A small, organic glass vial," Lash indicated. "Ultrasound scanning is how you can locate its exact position in Isabella's brain."

Nodding in acknowledgment even as the medical scanner came out of the bed to arch over Isabella's body, Ellie busied herself over the interface. For his part, Lash stepped out of the way of the scanner but made sure he kept hold of Isabella's hand. After giving it a reassuring squeeze, the Spanish lilith not taking her eyes off him, he looked at the holographic image of her body as it appeared over the scanner's imaging plate. And nodded in satisfaction as a yellow dot appeared near the back of Isabella's head.

"Got it," Ellie announced, her face a mask of concentration as she peered at the interface's readout. "It's deep. But a resect with a laser to the site, then suction to extract it, and we'll have it out."

"We can't afford even the smallest crack in that vial, Ell," Lash said. "Or we'll be fighting it, like we did with Cassie."

"Tell me something I don't know," Ellie replied, grimly determined as she began setting up the procedure. "Recording so we can automate the procedure and do multiple extractions at once!"

The image above the scanner zoomed in on Isabella's brain and the vial became a clearly visible object.

"Target located," the scanner announced in its tinny voice. "Mapping local neural clusters to avoid accidental truncation and loss of function. Plotting resect course to the target. Mapping complete. Plotting complete. Initiate procedure?"

Ellie glanced at a frowning Lash, who was still studying the holographic image. Then she was nodding.

"Initiate."

There was a soft hum as a neck brace lifted up under the pad to position at the base of Isabella's skull. It then carefully lifted her head off the pad and tilted it at a thirty degree angle to give access to the back of her skull. From the sides there was a hiss as something was being jetted out of hidden nozzles and a temporary fog appeared around Isabella's head before quickly dissipating.

"Sterilization field established," the medical AI announced as soon as the fog was gone. Then four skeletal arms extended out of the top of the medical bed.

The first two pulled Isabella's hair out of the way to give access to a small point on her head. Then the third arm moved in and an almost invisible laser beam extended into Isabella's scalp, quickly burning through to the bone. It continued on, boring a small hole into, and through the skull bone itself.