Chapter 3: Tissue Engineering

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CHAPTER 3

Tissue Engineering

Jonas watched the nurses rip open Cindy's shirt and pump her full of drugs to keep her alive. He followed the stretcher to the boundary of the Operating Room where a nurse stopped him from going farther. This wasn't the first time he had to watch his wife be taken to the OR, but it was the first time he worried it would be her last.

He spied Jadie leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and her head down. She clearly didn't want to be bothered so he wandered off to the waiting room. He paced back and forth while thinking back to those awful late nights when Cindy would be out on a dangerous night patrol. He'd kiss her goodbye, tell her to be safe, and then wait by his phone. He would play video games or watch TV to keep himself occupied but it never worked. She was always on his mind.

One night, she was late checking in. For five hours he paced around the house wondering if she was all right. When she came home, there were bandages all over her arm and cuts on her fingers. She had been ambushed during a vertical patrol, but to hear her talk about it made it seem as if it was just another day at the office. He didn't want to experience that kind of anxiety ever again. That's when he decided that SIRCA needed to be completed sooner rather than later.

Before he married her, the SIRCA prototype existed as a clump of spare parts and incompatible software. Once nanomachines became a reality, so did his dream. He spent all of his money and . . . unfortunately, all of Cindy's money, to build an invention which could define an era, like the wheel, or the plane. If only he could have finished the prototype sooner . . . They would have been in a cab heading home, talking about the craziest night of their lives. After a few minutes of fretting over Cindy, Jonas was eventually joined by his friend and employee, Michael Dresden.

They met at MIT. Michael was studying computer science while Jonas was earning a Master's in mathematics. One day on his way to class, Jonas witnessed Michael trying to get a phone number from a girl. He watched as Michael fumbled over his words with sweat staining his underarms. The girl didn't want anything to do with a nervous wreck and politely let him down. Jonas felt bad for the kid, so he took him aside, told him how he could improve his game, and a friendship was formed (though Michael never really did get the hang of talking to women). If it wasn't for Michael—who'd known Cindy's family since childhood—Jonas never would have met her. He still didn't understand why Cindy and Jadie were the only women Michael never had a problem talking to.

"Hey," Michael whispered. "Just got off the phone with Sid. Everyone's home, safe and sound."

Jonas was relieved to hear his Lucent Labs team made it back in one piece. "What about the prototype?"

"Back at the lab."

"Did you bring what I asked for?"

"Yeah, I did." Michael dug into his pockets and handed Jonas a brown bottle and a plastic bag full of an assortment of medical tools. "I don't know about this."

Jonas studied the bottle Michael had given him. Inside the vial was an untested compound designed to accelerate cellular regeneration to an extraordinary rate. Unfortunately, it had not yet undergone any human trials.

"Maybe I won't need to use it," he said to Michael.

"If Raymond finds out he'll cancel buying us out."

Jadie barged in between them. "What are you guys talking about?"

Jonas quickly slipped the bottle into his pocket while Michael changed topics.

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