Octagon Project 3: Zachary McHall

~-25-~

Kaylee watched Zack's face remain perfectly relaxed and unphased as she felt between the skin and muscle tissues in the new incision to see if she'd have to cut any deeper. Moving deeper a little more, Zack's lips curled up and his face scrunched momentarily in discomfort. He kept his eyes on his laptop screen to oversee Kaylee's work.

"Found it." Kaylee spoke quietly among the anticipating silence that already hung thickly in the dark room aside from the computer screens, desk lamp, and light attached to the camera Roy held above Zack's shoulder which granted the patient oversight.

"How deep is it?" Zack asked- his voice deeper than usual.

"Well, the middle fibres of your trapezius are pretty thick, so I can't predict much, but it's definitely under a couple layers of tissue. And if you ask me, it looks like they put it way too close to the crevice between your upper and middle fibres." Kaylee answered, unsure if Zack even understood what she meant.

"So that's why it was so uncomfortable..." Zack grumbled. "Bring it up so that it's visible, but whatever you do, don't remove it." Zack said almost threateningly, turning his eye to gaze at her unsettlingly. Kaylee nodded in understanding and grabbed the plastic tweezers Rex had put in the set. Zack watched from his screen as Kaylee reached back into the wound. Roy looked over at Mel who leaned against the hole-filled wall between the bed and desk chewing on her thumb with her brows creased in worry. A short, silent groan escaped Zack's throat unwillingly as Kaylee got a hold of the chip and brought it closer the surface of the wound. With her other hand, she held the split skin open. The chip was bigger than she was expecting. If anything it was the length and width of a stick of gum and almost just as thin.

"Rex," Zack spoke briskly- just wanting it to be over. Kaylee let go of the card and used both of her hands to keep the wound separated as Mel leaned over with a cotton swab to clean it off the best she could. As she cleared the space again, Rex situated himself next to Zack's head with two thin wires- one red and one blue.

"The bastard copied my model." Zack growled as he glared at the screen in front of him.

"Let me know what to do." Rex said readily, gazing at the computer too and waiting for Zack to finish analyzing the miniature bomb with narrow blue eyes.

"Kaylee," he started, shocking the poor girl, "use the tweezers and tilt the right side of the chip up." Nodding slowly and swallowing the anxiety in her throat, she carefully rotated the chip the best she could, Roy wiping the blood away as she instructed. Zack's eyes narrowed further in scrutiny. "There are three golden squares at the top nearest you, Rex. Put the red wire on the first one, and the blue on the last one. Whatever you do, don't touch the center square. That could trigger the bomb." Mel briskly sat at the computer on the desk that Rex set up as the man followed Zack's instructions.

"Damn..." Rex murmured under his breath as a small sweat broke out on his forehead. "This is almost more difficult than that mission we had to do twelve years ago." He exhaled. Zack let out a small huff of remembrance but nothing more and Rex's deep green eyes met Roy's apologetically. He was hoping that bringing up a memory would get Zack to come back to his senses, but reality was harsh that way. Rex lifted his hands innocently once the wires were in place and released the breath he had been holding. Mel connected a few wires between Rex and Zack's laptops so that he could see what was going on even if he didn't understand it.

"Zack-" Rex sounded winded as he replaced Mel at his laptop and stared at the screen. "This is no ordinary explosive man..."

"What's up with it?" Roy asked curiously.

"It's on a timer." Mel breathed with large eyes as she stared at the count down over Rex's shoulder. She turned to look down at Zack and he clenched his jaw.