Free The Nightingale Circus by Ioana Visan

it.” Spinner nodded pensively,
making her self-conscious of how loud her breathing was. “Okay,
let’s take a look.” He clasped his hands with glee in his eyes,
smiling in anticipation.
    Anya took a step back. She was not going to take her clothes off in front of these strangers.
    Rake brought a portable device from a shelf
and stopped in front of her. “Hold still.”
    Before she could protest, Spinner turned on
one of the large screens at her left and the image of her lungs and
heart, in color, appeared on it. Rake put away the scanner and
stepped closer to examine the image.
    “The good news, Miss Semenova,” Spinner said,
“is your doctors were right. The bad news is … they were
right.”
    Anya rolled her eyes at his back,
unamused.
    “It’s unsalvageable,” Spinner continued.
    “See this?” Rake pointed at the outline of
the right lung where a discolored area surrounded the bottom
lobe.
    “Uh-huh.” Spinner nodded and said over his
shoulder, “It looks like the doctors killed the bug but failed to
contain the infection. It’s seeping out through the pleura.” He
shook his head. “This isn’t good. We’ll have to remove everything
before the abdominal cavity is damaged, too. You really don’t want
to get rid of everything in there.” He gestured at her torso. “I
mean it can be done, but…”
    Anya wrapped her arms protectively around
herself. Was he talking about eviscerating her? Serioja’s
comforting touch on the back didn’t erase her suspicions.
    “What do you recommend?” Serioja asked.
    “If it weren’t for the infection, we could
try growing new organs and hope there’s enough time left … although
chances are there isn’t,” Spinner said. “We don’t normally do this
as the law doesn’t allow it without proper credentials, so we
mostly focus on mechanical parts, but Big Dino gave this case
special care. Unfortunately, as he predicted, that isn’t a viable
option.”
    “What is then?” Anya asked in a weak voice,
dreading the answer.
    “We remove everything,” Rake said and mimed
with both hands pulling something out. “We clean up any affected
tissue and coat the entire cavity with a layer of bio-resistant
tissue that will prevent the system from interacting with the new
parts. We install them, adjust the setting until you feel no
difference, and then we close you up.”
    Anya swallowed with difficulty. He couldn’t
be talking about her, could he? But he was. “I-I’m a ballerina …
will this affect my dancing abilities?
    The knife throwers exchanged a glance.
    “We can try to get the weight close and
similar sizes and locations so it won’t affect your balance.” Rake
folded his arms. “The weight is the tricky part. It won’t be
identical, but we’ll do our best and you’ll get used to it.”
    Serioja watched her with hopeful eyes, asking What do you think?
    “I’ll have to think about it.” Anya looked
away. She fought once again against her reluctance to disappoint
him, but she needed time. Her hands shook when she smoothed her
skirt and started for the door.
    “We need two days to get everything ready,”
Rake said. “If you haven't decided to do it by then, we'd better
not start at all. We won't be in town long enough after that to set
everything right.”
    “Yeah, we’re running on a schedule, and Big
Dino doesn’t like to fall behind,” Spinner said.
    Anya hesitated with her hand on the door
handle. “You’ll get an answer before the day ends.”
     
    * * *
     
    “Rise and shine…”
    The words came from far away, and Anya’s eyes
fluttered open. She blinked a couple of times, trying to come to
terms with the image in front of her. Not every day one got to see
her chest open and people digging inside with screwdrivers and
tweezers, but the mirror pinned to the ceiling showed her
everything.
    “Are you with us, sweetheart?” One of the two
masked, gloved men hovering over her watched her through protective
glasses, and Anya more