“1.6 inches?” Rene asked, pausing in his self appointed task of packing supplies into the portable case that the medical kit had come with. The canvas satchel was designed for emergencies and thus portable. Rene had discarded anything he didn’t think was likely to be necessary. Mostly an excess of bandages and diagnostic equipment. He made space for things he judged might be valuable as trade goods, mostly drugs and medications. It was an unfortunate irony that while the manor was priceless, most of the portable wealth had been carried away.

“1.64 inches,” Mia corrected her seductive purr making it sound like a revelation of startling sensual importance. When Solae had spoken of removing the CLTI he had assumed that it was immediately below the skin. He was willing to credit that Solae was a determined woman, the fact that she had survived this long was testament to that, but the odds of her successfully removing such a thing without being in agonizing pain… 

He set the pack down and followed Mia’s helpfully provided guidance. The AI had a trick of altering patterns in the light that allowed her to guide people subtly and Rene found that he was hardly aware the computer was directing him. The scanning room was in a lower section of the house. The room was unusually tasteful from what Rene had seen, an unpleasant juxtaposition with the tube like body scanner Solae was emerging from. There was a subtle psychological manipulation at play, archaic tools, wholely inappropriate for the modern artists were staged in various places. Rene wondered how many centruies it had been since a scuptor had used a hammer and chisel rather than a lazer abrasion unit. The intent of the display was clear, this is art, don’t worry.

“Rene?” Solae said with a slight hint of uncertainty. She was still dressed in her undergarments and he tried to control the surge of lust it woke in him. Exhibits signs of sexual attraction Mia had said. With a firm reminder of how inappropriate it would be to take advantage of her given the emotional situation he stepped into the room.

“Our host,” he began, raising his eyes to indicate Mia even though the AI was no more above him than she was beside him.

“Has convinced me that it would be safer if helped take out the tracker,” he told her. Solae looked ready to object but he crossed the room and put his arms around her, effortlessly lifting her onto one of the benches that ringed most of the room. Her body was warm and pleasant in his arms.

“These are for you,” he told her, extending his hand to reval two small blue pills.

“It is inadvisable to ingest the medication directly Lady Solae,” Mia chimed in, “dissolution in water is recommend.” Rene had another queasy feeling regarding this Lord and his manor but there was nothing to do about it now. He looked around the room and found a small beaker containing a number of ornamental paintbrushes which he poured onto the bench before filling it from one of the discrete water spigots. The blue pills fizzed slightly when he dropped them in but they dissolved quickly and colourlessly into the fluid. 

“Mia your sure this is safe?” he asked as he handed the beaker to Solae.

“Safe for a partially skilled surgeon to perform a surgical procedure without proper medical facilities?” the computer asked archly. Was that a joke?

“No I mean the drugs,” Rene replied with a touch of asperity.

“Lord Armon gave such a dose to over a dozen women within one standard deviation of Lady Falia’s body mass,” Mia confirmed.

“Well, bottoms up,” he suggested.

Rene wasn’t sure what he had expected but Solae lost consciousness within less than a minute of drinking the concoction. She blinked her eyes once, then closed them, then slumped sideways. He checked her breathing and then lay her unyielding form flat upon the table top.

There was a scalpel in the pouch of first aid supplies, a single use kind that wasn’t too familiar from the combat first aid courses. He pulled the activator tab and the blade heated up as chemicals coating its blade catalyzed in auto sterilization. Mia helpfully projected a laser dot onto the spot in which the scan had located the device. He cracked a chorohexaidne applicator stick and began to scrub being sure to give the antiseptic a full minute to dry.

“Are you ready to begin Sir Rene?” Mia prompted as he hesitated with the blade above her thigh. The computer couldn’t understand the human reluctance to cut into another person. The marines used lifelike simulations both for close quaters combat and battlefield medicine but the difference was vaster by far than he had expected. He looked down at Solae’s supine form, beautiful and nearly naked.

“I feel like I’m about to vandalize a work of art,” he muttered, delaying the cut by another few seconds.

“I’m sure Lady Falia will be very happy to hear that you said that,” Mia responded with the sultry hint of a laugh. Rene drew a deep breath and felt the top of Solae’s thigh with gloved fingers, making sure he didn’t feel the thrum of an artery beneath the skin. Before he could find another reason to delay he drew the scalpel blade down in a short firm cut. The flesh parted easily beneath the razor sharp blade and blood welled up as he sliced through the cappilaries. Without surgical suction it was impossible to keep the cut from filling with blood so he merely watched the laser dot refract in the blood for a moment before cutting deeper into the incision. Fortunately for Rene, the chip lay at a slight crossways angle to the bundled muscle fibre and with his second cut he felt the blade click against the small ceramic casing. Blood was flowing down over the curve of Solae’s thigh and staining the table and her undergarments. He probably should have thought of that but he doubted performing the operation with her naked would have improved his feelings about the situation. Pulling a handful of gauze from the first aid pouch he swabbed the blood away as best he could, catching a glimpse of the ceramic chip. It was about the size  of a grain of rice and his cut had exposed one end of it. He reached in with a pair of forceps and grasped the end of it. The blood slicked ceramic was slippery and it took him three attempts to pull it free. Solae’s chest continued to rise and fall in slow shallow breaths as he sprayed the cut with disinfectant, topical anesthetic and a healing factor which would promote the natural healing processes of her body. Finally he produced the same stapler he had used to close the cut on her head and closed the inch long incision with six precisely placed sutures before applying another coating of antiseptic and a surgical covering which adhered to her skin, a slightly darker shade than her natural skin.

“Well done Sir,” Mia complimented him as he sagged back against the wall in exhausted relief.

“Perhaps you missed your calling as a physician.” Rene laughed bitterly.

“Thanks but I have already had more careers than I figured I would need,” he told the AI. Reaching down he scooped up Solae and carried her, carefully, to the bedroom. He didn’t know how long the drugs would keep her out, but he didn’t want her to awaken on a cold stone bench covered in blood.