Nano Contestant - Episode 1: Whatever It Takes Read Online Free PDF Page B

bit her fingernail. “Ok.”
    Roland mumbled again. He was staring straight ahead, but he couldn’t see the needle because it was too close.
    Ivan chuckled. “Roland, listen. Ivan has three levels of pain. You count on fingers and Pretty Girl will tell me. That way I know if you need to rest. One finger means pain is good, make you feel alive. Two fingers means pain is bad and you wish you were dead.” Ivan rolled his sphere a little to the left.
    Skylar crossed her arms. “What is number three?”
    Ivan’s smile returned in full force. “Three fingers means you wish Ivan was dead.”
    Roland mumbled. “Mm-hmm.”
    Ivan’s bellowing laugh followed and echoed around the room. “Da! Now we begin!”
    Skylar stepped a little closer to watch.
    Ivan barked a few more commands in Russian. The robotic arm retracted the needle back into its framework. Two small flat metal pieces extended from the end of the arm. The ends were coated in silicone. “First, we secure the eyeball, so it not move. These are my spatulas.” Ivan expertly spun and rotated his holographic sphere and the spatulas mimicked his movements. They slid underneath the top and bottom eyelids at the same time.
    Roland grunted.
    “Now, I pull eyeball tight. Roland, you not going to like this.” Ivan’s fingers danced around the ball, which would light up with each touch. “My spatulas are sliding around the top of your eyeball, so I can grip it from behind. Also keep you from blinking.”
    Roland’s breathing was short and fast as he anticipated the pain.
    “You breathe slow, da? Take three deep breaths.”
    Roland started breathing more slowly.
    “Easy, da? Ok, now you take deep breath. You breathe out slowly while I pull eyeball into locked place, da?”
    Roland took a deep breath in slowly through his nose.
    Skylar did too.
    “You breathe out now, da?” Ivan pushed his hands inside the green hologram and grabbed what looked like two bars and began to pull them towards the outside of the sphere.
    Roland began to slowly exhale, not sure what to expect. Then, he felt it. The spatulas slowly pulled his eyeball forward. Extending it just past the edge of his skull. He grunted and groaned. The nerves behind his eyeball were being pulled tight. It was the kind of feeling that made the rest of his skin crawl. He broke out in a cold sweat. He gripped his wooden block hard and extended his index finger.
    Skylar had been watching Roland’s hands. “Ivan, he’s holding up one finger.”
    “Da! Very good. That means he is alive.”
    Skylar didn’t look convinced.
    Ivan pulled his hands out of the sphere and began rolling the ball again. The needle extended from its position within the framework towards Roland’s pupil. He stopped it just short of the entry point. “Roland, I have the needle just in front of your eyeball now.”
    Roland grunted and continued exhaling slowly.
    “I must go in very slowly, or I will risk damaging your sight, da? You must be absolutely still. No matter what, you not move. You continue to breathe very deep and slow. You think about something else.” Ivan turned his head slightly towards Skylar. “Pretty Girl, you come over here and help him. You tell him how to breathe. Him need to hear something other than the pain he feels, but don’t get in the way, da?”
    Skylar moved next to Roland. “I’m here, Roland.”
    Roland grunted. “Mm-hmm.”
    Ivan rolled his ball forward. “Ok, Roland. You take nice deep breath and hold it.”
    Roland filled his lungs as much as his restraints would allow him. He could see the blurry figure of Skylar out of his left eye. Out of his right eye, all he could see was the large grey blob that he knew to be the needle.
    “Roland, I go forward only when you are breathing out. Then I stop and you rest, da? Exhale now and listen to Pretty Girl.”
    Roland began to exhale.
    Ivan rolled his green holographic ball forward.
    Skylar tried to look encouraging. “That’s it, Roland. Keep breathing