Thank God.
“I was thinking I should snag her before she realizes I’m nothing more than a boring guy who listens to country music with a fishing pole in my hand. Now I’m on the fast track to losing my body. She’s gonna fucking dump my ass.”
Banks grinned. “You think she just likes you for your body?”
“Hell yeah.”
“You think your dick will work again?”
“God, I hope so. Like… screw walking, if I have to choose between my dick and my legs?—”
“You choose your pecker, no question.”
We eyed each other with shit-eating grins plastered to our faces.
“We won.”
“I heard.”
“Named your weak ass MVP.”
“Heard that too. As you can see, I’m clearly veryvaluableright now.”
“The hit to you was a fifteen yard penalty; put us in field goal range. Chip shot for three to win the game with no time left on the clock. You earned it long before they took you off the field. Don’t doubt that, man.”
I shouldn’t have been on the field.
The nurse peeked in the room. Banks winked at her.
“A Dr. Westbrook and his colleagues are here to see you. Dr. Feltz asked me to check with you because he was not aware that you requested to see anyone else today. Dr. Westbrook nor any of his colleagues are on staff with the hospital.”
Banks stood, tipping his chin up. “I’m outta here. Check with you later.”
“Thanks, man. Really.”
The nurse gave me a tight smile.
“I’ll see them. Thank you.”
It surprised me that Lake didn’t mention she called Thad. Even more surprising was how fast he made it to Minneapolis.
“Mr. Monaghan.” Thad smiled as he and two other men I’d never seen before followed him.
“Thad. I didn’t know you are a doctor.”
“I have a doctorate degree, so yeah… I’m a doctor. If it makes you feel better, I brought two other doctors with me. Dr. Coleman has a PhD in Ergonomics with specialization in biomechanics, and Dr. Klein has a PhD in Machine Learning. Doctors, meet Cage Monaghan.”
The two men nodded. Dr. Coleman looked maybe fifty with a thick head of gray hair. Dr. Klein had to be at least ten years younger with the world’s thickest glasses.
“You realize I haven’t lost any limbs or anything like that, right?”
“Cage, Cage, Cage… it hurts that you don’t really understand what I—we—do. I can build you a machine or a complete robotic exoskeleton if need be. Essentially, I can take the weakest part of your body and replace it, even if just temporarily, while at the same time using novel technologies such as computational methods that can emulate neural processes and incorporating electrodes that can measure electronic pulses of your muscles and stimulate movement when needed to reduce muscle degeneration during the healing process.”
The wall behind me was splattered with his words because they all went over my head.
“This is the future, but for you it’s now. You don’t have to wait. Machines attached to our bodies can make us faster, stronger, and much more efficient. I give people with ‘disabilities’ the tools to outperform their ‘non-disabled’ peers.”
“You’re going to help me outperform other quarterbacks.”
