Chapter 220: Returning The Favor.
The day rose again, and Leo went to work after finishing his work. In his office, June stepped in and said, "Sir, their is an e-mail and the sender is requesting permission to publish a few of your photos with Young Miss."
Leo raised his brow and asked, "Where is the mail?"
June looked down at the tablet in her hand and with a swiping gesture she moved the content on to Leo's monitor directly. The young man looked at the pictures and he said, "Fine, he can publish it, but don't write anything exaggerating."
June replied, "Yes, they have asked for your comment on it."
Leo typed in the comment and sent the picture back to June. The young lady left the office, leaving Leo to handle his own things. As he was thinking what to do, his phone rang. Leo picked up the call and said, "I thought you won't call me."
On the other side, Markus replied, "Sir, I have just landed at the airport. When shall I come to see you?"
Leo replied, "How about we meet in the evening? You are invited for a dinner at my house, bring your sister along. I have a surprise for her."
Markus agreed and then the call was disconnected. Leo stood up from his chair and headed directly to the Research and Development department to directly find his tech head. Rama looked at him and was surprised, he asked, "Sir, anything you came here for?"
Leo replied, "Yes, the sample for the advanced prosthetic, did it come over?"
Rama nodded and said, "I was going to report it to you on the weekly meeting. The government has cleared the project, and we can now start the mass production and manufacturing."
Leo thought for a bit and said, "Good work. The sample, I need it."
Rama nodded and said, "We have ten of those stored in the company, I will give you the latest one, it has less technological glitches and we have also managed to add an updateable schematic on the arm."
Leo nodded and then they both went to the Tech vault, where Leo personally checked the limb completely. After a few minutes, he took a deep breath and said, "Good, I will be taking this."
The long rectangular case was locked and Leo took it with him. The day passed quickly, Leo picked up Lily from school, he found that the girl was smiling widely and then she asked, "Baba, those invitation cards, I have an idea about them."
Leo raised his brow and asked, "What is it?"
Lily took out a small cardboard from his bag, and showed it to Leo. The cover was splashed with bright and light colors, while the page inside wrote in a simple font, "You are invited..."
The rough detail of the occasion was mentioned there, and the young man smiled and replied, "Nice, I will give this card to the designer and tell her to follow this line and come up with some samples. Then you can decide which one you want."
Lily nodded and then they reached home. Leo entered the kitchen and then he began to cook for the people. Suddenly, Lily came to the kitchen and asked, "Baba, do we have guests?"
Leo nodded, and said, "Tonight, Uncle Markus and his sister would come over. Be nice to them."
Lily nodded and replied, "Okay, Baba. I will also cook something for them."
Leo chuckled and said, "Good, come along."
The father and daughter began to cook together and that was how they spent their noon. In the evening Snow and Anastasia came home and Leo asked, "Where is Frag?"
Snow replied, "She had flown to the Apex nation, they needed someone to sort out the legal proceedings, and so Fragrance decided that she wants to travel on company endorsement."
Leo chuckled and said, "This girl."
At this moment, suddenly the doorbell rang and Lily dashed over. She opened the door and found Jock standing on the other side, she asked, "Good evening Uncle Jock, what happened?"
Jock smiled and replied, "Good evening to you as well, Young Miss, the guests have arrived."
Lily nodded and said, "Thank you, I will bring them in. Also, go easy on the dinner, I made cheesecake for everyone."
Jock chuckled and replied, "Yes. Thank you."
Jock moved to the side, and Lily found Markus and a beautiful young lady standing behind him. Lily bowed slightly and said, "Welcome to the Cardinal Mansion. I am Lily Cardinal."
Leo stood behind her and said, "Well, Young Miss Cardinal, if you are done with the display of courtesy, may I greet the guests now?"
Lily giggled and gestured for him to go ahead. Leo greeted Markus with a handshake and he nodded to Yelena, and invited them inside. Yelena was beautiful but she was very reserved. She didn't act shy but she wasn't completely open as well. They began a small talk, when Leo said, "You both wait here, I will be back in a minute."
The young man went to his room, and came back with a long rectangular case in his hand. He placed the box on the table and opened it up to reveal a black and glossy arm. Leo said, "This is the most advanced prosthetic that we have designed in the Butterfly technologies. The product has finished testing and is cleared by the government officials for mass manufacture. This is the first unit and I would like to give it to you as a gift."
Markus and Yelena were shocked, and they could not understand what was going on, Leo smiled and said, "This is a token of thanks from me to you and your family. Markus has been a great help and been the first line of defense for my family. So, I cannot help but want to do something for your family as well. Would you like to give it a try, Yelena?"
Yelena was shivering, her tears were at the edge of her eyes. She looked at her vacant right hand sleeve. The young lady took a deep breath and said softly, "Sir, it would be my honor. If this can help me, then you can count on my life being yours."
They caught Leo and the rest by surprise. Even Markus, his sister has never said anything to him regarding how desperately she wanted her right hand, but it could not be done. Leo sighed and said, "You don't have to worry so much. I will not need anything from you in return."
Leo took out the prosthetic from the box, and then asked Markus to move aside. He said, "Yelena, your sleeve."
Yelena nodded and took off her jacket to reveal a clinically sewn stump of the shoulder. He said, "Your doctors have done quite a good job repairing it."
Yelena shook her head and replied, "It was not the Apex nation, but Anton."
Leo sighed, and then carefully placed the arm next to the joint before he said, "Clench your teeth, it might hurt."
Yelena clenched her teeth as told and Leo pressed a button on the side. With a few clicking sounds a few pins shot through the shoulder and hooked themselves inside the bone. However, the pain that she was expecting didn't come. Leo said, "Clara, please bring me the first aid kit."
Clara dashed to the kitchen and she brought the kit. She didn't want to miss this scene at all. Leo said, "The numbness will go away gradually, the hooks have been fixed with the skeletal bone, the pores on the pins will secrete a calcium composite that would affirm the joint between the limb and the joint. The pins also secrete some anesthesia to numb down the pain."
Yelena nodded and after a few minutes, she asked, "What now?"
Leo smiled and said, "Now comes the final phase."
He picked up a chip from the box, it was so minimal that it was almost ignored by everyone. Leo said, "Stick it on your neck and tell me when you feel a sting."
Yelena nodded, and stuck the chip to the back of her neck and found that the chip stung her. She looked at Leo with a furrowed brows and the young man said, "Well, the chip has blended with the skin of your neck, now, I want you to close your eyes."
Yelena closed her eyes, and Leo removed the inner lid of the rectangular box, and put her left and right arm through it. In the center of the box there was a mirror, and her left arm was visible, but her right hand was not visible. Leo said, "Open your eyes."
Yelena did and she saw the situation. Leo said, "I want you to look at the right arm, and think that you want to clench it."
Yelena did as she was told, and she opened her eyes in surprise. She looked at Leo and the young man said, "Remember to do the same movement with your left arm after you have performed it with the right arm."
Yelena nodded and then performed the exercise a few times before the young man took off the lid covering the right arm. Yelena saw that the black limb was moving and it moved the way she wanted it to, and finally, the young lady could not hold back and began to cry.