The tip of the blade descended. After being hammered, honed, and polished countless times, the metal sank into the focal point of the converging lights. To the eye, it met no resistance at all, lending the moment an eerie, unreal quality.
Only when red seeped out along the silver blade's path did Benny lean forward from the other side of the room, drawing in a tense breath as if he were seeing blood for the first time.
Kup couldn't remember whether he had described the general procedure the night before. But whether or not he had, no father could easily stay calm at the thought of the same operation being performed on his child.
Soon, he had no time to let his thoughts wander.
"Gauze."
Before he could even think, he had grabbed the white cotton gauze and passed it to the outstretched hand, just as they had rehearsed.
He even felt that no reminder was necessary. All Kraft had to do was make a sound of approval or dissatisfaction, and he would know what to pass him.
With pressure from the gauze, the bleeding was brought under control. The thick, incised scalp came into view, the frontal muscle twitching faintly. The warm, rusty smell brought back a memory from deep in his mind: the first time he had used the Page Hammer.
The shaved, bluish scalp was clamped and pulled apart, exposing the periosteum beneath. Kraft continued the incision, then bluntly separated the tissue with the back of the blade.
The whole process was like peeling a tough membrane off a sphere. In fact, that was exactly what it was. Blood seeped from the separated tissue; cotton wiped away what surfaced, while points that wouldn't stop bleeding under pressure were cauterized with fine metal wires heated over a flame.