But you have to work On your face: you absolutely do not know how to hide emotions!»
I ignore his remark.
«A very sinister reception. Then there were those supercharged Chinese ninjas and secrecy… Didn’t it alert you?»
«Lavina, someone here is not eager to study boring documents, huh? Have you read the constituent documents, instructions and the contract?»
«Of course I did!» I interrupt him impatiently. «Well, the main points.»
In response, Alex instructively reads a whole lecture on the paragraph about the strict confidentiality of the project. That information about the game is known to a narrow circle of people. By accepting the invitation, we automatically agree to keep secret the places of the Location, the conditions of the game, as well as information about the founders of the Corporation and the organizers of the games.
«Although,» he looks at me, as if at a hopeless person, «with your attentiveness, you can hardly tell about it even under torture.»
Alex has a lot of fun and shines with sly eyes. We’ve known each other for no more than ten minutes, and I’m ready to strangle him. Of course he’s right. By my nature, I am always too lazy to study documents, to read the details, not to mention trying to understand the meanings of incomprehensible words. I am angry that this insolent fellow figured out my disadvantage so easily.
«Paragraph 127 of the monotonous narrative mentions that all participants will be taken to the collection point separately, with a personal escort and security. No wonder we were greeted without bread and salt. Or in this case, without tea and dried grasshoppers.»
I turn away to the window. It’s supremely stupid to be offended, but for some unknown reason, I’m upset. Third major disappointment of the day. Instead of a charming young man with whom it would be nice to spend time at the Game and, possibly, flirt, I get a cocky self-confident twerp who believes to read me like an open book.
«Lavina, I am very glad that it was you who passed the competition,» suddenly he changes his intonation.
I turn to him abruptly with open surprise on my face.
«You are so… funny with your comments on forums and in dialogues with quest heroes. I thought straight away that this girl would’t be boring. And then you enter the cabin with disheveled hair, a large spot on a T-shirt, and with burning eyes, you initiate me into the theory of the capture by slavers. In which you obviously sincerely believed at that moment and still got on the plane. Lavina, you’re just awesome!»
Alex bursts into guttural laughter again and winks at me friendly.
Funny? Does he consider this as a compliment?! The urge to be rude to him becomes unbearable. My eyes sparkle with indignation.
«You don’t know how to hide emotions, Lavina. Lightning from your eyes speaks quite expressively about the desire to kill me. We will definitely make friends.»
«I’d rather be best friend with that blonde in the first row than with you!» I think angrily to myself…»
«A casual image suits you, really. And, most importantly, it gives food for thought to the blonde in the front row: how could you have come to this? And if the blonde starts to think, then it makes her a little brunette.»
Unexpectedly, I giggle stupidly. Damn it, you can’t be angry with him for long!
At this moment, a thin middle-aged man enters the plane. Round glasses slanted a little on his crooked nose. The rare hair is carefully combed back, evidently in a desperate and failed attempt to hide the bald spot. Despite his somewhat awkward appearance, in a strange way, he instantly disposes to himself. Perhaps the point is in the often blinking kind gray eyes. Stopping at the entrance to the salon, the man smiles uncertainly, slightly hunched over his thin shoulders, shifts from foot to foot, and finally speaks English with a pronounced Spanish accent:
«Um, hello. My name is Jorge… that is, Joleo. Yes, Joleo is my play name.»
Planck immediately jumps up from his seat and heartly shakes hands with the newcomer, greeting him exactly like me, as, I suppose, each participant.
Alex leans over and whispers:
This plane is just a bunch of characters. Here is our absent-minded botanist.
«What character are you?» I whisper sarcastically back.
«Isn’t it obvious? Strong, smart, kind and generous Robin Hood. I’ll take a million dollars from the rich people and give it to the poor ones!» he smiles so contagiously that I can hardly contain myself not to burst out laughing.
«And, in my opinion, you are an ambitious, self-confident fellow!»
«Maybe. But then the slavers will hardly be able to get a high price for me in the market.»
Joleo walks down the aisle and apologizes every two steps. At some point, he stumbles and almost falls to the floor.
«I’m so clumsy,» he repents in my direction, «I’m sorry.»
For some reason, I feel sorry for this little fragile person. I’m surprised how he got into the Game with his natural shyness. Will other gamers «eat» him? Again, my bad habit of thinking about others. There can only be one winner in this game, and I should at least try to become one.
«It’s okay, let me help,» I jump up.
«No, no, do not worry, I can handle it.» He mumbles something and moves into the tail of the plane.
At this point, the pilot is addressing the passengers in English with such a terrible accent that I have to make effort to understand him:
«Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Li Cheng and I am the first pilot of our aircraft. The last passenger has just boarded, so we’re ready to take off. Please make yourself comfortable in your seats. The flight attendants will help you and give you instructions. We’re taking off in twenty minutes. The flight will last about 11 hours.»
The plane taxies onto the runway and accelerates.
«Are you kidding!» I hear Alex’s voice and see his smile stretched from ear to ear, «just don’t say you’re afraid to fly!»
«I’m not afraid of anything, by the way, I have two parachute jumps behind my shoulders.» It’s annoyingly, how easily Alex saw my fears.
He smiles mysteriously, generously showing dimples on his cheeks. Pawky dark eyes shine with pleasure.
«You’re a unique person, Lavina. A kind who will fiercely fight in a bloody battle, and then weep over the body of a dead kitten. Don’t worry, statistics…»
«I know what the statistics says,» I interrupt impatiently. «Air transport is the safest one. There is one plane crash for every one million flights.»
«Nonsense! I mean something else,» he smiles ominously, «the plane falls very quickly, and there is no chance of survival… We have a long flight ahead of us, and the worst thing that can happen on the way is that I will get bored. So relax and tell me
