«Good luck, Lavina! I will be rooting for you.»
I catch in her eyes the second emotion of the day. And I definitely don’t like her. This emotion is condolence.
My Game name. The Glossy Lady named me Lavina. Does this mean that the Game has begun? Lavina is practically my second name, identical to the name Victoria. This is the nickname my classmates gave me back in high school. Conceived as an abbreviation for the full Larina Victoria Nikolaevna, it was intended to become offensive. However, the comparison with the natural phenomenon flattered me, and soon my close friends, then fellow students, and then colleagues began to call me like that. From time to time my parents turn to me like this when they want to emphasize my restlessness and spontaneity. This is the nickname I use on forums and social networks. No wonder I chose it to participate in the Quest.
Barely breathing at the same time from fear and anticipation, I get out of the limousine. Two Chinese women meet me at the gangway. (Frankly, the ubiquitous white color begins to depress). They show the way affably. With my heart beating loudly, I enter the plane.
Against the expectations, neither pirates with machine guns in black masks nor a pack of ninjas in white suits attack me. Instead, my eyes see a cozy, bright business class salon. The path is illuminated with blue lights, as are the individual information boards over the heads of the passengers. Huge leather chairs are arranged in two rows, one chair in each.
In the first seat, I see an elderly man in his 60s who reading a newspaper through the glasses pushed to the tip of his nose. Gray strands show through his hair. The man is dressed in jeans and a green sweater with a lapel.
To his right sits a pretty neighbor. Actually not just pretty but a very awesome girl. To be honest, she’s a cliche of jokes: not particularly smart, but dazzlingly beautiful blonde. Long legs in trousers and stiletto heels, smooth blonde hair falling over fragile shoulders, refined features. We meet eyes. Of course: huge soulful blue eyes, framed by long black eyelashes. The top button of the mint-colored blouse is unbuttoned so that you can see the graceful neck.
«Hello! My name is Lavina.»
I hear some greetings in return. An elderly man stands up and holds out his hand to me:
«I am Planck. Well, then, we’ll play together.»
He smiles friendly, and this is the first warm smile all day. I feel calmer because Planck certainly doesn’t look like an air pirate. And for ninja tricks, his bones are probably too old. In general, this elderly man immediately makes a pleasant impression on me.
I move through the cabin looking for a free seat. I walk by a middle-aged woman with a bright appearance. Judging by the sharp features and fiery gaze of her brown, almost black eyes, she could be Spanish or Italian. The southerner smiles broadly with a dazzling white-toothed smile, waves her hand and nods in my direction. Her hot temperament complements her expressive appearance, so I straight away feel sympathy for her.
To the left of the woman, just behind Planck, I notice a young man. He sits with his head bowed over a glossy magazine taken from the pocket of an airplane seat. Hearing my voice, the guy looks up and nods casually, and then immediately returns to reading. I am struck by his pumped-up arms. From under the t-shirt bursting at the seams, muscles and those notorious cubes on his stomach bulge out.
«Apparently, he is an athlete,» I say to myself.
In the third row, I immediately recognize Alex. He looks extremely like the guy on the photo and is also handsome, only slightly taller, judging by the fact that his knees bump into the front seat.
«Hello, Lavina,» he addresses me in Russian without any prefaces.
Several people turn their heads in our direction.
«As you can see, the place next to me is free. I will fly with a compatriot and a game partner! Even if it was only once and ended in a shameful loss.»
«Hi Alex, glad to meet you personally. In that game, we were both not on top.» «Have you already had the pleasure of meeting our promiscuous team?»
«Yes, and it’s a big relief. At one point, I already thought to be dealing with an organized crime group for slavetrade.»
Alex throws his head back and gives out a sincere guttural laugh. Nice dimples form on his cheeks. But for some reason it makes me angry.
«What’s so funny about that?» I snarl.
«What made you think so?»
«Well, yes,» I begin hesitantly, «these strange escorts and the Glossy Lady…»
«Glossy Lady?»
«I called her that for her appearance: too flawless and unreadable.»
Alex laughs again, head thrown back.
«I can imagine that you felt not at ease. By the way, a casual style of clothing and no hairstyle at all suit you. 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