*****
By the time they returned to the airfield, the boat had already been towed into the plane, and everyone was going back into its interior. Seiber gave each one a pill and went up to the cockpit next to Abel.
It was while they were going up the ramp that Light took Skyler by the arm.
"Wait, this is yours," she said as she gave him an egg with a red face, which Skyler immediately identified as a Daruma doll. He knew it wasn't the first time he saw it.
"This..." he whispered, not knowing what else to say.
"I stopped by your house, but didn't have much time. So, I just picked that up and ran away. I thought you might wanna keep it, instead of all your other ugly figurines."
Skyler could see the dining room wall, packed densely with collectible figurines. And on an extra shelf, separate from the collection, there was this figure, stressing itself in its solitude, watching from its small pedestal with its single eye of raw ink.
"I just...I mean...That's very thoughtful."
"Of course it is. I gave it to you back then. By the way," she answered as she pointed at its empty eye socket, "I think it's about time to fill it in."
Skyler knew drawing the remaining eye onto a Daruma doll meant the fulfillment of a goal, though he failed to recall what the goal was. Should he fill it up, anyway? It would be better to wait.
"Thanks," he replied tersely before putting it in his pocket.
By the time they got on the plane, the prototype was fully fastened, and the crew members were taking the pills in their seats. Skyler and Light sat in two adjacent seats and fastened their harnesses before Nadim came with his pathological insistence to take the pill, which they did.
Ace lay down next to their feet, seemingly pleased by the vibrations through the floor from the rampant engines.
"You've given him an order in Russian before, right?" asked Skyler.
"Yeah, I don't know if I ever told you. I trained him not to be so stubborn."
"How were you able to tame a...beast?"
"It was actually pretty straightforward. The bottom line is to not be afraid of him. The rest is based on positive reinforcement and patience."
The ramp ascended, and the plane took off immediately. When Skyler looked at his surroundings, everyone was already out. Everyone but them.
*****
"Did you have any problem stealing it?" asked Seiber.
"No one noticed. Even when we left," answered Garrard mechanically.
"Then they mustn't have followed you."
"I'm sure they didn't. They probably noticed when I made it to international waters, but they should have trailed the false path I left."
At that point, the plane exceeded the sea of clouds. Seiber, on the left, commanded the aircraft calmly, with his legs crossed, while his guest, in the right passenger seat, was sitting rigid, with his fists closed over his knees and his teeth gritted behind his closed lips. That taut effigy did not go unnoticed by Seiber.
"Something wrong?"
"No, nothing. I just have to go to the bathroom."
"Oh, there's one back to the left, just before the door."
YOU ARE READING
King Acid
Historical FictionA young man wakes up in the desert. The wreckage of an ambulance lies smashed against a boulder and charred to a crisp. By the stitches on his head and face, he assumes he was the patient. But why was an ambulance driving through a desert? Where wa...
