The guy grunted again as he finished and handed them back. “One at a time, scan your thumbs on the machine to the right up ahead. The child doesn’t have to.”
He eyed the free-standing thumb scanner. It was just a floating podium with a thumb pad on it. But the floor and walls around the thumb scanner switched from gray to blue. Severo knew that odd section of walkway was a full body scanner, that would activate the second they pressed their thumb to the pad.
Severo walked in first with the bags and pressed his capped thumb to the scanner. There was a beep and the guy yelled, “Next!”
He moved forward and turned around to wait for Seri. The Nymph approached looking pale, and somehow got even more so as he walked to the thumb scanner, the man’s eyes filling with panic. Severo quickly reached out and adjusted the shadow shield, to not so closely follow Seri’s bodily reactions. The outer shell relaxed a little and didn’t look as petrified by the time the thumb scanner beeped.
“Have a nice flight,” the guy said, sounding like he really just wanted to tell them to fuck off.
When Seri reached his side, Severo whispered, “What’s wrong?”
“Preston’s men…they’re here,” the Nymph whispered back, voice shaking slightly.
“Where are they?”
“Bench behind you to the right…they are looking at a tablet.”
Severo, with a smile on his face, glanced back, pretending to look at the flight board on the wall. There was indeed someone sitting there with a tablet, and he was not reading it. Wearing a full suit, the man’s gaze was fixed on the people coming through the scanners.
Turning to Seri, he hummed softly. “Not surprising. This is a major airport, but it’s also connected to a shuttle port. Keep your eyes on me and ignore them. He probably sent them to all the major ones, hoping to get lucky. They won’t, as long as you don’t act suspicious.”
Seri took a deep breath in and let it out. “Right…”
Seri’s gazeflicked around the airport as they disembarked from their last plane, hoping to see no one familiar.
He eyed the airport. The place had silver tiles on the floor, and white walls randomly broken up by artwork. The ceiling was a glass dome. There were shops and restaurants, and of course, rows and rows of hard plastic seats to sit in while you wait for flight.Because why make them comfortable, he thought grumpily.
A yawn forced its way out, and he winced as his eyes watered. Fuck, was he tired. After two connecting flights, and multiple many hours’ long wait times, they were finally in Alaska.
It was daylight, despite it being 2am. Seri was going to guess they were in the part of Alaska that was in a temporary stage of permanent daylight. He wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but he couldn’t say he minded.
He honestly should have researched a bit before they left. Well, it wasn’t like he had a lot of time. He’d had time on the flight, but Seri had been so nervous all he could do was chew his other nails down to stumps… Even if there hadn’t been a cap on the one thumb, there was nothing to chew there.
Besides his fears of being discovered, the other glaring issue had been Skya. He just felt awful. She refused to let him touch her. It wasn’t like he would force her, but it was upsetting being rejected by his own child. She’d let him feed her at least, even if she’d glared over the bottle the whole time.
Seri couldn’t say he didn’t mind her not letting him change her diapers. Severo may have, since the task had then fallen on him, though the man hadn’t complained. Ugh, he just wanted to cuddle his baby. And while he knew it was wrong to use her as a safety blanket, nonetheless, holding her always made him feel calmer.
Seri followed Severo to an elevator. The sign floating there next to it warned that it would take them on the other side of security, and they would not be able to go back without a ticket and being scanned again.
“When can we…change?” Seri whispered to Severo when they got on the elevator, another yawn slipping out.
The Dweller glanced over with a yawn of his own. “Probably should find a bathroom and do it now… We shouldn’t have to wait outside for long, as we are being picked up by Ender’s people, but…I checked the weather on the tablet they provided on the plane. It said it was in the teens, so I don’t think walking outside in what we are wearing would be considered fun.”
“What about cameras?”
“They won’t be watching that closely.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. They got out, Seri pushing Skya forward in her stroller, while Severo towed their things. The floor down here was much the same color wise, but no dome ceiling because the floor above blocked it.
The Dweller suddenly stopped, glanced around and pointed to the right. “There’s a gender-neutral bathroom over there we can use. Likely there will be a large family stall inside. We can get changed in there, and then wait until it's empty to leave. Or at least until those who didn’t come in with us leave.”
“Okay…”
Seri followed Severo into the bathroom. The airport wasn’t super busy at the moment, so they’d gotten lucky and entered the bathroom with only a few people inside. Probably helped that this restroom was on the other side of security. The family stall however was occupied. The other stalls being too small to use, they stood there waiting while more people came in, did their business and left.
Seri sighed in relief when the family stall door finally opened ten minutes later…only to barely hold back his glare as a single person walked out, rolling two suitcases behind him. As if there hadn’t been dozens of empty single person stalls. The guy quickly washed his hands and avoided their gazes when they walked past him and into the stall.
“People…” Seri huffed.
