Chapter Twelve

 

Chapter Twelve

Lui shivered and rubbed his arms as soon as he was inside. The hotel had a fireplace in the corner of the lobby, which Lui gratefully walked over to and stood in front of. Hanna sat on one of the chairs and picked up a puzzle book from the thin stack of reading material on the closest coffee table. “So,” Lui started, turning around to talk to Hanna. “What do you do when you’re not saving the world?” 

“Reading, usually,” Hanna answered, flipping through the book to find a puzzle that wasn’t in norwegian. 

“Cool.” Lui folded his arms and turned back to the fire, feeling like a rotisserie chicken. 

“Cool?” Hanna echoed, glancing up at him. “Not lame?” 

“Nope.” Lui turned back and smiled. “Not lame. Books are the best weapon in the world. They also make wonderful Christmas gifts.” 

“Good,” Hanna said, picking up a pen and starting on a maze puzzle. “I was afraid you’d think I’m a dork or something.” 

“I already think you’re a dork,” Lui commented with a chuckle. Hanna’s head snapped up and her hand lifted to make another snowball. Lui threw his hands out to stop her. “Not inside,” he whispered, eyes darting to the front desk. Hanna lowered her hand and stuck her tongue out at him. He stuck his tongue out back and the two of them giggled. Lui shook his head and sat across from Hanna. “And you call me the troublemaker.” He leaned over to see her progress. Hanna was filling out the maze path backwards, from the end to the start. “I don’t think I’ve seen anyone do a maze like that before,” Lui said, watching. 

“I want one clear path from start to finish without any mistakes,” Hanna said, concentrating on the maze. 

“If only life were so simple,” Lui muttered absently. “Do you want help?” he asked. 

“Nope,” Hanna answered immediately. 

“Okay,” Lui leaned back into the seat, arms still folded as he warmed up. 

Hanna’s pen stopped and she sat back with a smile, admiring the perfectly completed puzzle. She flipped the page to a blank maze. She glanced up at Lui, now curious. After a moment of contemplation, Hanna held out the book and pen to him. “How would you do it?” she asked. 

“Easy.” Lui leaned forward and took the objects. He drew a line from the start as he spoke. “The easiest way to solve a maze is to pick a direction and follow it.”

Hanna stood up and stepped closer to watch. “Assuming the maze is only two pieces,” Lui continued, still drawing. “You can pick a wall and follow it all the way to the end. Yeah, you might hit every dead end, but you’ll make it out every time. See?” He finished the maze and showed Hanna the page. The corners of her mouth turned down, trying not to look mildly impressed. 

They both looked up when the outside door opened and Zhenya walked in, stomping her shoes on the rubber mat. “Hey,” Hanna said, turning back to Lui. “You should probably go to bed and get some rest. I’m going to talk to Zhenya and figure out if we can get a flight out tomorrow.” 

Lui yawned and nodded his head. “That’s a good idea.” He stood up and stretched. He almost walked away when he stopped and turned back. “Get some sleep, Hanna. You need it too.” 

Hanna nodded. “I know, I know. I’ll be fine.” 

“Hanna…” Lui hesitated. “Thank you.” He smiled at her. “Thanks for coming to save us.” 

Hanna smiled back. “Go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.” She watched him leave the lobby before going to find Zhenya in the restaurant. 

***********************

Lui made his way up to room 202, unlocked the door as quietly as he could, and turned the handle as it opened. To his surprise, the tv was on and DJ was still up. DJ looked at him expectantly. 

“Don’t say it,” Lui immediately said as he closed the door before DJ even had a chance to open his mouth. 

“I didn’t say a word,” DJ said, turning back to the tv with a small smile. 

“You were thinking it.” Lui entered the room and flopped onto the secondary bed face first, utterly spent.

“That great, huh? Popcorn?” DJ asked, holding out a bag.

“Mo, fanks,” came the completely muffled reply. Lui grumbled as he lifted himself on his elbows and looked at the tv. “What are you watching?” 

DJ shrugged. “The foreign subtitles keep overlapping the English ones, but I think these teams are racing.” He tossed a piece of popcorn in the air and caught it in his mouth. 

“Huh, that sounds like fun.” Lui sat up, tilting his head as he watched the screen. 

DJ nodded. “They go to different places around the world and have to complete activities and puzzles.” 

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Lui said. As soon as the commercials hit, he turned to DJ. “Why are you still up?” 

“I stopped by the hospital to make sure my arm got proper medical attention,” DJ answered, raising his freshly bandaged limb. “Make sure it doesn’t get infected or something weird like that.” 

Lui nodded. “Smart.” He watched DJ frown in concentration. “What’s wrong?” 

DJ shook his head, not quite knowing where to start. “All this stuff with Iul… It doesn’t make sense.”

“How so?” Lui asked, leaning back against the pillows. 

“If he was dead set on flooding the world, those heat rays would have been protected.” DJ turned to Lui, face scrunched in thought. “Why didn’t we meet any resistance?” 

Lui shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe he didn’t want his guys to drown.” 

“That’s out of character,” DJ said, turning back to the screen, not really watching anymore. “There was something Hanna mentioned too. Why would you create a problem and then bring in the person with the exact power needed to fix it? Neither of us could have stopped that flood. That’s another thing… Why us? Why her? What’s he really up to?” DJ shook his head. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. It’s been so long sinc-” A light snore interrupted DJ’s train of thought. He turned to see Lui already out cold. DJ exhaled with a tired smile. “Heh, I guess we’ll talk tomorrow. Goodnight, buddy.” 

*************************

Hanna found Zhenya sitting at the restaurant’s bar table chowing down on a plate of food. “Hey, how did it go?” Hanna asked in Russian. 

Zhenya shrugged. “Good. The people here are too nice,” she answered in Russian.  

Hanna nodded. “Can we fly?” 

“Yes, but only directly home,” Zhenya answered. “No extra stops. Slava is not happy with you.” 

“When do we need to leave?” Hanna asked, folding her arms.

“The sooner the better.” Zhenya finished the food on her plate and shrugged again. She paid for the meal and stood up.

“Can we leave now?” Hanna asked. 

Zhenya turned to her like she was crazy. “NOW?! I’m tired! You’re tired. Your friends are tired. It’s the middle of the night!”

“Is the plane ready?” Hanna asked without backing down. “Can you fly?” 

The pilot scowled. “Yes,” she answered begrudgingly. 

“Then let’s go. I’ll sleep on the plane.” Hanna turned to walk out when the pilot spoke again. 

“What about your friends?” Zhenya asked. 

Hanna stopped and frowned. “They’ll have to find their own way home,” she answered icily, turning back. “You already said we can’t take them back.” 

“Back to Iceland, yeah.” Zhenya nodded to the side with raised eyebrows, still surprised at the response. “Ok, but I need to shower first. I’m a mess.” She looked Hanna up and down with a face that said “you are too,” but was nice enough not to say it outloud. She patted Hanna’s shoulder and walked to the front desk. 

Hanna looked down at her clothes. All the black in her light leather armor was caked in grime and mud. Her gloves were brown and gray. She couldn’t even make out the laces on her boots anymore. Hanna looked up at the mirror behind the bar. Her face was dirty and her pigtails had come loose, dark hair tangled and ratty. When did that happen? Did she look this bad the whole time? For a split second, Hanna thought she saw the blue eyes staring back at her gleam red. Hanna huffed and left in a hurry.