Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X #1)(25)
Author: Richelle Mead

“Really?” asked Justin. “Who keeps a knife in their boot?”

“No one ever expects the knife,” she said.

The table had a glass cover shielding it. The agent flipped a switch, and a light came on for a few seconds. He nodded and told Mae she could take the weapons back. He started to wave her through, but she said, “I have visas for them.”

Justin rested his hand on the scanner, and once more, it filled with a flood of data. The first thing Tessa saw was that his citizenship space read: None. She also saw something she hadn’t paid attention to on Mae’s, a field marked “Genetic Resistance.” The number nine was filled in beside it. Perhaps the most striking part of his screen was the notes section, which was written in flashing red letters: No authorization to enter RUNA territories. Detain immediately and contact authorities.

“Some homecoming,” he said.

The agent looked as though he was indeed about to call authorities, and Mae quickly handed over her ego, that device that Justin had been enthralled with on the trip here. The agent ran the ego over the palm scanner, and a shimmering, holographic image of the RUNA’s seal appeared briefly in the air. A few seconds later, the red-lettered warning went away, replaced by a much more subdued Provisional Visa, Ministry of Internal Security. The agent scanned Justin’s small bag and then cleared him for entry.

When Mae showed him Tessa’s documentation, the agent issued her a thin, plastic card and told her to keep it until she was chipped. It displayed the RUNA’s seal shining on the surface, along with her name, citizenship, a long string of numbers, and Provisional Visa, Student.

“One more scan,” Justin told Tessa once the agent waved them on.

“It’s not easy getting in,” she said, starting to feel dazed again.

“No,” he agreed. “A lot easier getting out.”

They crossed that last checkpoint and finally entered the airport’s crowded lobby. There were no lines here. People moved in every direction, all going their own ways. A wall of glass doors shone before them, lit by the early-evening sun. Hanging over them was the RUNA’s flag, half maroon and half dark purple, with a golden circle of laurel leaves in the center. Written under the circle, also in gold, was Gemma mundi. The jewel of the world. The motto that had eventually given name to its citizens, the Gemmans.

Tessa felt Justin come to a halt beside her. His eyes were fixed on the flag, his expression reminding her of when their plane had descended into the city. She saw that ache and longing again—and more. There was joy in his eyes. And relief. And awe. And disbelief.

Until this moment, he never actually thought he’d make it back, she thought.

Mae had stopped as well and watched as Justin gazed at the flag. For the first time today, Mae didn’t regard him with exasperation. There was a softness in her expression, something fleetingly affectionate, that took Tessa totally by surprise.

“Welcome home,” Mae said.

CHAPTER 8

NOT COOL

He didn’t believe in Huan’s hell, but as Justin stepped into the RUNA, he could almost believe in a heaven.

It was everything he remembered. Bright. Orderly. Efficient. Clean. And advanced. No armed thugs or dilapidated buildings. The lack in provincial technology had always been apparent in his exile, but it didn’t really hit him until he was surrounded by modernity again. The chip readers. The monitors. The egos. Here was the world as it should be, the country that had survived the Decline to emerge more brilliantly than it had started. His homeland. Where he belonged.

Stop drooling, snapped Horatio. The girl’s going to pass out.

Justin glanced over at Tessa and saw that the raven wasn’t that far off from the truth. She was still pale and anxious. He squeezed her hand.

“You’re okay. Stay with me here.”

She was having a hard time, but Justin stood by his decision to bring Tessa here. She was capable, and she deserved this. Sergio had taken Justin in without question when he’d shown up penniless in Panama. Marta Cruz had always believed Justin was a freeloader, but he had strong convictions about paying his debts. Choosing where to go in exile had been the biggest gamble Justin had ever made, with his life as the wager. Gemman authorities had escorted him from his office straight to the nearest airport, telling him he could go “anywhere but here.” He’d had only minutes to make a decision. Central and South America were the obvious options. Their populations had been diverse enough to help them weather the Decline better than other places, and they were more stable than most provinces.

And you see yourself in her, Horatio said.

Justin didn’t deny it because it was true. For a moment, Tessa’s face dissolved, and he saw another one in his mind, an older face that had seemed beautiful to his ten-year-old self. The noise and smells of the Anchorage market had surrounded them, and his boss had been yelling for him to return. How did you do that? the beautiful woman had asked. It’s easy, Justin had replied. You just have to look at their faces. And with those words, his life had changed.

Studying Tessa now, he was struck by how painfully out of place she looked. With her ankle-length skirt and thick hair, she could’ve been a time traveler from another century. She attracted a lot of stares, so it was probably just as well that her eyes were kind of glazed over. Walking next to Mae, so perfect and polished in her tailored outfit, didn’t help Tessa’s appearance, though it occasionally allowed Justin to see flashes of compassion on Mae’s face when she didn’t think anyone was looking. Killer soldier, haughty castal, bitter one-night stand…whatever she was, Mae had a soft spot for frightened provincial girls.

“Can’t we take a car?” he asked her when he realized they were headed toward the airport’s entrance to the subway.

Mae shook her head. “We need her chipped, and this way’s faster to the Citizens’ Ministry.”

“I don’t want a chip,” Tessa repeated, abandoning one fear for another.

“It’s easy,” he said. “And it’ll make your life a lot easier.”

She looked skeptical, probably because her crackpot mother had filled her with all sorts of idiocy about chips sealing Gemmans to the devil.

Proving his point, Tessa triggered an alarm when she passed through the transit entrance. The guard waved them on once Mae stopped to show him Tessa’s documentation and card, though Justin was pretty sure Mae could’ve achieved the same effect by flashing a gun, that ridiculous knife, or the look she’d given Justin last night upon learning he wasn’t Huan Korokov.