Page 74 of The Déjà Glitch
They were so close, and they were going to make it.
“Right,” Raul said, and swiped his badge. The door beeped and let them into a dim hallway that smelled of luggage conveyor belts. Gemma thought she heard him mutter something aboutgoing to federal prisonbehind them and chose to ignore it.
She started walking faster, though she didn’t know where they were going. Raul caught up at a slow jog and turned them down another hall with a set of double doors at the end. They popped out into the light of a busy hub of gates. Passengers who’d cleared security sat in rows of chairs waiting for flights and milled about on their phones, snacking and stretching their legs.
“It’s that easy?” Lila said what Gemma was thinking. Given the hassle of security, it seemed unfair that a short hallway was the solution to bypassing it in under a minute. She felt like they should have had to fight a dragon or solve a riddle to get by.
“Yep,” Raul said. “But don’t tell anyone. What gate?”
Gemma thought back to the numbers she’d seen on the flight directory and glanced at the protruding signs up above. Her heart sank.
“One fifty-six,” she said. They were in the 130s.
Raul pivoted to their left and beckoned them with a hand. “Better hustle, then.”
They fell into step, and Lila pulled her tripod back out like she was deploying an umbrella. “Can I film again?”
Raul glanced sideways as she hurried to keep up with his long strides. A smile spread across his face. “Sure.”
She squealed. “Oh!This is so exciting. You’re totally getting a supporting credit in the love story of Gemma and Jack. MVP Raul!”
Raul beamed so hard Gemma thought his face might break. Lila’s flirting seemed wholly genuine by that point, but maybe it had been all along. He was a very attractive security agent.
Lila resumed her video by greeting her fans. Gemma tried not to think about the hordes of them who’d been anxiously waiting while her livestream went dark.
She tuned it out and looked for gate 156 as they hurried through the airport.
“Please please please,” she began to mutter under her breath.
She realized that despite the crushing nerves that she wasn’t going to make it in time, her primary feeling was one of happiness. She knew, finally, how she felt and what she wanted.
Jack.
It was all irrational, but Lila had been right: strange didn’t have to mean bad. She laughed to herself as tears misted her eyes and she ran—ran—through the airport to get to him.
Lila hurried to keep up, surely giving her viewers a bouncy account of the journey as she held her tripod. Raul set a steady pace in front of them, darting his eyes side to side and clearing a path. Gemma wondered how long until someone caught on to what they had done, and she realized it made better sense to have Raul out in front leading them than behind as if he were chasing. That might get them tackled by an intervening security agent. Though, surely, they would all have to answer for their sins at some point. Gemma hoped that point would be after she found Jack. Maybe he would bail her and Lila out of jail. She smiled atthe absurd though not entirely out-of-the-question thought and kept running.
They’d made it to the 140s and were getting closer to the correct gate. She had no plan for what to say to Jack but was ready to let her heart do the talking since that had seemed to work in her favor earlier.
“Please don’t go, Jack,” she said on a breath. Her eyes shot to the numbers on the signs at each gate. The even gates were on the right.
She cut across the aisle flowing with passengers, dodging suitcases and nearly tripping over a dog on a leash. Gate 154 was within sight, which meant 156 was right past it.
“Sorry! Excuse me!” she said to everyone and no one as she pushed through. The crowd at gate 154 was headed to Mexico City, and she wondered at how two starting points could begin so close together and end half a world apart.
She was so close. Almost there.
Her heart was in her throat as she tore around the corner to gate 156.
It promptly fell as she watched an airline employee close the doors leading to the jet bridge. The woman smoothed her hands over the seam at the sealed opening and turned with a satisfied nod. A man tapped a keyboard behind the desk and looked out over the empty seats awaiting the next set of passengers.
“Wait!” Gemma shouted. “Wait! Please!”
Both employees jumped when she came hurtling at them, arms desperately waving.
Gemma stomped to a stop and fought for breath. Out the dark window, she could see the pilots in the lit-up cockpit turning knobs and talking with each other. A man in anorange jumpsuit stood on the tarmac below waving a light stick at them. They would be pulling away any minute.
“No no no.Please, I need to stop that plane!” Gemma said to the employees.