The Riddle (Children of Two Futures 1)

  Chapter Three

  TWO HOURS AFTER they had taken off from Jakarta airport, Kenneth decided he had seen his share of planes, sky craft and atmosphere ships for a long time to come. The inside of the plane President Slaan had arranged just for them had looked no different than any other flying vehicle Kenneth had utilized while in the seventy-third century.

  The upholstered tan seats bore the same colorful zigzag pattern Kenneth saw everywhere. Above each seat, a small vent blasted out cold air. Kenneth played around with the vent's grill, trying to adjust it the way he wanted. After ten minutes of turning it this way and that, he gave up and shut the grill so that no air came out.

  On the arm support below his seat's left armrest, he found an outlet. He pulled the small earphones which a flight attendant had given him out of his pocket. They remained in a small sealed plastic bag that had printed health advisory notices for infants in many different languages.

  He struggled with the plastic in his hands, trying to get it open, but it would not. He bit into it, trying to tear into it with his teeth. When that didn't work either, he grasped hold of the small golden metallic jack inside and pushed it through the bag. A hole appeared, and Kenneth opened the bag.

  He did not know what to expect from the audio outlet, but the soothing sound of rain pattering on a roof surprised him as he plugged it in. He blinked his eyes a few times, making sure that all of his senses had not suddenly malfunctioned, but the rain soundtrack remained. The earphones were uncomfortable, but Kenneth didn't mind for he had nothing else to do on yet another flight across the world.

  He settled into his seat while Savannah, sitting in the seat next to him, stared out the window. Once she started looking at the various crafts moving about the sky, she hadn't pulled her face away.

  A stewardess had come by with processed nutrients and a message from President Slaan that a shipment of edible plants from a Temporal Constabulary center in England was headed for Heracleion. Savannah had murmured something under her breath, not even looking at the woman holding forth a plain metal can.

  Kenneth, against his better judgment, had eaten the can of nutrients offered to him once his stomach growled. He had gone without breakfast in order to depart from Jakarta as soon as possible. Consequently, he had been hungry throughout the morning.

  By the time lunch rolled around, even though he wanted to eat, he did not want another can of the gray, unappetizing, boring food the people of the future forced their children to eat. He didn't want to battle with his gurgling stomach either, so in the end, his stomach won out.

  He had wedged the can's pop-top cap inside it when he finished, and laid it between his feet. As the sound of the rain continued playing, Kenneth held back a yawn. He did not like it when he had nothing to do, but he did not want to sleep either.

  Since coming to the future, he felt that he had done nothing more than sleep and eat bland processed nutrients. He put the can into a round cup holder on his right and then unfastened his seat belt. Maybe another part of the plane would provide more entertainment.

  He took off his earphones, leaving them draped over the left armrest. He stretched his arms over his head and stood up. Small lights the size of fingernails lit up the carpeted aisle.

  Unquill sat on the other side of the aisle, threading white laces through one of his shoes. Various other people sat in the first class section of the plane, sleeping, reading or looking out of the window.

  A nine-foot-tall stewardess wearing a long, tight business skirt, tan pantyhose, and shiny black high heels rushed out in distress from behind the curtain separating the first class cabin from coach.

  Part of her white blouse had been torn in the back. A flap of cloth hung loose, bobbing up and down as the woman ran.

  She opened the metal door leading to the control room. Kenneth briefly saw a man in a blue uniform look up from a complicated control panel full of displays and buttons.

  Kenneth decided he would have a look at what the stewardess was running away from.