Free Artifact by Gigi Pandian Page A

picked up a magazine from the seat pocket in front of me. My heart sped up whenever a flight attendant passed our aisle to prepare for takeoff, so my nerves didn’t seem to be doing much better than Lane’s. At least he was no longer gripping his arms. He’d moved on to gripping the armrests.
    “Isn’t there something you can take?” I asked.
    “Not if I want to be alert.”
    “You don’t need to be alert for a nine hour flight.”
    Lane relaxed his arms and faced me. “Yes I do. You should be more concerned about yourself. Your ex is dead .” He spoke so quietly I could barely hear him, but his voice was as serious as I’d ever heard it.
    “I know that. I’m quite aware that I’m sitting on a plane with a stranger, part of an apocryphal treasure is hidden in my safe deposit box, and some unknown party is after it—and possibly me.”
    Lane gripped the armrests even tighter as the plane lifted off with a gentle bump. I looked out the window as the buildings below shrank. The ground turned into meaningless patterns before cloud cover swallowed up the airplane. I leaned back in the seat.
    “No one has made an attempt on my life,” I said. “No one is going to take a shot at me, which ricochets and blasts through one of these airplane windows and sends us dropping out of the sky, as we cling to our seats for dear life while other passengers get sucked out of the hole around us one by one—”
    A loud click sounded.
    I jumped in my seat. The seatbelt cut into my abdomen, holding me in place. Lane grabbed my hand so tightly it ached.
    A whirring sound followed the click. It was only the plane’s wheels retracting.
    Lane let go of my hand. He ran his hands over his face. When he put them down I saw he was laughing. The noise from the plane drowned out much of the sound, but the expression on his face was a welcome one.
    “Touché,” he said. “I might be being overly cautious, but it’s only because you’re not taking this seriously enough.”
    “I am taking this seriously. But if I let the truth consume me, where would that leave me? I’d still be hiding under the covers of my bed. I can’t let myself think about it. Oh good, it looks like the beverage service will be starting soon.”
    If all people were my size, economy class airline travel would be quite comfortable. Though I suppose if everyone were my size, they would make the seats smaller. I took a gin and tonic from the flight attendant, curled up on the seat, and promptly fell asleep.

     
    When I awoke, the shade of the window next to me had been drawn and I could see the sun peeking out from beneath it. My neck was stiff, and my mouth was dry. The seat no longer felt as comfortable as when I had first sat down.
    I stretched my arms above my head and wriggled my feet under the seat in front of me. Lane pulled the airline headphones off.
    “You don’t do anything without doing it wholeheartedly,” he said. “You eat like you mean it. You drink like you mean it. You even sleep like you mean it.”
    “What time is it?”
    “We’re landing in a little over an hour.”
    I yawned. “Anyone try to kill me in my sleep?”
    Lane didn’t dignify the question with a response.
    A flight attendant walked by, collecting empty breakfast trays.
    “You didn’t wake me up for breakfast?”
    Lane reached down into the seat pocket and pulled out a miraculously resilient ham and cheese croissant and a tiny bottle of water. He handed them to me.
    I tore into the breakfast sandwich. Lane put his headphones back on and resumed innocently watching a British sitcom on the screen on the back of the seat in front of him. I studied his profile. He couldn’t possibly be involved in whatever was going on. Yet there was still something about Lane I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I poked him in the arm. He lowered the headphones.
    “Where are you going when we arrive?” I asked.
    He shrugged. “I figured I’d find a hotel and then head to the British