Chapter 3

Rays of the morning sun were flooding the cabin, colouring it in all tints of red, orange and gold. A ringing silence which was so natural for such an early time of day filtered through the air, being broken by the low noise of working engines, the sound of the wind and the breathing of sleeping passengers. But Nikola was looking only at her, the woman who stole his heart more than a century ago.

It was a rare moment when he could just sit and look at her without the necessity to pretend, to be sarcastic and to do something totally inadmissible, just to see her reaction. Such pattern of behaviour had become second nature to him, especially when their little circle had grown to five and he could no longer have her to himself.

When her soul demanded scientific conversation, she went to James. For jokes, it was Nigel and compliments John. Which meant that step by step and day by day, he felt farther and farther from her so that each night without sleep sent his wit to sarcasm, something which was far less likely to win her smiles. Eventually her bright blue eyes stopped linger on him as if trying to figure out exactly what was going on with him so that he saw less of her puzzled expressions or the tiny smiles that would crease their corners, leaving him to watch as they flashed with pure anger in his direction. But that was better than indifference, so he'd taken it. Of course, he could play nice, but it meant that she addressed solely out of courtesy and that was something he couldn't bear. So he kept provoking her, even if it resulted in the occasional bullet in his chest.

Helen was peacefully snuffling in her seat, and his heart thrummed with excitement. She was so beautiful, in spite of the disheveled hair and lightly smudged makeup. He felt like he could just sit back like this and admire her sleeping forever but suddenly her eyelashes quivered, shook off the sleep and the first thing Helen saw was cheerful and smiling face of Nikola.

"Good morning, ljubav! Rise and shine!" he sang.

"And to you!" she replied drowsily and tried to smile.

After her, as if on command, Kate, Will and Henry stirred. The plane was filled with talks and yawns. Kate demanded a coffee, Henry immediately buried himself in the laptop, checking all that could be changed during his small break. Helen stretched and caught Nikola's look and asked, "What?"

"You snore!" he replied, smiling even wider.

"I do not!" Helen half jumped out of her seat.

"By the way, Junior snores too," he continued, "was it the main reason why you hired him?"

"I don't snore!" Will protested.

"Like a January bear!" Nikola added. "If there were such competition, the first prize would be yours."

"Nikola, stop teasing Will!" Helen said in defence of her protégé.

"Even Heinrich will agree, won't he?" Nikola said to the other young man.

"Yeah, don't count on it!" Will said.

"Actually, Tesla is right, dude, you snore and kinda loudly," Henry replied timidly.

Helen saw that Will was really confused and elbowed Nikola as a prevention, then said with a commanding tone, "Freshen up yourself, we have an hour till arriving! Nikola, the same applies to you and cease tormenting my team," she turned to him.

"Really?" he asked, "I need to freshen up too?"

She looked at him: immaculate in a perfectly ironed suit, no one would ever believe that he spent the previous night in an airplane seat, "And how he does always manage to look so damn cool?" she thought, but said aloud, "follow my latter instruction. And find something more useful to do than slight poor William."

And with that she headed for the onboard bathroom to make herself presentable.

"Oh, I'm at your service, my dear! Just call if you need a little help."

Helen stopped in front of the door and even opened her mouth to reply, but only sighed, mumbled under her breath, "Evil creature!"

She didn't need to turn at him to see his reaction, she could sense it regardless. The scamp was grinning.

She closed the door behind her and felt a little freer. Nikola's presence always kept her on edge. It was pleasant and exciting and made her fingertips tingle sometimes but more than that, he reminded her that she was alive. Though there was still a tension his presence brought.

Helen took a deep breath and looked towards the mirror. "Bloody hell!" she cried. Her hair was standing on end, going in all directions, mascara smeared under her eyes. And Nikola saw her like this?

"Bloody hell!" she repeated, shocked at herself.

Less than a half an hour the jet landed in one of the airports in Baku.

"So, Will, you're going to this address." Helen gave him a piece of paper. "Henry and you can go together. Kate, you go to the second address, and Nikola and I will take in the cargo from the third place. When you transport it on board, we're going to meet in the hall of the hotel 'Excelsior Hotel Baku', where we should have a reservation. And then, it's time for your concert!"

"Magnus, are you sure you want to go with Tesla?" Will asked in a barely concealed whisper.

Nikola just snorted in response, and Helen said, "If you want, I can send him with you?" A look of horror appeared on Will's face which she could have taken as her answer but instead she continued. "If Nikola goes alone, we'll end up with all kinds of disasters. Now you all know your tasks, so go."

And with that, they dispersed.

"Just admit it, Helen," Nikola said with a sly smile, "you can't bear to be without me."

"Nonsense!" she said, shaking her head. He suddenly grabbed her hand, bringing her wrist to his lips, letting them brush softly against her.

"What are you doing, Nikola?" she asked, making to pull her hand from his grip but he held firm.

"Your lips can lie, Helen, but not your pulse!" he said, looking into her eyes as he let go of her hand.

Helen sighed, "This day is going to be a long one."

In the evening Will was stepping out of the hall. "Well, where are they?" he asked.

"You know Magnus," Kate said without looking up from her magazine, "she's thorough and has Tesla distracting her. Who knows how long it could take."

"Yeah, Will, don't worry!" Henry said. "We have 2 hours till the concert starts so ... Here they are ..." Henry stumbled over the last word. "Doc, what happened to you?"

Hehe...)

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