Chapter 70

After taking off like a mad man from MinHe and Lisa's home Tom went straight to his place, grabbed a few random items of clothing from his closet, his passport, and his tooth brush and tooth paste, shoved them into a small backpack, and darted out of his apartment. He then sped to the airport. After paying for a few days of parking he called Mr. X again, "Did you find out where she went?"

"She booked an early morning flight with Northwest Air…."

"Where, just tell me where?"

"Rine." (Rhi-Neh)

"I will call you when I land, let me know what hotel she is staying in." Tom hung up before he could get a response, and made haste to the ticket counter. A lady was standing behind the desk in an all blue uniform with a small white scarf tied around her neck, "When is the next flight to Rine?"

"In half an hour."

"Do you have any seats left?"

"We have two open seats."

"Well now you only have one." The lady smiled at him before starting the transaction.

"Do you need a one way ticket, or a round trip."

"Let's just start with the one way."

"Do you have any luggage?"

"Just a carry on." Her right eyebrow raised a bit by his response.

"The total will be five hundred and fifty-eight dollars." Tom quickly pulled out his wallet, and handed his card over without even pausing. The lady quickly swiped his card, and then handed it back to him. She printed his ticket, "The gate number is 43, your flight is N506JB to Rine..." she looked at the name on the ticket, "Mr. Lang." then she proceeded to hand the ticket over to him, "The gate is going to be down the corridor to the right."

"Thank you." Once the ticket was in his hands he quickly made his way towards the gate, only to be stopped about ten feet down where a large line of travelers were waiting in line to get their luggage checked.

The whole process of buying the ticket, and getting his luggage checked took a total of fifteen minutes, and by the time he ran to the gate they were making the last call for boarding. "I am on flight N506JB." He was waving his ticket in the air as he ran up to the flight attendant at the boarding station. The man quickly scanned in Tom's ticket, "You're in seat 3C. It's an aisle seat."

"Thank you." Tom quickly took his ticket back, and power walked onto the jet bridge before stepping onto the crowded plane and locating his seat. 'I am not going to let you get away from me that easily Mary Sun.' He sat down, and pulled out his phone. He set it on airplane mode even before the flight attendant started to go through the safety procedures. He looked at the time. '10 am. After a fourteen hour flight I will be in the same country as you are.'

At the same time Mary was three hours into her fourteen hour flight to Rine. She had it all planned out. Three days in Rine, then two days in Lyr, three days in Lan, a day in Isla, two days in Aarondelle, then two days on the west side of Ahmeri before returning home to rest for the final day of her two week vacation.

She was currently using her phone to plan the flights, and research the hotels she wanted to stay at while she traveled all of Erde. The gentleman next to her happened to notice out of the corner of his eye, "Wow, you have a busy schedule ahead of you. Do you work for WWAC?"

She looked at he man next to her for the first time. He had black hair and green eyes. She instantly thought of Tom. She stared at the man for a few seconds before shaking her head, "No, I work for Park Industries. I am just traveling."

"Wow, that's a lot to do in two weeks. I would be exhausted by the third day."

She thought about his words, and felt that he was right. 'I am still young, do I really need to cram this much in two weeks?' she looked back down at her phone, "You're right. I think I am just going to start with Rine, and then see how I feel after a few days." she turned back to the man, "Thank you."

"No problem." the man pulled out a pair of headphones, "I am going to try and get some shut eye to help with the time difference. See you in a few hours."

"Sleep well."

"Thank you." the man placed the earbuds in, and reclined his chair back as much as it could.

Mary turned back to her phone, and cleared out all the flights saved. She then looked at all of the missed calls from Tom. She put her headphones in as well, and played the voicemails:

"Mary, it's me Tom. I would like to speak with you. If you would be able to give me a call back that would be great." The first message sounded professional.

"Mary, it's Tom again. I really need to speak with you. Please call me."

"Mary, please call me. I want to tell you something important."

"Mary, please pick up."

"Mary, I need to talk to you." His voice was getting more and more desperate as the voicemails continued.

"Mary, I am worried about you. Where are you?"

The next one didn't even start with her name, "Why are you ignoring me? I really need to speak with you!"

"Mary, I want to apologize for the last message. I really just want to hear your voice. Can you please grant that wish for me? Please call me back when you get this."

"Mary, please call me. I know I probably sound like a broken record, but I need to talk to you. Please." At this point it sounded like his started to drink.

"I need to hear your voice. It's getting late, and I miss you. Mary please don't hide from me."

"Mary, you're so beautiful. Mary, your amazing. Mary, why did you run away…." she could hear the faint sound of a muffled cry, and then the phone call was cut.

"Mary, Ignore that last message again. I don't know what came over me. I really need to speak with you. Call me when you get this, okay?"

By the time she listened to the 12th voicemail she could feel the tears flowing down the side of her face. 'Why am I crying. Mary, you're the one who came onto him. You're the one who made him do those things, and now he is looking to speak with you. Stop your tears right this instant! You went on this trip to think about what you have done to that poor man!' Even though her inner voice was telling her to ignore his calls, and use this time to think about what she wanted to do next in her life she found herself wanting to reach out to him. She quickly typed up a message.