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A look of satisfaction chased away the watchfulness in his eyes as he glanced around “The airport aze swept the spread of structures extending as far as her vision reached into the horizon in all directions “Try stupefaction This place looks as if it covers all of Judar”

“What you see is the rest of Judar Global Central, Judar’s latest and largest project, a Free Zone residential, coest and most advanced in the world The airport is but part of this new coo hub”

“Tell me about it This is the first airport I’ve ever seen with…” She counted “Ten parallel nonintersecting runways”

“It is built for the future, designed to handle all next-generation aircraft The parallel runways allow up to eight aircrafts to land si Last year it handled twenty-sixthe thirtyaround, de his attention

“You want lass and steel buildings? Those are four passenger terminals, twelve hotels and I can’t remember how manyspaces, eh? And you see these signs? Each color leads to a transportation linking the airport to Durghah-speed freeway, the rail syste her elbow as her feet wobbled with her first step onto Judarian soil, on a red carpet, no less

She averted her eyes to the black stretch lie flitted in and out of her field of vision “It’s a feels—I don’t how to say this—steeped in the stuff of Arabian Nights fables I don’t knohen everything is so modern, futuristic even It ns” She stopped because he did, shifted her feet on the ground, suppressed a shudder “No, scratch that It’s the land itself”

He looked down at her, the declining sun infusing the gold of his irises with fire, or probably just revealing it “You feel the land, don’t you? It’s calling to you What is it saying?”

It’s saying, run now, or you’ll never leave In life or death

Before she confessed her thoughts out loud, a ruround noise, rose to the pitch of approaching thunder

Caught and held by his probing gaze, she felt no alarm Probably because he trans in his arms Carmen interpreted the din only when he released her from his focus, turned it toward the source

Her reaction still lagged until he said, “Here they are”

It was the pleasure and affection in his voice that aze toward a helicopter the like of which she had never seen, a matte-black majestic alien lifeform