A heavy SUV disengaged from the already heavy traffic around the airport, and moved through the crowd of vehicles to step into a more isolated passage in the distance that led inside the international hub. When it reappeared under the bright sun, gleaming with its dark tint, it moved toward a sparsely populated zone, away from the noisy restlessness usually characteristic of the beehive of arriving and departing travelers.
After passing a few hangars, some opened, some closed, the car came to a stop, its quiet hum suppressed by the distant sounds of planes landing and taking off giving way to a defeated silence. The door on the driver side opened, and Mark came out, a cup of coffee in one hand and a phone in the other.
As he closed the door with a push of his foot, he spoke to end the conversation he had been having:
"I understand. We will talk about it later."
He lowered the phone and looked around as he put it away. The front of the hangar where he had stopped would have looked deserted if not for the sports car quietly resting under the shadow of the building, and the private jet waiting with its door open some distance away. But despite that, the place still looked lifeless.
He squinted at the bright sky from behind his sunglasses, briefly looking at the ball of fire already set to steam everything above the surface not long after coming out, then turned around. The door of the van that had been quietly following him throughout the journey was already opening to let the group inside step out with bags of different kinds and cases, including a particularly long one. He waved to have everyone follow, and walked up the stairs of the plane after locking the SUV.
"Oh? If this isn't the breakfast-making model husband! How come you arrived so soon? Were you in that much of a hurry to see me?"
The voice came before Mark even managed to get his bearings. It was coming from Alex, who had his feet on the table before him, as he leaned back relaxedly to play with his phone. He was looking over with a teasing gleam in his brown eyes exposed after he pushed his sunglasses down his nose with a finger.
Mark took off his aviator sunglasses to make his eye roll obvious, before going to sit across from Alex. He sank into the seat, just one of the customized pieces of the interior of the plane. Throwing his sunglasses onto the table beside Alex's feet, he interrupted the focus that had returned to the game as the group behind him filed into the jet:
"So, tell me, what happened? Why the sudden trip?"
Alex glanced at him, and raised his eyebrows:
"Is it sudden?"
Mark paused, gave him a deep look, then took a sip of his coffee.
"I can't be bothered with you. Just remember that I have a pregnant wife at home."
Alex smiled without commenting. Seeing that, Mark also dropped the subject, knowing that he would neither be able to change Alex's mind, nor would he be able to get an answer out of him for his first question. Alex asked as he looked at the group finding seats and securing the bags that had been brought in:
"How is Ga-yeong?"
Mark also turned to the group, though with a supervisory look, unlike Alex's casualness:
"She managed to nag me into looking after you and using my greater maturity to temper your recklessness that everyone now knows about. So you tell me how she is."
Alex laughed out loud:
"Hahahaha, I'm still her favorite one. Alright, let's go."
Mark sat straight and rolled his eyes again before asking:
"Where to? Argentina or Austria?"
The young heir pushed his sunglasses up and leaned back as he replied casually:
"Let's go for the Hintertux Glacier. The route has already been approved. You have checked the gear, right?"
"Yes, I have."
With that, Alex said no more and closed his eyes. Mark emptied his cup of coffee, and nodded at the air personnel at the other end of the cabin:
"You heard him. Let's go."
"Yes, sir."
The stewardess bowed, and turned to call the cockpit with the inter-phone. Every belt was buckled and the plane taxied to its designated lane. It built up its momentum and took off, rising up to overlook the city. Mark looked at the scenery, then glanced at Alex, before deciding to close his eyes too, to catch up on some of the sleep that had been disturbed earlier.
_ _ _
_ _ _
As the metallic giant among birds flew into the clouds, then above them, on the ground below, in the city it had left, a metallic-grey sedan slowed down in a part of the jungle of steel and concrete calm and quiet like an isolated world. The tall and large gate it had stopped before slid to the side without a sound despite its heavy appearance, and revealed the world beyond. The car drove in, continuing on its way down the winding road inside the high walls, wrapped by an even deeper calm.
After it spent a little while reflecting the trimmed green vegetation on the two sides of the pavement with its sleek surface, the world that had dimmed lit up again, and the sight in front of it cleared up to display the main building in the center of the walled lands, a mansion, grand, and more calm and imposing than luxurious. And it sat there, indifferent under the scorching sun only a short distance away from its zenith, looking like it would never change, its vaulted entryway supported by giant white columns elegantly simple and heavy, symbols of aristocratic nobility instead of mere vulgar wealth.
The car lingered only for a moment under the harsh sunlight, before it pulled over under the shade of the high-roofed entryway, stopping behind another car which had arrived just moments before it. After stepping down, the driver first bowed to the front, before he opened the rear door on his side, then hurried to respectfully open the one on the other side, all under the indifferent gaze of the blue eyes he had bowed to.