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Sid felt a little thrill when he realized she was talking about Jayna. “Go on,” he said, trying to hide the mix of curiosity and alarm that shot through him.
Hazel pressed her lips into a thin line and shook her head. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think she might be one of the park’s greatest assets. For some reason, Carter seemed to be actively suppressing publicity around her. We might want to change that. Not only is she beautiful and talented, but she was head of the park’s community outreach volunteers before the program got cut. Now she’s the face of the employee’s effort to buy the park. Combined with this Manutai Merathlon thing, I think we can spin the situation into a publicity boost for us.”
Emmaline added, “Hazel asked me to use Artisanal’s video service to draft a piece we can send to the streams.”
She rolled out her tablet, made a pinching motion over the display like she was picking up a speck of dust, then flicked it towards the oversized painting of migrating ducks that dominated the wall.
The ducks immediately disappeared, replaced by a video of Jayna swimming under the water, her bionic mermaid tail propelling her towards the camera at incredible speed. At the last minute she veered up, and the shot changed to one of her leaping high out of the water while the crowd in the aquatic theater cheered loudly.
It was the same shot he’d seen in the newspaper.
As images of Jayna swimming and jumping filled the wall, a rich baritone voice said, “This is Jayna Cooper: Singer, actress, and bionic mermaid.”
The video presented a brief biopic of Jayna, with interviews of her explaining why she wanted to be a mermaid, of her laughing with children and teaching them to swim. Always smiling, always tender, always absolutely stunning.
The video was much more entertaining than a newspaper story could ever be. Unfortunately, Sid didn’t learn anything about her that diminished his infatuation.
The video ended with a scene from the reception the night before, where Sid had conditionally agreed to sell the park to the employees. He watched himself make the announcement and then he turned to face Jayna. The smitten expression on his face made him cringe.
He glanced around the room at the others, hoping they hadn’t noticed. He could have sworn Emmaline was avoiding his gaze and fighting a smile.
Sid cursed himself for being so transparent.
The ducks reappeared on the wall, and Hazel said, “We’re updating the query to generate video that shows how you are helping the park’s employees, but we weren’t sure if you wanted us to include the part about you flying her to Manutai and putting her up at the Whakapaipai.”
Sid turned to Emmaline, concerned. “She’s staying with us at the Whakapaipai Hotel?”
Emmaline shrugged. “Of course. Where else would she stay?”
“I had assumed the Manutai SAPP house. As a member of the Performer’s Guild, she’s entitled to stay at any of their locations, right?”
Emmaline scowled. “She is. But it will make for poor visuals if we are at the Whakapaipai while she is at the SAPP house, especially since she’s traveling with us and representing the park. But I can change the arrangements if you want me to.”
Sid liked the idea of Jayna staying at their hotel, even though he knew it would make keeping his distance from her nearly impossible. “Keep things the way they are. It wouldn’t look right for us to book her a room at the Whakapaipai and then cancel it.”
Chapter 11
The plush white interior of the sky limo was so luxurious that Jayna almost forgot her concerns about flying to Manutai with Obsidian Hayes. Almost.
She had ridden in sky limos before but never one so clean and fresh. This limo was small and intimate and completely unlike the dark rented party limos that occasionally showed up for a girls’ night out.
The ducted rotors were nearly silent, and the pilot was an actual human rather than a holographic projection. This had been especially handy when loading Jayna’s tail and merbreather along with the rest of her gear.
The limo slowed as it approached the Los Angeles launchport, and Jayna immediately caught sight of the hulking metal launch spiral. A smile broke across her face. This is really happening!
For as long as she could remember, she had been enthralled by Aurora 293, the short-lived British adventure show from her childhood that featured a pair of bickering detectives solving mysteries while rocketing around the world.
She had always been thrilled at the thought of being shot beyond the edge of space and landing anywhere in the world less than five hours later. Their flight to Manutai would take just over three hours, which was better than the fifteen hours she would have endured on the shuttle with Toren.
Jayna felt a pang of regret at the thought of him. While their relationship had barely moved beyond the friend zone, it had been comfortable and safe.
This trip with Sid would be anything but safe. She needed to be extra careful.
The limo descended towards a row of buildings and eased to a stop near one of the hangars. A white awning crawled slowly across the tarmac to cover the roof of the limo. As her chauffeur hurried to open her door, a blast of hot, muggy Southern California air filled the vehicle. She immediately began to perspire.
Jayna thanked her pilot as she stepped from the limo, and within seconds her hair was plastered to her sweaty face. She walked into the hangar, and the sight of Sid’s red hypersonic rocket plane caused a little thrill to run up her spine. It looks exactly like Aurora 293!
Sid was doing his pre-flight inspection of the plane. She watched him slowly examine the short, thin wing with his hands, and an image of him running his hand over her shoulder and down her arm came unbidden into her mind. Where the shell did that come from? She swallowed hard and quickly looked away.
