| |
Paige Grayson had accompanied Nolan, Renner, and Hail on the trip to Dubai because she was the only crewmember who knew how to apply theatrical makeup, a skill she usually used for entertainment purposes. Back on the ship, the young adults often chose to put on plays to kill time and have fun. They were supported by still more kids who learned the scores from sheet music Hail had purchased. The theater on board was not large, which only meant that the crew needed to play more than one character during any production, which was all the better.
The team travelling to Dubai International Airport had been in the air for four hours, and the makeup session was ready to begin. They had about two hours of flight time left before all three men had to be in place on the ground to search for Kornev.
“Do I need a full beard?” Hail asked. “Won’t a mustache be enough?”
“No,” Paige assured him. “You have a strong chin and very distinctive features. We are going to go full ZZ Top on you. Big long beard and mustache. Your face will look like a Chia Pet with eyes when I’m done with you.”
“Great,” Hail said sarcastically.
Having experience applying beards during the Hail Nucleus’ Theater performance of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Paige was good at it. Of course, the beards she had attached to her fellow crewmembers were seen from afar, so didn’t have to be perfect. She’d made them perfect anyway. The long brownish beard she was sticking onto Hail’s face had to be spot on and hold up to intense scrutiny. It had to fool someone who was face to face with her boss. Airport security tended to frown upon men wearing disguises, because typically those men intended foul play. They might be carrying a bomb or something even more deadly—like a biological weapon or lethal gas.
“You look like my father,” Nolan told Hail, laughing.
“I didn’t know your father is 90 years old,” Renner joked.
Hail smiled and asked Paige, “And what do you have in store for my good friend, Gage Renner?”
“I think he would look good completely bald,” Paige said confidently, pressing the corner of Hail’s beard into a patch of semi-dry spirit gum.
Renner’s smile faded as if Paige had just told him his dog had died.
“I don’t think bald is my kind of look,” Renner protested.
Nolan was laughing harder now until Paige shut him up by saying, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe the lieutenant commander will be Mr. Baldy.”
“Hey, that’s not fair. I took an acid bullet for the team. I should get to keep my hair.”
“Good point,” Paige agreed.
Renner struggled to come up with something to give himself some leverage. “I helped you with Jefferson Starship.”
Paige smiled and without looking at Renner said, “If you think criticizing our work is helping, you did a great job. Hat’s off to you. Oh, and you’ll need a hat to keep your bald head warm.”
Renner said, “Well, that’s the way we learn, isn’t it? If I see a way to make something better, I feel it’s my duty to tell you. That’s why you had me looking over the project to ensure it was ready for field testing.”
“A little attaboy wouldn’t hurt every now and then,” Paige said a tad more seriously.
Renner huffed and said, “I understand. If I say some nice things to the crew about the Starship, can I keep my hair?”
“We’ll see,” Paige said.
She gave Hail’s new beard a little comb and called, “Next!”