Dateline: Atlantis Read Online Free Page B

Dateline: Atlantis
Book: Dateline: Atlantis Read Online Free
Author: Lynn Voedisch
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the mail. In first class, the flight attendants treat the travelers like royalty, stowing their precious carry-on satchel in a large locker. They watch the bag until the door clicks closed.
    â€œWill they print the story? With no verification?” Garret pulls his collar away from his neck. He has turned bright red after two days in the Mexican sun and now is beginning to peel and itch.
    â€œYour pictures are verification,” she explains. “ National Geographic did a special on the Bimini Road, supposedly built by Atlanteans. They sent scuba divers down to examine the finds.”
    â€œThey had Jacques Cousteau. Who do we have?”
    â€œOur word against the world’s. And some dynamite photographs.”
    The stewardess offers pillows. Amaryllis takes two, one for the small of her back, the other for her head. She tries to avoid Garret’s wild stare. She closes her eyes and finds no relief. Garret is willing her to speak. When she opens her eyes again, his blue irises are only inches from her face. An artery in his neck is thumping, shooting big bursts of blood into his brain. His eyelid twitches.
    She thinks he’s going to ask about Gabriel, and a silent cry escapes from her body. I hope he’s all right. I hope he contacts me. She wonders if Garret is going to interrogate her about the gem. She’s afraid he’s going to pound the armrest, demanding to know why this assignment went so horribly wrong. She steels herself for the moment he asks why the crystal didn’t speak to the cop. Amaryllis can answer none of those questions. She can’t even answer her own. She swallows and her throat constricts, dry as burnt toast.
    â€œAmy,” Garret shivers ever so slightly as his eyes bore into her. He is so nervous, he is almost buzzing. “If the truth is gone, is it still the truth?”
    She presses her palms together, watching her fingertips as she splays the digits. Starfish. Sea creatures. Mermaids.
    â€œDepends on who is looking.”
    Garret collapses back into his seat. “I’m still looking.”
    â€œSo am I.”

CHAPTER TWO: UNDEREXPOSURE

    Outside the editor’s office, she wonders if it was so wise to drop all the luggage at home and bolt for the office. Her poor apartment looks pathetic with its wilted plants and dust on the countertops. Not that it matters. The décor screams U-Haul chic, with half her possessions still in the boxes she packed for her move two years ago. The furniture could kindly be called chain-store cheap or some co-worker’s cast-offs. The refrigerator holds milk, eggs and a box of baking soda. There’s a box of granola on the shelf and a coffeemaker on the counter. And that’s about the extent of her domestic design.
    It’s not chic, but she’s been in her fourth apartment in the six years she’s lived in Los Angeles, and nothing ever will fit. That’s because L.A. doesn’t feel like anything more than a way station on her career path. No wonder she spends all her time at the office. The newspaper is the only place that feels like home.
    But even the office is thorny at the moment. She senses eyes boring into the back of her head, so Amaryllis turns and fidgets with her shoe, trying to avoid the gaze of Sonia, the editor’s secretary. Sonia considers all visitors to the secret den of Noel Wright III to be assaults by undeserving interlopers, even a favored reporter like Amaryllis. Sonia is not fooled for one second by Amaryllis’ shoe gazing. Her eyes are pinned on the reporter’s face.
    Amaryllis is determined not to crack. She has an appointment and some guard-dog receptionist isn’t going to make her back down. The staring continues. As Sonia’s gaze strengthens in force, Amaryllis rocks back and forth on her three-inch heels, eyes on the closed door. She considers the photos and sound recordings she left at the apartment and wonders if there’s time to run back

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