“So I heard.” The woman gave him a thin smile. “But you handled it well enough.”
“I always do.” Daniel shrugged. “I’ve already logged in almost all the nice government-issued toys and weapons you let me borrow.”
Miss Rose nodded. “I’m surprised you didn’t use some of them on that little Munich trip.”
“Oh, no reason to let some idiot from Hollingsworth see my coolest stuff.” Daniel shrugged. “Sometimes the most efficient and low-tech way is the best.”
The woman snorted. “Maybe if you’d used a toy, you wouldn’t have had to chase down this other woman.”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t matter. I caught up with her in the end.”
“I suppose.” Miss Rose tapped the tablet. “You’ve not checked the Torino in yet, I see.”
“Oh, I was going to do that next. It’s hard to part from such a nice little piece of technology.”
“And the modifications? How were they?”
Daniel smiled. “The armor was excellent, as were the aquatic modifications. The sensors were a nice touch. Maybe a tad overkill for the mission, but I can’t complain too much. All in all, though, everything worked very well indeed.”
Miss Rose set the tablet down. “I’ll pass that on to R&D. I’m sure they’ll be glad to hear it.”
Daniel grinned. “A man can never complain when he gets to play with such nice toys.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Shay moved her arms back for support as she inverted herself from the hammock. Her muscles tensed but didn’t burn as she held the position and stared at Bella, who tried the same movement only to slip into the hammock with a frown.
She’ll probably be pissed if I laugh.
Kara and Janelle were still attempting a basic star inversion. They both managed to rest on their tailbones with their hands gripping the side of the hammock, but when they tried to let their bodies fall backward and opened their legs to stabilize their position, they kept falling.
Everyone needs better core strength. The running helps, but it’s not enough.
Shay righted herself and moved into a star inversion, then bent her right knee and hooked her foot across the front of the hammock to hold the position. Every muscle in her body was worked by her normal routine, but a little aerial yoga was a nice change of pace.
Janelle settled her butt into her hammock and laughed at Shay. “Apparently, everything I’ve ever seen about archaeologists in movies is true.” She winked. “They should call you Professor Buff instead of Professor Carson. You’re like a freaking acrobat up here.”
Kara sighed. “When you guys mentioned aerial yoga, I thought this had something to do with the Little Mermaid.”
Everyone laughed, and Shay let the smile linger on her face.
It felt nice to be stretching and soaring in the air, free—almost as free as she felt when she was doing parkour. After her recent busy days of taking on gangsters, recovering lost treasures, and losing an artifact to a CIA agent, that freedom tasted all that much sweeter.
She also had a date with James that night, and she got to pick the restaurant.
Bella finally managed her star inversion. “You know what would make this even better?”
“Hot guys doing it too?” Kara suggested.
“No. Some wine.”
Kara, Bella, and Janelle laughed.
Shay smirked.
This sort of calm freedom was why she needed these friends. They would never be told the truth about her life, but when she was with them, she didn’t have to worry about anything but a good time. She could approach something that still felt so strange at times: relaxation.
“Maybe next time, girls,” Shay suggested with a bright smile. “Maybe next time.”
Shay paced across the front of the classroom and nodded toward a world map that had various outlined new continents, including Atlantis.
“As we’ve discussed today and during this lecture series, the key to revised history is not blindly accepting that every myth is an accurate representation of past history, but viewing such myths as a jumping-off point that can help lead you to the truth.”
Shay clicked the presentation ahead to an elaborate oil painting of Rhazdon. The Atlantean’s hair tendrils were more wild and serpentine than realistic, though it did look grand on the large screen.
“We went through the classic view of Atlantis earlier in the lecture and discussed the ramifications of there being a lost continent that was once populated by ancient and powerful beings who were beyond the other societies of their time.”
The students nodded, many leaning forward with their attention focused on Shay.
The tomb raider glanced at the screen. “The important thing to keep in mind is that our legends humanized the Atlanteans, despite the fact we know now that they were a very non-human race and had access to powerful and dark magic.” She advanced to a slide marking Atlantean energy transfer monuments all over the world. “The existing myth clearly has many holes, such as suggesting primitive humans could have repelled the Atlanteans militarily. It’s obvious now that was a later addition to the myth. It was added to establish some agency for the oppressed human cultures that had to deal with Atlantis while still passing along the story of the ultimately magic-related sinking of the continent. The truth was in front of us the entire time, even if it had been covered by a few coats of paint.”
Several students laughed, and a few eager students, including Mary, scribbled a few more notes.
“The other thing to keep in mind is that although Atlantis is one of the more impressive lost continents, it’s likely not the only land mass lost either to time or magical manipulation. We’re just now beginning to understand how much of even our geological history has been misrepresented either because of misunderstandings or magical manipulation.
“So, I’ll stress what I’ve stressed before. Continue to question and continue to push for the truth. Don’t assume that what I’ve told you in these lectures is the truth, so much as the best I can offer given what we now know.” Shay smiled. “Any questions?”
Mary’s hand shot up.
Still not sure
