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Teeks later

New Orleans

Even though Ash trusted Tory, his gut was in a knot as he followed her toward the lecture hall at Tulane where she was going to give another speech on Atlantis "Why won&039;t you tellto say?"

The obvious ansas she wanted to torture hiive Arteave him that same, warm smile that only served to scare him more "It&039;s none of your business But if you start in on oing to be living in your own apartht, Sirinned proudly as she skipped along beside hi to hed even though the knot in his stohter with every step they took closer to the room

"You still haven&039;t answeredto the topic she&039;d started on their way over here "What was Julius Caesar really like?"

He shrugged nonchalantly "The man was brilliant, but he cheated at dice"

She let out an ihtened her shoulders dreamily "I can&039;t believe you met him and Alexander the Great"

"Well, Alex was an accident I was chasing a Dai and after I killed it, he tried to getrew tired of hearing the me things and had witnessed the history that she&039;d only read about He&039;d been there during the first sack of Rome Had stood on the Wall of China just days after it&039;d been finished He&039;d debated philosophy with Confucius and had eaten dinner with Kublai Khan and attended a feast with Buddha when he&039;d been just a young boy He&039;d walked in Egypt when the Giza necropolis was being built He&039;d played games with the dauphin when the boy had been a toddler and eaten dinner with the real King Arthurit was just incredible the life he&039;d lived

And he made her wonder what future historical events the two of the to know "Did you ever ain, he was brilliant and fascinating There was just so about him that made you pay attention"

"But you didn&039;t meet him?"

He shook his head

"Why not?"

"For the same reason I never officially h I just liked to listen to them speak" Ash opened the door to the lecture hall

Tory froze as she saw the gathered crowd

Ash put his hand on her arht Simi and I will eat anyone who soway"

Still she wasn&039;t comforted "I don&039;t know about this"

"Then let&039;s leave My bike&039;s outside, fully fueled"

She glared at hies are nue, she forced herself to enter the room where the people looked more like sharks to her than historians, students and archaeologists

But at least this time she had Ash with her And Simi

Ash stayed by her side until he reached the first row He set his backpack down then took a seat Sily

Tory felt like her heart was going to leap out of her chest as she approached the podiue as the one in Nashville

God, how she hated speaking in public

As she readied her pages, the door opened to admit Kim and Pam aved at her before they came forward to sit beside Simi Grateful for their support, Tory adjusted the microphone And just as she was about to start her speech, Arteht and what it ht mean Not tofor Arlance to Ash, Artemis moved to sit in the back roay fro her throat, Tory forced herself to ignore her Artemis wasn&039;t the ihtly into thetoday I know some of you were there in Nashville to witness the debacle of aze at Ash who had the good grace and sense to look sheepish and contrite, "but as you know, e section of the underwater ruins we believed to be Atlantis"

A hand went up fronized as a historian, but she couldn&039;t recall his nas found were conclusive artifacts that date back to 9,000 BC If you can confirm this, you do know that you will have totally rewritten the historical record?"

Before she could respond the doors opened one more time to show her a UPS deliveryher lecture, he headed straight for her "Dr Kafieri?"

"That would be n

Confused, she nervously looked around "Please excuse ned her na, she opened it to find Ryssa&039;s final journal, the one that Arte with Ash&039;s backpack

It was the conclusive proof that would rewrite history and ends in their field

This was the moment she&039;d always dreamed of Ever since they&039;d laid her father to rest, her sole goal in life had been redee, she looked at Ash whose face was now pale He aze and she saw his fear fade

"Go ahead, baby I kno much it means to you Give your father back his reputation" Only she could hear Ash&039;s deep voice in her head

Those words brought tears to her eyes She knehat that would do to Ash The ly his past had been While she was sure h about people to know that not all of them would feel that way Soain They would laugh and they would ive him for a truth that hadn&039;t been his fault They would make him feel the same way Artemis had for all these centuries

And that would crush him

"I&039;m sorry, Dad," she whispered under her breath before she put the book back into its envelope and returned to her speech She cleared her throat "Yes, we found quite a few items that are quite old Unfortunately, none of them date back to what I believe to be the time of Atlantis More than that, the ruins we found appear to be nothing e I fear that the experts are correct There is no Atlantis in the Aegean After all these years, I&039;ve co path

"That being said,to the Bahamas to rendezvous so that we can look more closely at the Bimini Road find If there is an Atlantis, which I now doubt coht be the key to it"

She sed as she looked around the room and saw the scowls on the faces of her peers "I wish I had better news for everyone and you can all readpaper, as well as on h,In all our pasts lie our futures By our own hands and decisions ill be damned and ill be saved Whatever you do, put forth your best effort even if all you&039;re doing is chasing a never-ending rainbow Youthe way you&039;ll meet people ill mean the world to you and hts Thank you all for coether, she met Ash&039;s incredulous stare and smiled at him

There werea few derogatory ones about her and her father But for once, she didn&039;t care Words were nothing It was the people in her life who mattered most

As they left, Simi punched Ash in the arm "See, akri The Siood one Akra-Tory never do anything to hurt her Achihed