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"It was so hard to ihts?"

"We didn’t see you," Jada said, obviously irritated with his truculence "Not until we sar"

Sully actually looked wounded He brandished the sle into the States than guns, drugs, or antiquities"

"Oh, well, in that case, good job, Uncle Vic," Jada said, her voice dripping with sarcasm

"We orried about you, duave hiuys up You deserve it after interrupting what could’ve been a beautiful--Wait Why were you so worried? Did soain He glanced at Jada

"We’re not sure"

"What do youhappened or it didn’t"

"It ht’ve seen one of the hooded uess it’s pointless to ask if you noticed anything weird or saw anyone skulking around," Drake said "Your attention being otherwise occupied by the lovely Gwen"

Sully grinned "Save a nod of appreciation "No argu to Jada "So you ilant--"

Jada shot hiilance Get better with that," Sully corrected "But since none of us has had their throat cut tonight, can we talk about so that’s actually iar out in an elass, then h it and pulled out the maps and journal Luka had squirreled away for Jada to discover in Egypt He set the ain

"Before I went out for a smoke, I had a little wine and took a closer look at the journal"

"We’ve been through the whole thing," Jada said

Sully found his page, stroked the paper with a finger, holding it open, and nodded to her "I know But sootten new inforot new glasses on, and you can see things you didn’t see before"

"How lasses," Sully said "I opened a beer, but it tastes like crap"

"Focus?" Jada prodded, hands on her hips Drake would have thought it difficult to look stern with ht" Sully nodded "So I found a book about Akrotiri in the little library in the hotel--it’s out in the living roo about the excavation there If there ever was an Atlantis, I understand why so many people believe this was it Atlantis was supposed to be advanced, right? Well, Akrotiri was so far ahead of the rest of the world for its ti They only unearthed one tiny tip of the town More of it is there, and so hborhoods, looms to weave textiles that they exported They had hot and cold running water Think about that Four thousand years ago, before anyone else, hot and cold running water Then the volcano erupted, and it was bye-bye Akrotiri"

"This is all fascinating," Drake said, "but--"

"Yeah, yeah," Sully said, frowning "I’ They had a lot of earthquakes on Thera in those days, leading up to the big blow But the earthquakes didn’t stop then They’re not as frequent, but they still happen There was a e to the e of Akrotiri, which is near the excavation but not right next door The e had been built around a medieval fortress that stood at the top of a hill, but the earthquake in ’56 did a ton of dae, destroyed a lot of houses, and turned the fortress into unsafe ruins They rebuilt the houses at the bottom of the hill, but the fortress has essentially been abandoned and off-limits for , right But a hell of a lotwhen you consider this"

He opened the journal to the page he’d ns and notes scribbled all over the two-page spread, so it took a ins of the left-hand page

"Quake of ’56," Luka had written "Under Goulas?"

"What the hell is ‘Goulas’?" Drake asked

"I’ about," Jada said

Sully grinned "Smart kid" He beamed, almost as proud of her as he seemed of himself

"Wow, look at that," Drake said "I didn’t think Victor Sullivan had ever done homework in his life"

Sully flopped onto the bed, set the journal on his chest, and put his hands behind his head--the picture of relaxation

"I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks," he said

"So we’re not going to Therasia tomorrow, I take it?" Jada asked "Ian seemed so sure that the reference to Therasia on that jar otta adic to that"

Drake went to the French doors and looked out at the moonlit water of the caldera "There still is But it’s been awhile What’s called Therasia now is not the same as as called Therasia then We can’t know until we look, but if you think about Knossos and Crocodilopolis, the labyrinths there were not in the city or next to the temple; they were a short distance away That fits with the location of the fortress"

"Which would ht into the hill That would’ve taken a hell of a long tilanced at Jada

"Your father thought it was under Goulas"