Atlantis Burning

Chapter 22

Bea was cleaning the boat like only an angry woman can. Annia walked up to her in the kitchen, "juice, pwease." Bea took her cup and filled it up and set it on the table without a word or even a smile at her daughter. Annia took the cup and walked to the couch and climbed into Edward's lap. "Mommy mad at Annia."

"No, precious, Mommy's mad at Poppa."

"Why?"

"Because Poppa stayed out too late."

"Poppa stay in Atlantis?"

"Yes, baby."

"Annia mad at Poppa, too."

"Mommy said you both taught Quail a new trick. Will you show me?"

Annia got down off of Edward's lap and commanded the dog: "Quail, ball." The dog went over to his basket of toys, picked out the ball and set it down a foot in front of Annia. Quail then pushed the ball with her nose causing it to roll to Annia's feet.

"Good Quail," Annia said, petting the dog on its head.

"Well look at that! Did you teach Quail to give you the ball?"

"Mommy teach Quail. I help."

"Is Annia going to grow up to be a dog trainer?"

"Yes, like Mommy."

"You're such a good talker. All that time you were silent, you must have been listening lots, weren't you."

Annia nodded as Henry walked into the room, headed for the kitchen. "I feel like I haven't eaten in a week."

"I guess you've been busy to take care of yourself," Bea said and then left the room and walked up to Edward and Annia. "Now that he's out of the dinghy, let's go find some land."

The family decided to visit Terciera Island. Bea and Annia stayed in the city while Henry and Edward took a car to Relheiras de Sao Bras. The drive across the island was fifteen minutes of silence. As they pulled into the car park Henry said, "maybe for dinner I'll let you guys have some family time. Unless you want a date night, then I'll take Annia."

"I reckon Bea will still want some space, and I think we'd prefer to keep Annia with us."

"What, like I'd hurt the child?"

"Of course not, but right now we don't trust your decision making."

"It doesn't seem like I'm making a lot of decisions, like telling the world about Atlantis."

"Really?! You'd risk your granddaughter's safety?"

"I wasn't in on that decision, either."

"I'll meet you here in an hour. The way this conversation is going you are about to have everyone mad at you."

"Quail still likes me, don't you Quail?" Henry asked the dog as it strained at the leash to follow Edward. "C'mon, Quail, Cut me some slack. Let's go look at the cart ruts. They've got to be connected to Atlantis, somehow." The dog followed Henry off to look at the relheiras, as the Portuguese call them. There are many theories as to how these ruts carved in stone came to be. Because they tend to run parallel with even spacing, the most popular theory is that they were paths for carts, but nobody can explain why they are carved in stone.

As Henry looked at the ruts, Edward headed off towards the trail for his run. He wasn't far along when he realized that he forgot his water bottle. Edward headed back towards the car park, where he grabbed his water bottle out of the car. He was startled to find Quail running towards him, dragging his leash behind. "Where's Poppa, Quail?" Edward looked around, but saw no one. With leash in hand, he set out in the direction of the cart ruts. "Henry!" he called. He kept running, until he found Henry lying on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Edward took off his shirt and used it to stop the bleeding, Henry moaned from the pressure. With his other hand, Edward pulled a gun out of his pocket and laid it on Henry's chest. "Where'd the shot come from?"

"Treeees."

Edward looked, there was no sign of movement. "Was there another vehicle?"

"No," Henry whispered.

"That means Blake could still be near by."

"How'd you know it was Blake?"

"You let a trained warrior know that you're aware of his greatest secret."

"Oh, that."

"Do you think you can walk?"

"Yea."

Edward stood up and scanned the area before helping Henry to his feet. The two of them made it back to the car, with Quail leading the way.

They got in the car, and Edward drove toward the city. "We've got to get the bullet out. I think we should go to Leandro if you can wait for us to get to Flores."

"Yea, I'm sure a gunshot wound will draw attention."

"I can't wait to see what Bea has to say about this," Edward remarked. "You're lucky. Guys like Blake don't miss their target."

"I bent down and then bam."

"Saved your life. Now, we just have to worry about Bea killing you."