Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

subsided enough for her to be sure she was thinking coherently, she went after the facts. “You picked an interesting way to try to persuade me to accompany you.”
    He raised his head in an arrogant gesture that made her suspect he really did have a high priest in his bloodline. “You have been chosen as one of only five human scientists to be allowed into Atlantis while we prepare to make the announcement of our existence to the world. Do you really need persuasion, Dr. McDermott?”
    She stared at him for a long moment, knowing there was no way she could turn him down.
    Atlantis. What archaeologist wouldn‟t drop everything to be among the first to explore its wonders? She‟d give everything she owned for the opportunity, just as she‟d always done.
    Sacrificed friendships and relationships for the thrill of the quest. The excitement of the discovery.
    If she‟d do that, maybe risking her job by ignoring her boss, for the Lupercale, what wouldn‟t she do for Atlantis?
    There was no doubt that it existed. Not after that vision. Or at least it had existed, thousands of years ago. Keely‟s visions had never, ever been wrong.
    Still, believing it was there to be found today was a leap in both faith and logic. The former was no strength of hers; the latter told her to stay put and escort Liam to the door.
    But . . . Atlantis . The mere thought of it caused her jet-lag-induced exhaustion to vanish.
    Even the chance it was something more than a fantasy-fevered dream of every archaeologist, historian, and scholar in the world was worth pursuing. She knew she‟d made her decision the moment she‟d seen those crystal spires.
    Still, it ticked her off to give in so easily, especially after he‟d knocked her sideways with that trick with the sapphire. “I‟ll give you my decision in forty-eight hours,” she said firmly.
    A gleam of amusement lit his dark eyes. “Unfortunately, I need your decision in the next forty-eight seconds, or I‟ll have to wipe your memory clean of this encounter and go on to the next archaeologist on my list. A man by the name of Lloyd, I believe. He does not have your Gift, but . . .” He left the threat hanging, unspoken, in the air.
    Outrage flooded Keely, burning out the last remnants of residual shock. Dr. Lloyd was always one of the first to make patronizing comments about her “female intuition,” usually from the front row of the audience whenever she was presenting a paper at a society meeting.
    Usually while he stared at her breasts.
    No way was he getting his skanky hands on a single speck of Atlantean dirt. She put her hands on her hips and glared at Liam. “Lloyd? He couldn‟t excavate his way out of a paper bag! His theories on . . .” Her voice trailed off as his lips quirked in a smile he was unable to entirely suppress.
    He‟d been playing her all along.
    “Right. Nice . Not very high priestly, but effective. Very well, Mr. Liam. I‟m all yours. I just need to gather my gear and handle some personal things.”
    He shook his head. “As to your personal affairs, you will give me a list, and any tasks you need to accomplish will be handled by one of our stewards. All the gear you need is already prepared, and I‟m assuming this bag on the floor contains your own tools?”
    “How did you—”
    He bent down and lifted her heavy bag as if it weighed nothing. Probably with muscles like that, it didn‟t. “Your graduate assistant was very helpful,” he said.
    Keely glared at him. “I just bet she was, once she got a load of you.”
    A wicked smile flashed across his face, and his resemblance to the high priest from her vision grew even stronger. “I believe the term was „total hottie.‟ Perhaps you could explain it to me on our journey?”
    “Figure it out yourself,” she muttered, snatching up her gloves and pulling them on, then taking a last look around her office. “I‟m on vacation, anyway, so nobody will miss me for a while. Lead on, McHottie.”
    He lifted one eyebrow. “I beg your pardon?”
    “Yeah. You should beg my pardon,” she said, but there wasn‟t much bite to it. As she followed Liam out the door, Keely wondered what exactly she‟d gotten herself into, but she couldn‟t suppress a shiver of excitement. Atlantis. She‟d seen it herself, and her visions had never, ever been wrong.
    The adventure of a lifetime, and it was all hers. She nearly laughed out loud, imagining the expressions on the faces of the countless shrinks her