Warriors of Poseidon 04 - Atlantis Unmasked

“Trust me, my friend. If I were able to bestow honorary Atlantean citizenship, your name would be very high on my list. You‟re a magician with that Glock. But this thug‟s weight is nothing to me. If you‟d show me to the cell you think would best hold him, I would appreciate that. And then we need to get you and the wounded to your doctor friend‟s place.”
     
    Grace started walking, proud that she could stand mostly upright, despite the jagged tear still seeping blood from her side. “Okay, let‟s do this.”
     
    With that, she headed down the stairs in front of them, her heart in her throat as she saw how many of her people were wounded—and how badly. Michelle knelt on the ground near Smith, weeping. Shame tasted like bile in Grace‟s mouth as she realized she‟d never even known Smith‟s first name.
     
    She trudged over to Michelle, but stopped when she reached Reynolds‟s broken and bloody body. His neck tilted his head at an unnatural angle to his shoulders, and his arms and legs sprawled like a discarded child‟s toy. She knelt down next to him and gently, so gently, moved his shoulders and limbs and repositioned his head so that it lined up with his body. Although it was an observation she‟d made before, it surprised her again how very heavy it was, a dead body. Or perhaps the weight was some extra burden that death conveyed when the lightness and buoyancy of the soul fled for what she still believed to be heaven.
     
    A place she would never see. She could never expunge the stains on her soul. Her tears dripped steadily down her face, falling on the dead man‟s shirt, until Michelle knelt down beside her and gathered Grace into her arms for a hug.
     
    Atlantis Unmasked - Warriors of Poseidon 04
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    “I know,” Michelle said brokenly. “I know. They didn‟t know enough to face this—”
     
    Epiphany struck. Grace pulled away from the offered comfort and climbed slowly and painfully to her feet, trying not to grimace or actually shout the word ouch like an idiot.
    “That‟s it. That‟s what has been biting at the back of my lizard brain. How did they know?”
     
    Michelle looked up, tilting her head. “How did they know? They didn‟t—”
     
    “No. Not the recruits. How did the shifters know to come after us? We‟ve done everything possible to make everybody believe we‟re actors and battle reenactors. We even spent a day last week putting fliers up all over town for our debut performance in two months. Why would they come after us?”
     
    Alexios and Sam walked out of the cell block just then, minus their prisoner. Sam had his dog on a leash. Blue. She‟d forgotten all about him.
     
    “Where was he?”
     
    “I‟d shut him in my room while we were at dinner and hadn‟t let him out yet,” Sam said.
    “He damn near tore my room apart, probably trying to get out here when he heard those cats.”
     
    Blue started baying, a deep bass boom of a bark, and straining at his leash to get away from Sam and explore.
     
    “Blue. Down.” Sam rapped out the command and the dog instantly sat, then lay down at Sam‟s feet.
     
    “I‟m glad he‟s okay,” Grace said, a tiny thread of relief winding its way through the crushing sorrow. “And I know it doesn‟t make sense to be so happy about a dog when Atlantis Unmasked - Warriors of Poseidon 04
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    humans are dead, but there it is. Nothing tonight makes sense. I was just asking how they knew we were here.”
     
    “That‟s a damned good question,” Sam said. “Somebody knows something they shouldn‟t, or somebody talked.”
     
    Alexios lifted his shoulders and let them fall in apparent nonchalance, but the expression on his face promised a slow and painful death to whoever had betrayed them. “There are always traitors in war. We find them. We deal with them.”
     
    Michelle scrubbed tears from her face. “Perhaps it was a coincidence.”
     
    “I don‟t believe in coincidence,” Grace and Alexios replied simultaneously. They shared a glance filled with understanding and something more.
     
    Implacable determination, maybe.
     
    “I set a guard,” Sam said. “Donaldson is watching over the prisoner, but we‟ve got him locked in real tight. Neither man nor panther can get out of that stone cell. One thing those Spaniards were good at was building a fort.”
     
    Grace nodded. “Okay then. You need to get going.”
     
    She moved forward, helping Sam and Michelle escort the