Bright sunlight streamed through my window, right into my eyes. "Damn it," I groaned and sat up. "Forgot to close the damn curtains last night…" I yawned and got out of bed and glanced out the window. It looked like a pretty nice day considering how bad that storm had been last night. I washed up and changed out of my nightclothes. I sighed as I checked out my reflection in the mirror. "Helga, you shouldn't dwell on the past so much," I muttered. Then I heard the cheerful chirping of birds coming from my balcony. That did it. I slammed the doors to the balcony opened. "Get the hell away from my window before I make breakfast out of you!" Birds flew in all directions. Stupid things. I swear that they were put on this earth to annoy people. First of all, they never shut up. And they were always where you didn't want them to be. Like on top of my car or on my balcony. I went back inside and secured my gun, wondering what today would bring. I wandered downstairs and found Adrienne and Whitmore in the dining room. Adrienne looked a lot better then she had last night. She wore a light blue skirt that came to her knees and a dark blue long sleeved blouse. Her brown/red hair was pulled back. As I came to the table, she looked up at me and smiled.
"Good morning Helga."
"Hello Adrienne."
Whitmore looked up from his breakfast. "I see you're being cordial to each other?"
"Yes, sir," I replied. I sat down and turned to Adrienne. "Did you sleep well?" She nodded. "Good." I addressed Whitmore. "What's my schedule today, sir?"
"Ah same old. I called Rourke this morning. We might be having a meeting about you-know-what tomorrow."
"You know what?"
Whitmore cleared his throat and I was silent. Adrienne was eyeing both of us suspiciously, but turned back to her breakfast. Whitmore stood up and signaled for me to follow him. I did. Once we were out of the dining room he rubbed his chin thoughtfully before speaking to me. "What I was saying is that I called Rourke so that we could discuss the plans for the new expedition."
"You mean that Atlantis myth? You're actually going to follow through with that?"
He nodded. "We still need a month or so to finalize plans."
"I see." I couldn't say anymore to him. As far as I was concerned, a journey to find a mythical lost city was nuts. However, I was under the command of my employer, so I had to go along with what he was saying. "May I ask, sir, why did you not want to discuss this in front of Adrienne?"
He looked at me seriously. "If Adrienne knew of this, she would be the first to jump at the mission. Think about it, Helga. She's a student of archaeology. Do you think that she would just sit back and watch?"
"I don't understand sir. If this 'Atlantis' exists, then it would be an amazing find. Adrienne would become prominent in the archaeological community if she took part in it. Don't you want her to succeed?"
"I do," Whitmore sighed, "But not at this cost. If something were to go wrong, there would be nobody left to inherit my fortune. Adrienne is the only family that I have. There will be plenty of missions in the future. I don't want to lose her to this one."
"Yes, sir."
"Helga, I want you to go to the museum today. There's a fellow, Milo Thatch, who I want you to keep an eye on. Eventually we are going to recruit him for this mission."
"The grandson of Thaddeus Thatch?" "Exactly." I nodded slowly. Thaddeus Thatch was an old friend of Whitmore's. In fact, we had gone to Iceland to get that 'Shepherd's Journal' under his command. Whitmore must have felt that he owed Thatch something. After all, Thatch had died about a year ago. Whitmore was about to speak again when he saw Adrienne coming down the hall. He gave me a look. I smiled coolly at Adrienne. She didn't seem to notice though.
"There you are," she said.
"What is it?"
"Oh, nothing important. I was thinking of going to the museum today to keep up with the latest findings and I just wanted to know if you wanted to come with me. Er…that is, if it's ok with you, grandfather."
"Yes, yes, that's fine," Whitmore said.
"I'll get ready!" Adrienne said happily.
She ran down the hall. I shook my head. How could a simple trip to a museum transform a twenty-four year old woman into a little girl again? "Remember what I told you," Whitmore said, interrupting my thoughts. "And whatever you do, don't mention Atlantis to Adrienne. She must never know."
"I understand." Whitmore walked away down the hall. I watched him go. And truthfully…I didn't understand him at all.