Read Online The Atlantis Revelation by Thomas Greanias - Free Book Online Page B

ride off the island ready in twenty minutes.”
    “This could take longer than twenty minutes,” Conrad said, knowing that Mercedes wasn’t going to divulge important information to him just because he’d asked.
    “Nonsense,” said Andros, all business. “It took you only half as long with my cousin Katrina, and that’s how you found me.”
    The doors closed, and Conrad rode the elevator to the top floor, where he walked down a short hallway to his room. Two security guards with earpieces were posted on either side. Conrad fished inside his pocket for his key card and realized he had lost it. That was probably how Midas and Mercedes had learned where he was staying.
    “Parakalo?” Conrad asked a guard in Greek. “Please?”
    The guard opened the door for him, and he walked inside. The lights were dimmed, and the smooth jazz of Nina Simone was playing over the stereo speakers.
    Mercedes was standing outside on the balcony, just beyond the rippling drapes, a glass of wine in her hand. It must have been at least her third glass, because the bottle in the ice bucket was almost empty. Her head tilted when the door clicked shut behind him.
    He walked up beside her. Out in the bay, the Greek coast guard had spotlights over the wreckage of the Midas . He could hear the garble of megaphones in the wind. “What do you think we’re going to do here tonight, Mercedes?”
    She turned to him with her crystal-blue eyes, which were dried out and bloodshot. He had never seen her cry, and it appeared he never would. “You have no idea who Midas is and who his people are, Conrad.”
    “Oh, you mean the Alignment,” he said, taking the glass from her hand and finishing the wine, aware of her stare. “I know. They’re a sinister centuries-old group who count themselves as the heirs to the knowledge and power of Atlantis. They use the stars to wage their endless campaign to manipulate governments, armies, financial markets, and the course of human events. Their goal is a one-world government in effect if not name. In other words, ultimate power. Based on what they’ve already accomplished with the worldwide depression and de facto one-world central bank, I’d say they’re halfway there.”
    She didn’t appreciate his glibness. Her eyes turned into slits. “Then you know we’re both dead.”
    “Speak for yourself, Mercedes. But I think you’re better off telling Midas that your charms of old worked, that we slept together and you know I’m taking a plane out of here in the morning to Paris, where your well-heeled family can help me. Better yet, you’re on that plane with me. Only we’re landing in Dubai, where my well-heeled friends can help you.”
    She said nothing for a minute, her eyes drifting to the wine bottle and seeing it was nearly empty. “I am not a whore, Conrad.”
    “I didn’t say you were.”
    “You were the one willing to prostitute yourself for the sake of your useless digs around the world,” she went on. “You were willing to make love to me just to get my father to fund your stupid TV show. And you ditched me in Peru with those animals.”
    “I have no excuse, Mercedes. I’m sorry. And I know there’s nothing I can do to make it up to you.”
    She put her hand on his chest and gently pressed him back toward the bedroom. “Oh, but there is, Professor,” she said, regressing to her producer’s “role” as his beautiful graduate assistant when he was still dividing his teaching duties between the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Arizona.
    “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he told her as she began to unbutton his shirt.
    “Like you and Serena? You two don’t add up. You never did and never will.”
    “What about you and Midas?”
    “He’s rich and powerful. Powerful in a way you’ll never understand.”
    “Because he’s a player for the Alignment?”
    “Maybe.” She kissed him on the cheek.
    “What did he do to make their ranks? Or did they make