Chapter Nineteen: Gathering to Journey Back

When Olivia and I arrived at my Grandfather's estate, we were ushered into his study. Grandfather was going over paperwork, which he set down once the door had been closed behind us.

"Tia, how do you feel about going back down to Atlantis?" Grandfather asked.

"What?" My jaw dropped.

"It's real?" Olivia asked.

"I told you." I responded to her and then asked Grandfather, "Why would we go back?"

"I've been looking at a few of the files you've sent me and I think it would help if we could convince Milo to come back to the surface, at least temporarily."

"If that's what it takes to solve these;" I replied, "it'd be nice to see Milo again. I can let Mole, Audrey, and Vinny know."

"I was unaware you were in contact with Vinny."

"Mole invited him and Audrey to help with the last of the renovations, they arrived yesterday."

"Write to Mole, have them drive here instead of going back." Grandfather instructed, "We can leave when they arrive."

"What about Olivia?"

"We'll bring her along." Grandfather replied, "It'll be a good education for her, it was for you."

"It'd be risky to take her all the way down." I mauled over the thought, "But she should be safe enough on the ship with Branson or someone who can stay with her and she can stay with you while we're working."

"What if I want to go?" Olivia asked.

"You're not old enough to make the journey down." I told her, "You'll enjoy yourself on the ship, there'll be more than enough for you to explore."

Disappointedly, she agreed. As Grandfather started up a conversation with her, I stepped out to compose a letter to Mole, so that I could set in the letter box in the morning before the postman arrives. It would most likely take a couple of weeks to get to Mole. While it would have probably taken less time for me to drive down there to go and get them, it was probably better this way. Olivia would be here while would be solving the cases that Milo would be needed for, it would be better if she got to know the place more.

Mole's POV

It was about a week after Tia left that Audrey and Vinny were finally able to find their way into the laboratory. The notes, journals, and instructions for any of the inventions they found, however, were illegible due to being written. The gadgets and mechanisms that were left had little to no function without the instructions and notes for them.

"What is this?" Audrey asked, referring to language of the notes that she had found.

"It looks like a cipher of some sort." Vinny responded, flipping through the journal in his hands, "Without a code or key to decipher it, it's basically untranslatable."

"You know what would help right now?" Audrey asked, we both looked at her deadpanned, both with a guess as to how she was about to continue, "If we knew a bookish linguist who could translate this for us." She then turned her attention to me, "When is Tia coming back?"

I shrugged, "When she chooses to; unless there's an emergency, she comes back when she wants to when she goes up to see Mr. Whitmore with Olivia. There hasn't been an emergency, therefore we haven't sent for her to come back. We'll probably hear within the next couple of days when she'll be heading back."

"Then what do we do until then?" Audrey asked.

"Enjoy Ember Hollow." Will answered as he headed into the library where we were talking, "Mole, Peter's here. He left the Hannagan residence is looking for a place to stay."

"Do the Hannagans know?" I asked, to which he shook his head, I nodded, "Find him a room, try keep it quiet as possible that he's here until I can reach out to Tia to see what she wants to do about it. I'll let you know if we need to send a wire to any of the volunteers to take him in."

"He's pretty adamant about seeing Tia."

"Then we'll have him stay here until I can reach out to Tia."

Will nodded and left.

"Who's Peter?" Vinny asked.

"A boy we've been trying to help." I answered, "We ran across him a year ago in Maine and offered to help him, but he didn't want it at the time. Tia gave him our address and told him that if he ever needed somewhere to go or someone to help to reach out."

"How could he have gotten all the way down here?" Audrey asked.

"We get letters and people from all over." I replied, "There's always a way to get here for those who seek to find it." After a couple of critical stares, I added, "We have volunteers who support our cause all over the globe that are fairly spread out. He most likely had help getting down here."

Towards the end of the week, I headed down the mail office to send a wire to Tia. However, there was already a letter there waiting for me. After reading the letter, I gathered Audrey and Vinny and we made our way up to Washington D.C.