Juliet. The word seemed to echo inside my head. Juliet. Butler seemed to tense up behind me. I could imagine that his mouth had shrunk to an angry line. Juliet. My insides seemed to freeze up and my blood felt like ice inside my veins.
"I see." I said stiffly. "I'll try and get there anyway I can." "Go through Atlantis." Mary replied. "Megan knows the way. No doubt she'll have transport too." "Right." I swallowed. Hard. "We'll get there somehow. Goodbye."
I looked at Megan, who had stopped pacing. "See," she said smugly. "You do need my help. And I will help you…" There's an if coming, I thought. "If you let me join HMA." There. Told you so. "Fine." I said, gritting my teeth. "But your not getting paid." "I didn't think I would. But money doesn't buy you everything, Arty. It doesn't buy you happiness. Or friends. Some of the richest people in the world are also the most miserable, because they get wrapped in cotton wool." She said. "But you're rich! Don't you have protective parents?"
She nodded. "Yeah. But they don't know I'm here. I ran away…a year ago. I took refuge in Atlantis." "How did you find it?" "I nearly drowned. I stowed away on a ferry, and got pushed "accidentally" overboard." Her voice was cold, unfeeling now.
"One of the Atlantians found me. They interrogated me, of course, but when they found I was alone, couldn't go back…they decided to let me stay a while. That's how I found out about you. And I wanted to help. I wanted to do something with my life, not be stuffed in ultimate luxury. It nearly stifled me. So, here I am. If you want my help, help me. Give me a purpose, a job, to earn my keep. Let me join your agency and I'll do all I can to help you find your friend." She turned away. "Or whatever."
"Do have any transport?" This was from Butler. I looked up at him, and something in his eyes. Pity. This, more than anything, decided me. "We'll help you as much as we can." I said, and was shocked to discover it shook slightly. "But, Butler is right…do you have any transport?" "Yes." She answered. "But we need to get to Iceland. And I need a disguise."
Five hours laterMegan's hair is now blond and she has brown eyes (contacts). She changed into an orange Tropicana t-shirt and a denim jacket, black trousers and trainers. We got some false passports, and got on the plane.
Megan says I will love Atlantis. I feel apprehension and excitement at the thought. I have an affinity with water. I don't know why. Pehaps in the silky touch of it, the thought that it can be a safe warm cocoon or a freezing ice-trap of death. I don't know. But I do know something.
That the heart of all civilisation lies in Atlantis.