Amazonia - The Athenaeum

general says he wants a grandson since your mother only knew how to make girls."
She wanted to argue, but Titus had just gotten home and if dinner was quick she could finish her
reading. Dinner turned out not to be quick when a lot of his unit met them at the restaurant to
relive their adventures through their little secret codes. He dropped her off after two and insisted
on coming in, and Annie didn't argue again when he wanted to catch up on their physical
relationship. After all the beer and stories it didn't take him long to fondle her a little and roll
over and start snoring.
The alarm clock was set for five the next morning so she could make a dent in the last chapter of
the booklet Queen Audrey had her librarians put together explaining the pieces they'd sent and
their history. It was only two and a half hours of sleep but it beat getting none.
"Where are you going?" he said in a rough voice from the bed.
"To work, Titus. Try and get out of here before Reggie gets up. I'm not really in the mood to hear
any lectures from my baby sister later if you're drinking milk out of the carton naked again."
"But it's still dark out," he complained, already heading back to sleep. "Come back to bed and I'll
make it worth your while."
"Are you kidding, I'm still reeling from last night," she said as she picked up her coat and headed
out to the living room to get her briefcase. To the man in her bed the comment sounded a little
sarcastic.
"You and the crew did a wonderful job, Annie," said Carl Baxter the head curator as they walked
the floor in the quiet of the early morning. "I'm hoping this goes well enough to be rewarded with
a trip to the Amazonian archives in their capital. It's never been seen or entered by an outsider,
but a man can dream. Queen Audrey, from my telephone conversations with her, seems to be
genuinely interested in forging some lines of communications and sharing scholarly interests
with people."
Not wanting to fool with it, Annie had pulled her hair into a bun at the base of her neck and it felt
strange when she nodded her head. "That would be great. After all they can't blame people for
getting the wrong idea of them, or writing inaccurate accounts of their lives if they don't want to
share something as precious as books."
"Are you okay with all of this?"
"What do you mean, sir?"
"It's just that I've overheard some of the comments you girls have made during the unpacking
and I don't want any trouble if you decide to interject your personal biases into this. The gallery
and key people in the government have worked too hard to get to this point only to be shot down
by someone who has a problem with Amazonia as a whole." His tone stayed even with no
reprimand in it, but it was a clear warning to her. "We've worked together long enough for you to