‘He’s on the sumbarine!’ She jabbed at a pink thumbprint.
Nina smiled. ‘It’s a very good likeness. I’m sure he’ll want to see it when he gets home. Let’s put on your coat.’
‘When is he coming home?’ Macy asked.
‘He’ll be back tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow!’ The little girl looked stricken. ‘But he always reads me a story for bedtime!’
‘I’ll read you one tonight, hon. The one Daddy wrote for you, about the eggs?’
‘But Daddy does the funny voices. You can’t do funny voices.’
‘Daddy has an advantage because he’s got a funny voice,’ said Nina. She put Macy’s arms into her sleeves. ‘Okay, are you ready? I’ll take your painting, and you hold my other hand. Say bye-bye to Penny.’
They started for the exit. At the door, Nina paused, feeling a strange sense of incongruity. Less than an hour ago she had been involved in an archaeological expedition deep beneath the sea, and now she was collecting her daughter from school and discussing bedtime stories.
There was another feeling, too. It took her a moment to work out what it was, and when she did, guilt joined her emotions.
The abrupt return to everyday normality had left her disappointed.
3
‘I’m back!’ Eddie called as he entered the apartment.
‘Daddy!’ cried Macy, rushing to hug him. ‘You’re home!’
‘Hi, love!’ He kissed her. ‘Where’s Mummy?’
‘Mommy,’ his wife and daughter corrected as one as Nina joined them. ‘I am so happy to see you. Safe and well.’
‘And in one piece,’ said Eddie. He scooped Macy up. ‘Wow, look at you! I’m away for a couple of days and it looks like you’ve grown another inch.’
‘Did you see fish in the sea, Daddy?’ she asked.
‘Quite a few. They went like this: bloop-bloop-bloop.’ He mimed a big-lipped fish blowing kisses. Macy giggled.
‘Did they bring the Secret Codex back to the IHA?’ Nina asked as they went into the lounge.
‘Yeah, Nerio took it. He was supposed to work at Atlantis for a few more days, but after what happened, they decided to give him a break.’
‘It was a close call. I wish I’d been there with you.’
Eddie sat, Macy hopping off his knee and running from the room. ‘Did you actually just say those two sentences one after the other? “You almost got killed. I should have been there so I could almost get killed too!”’
‘Okay, maybe I needed more of a segue there.’ Nina sat beside him. ‘But I did want to see Atlantis again. For real, not on a screen.’
‘I’ve seen that place way too—’ Macy returned. ‘Flipping much,’ Eddie concluded.
Nina grinned. ‘I’m still impressed by that. You said you weren’t going to swear any more once Macy was born, and I thought you just meant in front of her. But you kept it up. Except when you called Lester something rude, and I’d consider that justified.’
‘Yeah, it’s funny that you swear loads more than me now.’ Macy proudly displayed her painting to him. ‘Hey, that’s good! Is that the sea?’
She showed off the points of interest. Eddie made approving comments, then, as the little girl left to bring more drawings, looked back at Nina. ‘So you didn’t get to go there in person, but they still found something new thanks to us.’
‘Thanks to you,’ she said, with a hint of petulance. ‘And as Lester took pleasure in pointing out, they didn’t need us at all. Once they opened that tunnel, anyone could have explored it.’
‘So what? It doesn’t mean you weren’t a part of it. Maybe you’ll be able to add it to your new book.’ He glanced at the desk, where a stack of pages sat next to Nina’s laptop: the proofs for the second volume of her tales of discovery.
‘It won’t be much more than a footnote, though.’ She leaned forward, feeling deflated. ‘And I’d much rather be doing something new instead of just writing about what I’ve already done. Although I started by finding Atlantis, and finished by finding the Ark of the Covenant! It’ll be hard to top that.’
‘Who says you’re finished?’ Eddie objected. ‘And you don’t have to do something massive and world-changing. You can still do something that’s important to you.’
‘I suppose. I’ve got no idea what, though.’
‘You’ll think of something,’ he assured her. ‘Besides, it’s not like you haven’t got other stuff to do. There’s Macy, for a start.’
He could tell from the way Nina stiffened that she had not taken the remark as he’d intended. ‘Yeah, I’ve got Macy,’ she said tersely. ‘You get to go and explore Atlantis, while I’m stuck here picking her up from playgroup!’
‘I would gladly have stayed here if you’d had your dive certificate.’
‘That’s not the point! You’ve gone off to do other things before — you’ve got your consultancy work for your army buddy’s company, and there was that business in the Canary Isles last year.’
‘Someone needed my help,’ he protested.
‘And what if I’d needed your help? Or Macy?’
He held up his hands. ‘Why’re you getting mad at me? I’ve only been back five minutes.’
‘I don’t know. I’m sorry.’ She shook her head. ‘I think yesterday made me realise how long it’s been since I actually went into the field and did some, y’know, archaeology. Being stuck at a computer writing books about it isn’t the same.’
‘It helps pay the bills, though. And there’s the film coming up; you might be able to blag a trip off the back of that.’
‘Oh, the film!’ she said, keen to change the subject. ‘I just remembered, I got an email from Marvin.’ Marvin Bronze was the producer of the movie based on Nina’s book, and the business partner of their friend Grant Thorn, Hollywood action star. ‘They’re having the premiere here in New York next month. He sent us an invitation.’
‘Tchah!’ Eddie exclaimed in mock outrage. ‘I was hoping we’d get an all-expenses-paid trip to LA!’
‘I haven’t replied yet. We’d have to fix up a babysitter for Macy. It runs quite late.’
‘I keep telling you, we should ask my niece while she’s over here. She loves Macy, I’m sure she’d look after her.’
Nina smiled. ‘Wait, you mean… we might actually be able to have a grown-ups’ night out on our own? Although if we’re going to see a Grant Thorn movie, I don’t know if “grown-up” is the right term. I mean, they didn’t even use the title of my book.’ She gestured at a framed print of its cover above the desk, the words In Search of History and her name superimposed over an atmospheric photograph of a golden statue on the seabed. ‘The Hunt for Atlantis? It’s not exactly subtle.’
‘They’ll have changed a load of other stuff too,’ said her husband. ‘It’s Hollywood; they always do. They’re not even using our names for the main characters.’
‘Which makes me nervous from the get-go. They can have them do anything and we can’t complain about it, because they’re technically not us.’
Macy returned with more pictures. ‘Oh, what are these?’ her father asked. ‘Are these fish too? They’re really good!’ He looked back at Nina as he perused the crayoned artworks. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. Grant’s a big star, and Marvin’s a successful producer. They know what they’re doing.’
‘I know,’ she said, trying to reassure herself. ‘I just hope they didn’t change too much…’