The Thrones of Eden 3 (Eden) Read Free

recognize the validity of your claim.”
    She could almost feel her heart thrumming against the wall of her chest with excitement. “I’m going to ask you one more time, Hillary. Are you offering me a partnership?”
    “Yes,” he said. “From this point on, we will share all discoveries together.”
    “Yeah, well, that’s all good and fine. But I literally don’t have two nickels to rub together. So getting to you would be impossible at this time.” She looked ceilingward at the Ankara lamp . I can’t even pay the electric bill.
    “Then I will dig into my reserves and fly you out here. That’s no problem.”
    “And John?”
    Savage’s attention quickly peaked.
    “As your aid, then I will accept the terms regarding him as well. You and Mr. Savage are to join my team. I’ll have my assistant contact you with the specifics of travel. Please keep your line open.”
    She could hardly contain herself as she fought for calm. “I will. And Hillary?”
    “Yes.”
    “Thank you.”
    The connection was severed with an audible click.
    Savage cocked his head. She could tell that his interest was overwhelming.
    “What?” he asked.
    She smiled. “Pack your bags,” she told him.” And then her smile broadened. “We’re going back to Eden.”
     
     

 
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
    Esenboğa Airport
    Ankara, Turkey
     
    When their plane touched down in Ankara, John and Alyssa took a cab to the exclusive JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Ankara. The room was elegant and spacious with marble flooring and scalloped drapes. The tub was made of marble with jets to soothe the body. And the connecting balcony offered a breath-taking view of the city, especially at night when Ankara was a gallery of lights.
    Although they were tired, they could not pass up a good meal on Hillary’s dime.
    Sitting at a table in an area with subdued lighting, with the flames of ornamental candles dancing and swaying on their wicks, John and Alyssa enjoyed a fine wine as they waited for their meals.
    John raised his glass in toast and tapped it against Alyssa’s. “To the AIAA,” he said.
    “To the AIAA.”
    They took a sip and set their glasses aside.
     “We have new life,” said Savage.
     “And it came from a most unlikely source, too—an adversary of my father, no less. But he’s still John Hillary. A man who would sell his mother upriver for a bottle of beer if he knew the act would benefit him.”
    “It’s been all over the news,” he said. He raised his glass in salutation. “Suffice to say, your credibility is back.”
    “And that’s all I wanted,” she told him. “But more importantly, I didn’t want my father’s legacy to become the brunt of in-circle jokes amongst professionals in the field.” She reached across the table and grabbed his hands with hers. “I’m scared and excited at the same time,” she told him.
    He knew exactly what she was alluding to. “Those things inside Eden are gone,” he told her.
    “How do you know that? How do you know that there isn’t something else waiting at the end of that tunnel?”
    “I don’t.”
    “Exactly. And that’s why we can’t afford to become complacent.”
    “Alyssa, that temple was a burial chamber built to protect the Primaries. I’m sure this arterial tunnel leads to a safer haven—maybe to an ancient library or amphitheater, to something less guarded.”
    “You’re becoming complacent.”
    She was right. The warrens inside Eden were filled with reptiles that where venomously dangerous. The Megalania Priscas may not have been exclusive just to Eden. They may be elsewhere as well. 
    “John, those Megalania Priscas may not have been restricted to the temple of Eden. Like any other creature they live by self-preservation. And who’s to say that this tunnel is not the only one? There could be many. And maybe this one tunnel leads to an underground topography we could only imagine Eden to be, a truly magnificent city buried beneath the sands of