Valens's eyes rolled. " Fine, fine let us enter like prim kings."
Barbaros lifted up lightly on his toga pinching it. He released it. "Now that is what I am saying." He pushed passed Valens
"You do realize this could be the end of Atlantis?" Valens made a fist and placed it under his chin. " Just saying Atlantis could fall."
Barbaros whipped around. He pointed toward the metal platform stomping toward Valens. "I hope for your sake, for your child's sake that it is fixable! Otherwise, we are going to be at the bottom of the ocean!"
Valens clapped Barbaros on his back. "It is Atlantis everything is fixable." He walked toward the silver control center. Upon entering the building, Cold air wafted into him. Valens shivered trying to adjust to the low temperature. His sandals squeaked against the polished bronze flooring. There was a girl a few feet away behind a desk. She was sorting white cards and placing them in different files.
Valens cautiously approached the desk. "I need to go down to the fourth-floor tri-center."
The girl glanced reproachfully at him with her lips perched. The girl sucked in a breath. "Why?"
Valens threw his hands up and smacked his head. "So I can do my job and possibly save Atlantis!"
Barbaros stuck his finger up in the air. "Hold up." He pulled Valens aside. "Be nice to the desk lady. It will get you far in life my friend."
Valens narrowed his eyes. "I am not, going to be nice to her." Valens turned away heading back to the desk.
Barbaros garbed him by the shoulder. "Wait, hear me out. "
Valens's lips twitched. If you do not let me go, I am going to hurt you!"
Barbaros released him placing both hands up. "I am not looking for a fight just a bit of advice here. Tensions are high. I get it. But she is still a woman and deserves respect."
Valens gritted his teeth. "Fine." He stomped over to the Desk. "Ma'am may I please go to the fourth tri-center."
She sighed glaring at him. Her lips trembled. "No, go home spend it with your family." The ends of her eyebrows went up. The middle of her forehead creased.
Valens growled storming over to her. He went around the desk.
The woman backed up. Her heart pounded, as her breathing exhilarated.
Valen's face a bright red with widened eyes. "I have a wife and daughter! This place is not sinking! I will not allow it to sink!"
The woman covered her mouth sobbing. "I am sorry." Her body shook.
"What do you mean you are sorry! Tell me!" Valens roared approaching her. He pressed her against the inside of the desk.
She stared at him. "Atlantis is falling! The waves are going to overtake us. The damage is done."
"No, I can not accept this!" Valens slammed his hand violently on the desk. "Atlantis cannot fall! It was not built to fall!"
Barbaros's entire body appeared a shade paler. His mouth loosed, and his body lost all the strength it had. He silently wept.
"Atlantis Cannot fall!" Valens slammed his hand down again as angry tears gathered in his eyes.
"It can! It is," she screamed at him. "Can't you see my fear?" She hunched over pointing to her heart. "I want to go home to my parents. They were so proud of me to get this job. Now I am stuck here! I can't leave in case someone comes. Duty til the end!" She calmed down. "They are going to die alone. I am going to die here alone. Go home while you can." She solemnly turned around toward her white cards. "If you must go to the tri-center, then go. They are going to tell you the same thing I am."
Valens raced away from her to a set of stairs located a few feet away from the desk. The stairs led downward.
Barbaros remained behind slowly getting over his shock. He walked over to the woman. "Your name and adobe." He bowed placing his hands together.
"Aquilina, why?" Her tearful eyes drifted to him.
"Let me do this one act of kindness for you. Let me tell your parents." Barbaros looked up at her still hunched over. Barbaros raised.
Aquilina's face froze, and then a painful smile spread across her it. "The upper aqueducts. The house is the sixty-seventh on the right."
Barbaros turned to leave.
"Wait," Aquilina called after him.
Barbaros waited.
"Tell them I love them. Tell them I am sorry for being a horrible child. I led a disappointing life," said Aquilina.
Barbaros pressed his hands together. "No child is truly disappointing to a parent. We express our disappointment at the action one commits. Not the person. You as a person are not disappointing." Barbaros's mind flashed with memories of a little girl with black curly hair. He closed his eyes. Barbaros then reached for his wristband activating the agility boost once again.
Valens tore through four flights of stairs. Once he reached the end of the fourth flight, he turned to his right eyeing a door. Valens huffed and slowly made his way over to the door. He pushed it open revealing a room with a holographic sphere that had landmarks. Red lasers were pointed to a specific location on the Atlantic Ocean off of the coast of Morocco. The water of the sea seemed to be bubbling up on the sphere. Valens stood in the way of one of the lasers. The heat from the laser burnt through his toga into his flesh.
"Arrgh,"he screamed out clenching the burnt area. He moved out of the way allowing the laser to resume its position on the sphere.
Valens glanced around spotting quite a few things that had the appearance of telescopes with a reflective lens mounted on walls.
He charged over to the lasers that he determined were the cause of the disruptive ocean. Valens reached his hands over to grab one. The metal burned him as he clasped his hand around it. He squeezed his eyes shut pulling on the device. The sounds of smearing flesh reached his ears, as the smell of cooked meat taunted him. The laser would not budge.