Upon returning to the gates of the AmericanSchool of Classical Studies compound, the guard seemed surprised to be checking anyone in at such an early hour. After reciting their names several times and displaying Nicasio's passport, which fortunately had not fallen out of his jeans pocket, as a small camera he had taken with him had at some point that morning, the two exhausted researchers were allowed back inside. There they immediately and wordlessly collapsed into their joined single beds in their room of the dormitory.

Nicasio awoke many hours later and looked at the little Parthenon-shaped clock on the night stand. It was eleven forty, though he had trouble discerning for himself if it was AM or PM. Next he tried to think of exactly where he was. Could it really be the other side of the world from where he and Daniela had departed just days before? He reached over tenderly to the bed parallel to his and felt—nothing!

He jumped up and looked, only to see the little mattress next to his empty. He called out Daniela's name in the direction of the bathroom. Only silence followed.

Where could she have gone?

He stumbled into the little room, and finding it empty, took off his clothes and stepped under the water to better wake himself. Within minutes Nicasio had dressed and made his way out of the dorm. He speed across the gardens to the Blagen Library, checked through the security desk, and made his way back to where he and Daniela had spent the better part of the previous day and evening.

He discovered her this time sitting at the rear of the reading room. She had chosen a secluded corner work area and had already amassed several new piles of books on the desk. She seemed engrossed at that moment reading dense text on the computer screen in front of her. As the page of text rolled upward, little boxes of colored images appeared which Daniela was viewing one by one as she enlarged them.

"Looks like someone didn't make it in to school today," She said sarcastically in a monotone voice, sensing he was now behind her. She was still focused on the screen as she spoke.

"Yeah . . . well I have an excuse, teacher," Nicasio said defiantly.

"Let's hear it. . ."

"See . . . I was sexually attacked last night. Honestly. By this deranged woman in the dark . . . while just trying to walk home from Plaka . . ."

"You didn't seem to mind this assault so much at the time . . . as I remember witnessing it."

Daniela still hadn't looked away from the monitor. She spoke to him softly and dispassionately.

"Witnessing it? Only? Well if you ask me, there should be laws in this country about taking advantage of a poor drunk tourist. Lost on the hillside. . . confused and vulnerable . . ."

"There probably are such laws here, Nicasio. And I'm pressing charges against you this afternoon. Only . . . after lunch, OK? Are you as hungry as I am?"

Nicasio laughed quietly and put his hands on her shoulders. He felt her body coolly unmoved by his touch. She then pulled away slightly.

"Actually . . . I'm still feeling a little sick," he said, taking his hands away completely from her. "Must have been that terrible wine last night."

"Maybe it was the whole bottle of ouzo after it? You had the lion's share of both of those, as I recall, lover boy."

"Oh yeah . . .that too. The food was OK, though, huh?"

"A bit over priced . . . but yes. Delicious, actually."

She finally turned to look at him directly. She didn't seem nearly as tired as he felt, nor looked as bad, he thought.

"So . . . what is it you're previewing there in the thumbnails, Professor Collins?" He moved closer to the computer screen to look at the little colored images.

"Vases now. I completely covered the Amazon motif in statuary and base relief sculpture yesterday. Today it's these unbelievable paintings on vases and other ceramic pieces that I'm studying."

"Studying? Ok. Impressive."

"My God, Nicasio! The Greeks were in love with these Amazon women during the Classical Age. It was around the fourth and fifth centuries BC."

"Yeah," he acknowledged. "And as I understand it . . . they were only a distant myth by then."

He moved again closer to Daniela and placed a hand on her shoulder again.

"So if these Amazons ever did exist," he added, ". . . it was around a thousand years before these images were even created. Of course . . . that's if you want to believe the ancient Greek writers who attested to their existence."

"Well, they're amazing. When ever they existed. There's just too much lovely detail here for them not to have been real."

"Yeah? And what's phenomenal is that we're talking thirty-three centuries into the past. If you put them into that context . . . it really is mind-boggling to imagine."

"So what period was that. I am trying to learn them here?"

"Mycenaean . . .the Late Bronze Age. . . sometime around twelve hundred BCE . . . if you date them with the Trojan War. That's where they were supposed to have made a stand, historically."

"And they're all so mysterious . . . and irresistible! Nobody even knows where they eventually disappeared to. Right?

"Basically, yes. Only conjectures about that, really."

"So OK. You're the historian here, Dr. Carvajal. Any personal theories?"

"Dani, we have to first go back to see if they ever really . . . were. They're known more from myths about them than any really hard evidence. Only these past twenty years or so has anything been found to truly support them. Maybe in the end they were only fantasies . . . made up stories by sex-starved male wanderers. Dreams of men stuck out on the plains or survivors on the battle fields . . . men just too far from home."

"OK, but then why did the Greeks give them so much recognition here? So much publicity in their art? They were being painted on these vases for hundreds of years. Look . . ."

Daniela tapped the computer screen with her finger tips.

"Yes. I know, Angelina. It's a very romantic idea, though. Fighting with and being killed by the greatest heroes the Greeks had."

"Exactly."

She enlarged and pointed to an amphora decorated with the image of a helmeted man and woman in combat.

'Penthesilea, Amazon queen. Being killed by Achilles,' read the caption.

"It's all very perplexing, I know," Nicasio added. "But still beautiful, huh?"

"Very beautiful . . . but really sad too."

She turned her head away from the screen.

"And what do you make of this . . . Attic War? When the Amazons were supposed to have come all the way from the Black Sea here to Athens. It says they were supposed to have attacked the city . . . to take back their queen. Her name was . . ."

"Antiope . . . sometimes called Hippolyte," Nicasio supplied. "It all just depends on who you're reading. But granted, it makes for some great fiction. All Greek mythology has that element."

"I refuse to believe this is only fiction, Nicasio!"

"Look Dani. The Greeks today may not know how to handle traffic, but they were masters of art, architecture, math . . . and myth. . . "

"Well this fiction has lasted a few thousand years so . . . And  by the way, how do you know all this?"

"I've done some homework on them too, Dr. Collins. Just a little before you, in other libraries, that's all. But . . . even though I'm late to class today . . . will you still pass me?"

Daniela smiled diabolically.

"On one condition . . ."

Oh. Here it comes, he thought. There was a catch . . . with women, always a catch.

"What's the condition, Professor Collins?"

"Tell me what you know about this . . . Penthesilea."

"Who?"

"Her." She pointed down at yet another image, ascribed to the same name. "Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons."

"You mean just one of them. There were several queens."

"Yes, but she's the one who seems the most . . . heroic. She's always so brave and beautiful in these images. Taking on the greatest Greek heroes. She speaks to me the loudest."

"I think maybe you need to take a little time off, professor." Nicasio laughed.

No. Her story seems fabulous . . . just as it's shown in these little paintings! So will you tell it to me? What you know of Penthesilea. And what happened to her?"

"Well only as much as I know . . . which isn't much. Look, Dani. I never claimed to be a scholar of the Classics, OK?"

He said this in a hushed tone, looking behind him at the mostly empty library.

"And . . . so . . . can we do this over lunch now?"

"Alright. If you're a good boy . . . And . . ."

"And?"

"And you take me to the NationalArchaeologicalMuseum tomorrow."

"What? Why? Actually, that's exactly where I need to go myself."

"How come?"

"To check out the Antikythera Mechanism. Its display and presentation. The phenomenal object happens to be my cover over here, remember?"

"Good. Because there's a few authentic pieces of Amazon sculpture and vases over there. I want to see them up close."

"I guess so. . ." Nicasio looked at her again with his teasing expression—a look she had come to hate. "Since I don't have anyone else to let tag along." He then laughed again.

Daniela didn't.

"I hope you're remembering a little better now . . . just how much you enjoyed something last night, professor," she admonished.

"What?"

"Because now . . . it's gonna be a very long wait."

"Mmmmm. Yup . . . thought so. Now let's go to lunch Dr. Collins."

* * *