The Atlantis Secret by S.A. Beck

Author:S.A. Beck [Beck, S.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beck Books

Chapter 10

July 28, 2016, MARRAKESH, MOROCCO

6:30 AM

* * *

Jaxon couldn’t believe she was up so early. Back in the States, she woke up as late as possible. Sometimes, she felt like not getting out of bed at all.

In Morocco, though, she got up with the dawn call to prayer. The sweet singing brought her out of a restful slumber into a strange, exotic land still half asleep in the predawn light. A blissfully cool breeze blew through her latticed window to greet her as she got out of bed. She stood in front of it, letting it blow over her body, enjoying it while it lasted. Within a couple of hours, it would be warm. Within four hours, the heat would flatten her.

The songs from the various minarets near and far faded to a close, and she looked out over the flat roofs and rusty satellite dishes of the city as the light grew. It was still quiet out there. Most people didn’t seem to go to the mosque. Perhaps they prayed at home or at least pretended to. She’d seen a TV program about Saudi Arabia, showing religious police going around and checking that everyone said their prayers. They even banged on windows, shouting to people inside to get down on the floor and pray. People who didn’t pray got hit with long wooden sticks. There didn’t seem to be any of that here.

Occasionally, she could hear a neighbor open and shut a door or see the dark silhouette of a woman on a rooftop putting up the wash. Someone would call to a friend on the street. The rumble of a cart passing beneath her window told her one of the merchants was getting an early start to the market with his produce.

The city was waking up. If she wanted some privacy, she wouldn’t have much time.

Jaxon grabbed her nunchucks and sai and went down to the courtyard. At that hour, it was always empty.

She started with the nunchucks, taking care to begin slowly. Her first couple of times trying them, she smacked herself in the head before she learned the trick of it. The chain between the two sticks had to bend with your body, moving with your curves as you swung it over your shoulder or your side. Right hand flip up over shoulder, left hand behind to grab, left hand flip up over shoulder, right hand to grab. Again and again, picking up speed.

Her tablet leaned against one of the tiled pillars, showing a video for an instructor going through the moves. She always left it on mute, partially so she didn’t disturb anyone sleeping behind the windows above her and partially because she didn’t want anything disturbing the peacefulness of that time. The only sounds she heard were the early-morning birdsong as sparrows flittered overhead, along with the rattle of the chain and the swish of the sticks as she spun them faster and faster around her body.

The morning routine calmed her, helping her start her day with a clear head.

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