The Atlantis Plague (38 page)

“It’s taboo not to age?”

“It’s seen as… oh, it’s hard to explain, but a sort of
greed for life
. Wait, that’s not exactly right. It’s that and it’s a sign of insecurity—forgoing aging signifies clinging to an unfinished youth, as if you’re not ready to move on. Forgoing death implies a life unfinished, a life one is not happy with. But certain groups are allowed to disable aging and maintain the standard age—deep-space explorers being one group.”

“So the Atlanteans—” David hesitated. “You’re… a space explorer?”

“Not exactly. I’m sorry, I keep using the wrong words.” She held her head for a moment. “Will you see if there’s some kind of anti-inflammatory in the bathroom?”

David returned with a bottle of Advil, and Kate took four and dry-swallowed them before David could object to the dose.
She’s the doctor, not me. What do I know?

“The two of us, we were a science team—”

“Why were you here?”

“I… can’t remember.” She rubbed her temples.

“Scientists. What kind? What’s your specialty?”

“Anthropology. What would be the closest term? Evolutionary anthropologists. We were studying human evolution.”

David shook his head. “How could that be dangerous?”

“Primitive world research is dangerous work. In case we were killed in the field, we were programmed to resurrect so we could resume our work. But something went wrong with my resurrection. With me, it implanted the memories, but it couldn’t advance me—my unborn body was trapped inside my mother. These memories have lingered in my subconscious for decades until now—until I reached the standard age.” She slumped onto the bed. “Everything I’ve ever done has been driven by these subconscious memories. My decision to become a doctor, then a researcher. My choice to develop a gene therapy for autistic individuals, it’s simply a manifestation of my desire to correct the Atlantis Gene.”

“Correct it?”

“Yes. Seventy thousand years ago, when I introduced the Atlantis Gene, the human genome wasn’t ready for it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Atlantis Gene is extremely sophisticated. It’s a sort of survival and communications gene.”

“Communications… Our shared dreams?”

“Yes. That’s how we were able to access it—to communicate subconsciously via subatomic particles, radiation, passed between our brains. It began when you were in northern Morocco and I was in southern Spain. It’s because we both have the Atlantis Gene and we’re linked. Humans won’t be able to use ‘the link’ for thousands of years. I gave humans the Atlantis Gene so they could survive. The survival aspects were the only goal. But it spun out of control.”

“What?”

“The humans, the experiment. We had to make periodic genetic modifications—changes to the Atlantis Gene.” She nodded to herself. “We used gene therapy retroviruses to make the modifications—yes, that’s it: the endogenous retroviruses in the human genome, that’s what they are—fossils from past gene therapies we gave the humans, the incremental updates.”

“I still don’t understand, Kate.”

“Martin had it right. It’s incredible. He was a genius.”

“I—”

“Martin’s chronology of Atlantis Gene modifications—they don’t stop at twelve thousand five hundred years ago.”

“Right…”

“His ‘missing delta’ and ‘Atlantis Falls’ refers to the destruction of our ship and my science team’s demise. The end of our changes in the human genome.”

“So that means—”

“The changes went on. Someone else has been interfering with human evolution. Your theory was right. There are two factions.”

Dorian closed his eyes. He could never sleep before battle. They were only hours from Isla de Alborán, from capturing Kate and taking her to Ares. When he freed the Atlantean he would finally discover what he truly was, who he was. He felt nervous. What would he learn?

Dorian tried to picture Ares in his mind’s eye. Yes, he was there, staring back at him, a warped image reflecting off the curve of glass—an empty tube.

Dorian stepped back. A dozen tubes spread out in a semi-circle. Four held primates, or humans. It was hard to tell.

The doors behind him opened with a hiss.

“You should have never come here!”

Dorian knew the voice, but he could hardly believe it. He turned slowly.

Kate stood before him. She wore a suit that was similar to his, but different. His was a uniform. Hers was more like the coveralls of someone working in a sterile research facility.

Kate’s eyes grew wide when she saw the tubes. “You have no right to take them—”

“I’m protecting them.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“
You
put them at risk. You gave them part of our genome. You underestimate our enemy’s hatred. They will hunt every last one of us.”

“Which is why you should never have come—”

“You are the last of my people. And so are they.”

“I only treated one subspecies,” Kate said.

“Yes. I realized that when I took the samples. That species will never be safe now. You need my help.”

CHAPTER 73

Somewhere near Isla de Alborán
Mediterranean Sea

Kate went to the sink and washed her face, as if doing so could clear away the cobwebs in her mind and help her remember. She felt like the answers, the whole truth—all of it—was there in the recesses of her mind, just out of reach.

When she returned, David was waiting for her in the stateroom, his body armor on, that “ready for war” expression on his face that she knew by instinct now.

“How do you know there are two Atlantean factions?”

“I just know it. And the ships. Martin had it right. They’re from two different groups.”

“There are miles of tubes in Antarctica. What do they hold? More scientists? Soldiers? An army?”

Kate closed her eyes and rubbed her eyelids. It was all a jumble, yet the answers were there. “I… can’t remember. I don’t think they’re explorers.”

“Soldiers, then.”

“No. Maybe. Just give me some time. It’s like my whole brain is burning.”

David sat on the bed and put his arm around her. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally he said, “We’ll make landfall in less than an hour. We have to make a guess about the killer.”

Kate nodded.

“My suspects are Shaw and Chang, in that order,” he said.

“Let’s work backwards here,” Kate said. “Let’s start with motive. Who would want to kill Martin—why would any of them want to kill him?”

“Martin was close to a cure—we know that from his notes.”

“So anyone who wanted to prevent him from finding a cure—they should be our chief suspect,” Kate said. “It’s clear to me that Chang and Janus want to find a cure. That rules them out for me. We know preventing a cure is priority number one for the Immari. There’s only one person on this boat who was a loyal Immari soldier when this all began. Kamau.”

“It’s not him,” David shot back.

“How can you be so sure?”

“He saved my life in Ceuta.”

“That may have been his mission—to save you and follow you to me.”

David exhaled. “Let’s move on. Chang was also an Immari loyalist when this began.” Kate could see that he was angry now. “Hell, he’s the biggest mass murderer on this boat. How many did he kill in China? Hundreds, thousands?”

“I don’t think he could have broken Martin’s neck,” Kate said.

“Maybe not while he was alive, but what… what if Chang had already killed Martin? You said he gave him a therapy on the plague barge. What if that therapy killed him, and Chang broke his neck
after the fact
to hide it?”

“We can’t test that theory. There’s no way to do an autopsy here. Kamau is a better suspect. He’s a trained killer.”

“So am I. So is Shaw.”

“You haven’t mentioned Janus.”

“I just… don’t think it’s him. I don’t know why.”

“Shaw saved my life in Marbella,” Kate said.

“That could have been his mission—”

“That
is
his mission—”

“His
Immari
mission,” David said. “There’s another motive. Forget the cure. What if Martin knew who the SAS operatives were—and he knew that Shaw wasn’t one of them?”

David’s words silenced Kate.

“You said Shaw sure knew his way around that Immari camp.”

“From the sounds of it, you got up to speed pretty quickly too.”

David shook his head. “Touché.”

There was something Kate wanted to say, before the discussion, or argument, or whatever it had become went any further. “Look, I don’t know who killed Martin or what we should do. But I know this: whatever you decide, I will go along with it.”

David kissed her burning forehead. “That’s all I need.”

Everyone was assembled on the yacht’s upper deck: Kamau, Shaw, Chang and Janus. David handed Kamau an automatic rifle and a sidearm. A matching automatic rifle hung from David’s shoulder.

Shaw looked from David to Kamau. “You’re not arming me—”

“Shut up,” David said. “We’ll arrive at Isla de Alborán in twenty-five minutes. This is what we’re going to do.”

When David had finished relating his plan, Shaw shook his head. “You’ll get us all killed. Kate—”

“This is what we’re doing,” she said flatly.

In the ship’s cockpit, David nodded to Kamau.

The tall African activated the radio. “To the outpost at Isla de Alborán, we are Immari officers, survivors from the battle of Ceuta. We request permission to dock.”

The outpost responded, asking for Kamau’s rank and Immari officer code. The African called it out quickly and calmly, his back to David.

“They’ve cleared us to dock,” Kamau said.

“Good. Let’s proceed.”

CHAPTER 74

Isla de Alborán

David adjusted the binoculars. From the ship’s cockpit, Isla de Alborán was coming into view. The rising sun illuminated the tiny rock platform that rose out of the Mediterranean. It was smaller than a city block. At the far end stood a simple two-story stone and concrete building. It looked almost like a medieval jail. A lighthouse rose at the center, looming over the plain building.

On the other end of the island, the helipad held three helicopters that waited silently.

A dock spread out at the base of the twenty-foot-high cliff where the stone island met the sea. David adjusted the boat’s course for the dock.

“Do they usually keep a complement of three Eurocopter X3s?”

Kamau shook his head. “No. Usually only one. They have received reinforcements. They can only be from the primary Immari fleet or the invasion force in southern Spain.”

David considered the development. Each helicopter could carry a dozen people. There could be over forty armed soldiers in the building, waiting to attack. Too many.

He made a mental adjustment to his plan.