Connexion : The Atlantis Project, Book.1 (31 page)

“
I think you’re very optimistic. It seems
to me that Giuseppe has a very specific role in this game, a
strategic position which is made all the more delicate by the fact
that he is also overseen by the government. I find it hard to
believe that he would be happy to take on the role of a mere
subordinate, even temporarily.”

“But he’s already done that!”

“
What do you mean?”

“Don’t you see – we’re alone in this room.
It’s possible that we’re being watched or even filmed, but I don’t
really think so.”

“
Why would he do such a thing?”

“During the interview he said he wanted to
trust me and this is his way of showing us he meant it. I count on
doing the same when the opportunity comes up. In the meantime,
nothing’s compelling me to reveal everything to him. Actually,
that’s what you were advising me to do when you said they’d send us
home as two nobodies as soon as they’ve found out what they want to
know, right?”

“You’re probably right.”

34 THE NO-GO ZONE

A few minutes earlier, Jacques and Charlie
had gotten themselves into a heavy white suit that Francisco had
had specially made for them. An outside observer could easily have
thought that this was an extra-terrestrial straight out of a bad
science-fiction film. The appearance of the strange creature,
stuffed into its shiny, metallic white suit could have been that of
a two-headed monster with tentacles. Fortunately for the twins, the
general mood was not jovial, so no one remarked on their monstrous
appearance, no matter how obvious it was. Only Clementine smiled
briefly, well-hidden behind the visor of her helmet, at the moment
when, while getting out of the car, they finally managed to get
their balance again. It was an unlikely balance which they had only
just managed to find, after several minutes of gesticulating and
contorting themselves every which way. Now, planted on their four
feet, and in spite of the suffocating heat inside their suit, they
were finally able to take in the spectacle before them. Not so very
long ago, these conditions would have been enough to set off a
panic attack in Charlie; he felt so enclosed inside this artificial
wrapper, which filtered every air particle that he and Jacques
breathed.

Today his attitude was quite different. He
was mainly annoyed at having to put up with the heaviness of his
physical body at a time when he would have liked to have complete
freedom of movement. Everything had seemed so simple in the
connection. He and Victor actually suffered from a similar problem.
They were both prisoner to a body that hindered them from taking
action. Of course the comparison was limited, but that didn’t stop
Charlie from feeling nostalgic about the time when they had both
moved freely, virtually liberated from a physical body totally at
odds with their aspirations.

“
Look, Charlie, we’re here! I’m curious to
see how Giuseppe is going to get us through to the other
side.”

A few meters ahead of them a sort of veil of
purplish mist stretched as far as they could see.

“I suppose this vapor must be for
decontaminating the containment wall and the chamber that is used
for going through it.”

“
Whatever it is, the effect is quite
spectacular. I have trouble understanding how this construction
could not have been noticed by most of the people working on the
base.”

The wall of mist bathed in ultra-violet light
lent a strange apocalyptic atmosphere to the place. Jacques felt as
though he were standing in front of the gates of hell. That is how
he had always imagined it, anyway; a dark, misty place where at any
moment bony hands could reach out and drag you into the void. He
watched as Francisco walked into the misty veil until he had
completely disappeared. Mario and Giuseppe stood in front of them,
motionless in their white suits which had turned purple, almost
phosphorescent, under the effect of the ultra-violet light. A few
minutes later he came out again and Giuseppe motioned to them to
follow. Clementine went in first, followed by the twins, and Mario
brought up the rear. The veil of mist was a lot thicker than they
had imagined. They walked for a hundred meters, following small
luminous markers on the ground. It was impossible to distinguish
anything at all except that little green trail that lit the way for
their feet. Suddenly, the mist started to become less dense,
dissipating gradually. The little group stood together before a
gigantic steel wall, eaten away by rust, with droplets of
condensation trickling down the cold metal.

“We will soon be entering the no-go zone”,
announced Giuseppe. “On the other side of this chamber we will be
in a huge sector that we have no entered for years. It is even
possible that some areas have never been explored, since their
discovery over twenty years ago. I am counting on you not to touch
anything and to only do what Francisco and I tell you.”

Giuseppe turned around without waiting for a
response and entered the code that would open the thick glass
chamber that stood in front of them. The heavy, opaque door opened
at last; just long enough for them to step into the confined space
where a leaden silence reigned. All five of them remained in that
glass cage for several minutes, while Giuseppe tried in vain to
open the second door. Long minutes of uncertainty went by while he
tried his best, entering successive series of figures without
success. Charlie was beginning to suffer from claustrophobia,
brought on by the completely enclosed, impenetrable nature of the
place where they were standing. His breathing was getting faster
and erratic as time went by. He started to get a slight feeling of
suffocation, as if the air he was breathing did not contain enough
oxygen. At least, that was what he was beginning to believe,
despite his efforts to think sensibly. Jacques was uneasy too, but
he immediately noticed the first signs of claustrophobia affecting
his brother.

“
Calm down, Charlie. These suits are
equipped with an autonomous ventilation system. We will absolutely
not be short of oxygen; it could be hours before lack of oxygen
becomes an issue. Breathe calmly and try to relax. Giuseppe will
find a solution to the problem, I’m sure. He doesn’t seem to be
panicking and neither is Francisco. Don’t worry.”

Charlie was not proud of the state he was in.
The great confidence he had shown up till now had not stood up to
the effects of claustrophobia’s conditioning and the emotional
reactions it provoked as soon as the conditions were right for it
to manifest. However, he managed to calm down quite quickly and
breathe deeply, following his brother’s advice as he had always
done in situations like this.

Jacques must be right. Giuseppe and Francisco
seemed to be stoically calm about the keypad that refused to accept
the codes the old man was entering. Finally, Francisco motioned to
Giuseppe to step aside, reaching out to try his luck at typing in
the command code that would open the chamber. A few seconds later
the door opened at last. Giuseppe patted Francisco on the shoulder,
as if he could feel the sign of gratitude through his thick suit.
At this unexpected sight, Charlie understood that Giuseppe had
blind faith in his adopted son. No doubt he had passed on all that
he knew to him, and if anything should happen to Giuseppe,
Francisco would immediately take over, to terminate the mission he
was bent on completing. Charlie was sure that one day or another
Francisco would take over the reins of this base, barring
intervention from some, less understanding, outside party that
decided otherwise.

From his very first steps, it became clear to
Charlie that they were truly in inviolate territory. The noise of
their feet, heavy in the autonomous suits, struck the ground like
hammers on an anvil. Here there was no asphalted road, artificial
lighting or any other human adjustment. One large metallic road,
like a highway, cut through the middle of the gigantic rocky cavern
before losing itself on the horizon. Strangely, the place was
neither really dark, nor truly light. A pale, white light seemed to
emanate from the buildings around them. The quality of the light
was very unusual, similar to that which the dawn would have shed on
this forest of domes. It was a light with no source, a day without
sun or shade.

“Here we are in the no-go zone, Charlie.
Nearly fifty square kilometers of perfectly aligned domes, divided
into a hundred sectors, linked to each other by secondary roads
which go off this central highway. Of course, those are only
estimations based on images from our exploration drones. On the
face of it, these metallic roads seem to be access roads which must
have enabled the N.H.I.s to travel in magnetic levitation
vehicles.”

“Have you found any vehicles in working order
here?” asked Charlie, excitedly.

“No,” answered Giuseppe. “Our drones found
about one of them per sector, which makes for quite a considerable
number, but they all seem to be stuck on the ground. We tried to
de-magnetize one, so we could learn more about the N.H.I.’s
technology, but we didn’t succeed and we never managed to activate
it. Perhaps you already saw such machines running when you were in
Victor’s memory?”

“Yes, indeed. I guess I could even say I had
the privilege of riding in two of them. They were used to move
around inside the bases… I mean this base. That is, virtually, in
the experience I had, but I don’t know to what extent that was an
accurate representation of the vehicles’ true performance. I was
amazed by their speed and the incredible silence inside them. They
literally streamed through the air without the slightest
vibration.”

“You seemed to hesitate, Charlie. Are you
suggesting they could have built other bases like this one?” It was
Francisco, speaking directly to Charlie for the first time in
weeks. His tone was neutral. Francisco, true to his usual self, did
not let any emotion filter through, so that the question did not
seem at all inquisitive, and yet it put Charlie in a very awkward
position. He had no intention at all of revealing that information
to Giuseppe right now, but it was too late. The information had
reached Francisco’s ears and nothing would ever be able to dislodge
it from his brain, whose workings were as rigorous as they were
inscrutable. Charlie understood that it would be futile to hem
himself in by lying or negating what he had said; that would only
have served to increase the curiosity aroused by his slip. He
preferred to seize the opportunity that had just arisen, to
reaffirm his role of expert, which made him indispensible in
Giuseppe’s eyes.

“I’m not certain, but it’s a possibility that
I have thought about, yes. In order to develop such advanced
technology and attain such a high level of civilization, the
N.H.I.’s must necessarily have evolved as a population that was
much more numerous than the few thousand individuals present on
this base. I can even tell you that they had vehicles of the same
type as those that you have found, but which did not need magnetic
roads.”

“Did you see them?” asked Giuseppe.

“Actually, I rode in one of them at the
beginning of the connection, but I passed out, which meant I never
found out where it was going. I only saw the plains and pine
forests it was flying over at incredible speed. Once again, you
must remember that my perceptions were only mental constructs,
subject to many distorting factors. If you don’t mind, I think we
should stay focused on our objective. We’ll have plenty of time to
discuss these things later.”

“That’s right,” said Giuseppe. “What exactly
is our objective? We know, or at least, we strongly believe, that
each of these domes contains one or two hibernating N.H.I.’s and if
we take Victor as an example, it’s highly probable that they are
still alive. It would not be too far-fetched to think that they are
probably also in the awakening phase, like him. You asked me to
bring you to the no-go zone and I have done so without asking you
further questions, so tell us now what we are looking for, Charlie.
I could help you more easily if you still trust me.”

“We are looking for Sector 24, as I told you
yesterday.”

That rather cutting answer, which was not
really and answer at all, rang in the ears of the elderly Italian
like a firm refusal. Charlie obviously did not want to say any more
for now about the true objective of this expedition.

“This little underground city has exactly
ninety-nine sectors, not counting the colonized ones,” said
Francisco. “None of them has an inscription with anything
resembling numbers that we can decipher, but maybe you might manage
that. Follow me. I will show you the pillars that mark the entrance
to each one.”

“Let’s go!” growled Giuseppe, motioning to
the rest of the little group to snap out of the lethargy and
fascination that the mystical beauty of the place evoked in
them.

They had all followed the conversation, which
had taken place only a few meters from them, their faces hidden
behind their visors. They were connected by radio transmitters so
there was no need to listen hard. They could also have participated
in the conversation if they had wished to; there was nothing
preventing them; but even Jacques had not wished to intervene, not
even by telepathy. It was all beyond them; they knew very little
indeed, and had no choice but to blindly follow instructions.

While they were making slow progress along
the metallic road, Charlie carefully observed the first rows of
domes they were leaving behind them. Suddenly Francisco, who was
leading the way, stopped in front of one of them and pointed to a
metal cylinder, about ten meters high. Jacques and Charlie came
closer, but could not see anything written on it.