Savage Bay (11 page)

TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

Hawkeye and Titan Six gathered inside the sealed entrance at the South Portal. They listened intently as Caine recounted what they had learned about Saturo Aiko and the Dragons of the Night.

“I don’t understand,” said Hawkeye. “Why is a Chinese special forces team interested in a scientific research facility?  They’ve committed an act of war. What could be so important that it would drive the Chinese to such extreme action?”

“That’s what I need to tell you,” said Caine. “Until now, I’ve kept you in the dark about the work being done at Savage Bay. I’ve kept the information tightly controlled. When I tell you the reasons, you’ll understand why I had to be so careful.”

“I’m listening,” said Hawkeye.

“The scientists at Savage Bay are engaged in incredibly important research. Several months ago, we became aware of rumors that the Chinese might be pursuing similar research and testing.”

“And you kept this to yourself?” 

“No, of course not,” Caine replied. “Without disclosing the nature of the Savage Bay research, I discussed the situation with Titan Global’s head of intelligence operations. The rumors were unsubstantiated. There wasn’t enough there to consider the information actionable.”

“Are we talking about the Chinese government?  The Chinese military?  Private companies?”

“Those types of distinctions aren’t useful when discussing the Chinese. Elements of the power elite in China are heavily invested in supporting China’s companies involved in high-tech research. Elements within the Chinese government and military provide support to many of these companies at the behest of the powerful leaders of the ruling party. As I said, we were never able to corroborate the early rumors. But now it appears the Chinese may in fact be conducting their own program, and they certainly know about The Genesis Project at Savage Bay.”

“An armed incursion into a sovereign nation to steal some scientific research?” said Hawkeye. “If this were revealed to the Spanish or American governments, NATO would be forced to take military action,” said Hawkeye.

“But the Chinese know we won’t make this public,’ said Caine. “Not if we can help it. The Genesis Project is too important. The information is far too valuable and explosive. It’s going to change everything we believe about the human race. It will change human civilization -- forever.”

“What is so important that the Chinese military would take such drastic measures? And keep you from asking for assistance from the Spanish government or NATO?

Caine turned to Dr. Ambergris. “Joshua, I think this should come form you. Will you explain The Genesis Project to Hawkeye and Titan Six?”

Dr. Ambergris nodded solemnly. “For twenty years, I’ve been working in the field if human genetics. My research has been aimed at unlocking the mysteries of human
DNA
.”

Caine interrupted. “Dr. Ambergris was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work. His team was the first to complete the sequencing of the human genome.”

Ambergris nodded at the recognition.

“A little over a year ago at the Triad Genomics facility in New York, I made a profound scientific discovery,” he said. “Do you know much about
DNA
?”

“Just what I learned, and then forgot, in high school,” said Hawkeye. “If it’s important for us to know this genetics stuff, give it to me like I’m stupid. Start with the basics. Actually,
keep
it with the basics if you can.”

Caine smiled. She knew Hawkeye’s personnel file intimately. He had an IQ of 143 and a college degree. He clearly wanted the explanation kept simple for the benefit of those Titan Six team members who weren’t as mentally gifted.

“Okay,” said Ambergris. “Here are the basics.
DNA
is the blueprint of life. It’s inside the cells of every living thing, from tiny microscopic bacteria all the way up to elephants and blue whales, the largest animals on the planet.
DNA
carries the chemical instructions our cells use to construct and operate our bodies. It’s the language of life. Our genetic code is passed on from one generation to the next.”

“I’m with you so far,” said Hawkeye.

“Our genetic code looks like a chain. The links of the chain are made of
DNA
molecules. It’s incredibly long. If we were to compare the chemical units of
DNA
we call base pairs to words written in a book, the human genome would be over a billion words long. That’s longer than eight King James Bibles.”

“Damn,” said Tank. The only books Tank ever read from cover-to-cover were comic books.

“Go on,” said Hawkeye.

“When I made the discovery that started The Genesis Project, I was studying introns,” said Ambergris.

“Okay, there you lost me,” said Hawkeye.

There were mumbles of agreement from the Titan Six team.

“Let me back up,” said Ambergris. “Some of our
DNA
has a clear purpose. We know what it does. We can figure out why it’s there. But there are long parts of our
DNA
that don’t appear to have any purpose at all. If
DNA
were a television show, introns would be commercial breaks that interrupt the T.V. program. But they are very long commercials. Longer than the actual show. We had no idea why they were there. Scientists have a name for these introns: junk
DNA
.”

“I’ve heard of that,” said Tank.

“The goal of my research was to find out what introns are and why they’re inside human
DNA
. A few years ago at the Triad Genetics facility in New York, I finally figured it out. It’s the revelation of a lifetime. Of a
hundred
lifetimes.”

“Don’t keep us in suspense, Pyro,” said Tank.

“Introns are a coded message.
There is a secret message hidden inside human
DNA
.”

TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

“Run that by me again,” said Hawkeye.

“I know it’s difficult to believe,” said Ambergris. “But our
DNA
hides a coded message. An enciphered text. Hidden in the building blocks of our own cells. We call it The Genesis Code.”

Hawkeye let out a low whistle. He was having trouble wrapping his mind around the revelation. “A coded message?  But how did it get there?  I mean -- who could have put it there?”

“Aliens?” asked Tank.

“No, not aliens,” said Ambergris. “Although we certainly considered that possibility at first.”

“Damn,” said Tank. “I was hoping it was aliens.”

“And for a while, we also seriously wondered if it could be a message to humanity from our Creator. From God.”

“Jesus H. Christ,” said Gator.

“Exactly,” said Ambergris. “What we ultimately discovered, however, was something else entirely. The Genesis Code has been in our
DNA
a very long time. It is truly ancient. And it’s been preserved and passed down from one generation to the next in our own cells, waiting for the time when humanity developed the ability to find it and unlock its secrets.”

“My God,” said Hawkeye. “But who created the message? Who put The Genesis Code in our
DNA
?”

Ambergris paused for a moment before answering.

“We did.”

 OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

“I don’t understand,” said Tank. “What do you mean ‘we did?’”

“Humans,” said Ambergris. “An ancient human civilization on Earth, millions of years ago. An advanced society that was more developed technologically than we are today.” 

The enormity of it was overwhelming.

“But this changes
everything
!” Tank exclaimed

“Yes, it does. We believe that this civilization, the common ancestors of what we believed to be our oldest cultures, was wiped out by a global cataclysm.”

“Like the one that killed all the dinosaurs?” asked Gator.

“Perhaps. We don’t know for sure. But they found a way to pass along some of their knowledge to future humans that survived the catastrophe. They inserted a coded text into their
DNA
. As long as humans survived, The Genesis Code lived on inside us.”

“But -- ”

“Humanity lost tens of thousands of years of technological advancement,” said Ambergris. “We almost didn’t survive at all. The disaster was so terrible that most humans perished. Humanity returned to a simple existence, just struggling to stay alive, living like animals. Over hundreds of generations, our knowledge of that first civilization was lost. It became nothing more than myth and legend, like the stories of Atlantis and the creation mythologies of our oldest religions. But their message survived. The Genesis Code. Hidden inside us.”

“That’s what The Genesis Project is about,” said Caine. “At Savage Bay, we’ve been unlocking the secrets contained in The Genesis Code.”

“It hasn’t been easy,” said Ambergris. “The entire message isn’t just laid out for us to read. Think of it like a series of puzzles. Each new puzzle unlocks the path to the next. We have a long way to go. But we have made some astounding discoveries.”

Caine knew that it was a lot for Hawkeye and the team to absorb all at once.

But the clock was ticking.

There would be time for them to process the information later. They needed to know the whole story.  

“The Genesis Code is teaching us how to reprogram our own
DNA
. We’re learning how to manipulate and rewrite our own genetic code.”

“What does that mean?” asked Hawkeye.

“Well, for starters, we -- ”

TITAN
TEAM
, SAVAGE BAY

“Wait a minute,” said Shooter. “Quiet everyone.” 

She cocked her head to one side and listened intently. In the quiet of the empty tunnel, she could hear the faint sound of metal sliding against metal.

Hawkeye pointed to a doorway set into the wall not far inside the South Portal entrance. On the Unit Display at the Ops Center, the video feed from Tank’s helmet cam centered on the door.  

“Ops, I thought there were only two doors leading off this tunnel. What’s this door here?”

Cruz shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s not on the original schematics.”

“Is it a blast door?” asked Gator.

“I don’t know that either. But it doesn’t
look
like a blast door -- ”

“Titan Six, cover!” yelled Shooter.

The team scattered. Gator and Pyro upended a heavy metal desk and dove behind it. Tank dropped to the ground and rolled behind a stack of wooden crates. Hawkeye and Shooter took cover behind a concrete pillar.

A tremendous explosion blew the steel door off its frame and shattered the wall around the opening.

A storm of concrete dust and metal shards blasted into the tunnel. The concussive force of the explosion threw the door several meters where it landed in a twisted, broken heap of metal. Flying shrapnel sang as hundreds of tiny projectiles slammed into the metal surfaces in the tunnel.

“Titan Six, covering fire on that doorway!” yelled Hawkeye.

A thick, white haze clouded his vision. He could taste concrete dust in his mouth. The acrid smell of cordite and hot smoke filled the air.   

Pyro and Gator lay down a blistering field of fire toward the shattered doorway. Tank and Shooter charged across the tunnel to take flanking positions on either side of the ragged opening.

“We need to clear the area behind that door!” yelled Tank. Shooter nodded, then retrieved an air-burst fragmentation grenade from her belt.

“On three,” said Tank.

Tank poked his pinky finger through the metal pin of his own air-burst grenade. It was the only one of his fingers that would fit.

“One. Two. Three!”

Tank and Shooter launched their fragmentation grenades around the edges of the opening. Desperate cries in Chinese were cut short as the air-burst grenades detonated a meter off the floor, each covering a twenty meter radius with deadly flechettes, pointed steel and tungsten projectiles that sliced through both kevlar armor and human bodies.

“Gator, Pyro — through that door!”

Tank, Shooter, and Hawkeye provided covering fire from their positions on either side of the opening, shooting blindly into the room beyond.

With a rebel yell, Gator and Pyro charged through the jagged opening, side-by-side, weapons blazing.