The Atlantis Plague (10 page)

Retroviruses exist for one purpose: to replicate, to produce more of their own DNA. And they are good at it. In fact, viruses make up the majority of all the genetic material on the planet. If one added together all the DNA from humans, every other animal, and every single plant—every non-viral life form on the planet—that sum total of DNA would still be less than all the viral DNA on Earth.

Viruses didn’t evolve to harm their hosts—in fact they
depend
on a living host to replicate, and that’s exactly what they do: find a suitable host and live there, replicating benignly, until the host dies of natural causes. These reservoir hosts, as scientists refer to them, essentially carry a virus without any symptoms. For example, ticks carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever; field mice, hantavirus; mosquitoes, malaria, West Nile virus, Yellow fever and Dengue fever; black rats, bubonic plague; pigs and chickens, flu.

Humans are actually reservoir hosts for countless bacteria and viruses that haven’t even been classified yet. About twenty percent of the genetic information in the nose doesn’t match any known or cataloged organism. In the gut, forty to fifty percent of all the DNA is from bacteria and viruses that have never been classified. Even in the blood, up to two percent is a sort of “biological dark matter.” In many ways, this biological dark matter, this sea of unknown viruses and bacteria, is the ultimate frontier.

Almost all viruses are harmless until they jump to another host—a life form different from their natural hosts. The virus then combines with a completely new genome and causes a new and unexpected reaction—an illness.

That was the ultimate danger with viruses, but Martin wasn’t talking about these infectious viruses that entered a human body from the
outside
; he was describing the activation of a past infection, a dormant set of viral DNA that originated
inside
the human body, buried inside the genome. It was like contracting an infectious virus from oneself—a sort of DNA Trojan horse that activated and began to wreak havoc on the body.

These human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), as they are known, are essentially “viral fossils”—the remnants of past infections that changed the host genome, were integrated with the DNA of the host’s sperm, and were transmitted to future generations. Scientists had recently discovered that up to eight percent of the
entire
human genome was composed of endogenous retroviruses. These fossil records of past viral infections also appear in our closest genetic relatives, living and dead: chimpanzees, Neanderthals, and Denisovans. They had been infected with many of the same viruses we had.

Kate turned the idea over in her mind. Endogenous retroviruses had been considered inert and essentially part of a large group of “junk DNA” in everyone’s genome. These retroviruses were not infectious, but they did influence gene expression and were passed on to future generations. Scientists had recently begun to consider the possibility that endogenous retroviruses could play a role in autoimmune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, Sjögren’s syndrome, even cancer. If the virus behind the Atlantis Plague was an endogenous retrovirus, it would mean…

“You’re saying the entire human race is already infected. That we were infected the day we were born—that the virus behind the Atlantis Plague is already part of our DNA.” She paused. “The Bell and the bodies from it only activated a dormant virus.”

“Exactly. We believe the viral components of the Atlantis Plague were added to the human genome tens of thousands of years ago.”

“You think this is intentional—that someone or something planted the endogenous virus—the Atlantis Plague—knowing it would be activated some day?” Kate asked.

“Yes. I believe the Atlantis Plague has been planned for a very long time. I think the Bell is simply an activation mechanism for a final transformation of the human race.”

“Why didn’t the transformation happen in 1918, with the first outbreak from the Bell? Spanish flu?”

“Because the human genome wasn’t ready then. As I said at the hospital, the human race is changing at an increasing rate, especially our brain wiring—that’s the real difference. The Atlantis Plague has one target: brain wiring. Depending on the host, the wiring either gets scrambled or arranged for some task. We believe that the human race has reached some sort of genetic tipping point—the human genome is finally ready for the planned final transformation. You’ve seen the survivors—they are the result. Some rapidly evolve, some devolve. What we don’t know is which one is the desired outcome. Are the Atlanteans trying to cause another Great Leap Forward—a
final
leap forward—or is it a great leap backward, a regression to a point before the introduction of the Atlantis Gene?”

“Have you isolated the virus behind the plague?”

“No, and that’s exactly what’s holding us up. We actually think there could be two endogenous retroviruses at work, like a viral war going on in the body. These two viruses are fighting to control the Atlantis Gene, possibly to change it permanently. In ninety percent of the infected, this viral war overwhelms the immune system and causes death.”

“Like the Spanish flu did in 1919.”

“Precisely. And that’s what we had anticipated—a traditional biological outbreak, transmitted in common ways: bodily fluids, airborne, et cetera. That’s what we prepared for.”

“Prepared how?”

“There’s a group of us—government employees and scientists mostly. Over the past twenty years, we’ve worked on a cure, in secret.”

Comprehension dawned on Kate. “Orchid,” she whispered.

“Orchid was our ultimate weapon against the plague—a cutting edge therapy modeled on the cure for HIV.”

“The cure for HIV?”

“Yes. In 2007, a man named Timothy Ray Brown, known later as the Berlin patient, was cured of HIV. Brown was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. His HIV-positive status complicated his treatment. During chemotherapy he battled sepsis, and his physicians had to explore less traditional approaches. His hematologist, Dr. Gero Hutter, of the Charite Hospital in Berlin, decided on a stem cell therapy: a full bone marrow transplant. Hutter actually passed over the matched bone marrow donor for a donor with a specific genetic mutation: CCR5-Delta 32. CCR5-Delta 32 makes cells immune to HIV.”

“Incredible.”

“Yes. At first we thought the Delta 32 mutation must have arisen during the Black Death in Europe—about four to sixteen percent of Europeans have at least one copy. But we’ve traced it back further. We thought perhaps smallpox, but we’ve found Bronze Age DNA samples that carry it. The mutation’s origins are a mystery, but one thing is certain: the bone marrow transplant with CCR5-Delta 32 cured both Brown’s leukemia and HIV. After the transplant, he stopped taking his antiretrovirals and has never again tested positive for HIV gain.”

“And it helped with Orchid research?” Kate asked.

“It was a huge breakthrough, opening up all sorts of research avenues. CCR5-Delta 32 actually protects carriers not only from HIV, but smallpox and even
Y. Pestis
—the bacteria that causes plague. We focused on it. Of course, we didn’t fully appreciate the complexity of the Atlantis Plague at the time, but we developed Orchid to a point where it stopped the symptoms. It was nowhere near ready for release when the outbreak occurred. It doesn’t fully cure the disease, but we had no choice. There was some element of the plague we couldn’t isolate. Another factor. But… we thought we could use Orchid. Containment became our goal. If we could contain the infected and suppress the symptoms, we could stop it, buy ourselves some time until we could isolate the endogenous retroviruses that caused the plague and manipulated the Atlantis Gene—the true source. That’s why… your work was so… intriguing.”

“I still don’t understand the transmission rate—radiation?”

“We didn’t either at first. In the first hours of the outbreak, something unexpected happened. The plague blew through every quarantine and containment protocol we threw at it. Kate, it was like wildfire, like nothing we had ever seen. Infected individuals, even in containment, could infect others over three hundred yards away from them.”

“Impossible.”

“We initially believed that we had problems with our quarantine procedures, but it was happening worldwide.”

“How?” Kate asked.

“A mutation. Someone somewhere had an endogenous retrovirus, another ancient virus, buried in their genome. When it was activated, the whole world fell in hours. A billion people were infected inside twenty-four hours. As I said, our sample size was too small to find it; there was no way to know about this other endogenous retrovirus. In fact, we’re still looking for it.”

“I don’t understand how it could affect the transmission rate.”

“It took us weeks to figure that out. All our containment protocols—around the world—decades of planning, it all broke down in those first days. The Atlantis Plague couldn’t be stopped. Every time it entered a nation it exploded across the population. What we discovered we never would have imagined. The infected were actually putting out new radiation, not simply carrying radiation from the Bell in their tissues. We believe that the second endogenous retrovirus actually turns on genes that cause the body to change the radiation it emits.”

Kate tried to process what she was hearing. Every human body emitted radiation, but it was like noise, static, the subatomic equivalent of sweating.

Martin continued. “Every activated person becomes a radiation beacon, activating, infecting everyone around them—even if they’re in bio-containment tents. A person standing a mile from you with no person-to-person contact could infect you. There were no protocols for anything like it. That’s why governments around the world accepted universal infection—they couldn’t stop it. The focus became controlling the population so that the Immari and the survivors didn’t take over the world. They began building Orchid Districts and herding the surviving population inside them.”

Kate thought about the lead-encased building where she had done the experiments. “That’s why you used lead sheeting on the building—to stop the radiation.”

Martin nodded. “We were worried about another mutation. Frankly, we’re out of our element here. We’re talking about quantum biology: subatomic particles manipulating the human genome. The intersection of biology and physics. It’s way beyond our current understanding of either physics or biology. We’re just scratching the surface of what’s known. We’re way behind the game, but we’ve learned a lot in the past three months. We knew you and the boys were immune to the plague because you survived in China. We’re trying to isolate the retrovirus that causes the radiation. The ultimate fear was that radiation from the trial participants—from a new mutation—could leak into the camp and compromise the effectiveness of Orchid. If that happened, there would be nothing standing in the way of the plague. Orchid’s efficacy is slipping, but we need it; we need a little more time. I think we’re close to a cure. There’s one last piece. I thought it was here in southern Spain, but I was wrong… about a few things.”

Kate nodded. Outside she thought she heard rumbling, like thunder rolling in the distance. Something was still bothering her. As a scientist, she knew that the simplest explanation was usually the correct one. “How did you figure it out so quickly—that there was another endogenous retrovirus? What makes you so sure there are two retroviruses at work? Why not one? One virus could cause different outcomes—the evolving and devolving result, the radiation trigger.”

“True…” Martin paused, as if considering what to say. Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Martin held his hand up and continued. “It’s the ships. They’re different.”

“The ships?”

“The Atlantean ships—in Gibraltar and Antarctica. When we found the structure in Antarctica, we had expected it to be roughly the same age and make-up as the structure in Gibraltar.”

“It’s not?”

“Not even close. We now believe that the ship in Gibraltar is, or rather was, a lander, a sort of planetary rover. The ship in Antarctica is a space vessel, a massive one.”

Kate tried to understand what that had to do with the plague. “You think the rover came from the Antarctica vessel?”

“That was our assumption, but the carbon dating makes that impossible. The ship in Gibraltar is older than the one in Antarctica, and more importantly, it’s been here on Earth a lot longer, maybe a hundred thousand years longer. It couldn’t have come from the ship in Antarctica.”

“I don’t understand,” Kate said.

“From what we can tell, the technology in the two ships matches; both have a Bell, but they come from different time periods. I believe the ships belong to different factions of the Atlanteans and that they are at war. I believe that these two factions have been trying to manipulate the human genome for some purpose.”

“The plague is their tool to bioform us.”

Martin nodded. “That’s the theory. It’s crazy, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Outside, the rumbling grew louder.

“What is that?” Kate asked.

Martin listened for a moment, then stood quickly and stepped out of the room.

Kate walked to the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was more gaunt than usual and the dark, obviously dyed hair made her look almost gothic. She turned the water on and began rinsing the brown residue off her fingers. Over the water, she didn’t hear Martin return. He steadied himself against the doorframe, trying to catch his breath. “Wash that mess out of your hair. We have to go.”

CHAPTER 22

Church of St. Mary of Incarnation
Marbella, Spain

Kate woke the boys quickly and corralled them out of the church. In the courtyard, Martin was waiting impatiently. The heavy backpack hung from his shoulders and a worried expression clouded his face. Beyond the courtyard, Kate saw why. An endless crowd of people coursed through the street, running madly, blindly, their feet pounding the cobblestones. This was the rumbling Kate had heard. The scene reminded her of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, another Spanish town in the state of Andalusia.