The Atlantis Plague (41 page)

Four males stood around the fire, feeding it, tending it, ensuring it never went out. The fire rose from a square stone pit. Large boulders ringed the towering blaze, forming a wall that kept the children from the inferno. And there were so many children, maybe even a hundred of them, scurrying about, playing, and motioning to one another.

“Their population is exploding,” her partner said. “We must do something. We have to limit the tribe’s size.”

“No.”

“Unchecked, they will—”

“We don’t know what will happen,” Kate insisted.

“We will make it worse for them—”

“I’m going to inspect the alphas,” Kate said, changing the subject. The issue of their rapid population expansion was a concern, but it didn’t have to be a problem. This world was small, but it was big enough for a much, much larger population—if they were peaceful. That would be her focus.

The chariot set down, and she stepped out. The kids around the camp stopped and stared. Many wandered toward her, but their parents rushed forward and shoved them to the ground. They fell down as well, placing their face to the ground and extending their arms.

Her partner’s voice was even more solemn. “This is very bad. They take you for a god—”

Kate ignored him. “Proceeding into the camp.”

Kate motioned for the humans to stand, but they remained face-down. She walked to the closest one, a woman, and stood her up. She helped the next person up, and then everyone was standing, rushing to her. They mobbed her as she waded past the crackling fire at the center of the camp.

She spotted the chief’s hovel instantly. It was larger and adorned with ivory tusks. Two muscled men stood guard at the entrance. They stepped aside as she approached.

Inside, an elderly man and woman sat in a corner. The alphas. They looked so old, so withered. They had never fully recovered from their near-starvation in the cave. Three males sat around a square stone platform in the center of the hut, discussing what looked like a map or some sort of drawing. They all rose. The taller male stepped toward Kate, but the elderly man stood on shaky limbs and waved him back. He bowed to Kate, then turned and pointed at the wall. A series of primitive drawings were spread out in a line. The helmet translated them:

Before the Sky God, there was only darkness. The Sky God remade man in his image and created a new world, lush and fertile for him. The Sky God brought back the sun and promised that it would shine so long as man lived in the image of God and protected his kingdom.

It was a creation myth. A surprisingly accurate one. Their minds had advanced in a great leap forward, achieving self-awareness and problem-solving abilities they had never before known. They had focused their newfound intellect on the greatest questions of all:
How did we get here? What are we? Who created us? What is our purpose?

For the first time, they realized the mysteries surrounding their existence, and they groped for answers, as all emerging species do. In the absence of absolute answers, they had recorded their interpretations of what they believed had happened.

Her partner sounded nervous now. “This is extremely dangerous.”

“Maybe not—”

“They are not ready for this,” her partner declared with finality.

They were too young for mythology, but if their minds had already come this far, the religion that followed could be a powerful tool. “We can fix this. This… could save them.”

Her partner didn’t answer.

The silence weighed on Kate. It would be easier if he argued. The silence demanded she justify her claim.

“We have to end this experiment now, before we make it worse for them,” her partner said, softly now.

Kate wavered. Developing religion this early was indeed dangerous. It could be corrupted. Selfish members of the tribe could use it for their own benefit, manipulating the others. It could be used as a justification, a basis for all sorts of evil. But… used correctly, it could also be an incredibly civilizing force. A guide.

“We can help them,” Kate insisted. “We can fix this.”

“How?”

“We give them the human code. We’ll embed the lessons, the ethics, in their stories.”

“It cannot save them.”

“It has worked before.”

“It will only last so long. What happens when they stop believing? Stories won’t satisfy their minds forever.”

“We will address that problem when it arises,” Kate said.

“We can’t be here to hold their hand. We can’t solve all their problems.”

“Why can’t we? We made them. Some of
us
is in them now. It’s our responsibility. And it’s not like we can do anything else. We certainly can’t go home.”

Kate’s words brought only silence now. Her partner had relented. For now. She hated the disagreement, but she knew what she had to do.

She held her forearm out and tapped at the controls. The ship’s computer quickly analyzed the primitives’ symbolic language. It was crude, but the computer easily fashioned a dictionary. She held her palm out, and the light shone from it onto the stone wall. The symbols she projected lined up just below the lines the tribe had written.

The elderly alpha nodded. Two males rushed from the hovel and returned with two large green leaves filled with a thick burgundy liquid. Kate thought it was crushed berries at first, but then she realized what the leaves held: blood.

The males began painting the gray stone walls with it, copying the symbols she projected.

Kate opened her eyes. She was back in the helicopter with David. The door was open and the sea glistened below. The breeze filled her lungs and she realized how much they hurt. She wiped a sheet of sweat from her forehead. David’s eyes were on her.

He pointed to the headset hanging in the middle of the space. Kate lunged for it and pulled it over her ears. He leaned forward and clicked the dial.

“We’re on a private channel now,” he said.

She involuntarily glanced at Chang and Janus sitting across from them.

“What’s wrong?” David asked, focusing on her, ignoring the scientists who sat impassively.

“I don’t know.”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t know.” Kate wiped another layer of sweat off her face. “The memories are coming; I can’t stop them now. I’m reliving them… it’s like they’re… taking over… I think, I don’t know. I’m scared that I’m losing… some of myself.”

David’s eyes raked over her, as if he were not sure what to say.

Kate tried to focus. “Maybe I’m at the age when the Atlantean therapy, whatever the tube does, the memory restoration, takes over and—”

“Nothing is taking over. You’re going to stay exactly the way you are.”

“There’s something else. I think we’re missing something.”

David cut his eyes to the two scientists. “What?”

“I don’t know.”

Kate closed her eyes, but no memories came this time. Only sleep.

CHAPTER 78

Over the Mediterranean Sea

Kate awoke to vibrations on her thigh. The first thing she saw was David’s eyes.

She took the vibrating phone from her pocket and glanced at the number. It was a 404 area code. Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC. Continuity. Paul Brenner. The revelations washed over the stupor of her sleep as she answered the call. She listened. Paul Brenner was panicked now. He spoke quickly, the phrases hitting her like punches.
Trial failed. No alternative therapies. Euthanasia Protocol has been authorized. Can you help?

“Hang on,” she said into the phone.

She sat up. “It didn’t work,” she said to David, Chang, and Janus.

“There’s more, Kate. Another piece of the genetic puzzle,” Janus said. “We need more time.”

“We have something,” Kate said into the phone. She listened, then nodded. “Yes, okay. What? Okay, no, we’re…”

She looked at David. “How close are we to Malta?”

“Malta?”

Kate nodded.

“Two hours, maybe a little less at top speed.”

“The Orchid Districts in Malta—they report no casualties. Something is happening there.”

David didn’t say a word. He climbed past Chang and Janus in the seat across from her and began talking to Shaw and Kamau in the cockpit—setting a course for Malta, Kate assumed.

Kate rubbed her head. There was something different about the way she felt. She was more… detached, clinical, numb. Almost robotic. She had full command of her mind; she just experienced the scene as if it were happening to someone else. The danger was intense—the annihilation of ninety percent of the human race… yet she felt as though she were in the middle of a science experiment, where the outcome was uncertain but would have no impact on her.
What’s happening to me?
Her feelings, her emotional core seemed to be slipping away.

When David returned, he slumped back onto the bench beside Kate. “We can be in Malta within two hours.”

Kate held the phone to her ear and began conversing with Paul.
We’re going to check it out—Can you hold them off—We don’t know what’s there—Do your best, Paul—This isn’t over.

She ended the call and focused on the group.

Janus spoke before she had a chance. “It was here the entire time, under our noses.” He pointed to the page containing Martin’s note. “
M
issing
A
lpha
L
eads to
T
reasure of
A
tlantis.
MALTA
.”

Kate watched as David scanned the code. His face changed. What was that: guilt?

She interrupted the pause. “Martin had been looking for it—whatever it is—for a long time. He thought it was in southern Spain, but he told me he had been wrong about the location. He must have added the last note—regarding the treasure and Malta, the location, after the fact.”

“Do you know what it is?” Janus asked. “The Treasure of Atlantis?”

Kate shook her head.

David pulled her close to him. “We’ll know in a few hours.” The look in his eyes said something different, however:
Do you remember?
Kate closed her eyes and tried to focus.

The rustle of the suit under the pressure of the decompression chamber was unmistakable.

The voice in Kate’s helmet was crisp. “There are two settlements now.”

“Copy.”

“Sending coordinates of original settlement.”

Kate’s helmet displayed a map. Their ship, the
Alpha Lander
, was still off the coast of Africa, where she had originally administered the Atlantis Gene.

A floating chariot waited silently in the middle of the chamber. The doors opened slowly, revealing the scene beyond. Kate mounted the chariot and zoomed from the ship.

The world was even more green. How much time had passed?

At the camp, she realized exactly how much. There were at least five times as many huts as she had seen before. At least a generation had passed.

And the nature of the camp had changed. Muscled warriors, dressed in clothes and wearing war paint, patrolled the perimeter. They turned to her and raised their spears threateningly as she floated in.

She gripped the stun baton.

An elderly man hobbled out to the warriors and shouted to them. Kate listened in amazement. Their language progress was stunning: they had already developed a complex linguistic structure, though the words used at this moment were a bit more “informal.”

The warriors released their spears and backed away from her.

She set the chariot down, and ventured into the camp.

There was no bowing and groveling this time.

Up ahead, the chief’s shanty had grown as well. The simple lean-to had morphed into a temple with stone walls, built directly into the rock cliff.

She marched toward it.

The villagers lined up on each side, keeping their distance, fighting to see her.

At the threshold of the temple, the guards stepped aside, and she entered.

In the altar at the end of the cavernous room, a body lay. A circle of the black humans knelt before it.

Kate paced to them. They turned.

From the corner of her eye she saw an elderly male making his way toward her. The alpha. Kate was amazed that he had survived so long. The treatment had produced remarkable results.