by A. G. Riddle
At the end of the corridor, the door slid open automatically, and David stepped through.
“Don’t move.” A man’s voice. It was hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken in a while.
David heard a footfall behind him. Based on the echo, the man (or Atlantean) was about his size. David raised his arms, still holding the spear. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“I said don’t move.” The man was almost upon him.
David turned quickly, catching a glimpse, a flash of the man, or whatever it was, just before he felt the electric prod dig into him. It sent him to the ground and into unconsciousness.
117
2 miles below Immari Research Base Prism
East Antarctica
The steel basket wobbled as it hurtled down the ice shaft. It drifted over and cut into the smooth ice wall, spraying shards of ice all over Kate’s suit and visor. She raised her arms to cover her helmet just as the basket lurched back, almost throwing her out. The heavy cable that had bunched above the basket was weighing on it. The basket steadied for a moment, then tipped in one quick motion, the bottom cutting into one side of the ice shaft, the top carving the other. Kate grabbed a bar at the top of the basket and dug her feet into the mesh floor, locking herself in like an astronaut in a zero-g training hoop, preparing in case the basket flipped end over end and side to side. She closed her eyes and pushed against the basket with all the strength she could muster and waited. More ice sprayed around her as the basket bounced against the sides of the tunnel. The impacts were slowing the fall. Then the walls disappeared and two long seconds passed and… crunch. The basket dug into a mound of ice, and Kate was plowed into the ground, knocking the wind out of her.
She fought to suck a breath inside the suit. It was like breathing through a tiny coffee straw. When she had regained her breath, she rolled over and took stock of her situation.
The basket had dug several feet into a mound of ice just below where the drill had punched through the chamber. It must have been the ice shards that had fallen down the shaft as the drill was extracted back to the surface, and the ice spray from her descent. The bed of ice had saved her life.
The mound looked more like a snow globe—bright lights glowed deep within. Kate stared at them for a moment. They looked almost like a flock of fireflies, but they were no doubt the LEDs that had been dropped to illuminate the vast cavern below. They had sunk deep into the chips of ice, and their light refracted out and into the large chamber. They also revealed Kate’s situation.
The basket was about half-buried in the loose chips of ice, and the part above the surface of the mound was covered by steel mesh. She was trapped, but there was a small opening—not large enough to crawl out of… but… she could make it larger if she dug under it.
Kate began digging with her hands, like a dog trying to get under a chain-link fence. The cage had broken up the finely shaved ice a bit, but it was still slow going. Finally, she thought the opening was large enough, and she dove head first under it. Her head and arms were through, but the bulky suit caught against the jagged metal mesh. Kate tried to pull back, but the sharp mesh ripped the suit and held her tight. Cold air rushed in through the hole in the suit, assaulting her back as she wiggled to get free. She pressed her belly into the ice as hard as she could and pushed back with her hands, and she was back in the cage.
The cold seemed to be numbing her body, bit by bit, starting with her back and radiating outward. With each passing second, it claimed more of her body. Her hands began to shake. The suit had provided more warmth than she’d realized. It was deathly cold down here. She would freeze to death if she didn’t act fast.
She began scooping the ice with both hands, frantically trying to enlarge the hole. She felt her legs grow stiff, and she fought to balance as she heaved another handful of ice into the basket. The hole was almost there.
The cold air burned her lungs now, and her breath was an icy fog against the clear glass helmet. Soon the cold would overtake her lungs. She would suffocate to death before she froze. The fog—it had almost covered the helmet. She wiped it with her hand. Nothing. It was still there. She wiped again. Still there. Why wouldn’t it go away? Of course—it was on the inside of the helmet. She knew that. Why did she even try to wipe the outside of the helmet? What was happening to her? The cold. Shutting down her body. She could barely think. What was she doing before the fog? The sheet of ice inside the helmet was complete now—she couldn’t see a thing. She turned around, searching for some kind of direction. Like a dog in a cage, on all fours, searching for a sound in the night.
A dog. A cage. The hole. Yes, she was digging to get out. She had to get out. Where was the hole? Kate felt desperately at the ice below her. She scampered around the cage. Nothing but mesh, everywhere. Was there a hole? Then her hands felt something—yes, it was there. But she couldn’t dig any more. She couldn’t feel her fingers.
She dove into the hole and pushed with her feet. She felt the sharp metal mesh on her back, but she ignored it, pushing even harder with her feet. The mesh was on the backs of her legs now. She was moving. She dug her elbows into the ice and pulled, one elbow over the other, like a soldier crawling under a barbed wire obstacle course. How far had she gone? She kicked a leg up. She was free.
She rolled over and got to her feet. The ice inside her helmet blinded her. Which way was the structure? She started to run, but her legs felt like they were made of lead. The suit, plus her frozen legs—she would never make it. She was getting nowhere. Which direction to walk? It was all the same—ice, and beyond, the faint glow of lights.
She felt the ground rushing up. She was lying on the ground, rolling. The ice touched her back, sending a new wave of cold into her body, shocking her system. She arched her back and her eyes opened wide. She sucked in a breath and bounded onto her knees, breathing heavily.
She had to think. She got to her feet and spun around. Lights. There were more in one direction than the other. The domed chamber was massive. The lights—the snow globe, the fireflies inside… where the drill had come through… the lights would be in the opposite direction from the entrance.
Kate turned and waddled away from the light. She was so cold. Then there was a boom. The drone of metal on metal. It was ahead but slightly to her right. Kate adjusted her vector and kept pressing forward. She fell again but pushed up, putting both hands on one knee and dragging her other leg up. She couldn’t feel any part of her body anymore. She was simply swinging her limbs, hoping for a break.
The crunch-crunch-crunch of ice below her feet stopped. Her footsteps had quieted, but it was still cold. She was lightheaded. She took another step, then another. Keep walking.
Behind her, metal on metal. The door closing?
She was still so cold. She fell to her knees and then to the ground, face first.
118
Immari Research Base Prism
East Antarctica
Dorian watched Kate fall, then get up and wander into the giant portal. The Bell hanging above was silent. He glanced over at the countdown clock: 00:01:32.
Less than two minutes. He had been sure the fall would kill her, but a nuclear blast inside the tombs? Just as good. Same end result.
“Release me, Dorian.”
Dorian turned and eyed Martin Grey. The gray-haired man struggled against the Immari Security agents who held him at each side. Dorian had been so obsessed with watching Kate die, or so he had hoped, that he had forgotten the old buzzard was still in the control room.
Dorian turned to Martin and smiled. “It was you. The whole charade with Clocktower, then guiding them to the China facility, hoping they could save the children and stop me from executing Toba Protocol.” He thought for a moment. “And you helped them escape. It was you, wasn’t it? You contacted the Immaru, who rescued them after the Bell exploded. How did you know? How did you find them?”
“You’re delusional, Dorian. Release me and stop embarrassing yourself.”
“Y
ou’re very clever, Martin, but you can’t talk your way out of this one. You just helped Kate escape.”
“I don’t deny it. I have never hidden my love for her. Protecting her is my first priority. I would have burned this facility to the ground if I had to.”
Dorian smiled. “So you admit it: the drill team that attacked us was acting on your orders.”
Martin shook his head dismissively. “Absolutely not. Think about it, Dorian. I don’t even have a way to contact them. I’ve never so much as met them.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ve figured it out, Martin.” Dorian studied the older man, waiting for a reaction. “Have you? Yes, I bet you have. The children survived the Bell because they were treated with stem cells from Kate’s and my child. Both of us were saved by the tubes: Kate as an unborn fetus in her mother’s womb, myself as a child suffering from the Atlantis Plague, or Spanish flu if you like. Which means I can walk through that portal as well. But I’m going to wait a few minutes.” He motioned to the giant computer screen with the countdown. The last few seconds ticked off until it read: 00:00:00. The letters flashed in red.
Dorian had expected some tremors on the surface from the explosions, but there was nothing. The structure must have impossibly thick walls, and the two miles of ice provided additional insulation.
Dorian smiled. “Two nuclear warheads just went off down there. Kate didn’t make it to the children, I can assure you. She had less than two minutes to reach them, and I think she was in no shape for a footrace. You saw it. She suffered a great deal, Martin. She may have frozen to death inside the suit. Or at the very least, lost most of her fingers and toes—right before she died.”
Dorian waited, but Martin said nothing. Dorian nodded to one of his security officers, who moved to the lockers and began readying a space suit. “I’m going to go down there and check on her shortly, as soon as they rig up a harness to lower me. I’ll let you know if we find any remains. I doubt it. But before I go, I want to share something else. I’ve figured out another mystery.” Dorian paced in front of him. “Do you care to hear it?”
“It’s your freak show, Dorian—”
“Don’t insult me. I hold your life in my hands.”
“And your own. No council member can kill another—”
“We’ll see about that. Mallory Craig forbade me from killing you a few days ago, but he’s come around now—he sent Kate to me. He won’t veto your execution this time. But, as I was saying: the explosion in China. The children were simply treated with the Atlantis Gene therapy. The Bell radiation didn’t harm them, but it acted differently when Kate came into contact with it—the Bell shut down. That’s what happened in China. The Bell recognized her as an Atlantean—one of its own—and it shut down, sending a power surge of overwhelming proportions through our grid, destroying the nuclear reactors and every other relay in the entire facility. Do you realize the implications, Martin?”
Martin stared into the distance. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“Don’t be cheeky. You’ll want to hear this. It means our child is the first offspring of two Atlanteans—the first of a new breed of human, the eventuality of human evolution. Its genome holds the clues to understanding how we changed fifty thousand years ago, how we can continue evolving.”
“Could have, Dorian. Your own—”
“I couldn’t do it.” Dorian turned away from Martin. “As much as I hated Kate for what her father did to my family, I couldn’t bring myself to kill my own child. It’s in a lab, in one of the Atlantean tubes, in San Francisco. That’s what I wanted to tell you, Martin. All your meddling, it hasn’t amounted to anything. I’ve won. A science team is extracting the fetus now for study. We’ll have a viable Atlantis vaccine soon, maybe even in a few weeks or months. And we’ll use it selectively—”
A tech interrupted Dorian. “We’re ready, sir.”
“Gotta go, Martin.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Martin stared at him.
“I’m sure you woul—”
“I know why you’re going down there.”
“You know—”
“The note,” Martin said, “that you pinned on those children. I know what was in it. A letter in German, from a hopeful little boy telling his ‘Papa’ that the children were carrying bombs, and that he needed to get to an entrance as quickly as possible. You’re blind, Dorian. Look at the facts. And the carcasses of those primates in lab three. The Bell down there was active when we arrived. And so was the one on the iceberg with the sub several weeks ago. It killed the men on our research team. We found bones below it. Your father never slept in a tube. He was human, very human inde—”
“He was a god. And he’s not dead. I’ve never seen his bones,” Dorian said defiantly.
“Not yet. But we wi—”
“He’s down there!” Dorian insisted.
“Even if he is, which I doubt, he would be one hundred and twenty-seven years old.”
“Then I’ll see his bones or whatever I can find, but I’ll know. And I’ll see some other bones. Female, early thirties. Then I’ll finally complete my destiny. I’ll remove the Atlantis threat once and for all.” Dorian motioned to the security guards. “Make sure he doesn’t get out of here. Heavy guard. And if they don’t need him for the research on the fetus…” he turned and looked Martin in the eyes. “Then kill him.”
Martin’s stoic face didn’t betray a shred of emotion.
One of the technicians walked over and led Dorian aside. He spoke hesitantly. “Sir, about going down there… it’s, we think you should wait.”
“Why? The suit will protect me from radiation, you said—”
“Yes, that’s true, but there could be other damage from the blasts. Fire. Possibly damage to the structure. The entire thing could collapse for all we know. We’re getting some data on the structure in Gibraltar—Director Craig found some sort of archival videos. The structure was actually shattered by methane blasts similar to the nukes we sent, well, actually more powerful, but we know the structures aren’t indestructible—”
“What do you suggest?”
“Wait a few days—”
“Out of the question. I’ll wait a few hours, at most.”
The tech nodded.
“There’s something else. After I enter the tombs, lower three warheads down this drill shaft. If anyone besides me or my father comes out—human, Atlantean, or otherwise—set them off. Deploy the rest of the nukes down the other drill holes, and rig them all to detonate simultaneously.”
“The blasts would melt the ice—”
“The blasts would save the human race. Do it.”
119
David opened his eyes and looked around. He was lying on a skinny cot with a gel-like mattress that contoured perfectly to his body. He leaned forward and the gel reacted, helping him up. He smelled something, like garlic mixed with licorice. Actually, it was worse than that. David raised his hand to cover his nose, but the smell only got worse. He realized the stench was coming from him—from a black paste on his shoulder and leg. God it stank, but… his wounds felt better. The paste had eaten through his shirt, but it seemed to be repairing his wounds. He stood, then instantly collapsed back to the gel-cot. Not quite one hundred percent.
“Take it easy.” It was the man who had incapacitated him.
David scanned the room for a weapon. The spear was gone.
“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. At first I assumed they sent you to kill me, but when I saw your wounds… I figured they would have sent someone… in better health.”
David scrutinized the man—and he was a man, David could see that now. He was in his late forties or maybe early fifties. His face was haggard, as if he hadn’t eaten or slept much for some time. But it was more than that… The man’s face was hard. A soldier, maybe a mercenary.
“Who are you?” David got another whiff of the black goo on his shoulder and turned his head, trying in vain to get away f
rom it. “And what have you done to me?”
“Frankly, I’m not even sure. It’s some kind of medicinal paste. It seems to be able to heal just about anything. I don’t know how it works, but it does. I injured myself, was laid up, and thought I might die. The computer opened a panel with a plate of this stinking stuff, then showed a movie of me putting it on—it was very realistic. So I did, and I got better—quickly. You’ll be right as rain soon. Maybe within a few hours.”
“Really?” David studied the wounds.
“Perhaps sooner. It’s not like you’re going anywhere. Now tell me who you are.”
“David Vale.”
“Organization?”
“Clocktower, Jakarta Station,” David said automatically.
The man stepped closer to David and drew a pistol.
David realized what he had said. “No, I was working against the Immari, I just now found out that Clocktower was their organization.”
“Don’t lie to me. How did you find me?”
“I didn’t. I’m not looking for you. Look, I don’t even know who you are.”
“What are you doing down here? How did you get here?”
“The tunnels under Gibraltar. I found a chamber, with the spear—”
“How?”
“A journal.” David shook his head, trying to think. The paste was like having a cold, it was hard to put his thoughts together. “Got it in Tibet, from a monk. You know about it?”
“Of course I do. I wrote it.”
120
Kate heard the sound of hissing air all around her. She still couldn’t feel her body, but the air was warm, only a little warm at first, but it grew warmer with every passing second. She tried to push up off the floor, but she fell back face first. She was so tired. She let her limp body collapse into the frigid suit.
