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 at 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.” He thought for a moment. “And you helped them escape. It was you, wasn’t it? You contacted the Immaru, who rescued them. How did you know? How did you find them?”
“You’re delusional, Dorian. Release me and stop embarrassing yourself.”
“You’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 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 war heads 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 foot race. 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. That was very cruel of you.”
Dorian waited, but Martin didn’t say anything. 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 — 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, it’s the first of a new breed of human, the eventuality of human evolution. Its genome holds the clues to understanding how we changed 50,000 years ago, how we can continue evolving.”
“Could have, Dorian. Your own—”