Kate had slumped into him, her head resting on his shoulder. David didn’t dare move. He held his sidearm under his right leg, ready to use it at a moment’s notice.
With Kate sleeping on his shoulder, his gun in his hand, and all four suspects straight ahead, David felt better than he had since they’d found Martin dead. Knowing they had delivered a cure didn’t hurt either.
Kate’s breathing was even and calm, unlike the sweaty, torturous dreams she had endured on the yacht. David wondered where she was, what she was dreaming… or remembering.
Janus spoke softly, careful not to wake Kate. “I want to commend you, Mr. Vale. I am rarely so impressed with anyone as I was with your performance on the boat. Your grasp of history was… remarkable. I had taken you for a simple soldier.”
“Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time.” David suspected Janus was working up to something, priming him like a suspect that had valuable information, but he couldn’t imagine where the scientist was going with it.
“For me, one mystery remains, however.”
David raised his eyebrows. Extraneous words ran the risk of waking Kate. He wouldn’t waste them.
Janus held Martin’s code out, letting David take it in once again.
PIE = Immaru?
535…1257 = Second Toba? New Delivery System?
Adam => Flood/A$ Falls => Toba 2 => KBW
Alpha => Missed Delta? => Delta => Omega
70K YA => 12.5K YA => 535…1257 => 1918…1979
Missing Alpha Leads to Treasure of Atlantis?
“The last line of Martin’s code: ‘Missing Alpha Leads to Treasure of Atlantis.’ What do you think it means?” Janus folded the note back up. “I am also curious why Martin included the note about PIE at the top. It seems… unnecessary—if our theory is that the cure lies in the genome of Kate and the survivors of the two bubonic plague outbreaks in the past.”
David had to admit: the man had a point. “Could be camouflage, or a false path to throw off anyone who found the notes.”
“Yes, perhaps. But I have another theory. What if we have missed a piece—another genetic turning point. Alpha. Adam. The introduction of the Atlantis Gene.”
David considered the theory. “Maybe… but plague bodies from the sixth and thirteenth centuries aren’t exactly easy to find, and there are millions of them buried throughout Europe. You’re talking about a single body, buried somewhere in Africa, seventy thousand years ago… It would be beyond impossible to find.”
“That is true,” Janus said with a sigh. “I only mention it because you seemed to have most of the insight into the notes. Your history background appears to be more relevant than my science, strangely.” He glanced out the helicopter’s window. “I wonder if Martin found it. If he somehow located the remains of Adam, if he left a clue somewhere in this note.”
David considered his words. Was there something else there? He studied the page, wondering. It couldn’t be. There was nothing else there.
“Another consideration,” Janus said, “is Martin’s intention. He obviously knew Kate was part of the genetic puzzle, but his primary goal was to trade the cure for her safety. If he had identified all the pieces, perhaps he designed the final clue—the location of Adam—just for her.”
“Except there’s no clue, no dates, no locations. Just ‘Missing Alpha Leads to Treasure of Atlantis.’ We don’t even know what the treasure is.”
“Yes. I have a theory, however. If we consider the Tibetan tapestry, which we all agree is the key to Martin’s code and chronology, there is a very clear piece of treasure in the depiction: the ark the primitives carry into the highlands at the time of the flood and the fall of Atlantis.”
David nodded, almost involuntarily. Why hadn’t he seen it before? And what did it mean? How could Adam lead to this treasure? And what was inside the box—the Ark? “Yes… that’s interesting…” David mumbled.
“One last point, Mr. Vale. The first line in the code: ‘PIE = Immaru?’ Why do you think Martin put it in there?”
“To direct us to the tapestry?”
“Yes, but clearly Kate already knew about that. Might it be a trail to something? It seems… extraneous. It could be taken away, and the chronology would be intact. It adds no further practical information, nor does the last line that references treasure. Unless, of course, they are actual clues, leading us to Adam and this treasure, somehow unlocking the secrets of this ‘Atlantis Experiment.’”
Chang looked over, as if he had awoken from a dream. “You think—”
“I think,” Janus said, “that there is still more to this. I wonder if we could wake Kate to get her opinion. It seems the entire mystery hinges upon her.”
David involuntarily pulled Kate closer to him. “We’re not waking her.”
Janus swept his eyes over her quickly. “Is she not well?”
“She’s fine,” David said, in the loudest tone he’d managed since the conversation began. “She needs her rest. Let’s all take a break.”
“Very well,” Janus said. “May I ask our destination?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there.”
CHAPTER 77