“Of course, please.” Kate stepped aside.
“Where’s Kamau?” David called, over his shoulder.
“We got separated after the scream.”
“He’s alive?”
“I certainly hope so,” Janus said, as he typed on the computer, his eyes scanning back and forth.
A minute passed with David focusing on the tunnel entrance and Kate and Janus staring at the computer.
Janus nodded. “This is it—the point of origin, the first human to receive the Atlantis Gene. If we combine the genome with those bodies from the bubonic plague and survivors of the Spanish flu outbreak, it all makes sense. I think they can isolate all the endogenous retroviruses from this dataset.” He turned to her. “This is it, Kate.”
Kate grabbed the sat phone and plugged it into the computer. She worked the computer. “It’s uploading.”
Janus paced away from the computer, toward the entrance to the tunnel.
“You can’t go down there,” David said.
“I am afraid I must,” Janus answered. He turned to David. “For a scientist such as myself, this is the opportunity of the ages. The first human of a wholly new tribe, the genetic cataclysm that began all that came after. The history, the science. Despite the risk, I have to see it with my own eyes.”
“Stay here—”
Janus slipped into the tunnel before David could stop him.
Kate disconnected the sat phone from the computer and dialed quickly. David took up position between her and the tunnel’s entrance.
Paul, I just sent a new data set—Yes—What—No, I didn’t check the message.
Kate’s eyes went wide. “No… I… thank you for letting me know. Call me back when you have the data.” She ended the call. “Janus and Shaw. They’re both fakes.”
From the tunnel, David heard footsteps approaching the opening. He raised his gun, ready to fire, but the figure emerging from the darkness stopped.
CHAPTER 87
St. Paul’s Catacombs
Rabat, Malta
Kate focused on the tunnel entrance, trying to see who was coming. The figure stepped out, his arms in the air.
Kamau.
He stood in the entrance of the tunnel, fighting the light with his arms as if it were drowning him.
“Are you okay?” David asked.
“I… can’t see.”
David rushed forward and helped Kamau out of the tunnel and to a chair at the long table where Kate sat. She thought the African looked disoriented, weakened somehow.
“What happened?” David asked.
“Janus. He blinded me with a light weapon. It disabled me for a while.”
David focused on Kate. “He could have manipulated the data.”
Kate opened her mouth, but stopped when the sat phone began vibrating on the table. She snatched it up and answered quickly.
One result—no—I think you have to—I agree, Paul—Call me back when you know.
She ended the call. The one therapy was their only shot. But…
“They found one therapy,” she said. “They’re going forward with it. They don’t have any alternatives.” She stared at David. “We need to talk to Janus.”
David walked closer to Kamau. “How bad is your sight?”
“Getting better. Still blurry.”
He’s putting up a front for his commanding officer, Kate thought.
David handed him an assault rifle from the table. “I want you to shoot anything that comes out of that tunnel.”
He turned to Kate. “Chang is dead, I’d bet on it. It’s just Shaw and Janus down there. We know where Janus is going. I’ll bring him back.” To Kamau, he said, “When I’m at the tunnel entrance, I’ll call ‘Achilles coming out’ before I exit.”
Kamau nodded.
Then David was gone, into the darkness of the tunnel.
Kate walked to the table and picked up a handgun. She ran her finger over the words engraved into the side. SIG SAUER.
“Do you know how to use that?” Kamau’s deep voice echoed in the cavernous space.
“I’m a real quick learner.”
Adam Shaw placed another pack of explosives into the stone cutout in the tunnel. Where to go next? He should have made a map back to the museum lobby; the tunnels were never-ending. Somewhere in the distance, he heard footsteps. He clicked his lantern off.
He receded deeper into the burial chamber that lay just off the tunnel. The rubber grip of the knife made a slight sound against his fingers as he drew it from the sheath.
The approaching figure was carrying a lantern. The light grew brighter with each passing second.
Shaw crouched and waited. The burial chamber was small, a roughly six-foot by ten-foot narrow chamber, one of many hollowed out appendages off the main tunnel. He would only have a second to see and take his prey.
He tried to pace the footsteps in his mind, knowing he would have only a split second to time his lunge.
Closer.
Closer.
The figure came into view.
Janus.
Shaw let him pass. He exhaled. But there were more footsteps—behind Janus. Kamau?
They had been together.
Shaw froze.
David.