CHAPTER 121
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 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—”
“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 still in a lab, in San Francisco. That’s what I wanted to tell you, Martin. All your meddling, it hasn’t amounted to a damn thing. I’ve won. A science team is extracting the fetus now for study. We’ll have a viable Atlantis Vaccine soon, maybe even 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 carcases 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. And 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 127 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. And 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. If they don’t need him for the research on the fetus,” he turned and looked Martin in the eyes and said, “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, rig them all to detonate simultaneously.”
“The blasts would melt the ice—”
“The blasts would save the human race. Do it.”