CHAPTER 124
David tried to make sense of what the man had said. His head was a haze from the nano-paste that was repairing the wounds in his shoulder, chest, and leg and racking his nostrils with a foul odor.
The man claimed to be Patrick Pierce — the author of the journal: an American soldier who had dug the tunnels for the Immari in exchange for one of the Immari leader’s blessing to marry his daughter. But he couldn’t be — the time line was wrong. David tried to piece it together:
> 1917-1918: Patrick Pierce recovers from WWI wounds and discovers the Atlantis structure under Gibraltar, uncovering the Bell and unleashing a deadly epidemic, sold to the world as Spanish Flu. Between 50-100 million people die. Up to a billion are infected on every continent.
> 1918: Pierce puts his wife, Helena, and his unborn child inside a tube.
> 1918-1938: Pierce becomes an unwilling member of the Immari Leadership in order to protect his wife and unborn child. He finishes his excavation at Gibraltar, but he, too, is placed in a tube when Konrad Kane embarks on his expedition — first to Tibet to recover artifacts and massacre the Immaru, then to Antarctica to find what he believes is the Atlantis capital city. Kane never returns.
> 1978: After 40 years, Mallory Craig, Patrick Pierce, and Dieter Kane are awakened from the tubes. Pierce’s wife is still dead, but the child is born. Pierce names her Katherine Warner. The others take new names: Patrick Pierce becomes Tom Warner, Mallory Craig becomes Howard Keegan, and Dieter Kane becomes Dorian Sloane.
> 1985: Tom Warner (Patrick Pierce) goes missing — possibly killed in a research experiment
Could it be true? Could Pierce have been down here since 1985?
Assuming Pierce was in his mid 20s during WWI, as the journal said, he would have been in his mid 40s in 1938 when he went into the tube… That would make him around 52 in 1985 and… 80 today. The man before him was much younger, possibly no more than 50.
David was already feeling better from the paste. He stood, and the man raised the gun. “Stay where you are. You don’t believe me, do you?”
It was hard to argue when you’re wounded and your captor had a gun. David shrugged and looked sheepish. “I believe you.”
“Don’t be cute. And stop lying to me.”
“Look, I’m just trying to put it together, the journal was… 1918 to 1936—”
“I know the journal dates; you’ll recall that I wrote it. Now tell me exactly how you got down here.”
David sat back on the bed. “I was lured into a trap. By Mallory Craig, Director of Clock—”
“I know what he directs. What was the lure?” The man spoke quickly, trying to corner David, hoping he would make a mistake and reveal himself to be a liar.
“Kate Warner. He told me she had gone into the tombs. I went to find her. They took two children from her lab in Jakarta about a week ago; they were treated with a new autism therapy—”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m not sure, she won’t tell me—”
“Kate Warner is a six-year-old girl. She doesn’t have a lab in Jakarta or anywhere else.”
David appraised the man. He believed what he was saying. “Kate Warner is a genetics researcher. And she’s definitely not six years old.”
The man lowered the gun and looked down and away. “Impossible,” he mumbled.
“Why?”
“I’ve only been down here for a month.”