CHAPTER 89
St. Paul’s Catacombs
Rabat, Malta
David felt a hand grip his shoulder and roll him over. The stone room was dark and quiet now. He still couldn’t see a thing.
Slowly, a yellow glow expanded out into the room.
The figure seemed to be lighting the room from the palm of his hand. He cupped something—a tiny cube that sparkled.
David stared into the face. Janus. He had shielded David from the falling stone with the cube.
“Who the hell are you?” David said, his voice hoarse.
“Language, Mr. Vale.”
“Seriously?”
Janus stood and spoke quietly. “I am one of two scientists who came here a very long time ago to study the hominins on this planet.”
David coughed. “An Atlantean.”
“What you call an Atlantean, yes.”
David studied Janus’s face. Yes, he knew it. He had seen Janus before. In Antarctica, days ago, when David had been in the tube, he had seen that face starting at him at the end of the chamber. Then the face had disappeared. “It was you—in Antarctica.”
“Yes, though not in person. What you saw in Antarctica was my avatar, a remotely controlled representation of me.”
David sat up. “You saved me. Why?”
“I’m afraid I need to be going, Mr. Vale.”
“Wait.” David stood and glanced at the rifle, considering whether to pick it up. No. Janus had incapacitated the soldiers with the cube. He could do the same to David. And Janus had saved his life—twice now. “The cure you sent to Continuity. It’s a fake, isn’t it?”
“It is quite real—”
“Does it cure us?”
“It cures what ails humanity.”
David didn’t like the sound of that, or Janus’s demeanor, which said: this conversation is over.
Janus focused on the cube in the palm of his hand. He stuck his other hand into the light that radiated outward from the cube and began wiggling his fingers. It was as if he was programming it.
David considered his situation. Someone had planted bombs and set them off down here; it wasn’t a bomb from above. During World War II, the Germans and Italians had dropped countless bombs on these catacombs and had not brought them down. Shaw. He closed the catacombs. And he would have Kate. Had he already delivered her to Dorian?
“Shaw has Kate,” David said.
“Yes, I imagine so.” Janus said, not looking up.
“She has your partner’s memories.”
“What?” Shock spread across Janus’s face—the first emotion David had seen him display.
“The memories started coming several days ago, first in her dreams, then when she was awake, as if she couldn’t stop them.”
“Impossible.”
“She said there was a third person that joined your expedition—a soldier. She colluded with him to change the genome. She said his name was Ares.”
Janus just stood there, silently.
“Dorian has Ares’s memories. He’s captured Kate—that’s what Shaw’s mission was. I’m sure of it now. There were rumors at the Immari base in Ceuta. Dorian brought a case out of the structure in Antarctica. It created some kind of door. He’s taking Kate there. She’s in danger.”
“If what you say is true, Mr. Vale, we are all in danger. If they reach the portal, if she is delivered to Ares, every person on this planet, and many more, will likely perish.”