The Atlantis Gene (The Origin Mystery 1)

The tech swiveled around. “He must have rigged the safe houses to blow.”

Tarea rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. Are we in that quiet room yet? Did they find Josh?”

“No, they’re about to start.”

Tarea walked out of the situation room, into his private office, and picked up the phone. He dialed his counterpart at Immari Security. “We have a problem. He took out my men here.”

He listened a moment.

“No, look, I convinced them, but he, it doesn’t matter, they’re all dead. That’s the bottom line.”

Another pause.

“No, well, if I were you, I would make damn sure you kill him with the first strike, no matter how many men you’ve got. He’ll be incredibly hard to contain in the field.”

He started to set the phone down, but jerked it back impatiently at the last minute.

“What? No, we’re looking. We think he’s here. I’ll keep you posted. What? Fine, I’ll come, but I only have two men I can bring, and we’re staying in the rear in case it goes south.”

CHAPTER 22

Clocktower Mobile Operations Center

Jakarta, Indonesia

Kate followed the soldier into the large black truck. Inside, it looked nothing like the delivery truck it appeared to be. It was part locker room, with weapons and gear she didn’t recognize, part office with screens and computers, and part bus, with rows of sunken seats along each side.

There were three large screens. One showed dots on a map she assumed was Jakarta. The other showed a video feed of the front, rear, and both sides of the truck. On the top right picture, the black SUV led the truck through Jakarta’s crowded streets. The final screen was blank except for one word: Connecting…

“I’m David Vale.”

“I want to know where you’re taking me,” Kate said.

“A safe house.” David was fiddling with a tablet computer of some sort. It seemed to manipulate one of the screens on the wall. He glanced up at it, as if waiting for something to appear. When it didn’t, he hit a few more buttons.

“So you’re with the American government?” Kate said, trying to get his attention.

“Not exactly.” He looked down, still working the tablet.

“But you are an American?”

“Sort of.”

“Can you focus and talk to me?”

“I’m trying to conference in a colleague.” The man looked worried now. He glanced around, as if thinking.

“Is there a problem?”

“Yeah. Maybe.” He put the tablet aside. “I need to ask you some questions about the kidnapping.”

“Are you looking for the children?”

“We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on.”

“Who’s we?”

“No one you’ve heard of.”

Kate ran a hand through her hair. “Look, I’ve had a very bad day. I actually don’t care who you are or where you’re from. Someone took two children from my clinic today, and so far no one seems to want to find them. Including you.”

“I never said I wouldn’t help you.”

“You never said you would either.”

“That’s true,” David said, “but right now, I’ve got problems of my own, big ones. Problems that could result in a lot of innocent people getting killed. A lot already have, and I think your research is somehow connected to it. I’m not quite sure how. Listen, if you answer some questions for me, I promise you I’ll do what I can to help you.”

“Alright, that’s fair.” Kate leaned forward in the chair.

“How much do you know about Immari Jakarta?”

“Nothing really. They fund some of my research. My adoptive father, Martin Grey, is the Head of Immari Research. They invest in a broad range of science and technology research.”

“Are you building a biological weapon for them?”

The question hit Kate like a slap in the face. She reeled back in her chair. “What? God no. Are you out of your mind? I’m trying to cure autism.”

“Why were those two children taken?”

“I have no idea.”

“I don’t believe you. What’s different about those two? There were over a hundred kids in clinic. If the kidnappers were human traffickers, they would have taken them all. They took those two children for a reason. And they risked a lot of exposure to do it. So, I’ll ask you again, why those two?”

Kate looked at the ground and thought. She said the first question that popped into her head, “Immari Research took my children?”

The question seemed to throw him. “Uh, no, Immari Security did. They’re another division, but same general team of bad guys.”

“That’s impossible.”

“See for yourself.” He handed her a folder and she flipped through several pictures, including satellite photos of the van at the clinic, the two black-clad assailants hauling kids into the van, and the van’s registration records that traced back to Immari International, Hong Kong Security Division.

Kate considered the man’s evidence. Why would Immari take the children? They could have asked her. Something else had been bothering her. “Why do you think I’m building a biological weapon?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense, based on the evidence.”

“What evidence?”

“Have you ever heard of The Toba Protocol?”

“No.”

He handed her another file. “This is about all we have on it. It’s not much, but the bottom line is that Immari International is working on a plan to drastically reduce the human population.”

She read through the file. “Like the Toba Catastrophe.”

“What? I’m not familiar.”

She closed the file. “Not surprising. It’s not widely accepted, but it’s a popular theory among evolutionary biologists.”

“Popular theory for what?”

“The Great Leap Forward.” Kate recognized David’s confusion and continued before he could speak. “The Great Leap Forward is probably one of the most hotly contested aspects of evolutionary genetics. It’s a mystery, really. We know that around 50-60,000 years ago, there was a sort of ‘Big Bang’ in human intelligence. We got a lot smarter, very quickly. We just don’t know exactly how. We believe it was some kind of change in brain wiring. For the first time, humans began using complex language, creating art, making more advanced tools, solving problems—”