The Atlantis Gene (The Origin Mystery 1)

When he announced this revisionist history, I asked him flatly why this wasn’t revealed to the Immari earlier; after all, it seems like helpful historical facts. He lectured me condescendingly, something about “heavy is the head that wears the crown” and “knowing we alone stood between humanity and annihilation would have destroyed us. Our ancestors were wise. They spared us the weight of our actions, so that we could focus on finding the truth and acting to save the world.”

It’s hard to argue with a maniac who grows more immortal and important by the day.

Kane’s Expeditions:

Kane has sent expeditions to every region of the Asian highlands: Tibet, Nepal, and Northern India. He’s convinced the Immaru are there, hiding, sitting on secrets that can deliver us from the coming end of days.

He insists that these Immaru will reside in a cold climate, a highland. He points out that the Nordic peoples of Europe have long dominated the continent because of their connection to the original Immaru bloodline, which flourishes in cold, icy environments. He brushed aside my mention of the advanced Roman and Greek civilizations, in their balmy southern European climate. “Artifacts of genetic gifts bestowed by the Immari as they journeyed to the North, seeking Atlantis and their natural, preferred habitat,” he said. He insists that this “Atlantis Gene” which bestowed all humanity’s gifts, a genetic heritage most concentrated in the Immari, must be connected to cold weather. From there, he’s postulated that the rest of the Atlantean race must be out there somewhere, in the cold, hibernating, waiting to retake the planet.

As such, he’s become obsessed with Antarctica. He’s sent an expedition there as well, but no word has come yet. He plans to follow-up personally, in a super sub he’s building at a shipyard in Northern Germany. I’ve tried desperately to find out its location, hoping I could plant a bomb on it, but I’ve heard that the sub is nearing completion and that he will soon sail for the far east to dispense with the Immaru once and for all, before turning south for Antarctica to find the Atlantis Capital. It’s quite a plan.

I had hoped his absence would provide an opening, that I could take control of Immari in his absence, but he’s accounted for that as well. I’ll soon be out of the picture, more or less permanently. So, I’ve made other plans.

I’ve convinced a soldier in the expedition to carry this journal to you, assuming Kane even finds the Immaru, and that the soldier keeps his promise. If he’s caught with it, it’s a death sentence for him (and me).

A Chamber of Curiosities:

There’s one final thing I wish to tell you. I’ve found something. A chamber of some kind, deep inside the ruins at Gibraltar. I believe it holds the key to understanding the structure and possibly the Atlanteans. The technology here is advanced — dangerous in the wrong hands. I have gone to great lengths to keep it from Kane. I’m enclosing a map to the chamber, which I’ve hidden behind a false wall. Hurry.

Kate unfolded the delicate yellow page with the map, studied it for a few moments, then placed it back inside the journal. “It was the same device — the Bell — in China. They used it on me, on hundreds of people. That’s what they’re doing, trying to find a genetic key that will impart immunity to the device. All my research, all the Immari research into genetics has been about this one end: finding the Atlantis Gene. All Martin’s lies, my whole life… they used me.”

David gazed out of the basket at the mountains and forest flowing by below. “Well I’m glad they did.”

Kate focused on him.

David looked her in the eyes. “It could have been someone else. Someone who wasn’t as strong. Or as smart. You can figure this out, and you can still stop them.”

“I don’t see—”

“Let’s just go through what we know. Let’s just lay all the pieces of the puzzle out there and see what fits together. Ok?” When Kate nodded, David continued. “Back at the monastery, I said I knew what the Bell was. It’s an old World War II legend. Conspiracy theorists still talk about it — Die Glocke, or the Bell. They say it was an advanced Nazi weapons project, or possibly a breakthrough energy source. The theories get wilder from there. Everything from anti-gravity to time travel. But if it caused the Spanish Flu in 1918, and bodies from China got out—”

“It would be another pandemic, this one much worse than Spanish Flu, or the 1918 flu pandemic as it’s now known.”

“I mean, is that possible?” David said. “Are the Immari statistics even right? How could we not have a vaccine for something that killed 2-5% of the population?”

“We studied Spanish Flu in medical school. Their stats are right, or close. We think Spanish Flu killed between 50-100 million — so about 4% of the total global population—”

“It would be like…280 million dying today — the entire population of the United States. Surely they have a vaccine. And how could the Immari hide this — or sell it as the flu?”

“At first, doctors didn’t think it was the flu. It was initially misdiagnosed as dengue, cholera, or typhoid — mostly because the symptoms were very… distinctly un-flu-like. Patients had hemorrhages from mucous membranes, especially from the nose, stomach, and intestines, even bleeding from the skin and ears.” Kate thought back to the dark room with the Bell hanging over the cowering crowd, of the bleeding bodies. She had to focus. “Anyway, of all the flu strains in the world, it’s still the least understood — and the most deadly. There is no vaccine. Spanish flu essentially caused the body to self-destruct; it killed through a cytokine storm — the body’s own immune system ravaged it. Most flu strains are devastating for people with weak immune systems — children and the elderly. That’s why we vaccinate — to boost the immune system. Spanish flu was fundamentally different. It killed people with strong immune systems. The stronger the person’s immune system was, the worse the cytokine storm was. It was deadly for people aged 25-34.”

“It’s almost like it killed anyone who could be a threat. No wonder the Immari think it’s a weapon,” David said. “But why unleash it? The world wouldn’t stand a chance. In 1918, at the end of World War I, borders were sealed everywhere, the whole world had ground to a halt. Think about how connected we are today, a similar outbreak would wipe us out in days. If what you say is true, the contagion has already left China and is scouring the world as we speak. Why would they do it?”