“A mutation. Someone somewhere had an endogenous retrovirus, another ancient virus, buried in their genome. When it was activated, the whole world fell in hours. A billion people were infected inside twenty-four hours. As I said, our sample size was too small to find it; there was no way to know about this other endogenous retrovirus. In fact, we’re still looking for it.”
“I don’t understand how it could affect the transmission rate.”
“It took us weeks to figure that out. All our containment protocols—around the world—decades of planning, it all broke down in those first days. The Atlantis Plague couldn’t be stopped. Every time it entered a nation it exploded across the population. What we discovered we never would have imagined. The infected were actually putting out new radiation, not simply carrying radiation from the Bell in their tissues. We believe that the second endogenous retrovirus actually turns on genes that cause the body to change the radiation it emits.”
Kate tried to process what she was hearing. Every human body emitted radiation, but it was like noise, static, the subatomic equivalent of sweating.
Martin continued. “Every activated person becomes a radiation beacon, activating, infecting everyone around them—even if they’re in bio-containment tents. A person standing a mile from you with no person-to-person contact could infect you. There were no protocols for anything like it. That’s why governments around the world accepted universal infection—they couldn’t stop it. The focus became controlling the population so that the Immari and the survivors didn’t take over the world. They began building Orchid Districts and herding the surviving population inside them.”
Kate thought about the lead-encased building where she had done the experiments. “That’s why you used lead sheeting on the building—to stop the radiation.”
Martin nodded. “We were worried about another mutation. Frankly, we’re out of our element here. We’re talking about quantum biology: subatomic particles manipulating the human genome. The intersection of biology and physics. It’s way beyond our current understanding of either physics or biology. We’re just scratching the surface of what’s known. We’re way behind the game, but we’ve learned a lot in the past three months. We knew you and the boys were immune to the plague because you survived in China. We’re trying to isolate the retrovirus that causes the radiation. The ultimate fear was that radiation from the trial participants—from a new mutation—could leak into the camp and compromise the effectiveness of Orchid. If that happened, there would be nothing standing in the way of the plague. Orchid’s efficacy is slipping, but we need it; we need a little more time. I think we’re close to a cure. There’s one last piece. I thought it was here in southern Spain, but I was wrong… about a few things.”
Kate nodded. Outside she thought she heard rumbling, like thunder rolling in the distance. Something was still bothering her. As a scientist, she knew that the simplest explanation was usually the correct one. “How did you figure it out so quickly—that there was another endogenous retrovirus? What makes you so sure there are two retroviruses at work? Why not one? One virus could cause different outcomes—the evolving and devolving result, the radiation trigger.”
“True…” Martin paused, as if considering what to say. Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Martin held his hand up and continued. “It’s the ships. They’re different.”
“The ships?”
“The Atlantean ships—in Gibraltar and Antarctica. When we found the structure in Antarctica, we had expected it to be roughly the same age and make-up as the structure in Gibraltar.”
“It’s not?”
“Not even close. We now believe that the ship in Gibraltar is, or rather was, a lander, a sort of planetary rover. The ship in Antarctica is a space vessel, a massive one.”
Kate tried to understand what that had to do with the plague. “You think the rover came from the Antarctica vessel?”
“That was our assumption, but the carbon dating makes that impossible. The ship in Gibraltar is older than the one in Antarctica, and more importantly, it’s been here on Earth a lot longer, maybe a hundred thousand years longer. It couldn’t have come from the ship in Antarctica.”
“I don’t understand,” Kate said.
“From what we can tell, the technology in the two ships matches; both have a Bell, but they come from different time periods. I believe the ships belong to different factions of the Atlanteans and that they are at war. I believe that these two factions have been trying to manipulate the human genome for some purpose.”
“The plague is their tool to bioform us.”
Martin nodded. “That’s the theory. It’s crazy, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Outside, the rumbling grew louder.
“What is that?” Kate asked.
Martin listened for a moment, then stood quickly and stepped out of the room.
Kate walked to the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was more gaunt than usual and the dark, obviously dyed hair made her look almost gothic. She turned the water on and began rinsing the brown residue off her fingers. Over the water, she didn’t hear Martin return. He steadied himself against the doorframe, trying to catch his breath. “Wash that mess out of your hair. We have to go.”
CHAPTER 22
Church of St. Mary of Incarnation
Marbella, Spain
Kate woke the boys quickly and corralled them out of the church. In the courtyard, Martin was waiting impatiently. The heavy backpack hung from his shoulders and a worried expression clouded his face. Beyond the courtyard, Kate saw why. An endless crowd of people coursed through the street, running madly, blindly, their feet pounding the cobblestones. This was the rumbling Kate had heard. The scene reminded her of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, another Spanish town in the state of Andalusia.
In the corner of the courtyard, two dogs lay dead against a whitewashed wall of the church. The boys struggled to cover their ears.
Martin closed the distance to her and took Adi’s hand. “We’ll carry them.”
“What’s going on?” Kate managed as she hoisted Surya up.
“The gas was for the dogs, apparently. The Immari are closing the envelope, rounding up everyone. We need to move quickly.”
Kate followed Martin into the flow of people. Without gas clouding her view, Kate noticed that the narrow streets were crowded with debris from the fall of Marbella: burned-out cars, looted merchandise like TVs, and overturned tables and chairs from the long-abandoned cafes that lined the streets and alleyways.