The Atlantis Plague Part 44

He stood in the entrance of the tunnel, fighting the light with his arms as if it were drowning him.

"Are you okay?" David asked.

"I... can't see."

David rushed forward and helped Kamau out of the tunnel and to a chair at the long table where Kate sat. She thought the African looked disoriented, weakened somehow.

"What happened?" David asked.

"Ja.n.u.s. He blinded me with a light weapon. It disabled me for a while."

David focused on Kate. "He could have manipulated the data."

Kate opened her mouth, but stopped when the sat phone began vibrating on the table. She s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and answered quickly.

One result-no-I think you have to-I agree, Paul-Call me back when you know.

She ended the call. The one therapy was their only shot. But...

"They found one therapy," she said. "They're going forward with it. They don't have any alternatives." She stared at David. "We need to talk to Ja.n.u.s."

David walked closer to Kamau. "How bad is your sight?"

"Getting better. Still blurry."

He's putting up a front for his commanding officer, Kate thought.

David handed him an a.s.sault rifle from the table. "I want you to shoot anything that comes out of that tunnel."

He turned to Kate. "Chang is dead, I'd bet on it. It's just Shaw and Ja.n.u.s down there. We know where Ja.n.u.s is going. I'll bring him back." To Kamau, he said, "When I'm at the tunnel entrance, I'll call 'Achilles coming out' before I exit."

Kamau nodded.

Then David was gone, into the darkness of the tunnel.

Kate walked to the table and picked up a handgun. She ran her finger over the words engraved into the side. SIG SAUER.

"Do you know how to use that?" Kamau's deep voice echoed in the cavernous s.p.a.ce.

"I'm a real quick learner."

Adam Shaw placed another pack of explosives into the stone cutout in the tunnel. Where to go next? He should have made a map back to the museum lobby; the tunnels were never-ending. Somewhere in the distance, he heard footsteps. He clicked his lantern off.

He receded deeper into the burial chamber that lay just off the tunnel. The rubber grip of the knife made a slight sound against his fingers as he drew it from the sheath.

The approaching figure was carrying a lantern. The light grew brighter with each pa.s.sing second.

Shaw crouched and waited. The burial chamber was small, a roughly six-foot by ten-foot narrow chamber, one of many hollowed out appendages off the main tunnel. He would only have a second to see and take his prey.

He tried to pace the footsteps in his mind, knowing he would have only a split second to time his lunge.

Closer.

Closer.

The figure came into view.

Ja.n.u.s.

Shaw let him pa.s.s. He exhaled. But there were more footsteps-behind Ja.n.u.s. Kamau?

They had been together.

Shaw froze.

David.

Chasing Ja.n.u.s.

Then he was gone. And Shaw was glad. In the recesses of his mind, he could admit, barely, that Vale could take him hand-to-hand, even if Adam had the element of surprise. He had read David's file, his Clocktower personnel report, before he had begun this mission. He had been searching for a way to kill him since the second he first saw him, since David had risen out of the waters of the Mediterranean and slammed him against the floating wreckage of the plague barge-impressing upon Shaw, literally, how capable he was at hand-to-hand combat.

But Adam didn't have to worry about David now-he was zooming deeper into the tunnel, away from Kate, the thing David valued most, leaving Shaw open to capture her, complete his mission, and get his revenge upon David.

Adam stepped from the burial chamber and turned left, following the path David had revealed, to Kate.

Ja.n.u.s ran as quickly as he could. Up ahead, the soft glow of lanterns illuminated the stone room.

It would be guarded-if history was any indication.

Ja.n.u.s took the quantum cube from his pocket and slowed his pace. He could see it now, the Ark, lying at the end of the chamber. Amazing. It was just as it had been.

Two guards pivoted from behind the stone walls, blocking his path.

Ja.n.u.s activated the cube, flooding the area with blinding light. He adjusted it, turning it higher.

The men collapsed, and he heard more bodies. .h.i.t the stone floor inside the room.

He stepped across the threshold and surveyed the scene. Perhaps six heavily armed European soldiers and someone else-an adolescent Asian wearing a ceremonial robe.

Ja.n.u.s stepped to the Ark and peered down.

There he was. The first. They had kept him. Told his story. After all these years. They were a remarkable species. They had exceeded all his expectations. It still didn't change what had to be done. He told himself that he had no choice.

He took hold of the alpha's femur bone, lifted it, and swung it violently against the wall of the stone box.

A small metallic chip fell out, then disappeared under the rain of gray dust that covered it.

Ja.n.u.s brushed it aside, then reached in, searching for the chip.

It had taken months to find it. It was the last piece. When it was gone...

He held it up to the light, glancing at the technology he and his partner had embedded almost seventy thousand years ago. The small radiation beacon had enabled them to make changes to the human genome for tens of thousands of years. Each time they programmed a new radiation regimen, it altered the genome of humans within the beacon's range, adjusting the course of humanity. The device was old now, and its power source was almost spent, reducing its range considerably. Ja.n.u.s had wondered if he could find it. But in the face of the current plague, it had performed as planned, running its emergency program, activating the Atlantis Gene, saving those who flocked to be near it. It was a shame so many had to die for Ja.n.u.s to find it. But without the device, nothing stood in the way of the final genetic transformation he had already unleashed. He tossed the chip into the box and crushed it.

Behind him, he heard footsteps stop abruptly. Ja.n.u.s turned to find David Vale standing in the opening of the chamber, holding one of the primitive weapons that shot hardened elemental projectiles.

Ja.n.u.s reached for the quantum cube.

"Don't, Ja.n.u.s. I swear to G.o.d, I will shoot you."

"Now, Mr. Vale. That's no way to treat someone who saved your life."

CHAPTER 88.

CDC.

Atlanta, Georgia

Paul Brenner walked to the Symphony control room. The feeling around the room was jubilation. Two flas.h.i.+ng words on the center screen read: ONE RESULT.

They had a new gene therapy for the Atlantis Plague. A new hope.

"Do it," Paul said. "Deploy it across all the districts. Upload the data to all our affiliates."

He raced down the hall and burst into his nephew's hospital room.

The boy lay still. He didn't turn to face Paul. He was only semi-conscious.

But there was still time, Paul thought.

At the lobby that led to the Catacombs of St. Paul, Kate Warner leaned back from the table, wondering what else she could do.

The figure that flew out of the tunnel was a blur. Kate spun, but it was too fast. It bowled Kamau out of the chair. The a.s.sault rifle clanged to the ground as the two figures rolled across the floor, into one of the museum's gla.s.s display cases. Kamau struck the figure, but Kate could see that he was disoriented, blind, bewildered. He would never make it.

Kate staggered forward and raised the handgun.

They writhed violently on the ground. Kate tried to get a lock on the other figure. Some part of her knew it was Shaw, but she didn't want it to be true. She'd suffered betrayal by someone she'd trusted once before; she'd sworn she wouldn't let that happen again. Shaw had saved her in Marbella. But...

The figure rose from Kamau, a knife in his hand. Blood flowed out onto the white marble floor. Kamau twitched a few times, then came to rest.

The figure turned to face Kate.

Shaw.

Kate squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.

The gun felt like a solid block of steel. Why didn't it fire? She glanced at it, but Shaw was upon her. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the gun out of her hand.

"It's not in you, Kate. Be glad of that. The safety saved you more than it did me."

The door across the lobby opened. Dorian Sloane strolled through it. The four men that followed him ran in, taking up positions around the lobby, two flanking the entrance to the tunnel.

"Where the h.e.l.l have you been?" Shaw demanded.

"Relax," Dorian said casually. "Car trouble." He scanned the room. "Vale?"

"In the tunnels," Shaw said.

Dorian nodded to the soldiers flanking the entrance.

"No," Shaw said. "There's only one way out." He took a small box from his pocket and clicked a b.u.t.ton. Eruptions echoed from the tunnels, like rolling thunder growing closer. He looked up at Dorian. "Make that no way out."

Dorian smiled. "It's good to see you, little brother."

David heard the explosions before he felt them at his back. The ceiling was coming down.

He could see Milo in his peripheral vision, lying there, lifeless. He dove for the boy, covering his body with his own.

The stones fell around him and on him. It was like before, twelve years ago, in New York, on that day-when she had died, when he had rushed in, when the buildings had collapsed, burying him.

But this was different. He was saving a life-Milo's.

The stone fell around him, echoing in his ear. Milo's body felt so fragile under his. Would Milo survive?

Another stone slammed into David's body and he winced. And another-into his leg. The pain was complete, but he didn't move. He remained, waiting for the end.

It came, but it was not what he expected. A dome of light, covering him, arching over, blocking the falling rock. Still, David didn't move.

Kate glared at Dorian. "I won't help you. We already have a cure."

Dorian's smile grew, like someone who knew a secret. "Oh, Kate, you don't disappoint. I could care less about a cure. I'm here for the code in your head."

"I don't have-"