"There"s a group of us-government employees and scientists mostly. Over the past twenty years, we"ve worked on a cure, in secret."
Comprehension dawned on Kate. "Orchid," she whispered.
"Orchid was our ultimate weapon against the plague-a cutting edge therapy modeled on the cure for HIV."
"The cure for HIV?"
"Yes. In 2007, a man named Timothy Ray Brown, known later as the Berlin patient, was cured of HIV. Brown was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. His HIV-positive status complicated his treatment. During chemotherapy he battled sepsis, and his physicians had to explore less traditional approaches. His hematologist, Dr. Gero Hutter, of the Charite Hospital in Berlin, decided on a stem cell therapy: a full bone marrow transplant. Hutter actually pa.s.sed over the matched bone marrow donor for a donor with a specific genetic mutation: CCR5-Delta 32. CCR5-Delta 32 makes cells immune to HIV."
"Incredible."
"Yes. At first we thought the Delta 32 mutation must have arisen during the Black Death in Europe-about four to sixteen percent of Europeans have at least one copy. But we"ve traced it back further. We thought perhaps smallpox, but we"ve found Bronze Age DNA samples that carry it. The mutation"s origins are a mystery, but one thing is certain: the bone marrow transplant with CCR5-Delta 32 cured both Brown"s leukemia and HIV. After the transplant, he stopped taking his antiretrovirals and has never again tested positive for HIV gain."
"And it helped with Orchid research?" Kate asked.
"It was a huge breakthrough, opening up all sorts of research avenues. CCR5-Delta 32 actually protects carriers not only from HIV, but smallpox and even Y. Pestis-the bacteria that causes plague. We focused on it. Of course, we didn"t fully appreciate the complexity of the Atlantis Plague at the time, but we developed Orchid to a point where it stopped the symptoms. It was nowhere near ready for release when the outbreak occurred. It doesn"t fully cure the disease, but we had no choice. There was some element of the plague we couldn"t isolate. Another factor. But... we thought we could use Orchid. Containment became our goal. If we could contain the infected and suppress the symptoms, we could stop it, buy ourselves some time until we could isolate the endogenous retroviruses that caused the plague and manipulated the Atlantis Gene-the true source. That"s why... your work was so... intriguing."
"I still don"t understand the transmission rate-radiation?"
"We didn"t either at first. In the first hours of the outbreak, something unexpected happened. The plague blew through every quarantine and containment protocol we threw at it. Kate, it was like wildfire, like nothing we had ever seen. Infected individuals, even in containment, could infect others over three hundred yards away from them."
"Impossible."
"We initially believed that we had problems with our quarantine procedures, but it was happening worldwide."
"How?" Kate asked.
"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 partic.i.p.ants-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 s.p.a.ce vessel, a ma.s.sive 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 a.s.sumption, 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.
The sun was rising over the buildings that lined the street, and she squinted her eyes, trying to shield them from the intermittent blasts of light. Little by little she acclimated, and the constant thunder of feet became background noise for an early morning run.
Someone slammed into the back of Kate, almost throwing her to the ground. Martin caught her by the arm and steadied her as they pressed on. Behind them, a new group of runners was pushing through the crowd at even higher speeds, pushing past the joggers. Kate saw that some were sick-a day without Orchid was already letting the symptoms of the Atlantis Plague reemerge. They looked panicked, wild.
Martin nodded to an alleyway ten meters ahead. He mouthed some words Kate couldn"t hear, but she followed his lead, edging closer to the buildings that flanked the thoroughfare. They ducked into the alley as more bodies filled the tiny hole they left in the crowd.
Martin pressed on and Kate tried to keep up. "Where are they going?" she asked.
Martin stopped, put his hands on his knees, and panted. At sixty, he was far less fit than Kate, and she knew he wouldn"t be able to maintain this sort of pace for long. "North. To the mountains. Fools," he said. "They"re being herded. We"re close to the rendezvous point. Come on." He lifted Adi again and resumed walking down the narrow alley.
The rumble from the flowing ma.s.s of people behind them faded as they moved east, to a deserted part of the city. Here and there, Kate heard stirring in the seemingly empty buildings. Occasionally a small creature-a racc.o.o.n, cat, or rabbit-would scurry out of the building, and at the sight of Kate, Martin and the boys, dart away. They had survived the gas, Kate thought. Maybe they would inherit the city and the world when humans had finished with each other.
Kate thought she heard footsteps in the buildings several times, but she never saw anyone.
Martin nodded to the buildings. "They can either run or hide."
"Which is smarter?"
"Hiding. Probably. After the Immari clear the city, they"ll evacuate their forces to the next town. At least, that"s what they"ve done in other countries."
"If hiding is safer, why are we running?"
Martin eyed her. "We can"t risk it. And the SAS will get you out."
Kate stopped. "Get me out."
"I can"t come with you, Kate."
"What do you mean-"
"They"re looking for me, too. And if the Immari have pushed north, there will be checkpoints. If they capture me, they"ll be on the lookout for you. I can"t risk giving you away. And there"s something... I need to find."
Before Kate could protest, the roar of diesel engines rang out from the cross street ahead. Martin raced to the opening of the alleyway and knelt at the corner of the building. He drew a small mirror from his pack and held it out, angling it so that he could see into the street. Kate steadied herself beside him. A large truck with green canvas covering its cargo section, similar to the one Kate had seen bringing the survivors into the camp, was slowly creeping down the street. Soldiers with gas masks fanned out beside it. They were going door to door, sweeping the houses. In the street behind them, a cloud of gas rose up.
Kate began to speak, but Martin rose quickly and motioned to the narrow pa.s.sageway between the buildings near the middle of the alleyway. They resumed their frantic pace as they rushed through the cramped s.p.a.ce.
Several minutes into their run, the narrow corridor opened onto a larger alley, which flowed into an open-air promenade with a large stone fountain.
"Martin, you have to come with us-"
"Stay quiet," Martin snapped. "This isn"t a discussion, Kate." He stopped just shy of the promenade. He got the small mirror out of the pack again and held it up to catch the sunlight. Across the square, flashes of light mirrored his gesture.
Martin turned to her just as explosions rocked the square and dust filled the air. Kate"s ears rang, and she could barely see through the dust. She felt Martin grab her arm, and she in turn grabbed Adi and Surya as they waded out into the chaos erupting in the courtyard.
Through the settling dust, Kate saw Immari troops pouring in from the side streets and alleyways. Soldiers wearing Spanish military uniforms-no doubt the SAS extraction team Martin had signaled-took cover behind the ma.s.sive stone fountain and opened fire on the Immari. Within seconds the sounds of grenades and automatic gunfire became deafening. Two of the SAS soldiers fell. The remaining men were outnumbered and surrounded.
Martin tugged at Kate, pulling her toward a street to the north. Just as they reached the opening, a wave of people rolled in from the cross street and flowed toward Kate, Martin and the boys.
Kate looked back at the square. The last pops of gunfire faded, leaving only the sound of thunder-the rumble from the wall of people bearing down on them. The SAS soldiers lay dead, two in the now-red water of the fountain, two others facedown on the cobblestone street.
CHAPTER 23.
Old Town District
Marbella, Spain
Kate couldn"t take her eyes off the Immari soldiers behind them. She had expected them to rush through the promenade and capture her, Martin, and the two boys, but they hadn"t. They simply loitered at the streets and alleyways that fed into the square, pacing in front of the ma.s.sive trucks, some smoking, others talking on radios, all holding automatic rifles, waiting for what, Kate didn"t know.
She turned to Martin. "What are they-"
"It"s a loading zone. They"re just waiting for the people to come to them. Come on." He charged into the narrow street, running straight for the oncoming mob of people.
Kate hesitated, then fell in behind him. The crowd was a hundred meters away and closing fast.
Martin tried the closest door-that of a ground floor shop-but it was locked. He looked around.
For what? Kate wondered. Something to break the window?
Martin tried the next door. Locked.
Kate ran across the street and tried the door to a cafe. It wouldn"t budge. She pulled the boys closer to her. The crowd was fifty meters away. She tried the door of the townhome next to the shop. Also locked. The crowd would be upon Kate and the boys in seconds, trampling them. Maybe she could put the boys in front of her, press them into the doorway, shield them. She moved them in front of her and waited.
She heard Martin run up behind her. He was going to position himself to protect her, in the same way she was covering the boys.
The crowd was thirty yards away. Several runners had separated from the pack. They charged on with determined, lifeless eyes. They didn"t glance at Kate, Martin, and the boys as the first of them pa.s.sed.