"After you," said Cartier.
We descended into the cement-floored tunnel. We followed the same route, down pa.s.sages lit with strings of bulbs on the ceiling, down more ladders, until finally we were back in the Atlantean map room. It looked like it had before, except for the other Nomad body being gone. The table of hand-drawn maps was still there, and Leech"s black cylinder case was now lying on top of it.
They marched us down the spiral staircase. As we crossed the catwalk at its base, I glanced down at the little Atlantean craft, lying on its dry stone floor. No water or wind for starting it. I glanced up at the black sphere and pedestal suspended above, that strange umbrella of copper beneath it, and then all the way up to the marble ball in the ceiling, trying to figure out what it all meant.
Hands pushed me in the back. "Keep moving."
They"d strung lights around the dark walls, and through the narrow zigzagging pa.s.sage. A thick tangle of power cords snaked along the floor. We squeezed through, back into the tiny skull chamber.
"Well, there he is."
The light in the chamber was blinding, white coating the walls. There was a steady electric buzz, and snapping sounds of sparks. I couldn"t see the skull because it was on the other side of a silhouetted figure who eclipsed its light.
Paul stood to the right of the pedestal, wearing welding goggles to shield his eyes, gazing at the skull. The silhouetted figure was short, leaning forward, an officer on either side holding his arms.
"Okay, he"s done." Paul motioned to the two officers. They started pulling on the figure"s arms, and it seemed to take a great effort, but then they had Leech free, and as they turned him to the side, we saw that they"d been holding his hands to the skull. "Nnnnaa!" he shouted. His face was wrenched in a knot, eyes closed, teeth bared. A shorter man in a white lab coat, also wearing goggles, appeared in front of Leech and held a square device up to his forehead like Dr. Maria had. The little gla.s.s ball glowed a greenish yellow, like a color in between how it had glowed for me, and for Colleen.
"Give him a breather," said Paul, waving his hand toward a cot against the back wall.
Leech slumped weakly in the officers" arms. There were electrodes stuck to his head in shaved spots, like there"d been for the CITs. Wires were attached to the crystal skull, too. Its hollow eyes gleamed at me, but I watched Leech as they laid him down on a cot behind the pedestal. Machines there were monitoring his vitals. His arms were twitching, his legs too, and for the first time, I felt something like bad for him. Leech, the camp favorite, the bully, who"d been controlling us all with nicknames and jokes, when all along he was being controlled.
"Well, Owen..." Paul turned around, lifting his goggles as he did.
For the first time I saw his eyes, finally saw what had been behind his tinted gla.s.ses, and regretted ever wanting to know.
They were seared, scalded, the whites a sickly blood crimson, threaded with black-burned veins. Except the irises were blue, an electric blazing blue, and I could see crisscrossing lines in them, geometric patterns, with little sparks of light flashing, and I realized his eyes were fake, circuitry, and his pupils were gla.s.s camera-lens holes. He must have seen my reaction, because he smiled. His pupils whirred open wider, the machines adjusting their focus. And while I"d found his smile strange with his gla.s.ses on, with them off, it was something soulless and cold that I felt sure would live on in my nightmares, if we ever made it out of this.
"Yes," he said, waving a hand toward his face. "This is what happens when you stare into the face of the G.o.ds. Or, in my case, a Sentinel created by the Atlanteans to alert their chosen children. Luckily there"s a doctor in EdenEast who makes excellent eyes. They even have direct holotech input, if I cared for such things. But I don"t. My eyes are for truth only. And you, Owen, you are truth."
The eyes burned into me, sparks flickering. He motioned to the skull. "And this is yours, I take it?"
I didn"t answer him.
"That"s okay. I already know that it is. And knowing that, I feel an apology is in order. I should have come right out and told you what I suspected about you from the moment I saw your DNA sample, but... just like with the others"-he waved dismissively at Lilly-"I thought I"d let the truth reveal itself."
"Why couldn"t you just tell us?" asked Lilly bitterly.
Paul sighed. "I could could have, but think it through: You"re probably smart enough to have figured out at this point that we"re using Camp Eden to find the Atlanteans. But what would have happened if I"d sat everyone down at the start of the session and announced that we were looking for the genetic descendants of an ancient race, and that everyone had been selected based on their potential match, and that we expected those who were top candidates to exhibit odd symptoms? We would have had kids drowning themselves, making fake gills, and who knows what else. And for you, Owen, for the true Atlantean, it"s such an enormous concept, such a huge change, that I thought you had to discover it on your own, organically. But, either way, you know now, so we can move forward. And I feel like a proud parent, seeing you all come this far." have, but think it through: You"re probably smart enough to have figured out at this point that we"re using Camp Eden to find the Atlanteans. But what would have happened if I"d sat everyone down at the start of the session and announced that we were looking for the genetic descendants of an ancient race, and that everyone had been selected based on their potential match, and that we expected those who were top candidates to exhibit odd symptoms? We would have had kids drowning themselves, making fake gills, and who knows what else. And for you, Owen, for the true Atlantean, it"s such an enormous concept, such a huge change, that I thought you had to discover it on your own, organically. But, either way, you know now, so we can move forward. And I feel like a proud parent, seeing you all come this far."
Lilly made a hissing sound.
"Now, now," said Paul. "Anyway, the timing is perfect. I was running into a wall with Carey." He motioned toward Leech, who was lying still on the cot. "He was the very first one to have the symptomatic gills, all the way back when this place was still Camp Aasgard. It was his condition that brought my team here. And when I saw his drawings, that"s when I knew we were close. We Cryoed Carey while we established the dome here, and excavated the navigation room." Paul motioned to the ceiling. "When we brought Carey down, that room really ignited his powers, and since then, he"s been making all these maps. I thought it was that obsidian star chart that was activating him, but all along it was this skull, hiding beneath my feet. Your Your skull. Which means there"s one out there for him somewhere, I gather." skull. Which means there"s one out there for him somewhere, I gather."
I didn"t respond.
Paul glanced at the skull again. "Just amazing. It makes sense, now. You know, my father was the one who found the first Atlantean city, up in Greenland. It had been covered in glacial ice since about ten thousand years ago, after a sudden and cataclysmic natural event that changed the entire earth. The crust of the earth moved; there were ma.s.sive tsunamis, floods-I mean literally the ones that ancient myths speak of-and the world was plunged back into an ice age until, well, technically just a few hundred years ago.
"My father"s team of climatologists was drilling the Greenland ice sheet for ice cores, trying to understand past climate changes, trying to find a way to stop the Great Rise. I was thirteen at the time, traveling with them. The ice sheet had already receded farther than any modern human had ever seen, and then one day, there was a ma.s.sive glacial calving in one of the fjords, and there it was, this ancient city. It was made from the same stone as the great Pyramids, and yet it was thousands of miles north. And as if that wasn"t amazing enough, there was all that we found inside once we"d tunneled through the ice, including a temple not unlike this one, only larger.
"There were three tombs inside," Paul went on. "Three young bodies, well preserved in the ice, their throats slit. And there was a message inscribed in the rock that my father translated. It took him months, sitting in a tent up there, running the symbols through ancient Sumerian, cross-referencing them with the earliest Mesoamerican codices. It said: ""Before the beginning, there was an end.""
I finished for him, ""Three chosen to die, to live in the service of the Qi-An, the balance of all things.""
Paul"s eyes clicked wider, the circuits flaring. "You know it." His mouth fell open almost like he was hungry. He rubbed his palms and sighed. "And you know about the city?"
I nodded. "I"ve seen it."
He sighed. "I can"t imagine what it must be like for you. To be connected, to be the conduit to the ancients. To know that power. power. I mean, for almost forty years I"ve been studying this temple and the others we"ve found, translating texts and unpuzzling megalithic structures. I probably know the Atlanteans better than anyone else, even better than my father did. But you..." Paul"s voice lowered almost to a growl. His mouth moved and I almost expected to see him lick his lips, a predator stalking its juiciest prey. "You I mean, for almost forty years I"ve been studying this temple and the others we"ve found, translating texts and unpuzzling megalithic structures. I probably know the Atlanteans better than anyone else, even better than my father did. But you..." Paul"s voice lowered almost to a growl. His mouth moved and I almost expected to see him lick his lips, a predator stalking its juiciest prey. "You are are the one. the one. You"ve You"ve been on the inside looking out, haven"t you? You"ve seen their world. And now, Owen, I need you to tell me everything. You"ll do that, won"t you?" been on the inside looking out, haven"t you? You"ve seen their world. And now, Owen, I need you to tell me everything. You"ll do that, won"t you?"
I didn"t answer him.
"I mean, the skull just will not talk to anyone else. Believe me, I"ve tried."
"I know," I said, thinking of the CITs strapped to those tables. "I saw."
"Ah yes," said Paul, "because you were in the lab. And so now we both know that this skull is only for you, am I right?"
Hearing him, I realized that maybe there was a chance here.... "Yeah, only me. I"m the only one."
"Yes," said Paul, like this was exciting him to his core. "And has it told you where to find it?"
"Find what?"
"The Brocha," said Paul.
I tried to remember if Luk had mentioned that, but I was pretty sure he hadn"t.
"Ah, so your skull didn"t tell you about that," said Paul. "I"m talking about the Brocha de Dioses. Well, that"s what we we call it. It"s Spanish, from a priest"s translation of an ancient Mayan codex. I"m sure the Atlanteans would have a different name for it." call it. It"s Spanish, from a priest"s translation of an ancient Mayan codex. I"m sure the Atlanteans would have a different name for it."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Well... that"s the mystery," said Paul, "the big one. Brocha de Dioses means Paintbrush of the G.o.ds. That was the priest"s translation anyway. It"s been very hard to piece together, but we believe it"s a machine, an ancient machine, one that could, well, save us all. And it"s located in the Heart of the Terra."
Luk had talked about that. And, listening to this, I remembered what he"d said: Someone has found our sin, and seeks to use it. Someone has found our sin, and seeks to use it. Maybe Maybe this this was what I was being called to defend. To protect this Paintbrush of the G.o.ds from Paul and Project Elysium. was what I was being called to defend. To protect this Paintbrush of the G.o.ds from Paul and Project Elysium.
"What do you mean, save us?" I asked.
"It"s fascinating, really," said Paul, and it sounded like he really was fascinated, "and we can get into it more once we start the journey, but the Atlanteans found a way to control the forces of the earth, to literally change it to suit their needs. Their civilization was global and very advanced, in some ways not quite to the level of ours, but in others vastly superior.
"About ten thousand years ago, they were facing a climate change event, something like the Great Rise, which isn"t that uncommon if you look over a long enough record of history. But the Atlanteans were the first living creatures on earth with the intelligence to do something about it. They were facing a dramatic warming period, and, also like us, these were a people who lived primarily on the coasts, since they were master seafarers."
I realized that this was the first thing I knew that he didn"t. Paul didn"t know about the airships. He probably thought that craft here in the temple was a boat. Which meant he didn"t know exactly what I was meant for, either.
"They were watching their cities submerge," Paul continued. "So, to save themselves, they fought back. They created this Paintbrush of the G.o.ds, and they used it."
"But it didn"t work," I added, remembering the ash-filled sky in Luk"s world.
Paul smiled, like I was his star pupil. I couldn"t help being interested in what he was saying, in the story of my people, and there was something intriguing about all this knowledge that Paul had. How much more could he teach me? But then I looked over at Leech. He was still out cold, his face pained even in unconsciousness, and I had to remind myself that he was Paul"s last star student.
"It might be more accurate to say that it worked too well," said Paul. "Based on the evidence we"ve found, the Paintbrush of the G.o.ds caused a cataclysm so great that it became the basis for all those flood myths around the world.
"The Atlantean civilization collapsed, and the greatest technology the world had known until this millennium was lost to ice and ruin. And yet..." Paul spread his arms. "Here we are, on the verge of discovering it once again. Only this time, think of it, Owen: we can apply our modern technology to the Atlantean model, and succeed where they failed. Do you see what I"m saying? We can fix fix the earth. We can save humanity." the earth. We can save humanity."
He smiled at me so wide, eyes sparking, that I could feel the infectiousness of his enthusiasm, like a virus that could get inside me, change me, but I fought to hold it back.
"Don"t you want that, too?" Paul said to me. "Think of your father, your life out there at Hub. Think of all the people suffering outside the Habitable Zone." He glanced at Lilly as he said this. He must have known about her parents. "The diseases, the malnutrition. All those who have died. Even those living in the Edens. I"m sure you know that the domes won"t last forever. In fact, there"s precious little time left. Our species is at a crossroads. We can die out, or we can persevere."
I stood there. I didn"t know what to say. Did I want that? Maybe. Luk had said that trying to use the power of the Terra had destroyed their civilization. That I was supposed to protect it and keep that from happening again. But Luk couldn"t know about modern times. If Paul was right, and this Paintbrush could be improved... I thought of my dad, the nebulizer, his coughing, only getting worse the more time he spent underground. What did Lilly think? I wanted to ask her.
As if giving me her answer, Lilly suddenly hissed at Paul, "You killed Anna!"
Paul frowned at her. "Actually, I heard from Cartier that you you killed her when you pulled the plug on her life-support system." killed her when you pulled the plug on her life-support system."
"How could you do that to her? To those other children?" Lilly spat. I could hear her anger raising the pitch of her voice, could feel her shaking beside me.
Paul shrugged. "They were necessary sacrifices in the pursuit of knowledge," he said coldly. "We had to understand the mechanism of the gill growth. Had to understand what other changes were happening inside. We knew that Anna and the others weren"t the one the one, and we had no idea when, if ever, our Owen would appear, so I decided to enlist their help as trial cases-"
"She wasn"t a trial trial!" Lilly shouted. "She would never have agreed to let you do that to her!"
Paul winced and made a motion to Cartier, who grabbed Lilly, putting a gloved hand over her mouth.
"Lilly, dear, you remind me of my father father with your small-minded belief in some moral code. He was a founder in EdenCorp. Finding Atlantis was his thing, but when we discovered the existence of the Paintbrush of the G.o.ds, and the board of directors asked him to lead the search for it, he refused. He said it was wrong to tamper with the earth, to muddle with nature. He thought that we should listen to the ancient warnings. When, the truth is, everything we with your small-minded belief in some moral code. He was a founder in EdenCorp. Finding Atlantis was his thing, but when we discovered the existence of the Paintbrush of the G.o.ds, and the board of directors asked him to lead the search for it, he refused. He said it was wrong to tamper with the earth, to muddle with nature. He thought that we should listen to the ancient warnings. When, the truth is, everything we do do tampers with the earth. We are part of nature, its crowning achievement. We tampers with the earth. We are part of nature, its crowning achievement. We are are nature." nature."
Paul stepped close to Lilly, his electric eyes reflecting in her own. "Do you know, my father refused refused to open the antechamber we"d discovered in Greenland, the one where his evidence pointed to the Paintbrush being located? All that knowledge, right to open the antechamber we"d discovered in Greenland, the one where his evidence pointed to the Paintbrush being located? All that knowledge, right there there, and he wouldn"t do it, because he thought it was too dangerous. He was scared scared. So you know who did it? His son. I went into the temple and opened the antechamber myself and came face-to-face with a Sentinel and lost my eyes. And that"s when the board of directors knew I was the one who should lead the search. Because I would do what was necessary.
"Like with your friend Anna. By the way, a lovely girl, full of life-too much life, it turned out. She hated hated what was happening to all of you. So she came to me and wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help figure out what was going on. It was nice of her to offer, I thought." what was happening to all of you. So she came to me and wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help figure out what was going on. It was nice of her to offer, I thought."
Lilly surged free of Cartier"s hold. "She didn"t know you were going to do that that to her!" Her eyes were watering, her voice thick with rage. Cartier grabbed her again. to her!" Her eyes were watering, her voice thick with rage. Cartier grabbed her again.
Paul turned away from her. "Probably not." He looked back at me. "But what"s one life when billions are at stake? And Owen, you don"t have to worry, I"m not going to cut you open or any such primitive thing. I want to follow follow you. I want you to say you"ll help me, say we"ll do this together. And then we can start our journey, to find the Terra, the heart of Atlantis. We need to stop letting you. I want you to say you"ll help me, say we"ll do this together. And then we can start our journey, to find the Terra, the heart of Atlantis. We need to stop letting nature nature do whatever it wants and do whatever it wants and be be nature. Please. Don"t you want to do the right thing here and save the human race?" His mouth turned down in a strange way, like he was trying to look like he cared, and yet his mechanical eyes were still boring into me, as if he was trying to see through my skin to the Atlantean inside. nature. Please. Don"t you want to do the right thing here and save the human race?" His mouth turned down in a strange way, like he was trying to look like he cared, and yet his mechanical eyes were still boring into me, as if he was trying to see through my skin to the Atlantean inside.
And I did did want to save humanity from the Great Rise, be the savior of our species. I did want better lives for everyone, my dad, even me. want to save humanity from the Great Rise, be the savior of our species. I did want better lives for everyone, my dad, even me.
"You"ll be a hero," Paul added.
I felt the energy draining out of me. And I wondered: Paul was making this sound like a choice, but was it? I couldn"t really say no to Paul, could I? Wouldn"t he just force me to do what he wanted anyway? Though Lilly would never agree, it seemed like there was really only one answer. If I said yes, if I worked with Paul, I could keep us both safe. And as we figured out what the Paintbrush of the G.o.ds really was, then we could decide what to do. Saying yes would buy me time. Buy us time. But what if the chance never came? What if I provided Paul with information, and it was all he needed to get to Atlantis and that was that?
"How do I know I can trust you?" I asked.
Paul smiled. "Fair question. Here"s the answer: because I"ve never lied to you."
"Mmmm!" Lilly thrashed her head free of Cartier"s grip for just long enough to shout, "This whole place is a lie!"
Paul sighed. "Technically, it"s more like a distraction, to allow the discovery of a greater truth." Paul looked at me again. "You"ll find, in the big game, that sometimes this has to be the case. But it doesn"t change the fact that I never lied to you directly. And you have my word, Owen, if you say yes, I will keep you informed, protected, and well taken care of from now on."
I thought back, and he was right. He"d never lied, not to me, not directly. But the story about Colleen, and the camp as a whole... The lies were everywhere else.
"Well, Owen?" asked Paul. He put his hands out toward me, palms up. "Time to choose."
Owen.
The siren had appeared. She floated on the far side of the room, behind Paul. I glanced at Lilly. She was staring at me with wide eyes.
I looked back at the siren. She gazed at me, intently. You must be true to the Terra. You must be true to the Terra.
What does that mean? I thought to her. I thought to her.
Qi-An is always two. All states occur in pairs. To know truth is to know both.
To know both sides?
To see both.
I didn"t know what she meant. What two sides? Was this about the choice to work with Paul or not? About Luk telling me to stop Project Elysium, and Paul asking me to help it? So, me saying yes, or me saying no... Or maybe this was about Paul. About seeing both sides of him. Because I knew what I"d see if I said yes. He"d treat me like his new favorite son, and I"d use the skull and tell him everything. And as terrible as it sounded, part of me actually craved that. I really believed that Paul would protect me if I was his most valuable a.s.set. And I could even understand his rationale for the gruesome things we"d seen in the lab, how he saw it as hard science in the quest to save the planet. And yet...
What was the other side of Paul? Had I really seen it? Could I trust him? Did he really have such n.o.ble goals? He wouldn"t tell me, and I couldn"t make him, but I could say no, and see how he reacted.
And maybe more than that, there was Luk, my... brother? Telling me not to help this man. Telling me that I needed to do the opposite. It was what Lilly wanted, too. What did I want?
I wanted to be true. I wanted to see truth.
Yes, said the siren, and I thought I saw approval in her eyes. Looking at her right then, I suddenly wondered something else. Because Luk had never talked about her.... Who are you? Who are you? I asked her. I asked her.
She disappeared.
Paul"s hands were still out in that helpless gesture. Had even a second pa.s.sed? It felt like it, and I thought about what I"d say. Yes Yes was a deal with the devil, but also safety, at least for a while. was a deal with the devil, but also safety, at least for a while. No No was... what? The only thing I was sure of was that it was truth. was... what? The only thing I was sure of was that it was truth.
"Well," I said, "I think my answer is no." And then I watched.
Watched Paul"s eyes flicker at me, the pupils getting smaller. Watched him sigh and shake his head slowly. Watched his expression turn hard. His gaze left me, like I was no longer important. He looked at the officers beside me and made a slow single nod.
They grabbed me by the arms and moved me toward the skull.
"Hook him up," said Paul with a wave of his hand, and just like that, I had become another object, a test subject.
"No!" I shouted again. I struggled, but it was no use. Each officer had me by an arm, and they moved my hands toward the skull. The white-coated technician appeared and started attaching electrodes to my forehead. I thrashed my head, but he grabbed me by the chin and held me firm.
I"d said no, and seen the truth: that there really was no choice, after all. No was really yes. But at least by saying no, I had been true to myself, true to the kids who died. True to Lilly.
"Administer the sedative," said Paul. "Let"s bring in the board. They"ll want to see this." He turned to the wall, where a video screen hung dark. He touched the corner and it illuminated. A message blinked: [ESTABLISHING LOW-ORBIT CONNECTION]
And then a room appeared, the camera at the far end of a desk, and the seven gray-haired heads of the EdenCorp board of directors all leaned forward.
"Is this the one?" asked the wiry man at the end of the table. He was framed by a window showing a wide view of the night sky.
"This is Subject Two," said Paul. "We are about to synch him to the crystal medium."
"Excellent," murmured a board member.