The Atlantis Plague (The Origin Mystery, #2)(111)

“Yes. We’re not leaving him here.” David stopped short and shook his head. This new command paradigm would take some getting used to. “Or rather, I respectfully submit, for your consideration, that we should bring him along. He is a member of the Immaru. He found the Ark before us. His knowledge could be useful, and he could help us.”

Janus walked closer and inspected the teenager. “Incredible. After all these years. How many of you are left?”

Milo looked up. “Just me.”

“A shame,” Janus said. “Yes, please join us…”

“Milo.”

“A pleasure, Milo. My name is Arthur Janus.”

Milo made the best bow he could manage from the sitting position.

At the opening to the room, the cube was cutting deeper into the new tunnel in the stone catacombs. The yellow light it emitted was fading as the cube moved farther away. David wondered how long it would take for the cube to reach the surface, and more importantly, if he could make it to Kate in time.





Kate had stopped struggling with Shaw and the guards at her side once the helicopter had lifted off. Where could she go now? She was trapped until they landed. Then what? Could she make a break for it?

They had strapped her in tight to the seat, and zip-tied her hands for good measure.

She stared at Dorian, who sat across from her. He seemed to have perfected the half-smile, half-smirk he always wore. It seemed to say: I know something you don’t, something bad is going to happen to you, and I’ll break into a full grin when it does.

She wanted to strike him. Shaw sat beside Dorian. He stared mildly out the helicopter’s window, like a kid amused by his first plane ride.

“You killed Martin.”

Shaw glanced up at her, as if he had just realized she was still there.

“You did,” he mumbled.

“You broke his neck—”

“He was dying the moment Orchid failed. You prolonged his agony, Kate.”

It was a lie. “Why, Adam?”

He tore his eyes away from the window for the first time. “I knew if he came to, he would recognize me, expose me. I’d assumed he would die without my help, but Chang’s therapy, it made him better. When you left to… join David, it was the first chance I had. I did what I had to—to complete my mission. Nothing personal.”

Dorian leaned forward. “Don’t listen to him, Kate. We both know this is personal. Has been for, what, seventy thousand years now?” He smiled. “That’s your big blind spot, isn’t it? People. You never can get a read on anyone. You’re clever as hell, but you never see the big betrayal coming. I just, God, I love that about you. It’s hilarious.”

Kate closed her eyes and willed herself not to react. She could feel the anger rising inside her. How could he always get under her skin? He manipulated her so easily. The monster seemed to know where every one of her buttons was. He pressed them with such ease, grinning the entire time, knowing exactly how she would react.

She tried to focus, tried to block him out. In the darkness, a voice called, “He betrayed us.”

Kate opened her eyes. She was in a steel room that held four standing tubes. A Neanderthal stood motionless in one. She was in Gibraltar, in the chamber her father had found in 1918. This was the last memory, the one she hadn’t quite been able to reach. Seeing Dorian, his words, had triggered it.

“Did you hear me?” the voice called again.

A video appeared inside Kate’s helmet. A head in a helmet just like hers: Janus. He was the other member of the Atlantean science team, her partner.

“Did you—”

“I heard you,” Kate said. She was leaning against a table at the center of the room. She turned around to face Janus. She had to tell him.

“I—” she stammered. “Yes, Ares has betrayed us—”

Another blast rocked the ship.

“—But I helped him.” Inside her helmet, the video feed of Janus disappeared, and she again stared at the mirrored reflection from his helmet. Apparently Janus didn’t want Kate to see his reaction. “He told me he wanted to help. To make them safe. All of us,” she added quickly.

“He used you—and our research. He must have the gene therapy he needs to build his army.”

Kate watched Janus pace across the room to a control panel. He worked it quickly.

“What are you doing?” Kate asked.

“Ares will try to take the primary ship. He needs it to transport his army. I have locked it down.”

Kate nodded. On her helmet display, she watched the commands scroll by. Each line seemed to bring more memories, more comprehension. The ship they stood in now was simply a local lander. They had come here on a larger science ship, capable of deep space travel. Their protocol was always minimal footprint and minimal visibility. They didn’t need the ship while they were conducting experiments on the planet’s surface, and they didn’t want it to be seen. They had hidden it on the opposite side of the planet’s only moon, burying it deep. The portal doors on the lander provided instant access to the ship if they ever needed it, but Janus’s commands were locking the ship down now—it would be closed to any remote control from Gibraltar or Antarctica. They couldn’t get back to the ship now and neither could Ares, at least not through a portal door.