Return to Atlantis: A Novel (12 page)

Like the maintenance hub, the skyscraper’s uppermost story was sparsely lit, but Eddie could see well enough. In common with many tall buildings, the topmost level was dedicated to mundane but vital functions such as supplying air-conditioning and water to the floors below. He moved deeper into the maze of humming machinery, sweeping the torch beam from side to side. What he needed was an access panel, some way into the crawl space between this and the penthouse …

A hatch was set into the floor beside an air-conditioning unit. He opened it and shone his torch inside.

The space below was cramped and dusty, about two feet high and a nest for numerous snaking ventilation hoses serving the penthouse. A squeeze, but he had been in much tighter confines. He climbed down and crawled toward the nearest air vent.

He found on reaching it that it was too small for him to fit through, but a quick survey with his light revealed fatter hoses nearby—presumably serving larger vents. He followed one of the larger lines until it curved down to attach to a slatted grille set into the floor. That was more like it! Once he disconnected the hose, he could
either unscrew or simply kick out the grille and drop down into the penthouse.

Voices reached him as he arrived at the vent. Someone was in the room below. This particular entrance wasn’t a good choice, then, but there would be others. He was about to move on when he realized the speakers were talking in English. Curiosity got the better of him, and he peered through the slats. He was above a rather spartan lounge, a young Japanese man in an expensive suit addressing someone out of sight. “That should not be an issue,” said the man. “We are all working for the same goal, so there’s no need to be concerned about details of overall responsibility.”

“Being concerned about details is how I stay alive,” said another voice.

Eddie froze, a sudden surge of anger and adrenaline rushing through his body.
Stikes!
There was no mistaking the measured, arrogant tones of the former SAS officer.

Scarber had told him the truth: His enemy was here, right now. He felt the weight of the gun inside his jacket, and almost without conscious thought reached for it. One shot through the grille would see his enemy dead …

He forced himself to stay his hand. Yes, he could kill Stikes, but he didn’t yet have an escape route short of groveling back through the crawl space and climbing down fifty floors. Besides, he now had an obligation to Scarber. The ex-CIA agent had lived up to her side of the bargain by giving him Stikes’s location; he should do the same by trying to destroy the statues.

He shifted position to get a look at his target. Stikes sat nonchalantly in a leather armchair, a glass of whiskey on a small table beside it. His haughty, smug expression as he spoke was just as Eddie remembered—though the Yorkshireman took a small amount of satisfaction from seeing that his aristocratic features were disfigured, the vivid scar of a grazing bullet wound running from his forehead up through his blond hairline.

Stikes had made himself comfortable, so Eddie guessed he would be here for a while. Good; that gave him time to locate the statues before settling old scores. He started to move away to find another vent—

“Dr. Wilde is with Takashi-san at this moment,” said the Japanese man.

Eddie was so shocked that he almost yelped
What?
out loud, managing to clamp his mouth shut before he gave himself away. Nina was
here?
The thought sent a thrill of longing through him—tempered by caution. Why would she be here with Stikes? He leaned closer to the grille, straining to hear every word.

“She will soon put the statues together for us,” the man continued. “Then we’ll finally see their power—and the plan can begin.”

“It took you long enough,” Stikes replied. “I gave them to the Group three months ago.”

“We were exploring other options.”

“But you already knew she could make them work, so you wasted time looking for someone else with the same ability. I told you she was the best choice, and that she wouldn’t be able to resist the chance to find out more about the statues. She’s an obsessive—it’s what drives her. Her work always comes first.”

The other man nodded. “She will be very valuable to the Group, then.”

Stikes sipped his drink. “If the statues do what they’re supposed to.”

“We’ll soon know. Takashi-san will see you afterward. In the meantime, I must get back to him.” He bowed and left the room. Stikes took another sip, then with a look of sardonic amusement stood and walked out of sight.

Eddie remained still, mind racing. Nina was working with Stikes’s new paymasters? He couldn’t believe it. But much as he hated to admit it, Stikes was right about her being obsessive about her work. It was something that had prompted him to everything from teasing to outright anger in the past. Even so, he couldn’t accept
that her lust for knowledge was so great that she would throw in her lot with Stikes to satisfy it. It wasn’t possible.

Was it?

Either way, he had to find her. He resumed his search for another way down.

T
akashi opened the display case. “Here, Dr. Wilde. Let us see if the legend is true. Please, pick them up.”

Nina realized as she stepped up to the case that her heart was racing. She knew what to expect of the statues individually, but the effects of putting them all together she could only imagine.

In a few moments, though, she wouldn’t
have
to imagine. She would see for herself.

She held out a hand, hesitating before picking up the statue she had discovered within the Pyramid of Osiris. It glowed strongly.

The industrialist didn’t appear surprised, only intrigued. “As I told you, all my life I have been fascinated by ideas such as Feng Shui,” he said. “This skyscraper was built according to its principles, on an intersection of dragon lines. It is a place of great power. As you can tell.”

Nina examined the statue. As she had seen on previous occasions, the shimmering light running over its surface was strongest in the direction of its companion pieces. The effect was a pointer, allowing those who
could use it—those like her, some aspect of their body’s bioelectric field allowing them to channel the strange energy—to find the other crude figurines.

And now that they were finally together … their secret would be revealed.

She picked up Takashi’s statue. It too glowed. She brought the pair shoulder-to-shoulder, carved arms interlocking. The glow intensified, the brighter bands merging and pointing toward the last figure. Cradling them in one hand, she reached for it …

It also lit up: Its being split into two parts had not affected its mysterious properties. Excitement rose in her, as did an urge to complete the triptych—an almost electric thrill of imminent discovery.

Literally
electric, she realized. There was a faint but definite tingling in her hands, as if a low current was running through them. Not painful, or even unpleasant, but a clear sign of something extraordinary.

She glanced back at Takashi. His gaze was fixed on the glowing stone figures, his expression one of rapt expectancy. He whispered in Japanese, anticipation so great that he momentarily forgot his guest did not understand the language. “Put them together,” he said. “I must see!”

Nina felt the same. Carefully shifting the split statue in her hand, she brought it closer to the other two, turning it to join up with them for the first time in untold centuries …

They touched.

And Nina’s senses were thrown into another world.

The effect was only brief, her shock causing her to break the link between the statues, but the results were almost overwhelming. Just for that moment, she felt as though her mind had left the confines of her body. Not a dislocation, but an
expansion
, spreading into the room, down through the building, into the city and the land beneath it.

And somehow, she also felt … 
life
.

She sensed Takashi’s presence a few feet from her, and
others farther away—above, around, below. And not just people. Birds roosting amid the machinery atop the skyscraper, the plants in Takashi’s office, insects and rats in their hiding places within the building’s structure. The lawns around its base—and beyond them the mass of living creatures of every kind within Tokyo. She was connected to them, some strand among all the different forms of life linking them in an inexplicable unity, a feeling of oneness.

And there was another sensation, equally strange, like a tugging at her soul. Something far away, yet also a part of her—and of everything else. She could feel it without touching, knew where it was without seeing—

Then it was gone, her consciousness snapping back to reality as her shock made her stagger. She instinctively grabbed the display case for support, letting go of the statues …

They didn’t fall.

Before, the figures had always stopped glowing the instant they left her touch. Now, though, they continued to shimmer as they hung impossibly in the air, slowly drifting apart. Both Nina and Takashi stared at them, she in astonishment, the tycoon with …

Vindication?

The glow quickly faded. The figurines dropped, at first in slow motion but rapidly picking up speed—

With a stifled shriek Nina grabbed two of them, Takashi lunging to catch the last as it fell. Suddenly breathless, she leaned against the case. The pair of statues in her hands were glowing again, but the incredible experience did not return. “What the hell was
that
?” she gasped.

Kojima hurried back into the room and went to his boss’s side, but his urgent and concerned questions were waved away as Takashi kept his gaze fixed on Nina. “You felt it?” he said urgently. “You must tell me! What did you feel?”

“I dunno,” she said, bewildered. “It was … I don’t know how to describe it, just—just
overpowering
. But
the statues … they were floating! How is that even possible?”

“Diamagnetism,” said Takashi.

Nina blinked. “What?” Considering what he had just witnessed, he seemed remarkably composed. “What do you mean? I’m an archaeologist, not a physicist.”

Kojima provided a partial explanation. “All materials can be affected by magnetic fields, even ones we don’t think of as magnetic. You can levitate a train with magnets—but with enough power you can levitate an animal, even a person. Diamagnetism is the name of this property.”

“You charged the statues with earth energy,” continued Takashi. “For just a few seconds, they held that charge—and were levitated against the energy fields of the planet itself. It was an effect we had predicted. But,” he admitted, “seeing it for myself was … startling.” He regarded the figure cradled protectively in his hands.

“Wait, you predicted this?” Nina demanded. Her initial amazement was already being tempered by a growing feeling that she had been played: Takashi knew far more than he was letting on.

He lowered his head. “I apologize, Dr. Wilde. We thought we knew what to expect, but there was no way to know exactly what would happen when you brought the statues together.”

“There’s that
we
again,” she said. “Who else knows about this?”

Takashi ignored her question. “What did you feel while you were holding the statues?”

“You answer me first.”

A flash of anger crossed his face at being challenged in his own domain, but he quickly regained control. “I am a member of … a group that believes earth energy is the key to the world’s future. We seek to use its unlimited power for the benefit of humanity, while keeping it from those who might misuse it. People like Jack Mitchell.”

Mitchell—supposed friend turned betrayer, using the IHA as the means to his end of constructing a devastating
weapon powered by the planet itself. She felt a twinge of phantom pain from her right leg, where he had shot her to force her to do exactly what Takashi had just manipulated her into—channeling earth energy. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How do you know about him?”

“We have access to a great deal of information, from all over the world. We do not represent any one nation—we are above politics, you might say. Our goal is simple—peace, stability, an end to conflict. And with your help, we can achieve this goal.”

“Well, that all sounds very laudable. Unfortunately, Mitchell said pretty much the same thing.”

“All I can do for now is ask you to trust us, Dr. Wilde. We will prove our good intentions in time. But for now, as I have answered your question, I ask you to answer mine. When you brought the statues together, you had an … experience. I would very much like to know what you felt.”

Nina was reluctant to respond. She was now convinced that she was part of some larger game, but had no idea which side—if any—she should run with. Still, it was clear that Takashi knew more than she did about the statues, and if she gave him some new information, perhaps he would reciprocate. “It’s hard to explain,” she began. “I felt … I don’t know,
connected
.”

“To what?”

“To everything. To life, I guess.” She struggled to recall the sensation, but much of it had already faded, like a half-remembered dream. “And there was something else, a feeling like, like …” The words refused to form.

Takashi offered them, however. “Something calling to you?”

“Yes, exactly!” She regarded him in surprise. “How did you know?”

“As I told you, we have access to much information.”

“Someone else already knew about this? Who?”

“A person from a long time ago. But,” he went on, before she could ask any follow-up questions, “there is
something you might not have seen. When you brought the statues together, their glow changed. Before, they pointed to each other, but for just a second the light moved to …”

He indicated a direction, then gave an order in Japanese to Kojima, who took out his phone and brought up an app—a compass, Nina saw. “About two hundred and sixty degrees west,” the young man reported.

Takashi nodded. “Is that from where you felt this call?”

“Yes … at least, I think.” Nina rubbed her forehead. “I’m not sure. The whole thing happened so quickly, and now it’s fading away.”