The Atlantis Plague (34 page)

“Hold on,” Kate said. “I have to confess my ignorance here. I’m a geneticist. I just don’t see how a volcano and a volcanic winter are connected to the Plague of Justinian.”

David smiled. “I can’t believe I’m about to explain a scientific concept to you.”

“Let’s just see how good your explanation is,” Kate shot back.

“Part of history is tracing artifacts and looking at patterns. One pattern that emerged from the outbreak is that it began in northern Africa, moved into Egypt, and from there, exploded into the eastern Mediterranean. Once it hit Constantinople, the rest of the modern world fell like dominos as trade ships carried the plague around the world. There’s still some debate, but many historians believe that the plague came to Europe on grain barges from northern Africa, and that it was the rats on the barges that initially carried the disease.”

“What David says is true,” Dr. Janus said. “It is a great irony: the real danger from rapid climate change has nothing to do with the weather. The danger is destabilizing ecosystems, causing organisms that normally have no interaction with each other to come into contact. We know that most outbreaks are caused when wild-animal reservoir hosts, that benignly harbor a deadly pathogen, are forced out of their natural habitats. In the wake of this second ‘Toba volcano,’ ecosystems around the world were destabilized. If Dr. Grey’s theory is correct, it is incredibly intriguing. The ancient world would have been a very difficult place to manage a global genetic change. A plague is the perfect vehicle, but there remains one very big problem.”

“Distribution,” Kate said.

“Precisely,” Janus said. “The world was very disconnected. Visiting all the cultures and spreading a disease would have been impossible. A volcano that blanketed the world with ash would be perfect. On the surface, the plague might look the same. The volcano brings a winter, in some places drought then excessive rainfall. Vegetation growth plummets then rebounds. In places like northern Africa, rodent populations would fare quite well. A breeding explosion occurs. The larger population seeks new territory as their existing ecosystem can’t support their larger numbers. Some of these rats carry plague and they push into areas of human population. While the rats are immune to plague—they are reservoir hosts—the fleas on their backs are not. So fleas die of plague, and the mechanism of their demise causes them to spread the disease. Fleas infected with plague literally starve. The plague bacteria multiply in their gut, blocking the ability to ingest nutrients. They go mad, jumping off the rodents onto any host they can find, spreading the disease to humans. Of course rodents, and the fleas hitching a ride on their backs, have spread plague for thousands of years. The
genius
, if you will permit the term here, of this outbreak was a genetic modification to the plague bacteria—which I believe was carried by your volcano. The ash that rained down changed the bacteria residing in the rats—it didn’t unleash a pandemic on humans. A human pandemic would have simply burned out and been over with. Dr. Grey’s notation—‘Second Toba? New Delivery System?’—I believe refers to his own uncertainty on the subject. Based on our research, the work Dr. Chang and I have done, we can confirm that it was a new delivery system, an extremely ingenious one. By modifying an existing bacterial line in rats—plague—whoever did this ensured there would be multiple waves of outbreak, a sustained genetic transformation.”

David nodded. “Because the plague didn’t burn out.”

“Correct,” Janus said. “It lay dormant, in the reservoir hosts—rats in this case—waiting for the correct moment in time.”

“That matches the historical record,” David said. “The first wave of outbreak was around 535, but others followed, some even more violent. We can’t imagine the toll. The bouts of plague lasted for two hundred years. Up to half of all Europeans died. Then after about 750, the outbreaks stop until around 1257—which is the next part of Martin’s note. In 1257 another volcano erupted—again from Indonesia. These are recent discoveries, but we are pretty sure that the Samalas volcano, on Lombok Island in Indonesia, erupted with an incredible force. The impact was greater than that of the Tambora event in 1815, which caused what’s known as the Year Without a Summer. From the tree-ring samples, we see the same thing in 1257: a volcanic winter that lasted for over a year. The plague rats return and plague again returns to Europe. By this time, nearly 700 years later, the historical records are more clear. This outbreak is almost exactly like the last but it gets more press—and mention in the historical record. They call it ‘the Black Death’ in Europe. But it was the same plague—”

“Bubonic plague,” Kate said.

“Exactly,” David confirmed. “The same plague, separated by almost a millennium, returning to wreak the same havoc—”

“Stop,” Kate held up her hand. “The Black Death began in Europe around 1348—almost a hundred years after this volcano—”

“True,” David said, holding up his hands. “Look, here’s the history: in 1257 a massive volcano, strangely similar in location and effect to the one in the sixth century, caused a volcanic winter and widespread famine in Europe. I can only assume the plague returned, but there was a difference this time—some sort of immunity—”

“CCR5 Delta 32,” Kate said, lost in thought.

“What?”

“Martin mentioned it to me. It’s present in up to sixteen percent of Europeans. It’s a mutation that makes them immune to HIV, smallpox, and other viruses. Possibly the bacteria that causes plague.”

“Interesting,” David said. “One of the great mysteries of history has been the origins of the Black Death. We’re pretty sure the outbreak in the sixth century, the Plague of Justinian, moved up through Africa into the eastern Mediterranean. But the Black Death was different. Same scenario—volcano, same plague—but this time, we believe the Black Death originated in central Asia. The peace provided by the Pax Mongolica enabled the Mongol armies based in central Asia to carry the disease east along the Silk Road. During the Mongol siege of Caffa in the Crimea, the invading Mongols actually catapulted infected bodies over the city walls.”

“Seriously?” Kate asked.

“Hey, it was pretty ingenious for the times. Call it medieval biological warfare. After Caffa, the plague quickly spread across Europe. Historians have assumed that migration from Asia is the reason for the one-hundred-year time difference, but it could have been—”

“The mutation,” Kate said.

“Possibly.” David wanted to get back to what he knew, away from speculation. “In the following years, thirty to sixty percent of the entire population of Europe died from the Black Death. One third of everyone in China died. In fact, it took a hundred and fifty years for the global population to recover to the level it was before the Black Death. But I’m afraid that’s where my knowledge ends. In general, I don’t know what the chronology is leading up to. I just knew what the references were, and I knew the dates.”

“I can shed light there,” Dr. Chang said. “As Dr. Janus mentioned before, our working theory has been that the current plague is simply activating past outbreaks, trying to complete some genetic transformation that was half-finished. We’ve been trying to isolate those past outbreaks to better understand how the human genome changed.” He motioned toward David. “Mr. Vale, you had it right about the link between the plagues. A few years ago, a group of researchers discovered that the Plague of Justinian was caused by
Yersinia pestis
, or
Y. pestis
—the bacteria that causes bubonic plague. The discovery was very intriguing: the two worst pandemics in recorded history—the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death—were both instances of bubonic plague. We believe in both cases there was a genetic mutation of the Y. pestis bacteria. We’ve been using the Immari to gather evidence. They procured samples from plague victims from both outbreaks. We sequenced those genomes, as well as samples of
Y. pestis
, from both eras. We also have samples from the Spanish flu of 1918. We found some common genetic sequences. We think they are connected to the Atlantis Plague. Based on Dr. Grey’s notes and our discussion here, I believe our data is a key piece of the puzzle, the key to finding a cure. Unfortunately, it was lost when the plague barge went down.”

Janus sat up on the couch. “Dr. Chang, I owe you an apology.”

Chang’s face glanced over, confused.

“I never fully trusted you,” Janus said. “I was assigned to you. You went along with our research, but until now I thought that you might have been an Immari loyalist, someone working to obtain my research. I withheld much of what I learned from you.” He took out a memory stick. “But I saved it on this device. Along with the research we did together. It’s all here, and I believe it will reveal the genome changes Dr. Grey was searching for—this Delta-2—the root genetic structure of the Atlantis Plague.”

Chang glanced at the memory stick. “What matters is that you have the data. In your place, I think… perhaps I would have done the same thing. However, there seems to be one final piece—the Omega. To me, that signifies the endpoint—the eventuality of this genetic change. The notation ‘1918…1979’ seems to indicate that Dr. Grey believed it could have happened in one of those years. The ‘KBW’ in the first line is unfamiliar. Mr. Vale, is this another historical reference?”

David had been turning “KBW” over in his mind since he had first seen the code. He didn’t even have a guess. “No. I’m not sure what it means.”

“I know what it means,” Kate said. “‘KBW’ are my initials. Katherine Barton Warner. I think I’m the Omega.”

CHAPTER 68

Somewhere off the coast of Ceuta
Mediterranean Sea

Through the window of the helicopter, Dorian watched the water fly by below. The sun glistened on the black expanse like a beacon leading him to his destiny.

He thought about the white door of light in Germany. Where would it lead? To another world? Another time?

He activated the microphone in his helmet. “What’s our ETA?”

“Three, maybe three and a half hours.”

Would they beat Kate and her entourage there? It would be close.

“Get the outpost on the line.”

A minute later Dorian was speaking with Isla de Alborán’s commanding officer.

The Immari lieutenant at Isla de Alborán ended the call and looked back at the four other soldiers playing cards and smoking. “Put some coffee on. We need to sober up. We’re going to have company.”

David tried to process what Kate had said: “
I’m the Omega
.”

Shaw glided into the room. “I’m putting coffee on—” He looked around. “What’s all this? You lot look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“We’re working,” David snapped.

Kate broke the tension. “I’d love some coffee. Thank you, Adam.”

“Sure,” Shaw said. “Dr. Chang? Dr. Janus?”

David noticed that he hadn’t made the coffee roll call. He was fine with that.

“Oh yes, much appreciated,” Dr. Chang murmured, still deep in thought.

Dr. Janus stared out the window, an unreadable expression on his face. When he realized everyone was waiting on him, he quickly said, “No. Thank you though.”

Shaw returned with the two cups of coffee, then lingered by the window, diagonally behind David. David couldn’t see him, but he knew he was there. He was less than fine with that.

Janus was the first to speak. “I do not doubt what you’ve said, Kate. I want that clear at the outset. I would, however, like to review our key assumptions and explore several… possibilities.”

David thought Kate tensed a little, but she simply sipped her coffee and nodded.

Janus continued. “The first assumption: that this Tibetan tapestry was a document depicting Atlantean interaction with humans, specifically their intervention to save humans seventy thousand years ago—the introduction of the Atlantis Gene which changed human brain wiring and the fate of humanity—and then, their warning to humans before the Great Flood. The balance of the tapestry we assume to be events yet to come. I have a question about that, but I will hold it for now.

“Our second assumption is that Martin’s note is a chronology—an attempt to decode the past, to identify the genetic turning points of humanity—to lead us to a cure for the plague.”