The Atlantis Gene

Jin, a “resident” of the Immari research facility, is summoned from his small cell for testing. His family in desperate financial straits, Jin has few options but to serve as a guinea pig, so he willingly submits to the tests. While conditions border on totalitarian, they are better than those Jin’s brother works in, assembling electronics. Jin enters a room, takes a seat, and is hooked up to an IV. He suddenly feels sleepy.

Later, when he wakes, Jin experiences flu-like symptoms and is grouped with other similarly affected test subjects. They are ushered into a large, vault-like room where two young boys enter and mingle with the group. A large mechanism is lowered from the ceiling. It begins to pulse with light and sound, and one by one, the test subjects collapse, blood pouring from their noses. Just as Jin collapses, the machine stops.

Inside the control room, Dr. Shen Chang reports the results of the test to his superiors and orders the bodies cleaned up (no autopsies necessary). As the cleanup crew piles the bodies into bins, they notice that the two children are still alive.

Cohen wakes up in a Clocktower holding cell with Vale by his side. Cohen has important information, but Vale is already aware of it: Most of the terror threats Clocktower has been tracking—once assumed to be separate organizations—are in fact all affiliated with a single, global super network. Vale also reports that the conference was an elaborate and extensive test, designed to root out moles within the organization. Of the 240 attendees, 142 didn’t pass the test, and now, all station chiefs and lead analysts are trying to secure their local station.

At this point, Clocktower strategy is to assume most of the terrorist cells will fall, but the surviving cells will share as much intelligence as they can. Vale has also been in contact with an anonymous source who claims a massive terror attack—codenamed “Toba Protocol”—is imminent.

Inside the Jakarta police station, Warner explains to her interrogator the unusual methods behind her clinical trial. Warner hires translators and drives around to local villages looking for children on the autism spectrum. Having no success with this approach, one of her translators takes charge, bringing her to an impoverished part of the village. After badgering several women and their children, he bursts into a small house and discovers a child gaunt, bound, and gagged. The child displays signs of autism: atypical speech and language, repetitive movements, and unresponsiveness to outside stimuli. They discover that other children with similar symptoms have been banished to a nearby forest. When they search the forest, they find only one boy—the rest have presumably died. The translator explains that children with “problems” are a source of shame to their families, and so the locals are reluctant to report them. The police interrogator scoffs at her story, claiming no jury will believe it.

At Jakarta station, Vale theorizes that much of the recent terrorist activity—including the 9/11 attacks—while carried out by Al Qaeda and other terrorist cells were actually planned and funded by Immari International as a cover for their theft of archaeological artifacts. As Vale compiles a list of who might profit from such a war, he narrows it down to several Immari subsidiaries. He also suspects another major attack is in the offing: Toba Protocol. He believes the attack will start in Indonesia, the site of Mount Toba, and is meant to drastically reduce the world’s population.

Warner is now questioned by the police chief, who inquires about her finances, specifically the large sum of money in her checking account; it is an inheritance, she tells him. He then offers to release her in exchange for $1.5 million—for the extra “resources” the department will need to conduct a thorough search for the missing children. She agrees.

Inside the secret safe room, Cohen monitors Clocktower’s operatives scattered around Jakarta, wondering when they will attack and how much time he has to decipher the coded message.

On a video call with Martin Grey, Dr. Chang speculates about why the children in the research test survived when all the adults died. Grey, Chang’s boss and the “top of the Immari food chain” (72), wonders if the therapy is only effective on subjects with autism. To test Grey’s hypothesis would require more test subjects, but so far the two boys are the only ones with Atlantis gene activation.

At the Jakarta police station, a mysterious man appears and orders the police chief to release Warner or “his organization” will publish compromising photographs of him. The chief complies, releasing Warner into the stranger’s custody. Outside the station, the man and his team, looking like special ops forces, escort Warner into an armored van.