Andy McDermott - The Hunt For Atlantis

“See you,” said Nina, looking back at the map. At its largest, the Gulf of Cádiz ’s northern and southern coasts were about three hundred miles apart. Smaller than Atlantis as described by Plato-but the ancient philosopher’s figures had already been proven wrong once before, thrown off by the conversion from the odd Atlantean numerical system into decimal. The actual size would be, at most, roughly two thirds of what Plato had said-and that was assuming that an Atlantean stadium was the same size as a Greek one, which now seemed unlikely. If the temple in the jungle were an exact replica of the original, then one Atlantean stadium-the length of the Temple of Poseidon -was only four hundred feet long, considerably smaller than its Hellenic counterpart.

The combined reductions in scale brought the size of Atlantis down to approximately 125 miles in length, and under a hundred wide. Which would easily fit within the Gulf-and more important, could be located on the relative shallows of the continental shelf before the seabed plunged away to the abyssal depths of the Atlantic itself. The Brotherhood’s search would be well off target.

The Brotherhood… She stared silently at the map.

“What’s on your mind?” Kari asked.

“I was thinking about the Brotherhood. About Qobras.” She looked up at Kari. “Who is this guy? Why is he so desperate to stop us from finding Atlantis?” A memory creased her brow, something Starkman had said. “Or rather, why’s he so desperate to stop you and your father from finding it?”

“I…” Kari’s expression became conflicted.

“What? Kari, what is it?”

Kari gestured at a nearby sofa. “Nina, there’s something I want to tell you.”

Unsettled, Nina sat, Kari next to her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong , it’s just… There’s something else that my father and I are looking for as well as Atlantis itself.”

“Something else?” Nina said. “What else could there be?”

“This might sound strange, but… finding Atlantis is only the beginning of what we’re doing. You know that the Frost Foundation has been involved in medical aid programs all around the world?” Nina nodded. “We’ve also been taking genetic samples from as many different peoples as we could. Blood tests.”

Nina’s hand went to the little mark on her arm where she had been vaccinated before leaving for Iran, what seemed like years before.

“Yes, you too,” Kari said. “Please don’t make any judgments before I’ve told you everything! Everything we’ve done has been for a very good reason.”

“You tested my DNA?” asked Nina, shocked. “Without telling me?”

“We had to keep it a secret. Please , let me explain! Please?”

“Go on,” Nina told her, tight-lipped.

“What my father and I discovered-more my father; he had already found the first evidence while I was still a child-was that there is a particular genetic marker that is only present in approximately one person in every hundred. It’s rare-but it’s also widespread. We found it all over the world. We think…” Kari paused, as if reluctant to reveal a long-held secret. “We believe this genetic marker can be traced all the way back to the Atlanteans. In other words, those people who have that particular sequence of genes within their DNA-”

“They’re the descendants of the Atlanteans?”

Kari nodded. “Precisely. Atlantis may have fallen, but its people had an empire that wouldn’t be equaled for another nine thousand years. They became a diaspora, spreading throughout their former lands-and beyond. We found concentrations as far afield as Namibia, Tibet, Peru… and Norway.”

“ Norway?”

“Yes.” Kari took Nina by the hands. “Nina, the Atlanteans were never lost. They were here among us all along. They are us. My father and I, we have the marker in our DNA.” She looked straight into Nina’s eyes. “And so do you.”

“ Me? But…”

“You’re one of us , Nina. You’re a descendant of the Atlanteans. That’s what we’re trying to find. Not just ancient ruins- but people , who are alive today.”

Nina’s head swam. She wanted to pull her hands away from Kari, but couldn’t. As confused and overwhelmed as she felt, the analytical, scientific part of her mind demanded to know more. “How?”

“We think that finding Atlantis will help us retrace the expansion of the diaspora. We’ve already seen how the Atlanteans tried to reproduce their civilization in Brazil -we believe there are other locations where they did the same. The map in the temple showed how far they had explored, all the way to Asia. We want to find those places, follow their paths. Maybe even-”

“Find their descendants?”

“The Indians wanted to know if I was one of the ‘old ones.’ There’s obviously some racial memory there, stories passed down through the generations.”

“So I guess at least we know the Atlanteans were blonds,” said Nina, managing a brief half-smile. Kari smiled back. “So where does Qobras fit into this?”

Kari’s face turned grim. “From what we’ve been able to find out, he considers the Atlantean descendants a threat.”

“Are they?”

“You tell me. You are one.”

Nina didn’t have an answer to that. “So what’s his problem with them-with us?” she asked instead. “Does he know about the DNA marker?”

“Almost certainly. About a year ago, we learned he had a mole working in our genetic research institute, though my father thinks he’s been spying on us for much longer. It’s obvious now that Qobras will go to any lengths to stop us from finding Atlantis-and the closer we get, the more desperate he’ll become.”

Nina sucked in her cheeks nervously. “I’m kind of starting to wish I’d gotten into UFOs or Bigfoot rather than Atlantis.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Kari squeezed her hands reassuringly. “Without you, we would never have come this far. And now that we know what the stakes are, we’ll do everything we can to keep you safe.”

Nina looked back at the chart. “Glad to hear it. Although that does assume that we even manage to find Atlantis.”

“If there’s anything down there, the SAR survey will find it.”

“But how are we going to get to it? God knows how deep the sediment will be. And it’s not as if we can just dig it up. Excavations are hard enough even in shallow water, never mind at several hundred feet.”

Kari flashed her a knowing grin. “You haven’t seen our subs yet. They’re quite impressive.”

“Subs? Plural?”

“Starkman was right when he said that the search for Atlantis was more than a mere hobby for my father. More than his businesses, even the work of the foundation, it’s the most important thing in his life.”

“More so than you?”

“It’s just as important to me too.” Nina was about to say that that wasn’t what she meant, but before she could, Kari released her hands. “It will be a while before the first results from the radar survey come in, so…” She gestured at the windows. The hotel looked out across Gibraltar ’s harbor, the Rock itself looming beyond. “Shall we do something?”

Nina shook her head. “I… I don’t know, Kari. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this.”

“Oh. Okay…” Kari sounded disappointed. “If you change your mind…”

“Thanks.”

Kari reluctantly left the room. Nina stayed, staring at the chart.

Not for the first time, she wondered: What the hell have I gotten myself into?

It took another day before the aerial survey yielded any results, and Nina was suffering slightly from cabin fever. Chase made it clear that she was not going to be left unaccompanied outside the hotel; while she enjoyed Chase and Castille’s company, even with Chase’s ribbing, their mere presence hammered home the threat she was facing. Kari tried to get her to go out, but Nina was still in a turmoil over her revelation. She suspected Kari was hurt by her rejection, but she needed time to think, alone.