Temple of the Gods

anyone it considered a potential opponent — over two million people.’

‘So that’s why the Group wants control of earth energy?’ Nina asked. ‘To use as a weapon?’

To her surprise, he chuckled. ‘No, no. Nothing that crude.’ His smile rapidly faded. ‘Are you familiar with the theory of exogenesis?’

The sudden change of subject left her briefly bewildered. ‘Uh… the basics, I guess. It’s the idea that the earth was seeded with the building blocks of life by comets and meteorites. Or, if you take things a step further, there’s the concept of panspermia — that life itself was actually brought to earth after developing somewhere else.’ Eddie tried to contain a smirk. ‘Oh, God,’ she said impatiently. ‘What?’

‘Come on. Panspermia?’

His past and current wives were briefly united in eye-rolling disapproval. ‘He never changes, does he?’ Sophia sighed.

‘I’m afraid not,’ Nina replied. Eddie just shrugged. She turned back to Glas. ‘The “sky stone” that ultimately caused Atlantis’s destruction, the meteorite — you think it was carrying exogenesitic material?’

‘Is that even a real word?’ Eddie said.

‘Shush!’

Glas nodded. ‘Life, we believe, was brought to this planet four billion years ago by a meteorite. One single, very specific meteorite. It contained not only the naturally superconducting metal needed to channel an earth energy reaction, but also the proto-DNA from which all life on the planet evolved. The unmutated, pure, original form.’

The words gave Nina an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu. ‘That… that sounds an awful lot like Kristian Frost’s plan,’ she said. ‘To use a sample of pure Atlantean DNA to create a biological weapon.’

‘I know.’

‘You know, or the Group knows?’

‘Both. The Group considered Kristian Frost for membership, but chose not to approach him — partly because we distrusted his motives, but also because we knew the Brotherhood of Selasphoros was working against him. If the Group had known his true intentions before you uncovered them, it would have eliminated the threat.’

‘Eliminated him, you mean. Like you tried to eliminate me.’

‘I’m afraid that was the most direct way of stopping the Group’s plan. They are well protected, but you were the weak link in the chain. I would apologise, but I was doing what I believed necessary for the future of the world.’

‘You’ve got one idea for the world’s future,’ Eddie said angrily, ‘and the Group’s got another. So what are they?’ He raised the gun again. ‘Give me a reason why yours is so great and theirs is so terrible.’

‘As you wish.’ Again, Glas seemed unconcerned by the threat facing him, suffused by a calm confidence: the air of a man who believed utterly in his views and expected others to fall into line with them. ‘It is about… freedom.’

‘Freedom?’ said Nina. ‘That’s… kinda vague. What sort of freedom? Freedom of expression, of movement, of thought, Jonathan Franzen’s book, what?’

‘Every kind of freedom. That is how the Group seeks to eliminate conflict, Dr Wilde. Its goal is nothing less than the elimination of free will. Total control of every human being on the planet, now and for ever.’

Eddie frowned. ‘How? Using earth energy as a doomsday weapon — “do what we say or we’ll kill you”?’

‘As I said, they are not that crude. Earth energy is only of minor interest to them. It is the DNA in the meteorite that they want. It’s the key to their plans — to everything.’ His voice, his entire attitude, took on a new intensity. ‘The Group’s power does not come only from money. It comes from knowledge — from information. Some of that knowledge has come from people you have encountered. The creation of a genetically engineered virus by the Frosts. The earth energy technology built by Jack Mitchell. Khalid Osir’s life- prolonging yeast from the Pyramid of Osiris. Even the mass of data accumulated by Pramesh and Vanita Khoil’s computers passed through their hands. All of it has helped form their ultimate plan, a plan they are now ready to carry out… a plan that depends on you.’

Nina was unnerved by the list of enemies past — and the idea that even after their defeats, they were still dangerous in the present. ‘So they need me to find the meteorite before they can do whatever they mean to do. How about you tell us what that actually is?’

‘The implementation will be very complex, but the idea is extremely simple.’ Glas rotated his chair to face the ocean beyond the windows. ‘Every single organism on the planet descends from the DNA brought to earth by the Atlantean meteorite — the sky stone, as they called it. The genetic structures of modern life, everything from fish —’ he gestured towards a porthole as an example flitted past — ‘to humans, are far more complicated after billions of years of mutation and evolution, but locked inside them is still that original code. Just as Kristian Frost needed a sample of pure Atlantean DNA as a reference point from which to create his virus, so the Group needs to find the pure DNA of the planet’s first life to create theirs.’

‘They’re making a virus?’ said Eddie in alarm.

Glas turned back to his audience. ‘Not in the same way as Frost. His was a lethal weapon; theirs will be more subtle. It won’t kill people — at least, not intentionally. There will almost certainly be a percentage of people who suffer lethal side effects from the infection, however.’

‘But — but even one per cent of the world’s population would still be tens of millions of people,’ Nina pointed out.

‘Yes. And the Group considers that acceptable. But killing people is not the purpose of the virus. Instead, it will change them.’

‘Change them how?’ she asked, feeling increasingly chilled.

‘Certain behavioural traits are genetic. Yes,’ he said, raising a hand as if to forestall an objection, ‘I know that behaviour is also influenced by environment, but at a fundamental level some aspects are set from the moment of conception. Such as intelligence, or,’ his eyes briefly flicked from Nina to Eddie, ‘aggression.’

‘Did I just get insulted there?’ said Eddie. ‘Not a smart thing to do to a man holding a gun.’

‘On the contrary, I think you just proved his point,’ Sophia told him.

‘One key trait,’ continued Glas, ignoring the interruption, ‘is obedience. You see it in animals; can a dog be easily trained, or will it constantly rebel and fight? The same is true of people. There are natural leaders, and natural followers, but to different degrees. What the Group intends to do is use a manufactured retrovirus to infect and alter the living human genome and strengthen those genes responsible for passive, obedient behaviour at the expense of others likely to encourage resistance. These traits will be passed down through successive generations, until the whole world will happily accept the control of a self-chosen ruling elite.’

Silence followed the revelation. ‘That sounds… hard to believe,’ Eddie eventually managed.

‘You think so?’ Glas turned again, staring out into the darkness. ‘Anyone can kill another person. Controlling another person is harder. If they succeed, though, the Group will control everyone beneath them — and their subjects will willingly obey, because they have no choice. Obedience will be programmed into their genes, as inescapable as the colour of their skin. To end conflict, the price will be freedom.’ He looked back at them. ‘Is that a price you are willing to pay?’

Nina didn’t answer, stunned by the implications of Glas’s words. If he were telling the truth, then from birth to death a person would be trapped in a life of placid submission to an authority over which they had no control, in which they had no voice. And worse, they would meekly accept such a system as the norm — as the only way to live. It was authoritarianism to a monstrous degree, a horrific Brave New World with no hope, or even thought, of escape or rebellion.

The image of Lola, heavy with her impending child, sprang into her mind. If the Group achieved their goal, the baby would face a grim future where every path had been mapped out in advance by someone else. No choices, no opportunity to find its own way through life…

‘Can they actually do it?’ she demanded. ‘I mean, if they got hold of the meteorite, and assuming it really is possible, how long would it take them to carry out this plan? Years? Months?’

‘Weeks,’ Glas told her.

‘Yeah, I was afraid you’d say that.’

‘Could be worse, could’ve been days,’ Eddie offered.

‘They’ve already done a lot of the preliminary work,’ Sophia said, stepping forward, ‘by farming it out to genetic research companies they control — in pieces, so nobody sees the full picture.’