Connexion : The Atlantis Project, Book.1 (5 page)

“
Do you think you’re allowed to smoke
here? Ask him if you can smoke in the recreation areas.”

“I guess I’ve never known you to hold on for
so long. I wasn’t thinking about it, but now that you mention it,
Jacques, the idea of being completely nicotine-deprived doesn’t
thrill me.”

“Good! Go on then, ask him the question!”

They were entering the canteen. A sign stood
before them, obviously strategically placed. It said in large
letters: SMOKING IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED IN THE CANTEEN.

“
If it’s prohibited in the canteen then it
must be permitted elsewhere. Ask him.”

Charlie answered softly, “You’re wearing me
out, carrying on like a kid. Take some responsibility – ask him
yourself!”

“Is something wrong, Gentlemen?”

Clementine quickly answered for them, afraid
that Giuseppe might discover Jacques’ new gift. “No, no, nothing.
Everything’s fine. Charlie sometimes has moments of confusion when
he talks to himself.”

Jacques quickly added, “Yes, he sometimes
goes a bit weird, but he soon comes round again.” Then he spoke to
his brother again in a loud voice, adopting an obviously
condescending tone, “Don’t stress! If you’re worried about whether
smoking is allowed on the base, you just need to ask. I’m sure
Giuseppe would be quite happy to answer, wouldn’t you,
Giuseppe?”

“Yes, of course. Don’t worry about that.
There are specially designated areas for smoking. However, only
electronic cigarettes are permitted here. You can pick one up from
the pavilion’s concierge.”

Charlie wore a sardonic smile, pleased to
have found some revenge for the way his brother had just thumbed
his nose at him. Jacques was clearly unhappy with the idea of
having to forgo real tobacco. Clementine, who was used to their
pranks, smiled broadly for the first time in a long while, to the
great pleasure of the twins, who had been starting to miss their
usual audience.

Inside, the canteen was quite pleasant. A
dozen men were eating in a rather noisy atmosphere. Through the
hubbub of conversation it was possible to distinguish several
languages. The loudest group were the Italians, who had put several
tables together in the middle of the room. A little off to the
side, a small group of Asians were eating at one table, while a
Hispanic-looking man, sitting alone, seemed to be engrossed in
reading his book.

5 FRANCISCO

Little by little, the noise subsided and all
eyes turned toward the twins. Giuseppe, who preceded them, headed
for the table of Italians.

“Follow me, I will introduce you. Gentlemen,
may I introduce to you Jacques and Charlie. They are new to the
base and will be staying in your pavilion. Their help will be of
great value to us. I’m relying on you to give them a warm welcome,
along with their friend, Clementine, who is accompanying them.”

One of the men stood to his feet and spoke to
Clementine, “Please have a seat. Come and join us, along with your
friends.” Two others quickly followed suit, giving up their seats
to welcome the new arrivals.

“Please be seated. Mario will make the
introductions. I must leave you for a moment,” said Giuseppe. He
moved away immediately in the direction of the man with the book.
The four Asians came over to join in the introductions. During all
this time, the lone man had not looked up from his book. Giuseppe
took a chair and sat down on his left. The two men did not look at
each other. Giuseppe seemed to be speaking to him, but their eyes
never met.

“Francisco, I have come with the Siamese
twins. They are accompanied by their friend, a young woman who
cares for them. She seems very discreet.”

Francisco, still looking at his book,
answered, “There are three of them?”

“You could say that, yes.”

“That’s inconvenient,” replied Francisco. “I
need to know whether I should consider that there are three of
them, or whether I should act as if they were only two. I need to
know, you understand? It’s important to me. You know what I’m like,
don’t you? You’ve known me for a while now. You must realize that I
need you to be precise.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to them.
Besides, they both seem like very kind people.”

“Okay then. You can count on me. I was
expecting two brothers, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll think of them
as three people. I’ll get used to it.”

“Are you ready to meet them?”

“Yes. Bring them over. I’ll welcome them.”
Francisco finally looked over toward the twins. Giuseppe stood up
again to rejoin the group, by now very lively.

“Well, I think we’ll continue the
introductions later. Our guests must be exhausted after their long
trip. Please come with me; I must introduce you to Francisco. Then
I will show you to your rooms.”

Before joining Francisco, Giuseppe took
Clementine and the twins aside, to prepare them for the
meeting.

“Before I introduce you, there are one or two
little things you should know about Francisco. He is autistic. In
fact, to be precise, he has an unusual form of autism which affords
him some special abilities. In certain areas he is an
extraordinarily intelligent man. Without him, our cybernetic
research program could not continue. Unfortunately, his condition
makes communication a little difficult. He probably will not look
at you, or perhaps only fleetingly. Your coming is a source of
anxiety for him – as is any new encounter – but if you do not
startle him, he will quickly get used to you.”

“Yes, I understand,” answered Charlie. “Don’t
worry; we’ll do our best not to startle him. Jacques and I have
spent quite some time wandering the corridors of insanity.”

Giuseppe, very concerned by what he had just
heard, asked a little sharply, “Just what exactly do you mean?”

Jacques replied quickly, “My brother simply
means that, in light of our very unusual condition, we have had to
spend many years in hospital, where we have been in the company,
enjoyable or otherwise, of other patients in the neurosurgical
department. Other than that, there’s nothing to worry about, even
though I must admit that it’s not always easy to be in harmony with
oneself when there are two us making decisions.”

Then he addressed Charlie internally to
reprove him, “
You know I don’t like you talking about
that!”

“I see. Come along,” replied Giuseppe, still
rather taken aback by what he had just heard.

Francisco stood waiting at his table. He
smiled and extended his hand, all the while his eyes looking into
space. His book lay on the table. Its cover read: “The
Chess-player”.

“That’s an excellent book you have there,”
said Charlie. “I’ve read it and re-read it for years. It
is
Stefan Zweig’s novel, isn’t it?”

Francisco, flustered, took the book and
slipped it into the pocket of his jacket. “Yes, it is. Welcome. My
name is Francisco. I turned thirty-six years old, twenty-three days
and seven hours ago. I earned a PhD in Physics twelve years ago
from Paris-Diderot University and a PhD in the History of Ancient
Civilizations from Paris-Vincennes University five years ago. Since
then, I have been doing research work with Giuseppe. He has told me
a lot about you.”

Jacques spoke internally to Charlie, in a
sarcastic tone,
“Well! I think you two are going to get on
marvelously well together! This is all very interesting, but I
don’t understand why we still don’t know what we’re doing here; or
how they can have heard of a pair of poor old handicapped guys like
you and me.”

“We are flattered that scientists such as
yourselves are showing such interest in us, but now my brother and
I would like to know the reason for our presence here,” said
Charlie, looking back and forth from Giuseppe to Francisco. “How
can we possibly be of service to you?”

“I understand your impatience,” answered
Giuseppe. “Tomorrow I will come and pick you up at 6:30 am. We will
go with Francisco to the research center. But for now, let me show
you to your rooms. Ah! I almost forgot; I still need to introduce
you to Émile, the concierge. He will give you your electronic
cigarette and your identity codes.”

6 VICTOR

The next day, in a small room in the research
center, Giuseppe was seated opposite the twins and Clementine.
Slightly off to the side, Francisco was franticly tapping away on a
tablet which he held in his lap. The room was fairly austere. In
fact, there was nothing more than a table and chairs surrounded by
four, pale gray walls. The only light came from the hundreds of
little diodes set in the suspended ceiling.

“Well! The time has come for me to provide
you with some more specific information”, announced Giuseppe.
“First of all, you must realize that very few people know of the
existence of this subterranean base. Bringing you here was
absolutely intentional. Following the explosion you were
hospitalized in the neurosurgical department of Professor
Sam-Yong.” He turned to Jacques, “During the examinations carried
out on you, neuroimaging showed the activation of the cerebral
areas used for language, although at that time your head remained
inert. The blood flow and electrical activity of your neural
pathways correlated to similar activity in your brother’s
brain.”

After a brief pause, he spoke again, “You are
telepathic, aren’t you? Has this always been so?”

Eventually, Charlie spoke up, getting in
before Jacques. “Yes, I think you could put it like that. This
phenomenon occurred after the explosion, just when I thought I’d
lost Jacques forever. To be honest, I was very surprised when I
heard his voice speaking to me internally. At first I thought I was
hallucinating, but it wasn’t the case. This sort of gift, that you
call telepathy, has remained despite my brother’s recovery. To be
precise, Jacques alone has the gift. I can only hear him but I
can’t answer, apart from in the usual way. This had never happened
to us before.”

Jacques spoke internally to Charlie, in an
accusing tone,
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing,
Charlie? The idea of being considered as guinea-pigs by a
cybernetic research team does not thrill me at all!”

Giuseppe turned to Francisco. “Francisco, now
that we have confirmation, I think you can introduce them to
Victor.”

Francisco finally looked up from his tablet
and took them over to a door which opened onto another, entirely
glassed-in room. The tall windows sloped inwards at the bottom, and
being opaque, it was impossible to see through them. The whole room
was filled with an intense blue light.

Francisco stood facing the central window.
Again, he tapped on his tablet then looked up. The opacity of the
windows gradually cleared, revealing below them the naked body of a
giant, whose anatomy resembled that of a man. His thick, gray skin
covered an enormous body, with an impressive muscle structure. The
dimensions of this being were truly gigantic; more than ten times
that of a human, at least. His massive, heavy body lay on a
metallic platform similar to the one on the raised circle in the
center of Pavilion 28. His head was completely covered by a white
helmet, with a multitude of tubes and cables leading to a small
console nearby. The room where the giant lay was similar in every
way to the steel domes in which the pavilions had been built, but
this one seemed to have been emptied of its contents. All that
remained was the huge metal platform in its center. Everything was
bathed in a violet-blue atmosphere generated by the LED lights
covering the whole surface of the dome.

“This is Victor!”

7 REVELATIONS

Back in the smaller adjoining room, Giuseppe,
Francisco, Clementine and the twins had returned to their seats.
Francisco was typing away again, his eyes riveted to the tablet,
while Giuseppe launched into a long monologue.

“Victor is in hibernation. He was discovered
nearly 20 years ago at the same time as the subterranean cave where
this base has been set up. In the beginning, the High Command’s
intention was to build a huge military complex capable of housing
the nation’s lifeblood in the event of a cataclysm of nuclear or
natural origin. This decision was made following an increase in the
threats to human existence. Today, the threat of nuclear war is not
the only significant risk we face. The extremely rapid spread of
emerging viruses and pathogens on a global scale is now the primary
cause for concern. Rather than terrorism, which the media have been
milking for years, our worst enemies are increased population
density and the ability of individuals to travel very quickly from
one part of the world to another. It is not a question of
whether
a global pandemic will one day threaten the
existence of humanity, but simply
when
it will happen. So,
this base is first and foremost a place for experimentation and
isolation. It is a sort of quarantine center, designed to help us
overcome a hypothetical crisis. One of our missions is also to
fine-tune new medical technology.

“The cave was discovered during oil
exploration works. Probes revealed the existence of a vast air
pocket in the rock of the ocean floor. Usually this type of cavity
is at least partially flooded, but strangely, that was not the case
here. Initial analysis even showed that the gas composition of this
air pocket was identical to that of the air we breathe above
ground. To penetrate here, we had to drill a tunnel, taking care
not to cause leaks which would have let seawater inside the cave.
In the very first days of exploration we discovered these domes;
made of an alloy unknown on Earth. In the one where we are now
seated, we found Victor. This giant is nearly eighteen meters tall
and weighs several tons. Given his anatomy and muscle structure, he
must possess Herculean strength. Since that day, our scientists
have used the most advanced technology to try and uncover the
mystery of his presence here. Unfortunately, Victor has never been
able to come out of the profound sleep he is engulfed in. To be
honest, we do not even know how long he has been here, and even
less where he came from. However, today’s technology has
significantly advanced, particularly in the area of neuroscience
and cybernetics. Recent research has allowed us to ascertain that
Victor’s brain activity is not completely inexistent. The explosion
you were victims of, the origin of which is still unknown, greatly
increased the amplitude of this residual electrical activity.”