The Secret of Atlantis (Citadel World Book #2)

by Kir Lukovkin

  Spanidis let out a sad sigh.

  “We are entering a new ear. The greatest moment in the history of humanity has come. It is now that our future is being decided as the Reconstruction Period begins. It will take the survivors a long time to carefully restore everything that we managed to destroy and remember all that we have forgotten. To learn that which we did not know.” The architect went quiet for a while, looking ahead of himself intently, and then continued, “The Thermopolis project is entering a new stage. I will make an announcement about our work if the right time comes.”

  The architect disappeared and Rick watched the gigantic Thermopolis from above. The picture was so familiar, as he had once descended from the top of the tower to its bottom in a flying machine. But this time, there was a flowering plain around Thermopolis, which gathered thousands of people and dozens of deadly machines.

  The disembodied voice began to speak again.

  “The Security Council of Nations and the International Armed Forces decided to put their plan for the “liberation of the Thermopoli from an authoritarian regime” into action and sent military detachments to the citadels. Following a short period of negotiations, the soldiers attempted to capture the outer perimeters but came across an energy field of unknown provenance. Archimedes Spanidis was accused of resistance to the world government, but there was no reaction from the architect. The armies then launched a coordinated rocket strike at the perimeters of the towers. The explosions did not harm the walls because the rockets struck the defensive force fields, but they damaged the natural zones and the spaces around the Thermopoli, causing great damage to the environment, so Spanidis openly warned the coalition of retaliatory action. However, the Security Council of Nations only redoubled their efforts, gathering all of their reserves around the towers, but it never got to the stage of active measures. A simultaneous targeted electromagnetic pulse caused the malfunction of all military equipment. The soldiers left the battlefield in shock. All the citadels had stood fast.

  The population of the planet had numbered twenty billion at the beginning of the epidemic, but it was reduced to three by the end of the year.

  The population dropped to one hundred million by the end of the following year.

  Another year after that, and it was reduced to a mere two hundred thousand that had found shelter in the Thermopoli.

  It seemed that the time of humanity had passed. However, once yet another had passed there was not a single incidence of infection. This is the moment which is considered to be a turning point in human history. The Era of Reconstruction was nigh. However, the successful launch of the program required...”

  R

  FIRST, RICK STARTED to feel his body again, but there were multicolored circles swimming before his eyes. He blinked and finally realized that the transmission had been interrupted. He blindly stared ahead of himself, but then he removed his helmet, got out of the char and stood up, getting used to having feelings again. Finally, he pressed the activation button on the terminal, which still had the plastic card issued by the hologram sticking out of it. He had to find out what was required to launch the Reconstruction program.

  However, the terminal only informed him that his session was over.

  “Hey!” Rick exclaimed, slapping the screen.

  No reaction, apart from a message saying “Session interrupted.” Rick breathed heavily and tried to activate the terminal again, but to no avail. Then he tried to switch on the neighboring terminals, but the screens showed messages that access had been blocked. He headed downstairs in frustration. The light in the hall switched on when Rick approached the stand where the hologram appeared.

  “Hey, there was an error up there,” Rick said to the hologram and pointed behind his back. “The session was interrupted. Switch it back on.”

  The hologram silently blinked and smiled, like it did the first time around.

  “Hey!” Rick exclaimed with growing irritation. “Switch it on.”

  “I can't,” the three dimensional projection over the stand shrugged its shoulders in a very natural way.

  “But why?”

  “Because the validity period of your pass has run out.”

  “So what? Issue a new one.”

  “That's not possible.”

  Rick went behind the stand and the hologram started to flicker, but when he took a step back it became clear and turned its face to him. The body of the hologram had no bottom half, with a projection from the stand that emitted a barely perceptible light.”

  “All right,” Rick grunted, deep in thought. “And what if I turn this stand into scrap right now?”

  He demonstratively looked around for something heavy.

  “Don't even think about it!” the hologram replied immediately. “That is against the law!”

  “Oh, really?” Rick made a surprised face. “Come on, I will just write myself a new pass and that'll be that.”

  “You are violating the rules of the Archive!” Panicky notes suddenly appeared in the voice of the hologram. Rick kicked the stand and dug around in the plastic card slot with his fingernail.

  “You will not be successful. A pass is given a unique number which only I can generate.”

  “Then generate it,” Rick demanded, walking back in front of the stand.

  “No,” the hologram replied firmly.

  “Do what I tell you,” Rick hissed, “or I will disassemble you for spare parts!”

  “No. You do not have the requisite authorization. You can destroy me, but you cannot make me break the rules.”

  Rick considered the situation. This was only a program, and artificial image of a human loaded with a particular set of algorithms.

  “Do you obey a strict set of rules?” he asked calmly.

  “Yes.”

  “Who is it that programmed you with them?”

  “I do not divulge information of this kind. You are not a citizen of Atlantis, which means that you do not have full access to the archive.”

  “Atlantis...” Rick muttered, trying to remember the word. “What does that mean?”

  “The validity period of your pass has run out, which is why I can't provide information related to this request.”

  “Can't you just open the question?” Rick shouted, unable to restrain himself again.

  He was answered with a curt “No”.

  “All right,” Rick looked at the hologram angrily. “Then tell me, can I speak to your superiors?”

  The hologram canted its head to the side, studying Rick as it stared at him.

  “Hey!” he waved his hand in front of himself. “Can you hear me or not?”

  “My sensors indicate that you have raised arterial blood pressure and you are breathing at an excessively rapid rate. Please, do not be so stressed out.”

  Rick started to feel concerned — what was this electronic dolt talking about? Why are the pauses between the answers becoming longer? What if the machine was sending requests to an invisible operator and receiving instructions about how to act and what to say? He slowly backed away to the corridor that led to the steps into the basement.

  “Are you leaving already?” the hologram asked in surprise, smiling pleasantly. “I apologize if I was unable to help.”

  “It's nothing,” Rick waved it away, glancing over his shoulder occasionally.

  “Are you still experiencing feelings of anger and aggression?”

  Rick increased his pace, but still tried to keep an eye on the hologram.

  “Are you being overcome with rage and anger towards those that are around you?” the words kept coming from the stand. “Do you feel the desire to destroy something, causing irreparable harm? Didn't you want to destroy me? Are you suffering from a headache? Do you have a prickling feeling in the region of your...”

  Rick did not listen to any more of this and ran out into the corridor, descending into the basement and getting out into the street the same way as he entered the informatorium.

  The sliv
er of sky between the buildings had become noticeably brighter. That meant that morning was coming and he had to be quick and return to the place where he had left his companions. He set off at a run down the street — he had to move fast so that he would not lose warmth.

  The night had been freezing so the wet snow that had fallen was covered with an icy layer and steam came out of his mouth. Rick ran to the end of the quarter, noticed his own tracks and turned onto another street, turning yet again when he reached the crossroads, stopping to look around again once he had passed two buildings.

  Mother Darkness, the tracks were no longer there. The area looked familiar, but... The building he saw there did not exist when he was walking towards the informatorium. He came back to the previous crossroads and looked for the signs, which had disappeared somewhere.

  Right... Getting lost was all he needed. What would Black Ant and the rest of them think?

  The sky painted itself red, so the day promised to be clear and frosty. Rick rubbed his hands, jumped up in down in place and then stood still. The Citadel! How could he not have guessed? He ran between the buildings and oriented himself by looking at the Citadel, which towered majestically over the city.

  Now, everything was fine. Rick clapped his hands happily, clenched his fists and ran into the lane, which led him to a familiar street where he immediately noticed the places he had been to before. It was just around the corner from the place where his companions had made camp.

  He soon ran onto the small square that had the squat structure on the edge. Rick let out a deep breath happily, as he hurried over the square, but he stopped stock still after he took two steps. The smell of smoke hung in the air. Rick looked around and noticed the remains of a bonfire in the other corner of the square.

  How was he to understand this? It was fine if someone started a fire in the wastelands, and it as quite natural, but how was he to understand this happening in the city where there is no firewood or any need for it?

  An unpleasant chill ran down his spine. Rick slowly turned around, looking for anything unusual that did not fit into the usual picture of the world and his eye stopped at the door to the structure where his companions had spent that night. It was slightly ajar.

  Only a moment before, the door had been closed.

  “Hey, Black Ant!” Rick called out. “Klaus!”

  The head of the boy poked out of the open door. His face looked as if he had just been sleeping, with a tired look on his face. Why did he not walk outside, why did he only look out, as if someone was holding him behind the wall?

  Rick felt something hard poke into his back and turned around sharply.

  Paul was standing in front of him.

  “Rule number one,” the former acolyte stated. “Always be alert.”

  “You? But...”

  “How?” Paul finished his question for him and put his shocker away in its holster. “Very easily. I learn fast.”

  His white hair shone in the rays of the rising sun and his eyes glistened with excitement. He was dressed in the gray uniform of the Division with a corporal's insignia.

  “How did you get here?” Rick never noticed the mocking tone of Paul's voice. “Why are you wearing the uniform of the Division?”

  Paul canted his head to the side. Rick noticed how much his appearance had changed. His facial features, which had once been smooth and childlike had become more defined and rough and the greatest difference was in his eyes, which were hard and imperious, like those of the commanders of the...

  This was when Rick finally realized that the Division uniform that Paul was wearing was no random trophy and that the former acolyte who used to be a confused and scared boy was now a corporal of the Division and a deputy platoon commander, like Rick before him.

  With the edge of his gaze, he noticed movement in the square. He turned his head and saw soldiers coming out of the buildings and side streets. More and more of them came, tough looking men with grim faces and hard eyes.

  Black Ant was pushed outside, followed by Lucio who had a twisted smirk on his face as he saluted theatrically. Rick gritted his teeth in impotent anger and looked at Paul again.

  “You know,” Paul said, “I used to think that you were an envoy of the devil. What a stupid boy I was.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “Rick, you were absolutely right about the outside world. It isn't the way I imagined it at all!” Paul moved his head to indicate all around him. “It is much greater and more interesting. All of these buildings and mechanisms of the Ancients, their machines and their weapons...” He patted the holster with the shocker on his hip. “You were asking how I... how we got here? Simple. We just walked in here. We followed you, clearing our way with fire! But how did you get in here? How did you open the passage? That's the question that concerns me.”

  Rick stayed silent. Paul waited awhile and then prodded him, “I am waiting for an answer.”

  Rick kept looking at him, waiting to see how it would all end.

  “Answer me!” Paul shouted. “Don't make me use force against you!”

  “Oh! I'm impressed,” Rick said with surprise. “I believe the Division has made a man out of you.”

  Paul choked with rage and drew his shocker.

  “You're mocking me!” He waved the weapon in front of Rick's face, but then lowered his hand and added, “No matter. You won't even think about joking soon.”

  “Listen, Paul,” Rick glanced back at Black Ant and Lucio. “Do you really think that I...”

  “Silence!” Paul ordered furiously. “I have understood it all from the very beginning now. You were leading me on and using me for your own purposes. Yes! You were using me as a shield and manipulating me just as well as Kiernan. You abandoned me to be torn apart by those metal spheres at the first sign of danger!”

  “Are you talking about the rollers on the highway? It all happened too quickly and...”

  “Oh, leave me out of it!” Paul grimaced. “What happened, happened and I am even glad that this is the way it turned out. I've got rid of my fear and I can now look any enemy in the eye.”

  “Are we actually enemies?”

  Paul looked at Rick angrily for a while and then declared, “Right then, you don't want to answer.” He nodded to Lucio and he brought Black Ant up to them. “What about this?”

  Paul put the shocker to the temple of the boy.

  “Don't touch him!” Rick clenched his fists, tried to move towards them, but he was grabbed by the arms from behind by the soldiers. “We... we went through the gates of the lower levels using the keys of the people from segment F.”

  Paul immediately became animated.

  “See? That's better already. Looks like you know how to give clear answers. Here's a new question — why did you leave your companions here? Where was it you went yourself?”

  “I was looking for the answers to my questions in the informatorium.”

  “Did you find them?”

  “No, a faulty ghost-machine sent me away.”

  “Hmm, a ghost-machine. You mean a hologram like the one we saw on the way to the city?”

  Rick nodded.

  “I see.” Paul scratched his forehead with the barrel of the shocker. “So where were you off to with a group of these lowlifes?” he nodded at the Black Ant.

  “I think that you know. My goal is the core and these people you call lowlifes lost their homes because of the soldiers. I promised to help them and I am true to my word. What about you? How do you explain your behavior?”

  “You're a deserter. You have no right to question me.”

  “Is that the way it is?” Rick chuckled. “That's a shame. I really wanted to know what your Holy Maus looked like in your Retreat to understand why you believe in him. Especially you. Maybe you can draw him? You haven't forgotten how to draw yet, have you?”

  Paul gritted his teeth and his face got flushed red with blood.

  “Follow me,” he ordered.

  They
gray ones surrounded Rick and Black Ant. Paul turned on his heels and strode off down the street, holding his back straight.

  “How are you, young man?” Rick asked Black Ant.

  He did not like the way Black Ant looked. They might have punished the boy somehow and drugged him with some sort of substance as he looked ill, still weak and sleepy.

  “Where are the others? Did the gray ones...”

  Rick was struck hard on the back with the stock of a blaster and he nearly fell. When he looked around, Lucio promised that if he opened his mouth again, they would beat the boy to death.

  They walked in the direction opposite to the informatorium, escorted by the soldiers. Rick had no other reference points, but at least he had something so he would not have explain himself if the soldiers decided to check his words and send him into the archive to speak to the hologram.

  They soon heard a rumble ahead. Rick became alarmed, trying to determine the source of the noise, but the soldiers were calm. Several minutes later, they came out onto the main highway, which streamed upwards on support pillars to the base of the Citadel. Wheeled vehicles growled and chugged on the highway. Some of the vehicles had multi-barreled weapons mounted on them. Their ammunition belts glinted in the sun and loud orders came from all sides. Everything was ordered according to the will of the commanders.

  “Move it!” Paul shouted, without turning around and waved his hand, hurrying his followers along.

  The amount of equipment was impressive, as Rick counted five cargo trucks with heavy weapons and three angular armored cars. He could see another somewhere behind his back by the turn, but it was too far away so he could not make it out clearly.

  When Paul led the group across the highway and turned towards a high-rise building, the engines of the cargo trucks roared, blew caustic black exhaust fumes into the air and started to crawl along to the base of the tower, aiming their weapons at it.

  Paul entered the building and they brought Rick inside after him. Black Ant and the rest of the convoy stayed in the street. Following a short elevator ride, Rick and Paul entered and open balcony with a view of the tower and the city. A broad shouldered officer stood by the balustrade with his back turned to them and gold star insignia on one of his shoulders.