The Atlantis Gene: A Thriller by A. G. Riddle

you”.
    “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: Clocktower has been compromised.”
    You could hear a pin drop in the room.
    “And we’re under attack. I received reports earlier today that several cells, including Cape Town, Mar del Plata, and Karachi have been completely destroyed. Several other stations are fighting for their lives as we speak.”
    People began talking in low tones. Some shouted questions.
    “Hold on, everybody. It gets worse. I’m afraid the enemy we’re fighting is one of our own. Here’s what we know at this point: several days ago, David Vale, along with several other station chiefs, organized a meeting of all the Chief Analysts. Obviously this is strictly against protocol. We believe they told the analysts there was some new threat. We now know that over half the analysts never returned from the conference. The entire charade was a mass-execution, we believe, to cripple our intelligence analysis before this larger attack. The analysts who returned to their cells are now actively working against Clocktower.”
    Tarea surveyed the doubtful looks around the room. “Look, I know this is hard to believe, and like you, I don’t want to believe it. I didn’t believe, not until this morning, when David spread our field operatives out throughout the city. Think about it — he’s spreading us out so we can’t defend against an attack. He’s preparing to take down Jakarta Station, it’s only a matter of time.”
    “Why?” someone said. “He wouldn’t do that,” another person said.
    “I asked the same question. I said the same thing,” Tarea said. “He recruited me, I served with him, I know him. But there’s a lot about David Vale we still don’t understand. We all come to Clocktower for our own reasons. From what we can gather, David was seriously injured during the attacks on 9/11. I didn’t know that until today. Since then, he’s harbored a conspiracy theory about 9/11, some wild ideas about military contractors instigating the attack for their own gain. He may even be the victim of a lie himself. Someone could be using him. Either way, he’s sick, turned around. And he’s brought a lot of other people into the conspiracy. We think Josh Cohen has returned from the analyst conference and is working with the Chief.”
    Everyone was silent, seeming to take the news in. A solider at one of the safe houses on the video screen said, “What’s the operation? Bring him in?”
    “That may not be possible. He’ll fight to the end. The priority is to minimize the collateral damage. And we’re going to have some help. Immari Security has offered to lend us some men. They are aware of the situation and they want to see this contained as much as we do — it seems Immari is the target of David’s vendetta. We know that David has captured a scientist who works on an Immari-funded project. She could be a co-conspirator or a victim in his plans; we’re not sure yet. The plan is to recover the woman, a Dr. Katherine Warner, and neutralize the Chief.”

CHAPTER 20
    Secure Comms Room
Clocktower Station HQ
Jakarta, Indonesia
    Josh waited nervously to find out whether his theory about the coded message David had given him was correct. It was Josh’s best idea, really his only idea.
    He tried not to stare at the main computer screen on the long wall of the glass room. For the last thirty minutes, the screen had said the same thing: Searching…
    He glanced at the two screens beside it: a video feed of the door outside and the city map with 24 red dots representing Clocktower Jakarta’s field operatives. He didn’t know which display made him more nervous. They might as well be giant countdown screens, ticking away the seconds to his death and some terrible, unknown catastrophe… While the other screen still simply said “Searching…”
    Should the search have taken this long? What if he was wasting time?
    Something else made him nervous. He glanced at the field box