The Atlantis Gene

Warner wakes up in a large room which slowly fills with warm air. She believes she may in a decontamination chamber. As feeling gradually returns to her body, she sheds the protective suit and surveys her surroundings. Warner steps through a door at the end of the chamber and immediately hears approaching footsteps.

Vale is skeptical that the man in the room with him is Patrick Pierce. He tries to reconstruct Pierce’s timeline to see if the years add up. After Pierce is resurrected from the hibernation tube in 1978—and assumes the name Tom Warner—historical records report his disappearance in 1985. This means he would have been living in the structure since then. As Pierce questions Vale, Vale mentions Warner and her genetics research, but Pierce is confused, thinking his daughter is still six years old. He believes he’s only been in “the tombs” for a month.

The footsteps that Warner hears in the corridor are Adi and Surya. They grab her arms and urge her to follow. “‘They’re coming’” (406), they cry. Meanwhile, Sloane rappels down into the open cavern and walks easily past the Bell and through the portal.