Read Connexion : The Atlantis Project, Book.1 for Free Online Page B

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