The Atlantis Prophecy

7

IN THE PANTHEON of modern megalithic architecture, China's new 25-kilometer-long venue for the 2008 Olympic Games-humbly dubbed the "Axis of Human Civilization"-was a sure bet to join America's interstate highway system, Central America's Panama Canal, and Europe's Chunnel as one of the great wonders of the modern world.

But to Serena Serghetti, now standing before the General Assembly, it was an environmental disaster, a state-run catastrophe that was endangering animals, destroying ancient temples, and driving more than a million people from their homes. All because China wanted to show the world that it had come of age.

"Now we have reports of avian influenza-or 'bird flu'-spreading in the squalor of the countryside where the homeless have been exiled," she said. "But the government has refused to even acknowledge the threat of a global health pandemic, let alone help the poorest of its own people."

Naturally, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations didn't see it that way and seemed visibly annoyed. This morning alone he had been forced to deny accusations that his country actively suppressed free speech and systematically imprisoned and executed people to harvest their organs. Now he had to contend with reports of avian flu just weeks before the Olympic Games in Beijing.

"We beg to differ," was all he said through a translator. "The industrialization and development of Beijing has created a rising standard of living for our people and better health care."

"At least allow us to help your needy, Mr. Ambassador."

Serena cited a report on relief efforts following the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the 2005 hurricane that wiped out New Orleans, events that also displaced more than a million people.

"As the head of FEMA has stated, some of the world's problems are just too big for governments," she said. "But the global church-Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox together-is present in more than a million distribution plants worldwide. For food, shelter, vaccines, relief supplies, and helping hands, there's a local church on the ground wherever disaster strikes. And we're ready to help you."

"I am sure you are, Sister Serghetti, but we can take care of our own people," said the Chinese ambassador, and further discussion was tabled.

As Serena returned to her seat, she could think of at least one other person who would beg to differ: Conrad Yeats. She had left him for the work of the Church, the very hope of the world she was proclaiming in this chamber. But in Conrad's mind it was the Church that had denied him her love.

She picked up her bulky but lightweight white earpiece and sat down. Most delegates needed translators from the interpreter booths overhead to follow along. But not Serena, who was fluent in many of the world's languages. She used the earpiece to pick up messages unobtrusively and write them down. Now a voice in Italian told her that the media room said that "Carlton Yardley" from The New Atlantis magazine was there for his scheduled interview with her.

Her heart skipped a beat.

He must have found something, she thought, although she was embarrassed to realize she didn't care if he had nothing to show her but his face. His unshaven, stubbled face.

As soon as she could step outside the chamber and into the crowded visitors' lobby, Serena pulled out her iPhone and called Benito to bring the car out from the private garage. She scanned the cavernous glass atrium. The media line was at the entrance, behind the blue velvet rope. She started walking in that direction when Max Seavers stepped into view, blocking her path to Conrad.

"Serena!" Max said, smiling.

Serena stopped in her tracks.

Before he was tapped by the American president to help with the Department of Defense, Max Seavers had helped her humanitarian efforts in Africa and Asia on a number of occasions by donating vaccines. She couldn't just blow him off now.

"Deja vu, Max. Weren't we standing here just a few days ago with you showing me some rather unusual photographs? What brings you back?"

"Sounding the alarm here and on Capitol Hill about the coming flu pandemic. What about you? I hear you were telling the Chinese where to stick their new dam."

Serena couldn't help glancing over his shoulder toward the media line, where various cameras were set up to catch the comings and goings of dignitaries. She spotted Conrad, and he saw her and motioned.

"I suppose you have an opinion on the new Beijing?" she said as she started walking away from the entrance and toward the delegates lounge.

"A technological marvel," Max said, keeping pace with her. "You've got to give the Chinese credit for that. They've left nothing to chance. Even the date of the opening ceremonies on August eighth was chosen because the number 8 represents good fortune to the Chinese."

"I see: That's the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the new millennium," Serena said, pretending to marvel. "And I used to think three sixes in a row was the devil's number. Tell me, Max, what about the million souls the Olympics are displacing?"

"You mean driving from their homes which had no running water or electricity in the first place?" he said. "Sounds like progress to me."

Serena glanced sideways at him as she walked. "And the destruction of the ancient temples, their history?"

"Obviously the Chinese don't care about their ancient temples as much as you do, Serena. That's because the Chinese are looking to the future. They know that in time some other civilization is going to do the same thing to their Olympic Park that they're doing to those ancient temples."

She came to a halt. "I wonder if you'd feel the same way if these temples were the ones about to be destroyed?" She pointed out toward the Manhattan skyline-away from Conrad in the media area.

Max Seavers followed her finger and smiled. "If it was some act of God-like the tsunami, I'd be devastated. But if it was our government doing the submerging, for the betterment of the country, like the Chinese, then yes. Have you seen this?"

Serena realized he was referring to the nearby display of a model city in the lobby. It was the official Olympic Venue Construction Plan for Beijing. A nameplate read "Axis of Human Civilization." More PR.

"Impressive, Serena, isn't it?"

Serena looked at the model of the city's new Central Axis. The Chinese had successfully constructed a 25-kilometer-long boulevard connecting the new Olympic Park in the north with the Imperial Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in the city center. She noted a stretch of avenue labeled "thousand-year path."

"It's certainly audacious, Max," she said. "This Beijing axis looks like the New Berlin that Hitler never got to build."

Max chuckled. "Funny you should say that. Because it was designed by Albert Speer Jr., the son of the architect who designed the New Berlin for Hitler's grandiose empire, the 'world capital Germania,' the capital of the so-called Thousand Year Reich."

Serena said, "You're joking."

"No." Max shook his head. "Charming old man, incredibly gifted. Tried to hire him myself for SeaGen's corporate headquarters in La Jolla, but the Chinese outbid me."

Serena stared at the model city. "Is Speer trying to copy his father or outdo him?"

"That's what the German news magazine Die Welt asked when the plan was unveiled," he said. "But it's all nonsense, of course. The Chinese insist Speer's design simply fulfills their own intentions of creating a central axis, and that the idea was laid out in the planning of the imperial capital centuries ago. I think the real point of interest is where the elder Speer found his inspiration for the New Berlin in the first place."

Serena shrugged. "You've got me, Max."

"Pierre L'Enfant's design for the National Mall in Washington, D.C.," he said. "What's more, Speer maintained that L'Enfant's plan was itself based on earlier source maps going back to ancient Egypt and Atlantis. That's Doctor Yeats's specialty, isn't it?"

Serena wasn't going to bite. Nothing good could come out of lingering here even a moment longer.

"Atlantis?" she asked, giving him a dubious look. "Now don't get all mystic on me, Max. We need you to keep those vaccines coming."

With that she turned and briskly walked away, exhaling slowly. As she approached the media line by the entrance, she was aware of Conrad in the pack. She walked right past him without a glance to the waiting limousine and got in. Benito closed the door, slid behind the wheel and drove away.