PART III
The Brotherhood of the Knowing
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. And the LORD God made every kind of tree grow from the ground, pleasing to the eye and good for food, with the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
— Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:8-9)
When the fools
had long sailed aimlessly
on the river’s endless waves,
they came upon a magnificent wall,
vast in length and breadth.
Many of the noble men
were struck with sorrow,
for the wall was very high,
perfectly crafted,
made of flawless gems.
They traveled long and far,
following the high wall’s path,
and nowhere,
along the stone face,
could they find an end.
— Strasbourg Alexander (before the walls of paradise)
Paradise
from Old Persian: Paradaidha = "enclosed space," park, garden
cf. Latin: hortus conclusus – "enclosed garden"
In early belief, the boundary of paradise was considered impassable.
----------------------------------------
The elevator jolted as if hit by an earthquake, then settled into a much smoother descent. The computer’s voice no longer wished them death, but rather a happy New Year and a productive workday.
"Well, what does it matter now anyway?" Isaac handed Billy the receipt back. "What matters is, we made it." He rubbed his hands together. "From now on, it’s going up for us!"
"Wrong. We’re going down," corrected Curtis, glancing at the display.
Second floor… First floor… Ground level… Basement…
But the descent didn’t stop there. They kept sinking deeper. The screen no longer displayed any levels below the basement. Instead, a map of the entire research complex appeared, leaving all of them breathless.
Billy Jones felt the rush of blood pounding in his ears. The tension in the cramped elevator car thickened with each feet they dropped. A painful pressure built up in his ears, and they all had to pinch their noses and blow to relieve it.
"This place looked different in my day," Nicholas Curtis muttered, staring at the screen in disbelief. The corporate headquarters didn’t just occupy Central Park; no, it was merely the visible tip of the company’s empire, while the true menace sprawled beneath the surface like a vast fungal network, creeping tendrils deep into the earth. The underground labyrinth stretched far beyond Midtown Manhattan, reaching out like the tentacles of a sea monster, gripping the edges of the surrounding boroughs. The Thandros Corporation controlled the entire city. From the turn of the millennium, they had nestled into the city’s heart, Central Park, beginning with a modest office building. But that was just the seed of corruption planted in New York’s soil, where it grew and spread unchecked.
Billy had guessed they might be heading down to a secret research lab, but he’d never expected to descend into an entire underground city, a hidden metropolis that had been lurking here all these years. While he’d been home, drinking a beer on his couch after work, visiting Vivian at the theater, or dragging himself through shift after grueling shift at the zero-emissions factory, the corporation’s vile dealings had been taking place right beneath his feet.
What New Yorkers suspected went on behind the Paradise Walls was nothing compared to the truth. Just breadcrumbs that Billy had picked up over the past few days.
"What do you think we’ll find down there?" Isaac asked, his voice distant.
"Well, there used to be an entrance to the lab down here," Curtis replied. "But now? I have no idea what we’re about to find."
"What about security?" Billy asked, his worry mounting as he watched the elevator’s progress (represented as a red dot on the screen) descending steadily to what seemed like their final destination.
"They’ll probably check us right away."
"Well," Nicholas Curtis admitted, scratching his head in a mix of embarrassment and uncertainty, "I… honestly didn’t think that far ahead."
"Oh, crap." Isaac started pacing nervously, though the tiny space only allowed him a few steps.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Ding!
They had arrived.
The descent came to a slow stop, and Billy swallowed hard. He looked over at Isaac, their gazes locking, and gave his friend a firm nod. Whatever awaited them, they’d face it together.
The elevator doors opened slowly, like a stage curtain revealing a brightly lit corridor that felt as if they’d stepped into daylight, aboveground in another world where everything was right and crises belonged only in history books. Billy hated this place immediately. He’d never seen anything so fake. Hesitantly, he stepped out first, setting foot in the underground realm. Around him, people and storefronts reflected off the glassy floor beneath his feet.
Billy glanced up. The corridor was vast, almost majestic, with a high, vaulted ceiling made of glass, like a greenhouse. Through the ceiling windows, an azure sky stretched out, sunlight streaming down, with puffs of clouds drifting by now and then. An illusion. Not even on the surface did the weather look this cheerful anymore.
"Gotta admit, it’s beautiful," Isaac murmured as he looked around. Like Billy, he’d only ever seen New York’s abandoned districts, where industrial workers were left to fend for themselves. Back in his home country, he’d lived through violence and chaos but had never seen a peaceful place like this.
Billy watched as a young couple strolled past, arm in arm, laughing as they turned into a boutique. The man wore his ID badge on his jacket lapel, while the woman’s was clipped to her lace-collared blouse. The IDs looked just like Emilia Steinbach’s. "Look at them," he said, nodding toward the passersby, "so happy. Aren’t they all researchers in their spare time? They have to know about the dirty secrets here. They have to be part of it."
"Twenty-five years ago, this place was full of researchers in lab coats," Nicholas Curtis replied. "They’re building their own world. Back then, we came down here to work; now people... live here."
The fake sun above them radiated a gentle warmth. At least, the warmth seemed to come from above. The pleasant sensation on his skin soothed him and even dulled his pain a little. Billy didn’t know how the architects had managed it, but the air was fresh and smelled much better than at the surface—more… natural. Most likely, there was a steady release of fragrances diffusing through the corridor’s ventilation system. He caught faint scents of summer in the air, a hint of strawberry, a note of freshly cut grass, and something else, subtle and elusive, less a smell and more a feeling. He couldn’t quite describe it. Suddenly, an image popped into his mind of clean sheets drying in a gentle summer breeze, the kind you’d hang on a clothesline. So carefree, he thought. Evening sun, shimmering grass. Distant laughter from children, the scent of fresh laundry. They were just aromas, but they evoked feelings and memories in him that weren’t his own—memories he wished he could live.
"Do you guys feel like you’re having déjà vu?" Isaac asked.
Nicholas Curtis had paused for a moment. "Yes," he said. "I feel homesick for a place I’ve never been."
"Hope," Isaac said softly.
"Nostalgia," Nicholas Curtis murmured.
"Longing," Billy whispered, looking around. The people here went about their lives without paying any attention to the newcomers. They all looked blissful, as if under the influence of some euphoric substance—which, Billy thought, was probably true, since even he felt lighter, when his pain and anxiety should be crushing him.
"All this you see here belongs to the Brotherhood of the Knowing," Nicholas Curtis said. "This organization dates back to the early twentieth century when some of the brightest minds on the planet foresaw the crises that would challenge human civilization: overpopulation, world hunger, climate change. They had a single goal—to save the planet and its people. In the late eighties, they moved operations to America, and here in New York, they built their research complex in the corporation’s Central Park HQ zone under government protection. Ten years went by in planning, and around the year 2000, they began expanding the Central Park HQ zone as a front, pretending it was for the public. A new high-society area, a touch of luxury accessible even to the poor. People were thrilled about the government’s vision. And for a few years, they let them believe in it. Until the Thandros Corporation suddenly appeared, became the world’s largest technology company, swallowed up the pharmaceutical and food industries, and claimed the Central Park HQ zone as its headquarters. It was all part of the plan."
"So, you’re saying this Brotherhood of the Knowing is actually behind Thandros Corporation?" Isaac asked.
"That’s right."
After a fifteen-minute walk, they arrived at a crossroads and stopped in front of the signposts. To the left lay the botanical garden; straight ahead, the recreation area continued, ending at a train station that led to the residential quarters; to the right was the entrance to the labs. Once there, Isaac used the researcher’s ID card again to open the door. Beyond it, there was no trace of the cheerful atmosphere from the adjacent sector. The air was unpleasantly cool, the ceiling fans hummed above, and the sterile smell of disinfectants filled the air.
They followed another corridor, which narrowed into a long, tube-like passageway, eventually splitting into two halls. According to the digital DataBoard, one path led to a biochemical lab, the server rooms, and cryo tanks.
"This is where we part ways," Nicholas Curtis said, and there was a certain sadness in his expression that Billy couldn’t quite read.
"You need to go the other way, to the clinical lab. That’s where they store and treat the bodies. If your wife is still alive, she’ll be there. If not, you’ll find her in the morgue, or possibly the crematorium, if she’s been cremated. And if that’s the case, and you ever end up with a new wife someday," he added, lowering his head, "don’t ever buy her a diamond ring. Your next wife might just be wearing your ex on her finger," he said, with a bitter edge.
Isaac shook his head in shock. "What on earth are you talking about?"
"They press diamonds from the ashes of deceased test subjects down here, then sell them to jewelers in the preserved districts. Nearly every diamond you can buy in a New York jewelry store is made from the ashes of the dead. Just as the Bona Dea collaborates with organ dealers, the jewelers of the city deal with the corporation’s middlemen for these tainted diamonds." The old man glanced back and forth between them. Billy and Isaac were silent, too stunned to speak.
Nicholas Curtis lowered his gaze, then pointed with a pen to the cryopreservation area displayed on the digital board. "That’s where I’m going now," he said. "Time to fix a big mistake."
Was he going to free his wife from cryosleep? Billy had so many questions for the strange old man; they burned on his tongue, yet for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to ask them—not even when Curtis pressed his frail body against the heavy door to push it open.
"It’s truly good to see who you’ve become. Farewell, my son," he said, turning to Billy one last time, his gaze locked onto Billy’s.
For a brief moment, as their eyes met, time seemed to stop. Then the door closed behind him, time resumed its usual pace, and Billy never saw the old man again.
"Hurry up, will you?" Isaac asked.
"Yea," Billy replied thoughtfully.