by Greg Keyes
The radio crackled and then the voice of Chief Warrant Officer Barnes.
“Mayday, mayday – come in, Argo, this is Raptor One, do you read?”
“Copy Raptor One,” Foster replied. “What’s your status?”
“We’re screwed, that’s what. And we have kids on board. We’re gonna need immediate midair retrieval.”
Colonel Foster swung around. “Lock onto their position,” she said, “and prepare the hangar for emergency landing.”
“Hangar doors are unresponsive,” Stanton said.
“Manual override?”
“They’re stuck,” Stanton clarified.
Mark was tired of being a fly on the wall. Maybe he could actually do something.
“Which way to the hangar?” he asked.
“I can show you,” Coleman replied.
“Anyone else?” Mark asked.
“I know the way,” Coleman repeated. “Come on.”
“Hope you have a big wrench,” Stanton called after them.
* * *
When they reached the hangar, deck officers had already torn open the control console and were desperately trying to patch cables to get the doors open. It didn’t look like they were having much success. The place was full of fire and smoke.
“What’s the problem?” Coleman asked.
“The hydraulic systems are jammed,” the officer said. “I’m trying to jump-start power. It’s not looking good.”
* * *
Serizawa leaned in, studying the two Titans as they fought their way across the sky. At times the battle was hidden by storm clouds, but Rodan’s flame and Monster Zero’s flashing breath were visible in the murk.
Mark had guessed correctly that Rodan’s emergence had drawn Monster Zero’s attention, that the three-headed dragon could not tolerate competition. But Serizawa sensed something else was going on. Despite Stanton’s comment, he wasn’t certain Monster Zero was trying to kill Rodan so much as dominate him. That was not the case when he fought Godzilla. That suggested Emma was right in guessing that Godzilla and Monster Zero were in a class by themselves, apex predators that stood above the other Titans. Ultimately, the real struggle for dominance would be between the two of them. If the rest of Emma’s thesis was correct – that the last confrontation between Godzilla and Monster Zero had ended with Godzilla triumphant and the dragon frozen in ice – and given how things had gone in Antarctica, Monster Zero was trying to build his strength before facing his ancient foe again.
He had never been more certain that Godzilla’s place in the world was to restore balance. What he was not sure of was what Monster Zero’s role was. The MUTOs Godzilla killed five years before had been going about the business of their life cycle – eating and reproducing. But while they had been ruthless killers, he hadn’t sensed any particular malice in them. They defied that sort of anthropomorphism.
But Monster Zero seemed – evil. It was a concept that did not sit easily with him. The Titans were part of the world, had been long before humanity. They simply were. A carnivore was not evil because it sought living prey; it was simply how it was built. And he was suspicious of his own feelings. Monster Zero had killed Vivienne. It would be all too easy to let grief bait him into the same trap Mark was captive to.
Monster Zero struck Rodan a crushing blow, jagging the other monster with lightning and sending him into the ocean, throwing up a huge plume of water and steam.
Then Monster Zero turned his attention to the Argo, and once more Serizawa was sure he saw spite in its triple gaze as it began beating across the water toward them.
The control panel beeped. A call was coming in.
“It’s Admiral Stenz,” Stanton said.
Serizawa immediately felt wary. Stenz was a good man, a capable leader of men. They had worked together on the MUTO attacks. But he lacked imagination, and he did not understand the Titans. Even after Godzilla behaved as Serizawa predicted – defeating the MUTOs and then returning to the sea – Stenz was still skeptical of the Titan’s intentions. Moreover, he was an instrument of the government, which had been trying to pry jurisdiction over the Titans from Monarch for a while now. About that, Emma was correct: if they got control of the great beasts, they would kill them, or at least attempt to. Like Emma, he believed that the consequences of doing so would be catastrophic. He disapproved of her conclusions and methods, but he didn’t disagree with her diagnosis.
Stenz appeared on-screen. A little grayer, a few more lines in his long, rugged face.
“Admiral,” Serizawa said.
As usual, Stenz went straight to the point.
“Dr. Serizawa, Colonel Foster – I need you and the rest of your forces to immediately disengage and withdraw to a safe distance.”
“Admiral,” Foster said, “I don’t understand.”
“We have been developing a prototype for a new weapon,” the Admiral said. “An Oxygen Destroyer designed to exterminate all life forms within a two-mile radius. With any luck it will kill these things and this nightmare will finally be over.”
“Admiral,” Serizawa said, “we must keep our faith in Godzilla—”
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” Stenz said. “You had your chance. The missile is already on its way. May God have mercy on us all.”
The screen went dark, but on radar, the missile was now visible.
“He’s not lying,” Colonel Foster said. “It’s coming in hot.”
* * *
In the hangar, things weren’t going well. Far from feeling helpful, Mark was starting to wonder what he was even doing down here. At this point, it was clear to everyone that no amount of tinkering with the electrical system was going to resolve the problem. The Osprey was trailing smoke and flying more unsteadily by the moment. Something had to happen, and soon.
He studied the control panel, knowing it was pointless, that the problem wasn’t on that end. But then one of the switches caught his eye, and he remembered the Osprey drop over Antarctica – from this very hangar. They’d been clamped above, and there had been a spare. He looked up, and there it was, clamped above them. Another Osprey.
He didn’t feel like talking them through this. They might try to stop him, and Barnes and the others were out of time as it was. So he shoved the deck officer aside.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the officer yelped.
Mark ignored him and punched the Osprey release button.
* * *
Griffin was doing her best, but Barnes could see they weren’t going to be in the air that much longer, not in this weather. They were lucky to be here at all, and if Griffin had been a lesser pilot, they wouldn’t be. She had used the gaseous edge of the pyroclastic flow to come up to air speed, but that hadn’t been easy on the already-damaged Osprey. If he’d known how bad things were, he might have pointed Griffin toward the mainland instead of trying to rejoin the squadron.
Now it was too late for that. It was the Argo or nothing.
The hatch blew open, and something fell through it. It took a heartbeat to realize it was the spare Osprey.
Which they were going to hit.
“Look out!” Barnes screamed; but Griffin dodged just enough. The second craft splashed into the ocean.
It wasn’t pretty, but they had a hole to shoot for, now.
“Hold on!” Griffin shouted, and punched the Osprey toward the now-open hangar bay.
The engines coughed as she pushed them to their limits. Behind him, the townspeople were praying together. He hoped it helped.
They came in hot and smoking; hit the deck, skipped and skidded across it, and nearly slammed into the far wall before finally grating to a stop.
He let out his breath.
Okay, he thought. He glanced at Griffin, who seemed unruffled.
Yoga, huh? Maybe there was something to that. Barnes stumbled out of the vehicle. Mark and Sam were there to meet him.
“Thanks for the lift,” he told Mark.
Mark didn’t have a chance
to reply; rising over the whistling of wind through the open hangar, they all heard a familiar roar, and saw that Monster Zero was almost on top of them, skimming low across the waves.
Damn, Barnes thought. It had been a nice try. He glanced at his passengers and felt for them. He had signed up for this, but what had they done to be thrown into such a mess? To have their homes, their town, destroyed, and now their lives taken?
Dr. Russell had a lot to answer for.
He took a deep breath and waited for the impact. He reached for his sidearm. Maybe if he could put a round or two in its eye…
Below, the ocean bulged, lifted, sprayed up, smashing into Monster Zero. But it wasn’t a freak wave; it was a helluva big lizard. Godzilla had caught up with them. He snatched the flying monster in mid-flight and slammed him into the water, like a killer whale taking down a seal.
Everyone in the hangar cheered, even Mark. In fact, from the corner of his eye Barnes thought he caught the zoologist doing a little fist-bump.
But they didn’t have time for a long celebration.
“What are you all gawking at?” Barnes shouted at the others. “Move!”
TWELVE
From Dr. Chen’s notes:
There was the great flood. At that time, Thunderbird fought with Mimlos-whale. The battle lasted a long time. For a long time the battle was undecided. Thunderbird in the air could not whip Mimlos-whale in the water. Thunderbird would seize Mimlos-whale in his talons and try to carry Mimlos-whale to his nest in the mountains. Mimlos-whale would get away. Again Thunderbird would seize him. Again Mimlos-whale would escape. The battle between them was terrible. The noise that Thunderbird made when he flapped his wings shook the mountains. They stripped the timber there. They tore the trees out by their roots. Then Mimlos-whale got away. Again Thunderbird caught Mimlos-whale. Again they fought a terrible battle in another place. All the trees there were torn out by their roots. Again Mimlos-whale escaped.
Many times they fought thus. Each time Thunderbird caught Mimlos-whale there was a terrible battle, and all the trees in that place were uprooted. At last Mimlos-whale escaped to the deep ocean, and Thunderbird gave up the fight. That is why the killer whale still lives in the ocean today. In those places where Thunderbird and Mimlos-whale fought, to this day, no trees grow. Those places are the prairies on the Olympic Peninsula.
—Legend of the Hoh and Quileute people
of the Pacific Northwest.
Told by Luke Hobucket circa 1933.
By the time Mark and Coleman got back to the bridge, the Argo had begun to move again, flying up and away from the fight. It was clear Godzilla was in his element now, worrying Monster Zero like a crocodile, rolling him, trying to keep all three heads under at once.
“Twenty seconds to impact,” Stanton said.
Impact? Mark wondered.
“What did we miss?” Coleman asked.
Suddenly a dragon head hurtled toward the windshield, its maw gaping at them, and Mark realized they weren’t out of range yet.
But then Godzilla yanked Monster Zero back down, and the Argo began to haul some serious ass.
“Oh,” Coleman gasped.
“The military just launched a weapon that’s about to kill them both,” Stanton said.
Mark glanced at Serizawa, whose brow was deeply furrowed. Someone way above his pay grade must have made the call. Serizawa would never willingly allow his favorite monster to get blasted. And despite himself, Mark felt the stirrings of sympathy for Serizawa’s point of view. Godzilla had saved their lives a couple of times now, whether he meant to or not. But if the big lizard had to die for them to get Monster Zero too…
“It’s not the worst idea,” Mark said.
On the other hand, Godzilla was winning. Monster Zero was taking way more than he was dishing out, his golden light flickering, while Godzilla had never looked stronger. The two monsters dwindled as the Argo tore away, but there were plenty of cameras on the action as Godzilla grabbed one of Monster Zero’s heads – and bit it off. A spray of black blood jetted from the stump. It looked almost like petroleum.
That had to hurt, even if you had a couple of spares. Mark found he was looking forward to what Godzilla would do next.
A flicker of silver entered his peripheral vision. A plane?
He blinked involuntarily as both monsters were engulfed in light. The flash was brief, a brilliant green, and it quickly mushroomed into the atmosphere, casting a chartreuse pall over the sea. As the flash faded and the cloud lifted higher, he saw the Titans were no longer locked in battle. They were thrashing about in the water, grasping for something out of reach, fighting something they couldn’t claw or bite.
They were sinking.
Still flailing, both Titans vanished beneath the waves.
Mark had been praying for this moment for five years. For Godzilla’s death, justice for his son and all the others who had died in the monster’s trans-global rampage. But somehow, now that the moment was here, he wasn’t as elated as he’d thought he would be. He realized he didn’t just have sympathy for Serizawa’s views – he was beginning to believe him. And if Serizawa was right, what they’d just done could be a big mistake. Rodan was still out there, and Mothra, and plenty more where they came from.
The sea, still not entirely settled from the fight, began to stir and foam. Bubbles broke the surface, as if some undersea gas cavity had opened up. Thousands of silvery slivers appeared, spreading on the surface.
Fish, he realized, as the sea began to darken and grow red and the bubbling increased, became a fountain, a spray.
Monster Zero exploded from the blood-red sea, now a two-headed dragon, but most certainly not dead. His wings cracked the air as he broke free of the ocean and soared aloft. Mark feared that he would turn back to them, but instead he flapped off toward land. Apparently, the loss of a head meant it was time to call it a day.
The sea quietened back down, settled into its accustomed swells. Serizawa kept staring, but if he was hoping the big lizard was going to come back up, it seemed he was going to be disappointed.
“Dr. Stanton,” Serizawa finally said, “can you locate Godzilla?”
Stanton began scanning.
“Yeah,” he said, “I’ve got something…”
He turned up the volume, and once again they heard the thudding of the huge reptile’s heart. But not like before. This time it was much weaker and less steady.
“His vitals are fading,” Stanton said. “Radiation levels plummeting.”
The radioactive aura on the tracking screen was dwindling. The heartbeat continued to weaken. What the hell had they hit him with? And why had Monster Zero been able to handle it so much better?
“Come on, big guy,” Stanton murmured. “Fight it.”
“No,” Serizawa said. He looked stricken.
Godzilla’s heart beat once more. The aura faded. Mark kept waiting for the next beat. Any second now it would start again.
But it didn’t.
The telemetry displayed only flatline signatures.
“He’s gone,” Stanton said.
Serizawa was trembling. He looked broken. All of them, everyone in the room looked like – what? Like they had lost a loved one? Or was it just that none of them believed the big lizard could die?
“Looks like you got your wish, Mark,” Serizawa said, softly.
It was true. But he took no pleasure in it. He’d wanted revenge for a long time. Now he just wanted his daughter back.
* * *
Mateo was sleeping, which Mariana found incredible. But she was grateful for it; he had seen too much today, just as she had. The soldiers had found quarters for them on the big airplane, some food and drink. It wasn’t good, but she was happy to have it, as she was happy to be alive.
“How is he doing?” the man sitting next to her asked, indicating Mateo. She knew him a little bit. The cousin of one of her high school friends. Once in a while he would appear for Mass. He was a netmaker, and sometimes we
nt out with the fishermen. Antonio.
“As well as any of us,” she said.
“What do you imagine will happen next?” Antonio said.
She shrugged. “The soldier named Barnes said we are going to a Monarch base. From there we will be repatriated.”
“To where?” he said. “Our poor island?”
She shook her head. “I do not know,” she said. “I don’t know if I could take Mateo back there anyway.”
“I’ve never been to the mainland,” Antonio said. “I wouldn’t know how to live there.”
“It’s not over yet,” Mariana said. “By the time it is, there may be no place left for us anywhere.”
Jebel Barkal, Sudan
The pilgrims grumbled about being denied access to the site, and so did the local government, but Nez broadened the perimeter to include the tomb and place it off-limits to visitors. And for a while, nothing happened, except that they got a little more information about who carried out the attack on the Yunnan outpost. Nez finally relaxed enough to have a beer in the cantina during one of her rare off-duty hours. It was a good thing she only had one, because an hour later she was called back to duty. Another base had been attacked, and another Titan released, in Antarctica. A little later, they were called to view a video of Dr. Emma Russell – whose mind had clearly slipped crooked – taking credit for the releases and making it clear she meant to set even more monsters free.
The Colonel was off in Washington, so Kearns turned to her.
“Master Sergeant, part of your role here is to advise,” Kearns said. “I know you’ve been increasing security. But—”
“Kill it,” she said, without hesitation.
“Excuse me?”
“The monster,” she replied. “I’ve seen the kill switch. Use it.”
Kearns, Esmail, and the others stared at her.
“That’s not an option,” Kearns said. “At least not at this point.”
“It’s the only way to make sure it doesn’t get loose, sir.”
“Freer takes me for a fool,” Kearns said. “I hope you don’t. I’m well aware the government is trying to make the case to execute these creatures. Trying to find any excuse—”