by Greg Keyes
From her position Maddie could see one of the horned heads. The rest of the creature was obscured by layers of ice.
The mercenaries were hard men, but they hung back from the thing in the ice. Her mother walked to it, placed her hand against the frozen surface.
“Any survivors?” Jonah asked Asher.
“No,” Asher said. “They tried to launch an emergency beacon, but we cut them off in time.”
“They’ll figure it out,” Jonah said. “Fire up the drills.”
Jonah looked over at the ORCA, and her mom.
“Do you have everything you need?” he asked.
Her mother barely seemed to hear him. She was too caught up in it all. But she nodded.
“Good,” Jonah said. “Let’s get started.”
Her mother began connecting the ORCA to the biolab’s diagnostic equipment. Jonah’s men started up several massive drills mounted on robotic arms that hung from the ceiling. The hardware descended and began boring into the wall of ice. Maddie stepped over and placed her hand against the frozen surface, just as her mother had.
How had a creature so immense been iced over like this? Mammoths had been found, frozen in the Arctic. But they were usually on their side – they died first and were then covered in ice.
From what she could make out, Monster Zero had been standing, in a very lifelike pose. It seemed impossible that the ice had accumulated on him over time; he must have been frozen really quickly. Maybe he’d fallen into a pool of icy water. A pool hundreds of feet deep that dropped below freezing as he struggled to get out. If that could happen.
How long ago had this happened? Antarctica hadn’t been frozen forever, but it had been that way for a long time, like fifteen million years? Was it even possible that Monster Zero was still living?
She got her answer an instant later, when she heard a sharp beep from the diagnostic signal. It jumped from flat line to active. The waves were brief, shallow, inconsistent – but they were there.
Monster Zero was alive.
SEVEN
From Dr. Chen’s notes:
His face is that of a lion, his body is covered in sharp scales, he has the claws of a vulture and the horns of a wild bull. When he looks at someone, it is the look of death. Humbaba’s roar is a flood, his mouth is death and his breath is fire! He can hear a hundred leagues away any rustling in his forest! Who would go down into his forest!
—The Epic of Gilgamesh
Tablet III
Mark pulled up the security camera footage again, hoping to find some clue, some breadcrumb that might lead him to Maddie and Emma, but if it was there, he wasn’t seeing it.
Despite his horror that Emma had finished the ORCA, he couldn’t help but be impressed that she had made the damn thing work. He played the tape once more, this time focusing on pulling up the sounds, trying to figure out exactly how she had tuned in to the monster. What frequency to look for to help them spot the ORCA when it was used again.
It was all too messy. But maybe if he could isolate the ORCA sounds.
He reviewed the footage again, just listening this time.
When Emma first turned the ORCA on there wasn’t anything, no reaction from Mothra. But she’d done something…
He ran it back and heard it one more time. This time he got it.
“You bypassed the low-end harmonics,” he murmured. “Pretty smart, girl.”
He smiled at the image of her on the screen, remembering their early years together, dreaming about this thing. She could be stubborn when she got hold of something. He realized looking back on it, when they’d agreed to stop work on the project, that it had really been his idea. She’d never wanted to abandon it.
Now she had perfected it. Despite everything, he was proud of her for that.
But it was still a bad idea to use it. She’d been lucky so far. But he felt in his gut that luck wasn’t going to hold.
Then the gunshots rang out, the anarchists appeared, and Mark snapped back to reality. The monitor almost seemed to shake from the explosions it was portraying.
No, the monitor was shaking. The whole facility was.
Colonel Foster’s voice blared from the loudspeakers.
“All personnel report to battle stations,” she said. “Code red. This is not a drill. Code red, I repeat, code red!”
By the time she finished, Mark was on his feet and headed out the door.
* * *
When he reached the command center, he saw the whole station was on lockdown. Their beautiful under-the-sea view was now hidden behind thick, ugly blast doors. Were they expecting torpedoes, or something? Was Jonah attacking Castle Bravo?
Barnes, Martinez, Griffin, and the rest of G-Team were already there, standing in loose ranks but at ease. Stanton was there too, and Dr. Chen. Mark went over to her station.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Something’s wrong,” she replied. “He’s never been this close before.”
“Who’s he?” he demanded.
“Who do you think?” she said.
“He’s taking out our observation drones,” Vivienne said.
Mark saw what she meant, as screen after screen was swallowed by static. There was a sudden flurry of motion on one, something large, moving fast – and then it too cut out. Meanwhile, on radar, they were tracking something big.
Right. Of course. Their favorite specimen had turned on them. Huge surprise, there.
“Trajectory?” Serizawa demanded.
“Straight at us,” Stanton informed him. “Twelve hundred meters and closing.”
“G-Team!” Colonel Foster barked. “Barnes, Martinez, Hendricks – I want you on those CROWS now!”
“You heard the boss lady,” Barnes said. “Let’s move!”
As G-Team scrambled into the remote turrets, gigantic guns sprang up all over the base and began adjusting range.
“Dr. Stanton, do you have his bioacoustics?” Serizawa asked.
In response, Stanton fiddled with his equipment, and a deep thudding sound filled the room. It was similar to what Emma had isolated from Mothra.
Godzilla’s deep heartbeat.
“Acoustics coming up,” Stanton said. “Okay, he’s closing! We’re at eight hundred meters.”
“His movements are erratic,” Vivienne said. “Heart and breathing elevated—”
“He’s definitely not happy about something,” Stanton said.
“How are they getting all this?” Mark asked Chen.
“Emma isolated Godzilla’s bioacoustics. It allows us to track him, even to get his vitals.”
Another low rumble shook the base.
“Circling now,” Stanton said. “Closing in. Two hundred meters. ”
One of the few monitors still working began to brighten with a light that Mark knew all too well. The monster’s radioactive aura.
“Colonel?” Serizawa said.
“All teams in position,” Foster commanded. “Weapons hot, ready to engage on my command.”
The unnerving beat of Godzilla’s heart grew in volume.
“Hold your fire,” Serizawa said. “We don’t know he will attack.”
“Well, he will if you keep those guns on him,” Mark said. “I want him dead more than anybody, but unless this is a fight you know you can win, for God’s sake stand down.”
He waited for the blowback. But if this base had been here for a while, why was Godzilla just now bothering to come take it apart? Unless something in the equation had changed. He was an apex predator, and he sensed a threat of some kind. By deploying the guns, they were proving to him he was right. And if they thought those guns were going to stop him – they should know better.
The floor bucked under Mark’s feet. The base, huge as it was, anchored in bedrock, shuddered like a flimsy shack in a hurricane.
“Stand down,” Serizawa said.
Foster looked at him. She took a step forward.
“You can’t be serious,” she said.
Foster paused, frowning. Then she reached slowly up and touched her earpiece.
“Stand down,” she said. “I say again, safe your weapons, do not engage.”
“Listen,” Chen said, after a moment. “His heart rate – it’s slowing.”
He heard. Pulling in the guns had helped. Godzilla was calming down a little. But not enough. What if Serizawa was right, or at least partly right? What if Godzilla was more than just a monster? Maybe he didn’t only recognize active threats, but passive ones, too?
“Open the shields,” Mark said. He felt more than saw everyone in the room staring at him.
“Yeah, sure,” Stanton said. “Let’s bring him in for a beer. Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
“Let him know we’re not a threat,” Mark said.
“Open the shields.”
Mark looked to Serizawa. The scientist’s brow creased.
“Do it,” Serizawa said.
Colonel Foster clearly didn’t like that notion any more than the stand-down order, but she grudgingly complied. She pulled a switch, and the blast doors began to rumble up, revealing the deep sea beyond.
And what was in it. A huge shape emerging, still mostly light and shadow in the murk, but Mark could see those glowing dorsal spines that could only belong to Godzilla.
They’d grown back, obviously.
He was about a hundred meters out, waiting, watching in the dark. Facing them, his spines slowly brightening, then going dark, leaving only shadow, then lighting up again.
It was breathtaking, and for a moment everyone was too stunned to say anything, although Mark noticed Martinez crossing himself.
Sergeant Hendricks broke the silence.
“What’s with the light show?” he asked.
“It’s an intimidation display,” Vivienne said. “Like a gorilla pounding its chest.”
“Consider us very intimidated,” Coleman said.
“I don’t think it’s for us,” Dr. Chen said.
Mark didn’t think so, either. After his encounter with the military a few years back, Godzilla might have gotten it into his reptilian brain that the little termites under his feet had weapons that could hurt him, at least a little bit. But if Vivienne was right – and she probably was – he wouldn’t be responding to them like this. This was more how a predator would respond to a rival for his territory.
Was something else out there? Mothra was still in her cocoon. Was yet another monster on the loose?
He took a step closer. All of his hatred for the beast was still there, but oddly muted. He had never understood how Emma had felt about these things, not after what happened. But now – maybe he appreciated a little of her awe for the creature. But it was more than that. He had a bone-deep feeling that this monster, this Titan – this was his link to Maddie and Emma. Somehow, Godzilla was going to help him find them.
He continued forward.
“What are you doing, dude?” Stanton said.
Mark ignored him. He closed his eyes, listening, reaching out to the glass. Because there was something new out there. A low, heavy growl transmitted through the water, along with deep clicks that reminded him of whale sonar.
And there was something else, something he felt rather than heard. But it was so mixed with anger, hatred, regret – he didn’t want to know what it was. He didn’t care.
Then Godzilla’s spines faded to black, and they couldn’t see anything but the murky waters. The odd noises diminished and then stopped altogether.
Mark could almost hear the collective sigh of relief.
Until Godzilla was suddenly there again charging at the window, incredibly fast, filling their view. There was no way the glass would stop him…
And then he blew past again and was gone. According to the tracking monitors, this time for real. They watched the signal recede.
More chest-pounding, Mark thought – or maybe just a straight-up threat.
Stanton peeked up from behind his workstation.
“Can we maybe close the shield now?” he said.
As Mark’s breathing began to even out, he had an idea. Whatever else he was, Godzilla was a predator. Like a wolf, or a killer whale. So he would have some things in common with them.
“Show me his territorial routes,” he told Stanton.
“What – why?” Stanton asked.
“Cause I wanna start a boat tour,” Mark snapped. “Just show me!”
“Okay, coming up!” Stanton said.
He pulled up a map of Earth, with Godzilla’s recorded paths highlighted. It was clear they weren’t random. There was some variation, but in general the big lizard followed the same track within a given cycle of time.
“Care to tell us what you’re looking for?” Colonel Foster asked.
“When an animal leaves its hunting ground it’s usually because it is threatened by something,” Mark said.
The map said it all; Godzilla had recently deviated significantly from his usual walkabout. Something new had entered his territory, and recently. Something Godzilla hadn’t seen yet, maybe. But he knew it was out there.
Maybe it wasn’t another Titan Godzilla was reacting to. Maybe it was something that sounded like one.
“Run a course projection,” Vivienne said.
Stanton went back to work. Potential paths began arcing across the map.
“We gotta go after him,” Mark said. “He’s looking for something out there. It could be the ORCA.”
There was nervous silence as the others absorbed that possibility.
“Dr. Stanton,” Serizawa said. “What’s your projection?”
Stanton finally looked up.
“All paths have him landing in the same place,” Stanton said. “Antarctica.”
The satellite map zoomed in on the frozen continent to where the projected routes converged at a point in East Antarctica, on the coast of the Indian Ocean.
“Good, then!” Mark said. “Let’s go! Let’s go find them! Let’s—”
He looked around at their anxious expressions.
“Wait… What’s in Antarctica?”
“Barnes,” Colonel Foster said, “Contact the Argo.”
* * *
Once he was sure the operation was going well, Jonah chose one of the office spaces around the lab, and lay down on the floor. He had been awake for more than forty-eight hours, and it was beginning to tell. They had a little time now, but soon he would need all of his wits about him.
He dozed. He wasn’t sure for how long. When he woke, Asher was in the room, sitting at the desk.
“I could have found you a cot,” Asher said.
Jonah levered himself up. “I’ve plenty of experience sleeping on the ground,” he said. “How are things proceeding?”
“On schedule,” Asher said, suppressing a smile. “When they get here, we’ll be ready for them.”
“Better if we’re done before they get here,” Jonah said. “But it’s always best to be prepared. Why are you grinning like that?”
Asher brought up something from behind the desk. A twenty-five-year-old Laphroaig.
“Found it in one of the offices,” he said. He placed two tumblers on the table.
“Well,” Jonah said. “Someone had good taste.”
Asher poured a little in each glass and offered him one. He took it, brought it up to his nose, smelled the peat and smoke, the salt of the seaweed of the North Atlantic.
“To Monster Zero,” Asher said.
“To the higher cause,” Jonah replied. They drank.
“Takes me back,” Jonah said. “I was younger than you when I first had this. I had been a few years in Her Majesty’s army. Took a leave to Islay, where they make this stuff. Beautiful place. I actually believed then, you know. All the bullshit. The justifications, the outright lies.” He took another drink.
“What changed your mind?” Asher asked. “Lindy? You’ve never said.”
“Lindy? No. Maybe that was the tipping point, but no. I had already reached my conclusion. I just needed a push to live my purpose.”
“To that,” Asher said. They drank again.
“You remember when I brought you in?” Jonah said. “What we were doing?”
“Yeah. The chemical plant in China was my first. Then the thing in the DRC, the big game hunters. God, did those guys deserve everything they got.”
“Little things,” Jonah said. “Chipping away at the walls to a fortress we were never going to be able to destroy. But all that changed when the Titans appeared. When those bloody MUTOs went careening across the world. We got our hands in it five years ago, but our dear Dr. Russell shut it down. Just as well. I was still thinking too small, even then. But now – now I finally know how to do it.”
“I’m glad to be a part of it,” Asher said. “There is a better world ahead.”
“Yes, there is,” Jonah said. He took another sip.
“People look at that thing in the ice, and they think it’s a monster.” He shook his head. “They’re not the monsters. We are. The whole bloody human race.”
* * *
The USS Argo was a flying wing, a boomerang-shaped vehicle with five powerful jet engines situated behind the “V” where the wings met in the back. The command cabin lay in the front of a ridge in the center of the craft that ran from the cockpit at the nose back to the engines. But there was plenty of space in the wings. Barnes supervised the loading of the gear they’d need in Antarctica, and double-checked the status of their on-board arms.
“So we’re finally going on a monster hunt,” Hendricks said.
“Is that what you heard?” Barnes asked. “Because what I got out of the briefing is that we’re chasing after a suitcase.”
“And a bunch of bad guys,” Hendricks said. “And a monster, right? It’s a containment center.”
“Yeah,” Barnes said. “We’re gonna make sure we keep whatever it is contained.”
“But if it does get out, we’ll torch it, right?”
