by Greg Keyes
“Come on,” she said to the mercenaries.
But they didn’t move. They were Jonah’s men, not hers, and he was fully in control of them.
Jonah smiled, but there was no feeling behind it. Just a reflex, a signal of his dominance. He didn’t care about Madison, or her, or maybe anyone. Asher had probably been his last real connection, the thing that kept him linked to humanity. Jonah wasn’t a person anymore; just a survivor.
So Emma did what she had to do. She pulled out the gun she’d taken from the armory and aimed it at Jonah.
Jonah’s men reacted immediately, of course, leveling their weapons at her. She watched them with her peripheral vision. If one of them pulled a trigger, she would damn sure pull hers. She would die, but so would he. She needed him to know that. To see it in her eyes.
“I already lost one child,” she told Jonah. “I’m not losing another.”
Jonah kept her gaze for a few more seconds. He didn’t seem too worried she would shoot him. If she did she would be dead in more or less the same heartbeat. But she no longer cared, and maybe he understood that. Or maybe he did have a little sympathy left in him.
He shrugged.
“Let her go,” he told the men. “We have everything we need.”
It might be a trick. There was no way of knowing.
She lowered the gun, and when no one shot her she climbed into the Humvee and started the engine. She gunned it down the access tunnel. There was a gate at the end of it that she didn’t have the code for. She didn’t slow down. The Humvee crashed through nicely, and she sped on toward Boston.
* * *
Once the last helicopter left the stadium, Maddie got a pair of field glasses and took the stairs up to the roof.
The sky was a low, gray ceiling, sickly yellow at the horizons. Gusts of wind mussed her hair and spun stray leaves about. The air felt wet, but it wasn’t raining. Something about the atmosphere felt – prickly. It was cool, but now and then a warmer gust came through, and a smell like burning hair and rotten eggs.
The ORCA’s song throbbed away in Fenway Park, spreading in waves out and away – beyond Boston, beyond North America, to the furthest reaches of the Earth. All of the Titans were listening.
Played through the powerful speakers of the stadium, the signal sounded almost symphonic, as the machine matched wavelengths with each of the Titans, one at a time, then repeated them. It was still simple, like a heartbeat, but she could hear the difference – like themes. There was Typhon, Behemoth, Scylla, and now – Mothra. The Mothra one sent happy little shivers through her. Had the pupa already transformed? What did she look like now?
Had she, like the others, fallen under Monster Zero’s control? Maddie didn’t like the thought of that at all.
Boston was now a ghost town, at least as far as she could see. No one was left wandering the streets, no headlights moved between buildings. No honking horns. The sirens were quiet.
She was completely alone.
She had carried out her mother’s plan, and it was working. But this was as far as she’d thought ahead. What should she do now?
Hopefully Monarch would figure out what was going on and come to take control of the ORCA. Maybe her father would be with them. That argued for staying at Fenway Park.
Of course, Jonah might come for her, instead. They could detect the signal as well, and he was probably pretty angry and would most likely kill her if he caught her. That was good reason to get lost.
So which was it to be?
The answer came more quickly and decisively than she expected.
It began when the strange feeling, the prickling, intensified. She felt pressure in her ears, like when you were reaching cruising altitude in an airplane.
Then the wind picked up; the flags on the rooftop began flapping harder and harder.
In the distance, something was moving. It was hard to focus on at first, but then she realized it was the sky. The coppery lens of the horizon was gone, replaced by gray clouds so dark they were almost black. They were rolling in like fog, pouring between the buildings with increasing speed, engulfing them, brightened by fitful coils of lightning. Thunder surrounded her, and a strange, deep thuttering, like the sound big propeller planes made in movies when the engine was starting to die. Or like an animal sound made in the back of some really big throat.
Dad wasn’t coming for her. Neither was Jonah.
But Monster Zero was, coming for her like an angel of death, dragging the heavens with him. The clouds were closing in on the stadium from every direction.
Heart banging in her chest, she ran back into the broadcast booth and slammed the door behind her. The pressure in her ears increased; the floor beneath her feet pulsed; a plastic cup on the announcer’s desk rattled and fell over. The gigantic window vibrated as through it she saw the stadium engulfed in the charcoal fog. The lights flickered, and the song of the ORCA bent into a weird warble.
She heard the beating of wings. Very large wings.
Monster Zero had come for the ORCA.
Maddie backed away from the window, staring, trying to see through the fog beyond the glass, holding her breath. He was there, she knew. The din of his flight grew louder, was right over her…
And then it went on, the drum of its wings growing softer. Then there was silence, and everything was very still.
He didn’t know where she was. She felt the pressure in her chest relax, took a breath—
Monster Zero slammed down into the arena. The earth cracked beneath the force of his landing, and the entire building shuddered, knocking her off her feet. She lay there stunned, still able to see out the window because it came all the way down to the floor. He looked agitated, heads whipping around, searching for something. The ORCA, of course – but then why had he flown past it?
Because the sound was coming from the speakers right now, not the little amps on the device itself. Of course. Fear was making her dumb.
Monster Zero was clearly puzzled. This wasn’t like before, when she had just randomly turned up the frequency. This time he thought he was hearing another top predator, an unknown beast, challenging his authority over the other Titans. He had come here to kill his competition and take back his throne. But there was no Titan to see, just the stadium…
He didn’t let that stop him, though. He located one of the stadium speakers and ripped it from its mounting. When the sound didn’t stop, he found the next, and the next, all three heads working at once, destroying the signal, the threat to his power.
Terror froze her in place. She couldn’t think. All she could do was look at him.
So she decided she wouldn’t look. She closed her eyes, trying to focus, tune it out. Get herself moving.
She turned from the window and opened her eyes, realizing she still heard the thub, thub, thub of the ORCA coming from just across the room. Now that the outside speakers were dead, this was the only source of the signal. She reached for it, got it in her hands, and very slowly stood up. Time to go.
She turned to check his position, and saw all three heads, crowded up to the window. Glaring at her. A yard away.
“Oh, shit,” she said.
She sprinted for the door, as behind her the window shattered, and golden lightning flared, following her as she ran, disintegrating the broadcast booth. She felt the heat to her bones, the prickle of electricity on her flesh. She screamed, but she couldn’t hear herself over the cacophony.
She took the stairs two and three at a time as Monster Zero savaged the stadium, blasting it with his lightning, slashing it with his tails, ripping out support beams with steel-toothed jaws. He was desperate to find her, his new top predator foe, a Titan clocking in at about five-foot-two. It would be funny if she wasn’t about to die.
The stairs ahead of her disintegrated in another blaze of lightning; she dodged between a row of seats, a tail swiping just behind her. Everything sagged as the stadium began to collapse. She fell more than ran the last several yards, spilling o
ut onto the field itself.
The three-headed dragon was waiting, all three heads swiveled to face her. And the ORCA. The malevolence she had seen in his eyes before was still there, multiplied by a hundred – and this time it was directed at her and her alone.
Her only chance now was to get rid of the machine. That sucked, because then the other Titans would fall under his spell again. She could only hope Dad and Monarch had made good use of the time she’d bought them. If she held on to the ORCA, Monster Zero would crush her and it together. Maybe if she gave it to him, she had a chance. Either way, this was over.
She tossed it, so it landed in a pile of rubble near his massive, clawed feet. He looked down at it, then brought his foot down. The ORCA stopped its song.
She hoped that would be good enough. That he would lose interest in her.
But it wasn’t good enough. Signal or no signal, he knew her now. He probably remembered her from Antarctica. She had pestered him one time too many. The three heads focused on her and moved forward on their sinuous necks, not in a big hurry. Studying her, maybe trying to figure out how she had done it, how such a tiny creature could have fooled him and the Titans in his thrall.
There was nowhere for her to go. This was it. Lightning rippled across his body, and he began opening his mouths, revealing the crackling energy within.
Maddie screamed. Not in fright, but in defiant, primal fury.
Then a beam of blue energy knocked Monster Zero through the stadium wall, across the street and into the cathedral beyond, setting its bells to clanging.
She stood, staring at the fallen monster, confused and awestruck of the power that had leveled him. She felt the earth shake rhythmically beneath her, and the sound of huge footsteps.
And then Godzilla roared, and she turned around to face him.
She grinned, feeling a sudden, savage glee.
That’s right, she thought, grinning. Come kick his ass.
Better yet, the big lizard wasn’t alone. He was wading in through the harbor, accompanied by jets, helicopters, ships – and they weren’t shooting at him. It looked like he was leading them, like they were together, all coming to fight Monster Zero.
And that was great. That was exciting! It was kind of like the best part of Mom’s vision, humans and Titans working together.
Only she was right between them. Right smack in the middle of a battleground straight out of some ancient apocalypse. Best change that situation the only way she could – by hauling ass.
She ran through a gap and out into the streets, putting as much distance as she could between her and what was about to happen. Someone could tell her about it later.
* * *
Griffin guided the Osprey, following Godzilla as he crushed his way through the city, flattening cars and crashing through buildings as if they were just high grass he was pushing his way through. Mark peered out at the town he’d once called home – or what he could see of it. Most of it was covered in a dense fog.
He pulled out Serizawa’s notebook and opened it. Felt the weight of it in his hand. And in a way, he felt Serizawa there, too. He wished the scientist had lived to see this, the vindication of his vision: Godzilla and humanity fighting together against a common foe, trying to put things right. To know his sacrifice had been a worthy one.
They had tracked the ORCA signal to Fenway Park. Emma must have been using the loudspeakers to boost the signal. That was smart, and it obviously had worked. Maybe too well – it had brought Ghidorah straight to her. The signal had cut out moments before. Right after Ghidorah reached the stadium. Was Emma still there? Was Maddie with her? Or had she had the good sense to cut the thing off and get the hell out of there?
Through the seething clouds and lightning, Godzilla and Ghidorah were black silhouettes against a background of flame. Ghidorah standing his ground as Godzilla charged toward him. This was about to get brutal, and not much of Boston was likely to survive it.
“You know,” Barnes said, “I’m starting to think this is Godzilla’s world. We just live in it.”
Barnes was being flip, but he was also echoing Emma and Serizawa. Watching the Titans come together, Mark finally conceded the point. If it weren’t for the fact that these things took millennia-long siestas, would human life have even evolved? Probably not. Trilobites, synapsids, the dinosaurs, brontotherium, the woolly mammoth – all had come and gone, but Godzilla was still here.
He remembered a quote attributed to one of Monarch’s early leaders, Bill Randa.
This planet does not belong to us.
The radio crackled. It was Sam, on the Argo.
“Guys, you’re closing in on the last ping from the ORCA. Fenway Park, dead ahead. We’ll keep laying cover fire to keep them off your backs.”
“Copy that,” Barnes said. “Here we go…”
Mark closed the notebook. Martinez crossed himself and murmured a prayer.
* * *
This is it, Sam thought. The last stand. If Ghidorah won, this time they were cooked for sure. There weren’t enough ships and aircraft left to challenge him – not in this hemisphere, anyway. This was all or bust.
To make matters worse, seconds after the ORCA signal cut out, the Titans they still had tracking information on began moving again. Moving toward Boston, if he was reading things right. They had to put Ghidorah down before reinforcements arrived. In the past, Godzilla had managed to take down two MUTOs, but had nearly died doing so. But twelve, thirteen, maybe more?
Not very likely.
Godzilla had almost reached his ancient enemy. What remained of their aircraft were about to engage, and the ships were readying their long-range guns and remaining missiles.
Let’s get this sucker, he thought.
Godzilla seemed – brighter. The pulses from his spines grew more radiant every second, and his skin was shining, too. He looked more powerful than the last time Sam had seen him. Not just a little. A lot.
“Is it just me,” Sam asked, “or has he been working out?”
“You kidding me?” Stanton said, studying his instruments. “Serizawa’s got that lizard juiced.”
“Damn right,” Foster said.
“Colonel,” the bridge officer said. “All squadrons are locked on target.”
Foster and Chen and Mark exchanged glances, and then glared out at Ghidorah. Sam knew exactly how they felt. He remembered the sea full of wreckage, the hundreds – thousands – who had already died trying to stop this unholy thing.
“For Serizawa,” Chen said.
A hundred trails of fire scorched across the sky.
TWENTY-ONE
From Dr. Serizawa’s notebook:
Osiris asks:
My face shall look upon the face of Atum. But how long will I live there?
Atum replies:
It is decreed that you will live for millions and millions of years. Then I shall destroy everything I created when I brought the world up from Nu. I shall return everything there is to the watery abyss.
—Egyptian Book of the Dead Spell 175, 1550 BCE
(Atum was said to have created the world at Jebel Barkal. His symbol was that of a lizard. – S.)
Madison ran.
That quiet moment on the roof, looking out over the abandoned city, seemed an eternity ago. Boston was now a fully active warzone in a battle between the gods.
Everything around her was burning; bricks and steel rained from the sky. Even running as fast as she could, Maddie still hadn’t managed to get out of the combat zone. The Titans were just too big. She felt like an ant trying to get out from underfoot of a couple of men wrestling. If she ran a hundred feet, they could cover that distance in a single step. They didn’t even notice her anymore, but that didn’t matter. The missiles and jet fighters didn’t know she was there either; all of those fireworks they were shooting at Monster Zero were made of metal and fire, and they were coming down all around her.
One of Monster Zero’s tails sliced through a skyscraper, ripping thr
ough its steel-beam skeleton as if it was paper, spraying tons of debris toward her. She desperately dodged her way through it – falling, rolling, springing back to her feet.
Every direction seemed closed off, and the fight was about to roll right over her. Again.
A roar from something that was not a monster drew her gaze to the sky. The big Monarch flying wing – the Argo – shot by, spattering Monster Zero with missiles and heavy weapons fire. Driving him away from her.
That seemed like a good thing, but panic was really taking hold of her now. Too many near misses – her luck was not going to hold out. Any second now she would be in the same place as a ton of falling steel. She kept remembering Andrew, how he’d looked when they found him.
She needed to be safe. To find somewhere safe.
Fighting for breath, trembling, she ran on.
* * *
Ghidorah crackled with energy, charging up for another volley of gilt lightning.
Missiles speared past the Osprey, their warheads opening on Ghidorah like flowers. The three-headed giant flinched back, and Godzilla slammed full-on into him. Lightning flashed as Ghidorah staggered, but instead of hitting Godzilla the bolts went wild, branching into the sky, three bolts become a thousand fractal streams of energy. One line of lightning crackled by the Osprey, so close Mark felt the heat and smelled the burnt air, but they were spared being struck.
Half a dozen aircraft weren’t so lucky; energy arced through and between them, electrocuting the pilots and frying their engines so they hurtled, burning, into the city below.
“Hang on!” Griffin yelled, banking hard to avoid the flaming remains of an Apache attack helicopter.
Blood rushed to Mark’s head, and his belly did somersaults. The Osprey was almost on its side, so the window he was next to was facing the flaming city below.
Griffin got them clear and righted the vessel, bringing them back around to a view of the fight as Godzilla impaled Ghidorah’s tails with his dorsal spikes; all three heads shrieked in pain.
Griffin circled the Osprey around the fight, dropping toward what was left of the stadium.
