The doors opened slowly, revealing complete blackness within. A blue light blinked on, hovering far above X’s tall frame. The light faintly reflected off of something smooth and silver right in front of it, but otherwise did little to illuminate the room.
The light narrowed like a scrutinizing eye at X, and a metallic chittering echoed from the room down the corridor like the call of a mechanical bird. X relaxed slightly. He knew CIGOR’s sounds and mannerisms well from years of service together, and this was not a threatening sound.
“Good morning, CIGOR,” he said, bowing as he might have done before a king.
CIGOR responded with several short chirps akin to an arrangement of notes played in the middle range of a pipe organ. X recognized it as a question, asking where they were.
“We’re just outside of Japanese waters, about to meet with the Doctor. I…” X’s body tensed up, and he paused to clear his throat, not because it actually needed clearing, but because he needed to collect his thoughts again, lest his hardened exterior crack. “I would like you to check something out for us.”
Another inquisitive chirp, pitched down.
“A research ship went missing at Rabu Nii. The Delta.”
Tittering, then a brief squawk.
“That’s what we suspect. Unfortunately, we have to be here, or we’d go look for survivors ourselves. I was hoping…” He took a breath to steady his nerves. The longer X stood in CIGOR’s presence, the smaller he felt. “…to ask if you might look for us.”
Silence hung in the air for a moment as the blue light of CIGOR’s eye stared unblinking at the black-clad human.
CIGOR made a noise that sounded like a shriek.
X bowed respectfully. “Thank you.”
In the hallway ahead of him and Nancy, Richard saw X leave an adjacent corridor and turn to walk towards the hangar. They fell in pace behind him. Apparently, wherever Richard and Nancy were going in the shuttle, X would be going as well.
As he passed the corridor, Richard casually glanced down it, not really expecting to see anything unusual, only to stop dead in his tracks.
He did not really know what he was looking at, because whatever it was remained in the shadows behind massive, slowly closing doors. All he could see clearly was a blue light, but he swore it looked more like an eye than a lightbulb.
Just before the doors shut, this glowing blue eye stared right at him, its cold gaze piercing straight through him to freeze his very soul.
Once the doors were shut, Richard saw an arrangement of letters nearly as tall as the doors themselves painted on them. They were all capitals, and spelled a word he had never seen or heard before: CIGOR.
He blinked, feeling chilled to the core without really knowing why.
“What the…?” he whispered to himself as he stood rooted in place, eyes affixed to the mysterious doors.
He jumped when Nancy tugged on his sleeve.
“Hey,” she said. “You coming?”
His eyes did not want to waver from the doors. “Yeah, but…” He struggled to find the words. “I just saw …” He raised his finger and pointed down the corridor. “What’s down there?”
Nancy glanced down the corridor. “Well…” She thought, then shook her head as if discouraging herself from speaking. “Something too complicated to explain right now. Come on. We’ve got places to be.”
The shuttle took its occupants from the Akira to the countryside just beyond Fukuoka, a city in Northern Japan whose name made most immature English speakers snicker when they saw it written out.
After all of the strangeness he had been subjected to over the past few hours, Richard was surprised to find the shuttle descending towards something a bit more mundane: a pillbox, the kind of simple cement fortress he knew the Japanese had built on island outposts during the War. It was in the middle of a clearing, the unnatural flatness of which initially scratched at his brain before he realized how similar it was to the one from which he had departed America. Though familiar, it was still out of place, at least to him. As far as he knew, pillboxes had not been built on the Japanese mainland during the War. As they drew closer, he could see that the concrete did not appear to be terribly weathered, meaning it must have been a more recent construction. The pillbox and its clearing sat in the middle of a vast sea of trees which gradually turned to distant mountains in the west.
The shuttle flew and landed without concern for being seen, for there were no roads or hiking trails for miles around. Once they had settled on the ground, Richard suddenly felt slightly dizzy. It was a sensation he had felt before. A few years ago, he had taken a trip to the east coast of America just in time to experience a very small freak earthquake. There had been several states separating him and the epicenter, so he only felt the tail end of the shockwaves, but those subtle vibrations had made him feel imbalanced in similar fashion to how he felt now.
Knowing that the Red Dragons went wherever Kaiju might attack, he was fairly certain the vibrations he currently felt had nothing to do with the shifting of tectonic plates.
Richard rose uneasily, expecting to disembark and eventually be brought to yet another strange new location, but Nancy stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. “No, not this time,” she said as she guided him back down to his seat. “Only those with superpowers get off at this stop. You’ll be watching from here.”
“Where it’s safe?” Richard asked.
Nancy shrugged. “Well, safer, at least. Besides, we’re picking someone up who wants to meet you.”
The shuttle remained grounded for three minutes, during which time General Tsujimori and X disembarked. As he waited, Richard focused his attention on the view outside his small round window, looking for any sign of Kaiju in the clearing or surrounding forest. He saw nothing obvious, and so it remained as they took off again, rising about one hundred feet into the air. He was certain that he must have been missing something, so he remained focused on the view outside, looking for even the smallest hint of anything unnatural. He was only vaguely aware of the footsteps that came up behind his chair.
“So, this is the one then?” said a smooth, stoic voice from straight out of Richard’s past. It was a voice he had only ever heard once before, but it had burrowed its way deep into his memory. It had spoken words that influenced the course of his entire life.
It was the voice of Absurdity itself.
He rose, turned, and could not believe his eyes.
Standing before him, looking exactly as he had when he spoke at the university twelve years ago, was Dr. Daisuke Armitage.
Left behind again.
Chakra could not quite decide how she felt about this treatment of X constantly leaving her on the bridge of the Akira while he and enemy-turned-ally the General went off to fight monsters.
On the one hand, she knew it was because he wanted to protect her, and it was very sweet and chivalrous of him. Honestly, she did not really hate this treatment. X had always been protective of her since the day they met. It had been like a scene from a storybook, X swooping in like a dashing knight to save her from the lab where she had been experimented on during the War. After all the tortures that came with being a human guinea pig, being put through horrific procedures that had turned her into something most people would shun as an inhuman freak, being cared for to the point of coddling by someone who only had her best interests at heart was not the worst way to live. Indeed, some women would kill for such luxury.
But darn it all, she was immortal! Even if she was killed in a fight, she would come back. She always did. Those scientists had turned her into an impossible-to-kill soldier with enhanced canine senses, and even if she specifically was never meant to see combat – she was a woman, after all – she hated to think that she had endured the horrors of those bizarre experiments only for her powers to go to waste as she sat on her butt.
There was no reason for her to not be part of the action, but no, she was still on the ship with the bridge crew, assigned the soul-suc
king task of staring at a radar screen while her husband was off having all of the fun.
Yes, she enjoyed the coddling, but she would have enjoyed fighting alongside X even more. She felt that it would just deepen their already strong bond. After all, weren’t couples supposed to do things together?
It was especially unfair since the reporter did get to go with them. No powers, no training, and no clue what was going on, yet he was there and she was here. Sure, she understood the plan which required him to go where the action was, but that did not mean she had to like it.
A blip on the radar disrupted her stewing. The signal was soon joined by others, and registered blue, indicating aquatic Kaiju. They moved quickly, sailing right under the Akira without stopping. This was not uncommon; the aquatic ones rarely attacked flying targets. Too much work for no guaranteed payoff.
Chakra noted their trajectory. They were heading for the mainland.
In fact, they were heading straight for the city of Fukuoka.
“Uh-oh,” she said aloud, more to herself than anyone else. They had expected trouble to come by land, but not by sea. X and the others would be caught by surprise.
Unless…
Chakra transmitted a warning signal to the outpost, then slipped away from her post yet again when she was sure no one else on the bridge was looking. Stealthily but quickly, she made her way towards the hangar.
Jenny, who sat nearby at CIGOR’s monitoring console, sensed that the dog-eared girl had left again, and with an aggravated sigh, diverted some of her attention to the radar.
She did not see the blue targets, which had already vanished from the screen.
All she saw was an enormous red signature moving towards the mainland in hot pursuit.
Radar was not Jenny’s specialty, but everyone who was part of Operation Red Dragon knew what a massive red target meant. Her mouth went dry in shock as she transmitted a second warning.
“It’s you,” Richard whispered, awestruck. “You… I… Um…”
He sat back down, trying to collect his thoughts and formulate them into something intelligible. This was amazing. Here he was, Doctor Daisuke Armitage, the man who had given him a purpose in life. Armitage was Richard’s idol. There had been a time following the college lecture when Richard had tried tracking the doctor down, but he had eventually given up, for Armitage had proven impossible to find.
Yet here he was, onboard the futuristic ship that belonged to a top secret organization which hunted giant monsters, none of which Richard, despite researching such things his whole life, had encountered himself before yesterday.
He had dreamed of one day speaking to Armitage, and now that he had the chance, he was stammering like an idiot.
“Take your time, young Richard,” Armitage said.
Richard blinked in astonishment. “You know my name?” He shook his head, mentally chastising himself for sounding like a star-struck schoolgirl. “Well, of course you would know. They, uh, they probably told you, right? The Red Dragon people, I mean.” Another mental scolding. Red Dragon people? No one talks like that.
Armitage sat down across from Richard. “Actually, I know you from your articles. I also remember seeing you in the crowd in Fifty-two when I spoke at your college.”
Richard might as well have been told that he had inherited all of the gold in Fort Knox tax-free. He was speechless.
“I’m quite impressed with your work,” Armitage continued. “In fact, I’m the one who recommended you for this little gambit.”
Richard’s head swam with a million questions. How had Armitage known about him? Why recommend him, of all people? What gambit was he talking about? How deeply involved was he with these people?
Before he could formulate any of these questions into coherent words, the distinct roar of rockets flared outside his window, drawing his attention back outside.
It was X. He was flying at top speed back the way they had come, towards the city.
Richard felt the hairs on his arm stand up as static electricity filled the air, then he was shocked to see General Tsujimori march through the cabin towards the cockpit, a mixed look of anger, determination, and panic on his face.
Richard rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He was certain the General had been on the ground when the shuttle took off. How had he gotten back onboard while the ship was still airborne?
“Something’s wrong,” Nancy said, her voice filled with concern for the first time since Richard had met her. “Something’s very, very wrong.”
The ship jerked around sharply and followed X, not bothering to ascend beyond its current altitude as it zoomed towards Fukuoka.
Nancy was right. Something had to be wrong. They were guaranteed to be seen if they got too close to the city.
If Richard had to guess, the growing sense of urgency he felt aboard the ship meant that remaining hidden was not currently a priority.
In which case, this might be a serious emergency.
Something, indeed, must have been very, very wrong.
CHAPTER 9
Not many people knew it, seeing as how she mostly worked radar on the bridge, but Chakra was actually quite a skilled pilot. She had logged several thousand hours of training with the Air Force’s best pilots after the war, and was ranked among the top pilots in the world. At least, she would have been if her very existence was not just as classified as the rest of Operation Red Dragon and the Kaiju.
She had been waiting for an opportunity to apply her piloting skills in service to the greater good for years, and the sudden appearance of the water Kaiju while her overprotective husband was away seemed as good an excuse as any. So, after tricking the hangar crew into believing she was acting on orders, she had stolen the experimental fighter which had been collecting dust in the Akira’s hangar for about a year, and flown out to try intercepting the encroaching sea monsters.
The new ship had been named Kuroga, or Black Moth, by its designer, Professor Toshiro, because the angular wings and forward-facing cockpit – a sphere which used gyroscopes to remain stable while the rest of the ship banked and spun – were vaguely similar in shape to a moth, and the fuselage was made of completely black material. It was a theory the Professor had that this unconventional combination of color and shape would make the ship invisible to radar, though it had yet to be properly tested, as this unique feature meant very little to creatures who did not use technology. Well, it might have worked against that giant bat in Romania, but he had yet to really bother anyone. Still, if this stealth technology worked, it would keep her from being detected by any airports in the city. If any ships in the water saw her, it would be written off as just another UFO sighting.
Chakra had pushed the fighter as fast as it could go to catch up with the creatures, and once they were in her sights, she fired the Kuroga’s twin Gatling guns at the churning water. After a few minutes of nonstop firing, she paused to judge the results.
For the life of her, she could not tell if she had any impact simply by looking at the water. The darn things were just below the surface, making it impossible to count how many there were with the naked eye. The noticeable swirl of red in the water behind them told her that she must have at least hit some of them, so perhaps she had thinned the herd a little, but she saw no sign of any dead bodies, and the swarm showed no sign of slowing down.
Chakra put the Kuroga in hover mode, which was accomplished by another experimental technique of putting the rotors on gyroscopic mounts embedded in the middle of the moth-like wings rather than on the front. She switched on the radar, and saw that some of the blue targets, perhaps fifteen or twenty, had indeed stopped moving.
She grinned, victoriously pumping her fist. That was better than she had expected. If she kept it up-
Suddenly, a pair of massive crocodilian jaws burst from the waves and snapped at the ship. Chakra swerved, avoiding disaster by inches, then fired at the offending beast. The barrage of bullets shredded the creature's throat, finishing it off.
After a quick mental scolding for making what she considered a rookie mistake, Chakra switched out of hover mode and continued her pursuit.
When she looked ahead, she could clearly see the skyline of Fukuoka fast approaching.
Now she was at a crossroads. The Red Dragons were under direct orders to remain hidden from the public, but they were also charged with keeping Kaiju away from populated areas. At this rate, it was looking like she would not be able to realize both goals simultaneously. She could not kill all of the Kaiju by herself before they reached Fukuoka, for she was just one pilot on her own. At the same time, she could not just abandon the chase and leave the city to its fate. Unlike her, the citizens of Fukuoka would not come back if they died.
No matter what choice she made, she dreaded the scolding that would come later from X, especially if she made any mistakes.
A glint of light came from the skyline. She squinted to see what it was.
Even with her sharp eyes, it was still hard to see any detail at such a distance, but she instantly recognized the object from its movement. That was the shuttle which carried Nancy and the reporter ahead of her, flying in full view of everyone in the city directly towards the coast. That meant they must have gotten her warning about the sea monsters and were doubling back to intercept them.
If the shuttle was not trying to hide, which appeared to be the case, that meant secrecy was no longer a priority, at least for the moment.
That settled the matter in her mind.
She stayed on course and continued firing into the water.
X could see the people below staring in awe as he and the shuttle shot through the skyline towards the coast. Under normal circumstances, being in view of the public would be considered a violation of protocol, but that hardly mattered to him now. This was not a normal circumstance; it was an ambush. Trying to stay hidden would just waste time. The people of Fukuoka had to be protected at any cost, even the cost of secrecy.
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