Portals of Infinity: Kaiju

by John Van Stry

  "Bringing back some breakfast."

  "You let him go off on his own?" I said scowling.

  "He's a grown boy, Will. He can take care of himself."

  "I'm just afraid of him doing something stupid," I said.

  "If he does, I'll kill him myself," Evean said with a smile, "at this point, anybody who screws with the mission is going to find themselves dead."

  I nodded, "Good."

  "And that includes you, Will." she warned.

  "It's my people getting killed now, Evean," I reminded her. "So the sooner this is done, the happier I'll be."

  "Even if you don't get the credit?" She asked surprising me.

  "What?" I said looking at her, "Why should I care who gets the credit? You've seen what that whole 'god slayer' thing has done for me."

  "I've also seen you aren't afraid to use it to threaten people either, as I recall."

  I shrugged, "I was desperate, I took desperate measures. Trust me, being called that has led to more problems than you might realize."

  "I'll keep that in mind. Let me know when Suzona is ready."

  I nodded and she closed the door.

  Twenty minutes later the four of us were walking to the museum. The food Loomis had brought back was actually rather good, though I did use a cure poison on myself after I ate it. I still didn't trust him after all.

  The museum was a lot larger than I would have expected. There were a lot of pictures, the remains of several items that had been destroyed, such as cars, buses, and the like. Then there were the memorials to those who had died.

  That made me stop and take a moment, a lot of people had died here when the monster had rampaged through the city, the cost in human life had been horrendous. Then after the device to kill it had been used, all sea life within a hundred miles had died as well, and as they were highly dependent on their fishing industry, and many fish nurseries, there had been hard times for everyone in the country for many years afterwards.

  "This thing is going to destroy our fishing communities for probably a decade," I said to Evean.

  "I know, but what else can we do?"

  "I feel sorriest for the villages on the coast. Hopefully they'll be far enough away."

  "I'm surprised you care," Loomis said.

  "Famine leads to war. I'd rather not have anymore of those." I grumbled, restraining the strong desire to pop him one in the mouth.

  "Enough Loomis," Evean said, putting her hand on his arm.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as he shut up and we went up to the next floor. The one dedicated to the people who fought gojira, and the scientist who had come up with the weapon to kill him.

  I did the 'eyes and ears' thing as we went through that part of the exhibit. There was quite the write up on Doctor Anso, it wasn't mentioned anywhere what line of research he had been embarked upon when he discovered the device, but he had kept it a secret for many years, only revealing it to the authorities when all other attempts to stop or kill gojira had failed.

  "Says here he passed away over ten years ago," Evean sighed.

  "Does it say where he worked?" I asked, surprised that Evean was able to read the language so quickly.

  "No, but it does mention the military base out of which the final attack was launched. So I suspect that is where we want to go."

  I nodded and looked at the picture below the writing. "Is that the device?" I asked.

  "Yeah, that's it all right."

  "There's a model over there," Suzona said.

  Turning around, I saw it and went over to take a look; it was a cut-away model that showed the internal workings. Over all it looked fairly simple, a plexiglass container with metal caps at either end with a split metal sphere inside. Either side of the sphere had a rod coming out of it that led in to the metal caps, which held a mechanism that kept the two halves of the metal sphere pressed tightly together. You really had to look closely to notice the line between the halves, it was machined that well.

  The metal caps to either end were joined to each other by four long rods outside of the plexiglass, and the metal ends resembled the tops of a high pressure bottle, though one end had some sort of gauge on it, and a few controls.

  There was a plaque underneath the model with a drawing of the device, arrows to the controls and gauge, and a detailed explanation, which I couldn't read yet.

  "So how does it work?" Suzona asked.

  "Press the trigger and the timer counts down, then the spheres move apart and release the substance inside that starts a chain reaction in the water. First it sucks all of the oxygen out of the water, and by some method, I guess the one that sucks all the oxygen out, it liquefies all flesh in the water around it, killing everything in the water almost instantly."

  "You know, they are not going to let us walk out with a weapon like that," Suzona mused.

  I looked it over the instructions carefully, while I couldn't read them I was sure that Fel probably could, so if I needed to know, he'd tell me.

  "Let's go get lunch," Evean said.

  We all nodded and followed her out of the museum and off to a large restaurant, taking seats in the back so we could talk without being overheard.

  "We need to get into that base, and find where they keep those," I said. "Not an easy assignment."

  "I suggest we just kidnap the base commander, push him through a portal back to one of our temples and let our god deal with it," Evean said.

  "If we take the commander, they'll all be on alert," Suzona pointed out. "We would be better to take a lower ranking person, say one of the guards."

  "What if they don't know?"

  "Something that important? They'll know. Of course, we can always take more than one to be sure."

  I nodded, "That sounds like a good plan, though again, we take too many and somebody is going to know that something is up."

  "Okay, so we find where the device is stored, then what?" Suzona said.

  "What kind of security do you think it will have?" Evean asked.

  I thought about some of the things my sister had said about nuclear weapons depots that she had been tasked with planning terrorist exercises against.

  "It's probably going to be below ground," I said, "in a bunker, with several heavy doors between us and it."

  "So we'll need a way to open the doors." Loomis put in.

  "Which means we'll need someone authorized to open them, or at least whatever keys and passwords are required." Evean sighed.

  "Getting in will definitely be a problem," I agreed.

  "At least we do not have to get out again," Suzona said.

  "There is that."

  "I wonder if we could enlist someone's help?" I mused.

  "Would you hand over a nuclear bomb to someone?" Evean asked.

  "Well, if they showed me that they weren't from here and only wanted to be let in, and not out again?" I thought about that a moment and then shook my head, "Yeah, not very likely."

  "The first order of business is to go to the town where the military base that the weapon is stored at is located. We can get a room there and do a little looking around and try to identify some people with the information we're looking for." Evean looked at each of us. "Okay?"

  We all nodded.

  "Well, eat up then, and let's go."

  # # # #

  "So, what have we learned?" Evean asked going around the table.

  It was two days later, we'd found a hotel within reasonable distance almost immediately, and then spent all of yesterday canvassing the area and trying to identify people. All of us had been out until very late, trying to gather as much data as we could.

  I was a little pissed at Loomis, though I didn't say anything, as he'd already pushed two people through a portal yesterday, and Fel had told me that on our first night here he'd done it as well. Which was how Evean had been able to read the language. Apparently Quzelatin, Loomis's god, hadn't wanted to share with Fel or Isengruer, but Roden had started sharing what he got from Quzelatin
as even he felt it was stupid behavior given what was on the line.

  Fel had also told me that the monster had struck again yesterday, but it hadn't attacked Marland again, possibly because it had been so well repulsed the last time. Instead it had gone further up the river and attacked the city/state of Riverbend and done quite a bit of damage there, as they didn't have anything beyond a normal army and city walls.

  When it continued up the river, Rivervail was the next target, we were sure. The only question was, just how long would it stay at Riverbend?

  "Well, we know who the senior officers on the base are, as well as several of the scientists who maintain the weapons, and most of the senior enlisted," Loomis said. Which was true, because that had all been pulled from the minds of the two people he'd pushed through. But beyond that, I don't think he'd contributed much of anything, as he really didn't understand how a modern society really worked, and the little exposure he'd had over the last two weeks or so hadn't sunk in.

  "I've found the houses of most of the NCO's," Suzona said. She'd been making the rounds of the bars, and letting the service members buy her drinks. Last night she'd let one pick her up.

  "Why didn't you just take him?" Loomis asked surprised.

  "Because he'd be missed. Once we remove someone, we have to act the next day. Before people become too suspicious." Suzona replied and continued. "I confirmed where the weapons bunkers are."

  "What did you find, Will?" Evean asked me.

  "I found the whorehouses that the single enlisted men use, as well as the one that the officers are using."

  "It figures," Loomis laughed, but got quiet when Evean shot him a glare.

  I continued on, "I also found the shop that sells uniforms locally, and I bought each of you one. Can any of you sew? Because I wasn't sure what rank insignia to use, and I bought a variety."

  "I can sew," Evean said, "Rather well too."

  I nodded, "So, do we have a plan yet?"

  Evean nodded and smiled, looking around at all of us.

  "Don't I always?"

  Twenty

  Final World

  World of Scientists - Kaiju Defense Base

  We were all in a car approaching one of the gates to the base, it was four am and things were still rather dark. Evean had spent yesterday after our meeting scouting out all of the senior NCO's, until she found one that resembled one of us. With Suzona's help, she quickly got him alone late last night and after relieving him of his identification, pushed him through a portal to Isengruer.

  Unlike Quzelatin, Isengruer didn't just strip his mind and kill him. Oh, he still got everything we needed, but he had promised to send Suzona's victim home after we got what we needed. That had actually gained us an extra level of cooperation that while we probably didn't need, did mean at least we still had some options if this plan fell through.

  It also moved Isengruer and Suzona up a few notches in my mind.

  I was driving the car, as I was the one who looked the most like Suzona's victim, so after a makeup job by Evean, who was rather adept at applying it, I donned the uniform with the proper insignia and gotten into the victim's car.

  Suzona, Evean, and Loomis were all crammed rather tightly into the trunk. The gate guards all knew Master Sergeant Tam, and they rarely searched his car, beyond flashing a light through the window to check the back seat.

  Tonight they didn't even do that, just waved me through while looking bored.

  I drove until I was around a corner and out of sight, then pulled around behind a building and popping the trunk I got out and ran around to the back to help them all out.

  Suzona was dressed as a junior NCO in a uniform that made it clear just how she was climbing the rank ladder. Evean's was that of a scientific advisor with half a dozen technical badges which equally made it clear just how she got where she was. Both of them had new unit patches, which would make anyone looking at them think that they had both recently been assigned here.

  Loomis was done up as a private, with as little insignia as possible. From what we all now knew, he would be ignored by everyone, except to be yelled at, and then ignored some more. There were privates here everywhere, usually doing the scut work and whatever other job no one else wanted to do.

  Once everyone was out, we all checked each other's uniforms, then got into the car and I drove off, dropping each of them at their assigned spot as I drove onto my own duty spot, the base armory.

  "Morning, Tam!" said a rather sleepy looking civilian I walked up behind as we reached the locked and guarded door. My new memories identified him as one of the civilian gunsmiths who worked there.

  "Morning," I grumbled back, swiping my id in the card reader after they had swept theirs.

  "Master Sergeant!" acknowledged the soldier behind the security glass as the door unlocked. I nodded and greeted him and going inside I went directly to Tam's office.

  The office was empty of course; the normal working day didn't start here until six am for most people who worked in the armory, though Master Sergeant Tam was known for often showing up early.

  Especially on days when he was planning on leaving early to go fishing. Tam was short and was just sticking it out for his retirement, and everyone knew it. They also knew that making his life difficult would get you in more trouble than even the base commander could muster.

  Unlocking and opening Tam's desk, I got out his key ring, and a few of the tags kept there as well. I then left his office and proceeded inside the building and unlocking the doors with his keys, I went into the vaults where the heavy weapons were stored. Once inside it only took me a minute to find the weapon I wanted, a rather interesting recoilless rifle in its transport case. I also took a second case, which contained six special armor-piecing rounds.

  Putting a blue tag on each, I signed Tam's name, and wrote 'Exercise Approved' and put the date on them. I stacked both on a cart that was just outside the vault door, then closing the vault; I took them to the loading bay, and set them by the door.

  Next I went to the small arms vault. First I found a pistol and loaded it, then stuck it and several extra magazines in my pockets. I took two more of the same pistol, with spare magazines, and put each in an ammo box, which I had dumped the contents of out onto the floor. Then I took two automatic rifles, checked their function quickly, and also grabbed several loaded magazines for each. However I made one difference on these, I grabbed the magazines that were loaded with non-lethal plastic bullets. They'd hurt like hell, and might wound you at point blank range, but we really weren't here to kill a lot of people, plus I didn't trust Loomis to not just shoot everyone we came across.

  I put the rifles into a bag, along with the magazines for them, and carried those to the loading bay as well.

  When a truck pulled up outside, I opened the door, loaded the recoilless rifle, its ammunition, and the bag with the rifles into the back. I set the two boxes with the pistols on the ground and then went back inside, locking the door as the truck drove off.

  I returned to Tam's office to replace the keys, then went out the front door with a wave to the guard and got back into the car and after picking up the two boxes by the loading docks, I drove over to the base operations office.

  I parked the car out front and got both of the boxes, then walked up to the door and was buzzed in immediately. Evean was there, with three people bound, gagged, and blindfolded on the floor behind the doorway.

  "Any problems?" She asked me.

  "Nope, Loomis showed up with the truck on time, I loaded him up." I handed her one of the boxes.

  "What's this for?" She said opening it up and looking at the pistol.

  "Emergencies."

  She nodded and loaded the pistol and put it in her uniform pocket, along with the extra magazines.

  "Suzona's here," She said, motioning to the monitor.

  Looking up at it, I saw Suzona carrying a rather large bag like it weighted barely anything. I went over and opened the door for her, and she hurri
ed inside and set the bag down.

  "Any problems?" Evean asked her, as Suzona unzipped the bag.

  "No, I left his wife bound and gagged in the closet. Didn't even have to bother with his kids," Suzona said as she pulled the base commander, groggy and bound, from the bag.

  "Good."

  "Help me with this please, William?" Suzona said to me.

  I nodded and helped her carry him into one of the offices, possibly his, where she partially untied him, then rebound him to the chair with his right arm free.

  "You'll never get away with this, Tam," he said, a little groggy."

  "I'm not Tam," I said to him. "Tam is currently being held incommunicado while I'm here."

  "Hold his arm please, William," Suzona commanded.

  I nodded and took a tight grip of his forearm while Suzona poured a couple of bottles of chemicals into a large metal tub she'd bought last night along with the chemicals. I knew what she was going to do, but I had no idea how it worked.

  "General, this will sting a bit," She said. "But it will cause no lasting harm. So, try not to scream or I will gag you."

  "Why haven't you already?" He grumbled and then sucked his breath in, I suspect in a combination of pain and shock as Suzona stuck his hand in the solution.

  "We haven't, because we thought you might like to know what we're doing, and why," I said to him as I watched Suzona work. She held his hand in the solution for probably half a minute, then set the bucket on the floor.

  "You're terrorists, or thieves, and you'll get nothing from me!" He replied.

  "I guess you'd say we're thieves then," I said as Suzona pulled out a spray can and sprayed something on the palm of his hand as she held his wrist tightly with the other.

  "You see, we're having a problem with one of those gojira monsters, and we don't have a weapon that will kill it. You however, do."

  His eyes got wide then, "You're going to steal one of the destroyers?"

  "Hold his arm again, William, tightly please. And press on the nerve here." Suzona told me.