by Greg Keyes
“Suyin,” he gasped. He knew she wasn’t dead; he could still feel her. But the Conn-Pod had crumpled around her, crushing her leg. Her eyes were open, but she looked like she was in shock.
“We have to get out of here,” he said.
“Look,” she said, dreamily. Pointing beyond him at the slash of sky visible to them.
He turned in time to see the flash of light, the bolt of energy from Crimson Typhoon’s plasma cannon.
Huo Da bloomed, a blue flower in the heavens. The Kaiju had transformed again, he thought, as the toxic rain began to fall.
40
2035
PHILIPPINE SEA
PHILIPPINES
GIPSY AVENGER
THE CLIMB BACK WAS A SLOW, DELIBERATE process; setting themselves, pulling out the blade, digging it in further up. At first it seemed almost impossible, but as they drew higher, the side of the trench was less and less steep, and eventually they could get all four limbs under them.
Power dropped to forty percent, and their oxygen supply was moving into the red zone. They had been climbing for nearly four miles, but they had one more to go.
But the Drift was right. For the first time since this whole business began, he felt Burke was really with him, that they were clicking like they used to. Not for long. When this was over…
“I’m sorry,” Burke said.
“Not the time,” Lambert replied. “Just stay with me, and let’s get this done.”
And so it was that finally, painfully, with almost no oxygen to spare, Gipsy Avenger pulled herself from the edge of the abyss, rose once more above the ocean waves and went to finish the fight.
LOCCENT noticed they were back. “Gipsy!” Xiang said. “How are you?”
“Mad as hell,” Lambert said. “Do we have a target, or should we just destroy everything that moves?”
They had been noticed. Helicopters were lifting off.
“K-Watch nailed it down. I’ve sent coordinates. South side of the island, there’s a crescent-shaped lake. It’s part of an old mining pit that caved in. You’ll see some industrial ruins, next to it. The bomb is there.”
“Thanks,” Lambert said. A map of the island came up, the bomb’s location marked by a blue dot.
The helicopters started firing as they approached the island. Gipsy used her Gravity Sling to snatch up a boulder from one of the little islets surrounding the bigger land mass, and flung it directly into the craft, which shattered and fell with almost unreal slowness. The others veered off, but not before he used the sling again, narrowly missing another of the helicopters.
The ship, he noticed, now stood off the east side of the island.
“Maybe we should take that out,” he said. “Before they come up with any more surprises.”
If the enemy had another one of those pulse bombs, for instance, they were almost certainly done for. But the bad guys had had a few minutes now to fire missiles, and hadn’t. Hopefully they were empty.
Small-arms fire rattled on their armor, along with larger caliber rounds from mounted weapons. That was just noise. The helicopters circled warily behind them.
As they drew nearer to the ship, a cargo lift raised something from below decks: a long cylinder, with one brightly glowing end pointing directly at them. Instinct kicked in and they spun right as a white-hot stream of plasma crackled through the air, singing along their left flank. Howling in their Conn-Pod, they slammed the deck with one gigantic fist, sending the plasma torch flying. Then, gripping the ship along the gunnels, squeezing so hard their fingers dug into the metal, they heaved, lifted, and flipped the whole thing over. Then they hit it twice with their own plasma cannon, just for good measure. Flame ballooned out from the huge ship as they turned their back on it and slogged toward the island.
“We just got a heightened energy signature from your location,” Xiang reported. “Dr. Gottlieb believes they’ve begun the injection process.”
Gipsy set first one foot on land, then the other.
There was the lake, and next to it a bunch of equipment, set up in the ruins and camouflaged to make it invisible from the air. About fifty men and women came swarming out as they approached, firing up at them.
Ignoring the bullets spattering against them, they reached down and knocked away the covering.
“I see it,” he said. “Or something.”
“You’re looking for a large tank of some sort,” Gottlieb said.
“I don’t see anything like that,” Lambert reported. Gipsy cleared the rest of the wreckage, but they still didn’t see anything obvious.
“It’s begun,” he heard Gottlieb say. “You must hurry.”
“In the ground,” Burke said. “It must be in the ground.”
Gipsy’s hand reared back, then drove down, digging into the earth. They felt something metal, cold…
They yanked it up: a sphere the size of a water tower, with blue vitriol leaking from one side.
“Got it!” Lambert yelled.
“You’d best get out of there, then,” Xiang said. “K-Watch is getting some serious readings from your location.”
They tilted the sphere up so it was no longer leaking, and once again, they ran as best a Jaeger could run, crushing palm trees underfoot as the earth began to shudder and slide beneath them. They splashed into the water, sprinting toward the mainland. A glance back showed black smoke billowing up from the island, fuming toward an otherwise clear blue sky.
And then the island simply exploded in their rear view; the whole thing went up in a vast ball of flame and smoke. They stumbled as the wave-front of the blast passed through them, but the power held steady, and they corrected quickly. Trees bent away from them in every direction, and the water kicked up in choppy wavelets.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Burke said.
Then the sea poured into the hole, a gaping wound in the Earth that ran straight down to the lake of molten magma rising up to meet it, and the two had a… disagreement, a disagreement louder than any clap of thunder Lambert had ever heard. Ahead of even the sound came a hurricane of pressurized steam, slapping them harder than any Kaiju. Gipsy toppled, went down on its knees and one hand. Warnings screamed from almost every system. The hydraulics in their left leg were reading as negative, and the cooling systems shut down.
But when it was over they still had the reservoir of Kaiju blood in the other hand intact.
Lambert looked at Burke, then at the boiling sea behind them.
“I guess we did it,” Lambert said.
“Wait,” Gottlieb’s voice said. “Let me see – oh, thank God.”
“That sounds promising,” Burke said, smiling.
“Indeed,” Gottlieb said. “You stopped them far short of achieving critical mass. By my calculations, they only managed to inject about fifty liters before you stopped them.”
“Fifty liters?” Lambert said, incredulous. “Only eleven gallons? The whole island is gone.”
“Yes,” Gottlieb replied. “But it would have been worse – oh, so much worse.”
“I think we’re going to need a little help getting out of here,” Lambert said.
“Jumphawks are on their way, Gipsy,” Xiang said. “Congratulations, and thanks from everyone here. Good job.”
41
2035
MOYULAN SHATTERDOME
CHINA
WHEN JINHAI AND VIK ARRIVED BACK AT THE Shatterdome, Mako left them in the hands of the J-Techs and Medical. The doctors checked them out, declared them fit and sent them on their way, and suddenly they were out of it, abandoned. Whatever great events were unfolding out in the world and at LOCCENT, they were no longer in the loop.
They started toward the barracks, but halfway there, Jinhai realized something.
“I’m starving,” he told Vik.
She nodded. “Of course,” she said.
“Look,” he said. “If you want to be alone…”
“No,” she said. “Let’s get something to eat.”
; The kitchens were between lunch and supper, and food service was cleaning up, but someone on duty managed to find two bowls of noodles with eggplant, pork, and basil. Jinhai took a bite or two of his, but Vik just sat, looking at her food.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “We’re alive, and in the clear.”
“Sure,” she said. “But we almost weren’t. Because we were stupid. I was stupid. Lambert said he was about to start washing people out. Who do you think will be first? Us.”
“Maybe,” Jinhai said.
“It’s a big deal to me,” Vik said.
“I know,” Jinhai said. “I’ve been in your head way too much not to know that. I’m not trying to make light of it.”
“I know you’re not,” she said.
“Should have known we’d find them here,” someone said. He didn’t have to turn to recognize Suresh, but he did anyway. He saw they were all there, all of the cadets.
“What’s up, guys?” Jinhai said.
“You two,” Renata said. “You’ll do anything to get out of training, won’t you?”
For just a second, he thought she was serious. Vik was starting to get out of her seat.
Then Renata laughed a little nervously, and the rest along with her. But then the Chilean’s face grew serious again.
“Look,” she said. “We’re here to say we’re sorry. I’m sorry. We should have believed you, stuck by you. Sometimes I talk a better game than I play.”
“It’s the same for all of us,” Ilya said.
“We were sort of idiots,” Suresh put in.
Vik eased back into her chair. “Thanks,” she said. “I really appreciate that.” She sounded sincere.
“Can we join you, or are you having a private meeting?” Renata asked.
“Please, have a seat,” Jinhai said. “I think we can use some company.”
“Yeah,” Vik said. “We were just talking about washing out.”
“I know,” Tahima said, as he took a seat. “That damned Ceptid simulation.”
“We were thinking more about the whole sneaking-around in Mechspace and getting kidnapped,” Vik said. “But yeah, the simulation, sure.”
“You realize now you have to tell us all about it,” Suresh said. “The whole nasty story.”
“We can’t say much,” Jinhai said. “Gipsy Avenger –”
“– has succeeded,” a new voice said.
Mako Mori had just entered the room. They all bolted up to attention.
“As you were,” she said.
“So it’s all over? Everything is okay?” Jinhai asked.
“All is well,” she said. “You’ll be filled in on details when they become generally available. For now, most of this must remain classified.” She smiled. “And so we can return to training.”
“Secretary General, when will Rangers Lambert and Burke return?” Meilin asked.
“Soon,” Mori said. “But Ranger Lambert asked me to take charge of you this afternoon. He feels you’ve probably been lax in his absence. That is, if cadets Ou-Yang and Malikova feel up to it.”
“Yes ma’am,” Jinhai said.
“Any time, Secretary General,” Vik said. “We had plenty of rest on the flight back.”
“Very well,” Mori said. “Meet me at the Mock-Pods in one hour.”
* * *
“Here we go again,” Meilin said, as the simulation came up around them.
“I should have known,” Ilya said.
Ecuador, again, and Ceptid arriving from the west. They were back in the original Jaegers, just as they had been the first time – Renata and Ilya in Diablo Intercept, Tahima and Meilin in Romeo Blue, Vik and Jinhai in Puma Real.
“Looks like it’s back to the drawing board,” Jinhai said. “Anyone have any bright ideas?”
For a moment, no one said anything. But then Vik spoke up.
“I do,” she said.
“You know what?” Renata said. “Why don’t you call this one? I haven’t done such a great job so far.”
Vik glanced at Jinhai. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.
“Is that a rhetorical question?” Jinhai said. “Because literally, yes. Sure. Go for it. You and I don’t have much to lose. The rest of them do. Let’s put this scenario behind us.”
Vik nodded and switched to the shared channel.
“Okay, Diablo Intercept, Romeo Blue, you guys get to the shoreline and set up a crossfire. We’ll stay out here and wear him down.”
“Wear him down?” Ilya objected. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned about this Kaiju, it does not ‘wear down’.”
“We’ll see,” Vik said. “I have tricks up my sleeve.”
“Headed to shore, Puma,” Renata said. “Good luck.”
“Tricks?” Jinhai said.
“Well, trick,” Vik said.
Ceptid came on.
“Let’s shoot a few missiles,” Vik said.
“Fine by me,” Jinhai said. They let fly, with pretty much the same lack of effect as before. Ceptid plodded forward as if it didn’t notice.
“Think they’re far enough back yet?” Vik asked.
“Give them another minute or two,” Jinhai replied.
They jogged a little to their left, firing more missiles, then back to the right, shooting until they were empty.
“I think it’s probably safe now,” Jinhai said.
“Okay,” Vik said. “Are you ready?”
“About as ready as I’m going to get,” Jinhai replied.
“Then here we go.”
They moved until they were directly in the Kaiju’s path, and then ran straight at it.
“Puma,” Renata yelped. “What are you doing?”
“Killing it,” Vik said.
They put their fists up and charged into Ceptid, swinging.
The instant before they got there, it split down the middle, opened up like the ugliest butterfly on earth, and engulfed them.
And exploded. Jinhai felt mild feedback pressure, a surge of dizziness. Vik screamed, both in his mind and with her lungs. Then everything went black.
And stayed black. Unexpected terror rose up. What was happening? Was this a simulated death, or something? A punishment for deliberately destroying a Jaeger? More sabotage? Was he really dying?
But then he understood, and he began to feel a little calmer. “We’re still drifting,” he said.
Vik didn’t answer, but he could see her, standing ahead of him, the only light in the darkness. Except now, by her glow, he could also see a door, and he knew somehow that behind the door lay the hidden place within Vik he had never seen.
She reached for the door and pulled it open.
The whole world opened.
Everything seemed calm; it was almost dark. A town lay before him, a few hundred drab little buildings tinted rose and vermillion by the rays of the setting sun.
Then Jinhai heard a sound, an awful, low-pitched groan that shivered through the earth and air. He turned away from the sunset and saw something rising.
At first, he thought it was cloud, mostly in the shadow part of the evening sky, but touched golden by the sun on its top.
But then he saw that the shadow came all the way down to the ground, and that in the ray-touched top, a face peered down at him. In the shadow, long arms and legs moved. Then the sky itself was wailing so loud it hurt his ears, and the shadow moved into the town. Fire and smoke were everywhere; the smell burned his eyes and throat. Everything was in motion, and then all was dark.
The darkness gave way to pale dawn. Jinhai was looking at the town from further away. The big thing was gone, but the town lay in utter ruin. The wailing stopped, and it was quiet enough for him to hear weeping.
Then the scene blurred and shifted. He was standing with Vik, who looked as if she was about three or four. Next to Vik stood an old man in a heavy coat and wool cap. Jinhai knew it was her grandfather. They were looking at two graves, side by side.
“Your father,” Dedulya sai
d. “My little boy. My sweet boy.” He was crying. “And here, your mother, a good woman. I was proud to have her as family.”
Vik stood up, and as she did, she grew older. She took Jinhai’s hand, and they began to walk across the shattered landscape, to the edge of the sea, where his parents were dancing together, elegantly, despite her mother’s prosthetic leg, and he felt his own longing, as deep in his heart as any oceanic trench. And he then, finally, understood.
And as his parents danced down the beach, he and Vik began to float up into the sky, and a face appeared in the clouds, a woman’s face.
“Vikushka,” the woman whispered.
Then he felt the neural handshake part, and Vik wasn’t with him anymore. He was back in the Mock- Pod, with a tech and Mako Mori standing over him.
“What happened?” he gasped.
“It’s okay,” Mori said. “It happens sometimes. You get lost in the Drift, especially if you have a shock of some sort. Even though you knew you wouldn’t really die, some instinctive part of you probably didn’t understand that.”
“Okay,” he said. He looked over at Vik, and saw she was actually smiling a little.
“So are we done?” Jinhai asked.
“Done?” Mori asked.
“Washed out.”
“No, of course not,” she said. “You won.”
“We destroyed a Jaeger,” he said. “We died.”
“That was the only correct answer,” Mori said.
“It was the original answer,” Vik said. “When Diablo Intercept attacked Ceptid, it exploded. We all thought we were supposed to come up with a better solution to the fight.”
“Diablo Intercept didn’t know what would happen,” Mori said. “They were merely trying to fight it. But sometimes the only way to beat a Kaiju is to sacrifice yourself. Sometimes there is no other answer.”
“You mean like when Stacker Pentecost and Chuck Hansen used the nuclear bomb to clear the way for Gipsy Danger even though it was still strapped to them.”
“Yes,” Mako said. “And as when Raleigh…” she stopped, and her gaze seemed to focus past them, to something very distant.
“Ranger Lambert will be very pleased,” she finally said. “With all of you. Return to your quarters and get some rest.”
