Project 731 (14 page)

Katsu Endo.

19

“Head for the far side!” I shout as I run, pointing to the other side of the roof. There’s nothing strategic about the far side of the roof, where several air conditioning units, antennas and satellite dishes are located; it’s just far away from the stairwell.

As we near the edge, the warehouse comes into view below. The curved metal roof is just thirty feet below us. If we had a rope... But we don’t, and pondering what we could do isn’t nearly as helpful as figuring out what we
can
do.

“Is there another stairwell?” I ask the scientist, who’s bent over, hands on his knees, heaving each breath. This is the first time he’s been chased by a giant killer monster. I’ve kept in pretty good shape since I realized my job would involve creatures who could cover a hundred feet in a single step.

Through heavy breathing, the man points across the building. “Other...side...”

I slap the back of his head. “Could have mentioned that when I pointed this way and shouted ‘head for the far side.’” I turn to Collins. “Any bright ideas?”

She holds her hand out. “Yeah, give me my gun back.”

I hand her the weapon, not because it’s hers, but because she’s a better shot, and we both know it. Alessi has her weapon drawn, too, but I’m not sure the 9mm will do any good. Collins’s .50 caliber is our best hope.

A low growl that shakes the fifteen-story building rises from below.

While we wait, I take the scientist by the collar and give him a shake, “Is that Nemesis?”

“Nemesis is dead,” he says, shielding his head like I’m going to punch him. And I might, if he doesn’t spill the beans.

“Is her body in Building-K?”

He nods vigorously.

“Well, she doesn’t
sound
dead.”

His nod becomes a shake. “I—I don’t know. Her dermis regenerated over the past year, but she wasn’t breathing. There was no pulse. No brain activity.”

“But her skin was growing,” I point out. “That’s got to be a sign of life, right?”

“The dark colored skin is like a separate organism. Like a fungus.”

“A bullet and bomb-proof fungus.” My words are drenched in sarcasm, but the man nods.

“Yes.”

“So you kept a three-hundred-fifty-foot-tall, alien goddess of vengeance in a hangar within stomping distance of a U.S. city? Did it ever occur to you that the body, which I’m assuming didn’t decay, was in some kind of stasis while the fungus grew?”

“Alien?” he asks, eyes widening.

“Really? That’s what you took away from—”

The stairwell at the center of the roof explodes up. The door launches away. The roof bulges out. The walls crumble apart. And then all at once, the silverback pushes its way through the now gaping exit.

The roof shakes as the silverback plants one foot on the rough, stony surface. It turns left, looking for us, and then right, finding us. It roars at us, strands of drool flapping like flags caught in a stiff wind, visible even from here.

“Woodstock,” I say. “ETA?”

“You should hear me coming,” he says. “One minute tops.”

I pause and listen, but some kind of tumult within the warehouse behind me, and the sound of the now running silverback’s charge, block out any other sounds.

“We’re on the east side of the building,” I tell him, “but I’m not sure if we’ll be here when you arrive.”

“Just keep me posted, bossman.”

I was implying that we’d be dead, but I decide to let him keep his glass half full.

Collins takes a step toward the charging ape, weapon raised. “Stop!”

The beast continues its frothy charge.

Collins fires a shot, clipping the ape’s arm. “I said stop!”

The silverback digs its feet in and grinds to a stop.

“I can’t believe that worked,” I whisper.

To our collective surprise, the gorilla thrusts his finger out at the cowering scientist. “I want doctor!”

Collins shakes her head. “Not going to happen.”

The ape turns his finger to his exposed brain. “He do this! To family!”

Collins’s aim waivers. I don’t blame her. Unlike much of the world, who have been conditioned, through movies and novels, to view monstrous things as simple-minded killing machines, we know better. They’re complex creatures with genuine emotions that are sometimes deeper than we can comprehend. It sounds like this great ape saw his fate befall his family before it was done to him. I don’t know what family means to a gorilla, but I suspect it’s similar to a human family: children, a mate, maybe even brothers, sisters and parents. It wouldn’t surprise me if GOD took an entire troop of gorillas from the Congo.

“I gave Tilly to Nemesis for less,” I say.

The scientist flinches like I’ve just punched him. “You can’t be serious!”

“Did you do this to him?” I ask the man.

His silence is answer enough, and I step away from the man.

“Jon...” Collins glances at me, the look in her eyes is stern, but unconvincing.

“Would you stand in my way if they did this to our children?”

“You people are crazy!” The scientist says, and he breaks away, running along the edge of the roof. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s just triggered his own doom and taken away some of the burden I might have felt if I had simply stood aside.

The roof shakes beneath our feet. At first, I think it’s from the charging gorilla, but the sound of wrenching metal spins me around, and I see the hangar roof bending upward.

“Coming in low,” Woodstock says. “From the n—what the hell is that thing on the roof!”

The hangar roof is struck from below, two long, blade-like spines punching through.

“Holy sheeit!” Woodstock shouts. “Is that—”

“Meet us on the west side of the roof,” I shout, running toward the still charging gorilla. “West side!”

As we pass the silverback, it makes eye contact with me, and it’s the strangest thing, not because it’s a giant talking ape, but because I see intelligence in there. It grunts and dips its head in thanks, before continuing past us toward the scientist, who has realized he has nowhere to run and has turned to meet his end face on—and screaming.

Several things happen at once.

First, the silverback reaches the scientist. It doesn’t stop, doesn’t speak, doesn’t grant mercy. It simply tackles the man, crushing bones and internal organs, as it lifts him off the rooftop and launches into the air, intending to end both of their miserable lives.

Second, the warehouse explodes, sending massive sheets of curved metal sailing through the air. One of these giant hangar pieces spins around, and slams into the GOD building. I don’t see it happen, but the whole building shudders from the impact.
The first of many
, I think, running as fast as I can.

Third, the Zoomb helicopter rockets into view, spins and angles too fast to the side, and then, somehow, miraculously—what Woodstock would call just another day at the office—sets down hard on its wheels, just thirty feet ahead. The door springs open automatically.

And finally, last, but most graphic, Nemesis rises, her mouth agape. Just as the gorilla and scientist reach the apex of their leap, the Kaiju snaps its jaws over the pair like a trained dog. The crack of her teeth coming together is like pealing thunder, and if not for the chopper’s rotor wash pushing me in the other direction, it would have knocked me off my feet.

Standing beneath the spinning helicopter blades, I can’t help but turn around and watch Nemesis stand. She’s as massive as I remember, shedding building debris as she pushes her massive girth up, until she’s standing nearly twice the size of the building I’m standing atop.

I’ve been in a similar position more than once before. But this feels different.

Nemesis feels different.

And that’s when I realize I am feeling her. Not like before, when I touched Maigo, but just a hint...like an instinct. I feel her anger. Her hatred. Her loathing.

And then, she feels me.

Nemesis’s giant head turns down, looking at me.
Her eyes
, I think,
they’ve changed
. Where Nemesis used to have almost human brown eyes, they’re now lifeless and glowing orange, like the membranes covering her neck, chest and torso. There’s nothing of Maigo left in the monster, which means there is no affection left for me. No protection.

“Oh, shit,” I say, just a moment before Collins wraps her arms around me and wrenches me back into the chopper.

“Go, go, go!” Collins shouts, and the chopper pitches to the side even as it lifts off, pulling us west, across the roof and away from Nemesis.

The goddess of vengeance roars. I’m pretty sure everyone in the helicopter shouts in pain from the sound, but I can’t hear anyone, not even myself. Looking out the side window, I see a giant arm swooping down. The massive hand, tipped with five long, hooked claws, will pass through us like we’re nothing more than air. We will simply cease to exist.

The roof fades away below us, and the swinging arm strikes the building, disintegrating it and all those horrible experiments. A shockwave rattles the chopper, but we’ve made it out of range, thanks to the building’s sacrifice. But that doesn’t mean we’re out of danger. Nemesis doesn’t give up easily.

But then the giant flinches, her arm snapping up to something on her chest.

A Tsuchi.

An elephant-sized Tsuchi, with its tail poised to strike the orange membrane on Nemesis’s chest, unknowingly dooming us all.

20

Raw anger boiled through Nemesis. Her blood felt like acid. Her skin, fresh and thick, squeezed her body, making every movement a fight. But she was alive, and the world around her assaulted her senses.

The pain that had awakened her had numbed some, but she still felt as though something had been stolen from her. Part of her body. Her essence. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The entire world and all its misery washed over her. Crimes committed around the globe filtered through her mind, lighting fire to her synapses and bringing back memories of tortures at the hands of those who...attuned her to injustice. She could feel them all. The murdered. The raped. The enslaved. The atrocities of mankind fueled an ancient furnace that flickered to life and then burned white hot. She would smite them with glorious vengeance until the injustice and misery broadcast by every wronged person fell silent, or until there were no more people left.

But there was something else, something missing. She felt...alone. And cold. And unrestrained!

Nemesis twisted her body and stood. She met a momentary resistance, but then she shoved against it, and like everything she encountered, it yielded to her might. The metal roof sheared away, and Nemesis saw the sun. She also felt a sudden and ripe burst of injustice, just above her, dangled out like a treat. She opened her jaws and snapped them closed, uncaring that she’d consumed both wrongdoer and victim. She felt the tiny bodies in her mouth, and she crushed them with her tongue, silencing their blaring moral foghorn. Millions more remained, but the nearest of them was—

As she stood to her full height, more nearby voices reached her. Hundreds of them. All coming from the building below her. She turned her head down toward the offending structure. So many voices in one location, all crying out for vengeance, could not be denied.

Then she saw him. A man standing on an adjacent roof, eyes turned up. He was afraid, but he did not cower from her judgment. Memories of this man returned in flashes, but she didn’t understand them. The places and words and emotions associated with that face lacked meaning. All she felt for him was indifference, and while he did not deserve her wrath, many of those cowering in the building beneath him did.

Nemesis raised her massive, armored arm, the dark gray skin between the thick plates bending and flexing. She watched the tiny man run toward an awaiting helicopter. She didn’t direct her blow toward him, but she didn’t try to avoid him, either. He was simply a curiosity. Something from a past she no longer felt anything about.

The building provided no resistance for her strike. It crumbled beneath her massive claws, as though it were little more than air, but it did provide her some relief from the anguish oozing out of its walls. The voices within were silent now.

After unleashing a victorious roar, Nemesis noted the small man still lived, carried away through the air. She watched him for a moment, able to pinpoint his tiny face, framed by a window in the moving vehicle. And, for a moment, she felt something. It was fear, but not just for himself. He was afraid for them both. But why—

Then she felt it.

On her chest.

At first, the poking of its talons into her skin was a mere itch, but now she felt the thing.
Really
felt it, the way she felt most life, by detecting the lightness or darkness of its soul. In this case, the creature scurrying up her chest, both familiar and unknown, exploded with darkness. Not only that, it bore a resemblance to Nemesis herself. She recognized the traits that came from her, and for a moment, she felt a kinship, the way a mother might feel for her spawn. But then she remembered. This is what she’d seen upon waking. What she had struck away. This is the creature that had stolen from her. Had
violated
her.

And it was poised to strike.

Nemesis knew what would happen if the creature pierced the membrane on her chest. The creature would cease to exist in a fiery explosion. Had the creature been a bigger threat, she might have been inclined to let the thing have its way. But such an attack was reserved for far graver threats.

Moving with surprising speed, Nemesis brought a single claw up to scrape the creature away. The small thing didn’t strike, but Nemesis didn’t hit it, either. The creature leapt away, wrapped its long tail around Nemesis’s wrist and then swung onto her forearm, where it did strike.

Three times.