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“Nothing good,” Alessi says. “Hawkins and Lilly are there.”

I’m relieved to hear that Hawkins successfully reconnected with Lilly and that both are safe, but I’m more interested in what’s happening with the second Kaiju. “Patch me in to Hawkins.”

“We’re connected,” Alessi says.

I hear a click and don’t wait for a verbal confirmation that we’re connected. “Hawkins, what’s the situation there?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Hawkins says, sounding a little like he’s just woken from a dream where he was naked and late for a test.

“Pretty sure I would,” Hudson replied, feeling close to the same. “What happened?”

28

The very human-like Typhon stood knee-deep in the sea, arms slack by its sides, eyes on the alien Kaiju, who had stopped twitching in the bay and focused on the newcomers. Scylla strode up beside Typhon. The hammerhead Kaiju was shorter than her brother, but her more monstrous appearance more than made up for it. Arriving on Typhon’s other side was the far larger Karkinos, whose girth was unrivaled, even by the newcomer. In some ways, he was more like Nemesis than the other two, with large spikes running down his back, and a long, blade-tipped tail, but he looked more like Nemesis on alien steroids. His power also made him slower than Typhon and Scylla, and far slower than the thing they were facing down.

“We should name that thing,” Lilly said from the X-35’s cockpit.

Future Betty hovered a mile over the bay, invisible to Kaiju and military alike. Hawkins was in the back, sitting across from the still bound Alicio Brice, watching the action through the floor, which was projecting the scene below—the same view that was being projected onto the vehicle’s smooth roof so that anyone above would effectively see right through them. Hawkins lowered his hands to the floor and moved them apart, zooming in on the action.

“That usually falls within Jon’s purview,” Hawkins said.

“Purview?” Lilly said. “Geez, you’re old. Maigo named the robot, so I’m claiming this one.”

Hawkins had no desire to argue about something like the monster’s name, and he knew that Jon might usurp her choice anyway. The official report containing Kaiju names was his to write.

“Giger,” she said.

“Giger?” Hawkins had no idea what the name meant.

“Oh, yes,” Brice said. “I see it. Excellent choice.”

“Brownie points for the mad scientist,” Lilly said to Brice, and then to Hawkins, “H.R. Giger designed Ridley Scott’s alien.” She pointed at the floor, toward the creature facing off with Prime’s brood. “That looks like something he would have come up with.”

“It’s moving,” Hawkins said, watching the creature move toward the others, stepping further into Tokyo Bay and a little further from the city. Lilly cleared her throat and Hawkins said, “
Giger
is moving.”

The twitching creature stepped toward the other Kaiju, moving with careful steps, legs coiled, ready to leap back.

“How is this possible?” Hawkins asked Brice.

“The Aeros sent Giger to—”

“Not Giger. The other three. Nemesis killed them.. I was there.”

Lilly leaned her head back. “
We
were there.”

“I saw them die,” Hawkins said.

“Just as you saw Nemesis die. But that monster still roams the Earth as well.” Brice waved his bound hands in the air, like he smelled something foul. “I apologize for my combative language. It’s a personality flaw I have been simultaneously trying to rid myself of, and do more often, so Cole doesn’t notice my proclivities differ from those of my brothers. And you are correct. The Kaiju who perished in Washington, D.C. are still dead, and on ice, literally. Their corpses are in Antarctica.”

Hawkins glared at him. “Then these things are like—?”

“Me,” Brice said. “Yes. They’re clones, with control mechanisms implanted into their minds at birth. Unlike Nemesis, these Kaiju were grown without human DNA. What you see down there are shells, controlled by human operators safe on GOD’s aircraft carrier.”

As if to prove this point, Scylla and Typhon broke in different directions, moving fast through the bay. With the city behind it, Giger twisted back and forth, watching the three Kaiju, but not attacking. When the alien Giger was flanked on both sides, the standoff continued. The opponents sized up the others.

Hawkins wasn’t sure how smart Giger was, but it clearly didn’t see the three monsters as potential friends. But it had yet to attack. Was it afraid?

He didn’t think so.

“Why play with fire?” Hawkins asked. “These things are powerful enough to lay waste to entire cities in an afternoon.”

“Keep in mind that I’m speaking for GOD, not myself,” Brice said, and then he continued. “In the face of overwhelming odds from the outer reaches of space, Cole decided that fighting fire with fire was our best chance of survival.”

Hawkins shook his head. “He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster.”

“An oft used trope,” Brice said, “Except in this case, becoming a monster might be the only way the human race survives.”

“Hey, Dad,” Lilly said from the front, “Before you argue the point, keep in mind that some of us are
already
monsters.”

“You’re
not
a monster,” he said.

“She threatened to skewer my testicles,” Brice said. “With her talons. Even if you shared her sentiment, you lack the talons.” He held up his bound hands before Hawkins could reply. “The point is, it might be time to reassess what defines a monster, seeing past what’s on the outside and evaluating what is on the inside.”

“I’d give you more brownie points,” Lilly said, “if I didn’t think you were actually referring to dissecting me.”

Brice sighed. “Cole is misguided, ruthless and terrifying, but there is a chance he might be our best hope of surviving what comes next.”

“If we survive the day,” Hawkins said, and he motioned to the scene below them.

Typhon and Scylla moved in from both sides, their postures shifting from neutral to outwardly aggressive. But their snarls and teeth gnashing looked unnatural and repetitive, like they’d been preprogrammed to look fierce.

Giger twitched one direction and then the other, spinning its body around with a suddenness that seemed impossible, and sending seawater spraying in every direction. The Kaiju was cornered, but would it retreat or attack? And could one Kaiju really hope to defeat these three behemoths?

Hawkins knew it was possible, of course. Nemesis had done the same, though she’d had help.

Then all the twitching stopped, and Giger froze, its attention on Scylla. Typhon approached from behind, moving in calm, measured steps, its actions clearly those of a human being. Typhon reached up under Giger’s topmost arms and wrapped its mighty hands around the back of its adversary’s neck, folding over a group of the hair-like spines.

Giger was lifted up, held in place, its feet lifting up out of the water.

Why did it do that?
Hawkins wondered. The alien Kaiju had given the Kaiju-clone the perfect opening.
Maybe it was expecting a more savage attack? The kind that these Kaiju might have delivered before they were under the control of human minds?

The truth of the situation was revealed in the blink of an eye, as Giger’s bony tail snapped up out of the water, and the end pierced up through Scylla’s chin. The sharp tip drove through the skull and burst from the top with a spray of gore. Before anyone, or anything, could even think to react, the tail pulled out of Scylla’s head and cracked down, like a whip. The blade slid through Scylla’s armored skin, deftly avoiding all the orange membranes. The wound bulged and then split, disgorging a mass of entrails that splashed into the bay and sent a wave sliding toward the shore.

Scylla fell backwards, trailing its insides, and landed in the water. The cloned Kaiju sank down so that just its frozen face rose partially from the water.

Giger pitched forward, planting its feet on the ocean floor and lifting Typhon up. The man-shaped Kaiju flipped through the air, landing atop his dead sister. Before the Kaiju could right himself, Giger was upon him. Typhon’s face flexed and snapped open, revealing ferocious mandibles that would make the average creature think twice about tangling with him, but Giger was far from average.

Two of the alien Kaiju’s hands snapped out and grasped the mandibles. The other two wrapped around Typhon’s throat. Then Giger was airborne, driving its feet into Typhon’s gut, punching through flesh with black claws. They fell together, and while Typhon twitched, Giger peeled open his face, yanking the mandibles apart. The neck went next, compressing inward with enough strength to force blood from the monster’s eyes.

With two Kaiju killed in seconds, Hawkins held out little hope that Karkinos would fare much better, but the monster was at least double the size of Giger. He just needed to get in one good strike.

Karkinos never got the chance.

Giger spun around as the larger Kaiju stepped up behind it and raised its massive claws up. The lightning fast tail snapped up again, puncturing Karkinos’s chest, but instead of eviscerating the Kaiju, it acted more like a grappling hook. With a quick yank of its tail, the lithe Giger launched up over Karkinos, grasped his head and flipped around to Karkinos’s back. Again, Hawkins noticed that while Giger could have mortally wounded the larger Kaiju, it didn’t.

What’s it doing?

Clutching to Karkinos’s back with all six limbs, Giger’s tail rose up behind it. While the massive Kaiju bucked and thrashed, the tail hovered over the back of its head. And then, with the precise aim of a surgeon and the speed of a lightning bolt, the tail shot into the base of Karkinos’s skull.

The massive monster shuddered, went still and crumpled into the bay. Giger leapt free, landing a safe distance away. Then it moved closer, inspecting Karkinos’s body.

“Is it going to eat him?” Lilly asked.

Hawkins was wondering the same thing, but Brice saw what they had missed. “It’s still alive. Karkinos is alive. My god, it severed the connection!”

Giger clung to Karkinos and dragged the larger Kaiju toward deeper water. When it got deep enough, Giger dipped beneath the waves and pulled the massive creature with it. The alien Kaiju had killed two of the cloned offspring of Prime, but had taken Karkinos.
But why? Food? A trophy?
Hawkins couldn’t guess.

But Tokyo had been spared. And that was at least something.

There was a click, and then Hudson’s voice filled the X-35. “Hawkins, what’s the situation there?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Hawkins said, looking down at the corpses leaking gore into Tokyo Bay.

“Pretty sure I would,” Hudson replied, and Hawkins realized there were events happening on the far side of the world that he hadn’t witnessed. “What happened?”

Hawkins tried to think of the best way to summarize what they had seen, but it was Lilly who spoke. “Giger just kicked the shit out of Typhon, Scylla and Karkinos.”

Hudson was silent for a moment, no doubt absorbing the news that their old enemies were alive again.

“Typhon and Scylla are shark chum,” Lilly continued, “Karkinos is MIA, and when I say MIA, I mean it. GOD was controlling them. Oh, and we took Alicio Brice captive. Well, one of him. This one seems pretty docile.”

“Hawkins...” Hudson said. “Is she yanking my chain?”

“Actually, that was a pretty accurate description of the situation.”

“Fantastic,” Hudson said. “I’m currently clinging to the back of a drone over Boston Harbor, but I’ll get back to you both for a full debrief once I’m on the ground.”

“Should we head back?” Hawkins asked.

“Not until we know where things are going to go down next,” Hudson said. “In the meantime, get what you can out of the Brice.”

Hawkins forced a grin at Brice. “Will do.”

“Who came up with ‘Giger’?” Hudson asked.

“I did,” Lilly said. “But before you—”

“H.R. Giger?” Hudson asked.

“Yeah.”

“First, you watch too much TV, kid. Seriously, your pop culture knowledge is out of control. Second, I like it.”

Lilly smiled.

“But it doesn’t make up for stealing Future Betty. You and Maigo will be making that stunt up to the rest of us later. For now, keep on kicking ass.”

“Will do,” Lilly said, impersonating Hawkins.

Hudson chuckled and disconnected.

Hawkins turned his attention to Brice. “Tell me about the aircraft carrier.”

29

Seeing Maigo separate from the machine fills me with more relief than I’m emotionally prepared for. Since I’m the first to jump from
Penny
, who was recovered by the Coast Guard, to Hyperion’s shoulder, where Maigo awaits, no one sees my glassy eyes. Well, Maigo does, but she’s kind enough to not point it out. Instead, she wraps her arms around me and returns my hug.

The mammoth mech is lying down in the ocean, just off West Beach in Beverly Farms. From above, it looks like it’s taking a leisurely bath. Waves lap against the top of its torso, which rises a few feet above the surface. I have Alessi and Zoomb working on a place to keep the giant robot, but for now, there’s no hiding it. While most of the coastline is currently uninhabited, several news choppers are circling outside the military-enforced no-fly zone we had declared around Hyperion. It’s not that we want to keep it a secret. There’s no putting that cat back in the bag. It’s that I have trust issues with anything taller than André the Giant. This ancient tech is a massive liability. Until I can guarantee that Hyperion won’t spring to life and lay waste to humanity, I’m going to try to keep humanity far enough away that they have a good lead when they start running for their lives.

“I’m okay,” she says as I squeeze her. “Really.”

“You stole an aircraft, flew across the country into Russian territory, recovered an ancient Atlantean Kaiju-killing robot, fought Lovecraft
and
Nemesis, and I’m not supposed to be concerned for your well-being?”