Project Nemesis (A Kaiju Thriller) (33 page)

But has the part of the monster that is Nemesis been satiated?

I think back to the moment when
Maigo
first laid eyes on Alexander
Tilly
. She was filled with anger and fury, but also horror. She remembered what had been done to her. She had to. It’s what drove her to that exact point in time. Her charge south, all the dead, her growth and transformation all lead to that single moment in time when she opened her beautiful wings and sentenced her father to death...by sunlight. For that one moment, when the rays of the sun caught on her wings and focused on the man who had caused her so much pain, she was a being of purity, which is something the world could use a little more of.

I look at Collins and see a little bit of
Maigo
in her fiery eyes. Despite waves of bodily pain from injuries and tension, I manage a small smile. “You’re not an alien, are you?”

Epilogue I

I’m
lying
behind a tree, concealed by large ferns and a full-body
ghillie
suit—the kind that snipers wear to blend in with their surroundings. I’m trying to stay as quiet as I possibly can, but that’s hard to do when 1) you’ve been lying in the same damn place for three hours, 2) have a beautiful woman lying next to you, and 3) really, really have to pee.

“I can’t take this anymore,” I whisper.

Collins shushes me, but then asks, “What happened to taking the ‘P’ in FC-P seriously?”

“The ‘P’ is the problem,” I say. “I
gotta
take a leak.”

“You know if you go here, it will smell you and the last two days will be a waste.”

Collins and I are on our first official FC-P mission since
Maigo
leveled Boston. We’ve been camped out in the deep woods of Oregon scouring the forest by day and bunking together in a tent by night.

I grin and say, “Not a total waste.” She sees my grin through the
ghillie
suit’s dangling tendrils and elbows me in the ribs.

As it turns out, we did take it slow.

For a week.

While our bodies healed.

We’ve been healing our minds since. Turns out seeing scores of people crushed, eaten, burned and torn apart leaves a mark on the psyche. Luckily, we found each other at the right time, and unlike
Mulder
and Scully, we didn’t feel like dragging things out for a few years before finally getting together.

Under different circumstances, we might have let things play out longer, maybe a few months, but we really needed the distraction. It’s hard to do anything or go anywhere without being reminded about what happened. The Crow’s Nest has new windows, as do the houses in the surrounding neighborhoods. But the view isn’t quite as beautiful, because we can see the circle of destruction left around the fringe of Beverly Harbor.

The country, and the rest of the world, really came together in support of cities and towns that got ravaged. But it’s only been a month and they’re still finding bodies. Boston is completely shut down, but will eventually be rebuilt. The President has promised as much, and the nation is rallying behind him, despite much of the destruction being his fault—a fact cut from my reports by Deputy Director Stephens. A large part of me really wants to expose the President’s failures, and those of my co-workers, but I understand the need to not upset the status quo or cause any more strife. The nation needs to heal first. Although Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts took the brunt of the damage, all those dead had friends and family across the country, if not around the world.

Most of Boston’s suburbs are still intact, and many area high schools are housing refugees from the downtown area who are more accustomed to living in high-rise luxury, not that any of them are complaining. Most of them know people or had family who were killed by
Maigo
. If they’re alive, they’re counting their blessings. I know I am.

I feel the greatest sting when I think about the dead, all of the 13,532 (and climbing) of them. I actually rooted for
Maigo
at the end. Not to kill, but to escape. Sure, she might have some part of that little girl in her, but she is not
Maigo
. I’ve come to call her that instead of Nemesis, I think because that’s the personality I hope becomes dominant before she surfaces again.

And I believe she will.
Something that big can’t stay hidden forever.

That is, if she’s alive.

There’s no body, but millions of her shimmering scales have washed up on the shores of Massachusetts, from Rockport to the Cape. People are collecting them and selling them on eBay. I saw a chandelier made from them, which cast beautiful light, and I hear the Chinese have a growing demand for “feather dust” which is supposed to make men more “virile” and women more likely to have boys. I think it’s more likely to cause them to grow claws and go on a vengeful killing spree, but who am I to stand between a man and his “monster” boner?

Although most of the public attention has been on
Maigo
, a lot of people have been working behind the scenes to locate the body of General Lance Gordon, with no luck. My hope is that Endo or some other
Zoomb
employee snuck away with the body to cover up their involvement, which they have done quite well, but my fear is that he got up and walked away. As for Endo, I know exactly where he is. In the few public appearances Paul Stanton has made, Endo can be seen standing in the background, watching for danger. Despite his efforts to stop Gordon and the fact that he might have saved my life, I would love to bring the man in and lock him up. But there’s no evidence against him, Gordon or
Zoomb
that hasn’t disappeared, including anything conclusive from the fake Nike site in Maine, which was completely incinerated when Gordon destroyed the building. While this lack of evidence has kept us from making arrests, we’ve opened files on everyone we believe is involved. We’re watching them all closely, with cooperation from other agencies...which is what the DHS does best. If Endo is up to something, we’ll figure it out eventually.

There’s been plenty of speculation about what the monster is, what she wanted and where she’ll go next, but no one, myself included, has any idea. At first, most people didn’t believe a little girl could be part of something so massive and horrific, but after seeing the photos or videos of Nemesis, or what was left of Boston, even the most skeptical were willing to believe just about anything. Thankfully, TV audiences found the idea of a little girl being bonded to a city-destroying behemoth to be disturbing and stopped watching. In response, the news channels focused on the Nemesis angle—that a god-monster laid waste to several cities and killed thousands just to avenge a single murder. And that’s what people really need to hear. Somewhere in the world, lurking in the depths of the ocean, is a being capable of obliterating a large city. But she’s not just a mindless creature or hungry predator, she is the judge, jury and executioner for the entire human race, and if she finds you guilty, well, the images of Boston are impossible to forget.

Several wars came to an abrupt end.

Crime is down.
Globally.

Again, this might be messed up, and my fellow New Englanders might lynch me for saying it (which is why I keep it to myself), but in the long run, I think
Maigo
might have done the world a favor. The wrath of God, who not everyone believes in, only goes so far into scaring people into peace, especially when several different religions heap wrath upon each
other,
and Jesus technically heaps wrath upon himself. From a global perspective, lives and money will have been saved as a result of Boston’s destruction. I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers of saved surpasses the number of dead within a few months, and dwarfs it within a few years...if we can keep the human race on track.

If we can’t, she’ll be back faster than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And the FC-P will be waiting for her with a bigger budget, direct access to military resources and four of the best people I’ve ever worked with. Woodstock enthusiastically declared his allegiance to the team when I asked him if he’d like to stay on permanently. He even agreed to name the chopper Betty in honor of my truck, which as it turns out, took a bullet for me, something I’m pretty sure girlfriend-Betty would never have done.

Girlfriend-Ashley Collins on the other hand—she’d take a bullet for me. And I’d do the same for her. Her response to staying on long-term was more thought out than Woodstock’s, mostly because of our relationship, but in the end she couldn’t deny we made a good team. Watson stayed with Cooper through her surgery and several days of recovery. It was a display of affection and camaraderie that made me, and Cooper very happy. There was nothing romantic between them, but it really revealed that our past five years chasing shadows wasn’t a complete waste of time. We were all loners in our own ways, but not really anymore—we have each other now. After three weeks off, we met in the refurbished Crow’s Nest and got back to work, which led Collins and me to this lush, lime-green redwood forest.

“Fine,” she says, “I’m pretty sure this is a bust, anyway.”

“Get used to it,” I say. “Not every mission results in mass destruction, helicopter acrobatics and new girlfriends.”

I stand, and then freeze.

“What?” she says. “You’re not going right here, are you?”

“
Shh
,” I say gently. “Smell something.”

I crouch slowly, and lie back down, picking up the air rifle lying next to me.

Collins brushes away the
ghillie
suit tendrils hanging in front of her face and gives me a, “don’t screw with me” face.

I give her a wide eyed, “I’m serious!” look and face forward.

A loud crack makes us tense.

When it steps out from behind a redwood, not thirty feet away, I have to stifle a gasp. Its fur is thick like a husky’s, and a mix of light and dark brown that would let it blend in with the forest as well as our
ghillie
suits. It stands at least nine feet tall and has arms as thick as my legs. Not something you’d want to piss off. But when a deer slowly steps out behind it, munching casually on some ferns before wandering past and beyond our target, I realize that this giant is actually gentle. As I watch, I nearly forget what I’m there to do.

A rash of sightings brought us to the area, but there were no reports of attacks or even close encounters, so we’re not here to pick a fight. It’s more of an intelligence gathering mission, though I honestly thought it was going to just be a “quality time with the new girlfriend” kind of mission. While Collins takes video of the creature, I take aim with the air rifle. When it squats to pick some blueberries, there’s no mistaking that this is a male. He also provides me with a nice, wide target.

I pull the trigger and a gentle puff shoots the dart into the big guy’s right ass cheek. He flinches at the sting and stands to his feet. He takes a long, slow look around and then wanders off, disappearing into the forest. When he’s gone, I stand up and put my fist in the air. “Terrorist fist jab for shooting Sasquatch in the ass.”

Collins grins wide, bumps my fist and says, “That was amazing.” She looks at the camera, which now has definitive proof of Sasquatch on it.

“We’ll keep that to ourselves,” I say. “If people knew he was really here, he’d be a dead-
squatch
inside a week.”

“You don’t think he’s dangerous?” she asks.

“Hasn’t been so far,” I say. “But that’s why he’s got a tracker in his butt. We can keep tabs on him without getting him killed. The way I see it, our job is to protect all Americans, and that includes our very distant, very hairy cousins who have probably been living on this continent long before we crossed over from Mother Russia.”

“Does that include
Maigo
?” she asks.

She is the only person who knows about my mixed feelings for the creature. I didn’t want to tell her, or anyone, but it was eating at me and she was one of few people who knew the truth about the
Tilly
family. So I told her the truth, and while she didn’t share my mixed feelings, she understood them.

After thinking on it for a moment, I say, “No, I’m not even sure she’s from this planet, and whatever part of her was that little girl...she had her revenge. If
Maigo
comes back, and threatens people in any part of the world, the gloves are coming off.”