“You ready?” I say to Lilly. “No screwing around. No showing off. As good as you are, you’ve never dealt with anything like that.” I point at the floor as we fly a thousand feet above the Tsuchi, now on the very outskirts of downtown.
She nods silently. She’s either trying to be on her best behavior, or she’s earnestly intimidated, which would be my preference.
I turn to Endo. “Arms out, I glide, arms back, I drop?”
“Like the wingsuit in Boston,” he says. “But you can accelerate, once, for five seconds. The trigger is beneath your chin. Tap it twice. Or you can try flapping.”
“I’d rather eat a bird than be a bird.” Lilly is wearing an identical, all black wingsuit designed by DARPA and used by GOD. Except for the all-black design, it functions very similarly to the wingsuit designed by my ex, Jenn. While I don’t think Jenn works for DARPA—she was way too anti-establishment to work for any kind of Man, government or corporate—I suspect this suit design might have been inspired by my wingsuit leap a few years back...with a few improvements. Unlike the bulky wingsuits worn by thrill-seeking enthusiasts, the ultra thin, super-strong fabric—made from goat-spider silk of all things—isn’t bunched up between my arms and legs, restricting movement. It’s all tucked away in the arms and legs, waiting for me to slap the button on my chest before springing out.
“Deployment in ten...nine...” Silhouette continues his countdown as the back hatch descends.
I turn to Hawkins and motion toward the cockpit. “Keep an eye on them, but take no action unless there’s no other choice.” I then turn to Collins and point at Endo. “Watch this asshole like a hawk.” And then to Maigo. I take her hands. She looks up at me through her hair.
“We’ll figure it out,” I tell her. “We’ll get through this, no matter what.”
“Be careful,” she says, and then to Lilly. “Don’t let him get hurt.”
Lilly gives a salute and leaps out of the still descending aircraft, landing on the rooftop thirty feet below.
Silhouette reaches “Three.”
“Love you,” I tell her, which gets a smile. I glance up at Collins, who is seated next to the girl. “Both of you.”
There’s a slight bump as the VTOL aircraft sets down on the roof. I pick up my bag and head down the ramp. Lilly waits for me at the bottom.
“That was mushy,” Lilly says.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure your Dad would have appreciated a goodbye, seeing how it’s likely we’re both going to die.”
Lilly looks up at the now rising X-35, its hatch sliding shut. She manages to exchange a wave with Hawkins. Then they’re off, cruising over the rooftop and diving down the far side. Lilly looks a touch despondent. I must have hit a nerve.
I give her shoulder a whack. “Don’t sweat it kid. I was just joking.”
“Nice try,” she says, and heads across the large, round helicopter landing pad on which we’ve been deposited. The landing pad is a massive white circle, with two red rings, one on the outer fringe, the second around a huge number 12. There’s a one-story drop to the deck below and then a short, jagged wall that surrounds the roof like a child’s drawing of the sun.
“All aboard,” Lilly says, reaching her arms out to me. I throw an arm around her neck and hop up. She holds me in her arms with ease.
“My hero,” I say, and then Lilly jumps. My stomach lurches and catches up with me a moment later when we land on the next level. Lilly deposits me on the floor, and we both head for the wall. In the distance, I can see Dodger’s Stadium, or at least, what’s left of it. I then lean over the wall for a view of Los Angeles’s financial district below...and the monster destroying it.
The Tsuchi is two blocks away, making short work of a bunch of short buildings, all with tennis courts on the roofs. I don’t think it’s trying to cause destruction. It’s more like a kid with a savage hankering for peanuts, destroying the shells to get at the morsels inside. In this case, people. I’m not sure how it’s able to find all the people it’s plucking from the buildings and vehicles nearby. It’s like it can detect them without needing to see them. While the eight legs stomp through the short buildings, the tail whips back and forth, stabbing into the windows of the 55-story Bank of America building, pulling impaled victims out like an anteater does ants.
The creature is definitely larger than was reported. Its body and tail are both a good fifty feet longer, making it three hundred feet from one end to the other, but most of that is tail and limbs. The bulk of its body is still 1/3 the size of Nemesis. Big enough to land on if it’s standing still, but its uncanny ability to pluck people from buildings has me concerned. Luckily, I’ve got a buzzing fly to distract it with.